If you’re a Heroes fan, that’s the only date you need to remember.

Yeah … I have no kind of spoiler-tag facility on this blog, so if you’re a fan of Torchwood and haven’t yet seen the last episode, or don’t want to know what’s slated to be happening for Series 3, I would skip right on past this post.

I had mixed feelings about Torchwood when it first started. A more adult version of Doctor Who with a larger cast seemed like a good idea, but the first series was very much a mixed bag. A little too heavy on the poor innuendo and bad gunplay if you ask me, but there we are. It was commissioned for a second series, and they did a much, much better job the second time around.

The actors really felt like they had grown into their characters’ skins, and the writing was markedly improved. All this allowed me to really start liking the cast, which is why it was a real shame when Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato were both killed off in the final episode.

It was sad, and a shame, but some shows occasionally need to slam in a massive HOLY SHIT moment in a season finale, in order to spice up the order for the next series.

However, it seems that slotting in new characters isn’t the only step planned. Supposedly – and this is all just heresay from around the web – the show is being ‘toned down’ in order to fit in on Saturday nights when Doctor Who isn’t on the TV. Captain Jack is set to take a step back, appearing as a recurring character with Martha Jones (Doctor Who’s old companion from the previous series of that show) coming in to run Torchwood.
Along with – I would assume – two new characters to fill the shows of Owen and Toshiko, all that is a pretty major change.

To my mind, changing a show slightly is needed from time to time to keep things fresh. But here the BBC want to change the show’s format, the leading character (upon which the whole thing pivoted) and a big slice of the supporting characters.
Torchwood is starting to become an entirely different show, and I don’t know that that’s a good idea.

Doctor Who is great, for kids and adults alike. But as a result of that, there are some more ‘kiddy’ elements to it that take the edge off, naturally. Torchwood wasn’t susceptible to that problem – it was a proper grown-up sci-fi show that could be a bit more … I want to say realistic, which is daft when dealing with creatures from other planets, but I’m going to assume you understand what I’m saying.

Bringing Torchwood down to the level of Doctor Who removes all of that, and I think it’ll be a poorer show for it, let alone the massive cast changes that will affect the whole thing.

Time will tell, but I think the BBC are making a serious mistake on this one.