Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television

Torchwood started its life on television as a spin-off from Doctor Who, bringing Captain Jack to join new colleagues in a television series that quickly established itself as fresh and watchable television. Its fourth series, subtitled 'Miracle Day', also moved from the niche channel of BBC3 to metamorphose into an international production between the BBC and the US network Starz. Torchwood has continued to entertain, provoke and attract large audiences and an expanding fandom. This is the first critical celebration of Torchwood across its four series, considering issues of representation, as well as the fandom that surrounds the show and its complex contexts. Focusing in particular on how the meanings and understandings of cult television have shifted and become subject to technological, industry and marketing changes in recent years, Torchwood Declassified explores aspects of the show including its aesthetics and branding, its use of tropes from the horror genre, vast tie-in merchandise, status as a spin-off, the nature of a celebrity that is both cult and mainstream, as well as the use of sound and music, and Torchwood's connection to place and location.