Mixing that lamented genre’s potent combination of mythic, fictional creatures and, like, life and stuff – Hollow Earth concerns 12 year-old twins and Barrowman stand in’s Matt and Emily Calder, who have special powers, such as the ability to bring art to life (I’m hoping that means ‘drawings’ rather than ‘art’ because otherwise that would mean a lot of trips to the National Pointy Stick Gallery every time there lives were endangered.)

This pair of Penny Crayons also have the ability to access the titular Hollow Earth where; ‘all the demons, devils and creatures ever imagined lie trapped for eternity’ – It’s a story of art, imagination and, the inevitable franchise rights (there’s already talk of a TV series.)

The book was first conceived by the pair in 2010 where they spent two months researching both its highland and London settings before they returned to their respective sides of the Atlantic – its due to this gulf that the novel took so long to write, well that and the Barrowman’s own goofing off:

“Oh, we both revert to childhood on most of our projects together, but this one even more so because we were continually asking ourselves what kids would like in a book, especially one with monsters and lots of adventure. Writing Hollow Earth gave us an excuse, if nothing else, to be kids again — well, more kids than usual.”

For those not enamoured by Young Adult fiction maybe more pleased to find out that the pair are to collaborate again, only this time back in the more familiar world of Torchwood – which again changes the dynamic of how the pair work together:

“[the collaboration] is different again for us because John has such an intimate relationship with our novel’s main character and because we’re adding to a rich canon and a highly successful franchise.”

Hollow Earth is available to buy from Amazon now for £4.09.

With Miracle Day now a distant memory, we await more adventures of Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper with our fingers crossed… despite National Television Awards nominations for the show’s stars.

Although a ratings winner on the BBC and for the US channel Starz, there are definitely no plans for a new series in 2012 and no rumours of one in 2013 either. But then again, Torchwood is the younger cousin of Doctor Who and what with the fiftieth anniversary taking place next year, anything could happen.

One such hopeful, is Eve Myles, who plays Gwen Cooper. Although she’s heard nothing from the show’s creators, the actress remain hopeful that something will happen:

“John [Barrowman] is very much on the same page as me, in that if and when they need us, they can just pick the phone up and we will be there before they’ve even put the phone down, because it’s something we love doing.”

But what format would new Torchwood take? Having gone from a thirteen part structure like Doctor Who, the show quickly found that a linking narrative over less episodes worked better for it. Will we be treated to more of the same or will yet another new style be used for the Torchwood team?

The next logical step would be a big theatrical movie release all over the world but that’d be asking too much surely.

Wouldn’t it?

Torchwood

Lead actor John Barrowman remains keen to do another stint as Captain Jack but it seems that everything Torchwood has been put on pause for the time being, which is a shame seeing as the series has really found its footing over the last couple of years.

Whilst Torchwood started life with thirteen episodes a year and a new challenge for the team each week, the show matured and grew into something very different to simply “the adult version of Doctor Who”. Children of Earth saw a fantastic five-part tale spread over one week on BBC One and Miracle day was an engaging and inventive ten part epic.

As the show has evolved and changed so much over the last five years from its initial inception, now may be the time to look at the possibility of a Torchwood movie. The possibilities are endless for storylines; it wouldn’t be difficult to pick up the story as Torchwood manages to hit the rest button on its characters pretty easily. In the same way that Joss Whedon’ s Firefly evolved into the big-screen Serenity, so could Torchwood. This is a marvellous storytelling opportunity; you could even throw in a Dalek or Cyberman for good measure or even an occasional visit from the Time Lord himself if you wanted to keep a link to the Doctor Who world.

So, we say right now on Kasterborous: forget Doctor Who on the silver screen.

The campaign for a Torchwood feature film starts here!

Big, sprawling and epic, oozing with charm and sexy one liners and having the Torchwood team battle a threat so massive that the whole of the Universe is at stake.

Keep your eyes peeled…

Currently playing Robinson Crusoe in a pantomime in Glasgow, Barrowman was recently involved in aprehending a thief at the hotel where he was staying.

In true Captain Jack style, Barrowman chased the young thief after he had raided a couple’s room, making sure that he stayed where he was until the police arrived! The actor recalled the event:

“I grabbed the kid’s ankles, yanked him to the ground and then pulled him out into the hallway. I pinned him down.”

But as its Christmas, we have a nice twist to the tale in true Doctor Who/ Torchwood style: Barrowman, forgiving soul that he is, wants to offer the boy a job at the pantomime to help him out:

“Maybe he could work in the pantomime over Christmas to give him a sense of responsibility.”

Let’s hope it would put him off a life of crime!

They start off by talking about filming in America (something that the Doctor Who cast also had to deal with earlier this year) and finish by talking about what’s next for Torchwood (like Barrowman, Owen also suggests a film). Along the way they deal with whether they actually like each other as people and whether Torchwood will be mixing with Doctor Who for its 50th anniversary (Myles says no because Torchwood’s too adult and they won’t give her guns or a bazooka – methinks someone’s forgetting Stolen Earth/Journey’s End).

Of course, since copying and pasting an entire Q&A isn’t really cricket, you should head off and read the entire thing (if you can stand Myles’ sickening slide into employing Russell T. Davies levels of praise for the show.)

(Being able to stand it would make you a better person than I.)

“It’s in limbo at the moment and beyond my control.”

In an ideal world, it would’ve been nice to actually have the plans for a fifth season set in stone before Rusty left us hanging regarding certain plot elements. However, clearly either someone (ie Rusty) is lying to get publicity and the plans have already been given the go-ahead (this wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest) or – and I appreciate that this is out there – John Barrowman has no say in whether the show gets commissioned or not. (One thing’s for sure: if the next season consists entirely of episodes like episode ten, The Blood Line, then I’m all for it!)

He didn’t seem to be completely down on the show, however – in the same interview he stated that

“I would love to do a new series and I will play Captain Jack as long as they want me to play Captain Jack.”

That’s good, it means that if the show doesn’t come back it won’t be due to problems with its star. Although it does raise the question: when would they stop wanting him to play Captain Jack? He can only be an unchanging character for so long if the basic format remains the same, so it follows that if it proves to be a long runner then Jack’s last story will come sooner rather than later. It could even happen in the feature film that he suggested at the same time. That actually sounds good – one last great adventure, with death awaiting him!

(Via Digital Spy!)

Torchwood: Miracle Day will start showing on Prime and in the build up to that, Myles talks about her journey with the program so far.

Talking about the new setting for Torchwood (largely America):

“Taking it over to Hollywood there was a massive sense that “okay it’s the fourth series but we need to make it as if it was the first. We need to make it massive” and hopefully that is what we have achieved.”

But now that Torchwood is a BBC/Starz production means that the casting saw appearances from some big names in Hollywood, something that was difficult for Myles to adapt to:

“Lauren Ambrose [from Six Feet Under who plays scheming PR consultant Jilly Kitzinger], I think she’s literally got an injunction out on me because all I did was stand by her and stare. I’m a complete fangirl myself, pretending to be cool.”

The character of Gwen Cooper has been through a lot of changes between Torchwood: Children of Earth and Miracle day but how does that affect the dynamic of how she is portrayed on screen?

“They’ve made her a mother, a wife, a daughter and also team leader with Jack Harkness. She has a love-hate relationship with this organisation. But it’s the most exciting time of her life.”

Here in the UK we’ve obviously experienced the amazing adventure that Gwen embarks on, but the future of Torchwood is less assured since the series ended. According to Eve Myles, however:

“As long as there is Russell T. Davies there is life in Torchwood.”

For those of you who haven’t managed to catch Torchwood: Miracle Day as yet, it’s a belter of a story, sending Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper through a ten part emotional rollercoaster.

Be sure not to miss it!

Over in New Zealand, Torchwood: Miracle Day is currently showing on Prime at 9.35 pm on Thursdays.

Certainly from what we’ve heard recently, all but an official axe has swung across this particular televisual element of the Whoniverse, with Starz not taking an option on a second series. Meanwhile the BBC seems reluctant to talk about the matter. Miracle Day was a co-production between Starz, BBC Worldwide and BBC Wales, so hearing anything from the broadcaster in the UK seems unlikely at the moment.

(Prior to Miracle Day being announced, similar noises were also made. Things can change very quickly in television production, it seems, although this time things seem quite “final”.)

What is particularly interesting, however, is that there has been no official word – and as such, no campaign. This is in stark contrast to Doctor Who Confidential, of course, recently axed by the BBC and the subject of a reinstatement campaign. Of course, DWC lived on BBC Three, the same channel that once begat Torchwood.

Perhaps in their aim to produce original programming unique to BBC Three, the corporation could welcome the show back? Or has too much water (and indeed, too many changes to the format) passed under the bridge for this to happen?

There are, as ever, plenty of questions.

Should a new series of Torchwood be produced? Do you want to know how Rex Matheson copes with being immortal?

Could he prove an interesting rival to Jack and Gwen?

What do you think?

However, certain observations have led me to start to think that he’s either the most reckless time travelling adventurer this side of Captain Kirk or a rather ingenious reminder by Russell T. Davies that dying repeatedly does in fact damage your brain.

My first example comes from his first appearance in The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, in which he is responsible for unleashing a wave of humanity corrupting nanogenes, which was only stopped with the help of the Doctor and Rose. Fair enough, by stopping the incoming bomb and his subsequent story arc up to The Parting Of The Ways, he sort of redeemed himself for that one.

You may remember during Utopia that there was a room that only Jack could enter to make sure the rocket to Utopia would fly, due to being coated in something called ‘Stet’ Radiation. It was established that the radiation only affected clothing, not flesh. Despite this, Jack insists on taking off his gay-coat, even though the Doctor questioned this decision. He promptly enters the room…and burns his hands on the wall. Idiot.

In End Of The Road, the eighth episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, the good Captain comes across a ‘null field’, a device that allows anyone affected by it to die when all others cannot. Rather than confide in his team what exactly it is and why the CIA mustn’t be allowed to find it, he decides to appear mysterious and enigmatic, while at the same time asking them to trust him. Similar idiocy can be found way back in the first season of Torchwood, where partly through being enigmatic he gets his team to commit mutiny and ends up being shot in the face while his little prodigies unleash a great beast upon Cardiff.

For me, he reached the heights of stupidity during Journey’s End when they were taken aboard the Crucible, greets Rose Tyler with nothing more than a hug after not seeing her for two centuries, and proceeds to shoot the Supreme Dalek in its metallic face with his Webley. He deserved the extermination he got, really, and I’m still not sure how he managed to hide the fact that he was still alive from the Daleks – somehow a wink doesn’t explain it. In fact, the last time he saw Rose Tyler, he also tried to shoot a Dalek in the face and that got him nowhere. In fact, it had pretty much exactly the same outcome.

So that’s how I’ve come to the conclusion that Captain Jack is an idiot.

Of course, he does have his moments of awesomeness and attempted awesomeness (I maintain that his decision at the end of Children Of Earth was the best he could’ve made in the circumstances) but overall I have to say that my opinion of him is changing by the day as I think about this more, even if I still do like him as a character.

I would love to know your opinions on this – you know where to put them!

That’s why I’m glad that the Doctor Who Facebook page have announced a competition to not only win the Eleventh Doctor’s current tweed jacket, but Captain Jack Harkness’ original greatcoat from the first couple of seasons of Torchwood as well! Sadly, they’re only replicas but that’s still pretty appealing, and frankly, I hope I win!

The competition’s on their Facebook page, so you do have to be a member of Facebook to win (it’d be nice if you could do it on Twitter). What you have to do is ‘like’ the Facebook page (it also enters you if you already like it) then click the ‘enter competition’ tab and enter your details such as your name and address (this isn’t a competition for those who don’t like putting their details on the internet). You’ll also have to authorize an application to access your Facebook page, but you can disable this later under your account settings.

You do have to be 18 and over to enter though, so any pre-teen readers of Kasterborous are SOL. The competition lasts until the 23rd of October, so get cracking!