torchwood

SXF, the Brit Sci Fi Fantasy mag, has announced their awards. And why should you care? Because it's a very interesting list. The magazine announced the awards at their annual convention earlier this month. Curious as to what they think about science fiction on the other side of the pond? Not surprisingly, it's brit heavy, but it's still interesting. Here are the sci-fi highlights:

Best Film Director: JJ Abrams (Star Trek)
Best TV Episode: Torchwood "Children Of Earth" Episode Five
Best Actress: Eve Myles (Torchwood)
Best Actor: David Tennant (Doctor Who)
Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Best Comic: Batman: Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader? Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert
Best Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady)
Best Collectible: The Journal of Impossible Things (Doctor Who)

Hope for the Future: Steven Moffat (succeeding Russell T. Davies on Dr. Who)
Lifetime Award: Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, UFO, Space 1999, Terrahawks and much more)
Cult Hero: Ianto Jones (Actor Gareth David Lloyd on Torchwood)
Sci-Fi Phenomenon: True Blood (they've only seen season 1)

Unfortunately, some of the most interesting categories are not available online, such as the Best Death Scene, Biggest Disappointment, and Best Dialogue. But my favorite award up there is easily Gerry Anderson. Not only did his work influence the SFX team as children, it made me very nostalgic.

BBC America seems to like science fiction, with shows like Dr. Who, Torchwood, and now Survivors, a post-viral apocalypse drama with quite a few familiar faces from the other shows. Freema Agyeman will likely be the first familiar face to those who might not watch other Brit shows. As Martha Jones, she's been both a regular and a guest on both Dr. Who and Torchwood. Agyeman plays schoolteacher Jenny Collins.

Shaun Dingwall was a recurring guest on Dr. Who as Rose's father. On Survivors, he's also a father, David Grant. Sharp eyes might also remember Nikki Amuka–Bird from the "Sleeper" episode of Torchwood in 2008. Here, she's Samantha Willis, a press minister with the misfortune of being the face of the British government as the flu decimates the population.

Paterson Joseph, also known as Space Marshal Clarke on Hyperdrive, plays Greg Preston, who unfortunately gets his wish for a new life on Survivors. Zoë Tapper, who's practically a staple of BBC America occult shows (Demons, Hex) plays Dr. Anya Raczynski. You can guess what she was up to when the outbreak hit.

Lastly, Phillip Rhys, who played Proto Zoa in Disney's Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century and Zenon: The Zequel plays Al Sadiq, a privileged playboy who's clearly going to get a reality check before the end of the first episode.

Survivors premieres on BBC America on Saturday February 13th. A sneak peek is currently available on BBC America On Demand.

If there's one show that I think is safe in its Britishness -- one that could never be tainted by the neverending rush of U.S. remakes -- it's Doctor Who. In fact, when I first heard about this latest news blip about Torchwood, I thought: "At least it's not Doctor Who." Oh, my naivete...

The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed is reporting that Fox is developing a U.S. version of Torchwood, and buried at the bottom of the piece, they also state that Jane Tranter of BBC U.S. "might try to reboot Doctor Who for U.S. audiences." I'll ignore that last bit for now, as "might" seems like a way for Tranter to test the waters on how fans out react to an American Who, rather than actually planning to do it yet.

Torchwood on Fox... Where to begin? Should I discuss the lousy track record Fox has with these sorts of things? How a remake would be as doomed as Dollhouse? Should I cover the fact U.S. studios would never stomach the advanced opinions on sex and gender? Rue about how bland it would become? How cookie cutter? How decidedly unWho, unHarkness?

Total Sci-Fi Online reports that John Barrowman has confirmed that he has signed up for a fourth season of the BBC hit and Dr. Who spin-off, Torchwood. During an interview on BBC Radio 2, Barrowman confirmed that he signed up for the series, and that he expected it to get started in early 2010. There is no news on production start from Russell T. Davies at this time.

Torchwood's season three was a mini-series event, Children of Earth, which aired on BBC America this spring. The previous seasons included 13 episodes; the fourth season is expected to be the same. There is no information on what other characters who survived through the end of season three will be brought back.

With the dramatic endings of season three as well as Children of Earth, including the losses of several Torchwood members, it's unclear how Davies is going to revive the Torchwood organization. Captain Jack Harkness (Barrowman) himself had a dramatic departure, so it's pretty much a given that there will be a very dramatic return.

Welcome to Captain's Log -- your (semi) daily round-up of sci-fi randomness from around the web. Here's what's happening:

Joss Whedon comments on the cancellation of Dollhouse at Whedonesque.

Variety reports that Isabella Rossellini is getting into "The Solitude of Prime Numbers."

J.J. Abrams tells Entertainment Weekly that while Fringe seems to be faltering in the ratings, there's no concern yet for cancellation.

Whoa -- Alan Moore reveals that he will write part of Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's upcoming opera. [BBC]

TV Guide reveals that Torchwood could get a fourth season, if everything comes together.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, io9 dips into the relationship between the Cold War and science fiction.

The site also reports that while we may never see Neuromancer on the big screen, it's about to get a 6-hour installation in New York.

MTV finds out that Dolph Lundgren may pop up in the new Conan.

- Fox has confirmed that Summer Glau is heading back to work for her old boss, Firefly creator Joss Whedon, with a recurring role on Dollhouse.

- A batch of mostly gruesome new photos from the upcoming Fringe episode "A New Day in the Old Town" have hit the Web. The show returns to Fox Sept. 17.

- Clark and Lois "shippers" are going to love the final seconds of the premiere episode of Smallville, says executive producer Kelly Souders. In an interview with E!, Souders talks about upcoming developments on the show, including Lois' mysterious amnesia and Ollie's news sidekick.

More after the jump.

By: Monika Bartyzel

As a child, I watched a little of everything. There really was no rhyme or reason -- Incredible Hulk, Muppet Babies, MTV (videos), Cosby, and even some Tom Baker wrapped in a large, striped scarf. But it wasn't until Christopher Eccleston became Doctor Who that I really started to pay attention to the sci-fi icon and his Tardis adventures.

Through a change to Tennant and a myriad of both silly and super creepy stories, The Doctor became ever more addictive, and I wished that he would head for the big screen. Sure, there's a chance that feature film could become an absolute reality, but recently I had a different thought: What if Torchwood brought Who to the big screen?

Torchwood: Children of Earth was a jaw-dropper. The series had started slowly, but as characters succumbed to the dangers of their job, the show became better and better until the long miniseries made it into an entirely new experience. It was epic, dangerous, shocking, and pretty much all the adjectives that would make a good feature film. I might even go so far as to say a better feature film than Who could make, because there was more cinematic intrigue in Torchwood's latest story, and that's more widely marketable than a quirky man who carries a magic wrench travels through time and space. So why not merge the two?

By: John Scott Lewinski

Reports flooded out of Comic Con International that a fourth season of Torchwood was all but a lock based on its spectacular ratings on both sides of the Atlantic.

That would make sense when you consider the third mini-season ("Children of Earth") pulled in north of 6 milllion viewers a night in the U.K. and is now BBC America's all-time highest rated show. Why wouldn't the BBC want to bring it back?

But, in an informal discussion in Los Angeles Wednesday, Russell T. Davies told me the fourth season has not been officially approved, despite previous reports.

Read the rest at TV Squad

So much for a happy ending.

With Children of Earth's critical success and record UK ratings, I'm certain show creator Russell T. Davies will get the chance to bring Torchwood back to TV next year. But how can he? (Spoilers ahead).

Ianto is dead. Gwen is almost a mother. Captain Jack, wracked with guilt and stripped of his white hat, is gone. And Torchwood is finished. It would be a shame to see the show end forever after its finest hour, but where can it go from here?

OK folks, let's pull ourselves together now. Yes, this was Torchwood's darkest hour, but tonight is ass-kicking time, right? Right?

Honestly, I'm not really sure how it's all gonna end, but that's what I'm loving about Children of Earth. The miniseries has kept me guessing from the start and it's kept me on the edge of my seat all week with damn fine storytelling and some great performances. (Please, Internet, tell me a full season order is in the can for next year!)

Day four mostly centered on negotiations with The 456 and the British government's extremely shocking lack of moral integrity. We also learned that our own Captain Jack is no saint. Jack's confession about feeding the children to The 456 in 1964 only made me wonder about the other possible skeletons in his closet.