Torchwood was the brainchild of Russell T Davies who is responsible for bringing back Dr. Who to the airwaves and this is a kind of spin off. It dealt with a lot of Dr. Who type situations but focused more on Earth bound issues instead of flying around the universe in a police box.
Originally Torchwood was a government entity designed to protect the Earth from aliens, specifically the good Doctor. In fact Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who. But after they ran afoul of the Doctor he took them down and what we're dealing with now is a smaller and less government funded and more independent organization with the same goals of protecting the planet.
At the helm of this is Captain Jack Harkness. A man literally out of time. He's from the far future, having traveled back and forth and currently stuck in our era. He also has the unfortunate ability not to be able to die. He's tried so many ways and some say that Torchwood was his way of searching for something that could end his life.
It's also a lot darker than Dr. Who ever was. Whereas Dr. Who showed hope, often times Torchwood showed a lack of it. And even when they succeeded in the end there was always a cost. Either in human or emotional terms.
The series started out strong with some good stories but about halfway through the series there were parts that just felt too soap opera for me. Not say it was bad but I felt they were missing something.
In the end it's a good bookend to the David Tennant years as there were several crossovers during that time. Fun fact, David Tennant and John Barrowman became such good friends that John was asked to be David's best man at his wedding.
Originally Torchwood was a government entity designed to protect the Earth from aliens, specifically the good Doctor. In fact Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who. But after they ran afoul of the Doctor he took them down and what we're dealing with now is a smaller and less government funded and more independent organization with the same goals of protecting the planet.
At the helm of this is Captain Jack Harkness. A man literally out of time. He's from the far future, having traveled back and forth and currently stuck in our era. He also has the unfortunate ability not to be able to die. He's tried so many ways and some say that Torchwood was his way of searching for something that could end his life.
It's also a lot darker than Dr. Who ever was. Whereas Dr. Who showed hope, often times Torchwood showed a lack of it. And even when they succeeded in the end there was always a cost. Either in human or emotional terms.
The series started out strong with some good stories but about halfway through the series there were parts that just felt too soap opera for me. Not say it was bad but I felt they were missing something.
In the end it's a good bookend to the David Tennant years as there were several crossovers during that time. Fun fact, David Tennant and John Barrowman became such good friends that John was asked to be David's best man at his wedding.