Torchwood Series 2 trailer (spoilers)

[Dartzap]

Youtube

Eh, James Marsters might be nifty They may be some sort of hope for this series. Right? Right?

[Lord Woodlouse]

Youtube

Eh, James Marsters might be nifty They may be some sort of hope for this series. Right? Right?

I predict the show will still be full of pulpy illogical nonsense, but it will be improved on last season. I suspect Stark will still loathe it, but I reckon I'll enjoy it.

I'm resigned to it being deeply flawed though.

[Zor]

So far, looks alright. Allthough i can't wait until Primeval, Season II gets it's trailer up.

Zor

[Admiral Valdemar]

So far, looks alright. Allthough i can't wait until Primeval, Season II gets it's trailer up.

Zor

I agree with our simple friend here. Primeval is full of copious win. TW is rather a damp squib of fail which would only be better if Jack was on his own killing aliens a plenty.

[Big Orange]

Primeval had a far superior first season and I wish they showed The Sarah Jane Adventures on BBC Two instead, but Torchwood could get much better this year (although I'm cautiously optimistic).

When is Torchwood shown this month?

[Stark]

Is it on already? I thought th new seasons started in March or sumthin?
Hey wow it is January. Oh... dear?

Primeval wasn't a fantastic show, but it was pretty damn successful as a cold-start scifi show and had some good performances and cool ideas. Torchwood by comparison had plenty of advantages and was nowhere near as good. I hear there's alien invaders now, so maybe they'll focus on the fucking point of the show and not how everyone is an emotionally crippled psycho.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I disagree. Primeval was highly entertaining and suffered, at most, one bad episode. TW, on the other hand, was unbearable after the first few and I don't hold much hope for season two.

TW has nowhere to go, unlike Primeval which can quite easily be very good with an overarching storyline and not pretending to be The X-Files Lite + Buffy.

[Stark]

You misunderstand: it was a great show. I just feel it was just less polished than more experienced shows. It certainly succeeded at similar themes far, far better than Torchwood. It actually left cool questions at the end too, not 'sapphire beam of pure love defeats satan'.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Ah, I get you. That'd indeed be because it was a pilot and ITV is often apprehensive about such things, especially when critics were billing it as a DW killer, which would likely raise the bar (well, not given season 3).

From the brief preview of season two, it looks like we get a nice mix of dinos and prehistoric beasts again, but there's no revealing of the main plot line, naturally. They can certainly make it more than a monster-of-the-week show like DW is becoming and with no cop out ending like Jesus Who.

[Stark]

Yeah, that's what impressed me most really: a bunch of random actors (lol S Club 7 lol), an interesting technobabble idea and a first-stab team and they made a really cool show. A bit rough around the edges at times, but consistently good and with great writing touches like 'haha I just said what I needed to get you to do what I wanted lol' and 'no, we totall will let her go to jail for a crime she didn't commit. OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT LOL'.

Instead of y'know, a van with TORCHWOOD written on the side and blue neons everywhere. And I liked their death-squad guy. 'Oh you mean I can shoot this one? Huzzah!'

[Stark]

Oh man lame update on Torchwood - the new Time Agent, right, get this... his name is 'Captian John'.

Seriously.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Primeval can get away with any campy stuff far easier, because when it's not being totally serious that's OK. TW, however, is often taking itself too seriously and should be relegated to teen drama like Hollyoaks, but with guns and aliens. Yes, you are gritty because you had a Species alien copy that killed with orgasms (that's how I wanna go!) and said fuck and bollocks in the first five minutes to scare off kids whose dumb parents let them watch.

To be honest, initially I wasn't going to watch Primeval because it was ITV and they exclusively do lame soaps and reality TV nowadays (and fucking sofa ads). I'm glad I gave it a go.

The team is infinitely more fun, competent and easy on the eye (S Club 7 girly in panties = win) than Jack's lot. If he had any sense, he'd garrotte them in their sleep and work for the Home Office finding portals that look like crystal save points from some videogame and find new and interesting animals. And kill them.

[Stark]

It's even a built-in dodgey writing cover too: you've got a paleontologist, a lizard botherer, a nerd, a misc hunter dood and some public servant. Who is suprised when they get shit wrong? People agreeing with the Dr guy's insane theories is part of the charm: they don't know how crazy he sounds, they're just public servants!

Not like the ubbber leet hax0rs and brilliant medical doctors and immortal Time Agent dudes from TW who should really know better.

I didn't even give Primeval a second thought until it was mentioned here. I own it on DVD and all now.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Sadly, I keep forgetting to get the DVD online, I should have got it in the sales, least it's a bargain and not some £50 set or some such with crap I don't want in the extras.

And the Home Office doesn't always listen to Cutter. They often think he's a whackjob when they have to go and shoot dinos eating people in their basements.

It helps having a devious bitch of an ex-wife to be the main nemesis too, whereas TW had... nothing. Oh, wait, the finale had that personified god who could jump in and out of timelines with ease. Too bad he got bored and left.

That big beastie he conjured up didn't even fuck over everything as bad as former wife bitch from hell and her "HAHA! I've screwed your whole timeline up. That Civil Servant skirt you liked? She doesn't exist.". Far better than alimony payments.

[Stark]

'He's been erased from existence!'
'Then how come we still remember him?'
'Remember who?'
'I don't remember.'

TW was too busy being self-impressed by it's zomg teh s3x bullshit to have an actual point. I mean, what's Stongehenge-Face doing in the shop of the guy who can teleport through time with his mind? Oh she hasn't come out yet? Oh well, nevermind, Cardiff is a safe town...

[Admiral Valdemar]

As soon as someone pointed out Gwen's, shall we say, dental issues, I think a little bit of me died inside. It did detract from her sole purpose of being the bumbling idiot who sets every plot in motion though.

It'd be nice if the rest of TW didn't, uh, disappear and all. I expect UNIT to make an appearance though, given the foreshadowing last season and the hints in the DW teaser this past Xmas special.

Can't Cutter's wife erase them from the timeline too?

[NecronLord]

The sad thing is... Making TW good, should be like falling off a log.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The sad thing is... Making TW good, should be like falling off a log.

Charlie Brooker proved that's not as easy as it sounds. Falling off a log, I mean.

[Big Orange]

That'd indeed be because it was a pilot and ITV is often apprehensive about such things, especially when critics were billing it as a DW killer, which would likely raise the bar (well, not given season 3).

You don't like Season Three either? Rather crappy Dalek two parter and "Last of the Time Lords" falling apart in the last 15 minutes aside, I don't think Season Three was that awful, but Season Four this year could be the real test.

I doubt Primeval will over take Doctor Who but it will probably blow Torchwood out of the water again, even if Torchwood tidied up most of it's glaring flaws from it's shambling first season and has slightly better stories this year.

And I wouldn't say Primeval is that rough around the edges either - there are some hints of being on a lowish budget and there are instances of dodgey CGI, but the cinematography is very good and most of the CGI creatures seem to be in order (I really liked that man eating bat-thing).

[Stark]

I don't really mean the actual video: the CGI is fine (easily better than most of S1 DW's CGI blending) and the budget doesn't visibly interfere. It just doesn't seem as confident or tight as it could be.

And S3 had some of the best shit ever and some of the worst shit ever. I can only really sit through about 40% of it without throwing shit at the TV, which isn't a good sign.

[Ford Prefect]

And S3 had some of the best shit ever and some of the worst shit ever. I can only really sit through about 40% of it without throwing shit at the TV, which isn't a good sign.

It's like with the Daleks in New York. That was really very ordinary, yet everytime I think of Caan having that heart to heart with Mr Slick Hair, I go 'hey, that was actual Dalek character development, and it wasn't lame. Holy fuck'. Then they dropped the ball entirely, destroyed Sec as a character, completely destroyed their chance to do something really different with the Daleks, had the other Daleks totally divorce themselves from what it meant to be a part of the Cult of Skarro (they were intended to be free-thinkers and revolutionaries, so why were they so concerned with vilating Dalek tradition? THAT WAS WHAT THEY WERE CREATED FOR), and, to top it all off, got rid of Caan totally badass deep voice.

Okay, that's not really the best example of bits being good, and other bits bad. It's more like 'this could have been really awesome shit yo' and then the writer stabbing himself in the eye with his pen and attempting to complete the story through his mind-wrenching pain. I keep on thinking about what could have been with the Cult, and then what we got. It's depressing.

[Hillary]

And S3 had some of the best shit ever and some of the worst shit ever. I can only really sit through about 40% of it without throwing shit at the TV, which isn't a good sign.

Is it a coincidence that the best stuff in series three (Human Nature, Family of something or other, Blink and Utopia) were all about the Doctor's relationship with someone other than Martha (i.e. the matron and Jack) or didn't have the two of them in it much at all?

[Crazedwraith]

I never saw series 1, having no telly in Uni accommodation, This yeah I've a rented house with a telly and that trailers has Spike swanning around with a pair of guns. I will watch if at all possible.

[Admiral Valdemar]

S3 was a mix. While I didn't dislike it, I didn't enjoy it overall as much as S1 for instance. The ending to the three-part finale was totally fucked up with yet ANOTHER deus ex machina to save Earth, yet again, from being invaded (only Simm Master actually managed something, even if the Doc was just being an ass and letting billions die to make a point and give Martha a gap year).

If you could extract all the rubbish from the three seasons and simply mix all the awesome to make a triple bill that has no sour points, that would be far better. The bad episodes tend to taint the view when they're really bad.

[Dartzap]

Digital Spy

Torchwood star Kai Owen has promised that the second season is a vast improvement on its debut year.

Owen, whose role as Gwen Cooper's reliable boyfriend Rhys will be expanded in future episodes, told icWales: "I hope it draws the crowds it deserves because it is bigger, better, classier and slicker. They have cut down on the swearing and the sex but it’s still adult, still violent, and the scripts are better, too."

The Doctor Who spin-off, which moves to BBC2 when it returns later this month, has reaped record ratings on BBC America. "I think they are enjoying the Britishness of it, even the Welshness of it," commented Owen, "because Cardiff looks fantastic and there is just nothing like it being made in this country."

Less sex and swearing? Sounds like they heard some of the complaints then, heh.