Outside the Government, Beyond the Police

You may be thinking to yourself, 'what in God's name does the title of this post mean? Well..... it means I'm a complete nerd. See, about a year ago I was chatting with this girl on a writing website and she was all, 'hey you would love this show.' I, of course, was somewhat hesitant to give it a shot if only for the fact that I'm me an I tend to be a skeptic sometimes. But then I thought 'hey, why not. I mean how can you go wrong with pretty boys in British Sci Fi?'

Thus began my fervent obsession with this show:



"Outside the government, beyond the police. Fighting for the future on behalf of the human race. The 21st century is when everything changes; and Torchwood is ready."

This is the intro to Season 2; Season 1's was slightly different. Either way I freaking love this show. I watched the very first episode and was completely and totally hooked; even if I had forgotten how truly raunchy British post-watershed shows can be. :)

I can't really describe exactly what it is that makes me love this show as much as I do. I think it's a combination of the ridiculously awesome alien story lines, intrigue, great characters, and a rather delectable male cast, if you'll pardon the choice of words. But really, who wouldn't want to watch these boys all the time?


John Barrowman as the incomparable Captain Jack Harkness


Gareth David Lloyd as Ianto Jones (aka Tea Boy or Eye Candy)


And Burn Gorman as the ever acerbic Doctor Owen Harper

In case these boys are not enough for you, we also have a group of pretty kick ass female roll models.


Eve Myles as former Welsh Police PC Gwen Cooper



Naoko Mori as the amazingly smart tech genius Toshiko Sato



And though it was brief, we also got Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones.

This ragtag group makes up Torchwood Cardiff, a team which hunts down aliens in Wales and generally attempts to prevent chaos. This show is somehow simultaneously sweet, heartbreaking, hilarious and touching; I still can't figure out how they cram it all in there. But how can you not love a show that gives you lines such as "Ever since Owen died all you've done is agreed with him!" and "We do not sniff the subetheric resonator!" ? I mean really :)

What I didn't realize when I started in on Torchwood was that it was a spin off of this lovely show:



Yes, ladies and gents, Captain Jack Harkness is a sometimes companion of the Doctor. When I figured this out I insisted I would never watch Doctor Who; A because I thought it could never be as good as Torchwood and B because David Tennant being Barty Crouch Junior freaked me out. Eventually I was talked into watching the episodes that Captain Jack is in, and I got freaking hooked!

Honestly, the minute David Tennant puts those glasses on the whole Barty Crouch thing goes far, far away. I mean look at him!


It's not just good for David Tennant either. This is a genuinely good show, people! I've seen every episode of the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant Doctors (9th and 10th respectively) and am now greatly thrilled to be watching the new series with Matt Smith (the 11th Doctor) on BBC America.


He's a cutie for sure

I haven't really delved into any of the original series of Doctor Who (1st through 8th Doctors), mainly because I so love the new ones and also because I tried and had to turn it off five minutes in because it was so ridiculously 70s :)

The moral of this story? If you're a big fan of sci fi, give Doctor who and Torchwood a try. They can be watched independently of one another, but both are certainly worth a second look, and a third, and in my case a fortieth :) Give it a shot because you never know; I certainly didn't.

Plus if you get into them you can drop random words like Weevil and Raxacoricofallapatorious into everyday conversation :)

Song of the Moment: Pretty Woman by the cast of Kal Ho Naa Ho