This year, acclaimed sci-fi writer, Jane Espenson, penned or co-penned many of the Torchwood:Miracle Day episodes. It marked the first time an American had so much massive input into the storyline.
There’s been a lot of debate online as to how effective this current season of Torchwood has been. As a generality, fans have been more attached to the latter episodes than the beginning. Many found the season “draggy” or lacking in chemistry. So where does writer Jane Espenson fit into all of this? End of Show just talked to her about her Torchwood experience and plans for the future.
EOS : What did you personally add to the story?
JE : The moment in episode three with the Jack/Gwen phonecall in the middle of the night, that wasn’t originally there but I knew that as soon as Russell saw it he would know it belonged there. There were other thoughts and notions along the way that I added, but I feel like I contributed a lot more once my fingers were on the keys than when we were breaking story. There might be big things that I contributed that I’ve forgotten, my memory is like a fly.
EOS : Russell would often re-write things on Doctor Who, did you find that your writer’s ego could cope with that on Torchwood?
JE : He let my words go right out! (Laughs) Not really, there were some episodes where he re-wrote a lot, obviously episode ten (the finale) where we co-wrote it. ‘Co-wrote’ really means that I wrote a draft and then he wrote a draft over mine and I think that was the only way we could have done that script. But that’s how it should be. The other episodes I was given a lot of authority to keep going in and doing another re-write from his notes. In episode seven we went through a lot of drafts because he kept saying “go deeper – make me cry”. And if you do that enough times he doesn’t have to go in and re-write. I was actually thrilled with how many of my words got to the screen.
See the full interview on End of Show.
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