Carrying The Torch
Last updated: 05/04/2007 - 16:40
With the BBC’s adult-orientated ‘adult’ Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood confirmed for a second series we talk to the author of a new book that takes a detailed look at the first season.
Torchwood. Protecting the Earth against alien threats in the 21st Century – the time when everything changes...Created by Russell T Davies (Queer As Folk, The Second Coming, Doctor Who) and set very much in contemporary Cardiff the first series starred John Barrowman (Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who), Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori as and Gareth David-Lloyd and has been something of a hit – transferring to BBC 2 and becoming that much envied item in television circles: water cooler TV.
What Is Torchwood?
The show follows the activities of the titular organisation – a mysterious group operating from underneath Cardiff Bay with a remit to protect mankind from perils beyond the scope of the conventional authorities. A self-consciously grittier take on contemporary drama than the series that spawned both it and the Jack Barrowman character – the group’s leader Captain Jack Harkness – Torchwood has a strong science fiction and genre twist skewed with a definite dark tone.
The first season covered subjects as diverse as: a sex-addicted alien mist, a homicidal cybernetic hybrid in the basement, a cannibal cult, a telepathy-inducing pendant, an invisible man, a series of gaps in the fabric of time itself, characters coming back from the dead and an underground ‘Fight Club’ staging death matches with aliens. Enough to keep
In this, the first factual book to be published on the series, noted television historian Stephen James Walker (Doctor Who - The Sixties, ‘Seventies and ‘Eighties, The Handbook series) charts the story of the first season of Torchwood, complete with character profiles, cast and production team information. Inside the Hub also features behind-the-scenes details and a comprehensive guide to each of the show’s first thirteen episodes - looking at the key elements and the many links to the BBC’s Doctor Who series that permeate the show.
We talk to author Stephen James Walker about writing Inside the Hub and about lifting the lid on the secret world of Torchwood.
Q: Firstly, how do you go about picking a suitable subject matter to create one of these guides for - in this case - why do Torchwood?
A: “People pitch ideas to Telos for books on various subjects, and if we think there's going to be sufficient sales potential in a particular title, and we're confident in the prospective author's abilities, then we will generally go ahead and commission it. There's always likely to be a market for a well-written and authoritative guide book on series with an established fan-base, such as Stargate SG-1 and Charmed, or with a reputation as a telefantasy classic, such as Blake's 7 and Survivors.
"In the case of Torchwood, it was I who pitched the idea for the book, and fortunately my partner in Telos, David J Howe, agreed that it would be a viable one. We knew from the outset that there was likely to be a great interest in the series, because of its status as a spin-off from Doctor Who and as a rare example of contemporary British telefantasy. I also had a feeling from the way the series was described in the earliest announcements and pre-publicity that it was going to be one that I would find particularly appealing. In addition, there didn't seem to be anyone else planning to do a factual book about it, leaving an obvious gap in the market. So it was a bit of a no-brainer, really!"
Q: Torchwood seems to have divided the hardcore fans of Doctor Who, some loving but some really not if the message boards are anything to go by - why do you think it's polarised opinion to the extent that it has?
A: “This is something I've written about in some detail in the ‘Series Overview’ at the end of the book. Basically I think it comes down to two things. First, the series wasn't aimed at hardcore Doctor Who fans, it was designed to appeal to a wide general audience amongst the adult TV viewing population, so naturally a proportion of fans would find that it wasn't their cup of tea. Secondly, because it was promoted as a Doctor Who spin-off, and more generally as a ‘science-fiction’ series, that created a lot of different expectations - every Doctor Who fan no doubt has his or her own ideas as to what would constitute an ideal spin-off - and it was inevitable that not all those expectation would be met.”
Q: Might it be that the same fans who are most vocal in their opposition to some elements (principally the 'adult' themes, language and the sexual nature of some of the storylines) tend to be the same fans of the 'classic' (pre-Christopher Eccleston) era of the show who've not really taken to the new glossy series of Doctor Who either - for more of the same reasons?
A: “I don't think it's as straight-forward as that. The fans who've not taken to the new Doctor Who are a very small minority indeed, whereas there's been a much bigger split of opinion over Torchwood.”
Q: Torchwood seems to have been a pretty big hit with the wider viewing public - presumably the effect the production team was aiming for. Were you surprised by the ratings success of the show - and why do you think it seems to have captured the imagination of the viewing public - especially as it sometimes seems like a different show from one week to the next?”
A: “I'm not surprised the series was a hit, because it tells great stories, has intriguing characters, and is very well made. But I think everyone was taken aback by the magnitude of its success in the ratings. To my mind, this just goes to show how starved the viewing public has been of this sort of quality science-fiction drama up until now. And the fact that it's varied and unpredictable - that you never know quite what type of story it's going to tell from one week to the next - seems to me to be part of its appeal, not a negative factor at all.”
Q: Did the world really need another 'semi secret organisation investigation series post shows like The X-Files? Sometimes it seems that a modern audience might be more surprised if the protagonists on-screen didn't turn out to be members of a secret organisation dedicated to investigating strange goings on that are beyond the scope of the normal authorities - hasn't it been done in everything from Gerry Anderson's UFO to Dark Skies to Stargate: SG1?
A: “There's a chapter in the book looking at all the various ‘fictional forerunners’ and sources of inspiration for Torchwood, but I think the series presents its own unique take on these ideas. In any drama series, you've got to have some reason for the protagonists to get involved in a succession of interesting situations week after week, and one obvious way to do that is to make them members of an organisation - whether that's the police force, or a hospital ward or, in a telefantasy series, a group dedicated to fighting aliens! I don't think the public will ever really tire of series like this - and the ratings success of Torchwood supports that.”
Q: Not knowing anything about the show prior to it's airing I had expected more emphasis on the idea of Torchwood as a secret society at the heart of the British establishment - taking it's lead as it's meant to do from some secret royal command on the part of Queen Victoria - rather than as a small investigators cadre who seem to have the sanction - if not approval - of the authorities. What do you think of this format decision - it seemed in some episodes that the characters had it rather too easy when dealing with the Police, the Army, hospitals etc...whereas a group who could rely on no overt help from the authorities - and who might actually find themselves having to avoid conflicting with them - might have generated more drama and meant the characters had to work a little harder for their results? I'm thinking of the way this was successfully done in ITVs vampire science fiction serial Ultraviolet - or the way UNIT operated in the classic Doctor Who episodes - plenty of resources, but sometimes they're restrained from using them by their need to keep their 'secret wars' in the shadows. What do you think about this?
A: “That's an interesting question, because it harks back to what I said earlier about how everyone came to the series with their own preconceived expectations, not all of which could be met. I see the Torchwood organisation, as presented on screen, as being a bit like the secret service, MI5, in that its existence is public knowledge, but the details and nature of its operations are kept strictly secret. So the police and the armed forces defer to it, as they presumably would to MI5 agents, but the problems are then left for Captain Jack and his team to deal with largely unaided. The series would probably have worked just as well if the premise had been as you suggest, but obviously these are the sort of creative decisions that have to be worked out as a series is being developed.”
Q: As this is a 'unofficial' (i.e. non-BBC) publication - in common with the other guides Telos has put out in the past for TV shows like 24, Blake's 7 and Survivors - perhaps you could tell us a little about the process that goes into putting together such a book - without the 'all areas' access the staff putting together an official one?
A: “The type of books that we publish don't suffer at all from the fact that they're 'unofficial' ones. The aim is not to give a behind-the-scenes ‘inside story’ account of the making of a given series, but rather to detail how it was received by the viewing public and to present an insightful episode guide and analysis, which readers can use as a ‘viewing companion’ to the show. Having said that, we do give quite a bit of behind-the-scenes information where we think it will be of interest, and this is obtained either from published sources or, sometimes, from contacts amongst the people involved in making a series, who assist us on an unofficial basis.”
Q: So what have been the especial challenges in gathering the relevant information for Inside The Hub?
A: "Writing this type of book is a lot easier now than it was even ten years ago, because a huge amount of information is available online, if you know where to look. The advent of the internet has certainly been a boon in this respect! But it's still quite a challenge to pull everything together into a coherent package, and of course the internet is by no means the only source of information I drew on in writing Inside the Hub. But, as I say, the aim of a book like this is as much to offer opinion and analysis as to provide information. One of the main challenges really was to get the manuscript competed by the end of January deadline, given that the series didn't finish transmission until New Year's Day!"
Q: Presumably being an unofficial title also allows a certain level of greater editorial freedom in terms of critical opinion - what do you think the strengths of the best 'unofficial' guides can be, as opposed to the 'official' output?
A: "Doing a book like this on an official basis isn't really an option anyway, as the BBC simply don't grant licenses to companies like Telos any more, at least not for Doctor Who-related titles. Everything is controlled to the Nth degree now, and even official BBC books - and their authors - have to be vetted and approved by numerous different people.
"We published a series of officially-licensed Doctor Who Novellas some years ago, which were very popular, and well-received critically, but even back in those days, before the advent of the new series, when things weren't so tightly constrained, dealing with BBC Worldwide was bit of a nightmare for us, to be honest, as they insisted on us going through a really cumbersome and bureaucratic approvals process for absolutely every element of each book, and placed some completely unreasonable restrictions on us - for instance, they wanted us to use only silver and different shades of blue for the hardback covers! Also, some of the particular individuals we had to deal with did not act with the level of competence and professionalism one would expect from such a major organisation. So it is certainly much easier and gives us much more creative freedom to do 'unofficial' books."
Q: Now there's a whole season to consider in its entirety, how successful do you think the mix of character-based stories, 'adult' themes and more traditional 'monster of the week' stories in series one has been?
A: "I loved the series, and thought it worked very well indeed. Of course, it wasn't without its faults, and any series, no matter how successful, can always be improved upon. But people will have to read the book if they want to know my views in more detail!"
Q: Modern ensemble television pieces often seem to end up being either 'feast or famine' for individual characters - sometimes at the expense of other characters and even of plot. With that in mind, how do you think Torchwood fared in the tricky balancing act of individual character development against storylines?
A: "I think it worked well in that regard, although it would be good to see Ianto and, particularly, Toshiko getting a little more of the limelight in the second series. I have a feeling that the production team saw Jack and Gwen as the main characters in the first series, with Owen a little behind them, and then Ianto and Toshiko, with Rhys obviously in a more supporting role. I think there's still a lot of unexplored potential for Ianto and Toshiko, and even for Rhys, who's actually been rather better used in a couple of the original novels based on the series."
Q: As Torchwood started life as a 'spin-off' from the massively successful BBC One series Doctor Who what's your opinion on the decision taken by the production team to avoid crossovers with the series - based on the premise that the 'adult themes' of the series would exclude the younger fans of the new Doctor Who?
A: "I actually think they've judged this just right. There was the 'Cyberwoman' episode, of course, but if they'd gone as far as including a Dalek story in Torchwood, which they did actually consider at one point, I think that might have blurred the distinction between the series too much.
"It's better for Torchwood to stand on its own merits as a separate and distinctive series, rather than keep harking back to Doctor Who. But of course Captain Jack will continue to cross back and forwards between the two series, and I think that's sufficient to maintain the link and preserve the idea that they're both set in the same fictional universe."
Q: With that in mind, do you imagine we're likely to learn more about the origins of the groups' leader (Capt. Jack Harkness) in Torchwood - or do you think the mystery of his 'missing time' (from The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances in Doctor Who Series 1) and/or his seeming invulnerability (from Torchwood) will be dealt with over in Doctor Who - as the series finale implied rather heavily that he was off to re-join the Doctor on his travels for a while?
A: "I'd be surprised if some of the mysteries surrounding Jack's past etc are not addressed at some point, either in Doctor Who or in Torchwood, but I've got no "inside knowledge" of this. We'll all just have to keep watching!"
Q: As it's now been announced that Torchwood has been renewed for a second series - back on BBC Three - what direction do you imagine it will take in the future?
A: "John Barrowman has hinted that the next series may go even further in the depiction of adult content, in terms of sex, horror and violence. I think one can detect a certain degree of caution in the first series, of the production team 'feeling their way' in terms of how far they could go in a Doctor Who spin-off.
"Maybe in series two they'll throw caution to the wind! Certainly I would expect them to have very much the same mixture of very varied and distinctive stories. I personally would like to see them introduce some additional regular characters, in support of the main team - giving Captain Jack and his colleagues other people to interact with on an ongoing basis outside the confines of the Hub. I think it would also be good if they had some of overall story arc running through the series. But, again, we will just have to wait and see. And, actually, the next series is going to debut on BBC Two rather than BBC Three - a 'promotion' for the series!"
Q: Will there be a guide like this for the next series - in the same way that Second Flight has followed up on the first Doctor Who one: Back To The Vortex?
A: "That's certainly the intention at the moment".
Q: You've been involved in number of Doctor Who related books over the years, what's next for you? Now that 1970s companion Sarah Jane Smith is back in her own series for CBBC is there any chance of you doing a behind the scenes book on that?
A: "I'd personally love to do a book on Sarah Jane - although, again, it would be more an episode guide book than a behind-the-scenes one per se. I'm not sure it's something that would necessarily be right for Telos, but if there are any other publishers out there who might like to commission me, I'm open to offers! In the meantime, I'm going to be writing Telos's book on the upcoming Doctor Who series - essentially the follow-up to J. Shaun Lyon's Back to the Vortex and Second Flight, although naturally I'll be taking my own slant on it, which won't be exactly the same as Shaun's - so that will keep me very busy over the coming months. I'm also just finishing up editing the last of a three-volume set of books called Talkback for Telos, collecting together a lot of vintage interviews with people involved in making the 'classic' Doctor Who series. The first two volumes have already been published, and thankfully have been very popular."
For more information on Torchwood the following links may be useful:
Telos Publishing Ltd
Telos Publishing Ltd is also responsible for a broad range of publications including a series of ‘Time Hunter’ novellas - following the adventures of Honoré Lechasseur - as well as a 'classic crime' range which reprints the thrillers of Hank Janson. Aside from the new volume on Torchwood Telos produces numerous other guides to cult TV collectables and programmes ranging from Blake’s 7 to Doctor Who, Stargate: SG1, Survivors and 24. Telos was a 'World Fantasy Award Winner' in 2006.
Inside the Hub: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Torchwood by Stephen James Walker is available now. Torchwood series one continues to be broadcast on BBC Three, with a second series to follow on BBC Two in 2008. Captain Jack Harkness will return in the new series of Doctor Who on BBC One in the Spring. Torchwood is available on DVD from the BBC/2 Entertain.
Book jacket image is © Telos Publishing Ltd 2007, used with permission. PSP Ltd is not responsible for the contents of external websites.
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