Over there, you can get the goods on their teaser videos, long-form trailers, future episode synopses, featurettes, and a fun preview of the first episode. Starting tomorrow, you can also find recaps from yours truly. It’s a party!

Many people have already mentioned how high the production values look here. Compared to previous seasons of Torchwood, and especially to Doctor Who, this series looks downright extravagant. I mean, the weapons! The colors! The stunts! Ladies and gentlemen … I have a feeling we’re not in Cardiff anymore.

But once you look past the big-budget explosions and the fancypants sets, you’re left with the same characters we already know and love … and they are kicking some serious ass.

Don’t tell me you didn’t have to hold in a shriek at the first full-length shot of Captain Jack in his greatcoat or when Gwen punched the flight attendant (Dollhouse‘s Dichen Lachman!) in the face on behalf of Wales. Even though I’m proud to be an American, I can appreciate the need for these badass Brits to come over here and take charge in the event of extreme alien-related peril.

But it’s not all fun, games, and bazookas over here in the U.S. of A. I am most looking forward to the character development bound to happen in this series. At its heart, this is going to be a story about life, death, and what gets left behind. When the story is about a planet full of people who can’t die, it’s going to have serious implications for the character who’s been immortal all along. Jack’s feelings on the situation, as the sole character who can say “been there, done that,” along with the rest of his crew finally being able to sympathize, is going to stir up some major drama. I also wonder if they’ll allow Jack to express how unfair this situation is, considering that a worldwide get-out-of-death-free card would’ve really come in handy when Ianto and Steven were dying during the 456 invasion.

It’ll be interesting to see how heavily they rely on seasons past, considering that Starz is branding it as a “Starz Original Series” when I’m guessing there are plenty of Starz subscribers who’ve never seen (or heard of) the first three seasons.

Hopefully new viewers will be willing to go along for the ride, if only because of this shot in the trailer:

her name is anwen, but i shall call her dexter. // screen capture

Fringe, however, is really taking the cake these days.

Because while the parallel universe thing is a well-loved concept in a variety of media, the particulars of Fringe‘s dimension-jumping physics are directly out of the BBC’s Doctor Who.

Doctor Who first introduced a parallel reality in series two of the current incarnation, and it would become a major staple in the show’s canon for the rest of the Tenth Doctor’s journey.  In “Rise of the Cybermen,” The Doctor, Rose, and Rose’s boyfriend Mickey travel to a parallel world, slightly ahead of ours technologically and about to be taken down by Cybermen.  In the parallel world, Rose’s father, Pete Tyler, is still alive and incredibly wealthy, but her parents’ version of Rose is a puppy.  Though Rose and The Doctor only stay in the parallel world long enough to defeat the Cybermen (as it is very dangerous to travel between dimensions and could result in the complete collapse of time and reality), they re-encounter the parallel world in the series two finale, “Doomsday,” where Rose gets stuck in the parallel world, known by The Doctor as “Pete’s World.”

Okay, so in order to travel to a parallel world, you have to cross the “void,” the dark space between realities.  It’s a dangerous place.  When you go through the void, you get covered with “void stuff,” which makes you shimmer a little bit when viewed through 3D glasses.  Here’s The Doctor explaining:

Flashforward three years and Fringe is explaining the laws of their parallel-reality travel.  As children, certain people were subjected to a test of the drug Cortexiphan, which allows them to differentiate between things from our world and things from the parallel world.  This applies not just to people, but to anything that came from “over there.”  Conveniently, Agent Dunham was one of those children–in fact, the only one who could ever really differentiate.  It’s like she has the 3D glasses built into her brain.  And what happens when she sees something from the other world?  It glimmers.  Here’s their explanation:

Now, this I’ll write off as coincidence or healthy inspiration.  However, the (pardon the pun) parallels got way less subtle last night.

See, Doctor Who‘s parallel world, as I mentioned before, is slightly ahead of ours technologically.  They wear earpods which download information straight into their brains and they fly around in zeppelins.  Noticing the zeppelins is the first defining characteristic of the parallel world. Here’s what it looks like:

Crazy, right? Zeppelins! There’s a word you don’t hear every day.

Cut to last night’s Fringe.  Know what’s interesting about their parallel world?  They’re a little more technologically advanced than us.  And, hey, did you know what the observation deck of the Empire State Building was originally designed for?

That’s right. ZEPPELINS.  Walter looks through a portal to the other world and, to prove it’s parallel to the military guys observing, he shows them a zeppelin.  I’m sorry, but that is just TOO random to be a coincidence.  When’s the last time you had a conversation about zeppelins?  When’s the last time you heard a TV show mention zeppelins?  At least for me, before last night, it was, well, the last time I watched “Rise of the Cybermen.”

ZEPPELINS!  Come on.

Now, the final thing, which I’m happy to write off as a funny coincidence, is that the name for Doctor Who‘s parallel world is “Pete’s World” (here at :54, a continuation of the “void stuff” scene):

So, since we now know the details of where one Peter Bishop came from, can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE call Fringe‘s parallel universe “Pete’s World”?  It’s really only fair.

Meanwhile, having learned more valuable lessons from Doctor Who–Rose falls through the void and ends up trapped in Pete’s World–some of us (like Hannah) are beginning to worry that this season finale of Fringe will find either Peter or Olivia somehow trapped in Pete’s World.  It’s an interesting theory, but don’t worry.  Fox is developing an American version of Torchwood, and those guys can help build a dimension cannon.

could ianto be resurrected? // bbc promotional photo

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Fox has commissioned Russell T Davies to develop an American version of his hit British series Torchwood, a spinoff of Doctor Who which I am quite fond of.

At first glance, it’s a major epic flail.

Davies has signed on himself, along with Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, to bring Torchwood stateside, an unusual move for international series being adapted for America.  And according to THR, some of the cast, perhaps including John Barrowman, could be brought over to star in the series.

Spit-spot: tweet, change your GChat status, hurt your ankle jumping around the apartment.

Then pause.  Think about it.  Huh?

Now I have a lot of questions.

Does this mean that Torchwood is done in the UK?  Last I heard, season four was a go.  If the show is still going to continue in the UK and start up over here, and if Barrowman’s coming over, what does that mean for the canon of the series?  According to THR, “the U.S. version will contain a global story line compared to the more localized sensibility of the first two BBC seasons.”

This may be an ignorant question, but what stops networks like Fox from purchasing the rights to air standard Torchwood on our airwaves, just like Sky One in the UK and Global in Canada do?  Why develop whole new versions when the existing version is still thriving?  What would make more sense to me–and what I’d be trying to do were I a network executive–is forming partnerships between US and UK networks, in which, say, Fox helps significantly to fund production of Torchwood in exchange for the right to air the series stateside–and an agreement to take on more global storylines.

All of that said, I am cautiously intrigued about this venture.  And I definitely like the idea of America claiming John Barrowman.

Meanwhile, Tranter is also considering developing an American version of Doctor Who, which is the worst idea I’ve heard in my entire life.

And, finally, here’s this, because I like it.

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.