TORCHWOOD continues to fight off alien menaces and save the world on a weekly basis on BBC America. The popular spin off series from DOCTOR WHO has been one of the highest rates series for the network, and it continues to garner fantastic ratings in the UK. iF MAGAZINE got a chance to chat with Burn Gorman about the new second series of TORCHWOOD, and in this second part of the interview found out about WHO might be guest starring before the season is over, and more about the ever changing relationships of the TORCHWOOD team.
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iF MAGAZINE: So you’re a comic book geek, what kind of things coming up are you personally looking forward to?
BURN GORMAN: I’ve just got saliva in my mouth for the new BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT. I mean Heath Ledger’s death was so tragic and so unexpected, but he looks like he was absolutely brilliant in this film, and I love what Christopher Nolan has done with the movie. Then they’re also making WATCHMEN the movie which should be amazing!
iF: I just did an interview with Doug Jones a little while back for HELLBOY 2, which is another comic book movie that is coming out that should be spectacular.
GORMAN: Really? You interviewed Doug Jones? That guy is absolutely brilliant; he’s just amazing. The character he played in PAN’S LABYRINTH with the eyes in his hands was absolutely astounding! I would love to do work like that; just be covered with a latex suit and get to perform with my whole body. I would love to be those far out characters like that. What a great actor. Please pass on my deep regards to him the next time you talk to him, he probably doesn’t know anything about TORCHWOOD but I love him. [Laughs]
iF: So back to TORCHWOOD, how do you feel about the great response that your show has gotten from the American audience?.
GORMAN: I know the folks that went to the TCAS [Television Critics Association] and to Comic Con in San Diego were just blown away that people were even interested. We have this sense that we get such great imports from the States, we feel that we get all of the good stuff and we’re in awe of the stuff that comes over. I think we’re truly in awe of a lot of the teams of writers on shows like WEST WING, and things like that.
iF: Really? I have the same opinion but in the reverse. I love the stuff on BBC America and SCI FI Channel that is brought over from the UK.
GORMAN: [Laughs] So to you we’re the really good stuff being brought over, I get it. But, we just have a different way of things over here. The biggest thing is our budgets. TORCHWOOD is on a budget, that doesn’t even touch the DOCTOR WHO budget, so every episode is ‘what can we do with this budget.’ So the CGI that happens sometime it looks pretty ropy, and other times it looks fine, but it’s not completely relied on. So the focus is on other things like the characters. I’m excited about it and I’m really proud to be a part of this program.
iF: Plus you guys get to be toys this year.
GORMAN: I don’t know. I think it might happen with the others, but what kind of kid would want Owen as a toy?
iF: I know there are lots of adult collectors out there, and I think they would probably be pissed if the whole team wasn’t released.
GORMAN: Oh good, yeah oh cool. What’s the gadget that comes with Owen? I just hope it’s not the aphrodisiac spray because I have gotten nothing but stink for that. I can tell you Owen is a very pure individual and he only wanted to have a chat with that woman about BRIEF ENCOUNTER at her place. They’re going back there to talk about life. [Laughs] He would have some kind of alien thing.
iF: Yeah each member should come with an alien artifact from a specific episode. Maybe they can even have a Suzie figure with interchangeable heads so you can have the resurrected Suzie with the bullet hole..
GORMAN: [Laughs] That would be awesome. You know she deserves a figure too. Indira [Varma] is a wonderful person and a really great actress and it’s a shame they couldn’t find a way to bring her back for good. She’s like a Monty Python character, you cut her legs off and she’s still going to come after you and try to bite you. I think she’s still lurking somewhere, she’s escaped and shot to pieces, but I figure that we’ll meet up with her again when we least expect it.
iF: What do you want for Owen on down the road, because in the first season the most growth we saw was in the episode where he fell in love with Diane the pilot from the 1950’s who left him and flew back into the rift?
GORMAN: I think we needed to see some growth in Owen because the episodes were written out of sequence. We would shoot episodes 2 and 1 then shoot 4 and 6, and when you put it all together you realized that a lot of the time he just comes across as completely brittle and emotionally retarded. If anything for season two, I hope that his experiences have humanized him somewhat. He’s got a hard exterior and a soft interior and in series two we find out a lot why Owen is like that. We learn about his history and his gains and losses. We get a picture as to why he has this brittleness and the inability to speak about his emotions.
iF: Well, that leads me to my next question, is Owen interest in Toshiko in this season?
GORMAN: I wouldn’t want old Owen to get any where near Tosh, because he would spoil her. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in situations like this where you are in love with someone, but they have no idea they wouldn’t even entertain the notion. Me, I’m in my thirties now and occasionally I’ll see someone that I find very attractive and then I think that they wouldn’t even entertain the fact that I might have feelings for them. I think Owen is totally clueless about Tosh; maybe he knows she finds him attractive but I think it just goes over his head. So I think for series two their relationship is developed, but it’s one sided where Tosh thinks they might have a possibility of getting together but Owen just doesn’t entertain it. I will say that it is touched on in the second series. It’s not dealt with horridly, they come together as human beings and Owen really looks out for Tosh. There’s an episode where he warns her to be careful about falling in love, because he fell in love with Diane and she left, and Owen doesn’t want Tosh to go through the same thing and get hurt. I think all of the characters are looking after each other more, and it’s not about competition. It’s not love because that’s too strong, but they are genuinely caring for each other. He doesn’t intentionally hurt her anymore. He almost caused the end of the world by opening the rift and he really feels bad about that and is now trying to do the right thing. That may be more boring for Owen, but I think he’s grown up a bit.
iF: I have to ask, do you ever look over at Nako Mori and say, “Shut up Titicaca!”.
GORMAN: [Laughs] I want to sex him, I want to sex him! [Laughs] I tell you what, defiantly in scenes as much as I laugh; in series two we do not see Owen say “Shut up Titicaca!” I wish there was a place to say that. You know she is more like Titicaca than she would like to admit. [Laughs] She’s quite like her character you know, except she has a penchance for ten inch heels, so when she dresses up she means serious business.
iF: I’ve heard hints that there might be some more DOCTOR WHO crossover villains or characters besides Martha Jones this season. Can you confirm that at all?
GORMAN: I can tell you that there are definitely, it may be for the more obsessive fans, but there are crossovers from DOCTOR WHO. Obviously, there’s Freema [Agyeman] and towards the end of the season there are some, I don’t want to say old friends, but certainly there are some familiar faces, yeah. I would say that.
iF: How was having Freema on as a part of the TORCHWOOD team?
GORMAN: She is a really lovely girl and she comes on with no airs, we all got along very well, thankfully so there was absolutely no edge to it. I think Owen was weary of having another doctor around because he hasn’t got a lot going on outside of Torchwood, especially not now. His role defines him. He certainly wouldn’t go back to the National Health Service, now that he’s obsessed with policing aliens and such. Martha comes in so confident though and she has this back story with Jack that none of them are party to, and Jack calls the shots and says she is going to hang around and use Owen’s space. She very quickly becomes involved in the autopsy room sparring with Owen over who is right. What I did like it about it, was the new girl came in and the writers didn’t have Owen fancy her from the onset. It was less spiky than I thought it might be, they weren’t getting at each other all of the time. And in the other direction it wasn’t them flirting all of the time which would get a bit creepy. You don’t want Owen to being a letch over a girl who saved the world in DOCTOR WHO. Some very interesting and intriguing things happen with Martha and Owen that are a massive storyline and will be very interesting to watch.
iF: Did the writers ever discuss with you guys what Torchwood went through in the year that never happened on DOCTOR WHO?
GORMAN: Not a bean. I caught the DOCTOR WHO episodes where they talked about the Himalaya Expedition and I believe they are elaborating about that a bit online, but honestly we just came in as if we were back at work the next day. We weren’t party to that, we have our own theories. It was nice to be back after the six month break, and really it was great to just have fun again. I’m really lucky to do a job I love, I do appreciate it.
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