Inside the Hub: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Torchwood [Paperback]

Stephen James Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2008

Torchwood. Protecting the Earth against alien threats in the 21st Century - the time when everything changes.

Created by Russell T Davies and starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper, Burn Gorman as Owen Harper, Naoko Mori as Toshiko Sato and Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones, Torchwood is dark and gritty, rain soaked and blood drenched, sexy and thrilling. Its first season covered subjects as diverse as a sex-addicted alien mist, a powerful Cyberwoman, a telepathy-inducing pendant, an invisible man and alien Weevils.

In this, the first factual book to be published on the series, noted TV historian Stephen James Walker charts the story of Torchwood, complete with character profiles, cast and production team information, behind-the-scenes details and a comprehensive guide to each of the 13 episodes, looking at the key elements and the many links to Doctor Who that permeate the show.

Inside the Hub is every fan's one-stop guide to the secret world of Torchwood.

"Published by Telos, who have obviously decided to corner the market in 'must have' television reference books" Sci-Fi-Online (about Triquetra)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen James Walker is one of the directors and co-owners of Telos Publishing Ltd. He started watching Doctor Who from the very first season, and soon became hooked! Stephen joined the original Doctor Who Fan Club in 1973, and has been actively involved in celebrating and writing about the series ever since.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Telos Publishing; 1 edition (September 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184583013X
• ISBN-13: 978-1845830137
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,659,283 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Inside the Hub: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Torchwood, April 25, 2009

By 

Ruth R. King "Bookish Ruth" (Spring City, PA , USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Hub: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Torchwood (Paperback)

Inside the Hub: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Torchwood chronicles the hit BBC series from the first announcement of the Doctor Who spin-off through the time that Series 1 aired in the UK. The book features many quotations from magazine and newspaper articles, biographies of the cast and crew, and a very thorough episode guide.

The episode guide and the section detailing the influence American science fiction shows (such as The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) on Torchwood are interesting and probably the best parts of the book. It's obvious that a lot of time and thought went into both of these sections.

Unfortunately, the book's flaws are more prominent than its attributes. Run-on sentences abound; the most egregious example of this is a 170-word sentence in the Introduction. There are no pictures, which I assume is due to the unauthorized nature of the work. The text is small and, at times, hard to read. The book often gets bogged down with minutiae; things like air dates for 30-second trailers are listed in detail.

With the exception of the episode guide, most of the content of the book is available elsewhere. There are many quotations from popular British magazines, British TV critic web sites, and even "fan reactions" taken from sites such as LiveJournal. As an American, it was interesting to see how the launch of the series was covered by the British press. While having all of this information collected into a single book is nice, I would have preferred more original content from the author.

I heartily recommend both The Torchwood Archives and Torchwood The Official Magazine Yearbook to Torchwood fans. Give Inside the Hub a miss.