It's horrible, it's badly written, the stories are stupid, the dialogue is vomit enducing and the acting is terrible.

What the hell were the BBC thinking?

Who told Russell T Davis he's a good writer?

And why is EVERY SINGLE EPISODE some sort of stupid lecture on morality or ethics or something?

For those whos televisions have yet to be graced by this series, Torchwood is a spinoff series based on Doctor who staring captain jack harkness as the lead character, It's like CSI mixed with the twilight zone. What happens in each episode is an Alien, normally linked somehow to a mysterious alien artifact that grants the ability to read minds, after causing some trouble, and normally a hostage situation gets killed by captain jack and the artifact is destroyed. Then there is a 10 minute lecture about wether or not it is Ok to kill malicious alien beings hell bent on murder.

The answer is always yes.

I heard it advertised on BBC7... over and over.
Is it at least better than the new Doctor WHO?

ozoneocean
I heard it advertised on BBC7... over and over.
Is it at least better than the new Doctor WHO?

no it's worse. Everything that made the new doctor who worse than the old ones is present here, except there aren't even any daleks.

WTF? And all in nice simple contained eppisodes of 45 mintues or an hour or something? It sounds grim...
I just got through watching the final eppisodes of Farscape yesterday (they've been on my comp for ages...). Man, those were good! It's the same old stuff with people being threatned with guns all the time, fondled and shot at, blasted into space, charging down corrodors, spouting rubbish and glorously fake swearwords, but it was still great nonetheless.
Not the kind of sterile SciFi you get in stuff like Babylon 5, Startreck etc... Maybe more Starwarsish, but a lot more fun.

Yeah I'm also open both of the two main types of Sci-fi, the sort of Hard and slow science ficiton of startrek and babylon 5, and the sort of loud, fast and soft science fiction of Farscape, battlestar galactica (no not the new series idiots) and lots of newer sci-fi.


But this is neither of those and what is is not good. I think they are trying to go for the "dark and edgy" sort of thing, the fact is the acting is so shockingly poor it completley fails in that attempt. Plus the Aliens themselves don't help, they are pretty much all your sort of floaty spectral beings that are deceptivley beautiful but eat peoples hearts or something. Either that or they are some mythical being/the personification of death/faries and stuff (seriously, in one episode the Aliens are faries).

Pretty much every story involves possession somehow too, How the BBC let this get to air I do not know.

Fairies? Could be fun :)
...No, the beeb isn't the place it once was when it comes to drama.

The faries aren't Good, the events in the episode actually make no sense at all yet still manage to be incredibly predictable. For science fiction they sure like to disregard logic, and the whole concept of causality plenty often.

i stopped watching dr who after eckelson left

I watch it because there's lesbian love making...:)

Torchwood is..... pretty awful. I can only assume that Russel T. Davies was sitting in his chair over at the BBC flinging poo at the walls, when one strange-looking lump caught his eye and he decided to make it into a show. I'll agree with you there, Torchwood doesn't do Doctor Who justice. On the other hand, I have no particular problem with the new Doctor Who series. True, nothing can beat the older episodes (yaaaaay for Baker!), and Eccleston was a bit bland (and bald), but I think David Tennant brings a lot of life to the character. Hoooboy. I'm gonna start a Doctor Who war, aren't I?

Much as I liked old Galactica when I was a child, and still do enjoy it (except for "1980" ) , and new Galactica as an adult...old and new Doctor Who strikes me much the same way. Besides, there's always been the back and forth over which incarnation of the Doctor was good and which was not.

And I like Torchwood. It's nice to have something darker that exists in the same universe. The girl and I (she's a bigger Who fan than I am...I'm more B5 and Trek, but enjoy most SF) enjoyed the first season and are looking forward to the next. I like that the people that are supposed to be protecting us are probably the LAST people that should be protecting us, which is usually how it ends up. This particular division is ready to fly apart at almost any time. Hell, look who is leading them (much as I get a kick out of the character of Captain Jack Harkness).

Yes, it has its problems and, as with any first season, it's finding it's footing. Most shows are weak out of the gate, Next Generation and Babylon 5 being two good examples of that. Loved both series, but it's amazing they weren't cancelled before the first season was over, for as crippled as most of those episodes were.

Torchwood is certainly not Doctor Who, and I'm as glad that it isn't as I am that Doctor Who is.

In much the same way, I loved "Enterprise" because it wasn't standard Trek. It wasn't the formula. I liked that it wasn't all touchy-feely, that they beat the crap out of the Human species, and members of the crew started getting nasty. It was what I'd hoped for when they did Voyager.

You do have a point there about slow first seasons. I'd be willing to give a Torchwood season 2 a chance, if one ever came out. Only problem is, I don't think there's going to be a second season. I'm pretty sure that it was intended to be only one season long, and all of the rumors (which have sorta been indirectly confirmed by the production team) that Jack Harkness is coming back in the next season of Doctor Who make it very unlikely that they'll be able to do a second season. Torchwood would be nothing without Jack. He was really the only interesting character in my opinion.

I saw it. It was awful. Not really, I just want to fit in.

Then again, what I've watched of Doctor Who I didn't like. I've not given the newest show a chance yet though. It comes on our Sci Fi channel a lot. I'll have to catch it on sometime. It can't be worse then "the dresden files" though, thats absolute shit.

I do however like Red Dwarf and Spaced. I also watched a show called "The IT Crowd" that was brilliantly funny.

marine
I do however like Red Dwarf and Spaced. I also watched a show called "The IT Crowd" that was brilliantly funny.

You know that goes without saying.

I think most spin offs tend to be a little poor. Doctor Who is a great series so its no suprise that Torchwood pales in comparison. I do think they'll be a second series even if Jack does more Doctor Who, I mean he's gonna still want to get a job afterwards isn't he?

Capt. Jack is the only person in Torchwood I find likable. If they'd just kill the rest of the cast (well, the butler guy can stay as a background character) there would be an immediate improvement. And I agree -- the plots, which often seem to be mostly about ugly people swearing and having sex, generally suck. I'm not sure why they'd think that would appeal to Doctor Who fans.

I love the new Doctor Who, though.

The Sarah Jane spin-off looks like it has potential too in a classic-Who sort of way.

I stopped watching Torchwood after seeing just one episode.

Torchwood: Doctor Who without the Doctor. Or the TARDIS.

Yeah... Pass.

I'm kinda starting to think that Torchwood was just Russel T. Davies's way of keeping the actor who plays Jack (can't remember his name) from wandering off and committing himself to some other series before they could bring him back into Doctor Who.

heh
retardis

i stopped watching dr. who when the new guy made the character all wussy looking.
ecclson's dr. who made you anticipate his almost randomness and always made me laugh when he gets thing wrong and grins

In my opinion, Tennant is better than our bald northener. He's more emotional and passionate, and he's great in the lighter scenes.

Also, heh, TURDIS.

I am really looking forward to it myself. I've seen bits and pieces of it, and I like it. I also like the concept.

Oh Jesus Christ it's evil...

It's like a cross between the X-Files and Urutsukidoji.

Personally, I think an adult spinoff of Dr Who is a bad idea. Kids will sneak a peek at it at some point, no doubt about it.

They should have t=one of those warning things at the start of each show.

OMG ! you had to mention the new Battle star galactica - the show that made me abandon all hope that tv will ever have good scifi again .
i'm sooo tired of getting all excited about something just to be horribly dissapointed in the first 5 minutes of the show !

marine
I do however like Red Dwarf and Spaced. I also watched a show called "The IT Crowd" that was brilliantly funny.

Marine hit the nail there, Red Dwarf is the best sci-fi show ever released, and Spaced is the best comedy show ever released. And even The IT Crowd gave us great humor.