Torchwood made history in 2006 as the first proposed Doctor Who television spin-off to actually happen (previous suggestions, including Jago and Litefoot, K-9 and Company, and Rose Tyler: Earth Defence, thankfully didn't make it very far). As RTD's interviewer in the above link says, the series ran for one season of thirteen episodes on BBC Three, a second season of thirteen on BBC Two, and a mini-series of five episodes shown over five nights (known as Torchwood: Children of Earth) on BBC One. I can't think of another show that could have survived all these format and channel changes and not at all seemed like it was failing. Doctor Who, for instance, would lose the large portions of the general public it relies upon to be considered a success if it started changing around its format. Torchwood can survive with a small fanbase which will follow it wherever, as well as new viewers who've heard it's actually good this season.
Which is why Starz may be a better choice as collaborator than Fox, who Davies et al were originally courting. Fox, despite being the most daring of the American free-to-air networks (not saying much), might very well have made all sorts of stupid demands on the scripts, aired the episodes out of order, and then promptly cancelled the series. And HBO, the cable channel that has produced most of the most critically acclaimed American series of the past decade, might have more money than Starz, but it also has a long-established style and type of drama. It's that kind of deviation that is more likely to kill Torchwood. Starz, on the other hand, has only just started making original series, and those series - including mockumentary Party Down, dramedy Gravity, and, erm, Spartacus: Blood and Sand - have all been quite different, suggesting that the network is keen to experiment and create shows that are a little different. It seems that Starz needs Torchwood more than Torchwood needs Starz, which is not a bad position for the series to be in.
Which is not to say that Russell and friends aren't going to face some challenges, the main one being attracting new viewers to what will essentially be the fourth season of Torchwood. Doctor Who has finally entered American cultural consciousness, but has also stopped referring to Torchwood or featuring Captain Jack, so I'm not sure we can expect much help from that quarter. All existing episodes of Torchwood are now on Netflix Instant, but I don't even know if that will be a good thing. See, what's most remarkable about Torchwood is that it continues to survive despite being actually pretty bad for most of its existence. RTD created the show and its characters and wrote the pilot, "Everything Changes" (T1.1 I suppose we should call it), but the head writer was one Chris Chibnall, a name which should be familiar to you if you just watched "The Hungry Earth" and "Cold Blood" (31.8 and 31.9 - he wrote them). He also wrote "42" (N3.7), which is one of those episodes that I like but no one else seems to, and his other TV credits include Law and Order: UK and episodes of Life on Mars. He's also an idiot. Either that, or he was severely hamstrung in his running of the first two seasons of Torchwood because they are the most ineptly plotted 26 episodes of television I have ever seen. Don't get me wrong: there are some great moments, many of them written by Chibnall himself. But in terms of overall story development (which is necessary even when all episodes are standalone) Torchwood was nothing short of retarded.
It would have been so easy, too. If you watch "Everything Changes", you'll see it's a pretty good pilot. It introduces a likeable protagonist, interesting supporting characters, and sets up Torchwood and big bad bustling Cardiff. We get hints of issues that might be further developed throughout the series: the mental toll working at Torchwood takes on its team, and the effect being on a space-time rift will have/has had on the city. And, of course, that "the 21st Century is when everything changes," whatever that means. SQUANDERED. We didn't really know the characters any better at the end of Season 2 than we did after "Everything Changes", because shouting, crying, and having sex with random people is not character development. And if something does happen that reveals something about the character, it can't be forgotten by the next episode. It was Executive Producer Russell T. Davies who decided that each episode had to be standalone, with not even two-parters except for episodes 12 and 13, but it was Chibnall's responsibility to make it a series, rather it seeming like some sort of short story collection: "Ten writers who've never spoken to each other each present their own bold take on Torchwood."
Some questions that, had they been asked, would have made Torchwood much better:
- What does Torchwood actually do? When the monster of the week is not running around Cardiff, what are the characters working on when they go into work? What are the organization's long term goals? Gwen eventually tells Rhys "I catch aliens!" Why do they catch aliens? What do they do with them once they've caught them?
- How is "everything" going to change in the 21st Century, and how does chasing weevils and sex aliens help prepare humanity for said changes?
- What does it mean to have an organization that is "separate from the government, outside the police, and beyond the United Nations"? What are some of the moral and political issues surrounding a small group having that much power (and what actually is that power and how do they use it)?
- What is Torchwood's place in the world? How much does the general public know about it? How does it interact with government(s) and government organizations, such as U.N.I.T.?
- What consequences are there of Earth's continued encounters with aliens, including the Doctor? (Here it would help if Doctor Who would make up its mind as to whether humans know about aliens or not.)
- Are there seriously no aliens other than the horny ones in Cardiff gutters? Is the rift nothing more than a weevil dispenser?
- How much does Jack know about Earth's future, and how does that knowledge motivate him or weigh on him? Actually, what are any of these characters' motivations? Who the hell are these people and what are they doing here???
As these questions hopefully point out, there's a lot of potential in Torchwood's premise for an excellent series; one that has a lot to say about our current world, and that's also witty and action-packed, while going places Doctor Who can never go. And the third season, the five episode miniseries Children of Earth, was pretty much that. It wasn't perfect, but it was well-written, entertaining, and very daring television. And people loved it! It featured in many of the "Best TV Series of the '00s" or "Best Miniseries of the '00s" lists that I saw, and it just won a Saturn award for Best Presentation on Television! Russell has apparently realised people will come back each night to watch a multi-part story, something he kept insisting was not the case while producer of Doctor Who. Also that if you want something done properly you've got to do it yourself. So I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but this may allow Torchwood, five years on, to finally become the show it deserves to be.
Now let's see if Russell and Joss Whedon can join forces to finally get Ripper made.
UPDATE: Starz just cancelled Party Down. Whoops.
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