Torchwood

Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. A spin-off of the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, it aired from 2006 to 2011. The show shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from BBC Three to BBC Two to BBC One, and acquiring American financing in its fourth series when it became a co-production of BBC One and Starz. Torchwood is aimed at adults and older teenagers, in contrast to Doctor Whos target audience of both adults and children. As well as science fiction, the show explores a number of themes, including existentialism, LGBTQ+ identity, and human corruptibility.

Torchwood follows the exploits of a small team of alien-hunters who make up the Cardiff-based, fictional Torchwood Institute, which deals mainly with investigating incidents involving extraterrestrials. Its central character is Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), an immortal con-man from the distant future; Jack originally appeared in the 2005 series of Doctor Who. The initial main cast of the series consisted of Gareth David-Lloyd, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori, and Eve Myles. Their characters are specialists for the Torchwood team, often tracking down aliens and defending the planet from alien and human threats. In its first two series, the show uses a time rift in Cardiff as its primary plot generator, accounting for the unusual preponderance of alien beings in Cardiff. In the third and fourth series, Torchwood operate as fugitives. Gorman and Mori's characters were written out of the story at the end of the second series. Recurring actor Kai Owen was promoted to the main cast in series three, in which David-Lloyd was written out. Subsequently, American actors Mekhi Phifer, Alexa Havins and Bill Pullman joined the cast of the show for its fourth series.