The question has been asked, is Torchwood coming back? Or is Torchwood cancelled? The official answer is no, it’s not cancelled, but they have an odd way of saying that. Then again, it’s not on anyone’s renewal slate either.
According to Russell T Davies, the show in a “nice limbo” and says that it can come back in ten or twenty years… which seems a bit excessive and with that kind of time frame, it does seem like cancelled might be the more appropriate word. (Or this is that sense of humor no one gets.)
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If you recall, the latest spin to air from Davies was Torchwood: Miracle Day on Starz and BBC. (But I guess the image to the left might have been a prediction!) It brought back all of our popular characters and added a few new ones to the fray. And in and of itself, the franchise was a fun series.
But things started changing that, in my opinion, didn’t help the series.
When their headquarters was destroyed in a previous season, that was big. But I didn’t feel like they came back from that event in a grand enough fashion. It crippled the org and then they seem to become outlaws.
When Captain Jack’s man died, that too was huge. But left a gap in the crew.
When Torchwood became less of a help and more of a wanted fugitive group in the franchise’s story, I don’t think that helped either.
But I think Miracle Day did the most damage of all. It was an innovative story line to say the least, where people stopped dying and that event took a look at how that impacted the planet’s resources. It seemed like an OMG, original premise.
But this was a 10-episode series that felt like it was being dragged out and thus, got slow and old. The story told in the 10 episodes, could have very easily been condensed down to 5 or 6 episodes, and we would have had a pretty exciting, fast moving plot.
Instead, viewers and fans were dragged through the muddle of a story being hashed out way too much.
And the lack of overall enthusiasm (AKA TV Ratings) spelled the franchise’s doom. If it had done well enough, Davies would have stayed on board or we’d be hearing about a new season.
Which is a shame. Because their third season series, the 5-episode season titled Children of Earth, was, at the time, some of the most moving and best television I had ever seen. And to this day, will rank in my top-10 of best story lines on TV. I highly recommend it, whether you’re a franchise fan or not! (I wasn’t and became one because of this mini-series.)
But there you have it… it was a 5-episode season. The story was packed in there and delivered promptly. Not dragged out like Miracle Day was.
On Amazon: Torchwood Series
The next time Torchwood comes back, (and hopefully sooner than later), all they need to do is be less greedy, and crank out an excellent, 5-episode season and let the TV consumer fan drool for more after that. Just like it did after Children of Earth.
So for now, despite the words used to spin or soothe the fan, it does seem as if Torchwood is cancelled. Because in my book, a ten-year hiatus amounts to a TV show being cancelled.
What do you think?
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About Bruce Simmons
I've been writing newsletters since 1999. Of late, I've been focusing on the entertainment consumer angle on mostly the sci-fi, fantasy and action genres of TV, movies and books.
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