And do we have to watch it concurrently with Doctor Who the way we watched Buffy and Angel? (Which made them take FOREVER especially when Buffy got really shitty.)
We’re on season 3 of the new Doctor Who. We just watched “Gridlock”. We figured somewhere in here we were supposed to start Torchwood, so we watched the first two episodes. Do they intersect? If so, do we have to watch one and then another?
The first season ender of Torchwood intersects with the third season ender of Doctor Who, likewise the second and fourth, respectively. Children of Earth (Torchwood season 3) can be watched at any time before the 2009 Who christmas special.
ETA: I should note that the series don’t overlap much aside from the finales, so don’t feel you need to watch Who-Torchwood-Who-Torchwood or anything to keep it straight.
Yes, I watched Torchwood without ever having watched much Doctor Who. I could follow everything although I think I missed a few references (e.g., Martha). I’ve tried to watch Doctor Who, but it’s kind of childish. Torchwood is a bit less so, and Children of Earth was, I thought, really good.
When it does intersect, is it Who first?
The End-of-Torchwood-Season-1 and EODWS3…I don’t think there’s too big a spoiler either way. I’d do Torchwood first though.
The End-of-Torchwood-Season-2 and EODWS4, you want Torchwood first. Otherwise you’ll have an awkward thought or two that will inevitably lead to spoilers.
-Joe
My advice is to skip *Torchwood *altogether. I am a big *Doctor Who *fan and I gave Torchwood a try for the first two seasons, but it was just overly grim, melodramatic, and poorly acted. VERY poorly acted. Like *Baywatch Nights *levels of suck. Even Captain Jack–who is a fun character when he appears in Doctor Who–is really painful to watch in Torchwood. There were a few good episodes, but it wasn’t worth it overall. And, as others have said, you really don’t need to watch *Torchwood *to keep up with Doctor Who.
Sorry, don’t mean to threadcrap–just want to warn you that you might find it pretty awful.
You know it seems to me they give these ball players now-a-days very peculiar names.
That made me lol. Good thing I wasn’t drinking anything
To summarize, series 1 of Torchwood takes place before the third series Doctor Who episode Utopia. Series 2 takes place in between series 3 and 4 of DW, and Children of Earth comes after S4.
And I’ll just take the one to take the opportunity to pop in and say I found Torchwood charming, goofy, and eminently watchable. It’s got its cheesy moments to be sure, but I think it’s self-aware enough not to hold that against them.
IIRC, I watched the entire run of Torchwood between Tenant’s penultimate special and his big finale. The plot overlap is minimal. Watching in Smapti’s order is going to line everything up nicely, but I’d argue it’s almost entirely unnecessary.
They don’t really need to be watched concurrently (the way you needed to watch Buffy season 4 and Angel season 1 at the same time), in fact it’s probably best to watch them as blocks in the following order:
Doctor Who series 2
Torchwood series 1
Doctor Who series 3
Torchwood series 2
Doctor Who series 4
Torchwood: Children of Earth
Doctor Who: the Specials.
(Which also happens to be the way they were originally aired.)
I’d probably just make sure you watched the final episode of Torchwood series 1 before you get to “Utopia” in Doctor Who season 3. But even if you don’t, it’s not really a big deal and it’ll all make sense.