seriously ten

Created by Russell T Davies, who masterminded the Doctor Who revival, Torchwood is an action-packed, adrenalin-fuelled new series

Separate from the government, outside the police, beyond the United Nations, Torchwood sets its own rules. Led by the enigmatic, ever-watchful Captain Jack Harkness, the Torchwood team delves into the unknown and fights the impossible. Fans of Doctor Who will already be familiar with Captain Jack, the dashing American serviceman who turned out to be a rogue Time Agent. Alongside Captain Jack is Gwen. Initially an outsider, her first meeting with the team sparks a burning curiosity to get to the truth, throwing her into an unfamiliar but exciting world. Clear and instinctive, she understands people and is, at times, the group?s conscience. But can she completely separate herself from her normal life?

Second in command to Captain Jack is the super-intelligent and intense Suzie Costello, a hard-working hardware specialist who has devoted her life to understanding the strange alien devices under her control. The rest of the bold and passionate team is made up of medic Owen Harper, young, charming and hedonistic, but utterly brilliant; reserved Toshiko Sato who specialises in computers, surveillance and all things technical; and Ianto Jones who cleans up after the team, gets them everywhere on time and is far more important than his receptionist?s role suggests.

Part CSI, part X-Files, Torchwood is the team we would all love to be part of, where excitement comes before morality and the rules are made as you go along.

Russell T Davies Creator, Lead Writer And Executive Producer Describe The Show

The Torchwood team is a small group of cops and investigators who use alien technology in a very real world. All the bits of future technology that fall to Earth are captured, scavenged, plundered by the Government, and Torchwood find ways to use them. A very British operation, away from the prying eyes of America and the UN . Everyone who works for Torchwood is young, under 35. Some say that?s because it?s a new science. Others say it's because they die young.It's bleak, brutally funny, full of all the sex and swearing that usually gets cut from sci-fi. And the sci-fi is very 'real'. Few alien creatures in themselves ? though if they appear, they're not the Moxx of Balhoon, they're nightmarish and savage and profoundly strange. There's minimal CGI, with the occasional blow-out to take people by surprise. But it should feel different to the usual sci-fi  tuff ? this show doesn?t need gorgeous spaceships, it needs to manipulate the textureof the picture, as Jacob's Ladder once did, to frighten in all sorts of new ways.

The whole show picks up that feel ? rough, wild, with a hefty dose of Shameless. And with that shows sense of humour! Reflected in the scripts as well ? The X Files meets This Life. The series consists of one-off stories ? using alien tech to investigate human crimes; to investigate alien happenings amongst ordinary people; and to research new alien devices in themselves. But stories about the central characters are continuous throughout ? affairs between team members, traitors, sinister bosses, the mis-use of their powers, and then even more affairs ? so that the 13 episodes have a shape and an arc. The Torchwood team first appear in Doctor Who, and spin off into this series ? though the link isn?t too heavy, since this is for a very different audience.

A dark, clever, wild, crime/sci-fi paranoid thriller cop-show. What else is television for!?