Anathema
10-26-2006, 12:16 PM
I dunno if anyone from the UK has seen this. Its the spin-off of Dr Who and was shown on BBC 3 the other day and they did a double bill on BBC 2 last night
Quite often spin-offs tend to be pretty disapointing because all the producers are doing is capitalising of the popularity of the original show to maximise profits to their full. (many examples out there such as the spin-off of 'Angel' to 'Buffy')
Watching Torchwood last night you could see this aspect quite clearly as nobody can argue with the popularity Dr Who has at the moment. (I read in the paper the other day that the experts believe Dr Who merchandise will be one of the top sellers for christmas)
Anyway back to the show. The idea behind Torchwood is that its a secret organisation that deals with time travelling aliens and other threats to the planet (there seems to be a bit of an X-Files appearance to the show and one of the lead charecters looks alot like Mulder) and it turns out that there is a space rift right in the centre of Cardiff (yeah another reason why Wales sucks :P) so they get alot of murderous aliens and stuff
But the best bit of the show was really its sexual content, which for the BBC is something you dont really associate it doing. The show had lesbian kissing, sex scenes, guys jacking off to CCTV camera footage of people having sex ect. A bit weird to say the least. Also the effects were really good and clear that this wasnt just a low budget spin-off like many shows. The BBC have actually tried really hard to make this show a hit and from the two episodes that were on last night it seems quite clear that this is going to be a really popular show. Torchwood on BBC 3 recieved the highest audiance for a digital audance ever (for a non-sport related show) about 4.6 million I think.
Also whats good about the show is its completly seperated itself from the Dr Who series and nothing was mentioned about it. Normally on a pilot episode they tend to refer back to the original show to set the scene. They actually started from scratch here
Anyway good show and I can see this series being a hit. CT2k if you never watched it last night try and catch the repeat because its definatly a series you will like!
Quite often spin-offs tend to be pretty disapointing because all the producers are doing is capitalising of the popularity of the original show to maximise profits to their full. (many examples out there such as the spin-off of 'Angel' to 'Buffy')
Watching Torchwood last night you could see this aspect quite clearly as nobody can argue with the popularity Dr Who has at the moment. (I read in the paper the other day that the experts believe Dr Who merchandise will be one of the top sellers for christmas)
Anyway back to the show. The idea behind Torchwood is that its a secret organisation that deals with time travelling aliens and other threats to the planet (there seems to be a bit of an X-Files appearance to the show and one of the lead charecters looks alot like Mulder) and it turns out that there is a space rift right in the centre of Cardiff (yeah another reason why Wales sucks :P) so they get alot of murderous aliens and stuff
But the best bit of the show was really its sexual content, which for the BBC is something you dont really associate it doing. The show had lesbian kissing, sex scenes, guys jacking off to CCTV camera footage of people having sex ect. A bit weird to say the least. Also the effects were really good and clear that this wasnt just a low budget spin-off like many shows. The BBC have actually tried really hard to make this show a hit and from the two episodes that were on last night it seems quite clear that this is going to be a really popular show. Torchwood on BBC 3 recieved the highest audiance for a digital audance ever (for a non-sport related show) about 4.6 million I think.
Also whats good about the show is its completly seperated itself from the Dr Who series and nothing was mentioned about it. Normally on a pilot episode they tend to refer back to the original show to set the scene. They actually started from scratch here
Anyway good show and I can see this series being a hit. CT2k if you never watched it last night try and catch the repeat because its definatly a series you will like!