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Torchwood is protecting the Earth against alien threats in
the 21st Century - the time when everything changes. Created
by Russell T Davies Torchwood's first series covered
subjects as diverse as a sex-addicted alien mist, a powerful
Cyberwoman, a telepathy-inducing pendant, an invisible man
and alien Weevils. In this, the first factual book to be published
on the series, noted TV historian Stephen James Walker charts
the story of Torchwood, complete with character profiles,
cast and production team information, behind-the-scenes details
and a comprehensive guide to each of the 13 episodes, looking
at the key elements and the many links to Doctor Who
that permeate the show...
Following
on from the highly-acclaimed Back
to the Vortex and
it's successor Second
Flight (which have cemented their position
as the definitive and essential guides to the new series of
Doctor Who), Telos Publishing has now turned its unofficial
and unauthorised eye towards Torchwood, the 'dark,
wild and sexy' adult spin-off which made it's controversial
debut on BBC3 in 2006, with record-breaking digital channel
ratings, and wildly differing critical opinion.
For
those of you expecting Inside
The Hub
to be of a similar hefty size to J Shaun Lyon's exhaustive
Back to the Vortex books, you may initially be in for
a disappointment. Stephen James Walker has presented us with
a slimmed-down volume for this overview of Torchwood,
but manages to instil a bit more human warmth into the potentially
dry reference material. The result may seem a little lightweight
in comparison, but makes for a much more accessible read.
The actual format though, remains much the same. From a unique
fan perspective, Walker guides us through the experience that
was series one of Torchwood - from the initial announcement
to the press, the fan speculation and Internet rumours, right
through to the eventual transmission of the episodes and the
somewhat mixed reception they received.
As I opened up this book, I was reminded just how little we
know about the production of Torchwood. Considering
that every new episode of Doctor Who was preceded by
the inevitable hype, spoilers and general press frenzy, it's
perhaps surprising that it's spin-off managed to shroud itself
in so much secrecy. Details of upcoming episodes seemed scant
at the time, and quite often we would only even get to know
the title of an episode when it was finally flashed before
us on the television screen. Inside The Hub goes some
way to redressing the balance, although there's not quite
as much production material as I had dared hope. There's still
a fair bit of behind-the-scenes information, trivia and interview
snippets which were completely new to me - I would have just
liked to have seen a little more of it.
The
main drive of the book is a critical analysis of each of the
thirteen episodes, provided by the press, the fans, website
reviews, and predominantly from Walker himself. The author
is clearly and unashamedly a huge fan of this series, so Torchwood-haters
hoping that the series would be ripped to shreds will have
to look elsewhere to fuel their obsessive loathing of a show
they were forced to tune into every week, presumably against
their will.
Walker
dishes up a fascinating, and thought-provoking critique which
displays his obvious passion for the show, whilst not afraid
to pick up on the odd flaw here and there. A couple of his
comments did come close to bordering on the arrogant (in particular,
his extensive analysis of one my favourite episodes concludes
with "Small Worlds has in general been a very well-received
episode amongst fans. This is rather surprising however as
it is actually one of the weaker entries in Torchwood's
first series.". there you go then, Stephen James Walker has
spoken and we are all wrong!) but I'm nit-picking on choice
of phrase here, Walker actually offers incredibly intelligent
and fresh insight into these thirteen episodes, and while
you may not always agree with his opinion, it makes enlightening
reading.
Despite
it's relatively small page count, Inside The Hub manages
to cram an awful lot of other goodies between it's nicely
designed covers. The major highlight for me was the first
portion of the book which manages to perfectly recapture the
sense of excitement that swept through fandom at the prospect
of a proper Doctor Who spin-off series, as anguished
memories of K-9 and Company thankfully began to disappear
into the ether. We are given welcome features on the telefantasy
forerunners of Torchwood, detailed profiles of the
characters and cast members (who would have guessed that Burn
Gorman (Owen Harper) was an expert breakdancer and a former
Human Beatbox champion?) whilst Walker also covers such themes
as concept and style, and the Torchwood timeline and
history of the organisation with his usual immaculate style
and attention to detail.
Maybe not all of the information and research gathered within
these pages was strictly necessary (the Blood and Snogging
sections are a little laughable - do we really need lengthy
breakdowns of every scene in which a drop of blood was spilt
or two characters dared to kiss each other? Come on, this
is grown-up telly, we don't need to dwell on this!) but the
book is to be commended for covering just about every possible
angle - bloopers and continuity links, tie-in merchandise
and original novels, and full coverage of the sister documentary
series Torchwood Declassified.
Inside
The Hub is hardly a revelatory warts-and-all account of
the development of Torchwood (we may have to wait a
couple of decades for The Russell T Davies Memoirs
- and what a read that will be!) but is nevertheless a well-written
and highly recommended mixture of reference material and in-depth
critique.
The best news of all is that Stephen James Walker will be
penning the third volume of Back to the Vortex, which
will surely be the essential Doctor Who book for 2007.
The future of these definitive works could not be in safer
hands.
Danny
Salter
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