I agree with John Barrowman.

[a_stone_angel]

Cutting the imminent series of Torchwood down to five-eps-five-nights-in-a-row is a cop out. And one great big storyline straddling it all? Unless it's unbelievably spectacular I think I'm going to feel cheated. If it is amazing, then I don't think five episodes is going to be enough, BBC stupids

Comments

[ralst]

Five episode, week long stories can work very well, IF the storyline is up to the challenge. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But this type of thing is usually reserved for mini-series and one-off productions instead of ongoing shows, where it's just going to make people mad that they've been cheated out of seven/eight more episodes. I mean, if they wanted to do a big story arc thing, why not schedule two, a couple of months apart, so we still end up with roughly the same number of episodes as normal?

The Beeb also cut Spooks down to eight episodes last year, and despite it being a great series, I still felt cheated.

[a_stone_angel]

That two separate story arcs idea sounds great! Or maybe four or five two-parters, spread over a few months? It irks me they are calling what they are going to do a 'series'
Looks like Russell T. Davies is responsible for the overall arc of 'Children of Earth' and some of the writing, although there is collaboration. It may feel a bit 'stretched out' - I guess we'll see.