Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Blood Line
Written by Russell T Davies and Jane Espenson
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Broadcast on Starz - 9th September 2011
Broadcast on BBC1 - 15th September 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK preview of the episode.

A series finale generally takes two forms: the purpose of the first type is to wrap up the threads that make up the ongoing plot of that series; the second is to set up the cliffhanger of an ongoing series. In both cases, the aim is to reach a climax, with the former consolidating into the resolution, whilst the latter building up to leave you with the big reveal "to be continued" ...

So where does Miracle Day fit? The answer is a little unsatisfactory in both camps.

One storyline's solution was inevitable since day one of course - it was clear the Miracle would be resolved and everybody would return to mortality; however, it wasn't so clear how that resolution would be achieved, even by episode nine, and about all we could be certain of was that Jack would be involved in some way. Ultimately this was indeed the case, the Miracle is reversed and everything is back to as normal as it could be.

However, then we have another few minutes to spare, where we discover that the whole Miracle is a "trial run" and the Family are simply off to run their "Plan B". To me, this simply had the effect of cheapening the ten week run, cheapening the deaths of Vera and Esther, and generally ending up with the feeling that the whole plot was a waste of time.

But hey, this has suddenly moved us into cliffhanger territory, and lo and behold we get it in the form of Rex Matheson joining the immortality club courtesy of him actually having a useful purpose for once in the series, as Jack's blood bank earlier in the episode!

Before I go any further, let me just point out that though I found the resolution of Miracle Day generally disappointing, when watching I was perfectly gripped by the climax build-up, the way it was executed, and the ending truly was a WTF moment, so the episode accomplished its task as televisual entertainment in that respect!

Let's get my biggest gripe out of the way first - just why was Esther killed off? In Children of Earth, Ianto's death was an integral part of the storyline as Jack sees the person closest to him die, with him totally impotent to stop it from happening. But, whilst it is arguably an important part of the plot for Miracle Day to have Vera 'die' (and thus bring to light the true meaning of Category One - not that this mattered by the time we reached last week's episode), with Esther it was simply an arbitrary shooting by a secondary character, had no impact on the conclusion of the Blessing plot at all, and being she did survive after the Miracle ended, there was no actual need to kill her off at all! The funeral scene didn't actually bring anything more to the story, and Rex's discovery of Charlotte's duplicity could have been set anywhere. Instead, it just feels like killing a character off for the sake of it. Some reviewers have commented that this is "the Torchwood way" and that it wouldn't be the show if a main character wasn't killed off ... I don't agree at all - deaths happen, yes, but they should be intrinsic to the plot - there is a difference between someone dying in a noble way and simply being written out lazily like here.

That aside, all of the characters came to life in this episode in a way I wish they'd done so in previous episodes. Rex finally proved why he was in such an important position in the CIA, and the plan concocted by him and Esther to hide Jack's blood within him was inspired (though let's not dwell too much on the actual mechanics of transfusion and why the directors of 28 Days Later abandoned such a plan in that film!). The Family members we saw on screen seemed confident, competent and convinced in their plans, at least until the above revelation ended their grand scheme, and Jilly's mad enthusiasm for their cause and what she sees as salvation was captivating, and after my misgivings over her character in earlier weeks, I am actually happy she did survive the explosion in the end to come back another day.

And then we have Oswald. For a moment there I thought there was going to be a revelation about who/what Susie Cabina really was and why he had to catch and kill her - i.e. a secret that a tortured man had to hide even to his (original) death and had only just found a man from the future that he could confide in. But no, he was exactly how he had been portrayed, a thoroughly despicable child killer with no sense of remorse, and Jack took him down a peg when he said about the universe: "I wish you could see that Oswald ... cause then you'll know how small you've made your life". This later made for a strange juxtaposition between what Oswald might consider 'heroism' in his sacrifice at the end and his seeming wish for redemption through that act, versus his warped sense of purpose in wanted to continue his 'passion' for the hunt of Susie and her ilk echoing on as he is finally engulfed in mortality.

Then the Cooper clan and their loss of Geraint was sensitively handled, with Rhys for once coming across as a sympathetic person and not the "noisy hulk" he normally comes across as. And I was pleased to see Andy Davidson having his role to play, and also that his seemingly prophetic words at the start - "she'll be the death of me" - didn't come to fruition after all - phew!

The "she" of the last sentence was of course Gwen, and once again the interplay between her and Jack as their friendship is put to the limit was portrayed brilliantly by Eve and John; the foreshadowing of this was laid down in Immortal Sins, and seeing Gwen taking the responsibility of what would effectively be the death of her friend was one of the best scenes of the episode, if not the series. And as for that 'death' ... in some ways it would have been a brave move to have actually killed Jack outright, turning this act into a noble sacrifice to save the world (another "Doctor" trait he's picked up over the centuries - could you imagine the young dashing conman from The Empty Child doing such a thing?), but then again I would like to see further adventures with the mysterious time agent (like actually exploring why he has a two-year gap in his memories!) so I'm not so fussed about it!

Reading through the above, you're probably hard-pressed to work out why I wasn't so enamoured of the ending (Esther notwithstanding). Well, it isn't the characterisations that I had a problem with, it's more the actual plot threads and pointlessness of a number of them. Take, for instance, the big fuss in End of the Road as to how the Null Field panels from the Hub seemed to be so important to the resolution of Miracle Day, given their influence in the death of Angelo. Jack taking the alpha plate was seemingly signposted as vital to the resolution - but that's the last we hear of it! I thought the Soulless were to be important in some way (maybe as Oswald's followers) but they were just a one-episode wonder - in fact there are so many of these 'dead-end' signals in the show it could almost have been ten separate episodes with a common thread to lead to the finale (like "Bad Wolf") rather than an integrated progressive storyline leading to the resolution.

And the Blessing itself is still something that almost broke my suspension of disbelief in the series. As a concept it was an interesting idea, but this was basically a re-hash of the Gaia principle (though I suspect the CGI renderers took the idea of "Mother Earth" a little too literally in their representation of the Blessing on screen, ahem!), and the sci-fi trapping of a hole through the diameter of the Earth was written off with a simple "we don't know" when Jilly asks the question we're all wondering at home - where's the lava?!! Jack makes a comment about it being it being "the gap in between" and then off into a load of Doctor Who Silurian/Racnoss pseudo-explanation that Gwen quite rightly says "you don't bloody know, do you?". A clever thing might have been to make this related to the rift in Cardiff and making the end point Campbell Island (that's no worse than Shanghai and Buenos Aires, if a little less glamorous!) and that would have tied in nicely with the Null Field, but alas it was not to be. So we end up with a strange natural phenomenon that was dug up, fed with Jack's immortal blood until it went doo-lally, but fixed with something around just 16 pints of Jack's now mortal blood!

Not wishing to end on a low note, there were other highlights to the episode, like the lovely scene with the shop owner in Shanghai comforting Gwen after she found the Blessing, Oswald calling Gwen magnificent, Gwen and Jilly's fight in the lift, and of course that brilliant moment when Shapiro discovers who the traitor in their midst really is - his singular response is one that almost steals the episode for itself!


All-in-all, this is a series that I haven't actually disliked, but just haven't been able to totally enjoy either. It's had some really good moments, but also some downright boring ones, too (I'll look at the overall series itself in a future post). For The Blood Line itself, though it has some really frustrating plot elements, overall I enjoyed it on viewing and feel this is one of the strongest episodes of the series.

And as the finale, quite right too!


Okay, I confess, I am still frustrated at Esther's wasted opportunity to have further adventures with Jack!!!

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Doctor Who: Series Six - The Girl Who Waited
Written by Tom MacRae
Directed by Nick Hurran
Broadcast on BBC1 - 10th September 2011

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK preview of the episode.

Red or Black? In the hands of the right production team, 'Red or green?' proves to be an infinitely more dramatic question...

As a kindness, the use of two words has been minimised in what follows. I promise that there will be precious few mentions of 'timey' and 'wimey'. Because, of course, this episode covers richly Moffat-esque ground, as time paradoxes and “wubbly” foldings of the then and the now eventually create a dreadful dilemma for Rory Williams. However, writer Tom MacRae finds his own way to grasp the showrunner's favoured themes, and as a result this rendering of Amy Pond feels more emotionally real than perhaps ever before in her time on the show. Karen Gillan is a fine actress, but Amy-as-written has sometimes seemed like a collection of tics, betrayed by tendencies to go for the funny line or the plot arc rather than character consistency and depth psychology. As a result, it's not always been easy to relate to Amy as if she's a flesh-and-blood, real person (notwithstanding the fact that she hasn't always been a flesh-and-blood, real person in series six). Poor Amelia spent her childhood waiting for the Doctor, challenging everybody around her and holding on to the reality of her raggedy man, but we've rarely seen the psychological results of that struggle in the show. Not really.

But, oh, The Girl Who Waited makes good on the promise of Moffat's set-up for Amy Pond. This time we finally get a sense of how waiting for the Doctor might corrode a person's spirit, with Older Amy having become embittered, hard and unfeeling, donning an emotional carapace as well as a cobbled-together, protective costume. MacRae doesn't pull any punches, and his script is all the more intense and dramatically satisfying as a result, whether it's Future Amy confessing her hatred for the Doctor, seeming not to care if Rory gets himself killed, or mocking the Time Lord's “voice of God”.

Ostensibly a Doctor-lite episode thanks to virulent Chen7, MacRae gets around this in a series of ways. Not just via Rory-cam, but also by transforming Future Amy into a version of the Doctor – she's not quite emotionally wired up, she's in possession of her own lashed-up sonic screwdriver, and she's well up to speed on her environment, having cleverly figured out ways of fooling the Handbots. But Rory is also forced to become Doctor-ish: “You're turning me into you”, he realises too late as the Doctor compels him to choose between his wives. Narrative actions we'd expect the Doctor to perform are thus neatly handed over, in differing ways, to Old Amy and Rory – the Companions Who Can.

This episode is also notably guest-star-lite, which presumably pleased those in charge of the show's purse strings. Amy-heavy instead, it gives Gillan a chance to explore her character's darker side, as well as further fleshing out Amy and Rory's love. There's more 'emotional realism' on show here than has been evident for quite some time in the worlds of Doctor Who; compare this episode's character psychology to River Song's in Let's Kill Hitler, for example. Where River's change of heart – from psychopathic assassin to repentant love in 32 or so minutes – never quite felt convincing, this story rarely puts a foot (or a hand) wrong in its explorations of self-sacrifice, love and hate. Plot mechanics have sometimes all-too-visibly driven character emotions elsewhere, but here characters' feelings are seamlessly integrated into events. Good work, Tom MacRae. Despite promoting a piece of Moffat's previous dialogue into the episode title, this has the feeling of a script that Russell T. Davies would have been more than happy commissioning. It even has monsters with a catchphrase, hooray!

But if MacRae plays a blinder, then so too do the likes of Michael Pickwoad and Nick Hurran, handily reunited as a designer-director pairing after their work on the AMC/ITV remake of The Prisoner. Pickwoad transforms what could have been prosaic sci-fi – all labels and buttons for 'Arrivals' or 'Departures' – into a stark, blank minimalism intensifying the horror of Amy's life spent among such nothingness. (Again, this probably pleased those in charge of budgeting). It's a pity, however, that tension between production design and story logic makes Amy seem rather daft in the pre-credits sequence. From a design point of view, Green Anchor and Red Waterfall needed to be clearly distinct so that the audience would quickly pick up what's going on. But from a story perspective, for Amy to pick one of the two buttons haphazardly really calls for them to be fairly indistinguishable so as to sell this moment, and her mistake. Design triumphs over plot, however, making Amy's choice to press red to get into a room – without so much as querying which of the buttons she ought to select – look more than a touch implausible. This is a rare mishandling, though, as Hurran otherwise makes a series of great choices. Old Amy's final attack on the Handbots, all sparking slo-mo, is itself pretty stunning, but even that's immediately topped by the directorial and editing decision to mix together shots of Future Amy (far left of frame) and Rory (far right). In an episode where two timestreams interact, and where two Amys have been paradoxically brought together, this climactic sequence almost heartbreakingly brings together two different spaces on-screen. Inside and outside the TARDIS are almost made to touch; two impossible spaces folded together at the end of a tale of two temporalities. It's a thematically spot-on choice, and it allows both Gillan and Darvill to shine.

Hurrah for Hurran; bring him back soon, please. Oh, right, he's directing next week's ep. I'm strongly tempted to view this as a budget-saver episode, promoted from over-commission on grounds of fiscal prudence. But whether or not it's Discount Who, it is nonetheless a TV drama treat, as affecting as it is well-designed, sensitively directed, and sharply acted. Beyond 'timey' and 'wimey' gimmicks, hand-on-heart, this is totally and wonderfully Doctor Who.

Matt Hills is the author of Triumph of a Time Lord, and is currently reviewing Torchwood: Miracle Day for the Antenna blog.

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Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Gathering
Written by John Fay
Directed by Guy Ferland
Broadcast on Starz - 2nd September 2011
Broadcast on BBC1 - 8th September 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK broadcast of the episode.

With just one episode to go one might expect that the various plot strands would coalesce into a coherent direction leading to a grand finale ... but at the end of The Gathering I'm still not entirely sure what it is all about ...

The Blessing: is it a creation constructed by the Three Families from Jack's essence, a naturally occurring part of the planet that has been discovered and harnessed, a living entity that has been manipulated, or something else entirely? It certainly felt like a nod to Douglas Adams and the Total Perspective Vortex! (Not to mention appearing as a euphemism for Mother Earth?!!)

Why do the Families want Jilly to "write history"? There's already been one reference to such an idea - with the Trickster Brigade subplot from Immortal Sins of altering events in the Second World War - so maybe it's attempt number two (though again what has this to do with Jack, unless he's just the catalyst).

Why was Oswald built up by the Families, just to seemingly be dropped right in it at the turn of a hat (well punch) last week? This week he revealed just how manipulative he can be in the way he handled the Cooper household, so is there a further revelation yet to come? He did have that meeting which hasn't been clarified yet in Dead of Night, after all.

Anyway, I imagine this is all going to resolved in The Blood Line ...

As for the episode itself, like last week it was an unfathomably intriguing and engrossing fifty minutes of television in spite of the lack of momentum exhibited, though some scenes again seemed a bit drawn out (and again only a couple of principal settings). There was a genuine level of fear and frustration over the ruthless and strangely unemotional investigation of Finch, but I really hope that Geraint's fate is resolved positively as otherwise that whole liberation and concealment is just another plot cul-de-sac that has been used simply to exploit the audience's emotions.

Character-wise, it must certainly have preyed on Gwen's mind, otherwise why on earth would she have been so stupid as to pull off her face mask during her ram-raid of the pharmacy? Yes, I know this is to demonstrate that it is her there, but I suspect us viewers would be able to work that out easily enough as she spoke to the passerby and she could easily have dumped the mask as she jogged away afterwards.

Rex was in "intelligent" mode again today, though it seemed to me that Charlotte was blatantly behaving suspiciously - I honestly thought the business with the digital version of the short story was a deliberate trap by Rex as he'd compare versions to see if it was tampered with, but I guess I was giving him too much credit there!

Oswald and Esther continue to be the the focal interest in the show for me. Though I fully expected Bill Pullman to feature strongly, I never suspected that Alexa Havins would be the shining light in the series (I would have placed more money on that being Lauren Ambrose in the lead-up). As I've said previously, I really hope that she outlives Miracle Day - though we're used to the minimal survival rate of popular characters in Torchwood. (My hopes of her and Jack partnering up are still simmering away!)

All-in-all, this episode continues the trend of the better episodes for me, so I have high hopes for the finale. But ... a hole running the diameter of the Earth between Shanghai and Buenos Aires, possibly the biggest piece of hokum this series has ever produced?!!!

Preview: The Blood Line

As we reach the end of the ten-episode epic the resolution of the titular central plot-line is probably obvious to everybody, but as one might expect from the twists and turns of previous Torchwood storylines the journey to that resolution and emotional angst encountered along the way is never going to be so simple.

The Gathering saw our main characters arrive in Shanghai and Buenos Aires, the Blessing finally introduced, and the means to find it unveiled. But will all the questions that have been raised along the way finally be answered?

Of course, responding to that question is a spoiler! Suffice it to say, as Russell T Davies mentioned in interviews the story is self-contained so you aren't going to end up on a massive cliffhanger into a series that may or may not be commissioned, but of course the characters we've met along the way don't simply fade away, leaving us with potential future escapades with them to look forward to.

However, here are some snippets to watch out for along the way: a poignant scene with Oswald and Jack as they prepare for action; another expression of Jack and Gwen's love for one another; Jilly erupting from out of her shell, and also giving Gwen a run for her money; Esther and Rex finally demonstrating how great a team they really are together; a reference to the Doctor; Rhys being sensitive rather than abrasive; Sergeant Andy of course; and John De Lancie getting possibly the best line in the series!

A full review will be posted after broadcast.

The Blood Line: Preview, BBC, via YouTube
Alternatively there is a BBC iPlayer version (may not play outside UK)

The Blood Line: Preview, BBC, via the BBC Doctor Who site - may not play outside of the United Kingdom
Alternatively there is a YouTube version.

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Written by Emma Hyam

Doctor Who: Series Six - Night Terrors
Written by Mark Gatiss
Directed by Richard Clark
Broadcast on BBC1 - 3rd September 2011

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK preview of the episode.

Since its return Doctor Who has gone to great pains to show us the money. Huge, sweeping alien vistas, strange new races and intergalactic space stations, but every so often we're reminded about the ordinary scariness of the everyday.

With Night Terrors Mark Gatiss takes the story of a seemingly ordinary little boy who is afraid of the monsters in his wardrobe and brings his characteristic flair for the macabre to the proceedings. The episode is wonderfully atmospheric, with lingering shots of cracks in doors and long, empty hallways ramping up the tension to almost unbearable levels. The decision to set the episode in what Amy wonderfully calls "Planet Eastenders" was a brilliant one, an air of urban menace pervades the show, the people on the estate live in their own little boxes, deep down as terrified of their own surroundings and the "monsters" as little George is.

As well as the atmospherics of the show, the other stand out must be the guest performance from Daniel Mays, most recently the best thing in the otherwise forgettable "Outcasts" he turns in another excellent showing as a Dad at the end of his tether with his son. He provides an excellent counterpoint to a typically mile-a-minute Doctor who was also on great form. In another nod to Who tradition Amy and Rory are largely separated from the main action, with an nice little acknowledgement to the audience as Rory wonders if hes dead yet again!

This is a very simple tale, I feel a more than a few will find it too simple for them, the story itself is very reminiscent of Who episodes like Blink and Fear Her with the dolls immediately bringing to my mind the Clockwork Droids of The Girl In The Fireplace. The old standard explanation of "the perception filter" is wheeled out for another airing, the formerly clever idea is now getting slightly worn out with over use. While it was nice to get away from the River Song story line for an episode, I found it a little irritating that they felt the need to shoe horn in a shot of the Doctor's death date, as if it would have slipped the viewers mind in the intervening week. That being said I feel that conversely some fans will find the lack of River Song action just as irritating.

Overall I personally found the change of pace refreshing, the direction of the episode really allowed the ideas to breathe and allowed the viewer to reflect on what was happening on screen. After the frenetic pace of Lets Kill Hitler a return to a good old slow burn horror story shows off the versatility and range of Doctor Who. At the end of the day The Doctor came to town, saved a family and was magnificent in doing so and rather brilliantly I think theres going to be more than a few kids refusing to go to bed on Saturday night.

As it should be.

Related Articles: Emma's previous reviews of the series may be found in her personal Blue Box Blog

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Written by Matt Hills

Doctor Who: Series Six - Night Terrors
Written by Mark Gatiss
Directed by Richard Clark
Broadcast on BBC1 - 3rd September 2011

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK preview of the episode.

In an episode all about multiple fears, and where the Doctor ponders whether young George suffers from pantophobia, it’s tempting to frame this review by referring to different phobias, both real and invented. With that in mind, perhaps this story will offer a cure for Gatissophobes still traumatised after Victory of the Daleks, though given its array of alarming lifts, nasty dolls, and recurrent darkness, it certainly won’t make comfortable viewing for phobophobes.

Gatiss has said that his brief was to make the contemporary scary, as per his excellent Crooked House. That, however, used portmanteau horror to give its present-day setting an overlaid creepiness, whereas this tale doesn’t have the luxury of different time periods and historically lingering spookiness to realise its threat. Instead, we jump straight into a repertoire of childhood anxieties, superbly realised via director Richard Clark’s use of shadows and complemented by a themed colour palette combining inky blues with sickly yellow-greens.

Since he is ostensibly a child of our time, I kept expecting George to have a remote-controlled Dalek or a collection of Character Options toys in his room: Bergerac exists in this universe, but not a television series called Doctor Who. Incorporating such visuals would have made this both more realistic and yet less real-seeming at the same time; a fiction pointing out its own fictional status. We are shown an Amy action figure, of sorts, in the form of her dolled-up version, but the episode resolutely avoids branded toys so that George’s collection of non-copyright-infringing, non-product-placement robots, dinosaurs, and themed wallpaper still end up looking like a strange, out-of-time BBC unreality. Despite refusing to permit any ‘meta’ appearances of Doctor Who toys, an episode centred on a scared child cannot resist referencing debates which have whirled through the series’ history: “may be… things on telly… scary stuff” should be blamed for George’s nervous state. It’s a knowing wink to the audience, but played lightly and without disrupting the story’s world.

This was one of the series six episodes produced by Sanne Wohlenberg, and though I’d not have a critical word to say about Marcus Wilson’s excellent work, this bears all the hallmarks of a very tightly, skilfully produced ep where key elements knit together well. Given the focus on paternity, and on Alex’s love for his son, Emma Cunniffe as Claire is rather underused, though Daniel Mays doesn’t put a foot wrong throughout and Andy Tiernan plays the sort of character his physiognomy seems doomed to enact – Purcell, a caricatured landlord, complete with Bernard the bulldog (surely a sly Quatermass reference from Gatiss).

Rituals are vital here, whether it’s switching lights on and off, putting fears away in the cupboard, or repeating phrases such as “please save me from the monsters”. Ritual holds and contains anxiety, and this theme is artfully reflected in Clark’s use of shots split up into angular sections; the housing estate which seems to box in its inhabitants; the serving hatch through which we observe Alex and the Doctor; doors and windows which frame various residents, and even the pile of bin bags which encloses Mrs Rossiter in a menacing reverse shot. Everything is constantly framed, bounded, and visually hemmed in, implying that characters may themselves have become shut in with what’s feared. And the episode’s editing also becomes almost ritualistic or incantatory at times, such as in the intercutting of slammed doors – wham, wham, wham! – on the Doctor, Amy and Rory.

Night Terrors poses a simple enough question: what can overcome a child’s fear? And the answer is an emotional one rather than a wodge of technobabble. Stories are one place of safety, such as ‘The Emperor Dalek’s New Clothes’ or the ‘Three Little Sontarans’. But even more powerful than storytelling is unconditional parental love: Alex is willing to embrace ‘his’ child, no matter what. This gives the tale an emphasis on human feeling that has always been at the heart of Who since its 2005 return, but it also feels a little off-kilter here. For one thing, why is the maternal so strongly written out of proceedings, as if Doctor Who’s natural constituency should involve focusing on a father-son relationship? And then there’s the matter of George’s alien identity as a cuckoo in the nest. Conveniently glossed over by the notion that he will adapt perfectly to life among humanity – i.e. he’s alien, but from now on, imperceptibly so – this seems all too rapidly and easily dealt with. Is Alex supposed to sit Claire down for a “by the way, dear, our sense of reality has been modified and we actually have an unearthly child” sort of chat on the sofa? Ironically for an episode about ritual, the ending feels rather ritualistic and by-the-numbers itself, observing the convention of contemporary Doctor Who that love and monsters are needed.

Always visually compelling, this is generally atmospheric rather than downright scary, treading a fine line for the family audience. And as for those watching from behind the proverbial sofa, well, perhaps it’s just that Doctor Who’s viewers exhibit an unusually high level of cathisophobia.

Matt Hills is the author of Triumph of a Time Lord, and is currently reviewing Torchwood: Miracle Day for the Antenna blog.

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Torchwood: Miracle Day - End of the Road
Written by Jane Espenson and Ryan Scott
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Broadcast on Starz - 26th August 2011
Broadcast on BBC1 - 1st September 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK broadcast of the episode.

Into week eight, and with two weeks to go are we any closer to the answers as to what the Miracle is, why it has happened, and how it is going to be resolved? Well, not quite. It seems that last week finally kick-started the story proper with Jack's influence on Angelo and the observation of the three Families of Jack's immortality leading them to investigate, experiment, and ultimately implement the Miracle. However, whether they want immortality themselves or are actually using it to bring humanity to its knees as the financial heart of the world collapses through the lack of death is still to be answered - the latter is certainly strongly intimated, but then again we've had so many red herrings this could be just another!

Maybe it's because things are starting to lead to some sort of finale, but I actually felt this episode moved quite quickly and was surprised when the 54 minutes were up. Though there were effectively just two major settings (the house and CIA operations) this didn't stall the episode like in Rendition or The Middle Men, and I eagerly awaited each revelation as they were tantalisingly dangled.

Still, questions remain. Quite why the Torchwood tech liberated from the remains of the Hub is important remains elusive - as Jack said in the wrong hands it could destroy the timeline, but that actually explain why Angelo had it installed, or indeed why he happened to die just as Jack was there. For a while I thought it meant that Jack's kiss had the power to bring death in yet another twist, but that didn't seem likely as otherwise Brad back in Dead of Night wouldn't have been happy, protection or not! Did Jack short-circuit something? I have vague hopes it'll be properly explained later.

It was nice to see Angelo's story resolved too, and it wasn't a bitter twisted character after all, as the end of Immortal Sins implied - though Nana Visitor brought the embittered grand-daughter to life ... well until she was blown to bits of course, courtesy of Friedkin's allegiance to the Familues (bye bye Wayne Knight, another nice, brief celebrity role). The scene where Jack talks to Angelo about Ianto was touching, too, and didn't feel uncomfortably shoe-horned into the story (unlike the similar almost guilty mention in Dead of Night).

This week's celebrity turn was in the form of Q - I mean John De Lancie - and suddenly there's a breath of fresh air in the series; I suspect it might have been the disregard he had to all and sundry around him, and general air of disdain of explanations - he must have been trying to follow the tortuous script of the previous weeks too! Suddenly a sense of authority in investigating the Miracle has arrived ... or has it? In a series that shows us that there are so many "Family members" lurking in positions of power etc. he might not be as 'pure' as he seems. Still, he has the respect of Esther and Rex so maybe he is how he seems.

Speaking of which, how does someone who's apparently clever enough to set a trap for Friedkin then turn out to be Mr Thicko when it comes to accepting that nobody outside the null field generated by Jack can hear them talk, especially after witnessing all the tech that Torchwood has brought to bear throughout his time with them. I really can't understand how Rex got anywhere near his position in the CIA, maybe it is really is Esther who has helped his career progress.

Oh Esther, bright, astute (usually!) Esther, I do hope you survive through to the end of the series. Am I the only one who hopes that she ends up joining Jack on his adventures after this is all resolved? The 'intimate' moments between them (subtly suggested in The Categories of Life and in her caring about him tonight must be leading somewhere, surely?

And hoorah, the return of Mr "Category Zero" to the storyline, having been notably missing for a couple of episodes. I actually felt some sympathy for Oswald in his thwarted attempts to try and experience a 'normal' relationship but have that firmly rebutted as the personality that existed pre-Miracle Day is thrown back in his face. I was also quite pleased he made his escape ... to meet up with Jack again, no doubt. I did like the idea of how the government were addressing the loopholes back in The New World that Danes exploited, though of course does this mean that the whole world will now have a Death Penalty?

And Jilly's been promoted and is off to Shanghai ... for some reason the image of Davros's offer to Tasembeker from Revelation of the Daleks came to mind at this point - do hope she knows what she's doing!


All-in-all, this was a much more enjoyable episode, which bodes well for the last 20% of the story - shame the preceeeding 70% of Miracle Day took so long to get here - the last thing we need is next week's The Gathering to stall yet again! Fingers crossed.

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Written by Matt Hills

Doctor Who: Series Six - Let's Kill Hitler
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Richard Senior
Broadcast on BBC1 - 27th August 2011

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK broadcast of the episode.

Under Russell T. Davies, Doctor Who found a new story type: the celebrity historical. This offered one way of promoting the show; the Doctor meets Charles Dickens, or Shakespeare, or Agatha Christie. An instant hook for critics and viewers. This series opener/midseries returner (delete as applicable) takes all the marketing chutzpah of the Davies era, and then has the guts to deliver something altogether different. Here, the conventions of the Davies-esque celebrity historical are firmly deconstructed. Adolf's not the point of the story, aligned with some evil, alien force as might be expected. No, because Hitler's shut in the cupboard, ridiculed and relegated to the sidelines. Storywise, it's all about the arc, not the Reich. Let's Kill Hitler is the suggestion of psychotic character Mels, never a serious statement of intent. Getting the high-concept marketing frills out of the way, Moffat's unbound and free to tell the story he's really interested in – 'The Beginning of River Song'.

Except Hitler-as-window-dressing is also thematically integrated into the tale; after all, his presence motivates the Teselecta and its hunt for war criminals. Following A Good Man Goes To War, we might ponder whether the Doctor himself is about to stand charge, but a storyline paralleling the Doctor and the Fuhrer was never going to secure any Brand Manager's assent. Instead, it's Melody Pond, Kovarian's weapon of choice, who seizes the Teselecta's interest and so narratively displaces Hitler.

Giving guilty parties hell, workers for the Justice Department have taken on a God-like status, able to cast definitive judgement and carry out sentencing. As the Doctor remarks, these miniaturised minions seem ever so certain of who they are. By contrast, Melody Pond's identity is fluid and insecure; post-Mels and yet pre-River, she's caught between selves, in a mixed-up state where regeneration energy can magically solve any crisis. The true crime of the Teselecta is to assume that identity is fixed, and that judgements can be final; by contrast, the Doctor doesn't judge, but instead proffers redemption, guiding Melody through the episode's rite of passage and into the mantle of River Song. Pond Junior doesn't have to be the object of Kovarian's scheming. She can be her own subject. She can choose life.

And yet one of the most important moments in the episode is withheld – an absence beating at the heart of all this quickfire fun. It's not The Question – though silence falls there too – but what the Doctor tells Melody to convince her that, as River Song, she can be so much more than her programming. This seems a bit of a cheat: the storyline requires the Doctor to say something hugely, emotionally affecting... so Moffat delivers the required outcome yet without the speech itself. Perhaps any possible dialogue could never have felt convincing enough; perhaps it's best left as a gap for fan speculation to play with. In any case, going beyond bananas and “spoilers!” this replays yet another Moffat-ism by recalling his previous use of such a device (in Forest of the Dead) where River whispers, unheard by us, the Doctor's name. Here again are the Doctor and River, sharing confidences, with this privacy maintaining the mystery of their relationship. Rather than delivering unadulterated sentimentalism, Moffat steps back and shrouds his protagonists' emotional lives just a little. Unlike Davies, this showrunner seems happier posing questions and constructing puzzles rather than delivering full-blooded emo-bombast. There's a curious reserve, or a discomfort, in relation to the big, predictable, plotted emotion. Or perhaps it's that, for Moffat, the Doctor and River's relationship is one of the show's current mysteries: this is emotion as narrative puzzle. No need to choose between character relationships and story arcs; they're all bound up in the same big wibbly ball of stuff.

And though the Teselecta may presume its own Godliness, Moffat throws in another fleeting metaphor: it's also a Star Trek-style crew rendered as a TV production team, complete with costume and art departments, the latter worrying about skin tone. Presumably this makes the Teselecta's captain a sort of showrunner, all key information at his fingertips, resolutely in charge of who's going to be given hell. Let's Kill Hitler thus makes crafty jokes about the showrunner-as-God, ridiculing authority just as it enacts it by setting out new mysteries and tidying away key incidents. We get the crowd-pleasing reversal of "spoilers!"; the first appearance of River's diary; and the beginnings of her archaeological career, as the Showrunner-God ticks all those boxes in rapid succession. Oh, and takes care to explain why River couldn't regenerate in Forest of the Dead, making fanboyishly sure that consistency is the mother of invention.

In the end, Let's Kill Hitler is a front for "Let's Find River", with the celebrity historical drawing audiences in for a story focused more strongly on the "TARDIS family" (Amy-Rory-River-Doctor) than ever before. This episode represents a Teselecta of showrunners; Moffat's finest shtick standing behind the eyes of a Davies era staple.

Matt Hills is the author of Triumph of a Time Lord, and is currently reviewing Torchwood: Miracle Day for the Antenna blog.

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Doctor Who: Series Six - Let's Kill Hitler
Written by Steven Moffat
Directed by Richard Senior
Broadcast on BBC1 - 27th August 2011

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK broadcast of the episode.

Blimey.

It is quite something when a series with so many known parameters and constituent elements can still be juggled together and delivered in a fresh manner. And yet Steven Moffat once again manages to do just that in Let's Kill Hitler!

For instance, regeneration. Back in The Christmas Invasion we learn that Time Lords are in a state of flux during the first fifteen hours where-in their bodies can 'regenerate' any damage. Then, in Journey's End the Doctor reveals that residual regenerative energy can be siphoned off into an appropriate vessel. For Let's Kill Hitler, Moffat skillfully revisits those ideas in the form of River, at one point reveling in her ability to shake off a hail of bullets, and then ultimately channeling her own energy into the Doctor to save him.

Then, for River herself, the signposts were pretty easy to read that the little girl from Day of the Moon was going to be her, cemented in A Good Man Goes To War with her being conceived in the time vortex within the TARDIS; but then not only does Moffat play a neat trick by having us first think it is River in the red corvette at the start only to see Mels instead, reveal her as a childhood friend of Amy and Rory, only then to further reveal it really was River after all! (why didn't I pick up on the name "Mels" straight away?!!!). Not only that, Moffat also gently guides us into preparation for the possibility of a black Doctor!

The stuff with Hitler was amusing, especially as the eponymous character is actually only a comedy sideline - though he did of course play a pivotal role in "killing" Mels, which is quite ironic considering it was her suggestion to go kill him! And of course nobody knew the Teselecta crew were also there for similar reasons!

As usual with Doctor Who, it is so easy to be taken along for the ride from beginning to end, and the cracks in the plot are easily plastered up by the sheer pace and display put on. One crack in particular that stuck out for me was quite how Mels ended up where she was. We see the young Melody regenerate into her at the end of Day of the Moon ... but this was in 1969(ish) and River says she only changed this once, so how did a young black girl get from New York City to Leadworth, not to mention being "born" at least couple of decades before her parents? Time Lords (should we call her that?) may age differently from humans, but then she seemed to match up with them rather well. Mind you, this could be a previously unknown facet of Time Lord physiology that they can control how they age (possibly borne out by an aside by River on getting younger tonight?).

But that's a minor niggle in amongst the gems, especially in the acting. The interplay between Matt Smith as the Doctor, and Nina Toussaint-White/Alex Kingston as Melody was great fun, and I should also mention Caitlin Blackwood being as enchanting as ever as both the young, innocent Amelia and the TARDIS's voice interface - "fish fingers and custard" was worthy of a great cheer!

I must admit I didn't find sub-plot of the crew on the Teselecta as interesting as what was revolving 'outside'. The antibodies almost felt like a contrived "alien of the week" was needed to menace our regulars, and the crew's mission to punish those who have committed heinous crimes might have been laudable except that it was (a) torture, and (b) they didn't seem to care that much about others they happened to steal identities off to reach their goal either. Still, I don't think we've seen the last of them ...

On the other hand River goes from strength to strength. The wibbly wobbly timey wimey way in which we've encountered her has been one of the most fun elements of recent series, and now we have her arising phoenix-like into the Doctor's life for the first time (her perception). And full credit to the consummate ability of Alex Kingston to bring River 'to life' as someone totally ignorant of who she will become to the Doctor (and us) yet the little quirks of her personality we know and love literally evolving as the episode progresses. There are still some big gaps in her life though, but these quite possibly will feature in future storylines! And I'm looking forward to them!

Back to intriguing ideas, as well as the question of Time Lord's "ethnicity" neatly answered this episode, there's also the moment when River ploughs all her remaining lives into the Doctor - have we just seen Moffat's masterplan for the Doctor to continue on beyond his thirteenth incarnation subtly put into motion ... (or did she really use up 504 lives if you accept the Death of the Doctor comment of course!)

I'll leave you with an even more subtle idea, which maybe even Moffat hasn't considered (not that I believe that for one moment, nothing he writes is throwaway!); this series has effectively revealed with River that it is possible to 'reboot' the Time Lords (well, Time Lord-like beings) as a more innocent race to once again inhabit the universe ...

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Torchwood: Miracle Day - Immortal Sins
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Broadcast on Starz - 19th August 2011
Broadcast on BBC1 - 25th August 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the UK broadcast of the episode.

So here we are in 1927 New York, which means that Jack's infiltration mission with the Night Travellers in the 1920s must have come to an end - this is plausible I guess, in that the only date we have for that setting in series two's From Out Of The Rain was 1925 and that isn't tied directly to Jack. However, I was surprised how his American accent caused little concern for someone arriving in America on a UK passport (which was authentic in that the style came into use in 1920 ... though I couldn't tell if it was a 1927 "Northern Ireland" or earlier "Ireland" version!).

But why is he wearing his modern day coat? The story implied that this is Jack v1, i.e. the one who originally joined Torchwood in the late 19th Century, but with that coat here did he actually go back in his timeline yet again in some future Miracle Day revelation? Or am I now desperately looking for some plot rationalisation over how he came to be dressed that way?

Once again we have an episode that says a lot but doesn't do much. About all we learned from the episode was that Jack had a relationship with Angelo, and that back in 'our time' it seems Angelo is still about and wants Jack dead - or is that by the other three instead, who wanted 'ownership' over Jack in 1928 (and who happened to clasp hands in the now familiar triangular symbol/logo the Miracle protagonists use on their phones etc. - an important plot clue?).

Unlike Gwen's monologue in Children of Earth, Jack's mention of the Doctor seems a bit forced in the script, and the reference to the Trickster Brigade is all well and good but serves nothing to push the story forward whatsoever, another bit of plot padding to keep the episode from stalling. Then again, for all I know the Trickster himself will be revealed in Episode Ten!!! (Actually, when all the talk of WWII and altered timelines came up I thought for one moment that this was going to tie in with Let's Kill Hitler and that's what Ed Russell's comments about timing of the broadcast was really about!)

However, whilst the plot itself might be shaky, character-wise the episode performed well with an interesting exploration of Jack's view of the ephemeral nature of his relationships with us mortals; as mentioned above, though, it isn't clear if this is pre- or post- Ianto Jack - if he had only been on Earth for some 40 years so far would he have had that many relationships? Still, as other reviewers have observed, this series does seem to be concentrating on Jack's male exploits (and possibly some slash-fiction asperations on the part of the writer who handled both these encounters this series?!!). Not that this matters to the story per se, but it does feel neglectful of the character's inception as an omnisexual 51st Century guy (something that River seems to have taken up the reigns of in Doctor Who, judging by her anecdotes!).

Speaking of which: okay BBC, so what standards are being applied for scene censorhsip in Torchwood? Episode three sees a brief scene cut from transmission for its sexual content, but episode seven sees a much longer, explicit scene broadcast at an earlier time than the previous excised one, plus what seems to be male anatomy on show! So why bother trimming episode three at all? (unless there was a problem with Vera and Rex?!?!).

Also, the scenes with Jack and Angelo inter-played well with what looked to be a bitter parting between Jack and Gwen in the car as their own relationship descended into distrust and seemingly ready to annihilate each other to protect their lives. These were again great scenes, but it was all so neatly forgiven and forgotten at the episode's climax that the whole emotional impact was somewhat undermined.

(Who am I trying to kid: we are now more than 3/4 way through and there is so much that doesn't seem relevant to the Miracle (or maybe it is) that the plot is ducking and diving to the extent that it isn't making a blind bit of sense to me which direction it is actually trying to go in!)

Still, yay for Esther for lighting up the screen for those few moments she had this week, and for being the one who sussed it all out yet again, saving everybody in the process. The true heroine of the series!


Anyway to summarise, we had some great character scenes (with good acting from John Barrowman and an even better performance from Daniele Favilli!), but little to further the overall storyline; I know sometimes it is good to take a breather from the action (a problem with some Who episodes is that you don't get a chance to breathe) but not for several episodes in the same series!


(and, having had Nana Visitor for a minute in this episode, let's hope "Next Time" John De Lancie gets a bit more screen time, not to mention a meatier role ... but episode eight and another previously unheard of new character pops up?!!).

Related Articles: Chuck's previous reviews of the series may be found in his personal Chuck's Who blog

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Written by Paula Seligson

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Middle Men
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Guy Ferland
Broadcast on Starz - August 12 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the US broadcast of the episode.

From the beginning of this episode addressing the state of suicide, to the ending with a non-apologetic government, ‘The Middle Men’ hit home with its excellent social commentary. This episode finally focused on the Torchwood team and didn’t deviate to include the other subplots. I especially enjoyed the break from Danes and Jilly. The show is much more enjoyable when the team is focused on something together, even when it’s not on a single mission. And though it was frustrating to still have very little of the ongoing plot revealed, except that PhiCorp is in the dark about the Miracle, the overflow camps became public and out of Torchwood’s hands, thus finishing one part of the plot.

Through Maloney we saw a bad person do bad things. His decisions, to incinerate Vera, to slowly stab Rex in the heart, to kill whoever was in his way to protect himself, were above and beyond a person reacting to fear or just following orders. He created suffering in the overflow camp, and rather than face the consequences, he murdered and tortured. He didn’t regret the murder, he was simply afraid of being caught. On the flip-side we have the doctor Gwen confronted. She was a good person doing bad things. Afraid of the changing world, she didn’t know how to keep her profession afloat in the impossible situations of the Miracle. She did not send people to the ovens for any personal reasons, but was doing what she was told and hoping that the leaders she trusted were choosing the right thing. Gwen confronted her on this form of evil, the banality of a good person just following orders, and though distressed, the doctor stuck to her defenses, refusing to blame herself.

And yet these evils were countered with two good people. First, the janitor that helped Gwen escape with her father. At first she was presented as a suspicious figure, eyeing Gwen warily. But instead she was a kind person, recognizing that Gwen was in a desperate situation. This janitor couldn’t fight the system, but she could perform one good deed and help where she could. This good is shown again in Ralph, a soldier, someone broken down and trained into following orders. He did follow orders, going along with Vera’s murder because he didn’t act in time to save her, terrified of being caught as an accomplice. He agonized over what to do, and let Maloney take the lead. But after thinking about what happened, he realized he was doing the wrong thing and had to take personal accountability for his action. As he said when he shot Maloney, saving Esther - “This has got to stop.”

Jack’s search for answers continued this commentary. He found no man behind the curtain, but instead discovered a convoluted and sprawling system, completely masking accountability. There was no one to blame, just a chain of people who did their job without any context. Though someone is pulling the strings, they’ve hidden themselves in the actions of the whole world, an invisible puppet master.

I’d still like to see the answers to the plot come out faster, and I’m looking forward to seeing the team working together in person, rather than in goal. But this was an excellent episode in both its delivery and characters. (I’m still annoyed that Jack is only presented as gay, though. Where’s the omnisexual 51st guy we all know and love?) But the depth of thought in determining the world’s response to the Miracle, now creating a modern-day Holocaust along with all the moral implications that follow, continues to be outstanding. I can’t wait for the next episode, one that unmercifully pulls Gwen between Jack and her family.

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Written by Paula Seligson

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The Categories of Life
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Guy Ferland
Broadcast on Starz - August 5 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the US broadcast of the episode.

Finally, an episode that 100% felt like Torchwood - a strong story and strong characters, along with a horrifying plot development.

Now we see another part of PhiCorp’s plan. It’s taking a chapter from the book of World War II: people receiving categories to define their life and furnaces to deal with the most unwanted. But knowing what little we know of PhiCorp, controlling the healthcare of practically all humans through the overflow camps might not be for the simple reasons of money and power. With the cryptic mentions of who controls the company, along with the Time Lord technology stockpiling the pain medication, this points to something more than just typical human greed. But whether it’s an alien influence, or humans with access to alien technology, has yet to be seen. The more interesting aspect is that the rest of the world, in a time of crisis, is willing to go along with PhiCorp’s plan, stick their heads in the sand, and not ask questions. It’s a classic Russell T Davies social commentary on the evils any person can perform.

The final reveal of the horrors of the overflow camps centered around Vera’s murder, which was about as horrifying as Torchwood gets. Since people don’t die, presumably ever, she would have been aware and conscious up until the point her brain was ash, if not longer. And Rex could only stand outside and watch, and film. Her death was also wonderfully gutsy, and well done. Her arrogance at assuming she would be allowed to walk out of the overflow camp after threatening to prosecute, and then disbelief at getting shot, was good writing and good acting.

I didn’t think Torchwood would kill anyone off this early in Miracle Day, but the writers went ahead and took the plunge. It’s not bad or good - Torchwood has a habit of doing this and as long as they don’t actually kill off anyone from the first three seasons I’m past the point of caring. It will be interesting to see how Vera’s murder warps Rex, especially if he blames Esther and Jack for letting Vera join the mission, and what he does with the video footage. If viewers had any hope for Vera still being alive, Jane Espenson comments via her Twitter account: "burning means you really really are dead".

As for the rest of the episode, no complaints. Jack anticipated Danes’ true wish of wanting to die, and got it wrong. Danes’ speech and the crowd’s disturbingly supportive response was an expected continuation of his plotline. I really like how they’re tying Jack and Danes together, and it will be interesting to see how Jack ultimately deals with Danes, or possibly vice versa. Gwen’s slapdash run-in-and-rescue approach with her father hurt rather than saved him, and for all of Gwen’s self-confidence and experience, she still has to learn to look further ahead at the consequences of her actions.

This was a good episode, and I look forward to the next.

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Written by Paula Seligson

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Escape to L.A.
Written by Jim Gray and John Shiban
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Broadcast on Starz - July 29 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the US broadcast of the episode.

This episode was also strong, but moreso in characters than in plot. Plot-wise, the mystery continues to be revealed tantalizingly a piece at a time, and this episode didn’t reveal enough to satisfy my curiosity. Very little was explained about the plot - only that PhiCorp is being run by some invisible force and creating overflow camps for the undead who wont heal. Because the plot of the episode mostly focused around a mission that ended with a cop-out shot-just-before-he-could-say-the-name-of-the-bad-guys moment, the episode felt like filler.

Thankfully Danes’ storyline saved the day and continued its progression from disturbing to extremely disturbing. The entire ‘Dead Is Dead’ campaign was a fascinating example of the perspective people could take to the Miracle. Danes’ choice to go into the hospital and set himself up as a messiah-like figure for the despondent injured and ill was a perfect counter to Ellis Monroe’s campaign and values. Watching him inspire hope in people was downright creepy. I can’t wait to see his role as the messiah of the Miracle unfold.

Jilly’s sheer joy at his actions was fun comic relief - she knows PR, and true to her profession, she loves it when someone pull a good PR play. Her scene where she tells Danes how much she can’t stand him, especially to even look at his hands, was a great piece of character development for her. Up until now she’s just been this agent with no soul or personal opinion and completely focused on the job. That moment reminded the audience that though she’s working for PhiCorp and on the ground level of the Miracle, she’s still just a puppet and not at the top of the foodchain, a very human puppet who knows exactly what she’s doing. Though she might be the ‘devil walking the earth’, she still has some morals, just ones she sets aside for her job.

As an American, I’d like to make note that mayor Monroe was part of the Tea Party. Oh Russell T. Davies. That man loves to knock on America’s right side of politics and glorify its left. Cases in point: the stupidity of President Winters in the season 3 finale of Doctor Who (granted, everyone mocks him) and President Obama’s plan that would have saved the world from financial crisis in the final David Tennant Doctor Who specials. Though it makes a lot of sense for someone of the Tea Party to come up with a campaign like ‘Dead Is Dead’ since it relies on a fairly religious fundamentalist view of the world, I just find it funny to see Davies’ ongoing biases in his TV writing. I’m completely fine with his bias - he’s not a journalist, and since I love his writing that means I want to see his biases since those are quintessentially a part of his writing. I just find them funny since they’re so blatant and don’t actually need to be in Doctor Who and Torchwood at all for the sake of the stories.

Going back to the episode, I also loved the character development we gained with Rex and Esther, especially because the focus was on family. Rex visited his father because he’s scared, though he wont show the rest of Torchwood. He should have died and he knows it, and he wanted to hear, “I love you son and everything is going to be okay.” Instead his father was still just angry, refusing the olive branch and hammering another nail into the coffin of his relationship with Rex. Rex tells his father that he died, and his father doesn’t care - Rex’s expression after that moment was just so sad. And Esther’s decision to report her sister, Sarah, to child services was equally heart wrenching, especially when it led to her sister’s children being taken away. It was a hard choice with unexpected repercussions, and the actress and the writers portrayed this very well.

These back stories are continuing a running theme in this season of Torchwood - family. Along with Rex’s father and Esther’s sister, Gwen is willing for Rhys to put himself and Anwen in danger to protect her father, and then her father becomes tied into the plot as he’s sent to one of the overflow camps. This family life even extends into the mission, with Esther placing the whole Torchwood team in danger by visiting her sister’s house in person and then becoming an emotional wreck due to her phone call to child services, and Gwen actually talking to Rhys on the phone in the middle of the mission. All this presence of family brings the Miracle and the nature of Torchwood home - though all this is a ‘big picture’ issue ultimately it affects people, and though the Torchwood team might have to act like spies and super heroes, they’re still people who at the end of the day have families.

But this presence of family also highlights Jack’s lack thereof, made even more jarring in the hilarious but also bittersweet scene where Jack and Gwen pretend to be an obnoxious couple to gain the biometrics of Nicolas Frumkin, the PhiCorp engineer. Watching them hold hands was a sad moment of what might have been. Jack has no personal stake left in this world, except Gwen. This focus on family is again showing Jack’s isolation. It’s setting up whether or not he wants to die.

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Written by Paula Seligson

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Dead of Night
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Broadcast on Starz - July 22 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the US broadcast of the episode.

A team dynamic has returned.

When Torchwood first hit television, it was described as Jack’s spinoff. But by the end of the first episode, the audience knew the show would focus on the Torchwood team, not just Jack. The previous two episodes of Miracle Day were lacking because there was no team dynamic. We had Gwen and Jack, and Rex and Esther. These four are now finally working on the same side, along with Dr. Vera Juarez.

Though a team dynamic has returned, the team dynamic has not. Jack, Gwen, Toshiko, Owen, Ianto - these five worked together as friends and with trust. The new ‘team’ formed from necessity, and is rightfully on very shaky ground. We see Rex challenge Jack’s leadership, ultimately deferring to him but then walking away and later returning. Esther grapples with her lack of experience and self-confidence, echoing Gwen’s first episodes of uncertainty at her ability to do the job. Jack, though a leader to Rex and Esther, defers to Gwen. And Gwen takes the most leadership, at a level of self-confidence not before seen in the show.

Jack and Gwen’s semi-role reversal finally gives insight into Jack. He’s mortal for the first time in thousands of years, and he wants to enjoy it, revelling in discomfort and hilariously even a hangover. But more than his mortality, he’s letting Gwen into his life. Instead of putting up a strong front as the sole leader of the group, he acknowledges (and she also interrupts and reminds him) that she’s competent and knows what she’s doing. In doing so, he also acknowledges that he’s not ‘okay’ from the events of Children of Earth. As he reveals the lasting effects of that finale, it leads to one of the best scenes in the show so far: Jack’s confrontation with Danes.

Danes is creepy and disturbing, and his description of how much he enjoyed raping and murdering the young girl left me feeling legitimately disgusted. He assumed Jack was like him, and just watching Jack’s expression change from one of anger to guilt and then to revulsion was disarming. Danes reveled in the murder of a child, and Jack listened with first-hand experience. Jack expected a monster and he found one. Of all the people affected by the Miracle, this man is the one becoming the next Jesus-like cult leader, deceiving foolish and desperate people looking for some kind of sense in the world. We now see his role in the show, and it’s one hell of a social commentary that I can’t wait to see progress.

But this conversation with Danes also revealed how fragile Jack has become. Not that he’s close to breaking or no longer being the Jack we all know and love - that would be a ridiculous cop-out. He has thousands of years of experience and is an impossibly strong person. Regardless of the horrible choices he’s had to make, he’s still the hero who will save the day. Yet all those years weigh on his shoulders and soul, and before that didn’t matter, because he had to keep going. But now things have changed - Jack is mortal. The writers are emphasizing his mortality not by just his actions - like ignoring the world for a night of sex - but also through his emotional exhaustion - his heartbreaking phone call to Gwen. I think they’re foreshadowing how he will deal with the Miracle at the end of the season. Because Jack saw himself in Danes; he saw a man with a deathwish.

As for the plot, it continues to unfold at a slow pace, throwing a bone or two to the audience each episode. PhiCorp either caused the Miracle or knew about it and chose not to tell anyone. And why? For profit. They’re pushing their agenda for a world with no drug prescriptions, pushing it via Danes and a terrified populace, with drugs stockpiled using Timelord technology.

I’m still waiting for the shocks and twists bound to appear that will make this quintessentially Torchwood, and find myself impatient at the tantalizing speed of the storytelling. This story is much slower than the other seasons, and it allows for more analysis of the affects of the plot - like Danes’ being noticed and attacked by two people and then picked up and beaten by the police, the cult with the masks, and a night full of sex for some and work and uncertainty for others. The slower storytelling creates more attachment to the plot through the characters, and hopefully wont cause the episodes to become boring as the story progresses.

But what of the growing team dynamic? Rex and Vera are ‘not strictly professional’ while Esther pines after him. Jack is trying to become closer to Gwen while she’s more focused on the Miracle and her family. Esther will hopefully come into her own as she faces new challenges, perhaps with the guidance of the obviously-impatient and frustrated Gwen. Rex continues to deal with his constant pain, and grapples with essentially being a solo agent, no longer tied to the CIA, an organization he’s dedicated his life to. And Vera attempts to find solutions for this entire mess, getting roped into Torchwood through her role as a surgeon and her access to PhiCorp. Jack and Gwen’s partnership carries the direction and expertise of the group, but the other three contribute, trying to make sense of the new world with their own respective skills. The five have the potential to recreate Torchwood, but as of yet have not succeeded. There are essentially two members of Torchwood, and three trainees.

They’re not a team yet, but they’re becoming one.

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Written by Paula Seligson

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Rendition
Written by Doris Egan
Directed by Billy Gierhart
Broadcast on Starz - July 15 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the US broadcast of the episode.

Torchwood is taking advantage of its longer time-frame.

With 10 episodes, 50 minutes each, instead of the usual 45 minutes for a ‘monster of the week’ or the miniseries of Children of Earth, we finally get to see not only the action of the plot but also its greater ramifications for both the Earth and the characters.

Rendition continued exploring the Miracle into the extent of its world-impact. This isn’t just the Torchwood team trying to save the Earth from a threat only they know about. This isn't Doctor Who where only the Doctor and maybe his companions can save the day. The Miracle is affecting the whole world, and that means the world’s best minds are going at the issue because everyone has a stake in what has happened.

That’s why I loved Dr. Juarez’s scene where she reverses triage. She understands how few resources her hospital has when nobody can die, and she realizes that a doctor’s most lacking commodity - time - is no longer an issue. This extends into her attendance at the panel, where we realize that illnesses will soon become resistant to drugs, and the most in-demand drugs will be painkillers. Logical steps like these turn Torchwood into good science fiction, which discusses how people deal with new issues and what ramifications those issues have on culture and resources.

The cultural aspect is prominent through Danes. The use of social media, ranging from the Twitter hashtag #forgive to memes about Danes’ failed execution like the Youtube video ‘what did you do?’, show why Danes is a character at all. As Esther says, “It’s the miracle made visible.” But she also comments on another interesting development: reconciliation between India and Pakistan, going completely against how she thought those cultures would react. It’s details like these that I hope the show continues to include, because they are what set it apart from a fun and dark ‘scifi’ action show into something that really analyzes human behavior and comments on society.

Gwen and Jack’s interactions continue to be a highlight of the show I love Gwen’s conflicting feelings of anger at Jack for leaving and for then returning, her fear for her family, and her relief and joy at having Jack and all the action of Torchwood back in her life. The entire scene where Jack is poisoned and Gwen, Rex, Juarez, and the flight staff work to save his life was just, simply put, well done. Her concern for Jack and her utter refusal to let him die are characteristic of how much stronger Gwen has become as a person since she first joined Torchwood.

Jack is still as cocky and in-control as always, which make his interactions with Rex a welcome comic relief. He is also finally being open with Gwen, as shown in one of my favorite dialogue exchanges in the episode:

Gwen: Where did you go, Jack?
Jack: A long way away.
Gwen: And did it help?

Jack just looks away, and doesn’t try to lie to Gwen and say that he’s fine. He’s no longer portraying himself to be the unshakable leader when he’s with Gwen, which shows how much their relationship has grown.

Also, point of interest: Jack’s guess about morphic fields causing the Miracle (confirmed by the CIA’s response of attempted assassination) is actually from the conjectures of the real scientist Rupert Sheldrake: http://www.sheldrake.org/Articles&Papers/papers/morphic/morphic_intro.html
I’m very excited to see how the writers take Sheldrake’s ideas and make them real for the show.

So far, Torchwood continues to be a strong show with a good mix of plot, characters, and action. The chase scene when Esther escaped from the CIA, the moments where Rex stared at himself in the bathroom mirror on the plane and questions again why he was still alive, and Danes’ disturbing breakdown of ‘I’m sorry’ on national television are all examples of continuing strong scenes in the show. I also love the bones the writers keep throwing at the new audience to hint at information only previous Torchwood fans would really know, especially in regards to Jack’s immortality, like when he says he had a boyfriend in the 1800s who used arsenic. The plot is progressing by revealing a bit each episode, and it’s fun to keep the mystery going. The new information in this episode - the morphic field, the oscillating level of life, and the fact that people are still aging - is all intriguing and I can't wait to see what is revealed next.

But of the two new characters, I only like PR rep Jilly Kitzinger. She is sly, developing the plot, and downright creepy with her smile and business cards. She’s interesting. On the other hand, Rex’s old love interest, CIA agent Lyn Peterfield, is too stereotypical to keep my interest. She’s exactly what you’d expect from a high-security-clearance CIA agent. And her ‘death’ was too camp - I felt like I was watching a zombie horror film when she walked toward the car with her head twisted around. Although she gets points for another really disturbing Torchwood moment.

Another issue I had with the episode was the gay flight attendant, Danny. I felt like every joke centered around him fell short. The jokes themselves felt juvenile, and at the least should have involved Jack flirting with Danny. Humor, usually very dark, is part of Torchwood, and it would be wrong not to have comic relief throughout an episode. But a character like Danny highlights an issue with longer stories. With a short length and time limit, writing has to be tight. Every word must count. But when a story becomes longer, and without the pressing need to make every moment necessary, quality can be lost. I felt like that’s what happened with Danny.

It’s wonderful for the story to not feel rushed. Scenes are longer, letting us see more nuances in the characters facial expressions and mannerisms, like Danes’ slight and sly smiles, and the beats between Jack and Gwen that are always filled with either silent communication or unspoken emotions. The full story gets to unfold in the style of a very long movie, allowing for a slower and more comfortable evolution of the plot as well as more character development. Hopefully this freedom in length wont diminish the quality of the show.

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Written by Paula Seligson

Torchwood: Miracle Day - The New World
Written by Russell T Davies
Directed by Bharat Nalluri
Broadcast on Starz - July 8 2011
BBC Worldwide Productions

This review contains plot spoilers and is based on the US broadcast of the episode.

Torchwood is back. There are differences - more explosions, American-geared jokes, and cinematography no longer based on the confines of a city. But the feel of a science fiction story grounded with people and taken to the edges of dark and disturbing is the same.

It begins dark. A convicted rapist and murderer of a young girl, Oswald Danes, is prepped for execution by lethal injection. The mother watches, hoping for closure from his last words, and cries as Danes dismisses her and waits for death. Immediately the plot (already spoiled by the previews for the episode) is introduced. The liquid enters the man’s veins and he thrashes in agonizing pain, undying.

And so Miracle Day starts.

This episodes begins with why I love Torchwood. With Danes’ unsuccessfully completed execution, it immediately shows the horrible nature of the Miracle: if people can’t die, what does that mean for the pain they suffer when death wont release them? With Danes, we see horrible pain but no other side-affects because the drug simply passes through his body.

With CIA agent Rex Matheson we see an unhealing injury. Even in the promo pics, he’s depicted with a bloody shirt.

And of course with the exploded assassin, we see the abject horror of the Miracle. What happens when a person’s body is damaged beyond function? They keep living.

The episode rightfully takes the time to explain the mystery of Torchwood for the new American audience just tuning in, with echoes of season one: finding an old picture matched to a modern-day Jack and retcon. The two accessible characters - Rex and fellow CIA agent Esther Drummond - are believable. Rex is portrayed as arrogant and in search of advancing his own career, but ultimately with a very personal stake in the mystery of the Miracle. The joke about the toll bridge fell short, but hey, the guy is in a lot of pain, you can’t expect to have a sound sense of humor. Esther’s obvious (and unrequited) feelings for Rex are an expected addition to the character interactions (there’s always a romance) and will be interesting to see unfold. Esther shows she’s both inquisitive and self-directed by seeking out information on Torchwood despite being told not to bother, which is encouraging for her later character development.

Of the new characters, the surgeon, Vera Juarez, is the most interesting, due to both her personality and her experiences while standing at ground zero of the Miracle - the ER.

We’re just getting to know the new main characters, and so far so good. Esther is definitely the weakest, but that leaves the most room for character development. All are in the thick of the Miracle’s effects, and they each deal with their respective burdens in different ways. The only one I’m not sure about is Danes, because his side-plot seems extraneous, and so far is the weakest portion of the show. Still, I’m excited to see what directions the writers take the new characters.

But if you’re a returning fan, they’re not why you’re watching the show. Jack, Gwen, and Rhys were fantastic.

Gwen has reached a new level of bad-ass, now that she’s a mother protecting her child. The scene where the couple comes to her and Rhys’ door for directions was brilliant. I love the new level of fierceness she brings to fighting. She has her daughter and her husband, she has reclaimed her life from Torchwood, and she will not let ANYONE ruin that for her.

I am so glad they didn’t change Rhys and Gwen’s relationship. He’s just as annoying and against Torchwood as he’s always been, and it’s a wonderful counter-perspective to Gwen’s readiness to jump in and save the world. While Gwen protects her family from the dangers of the world, Rhys has to protect Gwen from herself and her willingness to get involved. Their argument in the hospital was wonderful, and the best example possible of why Rhys is a worthwhile character to have around. I especially loved his readiness to handle a weapon and fight, revealing how much he’s grown since the start of the show.

And of course, Jack! Saving the day, one rocket launcher at a time. His reunion with Gwen was quick but well-done. Just the sheer look of joy on Gwen’s face (and the disgruntled scowl from Rhys) made me grin in delight - what’s left of the team is back together. Their reunion leaves fans wanting more, which I am confident the writers will deliver in the coming episodes.

And their reunion reveals the biggest shock of the episode - Jack is now mortal.

Plotwise, along with Torchwood being broadcast in the CIA headquarters before Jack wiped it from the entirety of the internet, it seems as though Jack’s presence is connected to and possibly causing the Miracle, and perhaps was even a trap for him. But could it instead be that whatever is causing the Miracle has managed to supersede Jack’s immortality, making him able to be injured but still (like the rest of Earth) unable to die? We’ll have to wait and see, but the plot is extremely intriguing and I can’t wait to see where they take it.

And yet the most interesting aspect of Jack’s mortality is not even the plot, but himself as a character.Jack has been immortal at this point for thousands of years. He has suffered in horrific and excruciating ways, and even spent his first few hundred years trying to find the Doctor in order to regain mortality. For now, in the thick of the plot, he’s most concerned with protecting Gwen and saving the Earth. But does Jack want to die?

We watch him casually suggest decapitating the exploded assassin in a truly cringe-worthy scene, all the while knowing he’s been through a similar experience during Children of Earth. The audience rarely sees the inner psyche of Jack. We see him endure horrible experiences, and he always seems to absorb whatever is thrown at him, back to his flirtatious old self by the next episode. But by the end of Children of Earth, he finally leaves because he’s suffered too much on his home planet.

Now that he has the chance to die, will he take it?

I suspect the finale of this story arc may be Jack’s choice between death or immortality, a choice that will decide the fate of the Earth.

In the meantime the fascinating plot will continue to unfold as the entire world deals with an increasing population and a growing number of injured who should but cannot die. The New World was an exciting start to a 10-episode season, slow paced enough to let the show right itself on American soil, but still full of action and adventure. And most importantly, it was still distinctly Torchwood.

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