American Torchwood? Yes, Please!

If I could kiss all the executives over at Starz, I would...despite the very real possibility of a harassment suit. Not only are they rocking two of my favorite shows on television right now, Spartacus and Party Down, but they have also just finalized a deal with BBC One to air a fourth season of Torchwood. If I didn't have an easily-wrinkled, A-line dress on right now, this would be the moment where I got down on my knees and thanked one of my many gods, Russell T. Davies, for working to get us even more hours of alien insanity with the Torchwood team. We'll get a 10-episode season, which will air in the summer of 2011. Woo and hoo, I say.

Of course, the "team" right now is but a shadow of it's former self, what with the death of three out of the five main characters. With Owen, Toshiko and Ianto (*sob*) dead, there are more than a couple positions to fill for the new series. Like every other Torchwood fan, the first question that came to mind when rumor of this possible Torchwood renewal starting flitting around cyberspace, sans TARDIS, was "Will John Barrowman play Captain Jack?". I'm not ashamed to say, if the answer to that question had been "Nope, he's moving on to sing and dance besides Neil Patrick Harris on Broadway", I would have cursed my gods, then immediately proceeded to a Broadway ticket line. But as we now know, John Barrowman will indeed fill the oh-so-sexy shoes of Captain Jack Harkness once again. Sad for Broadway, wonderful news for Captain Jack fans. Eve Myles will also return as Gwen Cooper. So the two primary roles are safe and filled and we'll hopefully soon hear about the casting of the rest of the team.

Also, if you were worried about how an American version of the show might affect the *ahem* sexuality of Captain Jack, your worrying is for naught. BBC executives promise that Jack will be as he has always been; a lover of males, females and aliens alike. "Capt. Jack's sexuality is certainly not going to change. Whether it's a man, woman or alien, Capt. Jack is a gloriously sexually active being." Amen to that, sista! Seriously though, it would be a complete travesty to change even the smallest aspect of John Barrowman's legendary character, but a change in that particular department would have been unacceptable. One of the best things about Capt. Jack is his uncanny penchant towards flirting with anyone or anything that crosses his path. It is one of the most attractive and unique aspects of that character, not to mention the catalyst for most of the comic relief in the show.

Click on over to my favorite TV blogger, Maureen Ryan, to get more scoop on the pick-up of the show. It's to have an "international" vibe. Hummm, sounds fancy. And you know what else is fancy, Mr. and Mrs. Show Producers, Georgia is fancy. Particularly the Atlanta area. It's very fancy and even better, it's cheap to shoot there. Imagine that? *hinthintnudgenudge*

Ramble, Ramble, Doctor Who, Ramble

I know I have been pretty absent lately. Maybe it's because I just haven't felt like writing. Maybe it's because I've been spending all my free time discovering that falling for Battlestar Galactica was NOT, in fact, the last step into total geekdom, but that instead the BBC cult series called Doctor Who claims that honor.

It's not like there's a absence of things to blog about. There's the recent, polarizing Lost series finale. There's my constant worry over what I'll fill all my free time with now that all my shows are off the air until this fall. Oh, and as I mentioned above, there's my last step into what I will now refer to as Level 1,000,000 Geekdom; my surrender to Doctor Who and consequently my surrender to the lovely, charming and wholly miraculous David Tennant. So, to keep this blog afloat, some bullet points. Because honestly, who doesn't love bullet points?

• Let's start with Lost and let's be sweet and simple. I loved it. Yes, I'm one of those. Call it denial or whatever you wish but I thought the finale, though not totally flawless, was still a great finale. I didn't watch it and immediately regret spending six years of my life theorizing and discussing the grand and oftentimes headache-causing mythology of show. Even if the finale did end up being less than great to me, I would still look upon the last Lost years as mind-blowing, eye-opening and generally a fun and educating experience. For The End, the writers obviously made the decision to sideline the Island mythology and instead focus on the characters, which, yes, did leave the fans with many Dharma notebooks full of unanswered questions but left us also with an intensely emotionally and spiritual finale. I know many fans feel differently, but that was a satisfying choice for me. Lost changed the face of television. It opened a door for epic series, showing the networks that high-concept shows can and will attract a large and devoted audience, depending on the quality of the writing behind the show.




• Legend of the Seeker was cancelled. The series finale aired last weekend and I could not be more disappointed with the decision to end the series. For a syndicated show, it was extremely well done. The beautiful location (New Zealand) and the magnificently choreographed fight scenes were only a couple of the great aspects of the show. The main actors were brilliant in their roles and watching Craig Horner slowly become the Richard we know and love from the books was always thrilling. Of all the cancelled shows, this one hit me the hardest. I believe it's a horrible waste of potential, seeing as there were several more books of material to work through.





• On the other hand, Chuck was renewed!!! This was actually very unexpected and I could not be more happy. Chuck is one of my favorite shows and Zachary Levi is slowing becoming one of my favorite actors to follow and watch. He's been touring around Europe all summer and his pictures and videos from the trip and absolutely priceless. The fact that he is obviously a huge nerd only makes me adore him all the more.




• Now, to the most important and life-changing news. Doctor Who. Yup. I fight and I fight and I fight against it but there's just no helping it. I'm not just a Level 1 nerd. I am so far past that, it's not even funny. Akin to my slow acceptance of BSG, I finally gave in and watched the first episode of Doctor Who. And then I watched the next one. And the next one. And so on. I love it. I loved Christopher Eccleston as the first Doctor. So much so that when David Tennant took over the role for Season 2, I was not happy. Not at all. Of course, it took all of two episodes to change my mind. He was brilliant and wonderful and he made the character his own in such a way that when I stopped watching, even for a couple hours, I missed him. The character of the Doctor is such a intoxicating idea, as if Russell T. Davies looked into the heart of a regular, everyday woman and saw the one man that would be worth an eternity (literally) of trouble and sacrifice. And then he wrote him out and the Doctor was created. And then he decided to create a different version of that same man, and Captain Jack Harkness was created. I watched Torchwood before I saw even one episode of Doctor Who, so when John Barrowman started his run as Captain Jack in the first season of Doctor Who, it was the first time that I realized I could actually miss a television character. Watching him being introduced for the first time was like a soothing balm to my soul, something I didn't even realized I needed until that moment. There's just no other way to describe it. This is such an amazing show, filled with such unique and layered characters and focused so keenly on our subconscious fears and desires it feels like the writers know you better than you know yourself. Like Battlestar, the alien worlds and impossible technologies, the spaceships and the time-travel, are not what the show focuses on and they are not the aspects that keep you watching. This is a show about being human, from the point of view of an ageless alien. And it's REALLY good. I dare you to try it and not love it.






• On a similar note and due to my adoration of David Tennant, I have been working my way through the BBC TV adaptation of Hamlet. Working my through, because it's a 3 hour modern production so it's taking me awhile to get through it. Nevertheless, it's breathtaking and groundbreaking. David Tennant is mesmerizing in his turn as Hamlet and I've never enjoyed watching this tragedy as much as I am now, with Tennant starring. I've always been a big Shakespeare fan, but this version certainly takes that fandom to new levels. I'm now of the opinion that David Tennant should play in EVERY Shakespeare play. In fact, he should just play every character in every play. No joking.

Well, all this David Tennant talk is making me miss watching Doctor Who, and seeing as I still have half of the fourth season to go through, I think I'll get back to it. The lord of daydreams is calling my name...