Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

The Hollywood Reporter says RTD is developing an American version of Torchwood for Fox. The article goes further suggesting that they might even develop an American Doctor Who sometime in the future.

oh god, no! I'M American and I still shiver at that idea! Remember the whole half-human thing? and how everything in America seems to end up as a romance?( not that new Who isn't already heading that way...) Leave Who and Torchwood to the British! THEY know how to write those stories! I mean, we CAN do a lot of good things, but Doctor Who isn't one of them.

I bet you we Canadians could do a fair show of it. Oh, no wait.... CBC? What am I thinking?

And there already was an American version of Torchwood. It was called "The X-Files".

Well, there is the fact that since this is Fox, they will likely cancel the show before it finishes the first season anyway.

The bit about RTD doing Doctor Who in the US while SM does Doctor Who in the UK sounds like something the writer just threw in there. I don't buy it for moment.

As for remaking Torchwood in the US ... I could see that happening. Won't last more than a year or one and half <g> but it could make sense that Torchwood, taking a more global view again, opens offices in other countries.

Any US version is likely to pale quite a bit in comparison with Children of Earth, which was a fantastic piece ... but if RTD is actually doing season 1(series 1) of Torchwood over again - well, it's not like anyone could do a worse job than the original crew. That was a low as those stories could go.

I think RTD would love a chance to fix up Torchwood - and we've already seen with Children of Earth what he could do with the dismal start it was given(tho it was definately improving the second year) and despite our expectations, brought it up to the level of a decent drama that could wrench an audience and cause debates on morals at multiple levels ... it might be fun to see him tackle that year and give us the season 1 story level he wanted to start at.

If it actually makes it to the TV, this is the one retake I would actually look forward to.

I'll bet you that any American version of Torchwood would have a WHOLE LOT LESS of the arbitrary intersexual hookups going on. I mean, the guys could still hold hands and kiss and all that, but they'd be cousins or brothers or something in an ass-backward, asenine attempt to make it seem wholesome to the Self-Righteous South.

... did I say that out loud?

Yes. Yes, I believe you did.

It's true, though - American tv is ridiculously homophobic. And not that it's necessarily something I look for in a show, but Jack's "omnisexuality" is kind of a key part of his character. I suppose they could do the show without Jack, but "Torchwood" without Jack is just... wrong. Even more wrong than putting it on American tv.

It could go either way - US tv usually has at least one gay character introduced in most shows. Tho sometimes they drop them (disappointingly in White Collar, and not just for political reasons - I thought the minor character Rachel was more dynamic than the new probe they replaced her with in the next ep. Who also isnt interested in Neil, so why change the part? -*yes it could have been the first actor left for something else between the pilot and the first ep and they thought replacing her with another homosexual character would be too pat ... but it looked funny.*) Wasn't RTD something to do with getting Queer Eye For The Straight Guy on US tv? (no idea, just a vague memory for his Queer As Folks in UK and the other show getting in some articles together)

RTD will probably keep Jack bi, if nothing else, esp if he gets to keep the actor. But the sex scenes all over will have to be toned down - US tv doesn't allow that on mainstream. And honestly, I'm of the opinion that showing a lot of sex means the writers have run out of ideas and are filling time with something to distract the 12-14yr olds, so I dont mind if the censors force them to fill a scene with dialogue and story instead

OK, valid. Children of Earth being a case in point...

Has there been any "official" word on what RTD wants/plans to do next? It doesn't seem like he'd want to move to American tv to me (though I suppose it might somehow be seen as a "step up" (*retch*) from the BBC, with a larger potential audience and all, but honestly...). Why leave when you've clawed your way to the top? Shouldn't he be able to get the green light on just about any project he wants to do now? (Totally guessing/projecting, here - I honestly know little-to-nothing about the way things work in the UK.)

What I get from the article is that RTD is writing the script and serving as Executive Producer, but I expect the actual show running will probably fall to an American team.



Yeah, he's reached the top of the food chain in the UK. Which puts him in a very good position when he goes to Hollywood looking to get other projects developed. My guess is he's looking to become a major producer both in the UK and Hollywood, and developing a successful American remake of Torchwood is probably the first step.

RTD, Julie (executive producers of Doctor Who) have already moved to LA. They made the commentary from her LA appartment, near where David was, hoping to get him to squeeze in with them.
Much as I hate to give credit with a paper named something like Hollywood Reporter, I think we can take the basic seeds of the story, that Fox is talking Torchwood USA with RTD, as the truth. Whether it ends up being actually filmed as pilot, or will even be a Torchwood show or just another 'round up spooky or scifi stuff' show that veered off from that talk, is anyone's guess in the world of Hollywood wheeling and dealing.

Ugh. Well... I guess I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that whatever comes of Torchwood doesn't turn into something disastrous.

lol - well, it did the first time, but when Russell finally took the whole thing over, we still got Children of Earth out of it. I'm curious as to what he'd try with it next.

And I dont see RTD giving the showrunner job to anyone else if he's serious about making Torchwood here <g>

Speaking of CoE, M'reen, I notice that as I type, you have 456 posts (oooOOOooh!)...

I guess somehow I had it in my head that RTD had more creative input on the first two series than just "created by" credit... Huh. Now I'll have to go back and research that some more.


[Edit: according to imdb, RTD wrote the very first episode of series 1, but nothing else till CoE. My bad.]

I am replier by nature <g> but no I hadn't noticed the post number

The pilot ep had it's flaws - big ones, that I never got over -but it was an okay ep over all. The next ep tho, shows why you shouldnt let loose writers/directors who are still fantasizing about doing their Star Trek 1960s script, with lots of sex scenes to distract people from how tired and trite the story is, what there is of it.

RTD was too busy with other projects to ride herd on them, which is too bad. You can see he's just better at cheesy fun and drama than the rest of them