SciFifty

The BBC has been having a spot of trouble lately with what is perceived as prurient content.

A few weeks ago Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross went way over the line on their show.  They left lewd messages on the phone of 78 year old actor Andrew Sachs.  A joke about bestiality caused a ruckus because it was aired in the family hour.
 
Now we have the case of John Barrowman "exposing" himself on BBC one. Just how do you "expose" yourself on the radio?  I listened to the show in question last night. "Switch" with co-hosts Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw, presents itself as the place to go for whats new and exciting. The show was pleasant with little talk, unless a guest was present, and a variety of pop music.
 
Enter John Barrowman, and almost the first words spoken to him where "We understand you are famous for  taking your willy out in public, is this going to happen today?" A more conservative show might have asked about his new single or Torchwood Series3... but when the opening salvo involves the word "willy," I don't think they were expecting anything else.        
 
The studio was maned by adults who seemed to be having a great time. Mr. Barrowman is famous for his love of life and people and fun. Maybe it went a little too far, but he immediately apologized. Subject closed.
 
The BBC on the other hand gets one or two complaints and issues a public apology. Why?  For not backing up their people, creating a tempest in a teapot, or now seeing smut lurking behind every joke?
 
I had the pleasure of briefly meeting Mr. Barrowman at Comic-Con in San Diego this year and watched him interact with hundreds of fans. He was pleasant, welcoming and charming to one and all, old and young, male and female.

He might still have a lot of the little boy still in his soul, but isn't that a gift from God?

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Well, I finally have reached a point where I feel I can sit down and write something. I wrote that we were moving to Colorado, mission accomplished.

The physical facts of the move were somewhat daunting, two houses, one in Fla. the other Va. packed and shipped and arriving at the new house one on a Thursday, the next two days later on Saturday.
 
The furniture was a mere bagatelle, the unending horror was the procession of boxes, not one of which offered to unpack itself.  It then becomes a game of unpack, stack and the constant unanswered question of, "what the hell did I bring this for??"
 
I will, in a few months, have to go through all the closets to discover where I shoved everything. It is amazing the things that can get lost in transit, I will ponder for a long time why a collection of teapots that I have been assembling for many years, the kind of thing that is added to by family and friends over the years, didn't make it here. Lost somewhere between there and here, but each and every piece of my sci-fo and movie paraphernalia is already on display.
 
While I was devoting my life to unpacking boxes, breaking down boxes, and piling the emptys in the garage which of course cant be used for parking my car, things on the Torchwood front are finally in motion.
 
Judging from the previews I have seen, the miniseries will open with a bang, of the pyrotechnical variety. Torchwood is under attack and the Hub has been blown up. Our stalwarts are on the run and if they wanted to get my attention, they did. There is a new blue meanie in the form of a very forceful woman clad in black.

Continued in this vein and the five days of mini-series will fly by.  Also this week we learned that after next years four specials we will have a new Doctor Who.  David Tennant has decided that four is enough he was and is great in the role, but half of the excitement of Doctor Who has always been the anticipation of what horrible circumstance has led up to the regeneration, and who will be on the other end of the smoke and mirrors.

More to come...

Posted by webninny at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I would like to take this opportunity to say goodbye to the blog, "Totally Torchwood." This was one of the first blogs that I read and it inspired me to start blogging myself. Because of time constraints, the blogger has decided to call it a day. I, for one, will sorely miss checking every day for the latest Torchwood news.
 
Thank you very much for all your efforts.

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On June 21st, I blogged about Torchwood being a part of a program to celebrate the Cern Super Collider, well, the date has been set for September 10th.

The Torchwood drama will be part of an all day celebration broadcast by BBC Radio 4. The station will be broadcasting from inside the research facility in Geneva and will include interviews with scientists and enthusiasts as the facility tries to recreate the Big Bang aftermath.

The team hopes to receive insight into the origins and composition of the universe.

Posted by webninny at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gareth David-Lloyd was a proper gentleman at Comic-Con. He was just lovely, signing autographs for three days and taking the occasional photo upon request. Meeting him was truly a pleasure.

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“If it means the death of one person to save thousands... then boom, gone.”
- John Barrowman on the heroism of Captain Jack Harkness (view video)

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The first panel we saw today was Stan Lee and Grant Morrison. Can you believe it? An actual living legend in the flesh. There was some very amusing banter between the two - Morrison is reimagining some of Stan Lee's characters.

The next panel was Doctor Who. They don't empty the hall between panels, so by the time Doctor Who started, there were approximately 4,500 people screaming. The panel was composed of Julie Gardner and Steven Maffat. He is going to do a fantastic job on Doctor Who. Besides writing some of the scariest stuff ever, e.g. Blink, Maffat has a fantastic sense of humor. His anecdote about his interaction with Customs was hysterical. We also saw an extended coming attraction for the Christmas special.

Maffat left and John Barrowman leapt up on stage, onto a chair, and attempted to show us his bum. Closely followed by Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori. Don't worry about the show, folks. Julie Gardner is very enthusiastic about series three, saying it will be packed with action, put our friends in dangers they have never faced before, show us even more of Ianto, and amaze and surprise us us in general.

The question and answer period was great fun, with John misbehaving, Gareth keeping up quite nicely, and Naoko receiving a great response because of her character's death. But of course nothing is permanent in Torchwood. All of this was topped by John and Naoko singing a duet from Miss Saigon, in which they performed together years ago.

Posted by webninny at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

AfterElton.com served up a funny little deleted scene Wednesday.

In other news, rumors are swirling one of the Doctor's companions will be killed off in this weekend's series 4 finale. It's a long wait, folks.

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When I was a kid in Ireland, I lived in Dublin proper, so there were myriad options for entertainment – besides the obvious of just hanging around with your pals.

There were libraries, museums, theaters (especially at Christmas for Panto) and lots and lots of cinema.  Oh, and of course there was TV, but to quote my father, “not in my house until there is something on that silly box worthy of the eye strain.” So, my window to the outside world was radio.
 
Our radio choices were limited. We had RTE, Irish radio with lots of music and cultural shows (boringggg), AFN (Armed Forces Network) the go-to place for rock and roll, and the BBC with lots of drama, soap operas and news.
 
Now I have cable television with channels I haven’t even tried yet, AM/FM radio where I can get my rock fix on at least ten local channels, DVDs, iPods, etc., etc.

If you told me years ago I would tune into RTE by choice, I would have said you were daft. But I do listen now to keep up with the home ground, and I listen quite often to the BBC for world news and their shows; each day there is an afternoon play with short dramas of all types.
 
There’s a point to all of this: One of the BBC Radio plays this summer will feature Torchwood and all its usual suspects. The story will revolve around the opening of the world’s biggest particle accelerator in Cerne, Switzerland. What a fabulous way to bring science and sci-if together. As well as my memories of daily radio show, and love of Torchwood.

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In America we are used to a "Prime-Time Season" which guarantees twenty or so episodes of our favorite shows. In past years this would have been up to thirty, but the seasons are getting shorter even as I write. But I digress.

The first series of Torchwood was thirteen episodes, and ditto the second. This dearth of content left many people asking, "What the hay??" After waiting many moons, we get a press release from the Beep that next season will comprise five – count them – five episodes which will be shown over a one-week period.

Written by John Cleese and Claire Booth, Fawlty Towers is one of the funniest shows ever written. The series ran for a total of twelve episodes, six in series one and four years later, six episodes in series two. And the show taught me an important lesson – I prefer quality over quantity.

Whatever the reasons for a 5-episode Torchwood series, budgetary or pre-commitment of the players, judging by the shows already presented, I am willing to wait and see how this goes. And in case of serious withdrawal symptoms, there are always the existing episodes on ITunes , the Torchwood magazine, and for the truly geeky, (such as myself ), the trading cards.

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Russell T. Davies was honored with the Order of the British Empire, O.B.E., for his service to the field of drama.

Mr. Davies is the gentleman we need to thank for the latest incarnation of Doctor Who, for which he serves as lead writer and executive producer, and its spinoffs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

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Oh the time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things; Of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings – and conventions.

Most of my adult life I have been attending conventions and annual meetings for one reason or another. When my daughter was school aged, it was P.T.A and Girl Scouts which segued into business gatherings and for the last ten or twelve years, political conventions.

All of these gatherings required study and preparation to gain awareness of the issues involved. Truth be told, political conventions were probably the only events that provided any entertainment (intentional or not).

I now find myself actually eagerly awaiting a convention -- Comic-Con in San Diego. The name of the blog indicates my genre of choice, and of late I find myself enjoying all things Torchwood. Planning to attend, my daughter read that John Barrowman would be attending and had one of those eureka moments, what a great birthday gift for Mom!

As we live on the East Coast this is a costly venture, What if he doesn't show up, you ask? Have you looked at the guest list? Where else would you have consolation prizes of people such as Ray Bradbury, whose Fahrenheit 451 is one of my all time favorites? or Dean Koontz and his Odd series, or cartoonists Al Jaffe and Sergio Aragones? Or Jim Butcher of the Dresden Files?

It will be very nice if Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd are there, but if they don't show, my only problem will be deciding whom among the other fabulous guests to line up for first.

Posted by webninny at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Found this on the IMDB boards. They reference the moderator at the Doctor Who forum as the  source. At least we have a hint of context for the abbreviated series 3. Now we need an official statement from the BBC.

"Perhaps I can clarify something. The reason for the 5 episode Series 3 of Torchwood is basically budgetary. In January 2007 the BBC failed miserably to get the licence fee settlement it requested and planned for. Budget cuts have been made all over the place, and inevitably one of these is Upper Boat.

During the financial year 2007-8 there were 2 production teams working full time. This roughly equated to 9 months filming Doctor Who, 9 months filming Torchwood and 6 months filming SJA. For the financial year 2008-9 there will be just one team which will produce SJA (April - August), Torchwood (September - December) and Doctor Who (January - March).

The plan for 2009-10 is to go back to 2 teams, with a full Series 5 of Who and a full Series 4 of Torchwood, hopefully as well as SJA Series 3.

Owing to the enormous amount of spin-off merchandise etc, what the BBC have had to do is ensure that the programmes get made, whilst at the same time making more out of less. Therefore both Torchwood Series 3 and the Doctor Who 2009 Specials will be marketed as *event television*.""

Posted by webninny at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)