Torchwood

Television series
German title	Torchwood
Original title	Torchwood
Country of production	United Kingdom
original language	English
Year (s)	2006-2011
length	S1 & 2: 13 × 50 minutes each, S3: 300 or 5 × 60 minutes, S4: 10 × 52 minutes
Episodes	41 in 4 seasons ( list )
genre	Science fiction , drama , mystery
idea	Russell T Davies
music	Murray Gold , Ben Foster
First broadcast	October 22, 2006 (UK) on BBC Three
German-language first broadcast	March 11, 2009 on RTL II
occupation

Torchwood (English pronunciation: ˈtɔrtʃ.wʊd ) is a British science fiction series and an offshoot of the popular BBC series Doctor Who . Torchwood is about a small team of specialists from the fictional Torchwood Institute . The task of this covertly operating organization outside of the British state apparatus is to protect the earth from alien threats. The central figure is Captain Jack Harkness ( John Barrowman ), an immortal, mysterious time traveler from the distant future, who has lived on earth since the 19th century. At the beginning of the plot, police officer Gwen Cooper ( Eve Myles ) joins Torchwood, the team also includes doctor Owen Harper ( Burn Gorman ), computer specialist Toshiko Sato ( Naoko Mori ) and Ianto Jones ( Gareth David-Lloyd ).

The first three seasons of the series were produced in Wales and are largely set in the capital Cardiff , where the Torchwood Institute is based. The fourth season is a co-production of the BBC with the US cable broadcaster Starz and takes place mainly in the United States .

background

subjects

The Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff . Underneath is the basis of the fictional Torchwood Institute

In contrast to, for example, the action film series Men in Black , which is based on a similar basic concept, Torchwood tends to focus more on interpersonal relationships and, with each season, increasingly ethical issues. But action and British humor also play central roles. Unlike the parenting series Doctor Who , which is designed for a family audience, Torchwood is aimed exclusively at young and adult viewers. There are pronounced depictions of sexuality and violence, blood is shown in the case of injuries and strong expressions are used.

Captain Jack Harkness is one of the few action heroes on a television show who is openly pansexual . Ianto Jones, Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato also have fluid sexuality.

production

The Torchwood "Doctor Who" anagram

Due to the popularity of the Doctor Who series and to keep the content secret, the Doctor Who scripts were passed around internally to the BBC in 2005 under the Torchwood anagram ( Doctor Who → torchWooD ) so that nothing leaked to the press.

Russel T Davies, who as a series creator and showrunner was responsible for the return of the hit series Doctor Who in 2005 , had developed a basic concept for a police series with a science fiction theme years before this major project. He postponed the implementation of these plans when he received orders from the BBC for Casanova (miniseries) and DW . After the very successful start of Doctor Who , the idea of ​​a sci-fi police series was brought out again and links with DW were prepared.

In the last third of the first Who season, Davies then introduced the character of Captain Jack Harkness . The character undergoes significant character development within the five episodes of its first appearance. With their convincing mediation, actor Barrowman was able to bind the audience in such a way that the police series concept was tailored to the figure of the mysterious time-traveling con artist. The temporary death and resurrection of the captain in the season finale of the first Who season opened the door to the exploration of a comprehensive, complicated life story and Jack's transition to the universally respected, still mysterious director of the Torchwood Institute. Already in the final double episode of the first Who season, Torchwood is mentioned for the first time in a futuristic version of the quiz show The Weakest Link . The history of the institute itself was also considered from the second Who season and the two series were repeatedly linked with one another in the period that followed.

The first Torchwood season aired on BBC Three in 2006 ; the second season was broadcast from January 2008 on BBC Two . A third season with the additional title Children of Earth was filmed from autumn 2008 and broadcast from July 6-10, 2009 on five consecutive days on BBC One . In contrast to the first two seasons, the third season has a continuous storyline, it was broadcast as a miniseries (multi-part television film) on five consecutive evenings.

The fourth season is titled Miracle Day , consists of 10 episodes with again continuous plot and was produced as a co-production of the BBC with the US cable broadcaster Starz . In addition to the original cast, Mekhi Phifer and Alexa Havins have been confirmed as CIA agents Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond as the lead roles. Further, Bill Pullman as a murderer Oswald Danes and Lauren Ambrose seen as a PR consultant Jilly Kitzinger. The fourth season was broadcast from July 8, 2011 on Starz and from July 14, 2011 on BBC One .

marketing

The series ran in Canada on CBC, which co-produced it. In the USA it is broadcast by the BBC subsidiary BBC America with very good ratings. In Hong Kong the series was shown on aTV WORLD. Broadcasting dates in Spain, Australia and New Zealand have also been announced. RTL II secured the German rights and showed the first three seasons from March 11, 2009. The fourth season was broadcast on RTL II, originally planned for spring 2012, in an event programming on the weekend from August 17 to 19, 2012 .

The BBC is marketing the third season of the series in various versions. In addition to the original version broadcast by the BBC in the UK itself, the BBC also offers the series as an international licensed version . In this version, approx. 10 minutes were cut from each episode of season 3. RTL II broadcast the third season in the uncut original version. With up to a million viewers, it was one of the most successful prime time formats for the station in autumn 2009.

prehistory

Torchwood Institute logo

In episode 2.02 of the parenting series Doctor Who , it is shown with teeth and claws that the Torchwood Institute was founded by Queen Victoria in 1879 , after she was possibly infected by an alien werewolf parasite. The doctor saved Victoria's life, but she declared him an enemy of the kingdom and banished him forever. To investigate and combat psychic and extraterrestrial activities, Victoria founded an institute called Torchwood - after the property on which she sought refuge.

The Torchwood Institute has several offices in the UK. The actual headquarters, Torchwood One, was located in London . However, this was destroyed in the Doctor Who episodes 2.12 The Army of Spirits and 2.13 Doomsday in the fight against the Cybermen and the Daleks . Since then, the former branch in the Welsh capital Cardiff , Torchwood Three, has been the headquarters of the Torchwood Institute.

The similar function of the Torchwood Institute to the UNIT ( Unified Intelligence Taskforce ; formerly also United Nations Intelligence Taskforce ) organization, which was already established earlier in the mother series Doctor Who , is alluded to in episode 2.06 Reset . Jack explains that Torchwood is more spontaneous in his actions by comparison. However, Torchwood seems to be subordinate to UNIT in some ways, as Jack had to prepare reports for UNIT in an earlier episode. Another difference between the organizations is that Torchwood reports directly to the British Crown, while UNIT reports to the United Nations, as Gwen makes clear in episode 3.01 Children of Earth: Day One by the origin of her paycheck.

Chronologically, Torchwood begins after the end of the second Doctor Who season. Then the seasons of both series alternate. The character Captain Jack Harkness was first seen in the Doctor Who episode 1:09 The empty child and then encounters the Doctor again and again until it the tenth Doctor last shortly before its regeneration in the Doctor Who episode 4.18 End of Time, Part 2 hits , which takes place after the events of the third season of Torchwood .

Episode list

→ Main article : Torchwood / Episode List

Audience ratings

Torchwood : UK Viewers / First Aired (Millions)

Season		Ep. 1	Ep. 2	Ep. 3	Ep. 4	Ep. 5	Ep. 6	Ep. 7	Ep. 8	Ep. 9	Ep. 10	Ep. 11	Ep. 12	Ep. 13
	1	2.52	2.5	1.77	1.39	1.26	1.22	1.31	1.12	1.08	1.03	0.83	1.23	1.23
	2	4.22	3.78	3.51	3.28	3.79	4.07	4.32	4.26	3.75	3.85	3.49	3.69	3.13
	3	6.47	6.14	6.4	6.76	6.58	N / A
	4th	6.59	5.75	5.49	5.19	5.17	4.6	4.48	4.64	4.63	5.13	N / A

Source:

The first episode of the first season broke the record for the most successful broadcast ever on BBC Three with 2.5 million viewers . Both the first and the second episode (broadcast on the same evening) are still among the five most watched programs since the television channel was founded.

With a market share of 13 percent of the total available television program at the respective airtime, the episodes also earned the station an extraordinarily high audience rate. Although the number of viewers declined over the course of the season, without exception all episodes far exceeded the usual viewer ratings of BBC Three.

The episodes were repeated outside prime-time on BBC Two within the respective weeks of the first broadcast and again achieved similar viewership of around 2.5 million people.

As a consequence, the series was allowed to switch to the more heavily frequented broadcaster BBC Two for the following season . When the series was also able to prove itself there with quite high ratings for the station, the further rise to the BBC flagship BBC One followed , where, however, shortly before shooting began, the promise was reduced from the planned 13 to five episodes.

Showrunner Davies took the opportunity to negotiate a miniseries instead, to turn the five episodes into a coherent 300-minute fictional film that could ultimately be broadcast on five consecutive days and with consistently over 6 million viewers despite the feared "summer slump" Audience ratings.

The fourth season, which was co-produced with Starz, was able to build on the success of the previous seasons with the broadcast of the first episode, after which the number of viewers fell more sharply than the previous ones and only increased slightly at the season finale. While audience numbers of 4-6 million are unthinkable for BBC Three and record-breaking for BBC Two, they are more in the midfield for the main BBC. Only the first episode is very good, even by BBC One standards, with almost 6.6 million viewers.

To classify: On average, the BBC (cumulative across all its stations) has a market share of over 30% (as of 2017). Her most successful series in recent years are Sherlock and Doctor Who . In its early years (before the TV channels were split up), the latter achieved an average viewership of up to 11.2 million people (seasons from 1963, 1976/77 and 1979), such numbers would be unthinkable today. But even in 2018, isolated episodes of the latest season had a sensational 11 million viewers. Even after the number of viewers dropped to 7.7 million in episode 5, it was still enough for the sixth largest market share of all programs available in parallel. The entire third as well as the beginning and finals of the fourth Torchwood season are just below this range. Since Doctor Who's return in 2005, the average number of seasons has been between 5.5 and 8 million, with the opening episodes usually attracting over 10 million viewers in front of the screen - making the series an exception in the modern television landscape and a competitive flagship of the BBC power. The individual Sherlock episodes (only three per year, always full-length, separate concept similar to the German Tatort ) also attracted such an audience (between 6 and almost 12 million viewers per episode and market shares of 25–35%). The flagship series of other broadcasters (mainly ITV in Great Britain) rarely achieve higher ratings.

Basically, it is worth mentioning with regard to the season progression that the fluctuations (high ratings in the first and possibly last, in between decrease) are very typical for television series of all kinds and are definitely expected. To counteract this, attempts are occasionally made to introduce particularly interesting episodes or surprising, drastic changes in the course of the plot or cast in the middle of a season and to announce them accordingly in advance of the first broadcast. This ensures a short-term renewed increase and thus an overall slower decrease in the number of viewers over the course of the season. The success of such a strategy is particularly evident here with the numbers of the second season, but the concept also worked in the third - the death of a particularly popular main character in the middle part once again led to a significant increase in viewer numbers before the final episode .

occupation

The synchronized version of the series was set to music at Interopa Film in Berlin . Kim Hasper wrote the dialogue books with Änne Troester and directed the dialogue with Marius Clarén .

main actor

role	actor	Voice actor	Episodes	number
Captain Jack Harkness	John Barrowman	Peter Flechtner	1.01-4.10	41
Gwen Cooper	Eve Myles	Britta Steffenhagen	1.01-4.10	41
Ianto Jones	Gareth David-Lloyd	Marius Clarén	1.01-3.04	30th
Dr. Owen Harper	Burn Gorman	Daniel Fehlow	1.01-2.13	26th
Toshiko Sato	Naoko Mori	Natascha Geisler	1.01-2.13	26th
Rhys Williams	Kai Owen	Olaf Reichmann	1.01-4.10	41 (?)
Rex Matheson	Mekhi Phifer	Dennis Schmidt-Foss	4.01-4.10	10
Esther Drummond	Alexa Havins	Antje von der Ahe	4.01-4.10	10
Oswald Danes	Bill Pullman	Detlef Bierstedt	4.01-4.05, 4.08-4.10	8th

supporting cast

role	actor	Voice actor	Episodes	Number
Sgt Andy Davidson	Tom Price	David Turba	1.01-4.10
Suzie Costello	Indira Varma	Claudia Urbschat-Mingues	1.01.1.08	2
Captain John Hart	James Marsters	David Nathan	2.01, 2.12-13	3
Martha Jones	Freema Agyeman	Solveig Duda	2.06-2.08	3
Alice Carter	Lucy Cohu	Petra Barthel	3.01-3.05	5
Steven Carter	Bear McCausland		3.01-3.05	5
Lois Habiba	Cush jumbo	Manja Doering	3.01-3.05	5
Clement McDonald	Paul Copley	Bodo Wolf	3.01-3.05	5
John Frobisher	Peter Capaldi	Peter Reinhardt	3.01-3.05	5
Bridget Spears	Susan Brown	Karin Buchholz	3.01-3.05	5
Johnson	Liz May Brice	Debora refuses	3.01-3.05	5
Mr. Dekker	Ian Gelder	Helmut Gauss	3.01-3.05	5
Brian Green	Nicholas Farrell	Reinhard Kuhnert	3.01-3.05	5
Rhiannon Davies	Katy Wix	Melanie Hinze	3.01-3.05	5
Johnny Davies	Rhodri Lewis	Tobias Müller	3.01-3.05	5
Dr. Rupesh Patanjali	Rik Makarem	Jaron Lowenberg	3.01-3.02	2
Denise Riley	Deborah Findlay	Liane Rudolph	3.04-3.05	2
General Pierce	Colin McFarlane		3.03-3.05	3
Colonel Oduya	Charles Abomeli		3.01, 3.03-3.05	4th
Dr. Vera Juarez	Arlene Tur	Eva Michaelis	4.01-4.05	5
Jilly Kitzinger	Lauren Ambrose	Luise Helm	4.02-4.05, 4.08-4.10	7th
Brian Friedkin	Wayne Knight	Frank Ciazynski	4.02-4.08	3
Blue Eyed Man	Teddy Sears	Jaron Lowenberg	4.05-4.10	4th
Olivia Colasanto	Nana Visitor	Liane Rudolph	4.07-4.08	2
Allen Shapiro	John de Lancie	Bert Franzke	4.08-4.10	3
Mary Cooper	Sharon Morgan	Helga Lehner	2.09, 4.01, 4.05, 4.07-4.10	7th
Geraint Cooper	William Thomas	Ernst Meincke	2.09, 4.01, 4.05-4.06, 4.09-4.10	6th
Charlotte Willis	Marina Benedict	Ulrike Stürzbecher	4.01-4.02, 4.08-4.10	5
Stuart Owens	Ernie Hudson	Jörg Hengstler	4.06	1
Ralph	Frederick Koehler		4.05-4.06	2
Colin Maloney	Marc Vann		4.05-4.06	2
Angelo Colasanto	Daniele Favilli		4.07	1
The mother	Frances Fisher	Kerstin Sanders-Dornseif	4.09-4.10	2
Noah Vickers	Paul James	Dirk Stollberg	4.01-4.02, 4.08-4.10	5

main characters

Captain Jack Harkness

See also : "Captain Jack Harkness" in the Doctor Who article

Jack Harkness is the head of Torchwood's Cardiff branch. The character first appeared in the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child". He is a 51st century time traveler who has been stranded on earth since the 19th century. Since his death, and the subsequent revival by at the time of the energy of the TARDIS penetrated Rose Tyler in the episode "Separate ways" of Doctor Who , Jack is immortal. In the course of the two series Torchwood and Doctor Who , Jack's story is gradually told, which makes him a very complex character.

At the beginning of the series Torchwood, Jack is a rather dark character, which is in contrast to his carefree demeanor in the first season of Doctor Who . This is explained by his immortality and the resulting experiences, such as seeing loved ones die while he continues to live. Jack himself initially has no explanation for his immortality, which is why he really wants to see the doctor again to get information. After meeting the doctor again (in the Doctor Who episodes 3.11–3.13: “Utopia”, “The Sound of Drums” and “Last of the Time Lords”), however, he increasingly comes to terms with his fate and becomes again a somewhat lighter character. After the events of the third season, Jack is a visibly broken man who blames himself for what happened.

Within Torchwood, Jack sees himself as a kind of father figure for the other team members - although he also flirts uncontrollably with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones and later starts a relationship with the latter. Jack has a younger brother named Gray, who was kidnapped in an alien attack as a child. Jack, who feels responsible for taking care of Gray, looked for him for years.

Gwen Cooper

Gwen Elizabeth Cooper is a police officer and as part of her work comes across the mysterious Torchwood Institute, to which she is recruited by Jack Harkness . Through her training and as a newcomer to the team, she often reacts with more compassion than her colleagues who have been with Torchwood for a long time. This is how she often succeeds in extracting information from frightened witnesses. As the series progresses, Gwen becomes more confident and resilient. In Jack's absence, she takes over the management of the team several times.

Gwen is the only one on the team with a life partner. The relationship with her boyfriend and future husband, Rhys Williams, illustrates the contrast between normal everyday life and the extraordinary events in Torchwood. At first, Gwen Rhys doesn't tell anything about her work at the secret organization in order to maintain a bit of normality. However, she can't process what she's seen and eventually cheats on Rhys with her teammate Owen . From the second season she is loyal to Rhys and tells him about her experiences at work.

Rex Matheson

Rex Matheson (season 4) is a CIA agent . During the events of Miracle Day, he comes across Torchwood and plans to arrest its members. He succeeds, but when his CIA colleague tries to kill the arrested Jack on the orders of her superior, Rex discovers that Torchwood are "the good guys". Together with Esther Drummond, he helps Jack and Gwen to escape and as a result joins Torchwood. At the end of the fourth season he becomes immortal like Jack after he was able to smuggle Jack's blood in his body to the source and, together with Jack, bring the source to restore normal circumstances (all humans are mortal, Jack not). Since some of the necessary blood from Jack came from Rex's body, he too was placed in Jack's state of immortality.

Esther Drummond

Esther Drummond (season 4) is an analyst at the CIA when she comes across Torchwood while researching, meets Jack in the course of further investigation and thereby comes to Torchwood. At the end of the fourth season, Esther is killed.

Ianto Jones

Ianto (seasons 1–3) works as an archivist, casts the tourist information office (Torchwood's official facade) and as a “girl for everything” in the team. He is the youngest member of the team, but has seen more than many others, having worked for Torchwood One and witnessed the Canary Wharf battle that destroyed Torchwood One. In this fight, his girlfriend Lisa Hallett was turned into a cyberman, an artificially created lethal being that is part human and part machine. Ianto tries to get a job at Torchwood Three to hide Lisa, who is kept alive by machines, in the basement under the facility and to look for a cure. However, Lisa / the Cyberman escapes and tries to convert other people into Cybermen as well, until she is eventually killed by the team. Ianto's secret, which put the whole team in mortal danger, as well as the team shooting of his girlfriend put a strain on the relationship between Ianto and the others. However, their relationship normalized later.

Ianto is often the victim of Jack's suggestive comments. However, he countered this brilliantly with short, concise sayings and dry humor. It remains unclear to what extent his response to Jack's flirtations was initially only played to protect Lisa. However, after Lisa's death, Jack and Ianto begin a relationship.

In the episode of the third season Children of Earth: Day Four ("Children of Earth: Day Four") he dies of a deadly virus that the 456 released in a building in London.

Dr. Owen Harper

Dr. Owen Harper (seasons 1–2) is a doctor and his job includes examining aliens or treating the injured. Owen shows a very cynical demeanor and does not seem to enter into any serious interpersonal relationships at first. It wasn't until the end of the first season that he began to open up when he met Diane, a 1950s pilot who comes to Cardiff through the Time Rift. His anger and grief over her disappearance into the rift ultimately lead to the events at the end of the season when he opens the rift and an apocalyptic monster comes through.

In the second season Owen dies - but is brought back by Jack, who does not want to come to terms with his death. Owen continues to exist as the undead. This leads to his second near-breakdown after Diane's disappearance, until he rediscovered meaning for himself through his work. In the end, however, he finally dies when he is locked in an exit wounds in a room in a nuclear power plant flooded with radioactive coolant.

Toshiko Sato

Toshiko Sato (seasons 1-2), known as Tosh, is Torchwood's computer specialist. She is recruited by Jack after she is caught in an espionage affair and is being held by the government without trial. She has a choice: Torchwood or continue to prison.

Tosh raves about Owen, who, to her chagrin, does not take notice of her. Instead, she has an affair with Mary, who turns out to be a murderous alien, and a romance with Tommy Brockless, a World War I soldier who is frozen in Torchwood's freezer and only thawed once a year. At the end of the second season, Toshiko dies when she is shot by Jack's brother Gray.

Books

Radio plays

An English radio play series has been published by Big Finish Productions since September 2015 , in which 18 episodes and three specials have so far been produced. August 2017 the four-part series Aliens Amongst Us was released , which follows on from the events of season 4. The roles of the main characters are voiced by the actors in the series.

Trivia

• In episode 2.8 "From the life of a dead man", Owen says after breaking into the house: "I'll stay cool - no feeling". This quote comes from the song " Blaue Augen " by the NDW band Ideal .

Web links

• Torchwood in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official website at BBC One

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tochwood: Third season in British premiere
2. ↑ Garth Franklin: "Torchwood" Set To Return. ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Reported in Dark Horizons on June 7, 2010. 
3. ^ The title of the fourth "Torchwood" season is "Miracle Day". wunschliste.de, January 8, 2011, accessed on January 11, 2011 . 
4. ↑ Pullman, Phifer and Tur come to "Torchwood". eguide-online.de, accessed on December 17, 2010 . 
5. ↑ Torchwood: Alexa Havins and Dichen Lachman committed. serienjunkies.de, January 6, 2011, accessed January 8, 2011 . 
6. ↑ Robert Seidman: Captain Jack Will Soon Be Back: 'Torchwood: Miracle Day' Premieres on Starz July 8 . TV by the Numbers . March 23, 2011. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
7. ↑ Miracle Day Episode guide . BBC One . Retrieved October 7, 2012.
8. ↑ Christian Junklewitz: Torchwood: RTL II shows Miracle Day in spring 2012. Serienjunkies.de , September 9, 2011, accessed on September 9, 2011 . 
9. ↑ Bernd Michael Krannich: Torchwood: Miracle Day in August as event programming on RTL II. Serienjunkies.de, July 2, 2012, accessed on July 2, 2012 . 
10. ↑ RTL II will continue “Torchwood” in autumn, August 5, 2009, at dwdl.de
11. ↑ Torchwood: Season 3 Finale was ratings strong. Serien-load.de, accessed on October 20, 2009 . 
12. ↑ Leading TV broadcasters in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017, by audience share. In: Statista.com, accessed June 24, 2019.
13. ↑ ^{a b} How’s Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who * actually * doing so far? In: Digital Spy of November 12, 2018. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Torchwood in the German synchronous file