TV Digital Spy is reporting the "air" or rather upload date for Doctor Who spin-off Class and a bit of the mission statement which involves the Doctor appearing in the first episode. Creator Patrick Ness has stressed recently that this isn't a family show that it's directly for BBC Three's key demographic.
Welcome again to the Torchwood problem which is simply that we have a spin-off show for a programme ostensibly made for a family audience, which is designed to welcome in children and whose tone is no way designed to cater for that audience.
Then, Russell T Davies was clever enough to realise that having the Doctor show up in this show for older audiences was a poor idea for just this reason, because of pester power. I argued that having Captain Jack and Martha Jones in their did much the same thing but nevertheless.
Apparently loads of children have seen Torchwood, presumably helped by the slightly edited early evening repeats during the second year back in 2007. Yes, 2007. We're all so, so old. Torchwood is ten years old this year. Sorry about that.
Obviously its up to parents to decide what their children can tolerate but I don't think I'd show Torchwood to anyone under the age of at least fifteen and hence the Torchwood Problem. Gosh this is all a bit Mediawatch UK isn't it?
Class is supposed to be designed for a YA audience which is the age group of The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, a younger demographic than Torchwood was designed for. But I do think we're still in a bit of a grey area here.
Am I wrong? Perhaps I am. I have no children, I'm just thinking notionally about age groups and the kinds of material a figure like the Doctor can appear in. There's something quite precious about him being a hero for the family.
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