Executive Producer’s Russell T. Davies & Julie Gardner Exclusive Interview - Torchwood: The New World

Question: How did this collaboration with Starz come about for Season 4? Why now?

RUSSELL T. DAVIES: Well, Torchwood is a show that’s always stayed lively on its feet and always expanded, and this is just about as far as it can expand now. It’s a brand new audience and a brand new continent.


JULIE GARDNER: We moved out to L.A. a year ago, with BBC Worldwide Productions, so we were here just when the viewing figures were coming in from the U.K. for Children of Earth, and we were really excited by the reception that the title was getting. Russell had one particular story in mind, which we can’t talk about, that he was burning to tell, and it fit in incredibly well, within the framework of what Torchwood was going to be for Season 4. It just felt right, with us being in L.A. and since Children of Earth was straining to be more global. There were American characters in there and there was a big society throughout. It was a natural extension of everything we’ve done with the title.

What do you feel Starz will bring to Torchwood that fans of the show haven’t yet been able to see?

DAVIES: There’s a great ambition behind Starz to have contemporary pieces that are saying a lot about the world. As a drama, Torchwood is very ambitious. Starz is not after plain, domestic pieces, and we’d already started to do that with Children of Earth. That had a lot to say about society, and that’s what Starz latched on to. In terms of what we can do that’s new is that we can tell stuff on an international basis and have great American stories. A lot of it is going to be set in America and it’s going to have an examination of America, an ambition that’s American and a thrust that goes with this nation that’s very exciting and truly contemporary. Let’s be honest, certainly in the West, America is the dominant culture. It sends shockwaves across the whole of Europe. It’s a really interesting place to take the story, once you see what the story is. We’re coming to the story’s heartland by bringing it here. Starz offers an enormous stage, and the confidence and freedom to tell the story that we want.

Read the entire interview here