The guys at YouTube’s Mipmarket’s channel had the chance to chat with John Barrowman and Bill Pullman of Torchwood: Miracle Day. These guys know how to tease a project. Check it out.
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Sherlock Holmes is the best known detective in the world. His use of deduction and evidence was almost contemporary – and certainly far ahead of its time. So, the question arises – how great a detective would Holmes be now, in this age of amazing forensic science? See for yourself when Season One of the BBC series Sherlock comes to DVD and Blu-ray.
More following the jump.
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The name Neil Gaiman is synonymous with great storytelling – from his iconic Sandman comics to children’s tales with an edge [Coraline] and expansive fantasy worlds like those of American Gods and Anansi Boys. Now SFX Weekly is reporting that he has confirmed that an episode of Doctor Who will be only his third television credit [he wrote Day of the Dead for Babylon 5 and co-wrote the BBC mini-series, Neverwhere].
Gaiman’s Doctor Who ep will appear in Matt Smith’s second season as The Doctor. On the subject of his Whovian script, Gaiman said, “As anyone who’s read my blog knows, I’m a big fan of a certain long-running British SF TV series. One that started watching — from behind the sofa — when I was three. And while I know it’s cruel to make you wait for things, in about 14 months from now, which is to say, NOT in the upcoming season but early in the one after that, it’s quite possible that I might have written an episode. And if I had, it would originally have been called “The House of Nothing”. But it definitely isn’t called that any more.
Countdown. You’ve got about 14 months.”
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Syfy today announced that they have ordered thirteen episodes of an American version of the BBC hit series, Being Human [pictured]. The series tells the story of a ghost, vampire and werewolf who share an apartment – and a tendency to want to deny what they are and just be accepted as people. The British series featured 120-year old vampire Mitchell and twentysomethings George, a highly intelligent werewolf, and Annie, an agoraphobic ghost who died under [say it with me] mysterious circumstances.
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The BBC today announced the identity of the eleventh actor to carry on as Doctor Who’s title character, The Doctor. Their choice, made public by Who Executive Producer Piers Wenger, is the twenty-six year old Matt Smith.
Smith has appeared in the two Sally Lockhart mysteries The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North, which starred former Who companion Billy Piper in the title role. He got the role of The Doctor because, as Wenger puts it, “It was abundantly clear that he had that ‘Doctor-ness’ about him. You are either the Doctor or you are not.”
Smith begins shooting for the next season of Doctor Who later this spring. The final special being shot with David Tennant is expected to air in early 2010 – to be followed later in the year by Smith’s debut in the role.
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Ok, for some reason I know a lot of you folks love Torchwood. Torchwood is the action-packed, adrenaline-fueled sci-fi series from the BBC, following the adventures of a team of investigators, working for the secret organization Torchwood, who use scavenged alien technology in a struggle to contain the mysterious and deadly challenges thrown at them through a space/time continuum Rift. The team, led by the enigmatic, ever-watchful Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman, reprising his Doctor Who role in this spin-off from the legendary series), is separate from the government, outside the police and beyond the United Nations. Torchwood: The Official Magazine Yearbook (Titan Books) is a full-color official tie-in to the much-loved and top-rated show. Compiling the cream of the content from the Torchwood Official Magazine, with behind-the-scenes secrets from the Hub, cast and crew interviews and a series two episode guide, this hardback volume also contains five exclusive new Torchwood short stories to immerse readers in the world of the show, penned by the likes of Torchwood scriptwriter Joseph Lidster, Steven Savile (author of Titan’s Primeval: Shadow of the Jaguar) and Doctor Who novelists Andy Lane. We have five copies of this book to give away, the contest will run August 14 to August 25th. On the 25th send an email to contests@eclipsemagazine.com with the subject – TORCHWOOD CONTEST, and your UserID and full name. To qualify to win, leave a comment. Please follow the rules, I get really cranky and annoyed when people send emails that don’t contain all the required information.
UPDATE
While I appreciate everyone’s enthusiam. PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! Do not email your comments, post it HERE. And don’t send your email until the contest close and INCLUDE YOUR FULL CONTACT INFORMATION. What do you expect me to do with just your email adress? Beem your prize to you?
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The Easter eggs were all lined up, sitting there, temptingly available. How could I resist indulging in the sweet, intense, dramatic flavours? Episodes 10, 11 and 12 of Torchwood’s second series have all aired in the past three days on BBC2 and BBC3, leaving me with the feeling that, as with the Easter eggs, I should have waited, should have savoured this big box of goodies, rather than devouring them because they were on offer. Maybe I should just have given up Torchwood for Lent, but I’ve never had that much will-power.
This year, Torchwood has almost been a different show. A much much better show than it was in its first series (though the first year’s highs, such as Small Worlds and Captain Jack Harkness, are right up there with the best of them). It can still be annoyingly variable in tone, occasionally inconsistent in writing quality and some of the CGI has demanded a greater than average suspension of disbelief. But overall the improvement in stories, in pace, in drama, in intensity, in emotional connection has been astonishing. The team are finally behaving like a coherent group who actually like each other and are competent and professional (in other words, they didn’t shoot each other or kill the boss). Also helping the mix is Jack’s happier persona, much more the Doctor Who Jack after finding his “right kind of doctor”, which brings a lighter feel to the show, and frees Jack to pursue a very hot and very sweet relationship with Ianto. All-in-all, Torchwood‘s second outing has put it in the “must-see TV” category, with ratings figures that reflect this success.
The range of storylines has been amazing, as befits a science fiction show with the entire rift at its disposal and a flexible format that allows for both the ultra-dark and ultra-daft. From life- and death-changing experiences such as Gwen’s marriage and Owen’s zombification to alien whales and memory-stealing, the Torchwood writers have not shied away from the bold such as From Out of the Rain, which was more atmosphere than plot, or the hilarious, such as Gwen waking up nine months pregnant on the morning of her wedding.
Where the writers have also scored this year has been in the “adult” content, both in language and actions, which have felt much more seamlessly integrated into the stories and far less gratuitous.
Episode 12 saw the long-awaited backstory of how Jack took over Torchwood 3 and put the team together, taking the viewer from Victorian England and the kick-ass women of the early days of the organisation to a nightmarish Guantanamo-like UNIT facility that was almost Toshiko’s permanent home. And the cliffhanger leading to the last episode – Captain John reappearing to threaten Jack and cruelly tease him with images of his missing brother – was inspired, making “Fragments” possibly the best episode yet.
Keeping us on tenterhooks until 4 April for Torchwood’s series finale (Exit Wounds) is harsh. The BBC got us hooked on the endorphin-enhancing delight that is this show and are now playing the tease by keeping that last Easter egg – the Belgian chocolate one with the icing – just out of reach. Judging from what has gone before, it will be well worth the wait.
Torchwood airs on BBC2 on Fridays at 9.00pm and on BBC America on Saturdays at 9.00pm EST.
© Carole Gordon 2008
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