I don't know how many of you are Dr. Who/Torchwood fans around here, but if you are you must see Torchwood: Children of Earth, the season 3 5 episode mini-series that just finished today in the UK (and will be on BBC America on US television the week of July 20).  Torchwood is the more "adult" per se of the Doctor Who universe created by RTD, and this past week has been some of the best television I've ever seen produced.  The story is simple, yet most chilling and takes us to a very very dark place.  There are times when RTD's Dr. Who stories have been very camp and full of wtf contrivances in order to pander to fanwanking audiences, but then he goes and does this.  He called it "an experiment" to do a season of Torchwood as a mini-event over 5 days, and it paid off in spades.  I can only hope that the series will be back next year in whatever format it may end up being (if it comes back at all - despite what happens to our beloved cast).  Great job.  BBC America is also premiering their HD channel I believe with this and the high-def Doctor Who special "Planet of the Dead", and it looks stupendous in HD.  I urge you even if you are not a fan of science fiction to watch this.

I haven't seen Torchwood, but I'm a Dr. Who fan I've heard some people really like it (Tochwood), and others really hate it. One critic said: "Everything about it is disappointing: the writing, characterization, continuity, acting, directing, editing, music, sound editing, lighting, and special effects. Perhaps the producers were too ambitious for their budget, or perhaps they felt they could rely on the cheap-and-cheerful plastic rocks and rubber monsters that populate early Star Trek and most of the Dr Who series and not bother with essentials like writers. "

So, anyway, I don't know. I would like to check it out eventually. I've recently begun to watch Stargate SG-1 which has thus far been good, but not great. I haven't gotten very far into the series, I heard it gets better (I hope so

cheers,

-avatar!

edit: so after further reading, many people are claiming the first season is all about sex. Doesn't sound like my kind of show -not that there's anything wrong with sex mind you, but the reviews I read blasted the show for being scifi-porn. Anyway man, to each their own!

The man didn't recommend you watch the first season, he recommended "Children of Earth" :-p

I'll never forgive them for killing off Tosh, and to a lesser extent, Owen, but the trailer for Children of Earth looks very good. I have a Welsh friend who's been raving about it, but I think I'll wait to watch on BBC America. At least we only have to wait 3 weeks for it. They only just showed the 2008 Dr. Who Christmas special last week. >_<

Yeah, I won't deny there's a lot of sex in the first season (much of it alien), but there are plenty of good sci-fi plots, too. It's pretty similar to Buffy, really, in that most episodes feature a monster/alien of the week. The second season had noticeably fewer sexy aliens and features Martha from Dr. Who in a few episodes, so you may be more interested in it.

I highly recommend watching this clip, which pretty well summarizes the first season: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aeEyirFjBI

that parody overdoes it a bit, but it's pretty on target.

I saw about a half-dozen episodes of the first season, and while I have no doubt that there's genuine talent in the writing, directing and acting somewhere in it, for me it suffers from the same problem as Dr. Who - I just can't take it seriously. Like, I can't even take it as seriously as a bad Sci-fi channel movie/original series. Even honestly interesting, creepy premises (like "Blink" from Dr. Who, which was an absolutely fantastic idea) tend to end up too cheesy for me to keep watching.

(Not to mention that I kept running into problems with Torchwood's constant fumbling of whether they want to run the "secret agency" bit as a serious plot point or a running joke. The first episode was especially bad, since part of it centers around how they are supposed to have rules against using alien/magical artifacts but all the agents are abusing them anyways. One of the agents is using a perfume or something that essentially allows him to "seduce"/date rape people, and yeah that is definitely bad. But there's also a scene with a woman who has a device that can "scan" a book in a few seconds and then dump all the text to a computer, and I couldn't help but think "how the hell could anyone possibly use something like that for evil means?")

Keep in mind that the runtime'll likely be cut significantly, since BBC America is ad-supported. Not to mention any naughty words that might soil our virgin American ears

The initial airings will run from 9-10:15 PM, so thankfully I don't think much will be cut. I do recall BBC America censoring language in the past though.

Yeah, I pretty much turn my brain off when I watch Dr. Who or any of its spin-offs. It's just too hard for them to escape the camp aspect, not that I necessarily want them to. There have been some episodes of Torchwood that were far too serious ("Adrift" is one that comes to mind). I'd take camp over pretentiousness any day.