Illuminating Torchwood

Created in 2006 as a spinoff of Doctor Who, the internationally popular BBC television series Torchwood is a unique blend of science fiction and fantasy, with much more of an adult flavor than its progenitor. The series’ “omnisexual” protagonist, maverick 51st-century time agent Captain Jack Harkness, leads a team of operatives from the present-day Torchwood Institute, a secret organization dedicated to battling supernatural and extraterrestrial criminals. With its archetypal characters, adult language, subversive humor and openly homosexual and bisexual storylines, Torchwood provides a wealth of material for scholarly analysis and debate. Using Torchwood as its focal point, this timely collection of essays by a range of experts and enthusiasts provides an interpretive framework for understanding the continually developing forms and genres of contemporary television drama.

Andrew Ireland is the associate dean for undergraduate students in the Media School of the United Kingdom’s Bournemouth University. In 2004 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy.

Edited by Andrew Ireland

Series Editors Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 251
Bibliographic Info: notes, index
Copyright Date: 2010
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4570-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5560-7
Imprint: McFarland
Series: Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Acknowledgments      vii
Introduction—Reading the Rift (ANDREW IRELAND)      1

PART I: Narrative and Torchwood
One — Playing to the Crowd: Torchwood Knows We’re Watching
(ANDREW IRELAND)      11
Two — Existentialism and Christian Symbolism
(R. C. NEIGHBORS)      22
Three — Policing the Rift: The Monstrous and the Uncanny
(SUSAN J. WOLFE and COURTNEY HUSE WIKA)      30
Four — Touching the Other: Alien Contact and Transgressive Touch
(RIA CHEYNE)      43
Five — More Than Just a Hero’s Journey: Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, and Captain Jack Harkness
(VALERIE ESTELLE FRANKEL)      53
Six — Screwing Aliens and Screwing with Aliens: Torchwood Slashes the Doctor
(RICHARD BERGER)      66

PART II: Character and Torchwood
Seven — The Eternal Vigil: Captain Jack as Byronic Hero
(G. TODD DAVIS)      79
Eight — Gwen’s Evil Stepmother: Concerning Gloves and Magic Slippers
(VALERIE ESTELLE FRANKEL)      90
Nine — Transgressive Torch Bearers: Who Carries the Confines of Gothic Aesthetics?
(DANIEL J. RAWCLIFFE)      102
Ten — The Alien Woman: Othering and the Oriental
(CARRIE DUNN)      113
Eleven — Outside the Heroic Paradigm
(TOM POWERS)      121

PART III: Sexuality and Torchwood
Twelve — “Love the coat”: Bisexuality, the Female Gaze and the Romance of Sexual Politics
(CHRISTOPHER PULLEN)      135
Thirteen — Fashioning Masculinity and Desire
(SARAH GILLIGAN)      153
Fourteen — Sexual Relations and Sexual Identity Issues: Brave New Worlds or More of the Old One?
(SHERRY GINN)      165
Fifteen — “Loving the Alien”: The Erotics of Technology
(PAUL WINTERS)      181
Sixteen — Cyberwomen and Sleepers: Rereading the Mulatta Cyborg and the Black Woman’s Body
(ELSPETH KYDD)      191
Seventeen — No Consent Necessary: A Feminist Perspective on Non-Consensual Penetration
(CARRIE DUNN)      203
Eighteen — Out in Space: Masculinity, Sexuality and the Science Fiction Heroics of Captain Jack
(LEE BARRON)      213

Episode Guide      227
About the Contributors      231
Index      235