Gareth confirms...

[schoie68]

Not sure if this has been posted elsewhere but[spoiler:xejlqb8y]Gareth has confirmed on his website that he's out of Torchwood.[/spoiler:xejlqb8y]

His latest post states:
[spoiler:xejlqb8y]"I want to say thank you to everyone who's supported me throughout my time on Torchwood, and especially to everyone who's sent encouraging messages to me here in the last few days.

Torchwood: Children Of Earth was an amazing piece of TV. I got an exit I can be proud of, a job I really enjoyed over the past few years and I'd be honoured to work with anyone from the cast and the production side again on other projects in the future.

Ianto changed and grew a lot over the three seasons and your support was part of what made that possible. I'm looking forward to new projects and to meeting many of you at gigs and other events in the future. Keep watching!"

I'm a bit confused when he says "I'd be honoured to work with anyone from the cast and the production side again on other projects in the future" whether that means he'd come back if asked.....someone ask him, please!!, to come back.[/spoiler:xejlqb8y]

[Timeless-II]

[mod="Timeless-II":d6soeonn]Spoiler tags added to the first post, as it is visible on the forum home page[/mod:d6soeonn]

[ElectroxGirl]

Already here (http://www.torchwoodforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=10987)

[Timeless-II]

Already here (http://www.torchwoodforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=10987)


[mod="Timeless-II":3c0l9dwg]That topic has now been locked[/mod:3c0l9dwg]

[emz.buckley]

[spoiler:uhjqk3qj]I think what we can take from this is, at this moment in time, we have no idea of what is going to happen. We have no idea if there will be a season and if so, what that has planned. So it is basically saying that at this moment in time, he is out of TW, however, if there was a chance to come back and work with them again he would be happy to do it. If they don't bring him back then he is happy with the way it happened. He is also saying that just because he isn;t in TW anymore doesn;t mean that we won;t see him again.

Things are still up in the air and anything is possible. Its all about waiting and seeing, which is something i hate doing. lol.[/spoiler:uhjqk3qj]

[Lennon]

[spoiler:3rart35o]Oh no he didnt! Give us a reason! :cryin:[/spoiler:3rart35o]

[emz.buckley]

[spoiler:gy1fijez]Oh no he didnt! Give us a reason! :cryin:[/spoiler:gy1fijez]
[spoiler:gy1fijez]He didn't chose to leave, RTD wrote him out. Its in the declassified eps on the DVD.[/spoiler:gy1fijez]

[Lennon]

[spoiler:d8i008jz]Oh no he didnt! Give us a reason! :cryin:[/spoiler:d8i008jz]
[spoiler:d8i008jz]He didn't chose to leave, RTD wrote him out. Its in the declassified eps on the DVD.[/spoiler:d8i008jz]

:resent:

[Rory]

Our protests shall bring him back!

[emz.buckley]

Our protests shall bring him back!

Damn right they will.

[airliebird01]

[spoiler:rbn9d66m]do you know , maybe i am an optamist , but i actually got a glimmer of hope from this , at least it did'nt say any thing about there definatly being no more torchwood , ok i do know he is probably not the person who can say that ! but we all know the dr who universe has used the reset button before ! hey call me an optamist ...............or i am in denial !!![/spoiler:rbn9d66m]

[spoiler:1we3qlka]Well there goes Jack and Ianto's relationship that's all I can say! :shout:[/spoiler:1we3qlka]

[schoie68]

When I first read his message, my instant reaction was that he's hinting he would come back if asked. I'm an ex-journo and that message was very carefully worded to be ambiguous. The fact that he mentioned he's be happy to work with the cast and crew again is a dead give-away...no need to even mention that if he wasn't interested in being "ressurected". He could have simply thanked them. He has to be careful about outwardly encouraging us, so that he can keep The Beeb onside, but I think the choice to leave was not his. It was a beautifully constructed "hint" to us that our work is not unappreciated. Whether we have a hope in hell is another matter. All we can do is try. Besides, all this support for him will surely make other writers etc stand up and take notice, and even if he doesn't come back to TW, we can only hope they give him another series...and soon.
And by the way, hooray to the "older" fans who are showing their support. I'm a very young 40 and I love Gareth/Ianto. He crosses all ages...not just the teenagers.
We love you Gareth....help is on the way!

[JUDE]

I believe there is alway hope. Maybe this is what RTD wanted everyone talking about Torchwood and he certainly has got it.

If we even got a glimmer of hope that Ianto might appear on the Christmas Dr Who or in Series Four how many of us would be watching, the ratings would go through the roof.

I am still living in hope, if Captain jack is too come back, he as to have a reason and Ianto is the only possible reason why he would come back ans start to live again

[kolo]

Let the poor bloke move on! :lol:

[Meef]

Doctor Who's rating already go through the roof and they did so with out Ianto. It would be the death , the regeneration and a glimpse of the new Doctor that brings the ratings in. There are by far more Doctor Who fans world wide then Torchwood. I think by what Gareth said that he is ready to move on. Besides with John's schedule and Eve having a baby, we won't get any new Torchwood for quite sometime.

I wish Gareth all the Happiness in the world. And a Brillant Career!

[JUDE]

Why should we. I know everyone says that this RTD creation and he can do whatever he likes with it. But everyone seems to have forgotten one thing, without the fans there would be no Torchwood, it would have been cancelled after the first series. So while in part it does belong to RTD it also belongs to us and it is not just Torchwood we love it is also the characters that we grew to love and I myself loves the partnership that was Jack and Ianto.

After loosing two of the major characters at the end of Series two, it was just too soon to loose Ianto as well, espically with everything else that happen in COE. At the end there seemed to be no hope at all for Jack everything we knew and loved had been destroyed within him.

So if some of the fans feel that the only way to bring Jack back is for him to get Ianto back, why cannot we not believe and hope for that. There enough depressing things in real life, why can we not have a bit of hope and faith in fantasy.

[Torchwood Institute]

Obviously the writers have the right to create whatever story they like, we are wanting good stories after all. But it's coming up to a week now and I'm still very, very confused as to why they thought it'd be a good idea to kill Ianto off! Makes me think that if Jack was able to die they'd have killed him too!

I know my chances aren't great but I'm still holding out hope he'll be back somehow, he's just too awesome not to be :)

And I'll still be keeping my eyes open for anything Gareths in, he's an amazing actor so I look forward to seeing him in other things. I still need my GDL fix even if it's not coming from Torchwood :D

Hopefully he'll still do conventions and stuff, I might be going to see him in September but I'd love to be able to go to a bigger, proper convention like the Hub or something when I get my car, and hopefully he'll be there when I do :)

[Meef]

You can have all the hope you want. That is you right. RTD is under no obligation to the fans, it is his story and he can do what he wants with it. For every one fan he may forfeit, he gains another.

[kolo]

Torchwood isn't made for the hardcore fans, it's made for the millions of casual viewers that tune in.

[JUDE]

I seem to remember that the "hardcore Fans" were not happy with the ending of David Tennant first series of Dr Who, the one were Rose is trapped in a alernative reality and it seems that she and the Doctor will never see each other again.

But look what happen Rose was able to cross back over and she even managed to get a "Dr"

[kolo]

I seem to remember that the "hardcore Fans" were not happy with the ending of David Tennant first series of Dr Who, the one were Rose is trapped in a alernative reality and it seems that she and the Doctor will never see each other again.

But look what happen Rose was able to cross back over and she even managed to get a "Dr"

I doubt that was influenced that much by the fans. It's the minority of viewers are fans, the majority are just casual viewers.

Doctor Who fans are never happy, doesn't mean the show is shaped around them.

[Rory]

If you don't please the fans, there really is no point in the show is there?

I mean I understand the casual viewers part but what do they care if Ianto dies?

[emz.buckley]

If you don't please the fans, there really is no point in the show is there?

I mean I understand the casual viewers part but what do they care if Ianto dies?

Its not the viewers that make the show, its the fans. The fans buy the stuff and make the show money. You piss of the fans, you lose the money there for you lose the show. It is what happened to Enterprise, people said when it first came out to get rid of the writer because of what they did in Voyager, they didn;t and carried on so the star trek fans didn;t buy anything related to it and it didn;t last that long. They tried to fix it but by that time, it was already being cancelled. Merchendias with scifi shows and films makes them. People like it, they buy things related to it, the networks make money, if you hack fans off they won't touch it with a stick.

It wasn;t RTD that made the show jump channels, it was the fans. They watched the show, they bought the books, cd's and dvd's, they made torchwood and what he doesn;t remember is that we can make a show and we can break a show, it doesn;t matter who the hell he is or what he does, if you piss off the fans and they don;t bother about it anymore, there will be no more, even if he is RTD. He's like JMS with B5, Branana Bragher with Enterprise and Voyager, and George Lucas with Star Wars, they do all of this and piss off the fans but it won't matter and its there idea and people will like it because it is them but they find out very rapidly that it doesn;t matter if they get millions of viewers, without the fans, they are nothing.

[kolo]

If you don't please the fans, there really is no point in the show is there?

I mean I understand the casual viewers part but what do they care if Ianto dies?

The writers don't write things thinking "Oh this will make the fans happy!" they write a good show. That's it. They don't give the fans a second thought.

We are fans of the show, not the creators.

[* laurie *]

i agree writers dont right a show thinking 'now what will the fans like??' the shows theres and they can do what they like with it because they made it in the first place they gave it us so its up to them at the end of the day

and yeah the fact of the rose being stuck in the parallel world example, i remember watching or reading that RTD always planned to bring her back anyway to give her her doctor 2 so i doubt it was down to the fans, plus alot of people were happy about her being stuck there too hahaha! it just the case of you cant always please every single person so the writers do what they want with the story

[mattpittaway]

Let the poor bloke move on! :lol:
i am going to agree with amy here let him move on if he wants

[JUDE]

I am sure a lot of fans would let Gareth move on, if that was what he had decided for himself. But the truth of the matter is that it was not his decision.

[U.N.I.T.]

If you don't please the fans, there really is no point in the show is there?

I mean I understand the casual viewers part but what do they care if Ianto dies?

The writers don't write things thinking "Oh this will make the fans happy!" they write a good show. That's it. They don't give the fans a second thought.

We are fans of the show, not the creators.You really think writers don't give fans a second thought? Surely that would be rather dumb? They may not agree with fans, or cater to their desire but if they simply discard the thoughts of the fan base, they'd be casting aside a wealth of ideas and endangering their own careers in some cases by not creating something that people will watch and then come back to watch again!

I don't believe that the Torchwood writers would be so ignorant of the people who keep the show alive between series.

[kolo]

If you don't please the fans, there really is no point in the show is there?

I mean I understand the casual viewers part but what do they care if Ianto dies?

The writers don't write things thinking "Oh this will make the fans happy!" they write a good show. That's it. They don't give the fans a second thought.

We are fans of the show, not the creators.You really think writers don't give fans a second thought? Surely that would be rather dumb? They may not agree with fans, or cater to their desire but if they simply discard the thoughts of the fan base, they'd be casting aside a wealth of ideas and endangering their own careers in some cases by not creating something that people will watch and then come back to watch again!

I don't believe that the Torchwood writers would be so ignorant of the people who keep the show alive between series.

No, I don't think they do think about the "fans". They think about the general viewing public and how they are going to get more viewers. CoE proved this, 9million tuned in to watch it, a small percentage of that would have been considered "fans" of the show, the rest are just casual viewers.

RTD stated in an interview that he thinks the mistakes a lot of American writers make is to interact with their fanbase too much, therefore allowing it to shape the future of the show. Which is why the BBC Doctor Who forums were closed down.

[becs]

i only watched episode 4 and 5 today and am so sad and shocked.It ruined the series for me and cried for ages.I get the writers like to shock and change the show but it was the torchwood of season 1 and 2 that i love about the show.Season 3 was a great storyline and well done to all involved though.

becs xx

[Meef]

I seem to remember that the "hardcore Fans" were not happy with the ending of David Tennant first series of Dr Who, the one were Rose is trapped in a alernative reality and it seems that she and the Doctor will never see each other again.

But look what happen Rose was able to cross back over and she even managed to get a "Dr"

I doubt that was influenced that much by the fans. It's the minority of viewers are fans, the majority are just casual viewers.

Doctor Who fans are never happy, doesn't mean the show is shaped around them.

OMG I think I broke something laughing with that. Kolo how very true. So very true!

[audrey]

i heard he's engage.. i guess he too would want to step aside from gay role in torchwood.. not that i'm homophobic! i actually love janto story...

just thought maybe he wouldn't wan't it to be awkward for his bride,.

but honestly... i wan't him back! :) i cried when he was killed of at COE day 4. he's so great in torchwood!

[barnsleyman]

If you don't please the fans, there really is no point in the show is there?

I mean I understand the casual viewers part but what do they care if Ianto dies?

The writers don't write things thinking "Oh this will make the fans happy!" they write a good show. That's it. They don't give the fans a second thought.

We are fans of the show, not the creators.You really think writers don't give fans a second thought? Surely that would be rather dumb? They may not agree with fans, or cater to their desire but if they simply discard the thoughts of the fan base, they'd be casting aside a wealth of ideas and endangering their own careers in some cases by not creating something that people will watch and then come back to watch again!

I don't believe that the Torchwood writers would be so ignorant of the people who keep the show alive between series.

No, I don't think they do think about the "fans". They think about the general viewing public and how they are going to get more viewers. CoE proved this, 9million tuned in to watch it, a small percentage of that would have been considered "fans" of the show, the rest are just casual viewers.

RTD stated in an interview that he thinks the mistakes a lot of American writers make is to interact with their fanbase too much, therefore allowing it to shape the future of the show. Which is why the BBC Doctor Who forums were closed down.

You're correct, it would be foolish to make a show just to please the fans. That's what happened in many ways with classic Doctor Who towards the end of the 80's it seemed to play to the fans, and it lost the general public. The main people who the writers and producers should seek to please and grab the attention of are the general viewing public who may or may not watch an episode of Torchwood. It should seek to grab their attention so that they will watch and then tune in again another night.

If it is well written, well produced and well acted then the casual viewer will care about the characters. They will engage with the story and hopefully will tune in again. These are the viewing public that will either make or break the series. If the viewing figures are there then another series is more likely. If they are not there and only the hardcore fans tune in... It's very unlikely there will be another series commissioned.

So it's totally the right move to plan any series Torchwood, Doctor Who or anything else not mainly with the fans in mind but the general viewing public. That is actually why Doctor Who was such a tremendous hit on its return because although many of the people now producing the show itself grew up as fans they didn't aim the series to please fans but to grab the attention of the general population, the trap that Doctor Who in the 80's made. There were occasional hints to the fans and still are, but these never should get in the way of the story, they should always be very subtle and if you don't get them it shouldn't make any difference to your enjoyment of the story.

[EyeCandy]

I think all the opinions are great and yeah the writers don't think about the happiness of the fans, but I was thinking and here's my opinion:

If they found a way to give Rose and the Doctor a happy ending in the end of series 4, why they cant gave Jack and Ianto is happy ending too?... Well is my opinion, and being honest the writers should heard the Torchwood fans, cause without the fandom the series is probably just another show on tv...

[JUDE]

Totally agree, there has to be some way that he can come back. Look at the scope of stories that you could have, you could have major Jack angst, he could be so happy to have Ianto back, but then be so scared to start up a relationship again. Or Ianto could come back and no memory of his time at Torchwood or Jack, perhaps all he can remember is after the descruction of Torchwood 1..

There are endless possibilities for stories

[EyeCandy]

Yeah that's what I said, a lot of ways to put drama on the series! Why they killed Ianto, in my opinion is just a way to push Jack out of the show too... You really think that Jack is going to come back? Being honestly I doubt, the earth always will remind him what have him done to his daughter, and Ianto and Tosh and Owen and all...

[Meef]

Or Ianto doesn't come back and Jack does and remembers him in flash backs. And Why wouldn't Jack not come back to the Earth? He needs to heal.

[blaid drwg]

i heard he's engage.. i guess he too would want to step aside from gay role in torchwood.. not that i'm homophobic! i actually love janto story...

just thought maybe he wouldn't wan't it to be awkward for his bride,.

You havn't met Gemma have you? :big_grin:

[Roqui]

If you don't please the fans, there really is no point in the show is there?

I mean I understand the casual viewers part but what do they care if Ianto dies?

The writers don't write things thinking "Oh this will make the fans happy!" they write a good show. That's it. They don't give the fans a second thought.

We are fans of the show, not the creators.You really think writers don't give fans a second thought? Surely that would be rather dumb? They may not agree with fans, or cater to their desire but if they simply discard the thoughts of the fan base, they'd be casting aside a wealth of ideas and endangering their own careers in some cases by not creating something that people will watch and then come back to watch again!

I don't believe that the Torchwood writers would be so ignorant of the people who keep the show alive between series.

No, I don't think they do think about the "fans". They think about the general viewing public and how they are going to get more viewers. CoE proved this, 9million tuned in to watch it, a small percentage of that would have been considered "fans" of the show, the rest are just casual viewers.

RTD stated in an interview that he thinks the mistakes a lot of American writers make is to interact with their fanbase too much, therefore allowing it to shape the future of the show. Which is why the BBC Doctor Who forums were closed down.

You're correct, it would be foolish to make a show just to please the fans.

you're right, it would be foolish to make a show just to please the fans.

but it would be even more foolish for writers and the producers not to give a second thought about the fans. why, you might ask. it's simple: MERCHANDISE. while good screenwriting and production can generate good viewing numbers (consisting of mostly non-fans), the general public wouldn't spend a dime on the show. fans, however, would. a film's or series' merchandise is often where the big bucks lie. it often happens that merchandise brings in more money than a film's boxscore. and TW is the kind of a show that has loads and loads of merchandise that generates much more than what the BBC gets by selling the series to TV networks across the globe. and to alienate the fans is in that case a MAJOR deal. you cannot afford it, because the fans are those who will continue to spend big bucks on every little thing that is connected with the show even long after the series stopped airing on the telly. and you want to keep the fans relatively happy, otherwise you can kiss those $ good-bye.

[kolo]

i heard he's engage.. i guess he too would want to step aside from gay role in torchwood.. not that i'm homophobic! i actually love janto story...

just thought maybe he wouldn't wan't it to be awkward for his bride,.


You know there's this thing called "acting"? It's where people pretend to be someone they are not.

[barnsleyman]

you're right, it would be foolish to make a show just to please the fans.

but it would be even more foolish for writers and the producers not to give a second thought about the fans. why, you might ask. it's simple: MERCHANDISE. while good screenwriting and production can generate good viewing numbers (consisting of mostly non-fans), the general public wouldn't spend a dime on the show. fans, however, would. a film's or series' merchandise is often where the big bucks lie. it often happens that merchandise brings in more money than a film's boxscore. and TW is the kind of a show that has loads and loads of merchandise that generates much more than what the BBC gets by selling the series to TV networks across the globe. and to alienate the fans is in that case a MAJOR deal. you cannot afford it, because the fans are those who will continue to spend big bucks on every little thing that is connected with the show even long after the series stopped airing on the telly. and you want to keep the fans relatively happy, otherwise you can kiss those $ good-bye.

It's not fair to say that the writers and producers don't give a second thought to the fans, but that doesn't mean they should do everything they suggest, that would be a disastrous way to continue any TV show.

Why do the fans enjoy the show? The same reason that a casual member of the public enjoys it... Because it's well written, well produced, and well acted. The formula is the same for a good show whether or not you're a 'fan' or not.

I didn't agree with the idea of killing Ianto off, but now he's been killed off the producers and writers have to have the credibility to stick by their decision. It would be a bad idea to bring him back. It would lessen the impact of such a powerful storyline. Bringing back characters who have died has been used occasionally, but it should be done very sparingly. It happed with Jack on Doctor Who and thus he became indestructible. It happened with Owen in series 2 before he was killed off again. But if this is done again and again it would become silly. You can't keep on bringing back characters who have been killed off without is lessening the impact of such powerful storylines as happened on COE.

The storyline was powerful and that is evidenced by the amount of discussion on these pages. If the writers and producers took all their lead from the idea on these pages, and every time a decision upset a few people (such as Ianto death) then the long term effect would be that the fans wouldn't actually be pleased.... Because it would result in weak, badly written storylines. stotylines that just pander to the fans would in the long run please neither fans or the general public. Because the thing that draws both is good well written drama.

Have you seen Heroes? Virtually every character on that show has been killed off...Numerous times. Every week virtually, a character is killed off only to be brought back to life. I can only recall 1 major character on that show who has died and stayed dead... well it's sci fi so they can do it... But it lessens the impact. If someone dies it doesn't have an impact, it doesn't shock you, because you know the chances are very,very likely that next week they will be brought back to life.

So while I didn't think killing Ianto off was the best idea at the time, I think that an even worse idea would be to bring him back alive again. It would diminish the impact of the show, and would make for lazy writing and lazy viewing. Torchwood by the very nature of the show is not a show that often has a happy ending, it may on occasion but that is the exception rather than the rule. That's the show we enjoy, that's the show we like to be challenged by. I'm sure we're all grown up enough to allow such a show to challenge us even if some of the things that happen don't bring a happy ending.

[piper1921]

hi. i think ianto will come back some how. it be glad he came back and he don,t remeber working there or remeber jack at all. so jack keeps pushing him away and not talking to him because he scared to get close to him ad then lose him again. but slowly Ianto getting his memony back and then gets it back fully and say something funny and jack knows he got it back and then there both happy together and work together. and there are starting to film soon thats what john said in a interview so gwen must only be in it a little bit a first.

[REWBOB]

Bring Ianto back!!!!!!!!!! :beg:

[Sqyd]

I have no doubt they will bring Jack back. However I think that at least RTD wants it to be a "serious" show, putting the emphasis on analogies on contemporary politics, like in CoE. Imo, it would be a huge mistake. CoE had some great bits of writing, and of course excellent acting, but overall it was as uneven as either of the previous seasons. TW has never been a great show, but a great crack. I was always willing to overlook the junk science, plot holes and uneven writing in exchange for the crack, but when that's snatched away, what's left?

[originality]

i so hope that he comes back.

[blaid drwg]

I have no doubt they will bring Jack back. However I think that at least RTD wants it to be a "serious" show, putting the emphasis on analogies on contemporary politics, like in CoE. Imo, it would be a huge mistake. CoE had some great bits of writing, and of course excellent acting, but overall it was as uneven as either of the previous seasons. TW has never been a great show, but a great crack. I was always willing to overlook the junk science, plot holes and uneven writing in exchange for the crack, but when that's snatched away, what's left?
Excellent point. This kind of argument was talked about re: Doctor Who at the SFX weekender about how you can over look the dodgy science for engaging chracters and some great entertainment.