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Sci-fi fans eager to see their shows continue to go where few others will timidly step should rejoice at Torchwood, BBC3's Dr. Who spinoff created by Russell T. Davies, the man who invented Queer as Folk.
Pros:
> Hot Glasgow-born, stateside-bred John Barrowman (last seen to most US audiences seducing Kevin Kline in De-Lovely) plays lead character Captain Jack as dashing and devilish and just a little dirty. He's like a genetically engineered cross between David Duchovny and a young Mark Harmon, so if you like either of those guys, you'll probably think he's divine. "It was a childhood dream to be a character in Doctor Who, so to have my own series was just unimaginable," Barrowman said. "I'm a grown man who gets to go to work every day and fight aliens, play with guns and kiss beautiful people - what more could I ask for?" Barrowman and his partner of 13 years are settling down in Cardiff, where the series is so beautifully shot, and plan to get officially civilly partnered in December.
> The show -- about a group of special ops alien hunters-and-researchers -- seems to be universally bisexual. New teammate Gwen (Eve Myles) doesn't blink twice before trying some eager mouth-to-mouth interrogation on a young lass invaded by a shape-shifter alien. The squad's juvenile delinquent borrows some of the lab's new tech and tests out the love potion on both male and female halves of a couple he picks up in a local pub. No one around them seems to find the gender specifics of those events particularly notable.
> This has got to be the only crime-fighting team other than Batman and the Justice League with their own on-staff butler. And this guy is a lot younger and hotter than Alfred, and possibly seems to fulfill other, um, duties for the master of the house.
Cons:
> Unless you have your own time-traveling or pond-jumping machine, it's going to require some tech know-how to watch. The show's only being broadcast in the UK, though there's a better-than-even chance that BBC America will eventually pick it up, as it has Doctor Who. Then again, if you're really so much of a geek that this sounds like the best show ever, I bet you know how to use bit torrent, where pirated files could be found practically as soon as the premiere aired. That's illegal, of course.
> Well, it's got aliens. But just because that ruins it for me doesn't mean you all won't enjoy it.
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