Torchwood and Dr. Who

[kriadydragon]

I've been checking out some of earlier Torchwood episodes now that it's on BBC. Definitely not really my thing (the first ep I saw was an alien who came to earth to have sex) but it's something to watch when I need to veg. But I find myself endlessly amazed with how different it is from Dr. Who in personality. Where as Dr. Who verges on almost being a family show (probably not something you'd want the younger kids to watch, depending on how easily scared they are), Torchwood verges on being like an HBO version of Dr. Who.

And I can't help but find that fascinating, especially considering the Sara Jane spinoff which, from what I've seen, really is a family show. I'm used to spinoffs being a copy of the mother show only with different characters, a different location and a slightly different way of doing things, but no different in terms of level of violence, swearing, sex, etc.

It's like Torchwood became the means for doing what couldn't be done on Dr. Who - that is sex, blood, swears and a lot more dark. Now I'm curious if that was intentional (the creators wanted to play with more ideas that can only be done with aliens and time travel, but can't be done with Dr. Who because it isn't "that type of show") or a matter of they could so they did.

Either way, it's interesting.

Out of curiosity, were there any episodes where the Doctor made a cameo appearance? Even if it was brief?

Comments

[karri-kln1671.livejournal.com]

Martha appeared in an episode, but other than that, I don't think Dr. Who ever crossed over like he did on Sara Jane -- which is in keeping with the general feeling that, when writing Torchwood, the writers regularly forgot that it was part of the Dr. Who universe, whereas Dr. Who regularly acknowledged Torchwood (both in mentioning it and in having Torchwood characters crossover.) I've always thought it a bit obnoxious that things didn't flow both ways between those two shows, but I think that's because the team would have been rather
superfluous with the Doctor turning up and righting things, and the most recent storyline would never have been tolerated at all by the Doctor. ;)

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

That's disappointing :( It would have been interesting for the Doctor to have dropped in, not necessarily to help out or anything but just for a little Doctor and Jack interaction. But at the same time it's understandable. Torchwood crosses easily over into Dr. Who but I can't see Dr. Who crossing over as easily with Torchwood. Still, it would have been interesting since Torchwood was started with the Doctor in mind as the enemy.

[x-erikah-x.livejournal.com]

RTD said that the Doctor would never appear in Torchwood because of the nature of the show. Many young viewers follow the Doctor everywhere and they would have to tone down the episode too much to make it approapriate for them and then how would parents explain they can't watch any other ep of it? He promised TW could always appear in DW but the other way around is impossible and would never happen. There are several mentions of him throughout the series though, including very big one in Miracle Day.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, that makes sense. It's so interesting that they decided to go so hardcore with TW when DW you can pretty much called the cleanest show out there.

The Miracle Day mention made me all kinds of giddy as I was wondering if TW had "detached itself" - so to speak - from the DW universe all together.