Capt. Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) is coming back, but he’ll has a new landing spot.
“Torchwood” will offer a new season of 10 episodes, starting next summer, on Starz.
The series has aired on BBC America, and reruns will continue there. In fact, BBC America offers a “Torchwood” marathon from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday.
Barrowman and Eve Myles, who plays Gwen Cooper, will return for the new season. ”Additional key cast, reflecting the more international scope of the series, will be announced soon,” Starz said in a release.
Beyond March Madness, the weekend brings two biggies:
***The natural history epic “Life” starts on Discovery Channel.
***”Breaking Bad” begins its third season on AMC. (Star Bryan Cranston is pictured in this Getty Images photo by Jason Kempin.)
The 11-part “Life” is a gorgeous survey of animal and plant life that hopscotches around the globe. You get two parts each Sunday at 8 p.m., plus a third hour on April 18.
The first hour, “Challenges of Life,” showcases cheetahs in Kenya, ibexes in Israel, seals in Antarctica, stalk-eyed flies in Malaysia and dolphins in Florida Bay. And those are just a few of the stops. The second hour celebrates “Reptiles & Amphibians,” from toads to lizards to snakes.
The photography is astounding; the narration isn’t. The words have an awed, we’re-all-in-this tone that can run counter to scenes of animals hunting their prey.
I’m not big on 10 best lists. I’d rather salute 10 favorites for the past year. Here are the 10 scripted series that provided me with the most entertainment:
1. “Mad Men” continues to set the standard for TV drama with its sharp writing, nuanced acting and vivid period detail. And it taught a valuable lesson: Don’t take a riding lawn mower to the office. (January Jones and Jon Hamm are pictured.)
2. “The Good Wife” is a superb CBS drama with a winning leading lady (Julianna Margulies), a top-flight supporting cast and an engrossing style. This freshman entry just gets better each week.
3. “True Blood” is television’s best vampire series. Its stellar second season featured fierce contributions from Alexander Skarsgard as the sexy, underhanded vampire Eric; Michelle Forbes as the mischief-making, orgy-throwing Maryann; and Ryan Kwanten as the surprisingly heroic Jason. Of course, Anna Paquin remains the show’s vital center as lovable, mind-reading heroine Sookie Stackhouse.
A friend was complaining that there's just nothing to watch on television this summer. He'd been out of the country, so he hasn't been keeping track. But thanks to cable, summer has been a time of scripted bounty.
The goodies have ranged from USA's "Burn Notice" to TNT's "Leverage" to Showtime's "Weeds." It's been a summer of standout performances. Edie Falco astonishes as the complicated title character in Showtime's "Nurse Jackie." Mark Feuerstein gave a star-making performance as a down-to-earth doctor with impossible patients in USA's "Royal Pains."
Let's hear it for dying series. NBC's "Kings" and ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" offer fresh episodes Saturday. And fresh scripted programming on broadcast networks is a rarity in summer. "Kings" screens at 8 p.m., and "Money" follows at 10.
Cable is the place for the more adventurous programming. HBO on Sunday unspools new episodes of "True Blood," "Hung" and "Entourage."
BBC America rolls out "Being Human" at 9 p.m. Saturday. This unconventional horror show makes roommates of a werewolf, a ghost and a vampire. And you think you have roommate problems!
There's a new "Doctor Who" from BBC America at 8 p.m. Sunday. It's an arresting installment, with scary creatures, a desert backdrop, a strong heroine and a clever script.
Tonight's best offering is the harrowing finale of "Torchwood: Children of Earth." It, too, comes from BBC America and starts at 9 p.m.
President Barack Obama's Wednesday news conference prompted ABC to reschedule a Charles Gibson special on oil. You can catch it at 10 tonight as a special edition of "20/20."
*** The CBS tribute to Walter Cronkite at 7 tonight in the "60 Minutes" time slot. The network salutes the legendary newsman who died Friday. The title: "That's the Way It Is: Remembering Walter Cronkite."
*** President Barack Obama's news conference. It will start at 9 p.m. Wednesday and rearrange the prime-time lineup.
*** "Black in America 2" allows CNN's Soledad O'Brien to continue her look at the hopes and progress of African Americans. The two-part program starts at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.
***Singer Susan Boyle is giving an interview to NBC's "Today" on Wednesday. It will timed to her appearance on "America's Got Talent" that night. Boyle electrified "Britain's Got Talent" and won a world following via the Web.
***"Torchwood: Children of Earth" is a stupendous sci-fi miniseries that touches down at 9 p.m. Monday through Friday on BBC America. (The episodes run 9 to 10:15 each night.) Extraterrestrials are communicating through the world's children.
The five-part drama moves "Torchwood" to darker territory. You don't have to have seen that series — about the Torchwood unit that tracks down alien life — to appreciate the remarkable storytelling.
The memorable bits include the shadowy depiction of an alien, an eerie event in the 1960s and the British government's fumbling response to the crisis. "Torchwood" will appreciate how the miniseries deepens the characters by examining their families.
Don't be surprised if "Children of Earth" costs you some sleep this week. It's that chilling.
The world’s children are stopping, staring and chanting, “We are coming.” The kids snap out of it, yet repeatedly fall back into their chilling drone, perplexing adults and world leaders.
These eerie scenes establish "Torchwood: Children of Earth," a five-part miniseries that debuts at 9-10:15 p.m. Monday through Friday, July 24, on BBC America.
"Torchwood," a spinoff of "Doctor Who," has won a following for its imaginative sci-fi, campy tone and dashing hero, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). Harkness leads the Torchwood unit, based in Cardiff, Wales, that tracks down alien life.
The series has been known for fancy gadgetry and outlandish images, such as a blowfish driving a car. Yet "Children of Earth" moves "Torchwood," in its third season, into darker, scarier territory. Extraterrestrials are communicating through the young. But what do the visitors want?
The answer and mankind’s response transform "Children of Earth" into an epic that should bring "Torchwood" to a wider audience. (The miniseries, a high point for summer television, will be available on DVD July 28.)
The five-part "Torchwood: Children of Earth" is coming. The miniseries craftily establishes a scary premise: Extraterrestrials are communicating through the world's children. But why?
The miniseries will play at 9 p.m. July 20-24 on BBC America. Here's a look at the first part:
"Doctor Who" is celebrating Christmas in June — at 9 p.m. Saturday, precisely, on BBC America.
This peculiar scheduling heralds a big summer for BBC America.
"Torchwood" returns with a five-night miniseries July 20-24. "Being Human," a wacky supernatural series, debuts July 25. A second "Doctor Who" special airs July 26.
"Summer is increasingly important," said Julie Gardner, executive producer for BBC Worldwide Productions. " 'Torchwood,' which is going to be a weeklong event, felt like a robust treat, a summer blockbuster."
Gardner, an executive producer for "Torchwood" and "Doctor Who," previewed the summer fare.
Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor," the special this weekend, plops the Doctor (David Tennant) in London on Christmas Eve 1851. The time-traveling alien meets another Doctor (David Morrissey).
"It's the story of two men coming together to fight an enormous foe," Gardner said.
Enormous is no overstatement. It's Dickens meets "RoboCop."