For Better or Werts : TV Worth Watching

WEIRD & WILD: Captain Jack, pre-'Torchwood'

While Torchwood fans wait for in-production Season 3 to premiere on BBC America, we can time-trip back to the introduction of John Barrowman's hot ambisexual hero, Captain Jack Harkness.

Doctor Who (Tuesday noon-4 p.m., Sci Fi) introduced the character back in 2005, during the first season that ace writer Russell T. Davies reimagined the 1960s family fantasy fave by employing the adult wit of actor Christopher Eccleston (otherwise known on these shores as Claude, the invisible Heroes villain; or is he?).

Captain Jack arrived in a multi-episode arc to tantalize the Doctor's human companion, Rose (Billie Piper, otherwise known on these shores for Showtime's The Secret Diary of a Call Girl or PBS' Masterpiece outing Mansfield Park) -- and to exhibit the hots for the Doctor himself. Also to try to help save the galaxy, of course, again, one more time.

But the thrill of Torchwood really comes in Barrowman's steamy, sassy, sorrowful performance as the undying 51st century loner who wishes he could just find the right girl, or guy, or other sentient being, to help him recover from all that weekly alien-battling action.

His beginnings are a bit less noble, as revealed in Tuesday's four Doctor Who repeats, which take place during World War II's Nazi bombings of Britain, then fast-forward to yet another futuristic adventure with the dastardly robot Daleks. It's juicy, breezy fun -- yet carries more bite than you'd expect. Davies' work is delicious that way.

2 Comments

Tarot said:

Claude isn't a villain. He was shot for protecting someone from the corrupt Company. That's not the act of a villain. A villain would have sold out whomever to save his own hide. Also, although he survives, Claude doesn't bother exacting revenge, not even on the former friend who betrayed and shot him.

September 9, 2008 8:16 AM

Jon88 said:

BBC 4 is running a "Torchwood" radio drama on Wednesday (9:15 ET, and available in the archive for a week thereafter).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/afternoon_play.shtml

Big Bang Day: Torchwood - Lost Souls

By Joseph Lidster

Torchwood go to Geneva where Martha Jones, ex-time traveller, is now working as a doctor for a UNIT task force at the world’s biggest physics laboratory, CERN. Deep in an underground tunnel, a giant particle accelerator is about to be activated for the first time. But something strange is happening. Scientists are hearing voices and collapsing with a strange illness. Is something lurking in the underground tunnel? Do the dead ever really stay dead?

September 9, 2008 9:35 AM

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Diane Werts has been glued to the tube since she can remember, growing up in a household where the TV came on first thing in the morning and stayed on till bedtime and beyond. She worked for the USA Film Festival, then for The Dallas Morning News writing about everything from Shakespeare to macrame art to rock music (and has the hearing loss to prove it). She moved to New York's Newsday to edit their glossy TV magazine, then returned to writing about television, specializing in its stranger permutations. She's a past president of the Television Critics Association.

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