Science Fiction World

Creator of Torchwood, Russell T. Davies, recently spoke to Collider about Torchwood's fourth season, Torchwood: The New World,  which this time round is being produced by the BBC and the US premium cable network Starz. Although he kept the plot of the new ten part series close to his chest, he revealed some more details about the setting, timeline and cast.

At the end of Torchwood's third season, Torchwood: Children of the Earth, (SPOLIER ALERT!) the cast had been whittled down to just two members: former Police Officer Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) who disappeared with her husband and child, and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), the original team's industructable, long-lived leader.

"Children of Earth left things almost formatless," said Davies. "They had no base, no authority and no mission, a lot of the time, except to survive. I thought that was very successful, and that is very much the template of the new Torchwood. They're not working for the government. They're not working for the police. They're very much underground and trying to survive. They've taken extreme actions. They have friends, they have enemies and they have betrayals. I love that. What you saw in Children of Earth is the format now."

The new season will pick up two years after the events in Torchwood: Children of the Earth.

"The script isn't that specific about it, but I think that two-year gap feels right."

When asked about casting he revealed that:

"We've got one script and very concrete storylines, so we know there are new regulars, new occasional guest stars and relatives of those characters."

Doesn't look like James Marsters will be back though:

"We love him!" he said. "It could happen, but I'd have to say it's not going to happen. I don't want to raise any false hopes of people expecting that lovely man back on our screen. He's so in-demand, he'll be back in someone's screen, any day now. He's simply not in this story, but we love him."

There were reports that the show will be filmed in L.A., but that hasn't actually been decided.

"Any place can double up as a number of places," Davies said. "There will be scenes set in Washington, certainly, but we won't go to Washington to shoot."

His producing partner, Julie Gardner, revealed that the new series will have a distinctly international setting.

"We have some U.K. settings and stories," she said, "and then a lot of it moves to America. That's what we mean by international. There's a big global threat at the heart of it, and we see the implications play out in those two countries, predominantly."

Here's hoping that with the production now being shared with US company Starz that they don't try and rework the whole series for an American audience. I'm still trying to recover after watching the first few episodes of the US remake of the UK's Life on Mars...

Torchwood: The New World is due out next on Starz in the US and BBC One in the UK June 2011.