Torchwood: A blue-print for the television spin-off

Almost every other show in the contemporary television landscape appears to be a spin-off; everywhere you look, there’s a Better Call Saul here and a House of the Dragon there. However, to describe these series as mere embellishments of their parent programme would be regressive. In many respects, these examples are more successful than the series they spawned from. But while many shows only receive one spin-off, across over sixty years, Doctor Who has received a multitude. This article will focus on arguably the most popular and, in my opinion, the best: Torchwood.

For those unfamiliar, Torchwood stars John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness – introduced in Doctor Who’s 2005 series – who leads the Torchwood Institute, with Eve Myles’s Gwen Cooper serving as the audience surrogate. I first properly encountered Torchwood during the early days of lockdown in 2020, when I suddenly had far more time on my hands.

For years, Torchwood had seemed impenetrable – edgy, dark, adult, and thus a far cry from the comforting familiarity of Doctor Who. Such descriptors are often bandied around to describe Torchwood and, while it may seem cliché, they are precisely what Torchwood starts out as. The first series in particular is a gratuitously mature watch, featuring storylines involving rape, cannibalism, and extreme violence. While many spin-offs are often tonally faithful to the show they derive from, Torchwood is evidently attempting to diverge as far from Doctor Who as possible.

Torchwood’s second season is a far more stable ship

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Torchwood’s tonal distance from Doctor Who, makes it unique in a way which many spin-offs are not. Furthermore, when it works, Torchwood’s adult content really works. For example, ‘Countrycide’, receiving immediate bonus points for its title, imitates many a horror movie staple, while broadening the Whoniverse with its adult content.

Yet, Torchwood also matures over time. Two episodes particularly from the latter half of season one – ‘Out of Time’ and ‘Captain Jack Harkness’ – are spearheaded by a tragic emotional impetus that make intelligent use of the programme’s adult certificate, shedding the stereotypical yet paradoxically immature symbols of adulthood which the show had initially relied upon.

Continuing the trend of maturation, Torchwood’s second season is a far more stable ship. Its episodes and character arcs are now built around meaningful emotional quandaries which are developed episode-by-episode. Furthermore, previously frustrating characters are treated with complexity and investment.

Take Owen Harper, for example. In the first series, the character is an obtuse womaniser and serves little purpose beyond complicating Gwen’s entry into Torchwood. In the second season, the character blossoms significantly, leading to a genuinely profound exit by the series’ end. Fan favourite Ianto Jones also receives a much more prominent role in season two, helping to flesh out a balanced ensemble cast.

‘Children of Earth’ is an often uncomfortably prescient watch

Season two’s episodes are also of a markedly higher quality. Even throwaway episodes, like ‘Something Borrowed’, which recounts Gwen’s wedding, possess an undeniable energy that renders them valuable when compared with the shows more serious offerings.

Particular praise should be given to Torchwood’s third season, subtitled ‘Children of Earth’. Despite being broadcast on weekdays during the summer – in what is often considered a graveyard slot for British television – the series was a unanimous success.

As every child on Earth ominously announces, ‘we are coming’, Russell T Davies crafts a magnificent narrative that refutes the criticisms levelled at the series. While ‘Children of Earth’ is an often uncomfortably prescient watch, it is also astonishingly intimate. The primary cast now only consists of three core members, while a broader range of characters is introduced to explore family and class as crisis unfolds.

While Torchwood is, like the programme from which it spawned, generically science-fiction, ‘Children of Earth’ is blisteringly real, and this is perhaps what makes it not only the greatest slice of the series, but also one of the greatest narratives that the Whoniverse has ever produced. If there’s one part of Torchwood you should watch, it’s this.

‘Miracle Day’ struggles to sustain ‘Children of Earth’s’ heady, momentous rapidity

Despite the apparent finality of ‘Children of Earth’, a fourth and final series, subtitled ‘Miracle Day’, followed in 2011 and is perhaps the quintessential example of the maxim; less if more. A collaboration between the BBC and American production company Starz, the global narrative immediately shears away the characteristic intimacy that made Torchwood so potently successful. Unfortunately, ‘Miracle Day’ is also simply not as compelling as ‘Children of Earth’ in its over-arching narrative.

The season’s premise is that all across the globe, people are unable to die. From here the show explores the socio-political ramifications of this alteration – a strong idea in concept. However, with twice as many episodes to its season, ‘Miracle Day’ struggles to sustain ‘Children of Earth’s’ heady, momentous rapidity and runs out of steam by its final few episodes.

Furthermore, the disastrous finale is simply the result of poor production; it sets up various plot threads that are ultimately left unravelled and even ends on an objectively bizarre cliffhanger. While not necessarily bad, ‘Miracle Day’ is perhaps a warning; it is so distanced from Torchwood’s first season that it suggests that programmes can only change so far.

At its heights, Torchwood is a show that rivals the absolute best of its parent programme but, unfortunately, these peaks are sandwiched between varying dribs and drabs. However, with its thoroughly unique identity, Torchwood is still a fascinating and engaging piece of entertainment – even in the modern television landscape of spin-off ubiquity.