Torchwood's Gareth David-Lloyd @ Polaris

It’s no secret that one of my favourite TV shows is Torchwood. So imagine the thrill that was a press conference with Gareth David-Lloyd, Torchwood’s Ianto Jones, at Polaris 22 last month. Not only was this my personal highlight of that weekend, I got so much information from the half-hour press conference, including some video clips! Be warned, there are some major spoilers in this if you haven’t seen Series Two of Torchwood as of yet.

Torchwood is, without a doubt, an international phenomenon. Its success has not only made it one of the UK’s best loved series, it has become the highest rated program on BBC America. When asked about his thoughts on Torchwood’s success, Gareth said, “When I joined the project, I knew it was something special, just by the scripts. And I knew Russell (T. Davies) was involved, and I was a big fan of his. It has grown into something far beyond what I ever imagined. It’s a bit overwhelming at times, flattering, and I get flown over to beautiful countries like this.”

Torchwood’s success has prompted a move from BBC3 to the more mainstream, family-friendly BBC1, sparking some concerns that the tone of the show would have to be toned down for Series Three. Gareth reassured us that the move is a positive one, and will not change the tone of the show. “It is more family orientated, BBC1, but I think Torchwood will be going on at the post watershed time, so the adult themes are going to be there. I think within the BBC that it’s sort of a promotion. It’s more of a mainstream channel, and because of (Torchwood’s) popularity and the success, they felt it was worthy of BBC1, which is our main channel in the UK. So it’s a bit of a promotion for us, it’s really exciting.” He shared, “I’ve read the first script of the next season, which is the beginning of what is going to be one big storyline. All together, it’s going to be like a 5 hour film really. The tone, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t seem any more tame. It’s very much still Torchwood, Torchwood in the most vulnerable situations they’ve been in so far.”

The vulnerability Gareth mentions stems from the loss of two major characters at the end of Series Two, Owen (Burn Gorman) and Toshiko (Naoko Mori). Filming began this month for the abbreviated Series Three, consisting of five hour-long episodes as part of the re-launch on BBC1, a move that Gareth said will help establish its mainstream identity, and then they’ll revert to the standard 13 episode series.

I had the chance to ask Gareth about the departure of Owen and Tosh, particularly how he and his castmates found out that two major characters wouldn’t be returning, and their reactions to the news. He said it was near the end of filming Series Two. “It was a decision by Burn and Naoko to come and tell us they’d been made aware. It was ambiguous to me where the decisions came from or how they came about, but they decided to tell us. We were all sort of mortified, it came out of nowhere. It was just as surprising for us as it was to the fans, and the emotions that you see at the end of the series where we’re deleting their files and putting their things away, that this is all very real emotion because we had developed a family atmosphere. We were very close, spending that amount of time with somebody, you do naturally.” I was also curious to know that final episode required any additional preparation, knowing that Burn and Naoko were no longer going to be a part of the Torchwood family. “We tried to approach it the same way, but we tried to have a bit more fun behind the scenes because we knew they were leaving, and we knew we were going to miss them. So we tried to make as much of the time as possible while they were still there.”

Of course, Torchwood fans are curious to know who will replace Tosh and Owen, and if the replacement will happen as soon as Series Three. And apparently, at the end of the most recent season of Doctor Who, it was hinted that we may see both Martha and Mickey on Torchwood. Gareth was asked to comment on this possibility. “I can tell you that they’re both mentioned, but I can’t really divulge much more information beyond that really. Certainly their presence is going to be felt there. As far as two new members, I think we’re going to be joining (Torchwood) at a point where they’re still recruiting, they’re still very much feeling the loss of Tosh and Owen, that sort of adds to the vulnerability they I was talking about. As far as two new fully-fledged members, you’ll just have to wait and see.”