Genre Weekend 11: Miracle Day
By Angela Roberts
July 11th, 2011
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been mentioning the premiere of the newest season of Torchwood. Canadian science fiction cable channel, Space, ran an entire Torchwood marathon last weekend, and this past Saturday saw the premiere of Torchwood: Miracle Day, a ten-part mini-series that will serve as the hit Doctor Who-spinoff’s fourth season. The show is a co-production between BBC Cymru Wales (the arm of the BBC which makes all of the Doctor Who-related shows and several other awesome productions of the past few years), and American cable channel Starz, noted recently for their exceptional series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The show will primarily take place in the US, with series stars John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Kai Owen (whose characters Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, and Rhys Williams are the only main characters left alive after the climactic events of the past three seasons) being joined by Mekhi Phifer as CIA agent Rex Matheson.
The premise is this: One day, everyone on Earth stops dying. They don’t just stop dying, they can’t die. No matter how badly they’re injured. They just don’t die. And mysteriously, someone or something plastered the CIA’s computers with the name Torchwood, before it just as quickly and mysteriously vanished from existence. Rex Matheson, self-centered CIA golden boy, is driving somewhere in the rain as CIA watch analyst Esther is telling him all about this strange occurrence, and he crashes quite spectacularly into a truck carrying metal rods which penetrate his chest. He should be dead. He does die. But then he lives, and he’s not the only one. Doctors are baffled all over the globe as people who should be dead aren’t. One is Oswald Danes (chillingly played by Bill Pullman), a convicted rapist and murderer who survives his execution by lethal injection, and who we can sense will play a much bigger role later. And Rex and Esther (who feels guilty for Rex’s accident) are obsessed with Torchwood, and what a defunct British secret organization might have to do with the phenomenon that the media have dubbed, Miracle Day.
What’s left of Torchwood, Gwen and her husband Rhys, are holed up in a cottage in a remote part of Wales, raising their baby daughter while living in a constant state of paranoia. We’re not told yet what exactly they’re hiding from, but we do get to see how prepared they are. Jack also returns from his self-imposed exile, just in time to save Esther from a guy with a bomb which destroys the CIA records office. She and Jack have a very pleasant and truthful conversation, which of course means that he retcons her. Never take a drink from Captain Jack when he’s telling you the truth. It doesn’t quite work so well though, since she wakes up the next morning with a hangover, a bit of amnesia, and a big fat folder her co-worker stole from their supervisor’s desk. Oh, and Rex, who never forgot anything she was telling him, and depends on her for information.
Sadly, Gwen and Rhys aren’t all that hard to find, especially after she gets lured back into town by the illness of her father. Rex catches up with them at their cottage, followed on his heels by the prescient and ubiquitous Jack Harkness. Of course, they all arrive and start to hash things out as they are attacked by mysterious guys in a sophisticated helicopter. And then after all that, Rex arrests everybody.
Never has so little happened yet it’s felt like a lot has happened. Never has so much happened and it’s felt like nothing happened at all. I got both these feelings from this episode of Torchwood; there’s a lot of set-up and establishment of the characters. Which is all well and good. Those are tasks you’ve got to fulfill in the beginning of a new story. And you’re still left with so many questions, not all of which being plot holes, although unfortunately some of them are.
But still, it is fun to see the Torchwood team back on the air. And this is shaping up to be a pretty interesting storyline. I like the new characters, and I don’t think it harms the show at all that it’s set in North America. So I, for one, am intrigued and pleased to follow this new season of Torchwood. Bring it on!
Best moment: Gwen turning around with a rocket launcher, and saying, “We’re Torchwood.” Never liked her character more than at that moment.
For more info, check out the UK Torchwood site and/or the US Torchwood site.
Capsule Reviews:
Outcasts: Once again, I’m reminded of how perplexed I am about this show being cancelled in the UK. Yes, some of the ideas in this show have been done and redone. But the writing is tight, and the acting is spot-on. And you will cry at the end when you see the moving scene with Tipper Malone.
True Blood: Oh, Eric Northman. I thought you were hot when you were an intense and dangerous bad boy. But sweet, vulnerable amnesiac Eric is so attractive. You can even see Sookie weakening. Add to that the return of Alcide Herveaux, and you have an episode chock full of hotness. And, speaking of episodes where nothing seems to have happened yet so much has, this was one of them. There just never seems to be enough, and yet you switch off the TV satisfied. How do they do that?
So, Geek Recommendations of the Week:
Something I’ll be watching tomorrow night; Alphas. Yes, it looks like it might be another attempt to resurrect the secret superheroes genre, and yes, I didn’t like No Ordinary Family and I never even got to see The Cape, but I’m intrigued. Plus, it’s got Vincent Nigel-Murray from Bones.
Do I even have to tell you to go see Harry Potter? It’s out in theatres this July 15th.
Fave Podcast of the week: This isn’t just a podcast, but Big Finish Productions is quite impressive. They produce audio books based on several sci-fi series, most notably all seasons of Doctor Who. The stories are fully licensed and sanctioned. You can also subscribe to their podcast on ITunes.