As a spin-off from the globally popular sci-fi series DOCTOR WHO, it seemed impossible to conceive that Russell T Davies could create two addictive universes. Yet upon the creation of Captain Jack Harkness in Series 1 of DOCTOR WHO, which starred Christopher Eccleston, that is exactly what happened. Creating a character larger than the multi-episode arc could contain, Russell T Davies did the unthinkable and with a wave of his magical wand – the writing pen – he dazzled fans once again by creating TORCHWOOD. Not only poaching one of the more flamboyant and captivating characters of the new series of DOCTOR WHO, Russell also chose to use an anagram of DOCTOR WHO and came up with the name TORCHWOOD.
Thus, one year after his successful debut as Captain Jack in DOCTOR WHO, John Barrowman debuted in his own television series as the infamous time-traveler now stuck on Earth. Being an earthbound extraterrestrial was not the entirety of Jack’s claim to fame. As viewers quickly found out, Jack is immortal. Even a bullet to the head at point blank range did little to phase Jack’s regenerative powers. Touched by the hand of god, or The Doctor in this case, Jack was not only abandoned on Earth, he had been cursed to live for eternity upon it. But a resourceful and resilient man, Jack ingratiated himself with the British government and was bestowed with his own secret government branch called Torchwood.
As seen through the eyes of a new recruit Gwen Cooper (fantastically portrayed by Eve Myles), who stumbled upon Torchwood as the series began, the entirety of the first three season of TORCHWOOD followed the star-crossed adventures and many loves of Gwen and Jack. Jack being an other-worldly being never felt constrained by our mere human relationship standards and continued to live his eternal life connecting romantically and physically with anyone and everything that struck his fancy. Gwen was also soon caught up in the no boundaries type of lifestyle and found herself connecting on all levels with other beings and humans of both persuasions. [Read more…]