Good News For Torchwood Fans

Speculation on the new Torchwood cast has been rife over the last few weeks, but overall pretty dull. However, this week’s news has quelled a lot of my fears about the future of Torchwood. Regular readers will have read of my concern about the merger with American Starz Entertainment and my worries that Torchwood is about to come a bit of caricature of itself. We've got some thrilling news about much of the behind the scenes production crew, featuring a fair few Sci-Fi veterans and some of Joss Whedon's personal favourites. Any fan of Sci-Fi has heard of Joss Whedon, the legend behind greats such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and the new torchwood production team features people who have worked on some of his biggest shows.

The production designer has been announced to be Greg Melton. Most recently he did some stunning work on The Walking Dead, a program I've been enjoying recently with my flat mates. It's taken all the joys of a great zombie movie, and broken them up into TV form to make some absolutely unmissable drama. He's also worked on My Name Is Earl, suggesting he'll be able to bring some comedic flair to Torchwood, and the classic horror show Tales from the Crypt, so expect some stunning new scary aliens. Making sure that not too much gets changed; he'll be joined by the original Torchwood designer Ed Thomas.

Costumes are being taken care of by a woman who Joss Whedon must really love. She's worked on a lot of his best work, with Dollhouse, Doctor Horrible, Angel and Firefly under her belt. She'll be joined by Todd McIntosh on makeup, who has done stunning work on shows such as Pushing Daisies, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Memoirs of a Geisha.

The series is being produced by Kelly Manners who has worked on several of Joss's biggest hits like Dollhouse, Angel and Buffy. She'll be joined by UK producer Brian Minchin, a regular script editor on Doctor Who and Torchwood, who moves up from producing The Sarah Jane Adventures. He has also been assistant director on Torchwood before, along with several doctor who documentaries.

The first episode is set to be directed by Bharat Nalluri, who will hopefully be keeping Torchwood British after his work on big UK shows like Life on Mars, Hustle and Spooks.

Of course, all these will be overseen by executive producer Russell T Davies. Let's hope this fab new team will be able to successfully merge all the best of UK and American Sci-Fi to give us one great show. Good Luck to them.

If the doctor was stuck in the 18th century...

If you've read any of my blogs before you have picked up on the odd little hint that I am quite fond of a little show called Doctor Who? What's that? Obsessive? Maybe.

I first heard about the BBC3 version Casanova this term, from a friend who shares my appreciation of David Tennant's fine acting skills (read: pretty eyes). I heard about it again whilst reading Russell T. Davis's a writer’s tale, and once more while Tumbling... "That’s it", I decided, "I must watch it". So I have.

Casanova IS The Doctor. If I'd been sent to this show and given the preamble that The Doctor was stuck in 18th century Italy, without a companion, or his Tardis, so had renamed himself Casanova and was just going wait it out, I would full on believe it. I know David Tennant is a very capable actor, and can play more than the one part, as seen in Blackpool, and St Trinians 2 and Harry Potter. Likewise, Russell T. Davis is fully capable of writing more than the one character. The 9th doctor is completely different from the 10th. And yet Casanova is completely the same as The Doctor... even down to the way he says "Well..." (You know the way I mean :D)

I'd definitely recommend Casanova to grown up fans of Doctor Who (not one for the kids! Some very grown up scenes), even if they are not usually fans of period drama. It's written in a very modern way to make the characters very relatable to a current audience. Sort of reminds me of the way Desperate Romantics was written... but I think I'm the only person in the world who watched that. What can I say, Aiden Turner rox my sox.

P.S. Just watched the last episode. One of the characters says "Still running?" And I couldn't help but laugh my socks off. Can't be a coincidence. Will investigate further.