FOX drops its 'Torchwood' remake

I am missing my Torchwood. I don't care who makes it or where it gets aired...I'd be there. Fingers crossed that a cable channel will pick up whatever Russell Davies has put together AND that the BBC will give the original a thumbs up for a new season.

After CoE Torchwood is dead.

I just can't see this happening. This is one of those shows that will be ruined if the U.S. tries to remake it.

I wonder if the deal crashed due to FOX attempting to influence the project too much as they had done with Whedon for Firefly. For the sake of the audience, FOX should keep its hands away from the creative process of sci-fi shows.

BS, the American version would probably be better.

I wish BBC would get another channel to air Doctor Who and Torchwood, I don't get BBC America on my satellite package.

No way the US version would be better. It would be watered down and Americanized, losing virtually everything that made the original appealing. I'm glad Fox passed. Frankly they should only be looking at a cable network for this type of show - HBO, Showtime, or even BBC America where they could create a Doctor Who-Torchwood one-two punch.

Even with the original writer in charge, I can't see in any way how a US version would be better. Certainly the character of Captain Jack would be castrated (in every sense of the word) and Fox would have never allowed a storyline such as Children of Earth.

What's really sad is that the BBC creates these good shows and then just lets them die after a couple of seasons. I mean, what was the deal with Torchwood series 3 being only five episodes? Despite the high ratings, it's as if the BBC doesn't care. Oh, wait...it's because they don't. With commercial revenue not being important to them, what they're looking for is inexpensive programming. As soon as a show becomes popular, everyone involved wants to be paid more money. So, the BBC just lets it die and moves on to another show. I'm all for letting shows die when they start losing creativity...lord knows there were many American TV shows that should have made a graceful exit rather than have those last few embarrassing seasons...but the BBC really kills things off too soon. (Life on Mars was an exception though, it was a show that was created from the start to only last 16 episodes. To drag it on further would have ruined the show.)

American shows are the exact opposite, of course. If ABC had managed to create a good remake of Life on Mars instead of the disaster that they ended up with, they would have tried to keep the show on the air for 10+ seasons. While that may work with certain kinds of shows (mostly procedurals where the cast changes over the years), it really doesn't work with other kinds of shows.

The real problem with bringing British shows to the American market is that most Americans just don't like those kinds of shows. There's a small percentage that do, but they already are watching them on BBC America, DVD or downloading them off of the Internet. They're just not going to pull the ratings here that they need to stay on the air. The Office is a rare exception, but then it's more a universal show rather than something very British. (It is, however, one of those shows that needs to end now before it just gets embarrassingly bad. Oops...too late.)

I think that an American version of Torchwood could be made into a decent show that Americans would like, but by the time you've rewritten it that much you might as well just start with a different show that has some similar ideas. There's no point in paying for the rights to a show that you're not going to make. I don't think the BBC can sue over using the concepts of a rift in the time/space continuum, since they didn't invent the idea.

However, Torchwood won't fly here even if it's rewritten. Every decent sci-fi show on American TV in the last 10 years has had abysmal ratings, and most have been canceled in the first season unless they're a network's pet project (i.e. Fringe) or on a cable network (where they expect to get dismal ratings). Unfortunately, I think most Americans would rather watch Dancing with the Stars than something that's actually entertaining. FOX was right to drop Torchwood, and nobody should bother to pick it up unless it's a cable network like SyFy.

I don't think costs are the primary concern for the BBC: Doctor Who continues to be the most expensive series they've made so far.

I think it has more to do with scheduling (when to make it, who's available, when to air it, etc.) as much as it is the BBC looking for something new to get another Doctor Who-level interest.

Because, bottom line, their shows are not getting talked about in North American press as they are back home. Top Gear, Merlin, Ashes To Ashes… big hits, great download numbers and Internet sales, but lousy reception in the US. And the US seems to be the market they want to hit most.

Kind of glad Torchwood US is dead, just don't think it would work. Plus, Russell T. Davis was clearly off his rocker with the last Torchwood outing that I'm not sure I want a 4th season.

"I just can't see this happening. This is one of those shows that will be ruined if the U.S. tries to remake it."

Good to see I'm not the only one who thinks that. :)