"AMERICAN TORCHWOOD": STAY AWAY FROM ME?

Guess Who..... LOL

Once again, attempts are being made to translate a British TV show for an American audience, and this time the target is 'Torchwood'.

'Torchwood', an anagram of 'Doctor Who' for those not in the know, is a spin-off of that series intended for a more adult audience. It dealt with a group founded by Queen Victoria that works outside of the government to investigate - and if necessary, battle - alien visitations to the British Empire. There were at least four Torchwood hubs in the UK - the one in London was destroyed by the Dalek-Cybermen war on Canary Wharf; the Cardiff hub was the setting for the TV series and was destroyed in the first episode of the "Children Of Earth" mini-series; there's one in Glasgow which apparently is staffed by only one man; and then the fourth one which disappeared but which might be found someday. (Sounds like one of the space stations in 'Babylon 5'....)

The one reason I'm feeling a little more confident of this project than for others that have been announced in the past (Looking at you, 'Coupling'!) is due to the script being written by the creator of the original series, Russell T. Davies.

(I was happy to see RTD take his death-grip off the controls of 'Doctor Who', but I also loved the pilot script for 'Torchwood', "Everything Changes".)

His producing partner from 'Doctor Who' is also on board, Julie Gardner, as well as Jane Tranter, who's the executive Vice President in charge of programming at BBC Worldwide Productions in the United States.

There's talk that John Barrowman might return as Captain Jack Harkness for this new series. But if not, hopefully RTD will create all new characters and not just rework the originals. The new show will have a more global aspect than the original, which focused on the "Rift activity" to be found in Cardiff.

BCnU!