Russell Davies on TORCHWOOD

russelltdaviesSFX is featuring an interview with creator/producer Russell T. Davies on the upcoming BBC / Starz co-production of TORCHWOOD.
Davies assured readers that the new international version of TORCHWOOD will reamin true to the often dark and adult-oriented DOCTOR WHO spin-off, though this season will be largely set in America and countries other than the UK.

“For faithful viewers you’ll see the same people in the same world, following on. Though it also starts from scratch, because there’s a brand new Starz audience there sitting waiting to be scooped up, new viewers coming to it.
But I restarted DOCTOR WHO in 2005 from scratch, so I know what I’m doing. I did it with Children Of Earth, actually—that practically tripled TORCHWOOD’s audience, and no one said to me that they were lost.
So it’s a new starting point and yet… as a faithful viewer you do get that awful feeling when something reboots or revamps that you’re not comfortable anymore, and there’s none of that. It’s still Gwen, it’s still Jack, and hopefully more. You’ll feel very comfortable with it.
And there’s great new American characters coming into it. Bear in mind, of course, Captain Jack, he’s American as well, so it doesn’t seem quite as alien, I think, as if you suddenly introduced American characters into Emmerdale (a long-running rural soap opera or something!”

Davies has written the first episode, and may possibly write others, though he says he’s happy being primarily the showrunner.

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