THE (ALMOST) UNDELETED

Both series are good, but I prefer Torchwood. Are these shows shown outside the UK?

Dr. Who can be seen on the SF Channel here. Its got a place of honor on that channel's anchor night, Friday evening. Torchwood has much lower visibility, being available only on BBC America. Its getting a lot of praises from critics, and seems popular too. Both get good ratings considering the networks they get aired on, and I pretty regularly see Torchwood ads on other networks.

CL, did you watch any of the older Dr. Who stuff?

Yeah, Torchwood is on BBCAmerica and Dr Who was on the SciFi channel.

I never got much into Dr Who, and I've heard that Torchwood is shite.

Ragabash is an old Dr. Who fan from way back. What do you think of the new one, Raggy?

I've seen the first 2 seasons of the new Dr. Who, good fun stuff. Torchwood was a bit weak at first but it gets better as the season progress'.

Rob

Haven't seen either, though I always wanted to check out the one season run of Dr. Who when Eccleston was the Doctor. I heard it was great.

Omphalos wrote:Ragabash is an old Dr. Who fan from way back. What do you think of the new one, Raggy?

I am a huge fan of the new Dr. Who and of Torchwood. Dr. Who preserves the heart of the older version of the show (equal parts whimsy and "playing-for-keeps"), while giving the Doctor a dark, nasty edge that wasn't really there before. I'm all for giving old childhood favorites new teeth.

Which is why I like Torchwood! It's like Dr. Who, except people drop the F-bomb, get drunk and have sex. It's refreshing to have themes we see every day as adults represented in a television series, but that's pretty much par for the course in most British shows. Also, there's only oblique references to the original source material (almost unheard of in most spinoffs). All in all, big thumbs up.

Oh, and I've seen all of it via highly illegal downloads from the intartubes.

Omphalos wrote: CL, did you watch any of the older Dr. Who stuff?

No, it was a bit before my time. It was on when I was a kid, but according to Wikipedia it was taken off air by the time I was 9.

It's on Saturday tea time on BBC1. Torchwood is usually on mid-week after 9.00pm on BBC3. Dr Who is OK, Torchwood is pretty good.

The last summer I lived at home (between graduating from high school and going off to State), I worked at my uncle's truck stop pumping gas, changing oil and doing various other odd jobs (like painting the building...a lot of fun that was. Especially the evening my cousins and I left off with a very anti-Tolkienesque sentiment clearly visible to everyone coming off the highway: "DIE EL F!").

Anyway...I'd drag in home and take a quick shower and fix myself a heaping helping of salad—all I felt like eating, for some reason—and plop down in front of the TV and watch Dr. Who on PBS. It was the fourth series, with Tom Baker as the Doctor.

I haven't seen any of the other series. And know not this Torchwood of which ye speak.

I can't say I'm a fan of Torchwood. Russell T Davies clearly wants to be Joss Whedon, but since I could never understand the appeal of Buffy, I don't see what's so good about Torchwood. The characters are unlikeable, the plots are silly, and having snog each other and anything else that moves is...

Having said that, the second episode of the second series (broadcast last Wednesday) wasn't bad. It actually had a plot, and one of the characters had a real story-arc.

Ragabash wrote:

Omphalos wrote:Ragabash is an old Dr. Who fan from way back. What do you think of the new one, Raggy?

I am a huge fan of the new Dr. Who and of Torchwood. Dr. Who preserves the heart of the older version of the show (equal parts whimsy and "playing-for-keeps"), while giving the Doctor a dark, nasty edge that wasn't really there before. I'm all for giving old childhood favorites new teeth.

Which is why I like Torchwood! It's like Dr. Who, except people drop the F-bomb, get drunk and have sex. It's refreshing to have themes we see every day as adults represented in a television series, but that's pretty much par for the course in most British shows. Also, there's only oblique references to the original source material (almost unheard of in most spinoffs). All in all, big thumbs up.

I'm an old Dr. Who fan from back in the day, but I haven't seen any of the new ones. They still have K9?

tanzeelat wrote:I can't say I'm a fan of Torchwood. Russell T Davies clearly wants to be Joss Whedon, but since I could never understand the appeal of Buffy, I don't see what's so good about Torchwood. The characters are unlikeable, the plots are silly, and having snog each other and anything else that moves is...

Having said that, the second episode of the second series (broadcast last Wednesday) wasn't bad. It actually had a plot, and one of the characters had a real story-arc.

I think the characters are deliberately unlikeable. The gay snogging is such a bore, if you're going to poof it up, at least do it properly. Captain Jack is hot for a guy in his 40s though, I'd definitely do him.

Tleilax Master B wrote:

Ragabash wrote:

Omphalos wrote:Ragabash is an old Dr. Who fan from way back. What do you think of the new one, Raggy?

I am a huge fan of the new Dr. Who and of Torchwood. Dr. Who preserves the heart of the older version of the show (equal parts whimsy and "playing-for-keeps"), while giving the Doctor a dark, nasty edge that wasn't really there before. I'm all for giving old childhood favorites new teeth.

Which is why I like Torchwood! It's like Dr. Who, except people drop the F-bomb, get drunk and have sex. It's refreshing to have themes we see every day as adults represented in a television series, but that's pretty much par for the course in most British shows. Also, there's only oblique references to the original source material (almost unheard of in most spinoffs). All in all, big thumbs up.

I'm an old Dr. Who fan from back in the day, but I haven't seen any of the new ones. They still have K9?

The metal dog turned up for one episode. It was shit.

chanilover wrote:

tanzeelat wrote:I can't say I'm a fan of Torchwood. Russell T Davies clearly wants to be Joss Whedon, but since I could never understand the appeal of Buffy, I don't see what's so good about Torchwood. The characters are unlikeable, the plots are silly, and having snog each other and anything else that moves is...

Having said that, the second episode of the second series (broadcast last Wednesday) wasn't bad. It actually had a plot, and one of the characters had a real story-arc.

I think the characters are deliberately unlikeable. The gay snogging is such a bore, if you're going to poof it up, at least do it properly. Captain Jack is hot for a guy in his 40s though, I'd definitely do him.

I know several hetero men who would do Captain Jack.

Rob

chanilover wrote:

tanzeelat wrote:I can't say I'm a fan of Torchwood. Russell T Davies clearly wants to be Joss Whedon, but since I could never understand the appeal of Buffy, I don't see what's so good about Torchwood. The characters are unlikeable, the plots are silly, and having snog each other and anything else that moves is...

Having said that, the second episode of the second series (broadcast last Wednesday) wasn't bad. It actually had a plot, and one of the characters had a real story-arc.

I think the characters are deliberately unlikeable. The gay snogging is such a bore, if you're going to poof it up, at least do it properly. Captain Jack is hot for a guy in his 40s though, I'd definitely do him.

Agreed, the poofery in that show seems trumped up and solely done to be edgy.