Torchwood and Doctor Who Come To Comic Con

In a very small press room on Saturday afternoon, I was privileged enough to talk with Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, Euros Lyn and David Tennant. The group split their time between two tables, providing various insights into both Torchwood: Children of Earth and Planet of the Dead.

Julie Gardner / BBC

My table had the pleasure of speaking with Gardner and Tennant first, and after a few minutes quelling Tennant’s nerves about the Doctor Who panel the next day, we finally got down to business. The first question asked was about the reason behind the decision for four specials instead of a traditional season for Doctor Who. The answer was in part to give new Executive Producer Steve Moffat time to get his season ready, and in part to make the stories bigger.

Next question asked about the gap between when the show airs on BBC 1 and when it is brought over to BBC America. That segued into when the next special Waters of Mars is airing (late Autumn) and the dates of the last two specials.

Any questions about the fifth series were artfully dodged by Gardner and Tennant, mostly because they have no connection to the show. They are just as excited as all of us about the new series, though (the first set of photos had been released before Comic Con).

Tennant, after being asked about how the transition process was going, said that he doesn’t think people will miss him as The Doctor once Matt Smith has been seen by audiences for a few episodes. He hasn’t ruled out coming back for a special some time, but he doesn’t have plans for that right now. The last we will see of Tennant as The Doctor will be in The Sarah Jane Adventures, airing before the finale special around Christmastime.

Back to the body of work, a question was asked about which time in the show Tennant has enjoyed the most. He can’t answer, much like he “can’t choose children.” Gardner went on to talk about the differences between working at The Globe or on a sound stage.

Some of the discussion about shooting led into questions about how filming Planet of the Dead went – not well, as the bus was mangled en route and a sand storm.  Tennant kept describing his hair as Tina Turner or Mad Max in Beyond Thunderdome.

The final question related to the show asked about Tennant’s relationship with Matt Smith. While we all wanted to know what sort of advice Tennant passed along, Tennant went on to talk about how it’s more about creating your own man in the same general role.

Switching guests, we next talked to Russell T. Davies, Executive Producer and Head Writer, and Euros Lyn, director, both about the Who franchise and Torchwood.

Russell T. Davis / BBC

The table started out saying that “no one here was upset by the Torchwood finale.” Without beating around the bush, Davies started to talk about the decision to kill off one character in this series. Lyn chimed in to say that “great drama has death in it” and without it, they were “selling the audience short.”

Another asked if it was a big decision to kill off three-fifths of the characters between the end of Series Two and Series three. While fans have had difficulty coming to terms with the death in Series Three, Davies commented that the death wasn’t “a heroic death”, which might explain more of the discontent from fans.

Talk of a Torchwood Series Four is still up in the air, so there are no definite plans about the show coming back, though the BBC was delighted with the numbers.

When asked about how much of Jack’s storyline might be addressed in Doctor Who, Davies remained mum and told us to just sit back and watch.

The coincidence of some actors coming back between previous episodes of the show and now, is just that, the producers claimed. Davies does find it hard to go back to the “monster of the week” pattern that Torchwood had previously after the tone of Children of Earth.

The last three episodes of Doctor Who will air between November and Christmas, according to Davies, with the final part of the specials to be seventy-five minutes (compared to the normal sixty). The exact dates for the final two specials are unknown,  though it sounds like one part will air Christmas Day and the other sometime after.

There aren’t any stories Davies wasn’t able to tell–in part because he knew when he was leaving.

Regarding the Entertainment Weekly interview he’d done, he didn’t mean disrespect to Supernatural, because he loves the show.