torchwood planning season four!

how are you going to go on? // bbc promotional photo

Russell T. Davies tells TV Guide Magazine that, barring any calamities, Torchwood will start filming season four early next year:

The recession has hit British television, but fingers crossed, it will be a go. We expect things to start to move in January. We’ve got great ideas for the show. I think there’s a further lease on life for many years to come, but certainly for a [fourth season].

After the absolutely epic “Children of Earth” miniseries, which aired in America over the summer and absolutely captivated me while it was on and in the days weeks months after (okay, I still think about it all the freaking time), it’s hard to imagine how the series will continue.  A critical part of the ensemble, Ianto Jones, died tragically, and Gwen Cooper was about to become a mom, when last we saw her.

Even though it’s really hard to picture a Ianto-less Torchwood, it’s also exciting to see what they come up with post-”Children of Earth.”  I think it really demonstrated two things: (1) that good science fiction relies on outlandish stories to tell simple ones, about honor and duty and sacrifice and death and love and family and fear, and (2) that Russell T. Davies may be the most ruthless showrunner in the history of television.  I wish that Desperate Housewives‘s Marc Cherry had the balls to kill off kids the way that RTD does.

Those two things really make for entertaining television, because there were at least three plot points in “Children of Earth” that I had never seen on television before. SO GOOD.

So here’s to season four!  ”Children of Earth” will be a tough act to follow, but I’m definitely on board.