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John Barrowman recently opened up about the fate of ‘Torchwood’ the fan-beloved spinoff of ‘Doctor Who’ that ran for four seasons from 2006-2011.  Unfortunately, after a disappointing fourth season, entitled ‘Miracle Day‘ which was a joint production with the BBC and the US network STARZ, the show went dormant.  For good.

There have been constant rumblings of a return since ‘Miracle Day’ ended, but over the five years since then, those rumblings have all but silenced with only spinoff projects like novels, comic books and audio plays keeping the ‘Torch’ lit, such as it is.

Co-star Eve Myles even went so far as to announce on social media that she was done waiting and was saying goodbye to her character Gwen Cooper for good.  (All of the principle cast has moved on to multiple newer projects since.  Most of the main characters had been killed off anyway.)

In Barrowman’s statement to Radio Times, he explained:

“I was told that there are some obstacles to overcome, and every time I tried to talk about a way around them, it was almost like there was another obstacle.

And this is a personal thing for me, this is not anything that was discussed, but I find it really a little disheartening that a company like the BBC can’t just say “Put your egos aside, we’re gonna go forward with this.”

I travel all over the world and I see the popularity of ‘Torchwood. But when it comes down that it’s not being done because of people’s egos, I find that really difficult.”

Perhaps to expound on that, this video has surfaced of Barrowman giving a talk.  The video wasn’t posted by Barrowman himself and honestly I don’t even know where it came from, but you can hear his explanation below:

 

Of course, as a gentleman who probably doesn’t want to burn bridges, Barrowman doesn’t name names.  But ‘Doctor Who’ fans can probably narrow down the options pretty easily. And for those who didn’t know, the person who will be taking over as the showrunner for ‘Doctor Who’ after Season 10 (cough*ChrisChibnall*cough) happens to also have been a writer and co-producer of the first 3 seasons ‘Torchwood.’ Hm….

Honestly, as a huge fan of both ‘Torchwood’ and ‘Firefly’– the two shows that fans around the world still hope will someday mount a comeback– call me a pessimist, but I gave up a long time ago on either returning.  Like I said, the casts have all moved on and, let’s face it, have gotten older.

Plus with ‘Torchwood’ it didn’t go out at its best.  After Ianto Jones died and then ‘Miracle Day’ happened, how do you even redeem it?  I’m sure something could be done with it, with the right producers and writers, but it’s a longshot and with so much time having past, is the audience for it still there?  Would they have to go back and reintroduce the concept on ‘Doctor Who’ again for newer watchers?

What do you think?  Are you still holding out hope that ‘Torchwood’ may still come back as a TV series?

Source: Twitter