Aiming to be bigger and better than before, production is now underway on the fourth season of BBCs Torchwood, which will see the return of Capt. Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) for some alien crime fighting.

As previously reported, this season will take the Torchwood team out of Cardiff, Wales, and instead send them into an international playing field. Both stars -- the only survivors from the first three seasons -- have signed on for the 10-episode season, and a search is now underway to attract talent from both sides of the Atlantic.

Among those being sought after is a leading CIA agent that the team will interact with during their jet-setting, an analyst and a sinister new villain.

Rex Matheson is a white, 20-something CIA agent who sounds sort of like FX's animated Archerspy: a fearless, cocky thrill seeker, TV Guide revealed. Recurring characters include Esther Katusi, a newbie Watch Analyst in the CIA who is deeply (and secretly) in love with Rex. And Oswald Jones is the dangerous psychotic villain. He's a 40-something murderer and pedophile who gets sprung from the slammer into the spotlight.

News that the series will return for a 10-part season also will please fans who were left slightly disappointed when the series dispelled its usual 13-episode format for a five-part miniseries last year. However, "Children of Earth" -- which ran over five consecutive days as a television event - - was a ratings success for the BBC, and brought in an audience in excess of 6 million.

In addition, "Torchwood" also has attracted BBC America's best audience when more than a half-million viewers tuned in to see Capt. Jack Harkness in 2007 (nearly 300,000 of which were from the key audience demographic of adults 25 to 54).

Now the show will make an American debut on the premium cable channel Starz! after Fox passed on doing a continuation series of its own.