Captain Jack’s Back: BBCA Gets ‘Torchwood’ 3

Third Season of Sci-Fi Drama On Its Way

By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 7/24/2008 6:26:00 PM

BBC America has acquired the rights to air a new, third season of its top show, the science-fiction drama Torchwood, in 2009, network officials said Thursday at the Comic-Con convention in San Diego.

The show, a more grown-up spinoff of the current version of Doctor Who, will air on BBC America shortly after it’s seen in an attention-getting five-night stunt on BBC 1 in the United Kingdom, network officials said. In the British style, the season is only five one-hour episodes long, all of which will be seen on consecutive nights on BBC 1 as the series has progressed up the ladder each season after its start on BBC 3.

It hasn’t been decided how BBC America will schedule the show, executive vice president of communications Jo Petherbridge said. “We literally signed the deal today,” she said, so details remain to be worked out.

The intent is for Torchwood—created and driven by Russell T Davies (Queer as Folk), who also oversees Doctor Who—to continue for a fourth season and beyond on BBC 1, she said.

In one significant switch, Petherbridge said BBC America will hold the high-definition rights for the third season. Those rights had been sold to Mark Cuban’s HD Net for the first two seasons. BBC America has said it plans to launch a HD channel next year.

As described by the network, the dark, wild and sexy Torchwood follows the adventures of a team of investigators who use scavenged alien technology to solve present day crime—both human and alien. Led by the enigmatic Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), the Torchwood team operates separately from the government, outside the police and beyond the United Nations. Torchwood sets its own rules, delving into the unknown and fighting the impossible. It is set in Cardiff, Wales.

Richard De Croce, SVP of programming at BBC Worldwide America, said in a release: “Torchwood really represents the essence of the channel—it’s sexy, action packed and a little bit subversive. Clearly our viewers love it as much as we do.”