John Barrowman demonstrated the passion for his show Torchwood which he talked about in part 1 of this interview by letting loose his inner geek in the Dealers Room at Comic Con 2011. According to what he told fans at the Torchwood panel, he spent about $2,000 satisfying his geeky collector’s soul – his favorite purchase this visit being an entire set of McDonald’s superhero plastic glasses.
At the roundtable press conference, a journalist made reference to the comic strip story Barrowman had written for the Torchwood magazine and asked if he wanted to write more of them. “I really want to do more,” Barrowman asserted. “In fact, my sister and I have written a Torchwood novel.” He suggested a visit to his website to find out the publishing dates because he didn’t remember them off the top of his head.
There are more collaborations between John Barrowman and his sister Carole E. Barrowman in the works. “My sister and I have done four fantasy books for children between the ages of 8 and 13. It’s a story about a brother and sister team and we’ve finished the first book, and now we’re working on the second one. So I am getting involved in stuff like that.”
Barrowman went on to say that he’d love to do another comic. “I’d love for there to be graphic novels of Torchwood. Honestly, I love this show. I love this character. I’m over the moon about its success and I want it to be in all these different… [media]. I want everyone to be a part of it.” At this point he paused and smiled charmingly. “That sounds really, really… like a child, doesn’t it? But you know what I mean, you want more of a good thing. More of a good thing.” Then he turned the tables on the journalist asking the question and inquired if he wanted to see more, promising to work on it after Comic Con.
Keeping Torchwood Storylines Straight
“Sometimes you forget,” John admitted when asked if he could keep the storylines straight. “And sometimes when you are doing it… that’s one thing about Eve and I when we’re working together, I may mention something to her, do you remember episode blah blah blah where this happened, where does that put us here?” Not only does he consult Eve if he’s unable to recall something about the storyline, he says they both have had dialogues with the directors they work with. “They’d ask us, particularly the new directors who are American. They trusted us an awful lot, saying: you know these characters inside and out, would they do this? And we would either be, yes, they would or no, they wouldn’t.”
Nevertheless, Barrowman does admit it’s hard to keep it all straight in his head. “Particularly since I’ve been playing Jack now for almost eight years -- having come from Doctor Who, and been in Doctor Who, and having that arc there and the new arc in Torchwood. But I love all that stuff. I love when I play something or see it in a script and go ‘oooh, how does that work out?’ I love all those… I don’t know what the word is that I’m looking for, all those little, little bits and bobs.”
When asked if he keeps a character diary, Barrowman shook his head no and revealed that it was all in his head. “I’m not one of those actors. I’m not what I call a wanky actor.”
Still, he understands those who do. “I get it. When I’m doing my scripts, I will take my script and make my notes on the sides and...” At this point, Barrowman paused to think and then reversed himself about this subject. “Actually, I tell a fib. Because if you’re thinking of my scripts as my notes, I have every script from my first episode of Doctor Who and I have all my notes, so I told you a fib. It’s not really a diary, but I’ve kept all those notes.”
However, when asked if he ever looks back at them, Barrowman laughed. “I haven’t looked back at them. So it’s not like a journal.”
Themes in Miracle Day
One of the interesting themes in Miracle Day deals with Captain Jack’s sudden mortality, because in the three prior series of Torchwood, Jack was immortal and saw it as a curse. In fact, his greatest wish was to be mortal.
“Well, it is,” Barrowman agreed. “But wait until you see what happens. Because here we’ve got a man who is now mortal, who for a long time was struggling with his immortality, but actually learns a lot about his immortality and who he really is and what he really wants during this series. And it’s not what you expect.”
Could he be any more cryptic?
When asked what themes he saw in Miracle Day, Barrowman was quick to say: “Well, it’s really about trusting his team. Whereas before he would do anything to save somebody or save the planet, he has to be a little more cautious because he can die. So he has to rely on Gwen and he has to rely on even Rex to help out, so there’s that vulnerability. There’s that fear that is there.”
Still, Captain Jack does trust, Barrowman insisted, even if he also does try to still put himself in the middle of the situation. And that was all he would say on the subject because he didn’t want to give too much away and spoil the viewing experience.
But before he moved on to another table, he did leave us with another cryptic hint to the end of the series. “Remember,” Barrowman said of Captain Jack, “he’s got the weight on his shoulders of what happened when he had to sacrifice his grandson. You’ve got another character Oswald Danes who killed a child but for a very different reason – a selfish, evil reason. Jack sacrificed a child to save humanity. They’re very similar.” The latter I find hard to believe.
Torchwood: Miracle Day is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions for Starz, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Worldwide It can be seen Fridays on Starz at 10pm ET/PT.
Crystal Taylor - I'm a writer of TV one-hour scripts, screenplays, novels, short stories, articles, and poetry. I'm most proud of a story (episode outline) ...
