Some writers tinker around the edges with their shows, but Russell T Davies, the creator of 'Torchwood,' is not one to play it safe. For the acclaimed 'Torchwood: Children of Earth,' which aired in 2009, Davies redesigned the sci-fi thriller as a short-run miniseries to make it more accessible to newcomers. It worked: The propulsive 'Children of Earth' was a hit for the BBC worldwide.

This season, the drama will change networks in the U.S. -- it debuts on Starz July 8 -- and creatively speaking, Davies is not letting 'Torchwood' rest on its laurels. In the interview below, Davies speaks in depth about the changes he'll unveil in 'Torchwood: Miracle Day,' which stars John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Mekhi Phifer, Lauren Ambrose and Bill Pullman.

There's a doozy of a surprise involving Captain Jack Harkness, but don't worry, I've put that very spoilery stuff at the end of the interview, in case you don't want to see it. If you've never seen 'Torchwood' but want to know more about the show, or if you're a fan of past seasons, it's safe to read on.

'Torchwood,' which follows a team that battles alien threats to Earth, has always taken risks -- just ask the fans who are still in mourning over characters killed in past seasons. Though he clearly likes to keep people guessing, Davies doesn't do that sort of thing just for shock value (though some viewers might dispute that). For my money, one of the things that makes the series interesting is that Davies doesn't like to repeat himself. The first two seasons of 'Torchwood' gave viewers a collection of 26 mostly standalone episodes that were hit or miss in terms of quality, though the characters were usually compelling.

Davies realized the 13-episode season wasn't quite working for the 'Doctor Who' spinoff, so he threw out that format, came up with a daring central concept, and wrote five tightly serialized hours for 'Children of Earth.' The results, despite some wobbles at the end, put the show on the radar of many critics and viewers who hadn't paid much attention to it before. [Update: A commenter below makes the point that Davies wasn't the one who came up with the miniseries format -- a 5-episode season was something that the BBC wanted. That point is well taken, and, to clarify, my goal here was to point out that Davies very much embraced to the serialized-season and/or miniseries format and realized it was a better fit for the show.]

The good news is, you don't need to have seen previous seasons to jump into 'Torchwood: Miracle Day,' much of which was shot in Los Angeles and takes place on a global stage. The new season has a mostly new cast, aside from Eve Myles, who plays former Welsh policewoman Gwen Cooper, and John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness. When the new season begins, events take place months after the Torchwood team disbanded following the destruction of their home base at the end of 'Children of Earth.'

That move was of a piece with Davies' desire to keep the characters at least a little off balance. Some shows, especially those in the sci-fi or fantasy realms, keep giving powers, abilities and resources to their characters, whereas Davies is quite interested in seeing how characters react when things are taken away from them.

"The problem was, they kind of became unstoppable," Davies said of the show's previous incarnations, in which Torchwood had governmental funding and resources. "Every problem solved itself just by the strength of Torchwood. Going back to 'Children of Earth,' the biggest decision was to deliberately blow up the base and strip them of all their assets."

"The toys are gone and all the backing is gone," added Davies. "They're literally street rats, off the grid. They are against the law, against the establishment, against the system, but they are right. That's what's great about them."

The first part of the interview below is not spoilery, but it assumes that you know one of the premises of the new season of 'Torchwood' -- and the show informs the viewer of this premise a few minutes into the first episode of the 10-episode season. That premise is...

One day, everyone on Earth stops dying. There's an additional big twist that is unveiled the new season, but the information about that is at the end of the interview, and you'll get a spoiler warning before you get to that part.

The interview below has been edited and condensed.

Maureen Ryan: So this is your first time making a show in the U.S.?
Russell T Davies: Yes.

So has it been really different?
It's funny because, you know, I've been making [TV] for decades and this is the first time in America. I think once the whole thing's over, I'll come back to you with a good answer, a concrete answer.

There is that thing of "two countries divided by a common language," because so many things are similar and so many things are different, but in the end, the script is a script, a crew is a crew, actors are actors. It's kind of the same job. [The difference is that] things are lot more unionized here and the hours are very different.

The funny thing is over here, you just keep shooting until you get the shot. In Britain, you might have 10 minutes [until it's time to stop] and that's it. So if you don't shoot anything you might have to do some rewrites. So as a writer, it's slightly easier [in the U.S.], dare I say. Then again sometimes I don't think that, because sometimes I think, in American [TV] writing, before a word is even written, it is thought of and conceptualized to fit the production, whereas we don't necessarily do that in Britain.

Like I said, I'll know better at the end. And I'll be a wiser man by the end of the whole production, which is part of the reason I came here -- to learn all this stuff. To learn different ways of doing things, [to learn] where some things are better, some things are worse. It's good.

You said your intention with 'Children of Earth' was to put 'Torchwood' on a bigger stage, on a global stage. Is this another step to an even bigger kind of platform, if you will, with a bigger budget, a bigger feel to it?
That is the plan, to make it bigger and bolder, I mean, to be honest, when we did 'Torchwood: Children of Earth,' that was complete relaunch of the show, it was a very different version of 'Torchwood.' Some fans found that hard to take, but also I think that's why we tripled our viewers -- it sort of rose out of the niche, a niche we loved and had done very well in. [The point of having the bigger platform with 'Children of Earth'] was saying, "Look, science fiction isn't something locked away in this little channel at this time, it's for everyone." So it became bigger.

'Miracle Day' is very much a continuation of 'Children of Earth' -- you'll sense the same spirit, you'll feel the same drive behind it, and it is literally bigger. And it's not just because we've got a bigger budget. It's not about a bigger budget. We would have made this story, taken these risks in Britain. We'd have had these same sequences and found a different way to shoot them.

In the end, the size of it is what it's saying about the human race. As a piece of science fiction, it's kind of unique. There's all sorts of science fiction on screen, particularly in America, there is everything from horror of 'Supernatural' to the bizarre, brilliant science-fiction of 'Fringe' to the monsters and aliens, vampires and [all of that].

This is a different form: It takes a science-fiction idea and sets it loose in society. This is actually about us. In a way, I think it's the highest science fiction -- it is not dependent on the monster on the spaceship. It's the concept.

[This time, it's] the concept of, 'What if death stopped?,' which is an entirely fanciful notion in a toxic society. It's actually looking, in some ways, at the darkest depths of the human soul. We shot some stuff in the U.K. -- it's frightening, some of the plot turns. There's some [dark] stuff that I think we're capable of as human beings, which I hope is balanced by the wonderful things that we're capable of, humility and nobility. Not me personally [laughs]. But genuine hero qualities that some people have, thank God.

[Spoilers redacted here: Go to the end of the interview if you want to learn about 'Torchwood: Miracle Day's' other big twist.]

When the new season begins, Gwen and Jack are in really different places, obviously. But their relationship is still the heart of the show, right?
Yeah, it's a long time since they've seen each other, circumstances bring them together, and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. And of course [in some ways] they're clicking like they were in the old team. You know, they're the science fiction heart of it, in a way. The other characters are CIA agents, but it's Gwen and Jack who have seen the strange things that are out there. Their experiences actually put them ahead of the game when a fantastic event happens to the world.

But then again, they're also powerless, Torchwood [as a governmentally supported entity] no longer exists. That's why you need [CIA agent and analyst] Rex and Esther. Also, there's Dr. Perez. Dr. Perez is the medical figure [in 'Miracle Day'], there's a doctor right at the heart of it because this is such a medical mystery. So they form up a rag-tag team that actually has all the right skills.

But now they're outside all the proper channels, right? The old dynamic was that Torchwood would roll up in their Range Rover and take over and had all these resources and power and authority.
Yes. That's partly why I changed it. I loved that, that super-science-fiction [element], you know, unlimited money and unlimited resources, even to the point of having super-science-fiction scalpels and things like that.

The problem was, they kind of became unstoppable. Every problem solved itself just by the strength of Torchwood. Going back to 'Children of Earth,' the biggest decision was to deliberately blow up the base and strip them of all their assets except those magical contact lenses, because I loved those contact lenses. But all their gadgets are gone.

All the toys.
All the toys are gone. The toys are gone and all the backing is gone. They always had some invisible government backing, now it's gone. They're literally street rats, off the grid. They are against the law, against the establishment, against the system, but they are right. That's what's great about them.

Are there some commonalities between Jack and Oswald [the convicted murderer played by Bill Pullman]? Is that one of the areas that you're going to into this season?
Yeah, it's the most fascinating thought -- Torchwood intersecting with a murderous pedophile, a guilty man who escaped his own execution and becomes this remarkable media figure during this Miracle Day crisis. The way it intersects and connects with and draws away from the Torchwood team is huge part of the storytelling of the show. I was asked quite recently, how are these two things connected, Jack and Oswald, [FBI agent] Rex and Oswald? That's the skill of the storytelling, we see it unfold, that's one of the cleverest aspects of the show.

Sometimes they're in parallel stories -- the meetings between Oswald and Torchwood are very, very rare, but very, very crucial, and by the end, it all pays off. You've got to be a patient viewer for 10 episodes, but it's kind of delicious, I think.

Did 10 episodes seems like a good number for this story? It's twice what you had for 'Children of Earth.'
I think it's a great length. Someday it'll be 20, and I'll be sitting here saying 20 is a good length [laughs]. I think it's quite important to say that the story does end at the end of episode 10. This is a 10-episode story, with a beginning, middle and end.

Is it a little scary, having a whole new cast, except for two characters?
Yeah. It's kind of exciting to me, that's the reason I do it. It's not really a reboot, it's a continuation, it's in the same universe [as the first three seasons], this story is a few months later and what happens next. But having to do it is kind of a joy, that's why I killed everyone off, and that's why I sent Jack off the planet [at the end of 'Children of Earth']. It could have ended there. [But we left it] with the thought that if it ever comes back, it's a clean slate. And I think and I hope that we get new viewers to come in.

SPOILERS AHOY

Below, Davies discusses the other big twist in the new season of 'Torchwood' and its implications for a key character.

Stop reading now unless you want to know it...

Really, you want to stop now if you don't want to be spoiled.

OK, here we go.

The Captain Jack we first met in 'Doctor Who,' he was a swashbuckling hero...
A con man.

A con man, right, a charmer, all that kind of stuff. Along the way, especially in 'Children of Earth,' you put him through a lot of changes. Is he a really different person at the start of this season of the show?
Well he's literally, physically different. He's mortal. Everyone else is immortal, he's mortal. It's the biggest switch in the show, which we did in order to give us new insights into Jack. I appreciate what you're saying, that he's a different character. I think that's my job. I [there can be] a great passivity and inertia when it comes to characters on shows that are successful -- they keep coming back and they keep being the same. I'd much rather change them.

You've got a great cast, you've got great writers, why keep doing the same old stuff? We should all move into new areas. Look where we are with this strange, weird, hybrid Welsh-American show. We couldn't have started with this, because it's too odd. It's a rolling stone that's gathered moss. And that's come from pushing and changing all the time. I love where we did end up, which has odd flavors and tastes sometimes, but here we are.

I'm just trying to process this information about Jack being mortal. It's sort of fundamentally altering who he is, isn't it?
It's part of the story, but the greatest thing you can do is offer a new look into the character. It's not fundamentally altering the character, it's fundamentally altering the rules -- the character stays the same, that's the glorious thing. [The idea is to] put them in situations where there are new rules, new trials, new victories, new losses, and see who they are, that's the point. That's what they're there for, these fictional people.

This gives you a lot more places to go with him in terms of emotion, connections, relationships.
Absolutely, yes. It just opens up a whole new palette for me. It's just richer and better.

So many characters have died on the show... so you're killing Jack now?
I couldn't possibly say... but the stakes are that high.

I think it's a fascinating concept, because, his immortality is one of the things that, ironically, gave Jack a kind of humanity. You felt so terrible for this guy, having to say goodbye to everyone he ever loved, all the time.
And it's very hard to prove he's mortal without killing him. So that's going to be interesting. Some clever things to come.

There was all that pathos in who he was when he was immortal. But it's interesting that he doesn't have that free pass anymore. He can't just take all those risks.
Now it's like twice the pathos. As the stakes are being raised, everything's up for grabs, everything's at stake. It's lovely.

And everyone on the Torchwood team knows this, that he can die?
That's part of the story unfolding. It's all little details, well woven in.

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