SuperWood

SuperWood is a crossover or fusion between two television series, Supernatural and the Doctor Who post-watershed spinoff, Torchwood. While this crossover appeared around the same time as SuperWho and SuperWhoLock, the term refers only to the crossover universe. Audience members of SuperWood are often part of the audience for crossovers of Supernatural and other series.

Fanworks for this crossover include fanfiction and fanart. Popular forms of fanworks for this crossover also include photo manipulations and gif sets, remixing existing footage, screencaps and photos into new stories or missing scenes.

The main characters in SuperWood are generally Castiel, Dean Winchester, and Sam Winchester from Supernatural, and Jack Harkness from Torchwood. Additional characters from Torchwood appear frequently, including Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, and Toshiko Sato. Appearances by characters from the primary Doctor Who universe are common, such as The Doctor, Martha Jones (also a Torchwood guest character), Rose Tyler, and Amy Pond.

SuperWood fanworks sometimes involve characters and elements from other media, such as Firefly, Hellblazer, Stargate SG-1, and Minecraft.The list of additional fandoms in the Ao3 Supernatural/Torchwood crossover index is quite long, however each universe may only feature in one to two works.

Popular crossover pairings are Castiel/Jack Harkness, Dean Winchester/Jack Harkness, and Jack Harkness/Sam Winchester.

Origins

This crossover developed an audience on Tumblr around the same time as its more famous sibling, SuperWhoLock. The earliest known Supernatural/Torchwood crossover fanfiction on Fanfiction.net is The Four Times Dean was in Over His Head, by donutsweeper, which was published on October 6, 2008. On Archive of Our Own, the earliest Supernatural/Torchwood crossover fanfiction is Stars in the Twinkling Foam, by activevirtues, which was published on December 6, 2006. There are currently 221 works in Archive of Our Own for the crossover.

Audience members of the crossover have noticed similar themes between Supernatural and Torchwood, as both series feature 'Monster of the Week' formats and touch on conflicts between secret organizations and the outside world, and interpersonal team conflicts. Supernatural is largely rooted in urban legends and folklore, while Torchwood has a strong base in science fiction. These diametrically opposed world views are a source of conflict in many SuperWood fanworks. In later seasons, Supernatural developed the concept of 'rifts,' similar to the phenomenon seen in Torchwood. In addition, Supernatural added a formal organization known as The Men of Letters, echoing Torchwood in original purpose and eventual corruption.

Both Supernatural and Torchwood also share an actress: Caroline Chikezie. Chikezie plays Ianto Jones's doomed girlfriend Lisa Hallett, and appears in Season 3 of Supernatural as Tamara, part of a married hunting team.

Archives and Links

SuperWood tag on Tumblr

SuperWood fan account on Tumblr