Whedon alumn in Torchwood by Jane0904

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Whedon alumn in Torchwood

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POSTED BY: JANE0904
UPDATED: Sunday, July 17, 2011 16:10
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/nJU7DV
VIEWED: 6967
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Thursday, July 14, 2011 11:43 AM

Is it bad that what she said made perfect sense to me?

Okay, technically not on the screen, but Shawna Trpcic is the costume designer for the brand new Torchwood season - Miracle Day - currently having just opened both sides of the Atlantic.

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"Is it bad that what she said made perfect sense to me?"

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Thursday, July 14, 2011 1:04 PM

STORYMARK

Not to mention Jane Espenson being on the writing staff.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Thursday, July 14, 2011 1:37 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

And Dichen Lachman has a guest role coming up soon.

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Friday, July 15, 2011 12:26 AM

LWAVES

And as I'm sure most people know, James Marsters appeared in season 2.

"The greatest invention ever is not the wheel. It's the second wheel." - Rich Hall

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Friday, July 15, 2011 2:45 AM

ANONYMOUSE

If Jane's writing for the show, it has a good chance of being decent. I haven't watched it yet; I'm one of the UK's mythical 2% (mythical if you believe TV Licensing, that is) who don't have a TV.

No, I really don't. My dad's recorded the show for me; I'll watch it when I visit him tomorrow.

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Friday, July 15, 2011 8:59 AM

IMNOTHERE

Its just a pity that they took two seasons to get the hang of making the show "adult" by having disturbing storylines rather than lots of sex and swearing. They nailed that with "Children of Earth" and the first episode of "Miracle Day" showed promise in that respect (squick!)

I thought it was a bit slow, but I guess they had to spend some time setting out some of the backstory for the US audience. Episode 2 will be critical.

No mention of the good Doctor... probably good: I think it would probably do Torchwood good to get a divorce from Doctor Who. Much as I like 'Who, I think doing crossovers between an adult show and a family show is a bit incongruous. Not that 'Who is exactly squick-free, but it does have its limits.

Just a pity that they're putting it out in the summer graveyard slot.

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Friday, July 15, 2011 12:53 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Quote:
Originally posted by lwaves:
And as I'm sure most people know, James Marsters appeared in season 2.

Basically the main reason I started watching.

Quote:
Originally posted by ImNotHere:
No mention of the good Doctor... probably good: I think it would probably do Torchwood good to get a divorce from Doctor Who. Much as I like 'Who, I think doing crossovers between an adult show and a family show is a bit incongruous.

Well, Russell T Davies is still writing the show, at least he was credited with the first episode of Miracle Day. If the Doctor isn't mentioned or shown, it will probably be more due to the network shift than anything. Torchwood was generally not heavy with Doctor references anyway; the main crossovers were with Jack and Martha appearing on both shows, so there may still be some mention coming.
I think calling Doctor Who a family show might be a stretch. There is some high-octane nightmare fuel in that show. The Sarah Jane Chronicles was much more a "family show" that children could watch comfortably. It's a nice little range, actually. The Doctor could definitely fit into the Miracle Day storyline, I'd say. At the very least, Jack is going to search for him so he can ask what the hell is going on.

What reason had proved best ceased to look absurd to the eye, which shows how idle it is to think anything ridiculous except what is wrong.

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Friday, July 15, 2011 11:31 PM

IMNOTHERE

Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Well, Russell T Davies is still writing the show, at least he was credited with the first episode of Miracle Day. If the Doctor isn't mentioned or shown, it will probably be more due to the network shift than anything.

Yes, AFAIK he's still running Torchwood - but he's not writing/producing 'Who any more - that's been handed over to Stephen Moffat and a largely new team. So while its not impossible for the (new) Doctor to crop up (he's appeared in the Sarah Jane adventures, which is in a similar situation) I doubt that we'll see the sort of two-way crossovers there have been in the past. The new 'Who has even fixed it so that the population of Earth no longer remember the alien contacts that occurred during the RTD years.

Quote:

I think calling Doctor Who a family show might be a stretch. There is some high-octane nightmare fuel in that show. The Sarah Jane Chronicles was much more a "family show" that children could watch comfortably.

Well, in the UK its always been seen as a family show, and market it heavily at kids (there's comics, toys, they're currently running a writing competition for schools, there's an annual concert of music from the show aimed at getting kids into classical music...)

In the UK it goes out on a mainstream terrestrial channel at 7pm on a Saturday evening, so by UK regs it is required to be suitable for a general audience. (The principle is that "adult" shows have to go out after 9pm - of course, we've only got one timezone to worry about). Its quite remarkable that a SF show can go head-to-head with the normal quiz/reality/talent show crap that goes out at the same time.

Back in the 60s it was partly conceived as an educational show to get kids interested in science and history (this is all documented ad nauseum on Wikipedia et. al.) Yes, the producers are on a personal mission to scare the bejezus out of as many kids as possible, but they have strict limits on how far they'll go with violence (I don't think you'd ever see a human-human shootout as shown in Miracle Day), gore (you won't see any blood) and explicit sex (there's tons of implicit sex and double entrendres) and swearing.

I don't think they'd have got away with 'Who as a family show if they'd pitched it from scratch in 2005 - but there is a 40+ year British tradition of families watching Doctor Who on a Saturday teatime with the kids cowering behind the sofa.

I think the current series of 'Who is in danger of losing the "family" audience, which would be fatal - I love Moffat's wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey plots, but I'm not sure what proportion of the audience can keep up. Fortunately there's still plenty of being chased down corridors by monsters.

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Saturday, July 16, 2011 6:12 AM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

Did the Doctor ever actually appear on Torchwood? If he did I might have missed that episode, I only recall him being mentioned.

Quote:
Originally posted by ImNotHere:
I think the current series of 'Who is in danger of losing the "family" audience, which would be fatal

I disagree that it would be fatal. It's developed a following in the U.S. among 20-35 year old geeks, which is basically the target market everyone shoots for because that's the age group that spends money. Such revenue could conceivably keep the show afloat quite nicely. I adore the latest series, myself, and the privilege of watching it in high-def is worth a few itunes rentals.

What reason had proved best ceased to look absurd to the eye, which shows how idle it is to think anything ridiculous except what is wrong.

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Saturday, July 16, 2011 8:53 AM

IMNOTHERE

Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Did the Doctor ever actually appear on Torchwood? If he did I might have missed that episode, I only recall him being mentioned.

No - but his severed hand was a regular in series 1 :-) which ended with Jack hearing the sound of the TARDIS and running off to meet him - and the Torchwood characters have appeared in 'Who.

Quote:
I disagree that it would be fatal. It's developed a following in the U.S. among 20-35 year old geeks

In the UK its a mainstream show, and has sometimes hit 10 million viewers (in a country of ~60 million!) The first episode of the current series got somewhat reduced ratings because of a totally un-British outbreak of very nice weather, but it still pulled in about a third of the total audience.

Losing the family audience could jeopardize that.

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Saturday, July 16, 2011 8:55 AM

STORYMARK

Quote:
Originally posted by ImNotHere:

Just a pity that they're putting it out in the summer graveyard slot.

Actually, summer is one of the prime seasons fort cable shows. Mostly because the networks are in reruns for the most part. But there's a reason a lot of the flagship cable shows start in the summer months (True Blood, Dexter, Breaking Bad) - they do a lot better then.

"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."

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Saturday, July 16, 2011 9:18 AM

IMNOTHERE

Quote:
Originally posted by Storymark:
Actually, summer is one of the prime seasons fort cable shows.

...but here in the UK its on BBC1 - the biggest terrestrial network channels.

Its nice to have something good on when the schedules are full of dross, but the schedules are full of dross over the summer for a reason...

They've put Doctor Who on hiatus over the summer.

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Sunday, July 17, 2011 4:10 PM

ECGORDON

There's no place I can be since I found Serenity.

Skip Schoolnik is an associate producer on Torchwood, and he worked on both Buffy (he edited "The Harvest") and Angel (producer and director).

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