A new series of Torchwood episodes is coming to Starz next summer.
The sci-fi drama, from BBC Worldwide Productions, was a hit for BBC America, which ran three U.K.-style series, lastly in 2009 the five-hour Torchwood: Children of Earth.
The next installment, 10 episodes, will debut on Liberty Media-owned Starz and on BBC One in the United Kingdom at about the same time next year.
BBC America said in a statement: "Torchwood was a great success on BBCA. Now it's to be made in the U.S., our colleagues at BBC Worldwide Productions have done a good job finding a home for the next iteration of the series to build on that success."
The show will be a co-production of Starz, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Worldwide, and BBC Worldwide will distribute the show outside the U.S., the companies said. The deal was jointly announced by Starz, LLC CEO Chris Albrecht and BBC Worldwide Productions EVP Jane Tranter.
The show, even in its basic-cable form, had adult themes: its star, John Barrowman as Capt. Jack Harkness (pictured left), is gay and his character was bisexual but was last seen in a relationship with a man. Co-star Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), who also returns to the cast, was seen "snogging" women from time to time, as well. Starz and the BBC said in a release the new series "will allow Davies and his writing team to tell a more explosive and global story, one that takes advantage of the unlimited narrative opportunities of a premium television service like Starz."
Other cast members, "reflecting the more international scope of the series," will be announced soon, according to the release.
A spinoff of the Davies's new iteration of Doctor Who -- of which Torchwood is an anagram -- the show, which has been set mostly in Cardiff, Wales, is about a team of specialists in dealing with alien threats to the planet.
Starz, under former HBO chief Albrecht, has been investing more in original series, notably Spartacus: Blood and Sand. It will air this summer The Pillars of the Earth, based on a Ken Follett novel, and is co-producing with GK-TV a new version of Camelot, a series to air in early 2011.
