At the San Diego Comic-Con, I had the extreme pleasure of doing some roundtable interviews with the cast of Torchwood: Miracle Day. They’ll be appearing here on the site over the course of the next week.
Barrowman was dressed for Comic-Con in an Iron-Man T-shirt and was just incredibly pleasant to be around. He has an easy charm that you can’t help but like. And he might be one of the most energetic people after a day of interviews I’ve ever encountered. So, without further ado:
Q: How much bigger was Torchwood: Miracle Day than the other iterations?
A: You can see from television, the production value is bigger. I don’t want to negate what we did with BBC, we did a fantastic job, but we have a bigger budget. To be honest, without STARZ, there wouldn’t be Torchwood. We’re still on BBC 1, so that’s where our roots are, but this is just bigger.
Q: What does Jack feel about his newfound mortality?
A: You find out what he prefers better. He’s experiencing new things and it’s different. I don’t like giving out spoilers and I don’t want to spoil it. But Jack, you find out which one he prefers and which one he wants. How he gets it? Who gives it to him? What happens? I’m not going to tell you. Before he had the dilemma he didn’t like being a mortal and now all of a sudden he’s a mortal and he’s experiencing all of these things and there comes a point where decisions and choices are made.
Q: What about the controversy surrounding the censored sex scene?
A: There really wasn’t a controversy. Russell decided to cut it for pretty straightforward reasons. He didn’t want to push it too far because people would be watching with kids and would probably change the channel. The papers in the UK had to print a retraction because they mis-quoted me from an interview I did months ago and took my quotes out of context. I fully support the decision that was made.
But it’s not gone. And this man falls in love and this man has a passionate romance with this other man and, like everybody else does, the sex happens and there’s a wonderful lovemaking scene and it’s a great scene. I’m proud of it. If I saw that as a young man and saw that on TV that you could have a loving relationship like that, it would have helped.
And they cut down Mekhi and Arlene’s scene, too.
And there’s a love story. The love story doesn’t start until episode five. That’s where the romance is, in a flashback. The only real time stuff in that episode you’ve got there is the real time stuff between Jack and Gwen.
Q: With the mortality, does that change the Dr. Who? Aren’t you supposed to become the Face of Boe?
A: No. We’re not dictated by the rules of what was created before. I’d like to think that Jack becomes the face of Boe, but who’s to say they won’t lob my head off in the next episode?
And that was the end of the all-too brief interview. Lots of interesting tidbits in there, to be certain. They’re not tied to the constraints of Dr. Who and the Face of Boe? What does that imply for the series? Barrowman also said that they hope there will be more seasons and implied it all comes down to how well this season does. So if you like Torchwood, be sure to support it now as best you can and don’t pirate it. Watch it in a way that will let STARZ count you.
New episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day are shown on STARZ on Friday nights.
And here is the Torchwood preview shown at Comic-Con: