'TORCHWOOD' SPINS OFF INTO SOME CHEEKY FUN.Byline: DAVID David, in the Bible David, d. c.970 B.C., king of ancient Israel (c.1010–970 B.C.), successor of Saul. The Book of First Samuel introduces him as the youngest of eight sons who is anointed king by Samuel to replace Saul, who had been deemed a failure. KRONKE >TV CRITIC Gwen Cooper is your average London beat cop in love with a normal but bighearted big·heart·ed adj. Generous; kind. big  hearted·ly adv. lug, but once she's absorbed into the bizarre world
of "Torchwood torch·wood n. 1. Any of several tropical American trees of the genus Amyris, especially A. balsamifera, having resinous wood that burns with a torchlike flame. 2. The wood of any of these trees. ," her relationship with normalcy will forever be tainted. "Torchwood" is an anagram anagram [Gr.,=something read backward], rearrangement of the letters of a word or words to make another word or other words. A famous Latin anagram was an answer made out of a question asked by Pilate. of "Doctor Who," BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. America's mind-blowing sci-fi adventure, and has been name-checked on that show as a shadowy, possibly sinister organization. In tonight's premiere of the spinoff series, Gwen (Eve Myles) is shocked to see Torchwood in action -- its agents briefly revive a dead man -- and soon thereafter insinuates herself into this quixotic agency. Torchwood, you see, employs technology borrowed or pilfered from space aliens in order to solve crimes or perform whatever services or achieve whatever means it sees fit. It's run by the charismatic American Capt. Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), who, records suggest, died in 1942, but who, in fact, cannot die. "I've got a surplus of alive," he tells Gwen. He and his crew incarcerate in·car·cer·ate tr.v. in·car·cer·at·ed, in·car·cer·at·ing, in·car·cer·ates 1. To put into jail. 2. To shut in; confine. and stop crime sprees by marauding ma·raud v. ma·raud·ed, ma·raud·ing, ma·rauds v.intr. To rove and raid in search of plunder. v.tr. To raid or pillage for spoils. , throat-eviscerating aliens, sexually randy space gases, alluringly violent cyborgs and all manner of things Gwen (or the rest of us) could scarcely imagine. "Torchwood" was created by Russell T. Davies, who punched up the long-running "Doctor Who" series into a spectacularly imaginative and urgent enterprise. This show isn't quite as routinely cheekily apocalyptic, but it's still inventive, entertaining, chockablock with oddball gizmos and menaces alike; one of the latter may prove to be Torchwood itself. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.com www.insidesocal.com/tv/ TORCHWOOD - Three and one half stars >What: "Doctor Who" spinoff: Special investigators use alien technology to solve bizarre crimes. >Where: BBC America. >When: 6 and 9 tonight; also 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sundays. Also Mondays at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on HDNet, beginning Sept. 17. >In a nutshell: Inventive fun. CAPTION(S): Photo: Gwen (Eve Myles) finds life much different than what she's be en accustomed to on "Torchwood," tonight on BBC America. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion