John Barrowman has written a book in the Torchwood story-world, which he thinks should serve as the basis for a new series.
Barrowman wrote the book along with his sister Carole. The book, entitled Exodus Code, follows the further exploits of the Torchwood protagonists, Jack and Gwen, immediately following the events of Miracle Day, the ten-episode mini-series which served as the show’s fourth series (season).
Not wanting to back down from having to save the entire world, the new story deals with another mysterious world-wide phenomenon. This time, all the women of the world are being driven insane by slowly heightening and confused senses. No female is able to trust what she sees hears or smells is real, and society is falling apart as scientists and doctors race to discover the cause.
Often I don’t trust canon stories written by show stars. It usually turns out to be more fan-fictiony than other official novels and novelizations. Carole, however, is a degree holding creative writer, which is a bit stronger credential that staring in the show that the novel is based on, though she’s only ever published books that she wrote with her brother – like: his memoirs, a Torchwood graphic novel, and another unrelated fiction novel which was published earlier this year.
So, the Barrowman siblings are happy with how this novel turned out, and John has suggested to the BBC that they use it as the basis for another Torchwood mini-series. It’s not entirely impossible. After all, the siblings worked with BBC Books on the novel, and BBC already owns all the rights to the story.
Unfortunately, no one is even sure that the show is coming back at all. Last we heard the BBC was still trying to decide if another series was warranted after Miracle Day proved out to have some pretty low numbers – and, frankly, was only okay – though it was much better than Children of Earth
If you’d like to pick up Exodus Code to see for yourself, it’s available now from BBC Books.
