BBC Three Ignites "Torchwood"

BBC Three has announced that it will make Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood the "centerpiece" of its fall schedule, launching the "sci fi crime thriller" series in October. No plans are currently in place to import the series Stateside, though our neighbors to the north will be able to catch Torchwood on CBC.

Spinning off of one of Doctor Who's most memorable characters, Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Torchwood will be set in present day Cardiff (that's Wales to you lot) and will surround a group of covert criminal investigators called the Torchwood Institute, an organization commissioned by Queen Victoria and tasked with investigating alien technology. The team will be headquartered at The Hub, located beneath Cardiff Bay, the site of the TARDIS' landing in "Boom Town" and the location of the rift discussed in "The Unquiet Dead."

Created by current Doctor Who writer/producer Russell T. Davies, Torchwood stars John Barrowman as bisexual time traveller/con man Jack Harkness and Eve Myles as former police officer Gwen Cooper. Astute Doctor Who fans may remember Myles from the Who episode "The Unquiet Dead," where she played the role of the similarly named Gwyneth. (Whether Gwen and Gwyneth are the same character has yet to be confirmed, but the fact that Myles' previous Who episode dealt with the rift adds credence to that theory.)

Joining Barrowman and Myles are Bleak House's Burn Gorman, who will play Torchwood Institute medic Owen Harper, and Absolutely Fabulous' Naoko Mori, who will reprise the role of Toshiko Sato from the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London."

Doctor Who writer/producer Russell T. Davies has written the first of thirteen episodes. He'll be joined on the series by writers Chris Chibnall, co-creator of Life on Mars, and P.J. Hammond, creator of 1980s cult classic Sapphire & Steel (which starred Mori's Absolutely Fabulous castmate Joanna Lumley), among others.

Torchwood is, of course, a clever anagram of Doctor Who and was originally used as a codename for the current incarnation of Doctor Who, before taking on a life of its own during the series.

I can only hope that we here in the States will eventually be lucky enough to watch Torchwood, though I'm still waiting for an official announcement about when Sci-Fi will air the second (sadly, Eccleston-free) season of Doctor Who.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Rock Star: Supernova (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC; 8-10 pm); Blue Collar TV/Blue Collar TV (WB); The One: Making a Music Star (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX); America's Next Top Model (UPN)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); One Tree Hill (WB); Lost (ABC); So You Think You Can Dance (FOX); Eve/Half and Half (UPN)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order (NBC); Primetime (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

10 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.

Is it just me or is anyone else still upset that aristocratic vampire Malan was auf wiedersehen'd last week? It just didn't seem fair, though that dress did look like a withered old log. Tune in tonight for another new episode of my new reality fix.