The trailers and promotions have all stated that one day no one dies, and I expected this to happen more dramatically. SPOILERS FOLLOW. The episode begins with Oswald Danes, a nasty convicted murderer (who can barely speak…). His execution goes wrong, and then cut to: the Americans wondering what Torchwood is. Straight away. And then Rex is ‘killed’ and that’s the first we hear, properly, of the miracle. I expected it to be a big shock in the episode, but the miracle itself is slowly introduced, and isn’t brought in that well. It isn’t that clear in Oswald’s ‘execution’, and then it’s a bit half-hearted when explained in the hospital.
While all that’s happening, Gwen is living a quiet life, growing vegetables and eating soup and whatnot. Rhys never quite dealt with Torchwood, but his utter objection to it in the first episode still comes across as surprising. And Gwen’s… not quite right. While I never thought she was excellent as a Welsh Lara Croft type person, she isn’t much better living the quiet life. In fact my favourite member of that family is baby Anwen, who doesn’t speak. (Not a reference to the Welsh voice, cos I do love the Welsh accent.)
Captain Jack appears quite quickly as well. Esther is busy looking up Torchwood, apparently for no reason at all, and then Captain Jack coincidentally appears, apparently for no reason at all. It’s later explained why he’s back, but his first appearance is somewhat confusing. It’s handled quite well though, and he’s brought back as Captain Jack. Not “regretful oh dear I’m the 10th Doctor and everybody’s gone” Jack. But then, maybe he doesn’t dwell enough on the past. There’s no reference to Ianto, and the only reference to a dead team member is a brief cameo mention of the name Owen Harper.
The fact the series is now made by America, or at least partly by them, means it can do a lot more stuff. Not sure it needs to though. The helicopter/car scene that’s jammed in at the end (ruined by trailers) is good and dramatic, and it’s just nice to see Torchwood in action in Wales. And then there’s the bit in Cardiff Bay, right at the end, which is just lovely and beautiful. Until they all get ‘arrested’ at least.
Captain Jack is on top form, except he does seemed to have moved on TOO much, and he’s written too much for a newer and older audience all in one. Gwen Cooper I’ve explained, and that brings us onto the American cast. Esther is an excellent character, and I like Rex as well. While they jump too quickly and unexpectedly into “What is Torchwood?”, both characters are acted excellently, and they’re presented really well. The doctor in the hospital (sorry, don’t know her name) is also an excellent character. Though isn’t she very friendly with Rex very quickly, or did they know each other before? And that brings me onto Oswald Danes. I did have trouble understanding him, but when I eventually got most of it, I realised he was quite a clever, yet despicable character. He’s a well written and thought out character, portrayed well by Bill Pullman. The idea of having a character like Oswald is an interesting one, and it works really well in Miracle Day.
Torchwood being an ‘adult’ show, you’d expect violence and so on. The scene which is perhaps most graphic is the scene with Oswald’s execution. Frankly, it’s disgusting, and I was expecting quite a graphic show. Didn’t happen, and that was almost disappointing. It’s like Torchwood has forgotten the days when it had sex monster, and just gone back to being a show for teenagers, something Mr T Davies said he couldn’t do.
So – we’ve got Torchwood. Full of the same action, good characters, a very well written script, and the whole thing looks fantastic. There aren’t even THAT many signs of it being “Americanised” yet. But the biggest problem is that it jumps into the action. There is no reason to be investigating Torchwood, and the miracle is quite a small point, built up too slowly, and then suddenly it appears and we’re meant to know all about. I was expecting a much better introduction to the miracle (despite the fact we knew what it was beforehand). An introduction that was obvious, that was dramatic, not something mentioned in conversation then suddenly built up. An introduction similar to the Numb3rs episode “Vector” would have been good, and in fact, in style, it reminded me of that.
So a very good episode – it’s just a shame about the rushed and quite undramatic (not a word, according to my spell check) introduction to the programme.
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