The show is trashy and not in a good way
- Publication: The Stage
- Date: 2006-11-02
- Author:
- Page: 9
- Language: English
From The Stage Online
New Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood may have been BBC3's highest rated programme ever but audience reaction was fairly muted. Here are some responses from the numerous comments we received on our TV Today blog
Tim Lozinski
The show is trashy and not in a good way. Its gore, sex and swearing is blatantly to put it above the age of the intended Dr Who fans. Hang on though, don't grown-ups watch Dr Who anyway? Where's the need for all those adult situations which are pointless for the most part and unentertaining for the other?
Shopping Bunny
Could have been so much more, ie Spooks with an intergalactic twist. Maybe Russell T Davies' Dr Who success has led to this hack-like piece of work. The characterisation is weak — in particular the Captain Jack character is struggling with being in command and being irreverent. I wonder how many viewers will be back next week?
Tim Ward
Adult doesn't have to mean copious amounts of gore, cartoon sex and what is euphemistically called strong language. For much of its original run, Doctor Who was, and still is, a far more mature affair than either new Doctor Who has so far proved to be or Torchwood looks like being.
whammy
I absolutely loved it. Great if it takes from [Joss] Whedon's Angel as its inspiration. TV needs this kind of fantasy. An interesting collective of characters who I want to know more about.
dr.what
Complete and utter toss. Where as Whedon's creations began to fall into two-dimensional simulacrums of their former characters in later seasons — of both Buffy and Angel — Davies' characters seem to jump right off the mark with regards to their stereotyped personas followed by puerile lines. If one was to send a script of Torchwood into BBC Writers' Room, the response would be completely negative. Yet for some reason a respected writer — whose early work is light years, excuse the pun, from his recent — can seem to be allowed to reduce us to nothing more than a BBC vehicle to hit the US market, led by a main character who is obviously supposed to be a Tom Cruise mark II.
J
I thought the show was good. Not perfect but then Doctor Who isn't perfect either. No show is. They could have a little less focus on sex but I like the characters and they have a lot of potential to develop. If people expected a masterpiece, which apparently some did, then no wander they were disappointed.
Janice
The BBC used a children's show to ruthlessly and unrelentingly promote an adult show with strong language and tediously unnecessary scenes of an explicitly sexual and violent nature. Both children and parents are right to be angry with the BBC for its opportunism.
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- APA 6th ed.: (2006-11-02). The show is trashy and not in a good way. The Stage p. 9.
- MLA 7th ed.: "The show is trashy and not in a good way." The Stage [add city] 2006-11-02, 9. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "The show is trashy and not in a good way." The Stage, edition, sec., 2006-11-02
- Turabian: "The show is trashy and not in a good way." The Stage, 2006-11-02, section, 9 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=The show is trashy and not in a good way | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/The_show_is_trashy_and_not_in_a_good_way | work=The Stage | pages=9 | date=2006-11-02 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=28 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=The show is trashy and not in a good way | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/The_show_is_trashy_and_not_in_a_good_way | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=28 May 2025}}</ref>
