Russell T. Davies Goes Epic With Torchwood: Children of Earth

Source: By CHRIS JANCELEWICZ

Posted: 07/17/09 11:42AM

Filed Under: Television

Russell T. Davies. (Space)

Behind every transcendent work of art is a mastermind, a selective genius who understands their genre's specific nuances and trademarks. In the world of science-fiction television, that man has been Russell T. Davies, since he took the helm of decades-defunct sci-fi favourite Doctor Who and steered it back into popular acclaim.

His latest successful sci-fi venture is Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, a show about a mysterious group of nerdy-yet-attractive secret agents who seek out alien life forms in order to save humanity. Founded by Queen Victoria in 1879, the fictional institute of Torchwood begins to use their findings to restore the British Empire to its former glory. To those ends, the organization acquires and engineers alien technology by any means deemed necessary. Davies created Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who) as a slightly darker science-fiction show with a much sexier edge. Two seasons in, the series features a bisexual main character, openly gay love scenes, and straight-forward, cutting, humourous dialogue.

The third season of Torchwood - dubbed Torchwood: Children of Earth - deviates radically from the previous years. Instead of the usual 13-episode blocks, the show was presented on the UK's BBC1 as a mini-series, and it aired on five consecutive nights. Not only did it perform spectacularly, it downed the internet in some places (too much chatter about the show) and surpassed viewership expectations, even beating UK fan-favourite soap opera EastEnders. Now, Children of Earth is coming to Canada, airing on the Space Network from July 20-24, every night at 10 pm.

Children of Earth finds the Torchwood crew attempting to deal with a strange event happening across the world: children everywhere are suddenly stopping and screaming, for no apparent reason. Captain Harkness and his Torchwood team eventually discover the screams are alien transmissions from Species 456, a diabolical extra-terrestrial race that wants human children. Torchwood aims to find out why.

I watched 'Children of Earth' - it was incredible!

I bet you had a laugh with it.

It's the one thing that I didn't do. It was actually quite sad.

[Laughs] It's always better when it tugs at the heartstrings.

I understand you did a lot of work with children, and in children's programming. Do you think that contributed to your imagination and creativity?

I think, in a way, all writers are just big kids. When you're a kid, everybody invents stories in school. You play World War II games, or you're Doctor Who vs. the Daleks, or you're playing Star Trek. When you're 11, 12, and 13, kids stop playing games and start kissing and arguing and things like that. I think somehow the writers keep going. No one ever tells us to stop.

Where do your ideas come from?

I never know how to answer that, because it's more like the other way around. I have these ideas all the time, that's why I'm a writer. It's not my choice to think these things. I could be working in a garage, or a bakery, or a school, and I would still be having these stories. I knew from an early age that I couldn't just have these ideas and not do anything with them. What a nice life, I can actually make a living out of this!

You seem to have a firm grasp on what people will like. Your characters are especially intense.

Well, I think that's the heart of everything really. A great high-concept story, a great notion...there's just no point unless you care about the people going through it. Not just the same old faces, either. Not just white middle-class families, the whole range of human experience and sexuality.

Torchwood main cast: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd. (Space)

You're definitely a groundbreaker with the LGBT community. Sci-fi fans never see any gay characters in sci-fi (well, not really) until 'Torchwood'.

I'm so lucky that I created Queer as Folk ten years ago. The moment I walk into a television studio, they know I'm going to put gay and lesbian characters, because that's what I do. I don't do it on purpose: I do it because that's my life. There's no grandstanding. It's not like I'm getting on a soapbox anymore. I think the key is that I do it with a sense of humour. Often, gay characters are done very seriously, and thus very boring. I'd rather chuck this stuff up in the air and have a laugh with it. There might be one or two people complaining, but I'm never going to get on with them, am I? They're never going to watch my stuff, I'm never going to go 'round their house and spend time with them, so why bother with them?

You're very adept at casting leading men: Christopher Eccelston, David Tennant, John Barrowman. Is there any particular science to your selection?

No, casting is really such a quirky, unpredictable thing. People rarely talk about the relationship between writers and actors, because it's almost like a magic spell. There's almost nothing to talk about. The show is nothing without them, and a writer is nothing without them. You meet someone like John [Barrowman] and you just know - he was the only person we auditioned for Captain Jack [Harkness, the main character of Torchwood]. We targeted him actually. When he first walked in, boy did we have a laugh. To have him, an openly gay actor playing an openly bisexual hero is such a rare and mad opportunity. It's been the time of our lives, really.

What was the inspiration behind 'Children of Earth'? It's a very scary concept.

I wanted it to be a big event. In Britain, it was moving to BBC1, the biggest channel in the country. They wanted to show it across the week, from Monday to Friday. The stakes were high, and I knew I had to make a big impact. I also wanted it to work on an international level, but again, relating it to the domestic story as well - the government, the police, the Army. Then there's America, the United Nations...that's the world, but you're still talking to people in their living rooms, their kitchens. Ordinary lives being changed by huge decisions.

Big events like all the children being affected, and the invasion of Species 456...truly exciting and terrifying. Writ large, yes. But I think I had something to say about the world, and I think that's the point.

Kids scream in 'Torchwood: Children of Earth'. (Space)

Did you choose children as the victims deliberately?

Quite frankly, I didn't put too much thought into it. I simply had the idea. I was just like, what if we have all the children suddenly stop and scream? Now, with hindsight, I look back and think, well that was a great idea. I don't think it would have been as frightening if I said every man should stop and scream. Children are precious and vulnerable, and dramatically represent the innocent.

Did the BBC think they were taking a risk with the bleak 'Children of Earth'?

They didn't worry about the bleakness for a second. I think the bigger risk was running it from Monday to Friday. We all took a big breath with that one, and it worked! That week, we had the biggest audiences that we've ever had, and we were the number one drama for the entire week. We won every single night.

Will you miss 'Doctor Who', now that you're moving on from it?

Enormously. They're gearing up for their next season right now, and I'm slightly turning into their stalker. I keep emailing them, 'How are you?' 'How's it going?' 'What's happening?' I can't wait to be a viewer, to sit back and watch their series. It's the first Doctor Who series that I get to watch for the first time in 21 years.

'Children of Earth' had the feeling of a series ender. How is 'Torchwood' supposed to return to its alien-of-the-week format?

I'm not sure it will ever return to its alien-of-the-week format. I think we've proven that the show can work really well with this continuous-story format. I think we've set a new benchmark for Torchwood. Let's be honest, though: if they gave me a pile of money and tell me to make a monster-of-the-week, I would go and do it. But the story never ends. It looks like an ending because it was the perfect ending to the story, but I could easily write the next five scenes of what happens next. I won't run out of stories, not until the day I die.

'Torchwood: Children of Earth' airs on the Space Network from July 20-24, every night at 10 pm.

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