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Starz Leaves Door Open For ‘Torchwood’ Return

30 Mar

It might not have produced the viewership Starz had hoped for when it first picked up the “Doctor Who” spinoff from Fox’s un-produced pilot cemetery, but there is still a chance that “Torchwood” could come back.

All it will take is creator Russell T. Davies to signal he’s ready for a return.

Chris Albrecht, the chief executive officer of Starz, told Multichannel News that the show is far from dead, thanks in part to the ongoing relationship Starz has with BBC Worldwide.

“You know, Russell is so busy,” Albrecht said. “Obviously, we’re in touch with the BBC all the time. They are our partners on ‘DaVinci’s Demons’ and the ‘Harem’ project. We told them we stand by ready for any news, but I think it will be a while before Russell came back to ‘Torchwood.’”

It’s a bit of a softer tone for Albrecht, who last August, seemed a bit perturbed that Davies had signed with Starz competitor Showtime to create a more “mature” version of his first major hit, “Queer as Folk.”

“‘Torchwood’ is not one of the shows we went into thinning about a yearly return,” Albrecht said at the time. “It’s about Russell T. Davies. He has a lot of things on his place. If ‘Torchwood’ is at the top of his list, that will affect the future of ‘Torchwood.’”

However, even his Showtime project took a break in December when Davies’ long-time partner, Andrew Smith, was diagnosed with brain cancer, sending the pair back to England. Although he’s back in England and tending to his partner, Davies is keeping busy. He co-created the children’s series “Aliens vs. Wizards” with Phil Ford, the former showrunner of another “Doctor Who” spinoff series, “The Sarah Jane Adventures.”

It’s not clear when Davies plans to return to America and continue his Showtime project as well as possibly revive “Torchwood.”

With “Sarah Jane” ended following the death of its star, Elisabeth Sladen, and “Torchwood” in limbo, fans have been wondering if new “Doctor Who” showrunner Steven Moffat has considered creating some spinoffs of his own.

“I’m not against it,” Moffat told fans at a Cardiff Doctor Who convention, according to Digital Spy. “Spinoff shows happen because you think, ‘That is so good, you should spin it off.’ But personally, I’m relatively busy.”

Moffat is pulling double duty between “Doctor Who” and another popular show, the BBC version of “Sherlock.”

No New ‘Torchwood’ In 2012

31 Jan

If you’re looking to see when “Torchwood” will be available on your television dial in 2012, you might want to look for something else.

As expected, there is no movement behind producing more “Torchwood,” either by BBC or its new American home Starz, which aired “Miracle Day” last year.

And now the actress who plays Welsh cop Gwen Cooper is making it official.

“Nothing’s going to happen in 2012, I know that much for sure,” Eve Myles recently told Cult Box. “But who knows what will happen in 2013. Maybe a movie, to kind of draw a line under it.”

Despite the hype going into “Miracle Day,” the most recent season of “Torchwood” under-performed when it came to actual audience. But because Starz is a premium cable channel that does not depend on viewer totals for specific shows, it becomes more about how many new subscribers signed on to Starz because of “Torchwood.”

The fact that more “Torchwood” was not ordered may have more to do with its showrunner Russell T. Davies than anything else. Davies is currently back in England, caring for his partner who was diagnosed with cancer. Before that, however, Davies announced he was working on a new project for Showtime, the premium cable channel that aired an American version of his British hit “Queer as Folk,” and that seemed to anger the leadership at Starz, who implied that Davies was too distracted to continue “Torchwood.”

“Torchwood” is a spinoff of the popular genre series “Doctor Who.” It features John Barrowman as Capt. Jack Harkness and a band of alien hunters protecting the Earth.

Over the course of four seasons, characters have come and gone, the main base in Cardiff, Wales, was destroyed, and although there was a slight relocation to the United States for “Miracle Day,” what’s happening next is up in the air.

The show has built popularity over its short life. It premiered on BBC Three in 2006, but moved to BBC Two in 2008. The main BBC channel aired the five-episode third season, “Children of Earth,” which one vast critical acclaim. Starz and BBC Worldwide ordered a 10-episode season of “Torchwood” that aired in 2011. Starz stepped in after the Fox network passed on the idea.

So yes, there may be some time before “Torchwood” is on again, but there is a good chance it will be on again.

“That’s the thing about ‘Torchwood,’ every [season] we’ve changed our format,” Myles said. “We’ve always had a gap in between, so fingers crossed, because we’ve got such an outstanding loyal fan base. They deserve ‘Torchwood’ to go ahead with something else to draw a line under it, for the fans to have a bit of closure.”

Source:AirlockAlpha
by KEVIN BAYER

DVD REVIEW : Torchwood – Miracle Day

12 Nov

Release Date: 14 November 2011
2011 * 15 * 528 minutes * £24.46 (DVD)/£29.35 (Blu-ray)
Distributor: 2entertain
Creator: Russell T Davies
Cast: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Mekhi Phifer, Alexa Havins, Kai Owen, Bill Pullman, Lauren Ambrose

Torchwood’s ongoing identity crisis continues with a series that’s both a small step forward and a giant leap back from the majestic Children Of Earth. The show’s first transatlantic outing certainly ups the ante, going global as the entire world stops dying (genius!) and telling a single story across 10 episodes, yet emerges less focused, considerably less plausible and nowhere near as gripping as its predecessor.

Miracle Day’s missteps can’t be blamed on its move to the US. The ability to evolve has always been one of Torchwood’s strengths, and putting Jack and Gwen on new turf with American colleagues immediately makes things feel fresh. Ironically, it’s the remnants of the old Torchwood that cause more trouble. Jack and Gwen are nowhere near as likeable as they were in the old days (when was Gwen ever that shouty?), and the team have rediscovered their series one habit of doing really stupid things.

Where Miracle Day really comes unstuck is in its pacing. There are some wonderful jaw-hits-the-floor moments and truly visceral images, but it lacks the steady dripfeed of revelations that can make episodic TV so compelling. Those sins would be easy to forgive if they were building towards the mother of all finales, but the “is that it?” denouement makes the hours invested feel like a waste. Time for another evolution.

Extras:

Bookending commentaries on the first and last episodes by Russell T Davies and executive producer Julie Gardner; a half-hour Making Of; an effects featurette (16 minutes); short episode intros by Barrowman and Davies; Eliza Dushku-starring motion comic Web Of Lies (28 minutes); deleted Scenes (7.44); ten minutes of talking-heads “character profiles”.

Rating : 6/10
Extras: 6/10

Tv Review : Torchwood: Miracle Day – episode 10 ‘The Blood Line’: season finale

16 Sep

This review contains spoilers.

10. The Blood Line

Whatever you’ve thought of Torchwood: Miracle Day to date, you can’t argue with the fact that it threw pretty much everything it could find at you for its big, all-action finale. By turns utterly bananas, quiet, rug-pulling and head-scratching, it was an hour of television that provided and rounded off many of the promised answers. And then it left a whole new question. A big one, at that.

So let’s start with the ending. Those in the US who had already seen the finale last week had filled the web with chitter-chatter that affirmed just how divisive a last few minutes the show came up with. It was, in effect, a teaser trailer for future Torchwood, as all of a sudden, Jack isn’t the only person on the planet who can’t die. No, we’ve got Rex Matheson now, and that should ensure a fair amount of extra work for Mekhi Phifer in the years ahead.

It was a sudden rug pull (it reminded me of one particular M Night Shyamalan movie in that sense), and you may question how logical it is. Was this a device just put in at the last minute, pending explanation later? Good question, but I can only attest that it had the desired effect. Torchwood has been very good at burning bridges at the end of its series, with finales that force the show to move to a new place for the following run. Say what you will of the revelation at the end, here, but that’s just what’s happened again. Things absolutely have to change.

Personally, I’d rather Esther Drummond had survived, but then her character had pretty much completed her journey by the end here, you could argue. Thing is, I thought pretty much the same of Rex, but clearly there are plans afoot for him.

The more interesting threads for me, though, that tease future Torchwood, are Jilly Kitzinger, and the ongoing presence of the three families. Lauren Ambrose has been great in the role of Kitzinger, and her character has been held back just a little in Miracle Day, taking her to a place that might just make her pivotal to whatever Plan B is.

What’s interesting is that the Torchwood team (now of three) haven’t really beaten the end of level boss, here. Sure, the miracle was reversed, and the inevitable tragedies ensued. But it’s the event that’s been fixed, not the cause of it. At the end of Children Of Earth, you’d find it hard to say that Torchwood had scored too much of a victory, all things considered. Here? At best, they’ve taken things to extra time.

These were the interesting threads of the episode, I thought, in an otherwise busy, but rarely brilliant finale. To be clear, I didn’t hate it, nor do I have an urge to pour buckets of scorn on it. But I think it was one of the least interesting episodes of the series, for the most part. And as someone who’s enjoyed Miracle Day, that was a disappointment.

Some of the threads, for instance, just weren’t that interesting. The mole within the CIA was a useful catalyst certainly, but then we weren’t talking anything that felt as sinister as something like 24 in its early days, when it used to uncover a duplicitous character. Likewise, The Blessing itself was underwhelming. Granted, it provided the basis for a manic action sequence near the end, but I do wonder if less explanation rather than more might have been the wiser option here. That said, Russell T Davies probably feels that he’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t on that point.

Still, how come The Blessing has gone undiscovered? I know this was talked about, I just never really bought it.

Oswald Danes, too, has to be classed as a real missed opportunity. In the first episode, he encapsulated much of the opportunity for the series. Here was a chance to take a good, hard look at how the media makes heroes out of the wrong people, through the lens of a man who should make the whole idea of a miracle day simply horrible. But, despite the best efforts of Bill Pullman, I never really got that.

In fact, Miracle Day lacked a tangible antagonist, for me. Sure, there’s the miracle itself, and the sense that governments do horrible things. But few human faces were put to that. When the show did explore a bit more in that direction, with the revelation of the families, for instance, it got a lot more interesting.

Comparisons to Children Of Earth don’t help again, sadly, as Miracle Day, ultimately, falls short of its forerunner. It’s done a lot of things right over the past ten weeks, and it’s successfully migrated and evolved the show. But it hasn’t managed to get across the raised stakes in the manner of Children Of Earth.

I feel bad for grumbling about it all, because even in this episode, there’s lots to like. Eve Myles has been brilliant, in particular, and what she evokes through her eyes alone is something many other actors could learn from. Captain Jack gets more to do here, as well, and it’s very much appreciated.

And I’ll say it: I liked the crumbs it left for the next series. I want Torchwood to come back, and I think the idea of attacking a fresh, contained series-long story every two years or so is an interesting format for the show. I sincerely hope that Russell T Davies shakes things up again, picks up the narrative stands, and builds on many of the things that have gone right over the past ten weeks (hiring Jane Espenson again, for starters).

Miracle Day has been a bumpy, but worthwhile ride. It’s been an interesting, occasionally brilliant season, punctuated by a bit of overpondering and some strong ideas. Episode seven, in particular, is up there with Torchwood at its very best. The Blood Line, though, isn’t, and given that this is the season finale, it’s a pity that it couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.

An enjoyable and packed episode, then. But not a great deal more than that.

Rating : 7/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Simon Brew

Tv Review : Torchwood – Miracle Day episode 9 ‘The Gathering’

9 Sep

This review contains spoilers.

9. The Gathering

My theory with Russell T Davies’ tenure on both Doctor Who and Torchwood is that he has a habit of overseeing really very, very good penultimate episodes of his series. The peak of this, I’d suggest, was the stunning fourth episode of Torchwood: Children Of Earth, the instalment that’s still reverberating around the Internet discussion boards a couple of years later.

With The Gathering, though, I felt it was all just a little bit muted. That Torchwood: Miracle Day, at the point where it should be paying off on the weeks of steady build up, was spluttering just a little. I say that appreciating that not everyone out there has warmed to Miracle Day as much as I. The thing is, though, at the point I expected my head to be awash with thoughts of the season finale, at the end of this episode, I just wasn’t really pumped up for it at all.

That’s not to say that The Gathering is a bad episode, because it isn’t. It’s just that it lends some weight to the argument that perhaps the story of Miracle Day might have best fitted a shorter, more concentrated run that the one we’ve got.

The Gathering inevitably busies itself with pulling together many of the threads that have been building up over the eight preceding episodes. It picks up two months after episode eight, and the world isn’t in a great place. We have “institutional murder”, for starters, as the laws have tightened on category one cases. Thus, straight-faced people come knocking at your door, suspecting you of harbouring people you shouldn’t.

The episode itself spreads the work across the full cast of key characters. Gwen is caring for her surely-doomed father, who is being hidden away from the authorities. She’s eventually reunited with Jack, who is being tended to by Esther in Scotland, having being smuggled into the country.

And then Oswald Danes appears. Danes has been an underplayed card throughout Miracle Day for me, and then suddenly, the most notorious man in the world has managed to sneak into Wales. Surely they’d have recognised him at the toll bridge, if nothing else? Nonetheless, he’s got some key information – the name of the man who created the miracle – and Gwen is forced to co-operate with him. Reluctantly, as you might expect.

Elsewhere, the Jilly Kitzinger story continued to pick up pace, as her recruitment to the whims of the three families means a new identity, and all trace of her disappearing from the Internet. We learn, through her, that the three families each took hold of one of politics, media and finance, and I love the fact that they recruited her specifically because “You’re a storyteller”.

In fact, and this might fly in the face of what I’m going to say shortly, she gave me my favourite moment of the episode. “What does The Blessing tell you about yourself?”, she was asked. “That I’m right”, she beamed. I loved that.

I didn’t love The Blessing, though, and this is the recurring problem with a high concept science fiction idea. I always thought that Groundhog Day proved the best template for this, in that it comes up with a central idea, and then doesn’t bother explaining it. As such, you’re left to watch the ramifications, which are usually far, far more interesting that the explanations that tend to be offered.

Given the number of plot strands Miracle Day is juggling, it didn’t really have the same luxury as Groundhog Day, though, and inevitably, the explanation was forthcoming. It was something of an anti-climax for me, even though it was well realised on screen.

Personally, I’m far more interested in the influence of the three families than I am The Blessing, and it’s here where Miracle Day keeps a few chips in its back pocket. I wonder if the threads being set up surrounding them will outlast Miracle Day, and if strands are being put in place for future Torchwood seasons. Appreciating that Russell T Davies has said, right back at the starter, that we’d get a self-contained story in Miracle Day, that doesn’t rule out leaving some additions to the Torchwood legacy. It might be, of course, that the families are wrapped up in the finale. But I hope they’re not.

After all, we’ve still not got to the bottom of just why The Blessing is so interested in Captain Jack, to the point where his blood is being drawn towards it That’s going to take a bit of time to explain. He must be intrinsically linked to it in some way, but how? Also, it’s probably fair to assume that the miracle has to come to an end at some point, and that points the finger of death not just at Gwen’s father, but also at Rex. It’s going to be a busy finale.

That the ending to this episode didn’t have me screaming at the telly, as Russell T Davies-overseen cliffhangers sometimes do, isn’t the problem I had with The Gathering, though. Rather, that I think that Miracle Day has been a far more interesting beast when it’s been posing questions, and dealing with ramifications. Granted, the pacing hasn’t always felt right, but looking back, lots has been crammed in. That said, the ascent has been better than the descent thus far.

Ultimately, I’m not getting the sense of escalation that we had with the startlingly good Children Of Earth, and comparisons to the previous season don’t always do Miracle Day too many favours. I’ll tune into the finale, certainly. But with perhaps a little less urgency that I was expecting, that’s all.

Rating : 7/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Simon Brew

Tv Review :Torchwood : Miracle Day – episode 8 ‘End Of The Road’

2 Sep

This review contains spoilers.

8. End Of The Road

So, then: some answers.

Picking up directly from the ending of the terrific Immortal Sins, End Of The Road is a bit more formulaic in its approach, albeit still retaining touches of old Torchwood to it. But heck, it does get through a lot of work.

Angelo, for starters. We’ve only known him for just over an episode, and he’s already one of the pivotal forces in Miracle Day. He’s loved and watched Jack his whole life, we learn, in spite of going off and having a family. But, more importantly, he’s also kept himself alive naturally. And now found a way to be the first person on Earth to die in a good while. Without the assistance of big ovens, that is.

At first, I thought this was going to pan out with Jack seeing the tragedy of seeing somebody who really wants to live forever. But to Jack, he’s been there before, and seeing someone he knew so young turn so old is heartbreaking, yet matter of fact. I wonder if, at some point, Torchwood will jump to a point in time where Jack has to watch the ultimate demise of Gwen. That will both set the Internet on fire, but also push the tragedy of Jack’s immortality harder than ever.

That said, there was enough on Jack’s plate right here. Firstly, he uncovers the significance of the floor that Angelo’s bed was resting on, and what part that plays in him dying. And, just to add to his list of problems, there’s the three families to contend with.

This, finally, feels like the reveal of the big forces at work. The three men who watched the torture of Jack in Immortal Sins, with the aid of Jack’s blood, it seems, are the ones who have banded together, and in some way caused the miracle. We learn that the aforementioned floor is recovered alien technology from the Torchwood hub. So what, exactly, have the three families managed to get their hands on?

Whatever it is, they’re scaring seven shades out of the people around them, and it’s the mere threat of them that leads Wayne Knight’s muted Friedkin to take his own life.

The three families, though, is just one of the balls that this episode was attempting to juggle, with sizeable success I should add. Esther, played impressively as always by Alexa Havins, is facing the tragedies and difficulties within her own family. If we follow the usual path of Torchwood, that suggests she’s got a horrific decision at some point to face, and just two episodes in which to make it.

Rex, meanwhile, hints at what’s troubling him, in that his days might be numbered the minute the miracle is reversed. Which, presumably, it will be. Will he, and many others, just instantly die? That might make for a haunting final episode?

We also get Jilly Kitzinger coming out of the shadows of Oswald Danes, and more importantly, being recruited by the three families. What, exactly, do they want her to do? Whatever it is, lots more Lauren Ambrose in the final two episodes would be very, very welcome.

As for Danes, the most popular man on the planet, I’m a little bit underwhelmed by his character arc thus far. Danes hasn’t, as of yet, done too much more than prove the media makes celebrity out of inappropriate people.

And the implication here is that he’s reverting back to type, now the threat of the Category Zero dictate has reared its head (it’s television, rather than people, that love him, Jilly points out). It’ll be disappointing if he just goes right back to where we saw him at the start of episode one, but it feels, oddly, that we’ve not spent enough time with him in the eight episodes to date.

I say this appreciating that he appears linked to the miracle somehow, and no doubt there’s important exposition yet around the corner. But I expected him to get under my skin more than he has.

That said, the beauty of Miracle Day is that there are so many things going on that, if one element isn’t working for you, there’s something else not far away. Granted, I still think the more focussed work in Immortal Sins has provide the highlight of the series to date. But I also liked that End Of The Road was so keen to tell so much story.

Pretty much everyone here had some conundrum to face, a tough decision to make, or is moved along in some way. All that, while the world’s finances are crumbling, a CIA mole is being revealed, and deep conspiracies are being hinted at. That makes it tricky for the guest stars to make much impact. Wayne Knight is gone pretty much before he appears, certainly. But credit to Star Trek veteran John De Lancie, who eats up every minute of screen time he’s allowed. His contribution is a welcome one.

There’s no mammoth cliffhanger as such come the end of the episode, but after the head manipulation of last week, perhaps that’s appropriate. However, things do seem poised for a strong final pair of episodes.

And given that few showrunners can put together a momentous penultimate episode to a series as Russell T Davies, I, for one, can’t wait for next week…

Rating : 8/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Simon Brew

Tv Review : Torchwood : Miracle Day – episode 7 ‘Immortal Sins’

27 Aug

This review contains spoilers.

7. Immortal Sins

It’s one of the great ironies of Torchwood: Miracle Day that when it does the opposite of what most people are insisting it do, it delivers arguably its best episode to date.

Immortal Sins, penned by Jane Espenson, refused to react to the clamour for Miracle Day to push forward faster, and to speed up the development of the assorted story threads that it’s juggling. So we got no overflow camps, only a mild sliver of Oswald Danes, and far fewer people creeping around corridors.

Instead, it gave us something pretty invaluable: the best part of an hour in the company of Captain Jack, giving John Barrowman his first chance to properly step centre stage all series.

And what a joy that proved to be. Barrowman is an excellent actor, but most of his work this series has been in brief snippets here and there. It’d been clear that the overarching Miracle Day phenomenon had something to do with him, which has made it frustrating that we’ve spent what feels like so little time in his company.

Now? We might just have begun to get an answer as to where he fits in.

The episode picks up where the last left us, as Gwen Cooper gets her ultimatum via the magical contact lenses (a cracking narrative device still): deliver Jack to a mysterious, no doubt nasty person, or her family gets it. This, clearly, leaves a stricken Gwen with little choice, and she tries to smuggle Jack away from the rest of the Torchwood team without them noticing. Which they do, but we don’t find that out until later, come the ending when they try and ride to the rescue.

In the meantime, the episode strips everything else away but Jack, and two significant relationships in his life. The first with Gwen, which touches on themes and conversations that the two have occasionally had throughout the run of Miracle Day. But, more importantly, his flirtations with the mysterious Angelo.

I’ll do Gwen and Jack first, though. The pair’s few brief snippets of chat, most prominently in episode two, have been welcome. But here, it was a proper conversation, one based on the love the characters clearly share, but also the divisions between them. They’re a terrific double act, and I always feel that Torchwood is at, or near, its best when the two of them are working in tandem. That proved to be the case here. Someone should start giving these two awards.

But even they were trumped by the newcomer this week. The story of Angelo is told in a brilliantly realised flashback story, one that drags Jack to pretty much the edges of what he can take. The scene of him being basically denounced as a devil, and killed time and time again, was really difficult to watch, but deadly in its effectiveness. This is, until the miracle came along, the very worst thing that Jack can endure, and it’s all the more haunting that it’s being inflicted on him by someone he was so close to.

It’s Doctor Who taken to the extreme, arguably. Recent Who has established that the regeneration process for the Doctor feels like death, and here’s a character being forced to die again and again, with no feeling being spared.

Bonus points, too, for references to the Doctor in this week’s Torchwood, incidentally.

Back to Jack, though, and he shouldn’t just be the beneficiary of sympathy, though. He’s the one who’s left Angelo in the dark. Angelo, after all, had to lie in prison believing Jack was dead, only to find out that he wasn’t. Angelo’s lost love of Jack is clearly, given the ending, about to have a serious ramification, and the cliffhanger to Immortal Sins was just brilliant. I wanted episode eight to follow straight away.

On the downside, Angelo has come out of nowhere late in the day if he does prove to be the instigator in some form of the miracle. There’s been little in the way of pointer to him throughout the series thus far, after all.

It’ll be interesting to see what state he’s in, too. The flashback sequences kicked off in 1927, so Angelo should be comfortably over a hundred if we get to see him again. Unless there’s actually more to him, or he has some alien influence or DNA to his character? Perhaps he’s just some machine of sorts now? I’m just guessing, but there are lots of questions, and I’m keen to see where he fits into the greater plan.

What was particularly welcome here, though, was that Immortal Sins really felt like older school, more focused Torchwood, and it also was Miracle Day taking a big gamble. The gamble paid off. Appreciating there’s three hours left to go, this episode feels already like it’s deepened both Jack’s back story and the broader narrative. It did it by keeping Rex and the increasingly resourceful Esther in the shadows for a week, and it reduced Oswald Danes to a clever comment in the background.

But it also gave the first evidence that some things are heading towards a climax. And it proved, once more, that Jane Espenson should be allowed to write pretty much every television programme on the planet.

Rating :8/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Simon Brew

Torchwood Miracle Day 4×08 ‘End of the Road’ Trailer

27 Aug

Tv Review : Torchwood: Miracle Day – episode 6 ‘The Middle Men’

23 Aug

This review contains spoilers.

6. The Middle Men

After the haunting ending to the last episode of Miracle Day, The Categories Of Life, The Middle Men inevitably picks up with the aftermath of the quite horrific ovens we saw for the first time. And what the episode explores is a collection of people who refuse to challenge the system, thus allowing the horrors around them to carry on as a result.

The first we’re introduced to, and perhaps the most ambiguous, is Stuart Owens, played by former Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson. He’s one of the middle men that the episode title hints at.

He’s PhiCorp’s chief operating officer, who doesn’t seem comfortable with what the company he works for is up to, but as of yet, isn’t rocking the boat. At least, not too much.

He kicks off the episode by getting a contact in Shanghai to investigate a land purchase made by PhiCorp, and what said contact sees drives him to commit suicide. We don’t see what he saw, but let’s assume it’s not nice.

Still, when confronted by Captain Jack, Owens stays close to the fence. Owens is clearly a character drawn in shades a grey, as his extra-martial affair is revealed early in the episode. His protestations that “I’m not a bad man” don’t ring entirely true, but there seems to be some truth to his keenness to get to the bottom of the miracle mystery.

Captain Jack doesn’t seem to be making much progress at all, though. Owens doesn’t have too much in the way of concrete information, and once more, we’re left with the impression that Jack has spent several weeks pretty much getting nowhere. It’s as bold as the show has been to make its most effective and authoritative character so comparably weak, and Barrowman is, as always, playing it a treat.

Jack keeps chipping away, but what he gleans from Owens is that it’s a systematic problem. PhiCorp, insists Owens, isn’t controlling the miracle, but is profiting from it. Again, there are larger forces at work here, and the bread crumbs seem to be leading back at least five years.

Still, Owens’ contribution is not without use, as he throws in “the blessing”. What is it? What’s the significance of that? Is it pointing at some kind of religious conspiracy, perhaps? That’d be a theme that Russell T Davies has played with before, and it’d be intriguing to see if it turns out to be one of the cornerstones of the Miracle Day mystery.

Also playing the middle man card is the creeping-under-your-skin Colin Maloney, who signs the paperwork, does as he’s told, and is adamant that things aren’t his fault. Yet he’s proving to be a more sinister villain than any that Miracle Day has introduced thus far, aided enormously by a tremendous performance from Marc Vann. For us, he’s proving to be the standout casting introduction of the series to date.

It’s the fact that he comes across so cowardly that makes him so effective. He dislikes confrontation, and only gains confidence when he’s got some power. And when he’s got Rex Matheson tied up, and is basically torturing him, any remaining middle man justification for his actions is utterly discarded.

Then there’s Doctor Alicia Patel. She’s firmly part of the system, and is “just following the guidelines”. That means, to Gwen Cooper, that Dr Patel won’t be recategorising her father, which basically means he’s still doomed.

The strange thing here is that Dr Patel knows damn well that those classified Category One are incinerated, and she doesn’t seek to challenge that. In many ways, she’s making the same character decisions as Colin Maloney, only she’s doing it thinking she’s keeping people safe and alive by doing so. This will not end well.

We do suspect, though, that the most important character progression of the episode was, once again, that of Esther. She seems to be on the most substantive and radical journey of all, changing from the wouldn’t-hurt-a-fly, safe and comfortable employee of The New World, to the woman who sort-of kills someone here. How far is Miracle Day going to push her, exactly?

The Middle Men, ultimately, is an episode that makes some fairly apparent points about people’s complicity being vital in perpetrating anti-human practices, and it’s not one that arrests the complaints from some that the pacing of Miracle Day is a little on the slow side.

It’s an interesting criticism, because there’s clearly something to it. The overall story arc hasn’t moved on at quite the pace we were expecting over six weeks, and yet each episode to date has been pretty much packed with work. Each time the credits roll, we’ve never felt short-changed by the show, and it has evolved a lot these past weeks. But with four episodes to go now, the foot perhaps needs to be eased a little more onto the accelerator.

Still, this was another very good hour of telly. Those yet to be convinced by Miracle Day aren’t going to have their opinions altered by it, but writer John Shiban has fashioned a tight hour here.

And he’s left some teases, too. Who is it, after all, who rings Gwen at the end, and is demanding that she deliver Jack in exchange for her loved ones? Is this the force above PhiCorp, that hasn’t been seen yet? That’s certainly the tease, and the stakes are escalating, too, and we look forward to seeing what happens next.

One final thing: someone cast Eve Myles in a big action movie. You know it makes sense.

Rating : 6:10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Simon Brew

Tv Review : Torchwood Miracle Day – episode 5 ‘The Categories Of Life’

12 Aug

This review contains spoilers.

5. The Categories Of Life

It seems fitting, now that Torchwood: Miracle Day has arrived at its half-way point, to take stock of just what the show has managed to do thus far.

In five hours of television, the programme has successfully re-established itself back on our screens, it’s managed to bed in several new characters, and consequently tackle the demands of both British and American audiences (which might not be as disparate as some people make out). It’s also bedded in a brand new overarching story, the Miracle Day itself, and sown some seeds that look set to grow in the weeks ahead.

On the flip side, it’s done all of this in the time it took to tell the entire story of Torchwood: Children Of Earth.

Children Of Earth is proving to be a bit of a double-edged sword for Miracle Day, too. The success of the last series run has clearly injected the Torchwood team with the confidence to go for a single narrative season once more, and that’s proving to be a wise decision. Conversely, they set the bar for themselves very high with Children Of Earth, and they’re not at that level here yet.

But the foundations are very much in place for Miracle Day to scale those heights, and this latest episode, The Categories Of Life, offered many glimpses as to that. It’s Jane Espenson on writing duties again, and the day she was persuaded to join the show was one of Torchwood’s best.

Espenson spends the first two thirds of this episode dealing with some fairly substantive themes. She digs into the overflow camps, specifically the inhumanity of them. Humans are being categorised by inflexible criteria, and the purpose of the camps isn’t particularly obvious at first. Even with the quite horrifying ending, it’s not entirely clear what PhiCorp is up to, and why it would want to burn so many people. Whatever the reason, it’s one of the most horrifying images that Torchwood has ever put on a screen. We struggle to think of an episode ending that’s been quite as haunting as the one we get here.

It put the other massively uncomfortable moment in the shade a little too, namely the hero worship that Oswald Danes receives at the Miracle Rally. It’s little surprise that society champions some unsavoury characters in real life, but Miracle Day is throwing up a quite horrible hero figure in Danes (even though it’s not been repeated in such detail what he did, it’s hard to forget the opening few moments of the series). It’s taking celebrity culture to the very edges of tolerance, and it’ll be interesting to see how long they’re willing to hold Danes in such a position, before he presumably gets some kind of comeuppance.

Amongst the quieter moments were many important ones. Gwen and Rhys were brought back together, while Rex put himself firmly in the firing line, by going undercover at one of the overflow camps.

The character who most came to the fore this week, though, was Dr Vera Juarez, who’s been a constant part of the Miracle Day story to date, but took centre stage in The Categories Of Life. It was she, the woman who’s pretty done nothing but try and help people all series, who ended up shot and burned. And, even appreciating that characters in Miracle Day don’t die, she can’t be in any kind of human state. Her fate is quite horrific (update: Jane Espenson has since clarified on Twitter that burning means you do die).

Speculation time, then. PhiCorp knew that the Miracle Day was coming, but presumably doesn’t have the power to cause it itself. It’s put itself in a position to profit from it, seemingly by disposing of live human beings, and being perfectly poised to take advantage of the relaxation in prescriptions.

But what’s the greater force at work? We’ve said before that clearly Jack is wrapped up in it, but this can’t just be someone trying to kill him, can it? There must be a little more to it than that?

Also, what was the relevance of the conversation with Jilly just before Oswald took to the stage, too? How is that wrapped into the PhiCorp mystery?

For Gwen, her problems are closer to home. Her father is clearly in a very bad way, and despite her efforts to retrieve him from the overflow camps, his chances of making it past the last episode of Miracle Day seem non-existent.

Yet it’s not that that the episode will be remembered for. This was, instead, the episode where Miracle Day really, really darkened.

Structured terrifically well, the episode built to an ending few could have seen coming. It also boasted a performance from Marc Vann, as the haunting Colin Maloney that really sticks in the mind.

The Categories Of Life really upped the ante for Miracle Day. It’s taken the show to an extremely dark place, one that it has five further hours to explore. The disturbing ending, the escalation of some of the key themes, and the threat of still more to come offers the promise that Miracle Day may just manage to fully step out of the slight shadow of Children Of Earth in the weeks ahead.

Oh, and if a further season of Torchwood is to be made, post-Miracle Day, can someone please get Jane Espenson signed up urgently?

Rating : 8/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Simon Brew

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