Fox to produce American version of Torchwood

[Token]

Well fuck. (http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/01/fox-readying-us-version-of-torchwood-.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+live_feed+%28The+Hollywood+Re porter+-+The+Live+Feed%29)

I mean yeah, RTD will be working on it, but still. That's just... Ugh. If you'll excuse me, I'll be nerdraging until it is inevitably canceled halfway through the first season.


Fuck.

[CABAL49]

This means Captain Jack in America!

[Bells]

Wait... why are you raging? I actually didn't see anything in that piece that would warrant rage.

[Token]

Because in my experience, the only good American version of a British show was The Office. Doctor Who, even just a spin-off, isn't the sort of thing I want to see butchered. What's more, even if it does turn out to be totally awesome, Fox is airing it, and they have a history of screwing over awesome shows.

[Mike McC]

RTD will be working on itThat's reason enough alone to be scared.

[Regulus Tera]

There's hardly anything to be scared of since Torchwood was crap to begin with. [/speaking solely from his experience with season one; it may have improved since then].

Is this a reimagining of the franchise? I thought the Torchwood Institute was supposed to answer to the crown.

And as long as they don't touch Doctor Who (in before 1996 movie!), I'll be content.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I find it funny when it says that it may feature the characters from the original series, seeing as how most of them are now dead, and Jack's in space.

I mean really, this doesn't even make any sense, why is there even a Torchwood in America anyway, it's a British organisation? Unless it's Torchwood 4 that's somehow rematerialised in the states.

Really I think the best thing to do is just stick your fingers in your ears and go "LA LA LA LA!!", until this goes away, which won't be long since, yeah, Fox.

And this is from someone who actually liked Torchwood.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

If the US can run its spying agencies all over the world, why can't the British?

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Because that's not how Torchwood works. It was set up to safeguard the British isles and to aquire alien tech for "The British Empire".

There were 4 Torchwood bases; TW1 was London, based inside Canary Wharf, which was built to reach a dimesional tear in the sky, TW2 was in Scotland, presumably on the site of the original Torchwood Manor, TW3 was located on the Rift in Cardif, and was more of a lightly staffed observation post watching the Rift for any technology that fell through and TW4 has.... dissapeared. We're not sure where it was originally based, but seeing as the other 3 sites were each in a different country within Britain it's likely that TW4 was somewhere in Ireland.

[Archbio]

I find it funny when it says that it may feature the characters from the original series, seeing as how most of them are now dead, and Jack's in space.

I mean really, this doesn't even make any sense, why is there even a Torchwood in America anyway, it's a British organisation? Unless it's Torchwood 4 that's somehow rematerialised in the states.

Isn't this (and experience of other American versions of stuff) the kind of thing that should make you think that it's not a sequel or spin-off at all, but rather a self-contained relocalization of the original concept? It's the same characters, but they're all from the USA. Torchwood is an American institution founded by, like, Benjamin Franklin, and has always been. Generally it'll be something that will seem like the unnecessary product of an assumed American incapacity to be open to cultural productions from the rest of the world, even if it's in english.

Not that a Torchwood branch in the USA couldn't be made to fit the original concept, considering the unsettling references to the Empire.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Because that's not how Torchwood works. It was set up to safeguard the British isles and to aquire alien tech for "The British Empire".



Surely the best way to do this is to have bases all over the world surely. Having all your bases in Britain would be stupid.

The CIA doesn't have all its bases in America you know.

Like what if the aliens land in the US? How you going to acquire all their tech for the British empire then? What if the US are cutting deals with aliens to blow up Britain as the final blow of the revolutionary war? What if Britain gets shifted through time and space to some null dimension where they can't get themselves back and someone needs to bring Britain back from the dead zone? Fuck, some alien race levels Britain every other week. If I was Torchwood that would be the last place I would put my bases.

[Aerozord]

you know, nothing in that article says it will be set in the US. I abmit its likely they will but so far there is nothing saying this. I mean what does it really matter, in the series dont they go everywhere? who cares where HQ is

[CABAL49]

in a different country within Britain it's likely that TW4 was somewhere in Ireland.

For my grandfather's sake, I must request that you refer to it as Northern Ireland. Sorry, this is a stigma my family hasn't gotten over.

Also, Britain was where it was founded, so the first teams are most likely going to be located there. As time goes on it would make sense that the organization would spread.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Yes, and seeing as there were only ever 4 cells, and the fact that 2 of them are completely destroyed and another is missing I doubt there's going to be much expansion going on in the organisation. So either it's Torchwood 4 that's reapeared in the states or Captain Jack randomly decided to return to earth and restart operations in the states, the latter of which is a stupid idea that would ruin Jacks whole purpose of leaving in the first place while the former would be such a tenous connection to the series you might as well not even call it Torchwood any more.

I just don't see the point of this, especially since Childeren of Earth had such a good ending, with a proper touch of finality to the whole show.

[Aerozord]

I thought this was gonna be a reboot, and thus previous continuity was a non-issue

[Kim]

As I haven't watched Torchwood, I think I could probably be more than okay with this if they got Nathan Fillion to play Captain Jack.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Why can't they just air the real Torchwood instead of spending money on a doomed remake? Are they just afraid of some of the more "controversial" elements pissing of the moral guardians? Its the 21st century, a few bisexuals on TV aren't going to corrupt the youth.

[Archbio]

Why can't they just air the real Torchwood instead of spending money on a doomed remake?

It's not American. I think it's as simple as that.

I always figured it was a variation on the old "the audience won't be able to relate" idea.

[bluestarultor]

It's not American. I think it's as simple as that.

I always figured it was a variation on the old "the audience won't be able to relate" idea.

It's a mite different given it's a Western nation that speaks the same language without any real barrier imposed by the accent.

Hell, look at all the other stuff we get that MUCH better suits that argument. Keeping Up Appearances, for one. That's about as British as Big Ben, with very little relatable to the common American masses. Unless you count Hyacinth's low-class family, or maybe just laughing at hoity-toity foreigners getting into trouble putting on airs. Or that one with the tailor shop. Very British, and has most of America ever BEEN to a tailor?

Yet somehow, a Doctor Who spin-off is unrelatable? Not that I've ever seen the original, but if it's anything like its parent series, there's enough sci-fi action that they could be speaking with accents from around the globe and it wouldn't even be inappropriate, much less distracting.

[Archbio]

Yet somehow, a Doctor Who spin-off is unrelatable?

I'm just saying that's probably the thought process, not that it was valid.

[Token]

I thought this was gonna be a reboot, and thus previous continuity was a non-issue

The thing that really worries me is that if this is a reboot, and for some reason it does well, Fox might think "Hey, maybe we should reboot Doctor Who as well.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

That is not funny. I can ride a unicycle and juggle at the same time while telling jokes. I know funny and that is certainly not funny.

[Mike McC]

The thing that really worries me is that if this is a reboot, and for some reason it does well, Fox might think "Hey, maybe we should reboot Doctor Who as well.They already tried, in 1996.

They failed.

[MFD]

I just finished organizing my thoughts (http://foxedblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/torchwood-us.html) on this today. To wit: It could be OK, but it'll probably be X-Files redux and already similar to Fringe, set in NYC and no gay.