★★★★★ 0/5

Torchwood: Miracle Day

Torchwood's first venture into the US market brings new characters, exposition and somewhere on the fringes, Capt. Jack Harkness.

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Captain Jack is back, and this time he’s straddling both sides of the Atlantic.

It’s been exactly two years since the UK supernatural hero last appeared in Torchwood. In Children of Earth there were big plot moves which saw the death of his lover Ianto (Gareth David Lloyd) and parting ways with Gwen (Eve Myles). It seemed like the ride could be over.

But it has relocated, with one foot in the US and another still in Wales, UK.

The new series, premiering first on Starz in the US, is beefed up from 6 episodes to 10.

It opens with multiple scenarios: convicted child killer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is facing execution in prison; CIA agent Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins) is stumped by the mysterious word “Torchwood” flashing up on computer screens; a more senior CIA agent Rex Matheson (Mehki Phifer) is ominously driving home in busy traffic in the rain; and Gwen is living the family life with Rhys (Kai Owen) and baby on an isolated coast of Wales and loving the extended downtime.

But today something weird happens to their universe, which as the trailer indicates, results in humans suddenly becomingim immortal. No surprises for guessing that Danes is not extinguished for his crimes. But even Matheson survives a frightful road accident, which defies logic.

The ramifications of nobody dying begins to impact. Wars stop Being fought. But nobody heals from their mortal wounds, and there are real fears about a population explosion and a lack of food and resources across the globe. Within 4 months the world will no longer be viable. But who is behind this masterplan?

Gwen, living it seems incognito, is suspicious of those at every turn, from overhead planes to wayward hikers who knock on her door. This is Torchwood world, Gwen. Trust nobody.

Esther Drummond makes the link between the global phenomenon and the odd Torchwood word (“It’s not Touchwood it’s Torchwood” says one dumb American) and begins to delve deeper. After much exposition, her detective work will lead her eventually to our hero, Captain Jack.

It’s hard not to notice that this first hour goes to great pains to try and explain how Torchwood fits into the world for an American audience. Which probably explains why the UK audience will be getting a different edit. Media interviews also promise there will be no compromise on Jack’s omnisexual personality for the US market.

Much of the first hour is told from the point of view of CIA agent Rex Matheson, whose primary function is to extradite the Torchwood team from the UK to the US in order to solve the “Miracle Day” mystery. The performance by Mehki Phifer is irritating: barking and over-acting in his sub-plot which, even with the suspension of disbelief, seems a tad far-fetched.

There isn’t a great deal of John Barrowman in the first hour, no doubt kept in storage for maximum impact later.

Eve Myles has some shoot-em-up scenes that are rollicking fun, especially one involving a gun, a baby and some ear muffs. Politically incorrect? You bet.

A menacing Bill Pullman looks like he has even more politically incorrect episodes to come.

But overall, the first hour drags because it has to accommodate a new audience. US characters and exposition are given ample screen time at the expense of Jack and Gwen. Hopefully this diminishes once the first episode is out of the way.

After all if we can’t rely on Captain Jack to save us, then we’re all bloody doomed.

Torchwood: Miracle Day airs 8:30pm Saturday on UKTV.

17 Responses

  1. Oh & PS/
    Introducing a completely new & previously non-referenced key character to the show
    70% of the way in, is just cheating the audience RTD! Here’s hoping the new
    character gets a gruesome comeuppance from Jack! Unless RTD shows some
    more magical gift for storytelling this season pretty damn fast…. [Words fail me]

  3. What’s up with all the homosexual scenes since the series moved from the U.K. to the U.S.? The show was much more interesting and intriguing previously.

  4. As a late follow up : The story develops very slowly, like they’re driving with the handbrake on. This may be explained by their instruction to increase the series from 6 to 10 episodes ie: they’ve diluted the content to a painfully thin consistency.

    It’s all OK, but just so pointlessly slow. Captain Jack appears less “Omni-sexual”, & now just plain gay – his role is also lacking in substance & so far, may as well not be there at all.

    Cooper provides the much appreciated comedic aspects, but her repeated whinging about American terminology is just dated & irritating, whilst zipping about
    in her transatlantic travels nonchalantly despite being on a most wanted list. Her motivation constantly appearing to be the small picture view of her family travails & direct threats to it, rather than the big picture story as a whole… in trying to make her more “heartwarming” to the US audience, it just diminishes
    & trivialises her character’s presence for the most part.

    All up, watching this latest series is getting frustrating & tedious… I’ve enjoyed Torchwood in the past, despite its many flaws, but I’m now finding it hard to care. IMHO the US co-production was an interesting concept, but it just isn’t working for me the longer the series goes on.

  5. Agreed. Ep 2 was a lot more satisfying despite there being much less action.
    It seemed more of a professional drama this time, & CIA man Rex was also
    not quite the “Mr Shoutie” that he was in the first one.
    Basically, ep 2 was much more balanced & better as a result. Enjoyable.

  8. This is a hard one … I felt that it was not Torchwood for the first half of the episode … the “over Americanisation” of it has changed it into a different show, and destroyed it’s unique and special flavour. Thankfully it all returned to normal when we arrived in Wales … the action took off and it was fantastic. I did not believe, for one second, that Andy would betray them like that … that was unforgivably rediculous! I am getting the feeling that Russell had to make too many compromises to the Americans to get the show made … it will all stand or fall on episode two!

  9. I quite enjoyed Miracle Day #1. Some things I noticed, other than the bigger budget for production values, included :

    The strategic & repeated use of the terms “Torchwood” & “456” – presumably to entice uninitiated viewers to Google the combination, just to give them a nice surprise… contrived, but a good way to advertise the previous season of the show;

    The passing reference to “Captain Jack Bollocks” – “Capt. Bollocks/Bollox” being a familiar term of derision in UK/Irish parlance… made me smile;

    As has been mentioned, the grim tone of the show – well that’s hardly a shock given the premise of the season – so I wasn’t expecting it to be a Shaun of the Dead clone :-).

    The admittedly OTT CIA character – so bad, that I assumed he was there for comedic effect &, of course, to force the pace of the show along a bit;

    So, not too bad. Some in-jokes, more gun-play & explosions & some slightly gruesome special effects… overall, I’m happy to watch the next installment.

    BTW, is Jack Barrowman/Captain Jack deliberately trying to look like a younger Arnie S.? 🙂 Facially, I mean… In some scenes it was quite noticeable.

  10. I’m half thinking that Nine will have first refusal for FTA rather than the ABC, and if they do pick it up, run it in the same timeslots as Fringe. And we’ll get the US edit, not the UK one.

  11. I was massively lucky to see it tonight at a UKTV preview – and I loved it. I think I expected more introduction stuff for the Americans, but I felt that they pulled it off. It was Who-like in introducing the characters and concepts to a new audience by centring on new characters whose eyes we see Jack and Torchwood through. And that’s a technique that’s worked well in the past.

    I enjoyed the familiar factors of Murray Gold music and the Russell T Davies feel of taking what seems OK at first sight then having it deteriorate into real-feeling disaster. But oh my lord yes, have to agree about the mad over-in-your-face-ness of Rex; just shut up! And stop being so horrible! I don’t want another unlikeable lead, took us long enough to get rid of Owen.

    Big thumbs up for the earmuffs.

  12. Reports from friends who have been to some of the free preview screenings in the US describe the first episode as ‘grim’- not the program, but the tone of the story.

  15. “Captain Jack is back, and this time he’s straddling both sides of the Atlantic.”

    People in The Azores are in for a hell of a shock…

    “… humans suddenly becoming mortal.”

    I can see how that would be a surprise to some 😉

  16. I’m looking forward to the return of Captain Jack and I just hope they can build and maintain the momentum across 10 episodes (especially as the last two episodes of Children of Earth seemed to suffer from a dramatic loss in quality).

    Has there been any clear indication about the difference in content, episode length, etc between the US and the UK edits?

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