Torchwood: Miracle Day Episode 1 *Spoilers*

Richard Dower

I'm creating new US thread for a few reasons, to discuss at US pace...as it airs a few days before the BBC plus....the US version will be different, as in different editing, more racy, and more USisims etc.

The BBC version will be longer i hear + refrences and lingo/in-jokes known to a UK audience will not be in the US version, i suggest we either run a UK and US pace separate threads or special notes added by mods.

Just seen episode 1, please note i know NOTHING about Torchwood, never seen it...no nothing about characters etc., some i'm a newbie. I liked what i saw, better then i expected, engaging main story but it did have some cheesy dialogue and scenes, one assumes this is the nature and tone of Torchwood so i'll forgive it.

Pretty decent production vales, i hear the US/UK partnership has three times it's normal budget. It was a bit slow but i guess they wanted to establish the Torchwood universe for a US audience, they built up the main arc for a good two 3rds of the first ep.

But based on what i saw, i'm in...it gave me more then enough to tune in next week

TBH...if this was a UK production i'd not be interested, Americanising it has sold it for me, though i'm sure ardent TW fans would say the exact opposite, i loathe Dr. Who...but this show seems to be more adult and better written then the Dr. Who kiddiefest on the BBC.

:cool:

Sarn

It's good to have it back. I think it was well done, setting the scene following the dramatic conclusion of the last season. Could have done with a double episode.

pixelburp

No I think there shouldn't be two threads just for the sake of a week's difference & some slightly different dialogue scenes. I suggest merging it with the other torchwood thread and keep things in one super-thread.

Users should be savvy enough to note the SPOILERS in the title - read at your own risk

pixelburp

(figured I'd move my thoughts on episode 1 to here, rather than have them in the Trailer thread)

---

May have caught the first episode there. No real spoilers as such, but the fair thee warned if you have spoiler super-sensitivity.

My first thoughts?

One of the few problems I had with Children of Earth was that it took Torchwood's concept and pushed it further from the mould of "Doctor Who spin-off". It was a great tale in its own right, but it could have been a standalone, once-off story for all the brand mattered. Whatever else was wrong with the first two seasons, Torchwood always maintained its roots - whether it was via the appearance of old enemies & friends (eg, cybermen, UNIT & Martha Jones), or even by (non)subtle nods towards the Doctor himself. We could accept that the events took place while the Doctor was flying across the universe. Children of Earth broke that idea completely in my view.

So with Miracle Day, I dunno: maybe over the course of the 10 episodes Torchwood as an entity will become more relevant, but for now it does feel quite interchangeable with any number of other "high concept" US TV shows. Yes, we bring in the remaining actors, but it just makes the whole thing jarring. The scenes set in the US & Wales could be from two completely different shows: we go from the '24' clone Stateside, & all the posturing dialogue you get from that, to the quirky, paranoid domestics of Gwen & Rhys - it conflicts all the way through. My only assumption is that with our Torchwood heroes heading off to America, we're going to mine the "fish out of water" dialogue, with Gwen / Rhys having hilarious cultural moments & confusions.

The idea itself is being well utilised - unlike RTD's 'Who' writing, he seems to have thought this concept through; watching the world - top to bottom - react to the news of immortality was fascinating, and RTD should be credited with writing the situation quite convincingly. There's a nice mixture of both the wonder & the horror of it all. Props also go to the man for writing the most grisly scene in recent TV memory; the "autopsy" of the exploded villain, and close-ups as he's slowly beheaded was just ... urgh. Horrible.

So in conclusion - I have NO idea what to make of this show. It isn't Torchwood as we know it, and yet at the same time - it is. Sort of. i do wonder if this isn't going to turn into a spin-off of the spin-off; we get 10 episodes of the old crew teaching the new crew all the tricks of the trade & at the end of it all we get a new, American Torchwood team. Either way, it sure as hell isn't a Doctor Who spin-off anymore.

Morag

Capt Jack Bollocks!

I think it went well, the dichotomy was good as it threads the past to what will happen next, it would have been to jarring to just have them all suddenly in the USA.

pixelburp

Sharrow wrote: »

Capt Jack Bollocks!

I think it went well, the dichotomy was good as it threads the past to what will happen next, it would have been to jarring to just have them all suddenly in the USA.

To be honest, I'd have preferred if Torchwood (the show) stayed on this side of the pond; because from what I saw in ep1, there was nothing to distinguish it from every other event-driven TV serial in the US. We'll see how it goes though.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Did not like it to be honest - they've americanised it too much. Out of loyalty to the show however, I'll give it another week anyway.

Ridley

pixelburp wrote: »

One of the few problems I had with Children of Earth was that it took Torchwood's concept and pushed it further from the mould of "Doctor Who spin-off".

Apart from easter eggs like the Saxon poster I thought Torchwood series one, and two to a lesser degree, hung too much onto the parent show. Special kind of Doctor blah blah blah which you're never going to get a resolution to if you don't watch Doctor Who. And those people apparently exist.

I thought Miracle Day was alright. Great set up for Oswald Danes though: "She should have run faster". Liked the autopsy too but, yeah, it felt like a distinctive shift between the US and Wales.

At the moment it feels like episode two will be another episode one. If that makes sense. Plus at the moment I still need a reason to like Harkness again. And the series should still be called The New World.

BaconZombie

I'm I the only one who has been searching for system linked to the show that the username/password will work on....

Gambler

OK, we've been having a bit of a chat about the best way to accommodate this week long gap between episodes and here's what we've come up with for now. My problem with one thread for all episodes was that if you are watching the UK timeline only then you can't participate in the thread once the US version has aired without risking spoilers and no-one wants the thread to have to employ spoiler tags all the way through it!

With this in mind our suggestion is that a new thread should be created for each episode with a spoilers tag in the title. If you are watching the UK timeline and you wish to avoid any spoilers I would suggest not looking at episode threads once they have aired in the US

This should also allow any differences between the two versions to be discussed in the episode thread once the UK version has aired too!

I have edited the thread title for this thread to reflect that it is the Episode 1 thread rather than a US only thread and I am fairly sure someone (pixelburp perhaps :P) will make sure a new thread gets created weekly for each episode! We will review this after a few weeks to see if it's working but for now we think that one thread per episode rather than 2 threads - one for US and one for UK - is the easiest way to let everyone participate at either the US or UK pace depending on their preference/location!

Stark

Found myself drifting off during the American bits. Enjoyed the moments when Gwen and Rhys were on screen as well as the gory bits mentioned by popebenny.

I don't like the prospect of Gwen going around constantly with a baby under the arm. Why can't they just do like normal people and drop the baby off with the grandparents before going round chasing aliens?

Richard Dower

ratings; http://www.tvline.com/2011/07/ratings-torchwood-miracle/

popebenny16

Stark wrote: »

Why can't they just do like normal people and drop the baby off with the grandparents before going round chasing aliens?

I know! It what i do anyway.

Its very odd how I approach Torchwood, I avoided the internet and any printed source of info to keep the current run of Who as spoiler free as I can (I only - finally - got to see Amy's choice last week lol), and that is because i care so much for the element of surprise and twists and turns that in built into Who these days.

Not so with TW, I dont have the BB to see each US-paced ep as it goes out (thanks to living in a bog with the so-called rural broadband scheme) but I have read every spoiler going because I am not madly enthused with TW and never have been. I'll wait for the BBC showing but I have an awful feeling that its a big RTD event which when you open it up is full of other RTD events and sod all else. The only twist is if there is going to be a happy ending (with everyone becoming mortal again and getting killed).

This is speculation, not spoiler, so I wonder if, to combat the rising population, there is mass sterilsation? They brushed against the idea in CoE of simply selecting poor kids to be fed to the interstellar junkie but never developed it enough in my opinion, maybe this time they can really go for it.

Am also looking forward to how they explain just what it is that does not die? I mean, I hope they conduct experiments with nukes, chucking people at the sun, out into space, grinding them up in a mincer, to find out. Will we get a pesudo religious explanation for what it is that is keeping the people alive as in souls or life forces? That could raise some interesting ideas.

That said, I expect it it be simply 10 shows of events not ideas, with a big reset button and a countdown at the end.

Doctor DooM

popebenny16 wrote: »

I know! It what i do anyway.

Its very odd how I approach Torchwood, I avoided the internet and any printed source of info to keep the current run of Who as spoiler free as I can (I only - finally - got to see Amy's choice last week lol), and that is because i care so much for the element of surprise and twists and turns that in built into Who these days.

Not so with TW, I dont have the BB to see each US-paced ep as it goes out (thanks to living in a bog with the so-called rural broadband scheme) but I have read every spoiler going because I am not madly enthused with TW and never have been. I'll wait for the BBC showing but I have an awful feeling that its a big RTD event which when you open it up is full of other RTD events and sod all else. The only twist is if there is going to be a happy ending (with everyone becoming mortal again and getting killed).

This is speculation, not spoiler, so I wonder if, to combat the rising population, there is mass sterilsation? They brushed against the idea in CoE of simply selecting poor kids to be fed to the interstellar junkie but never developed it enough in my opinion, maybe this time they can really go for it.

Am also looking forward to how they explain just what it is that does not die? I mean, I hope they conduct experiments with nukes, chucking people at the sun, out into space, grinding them up in a mincer, to find out. Will we get a pesudo religious explanation for what it is that is keeping the people alive as in souls or life forces? That could raise some interesting ideas.

That said, I expect it it be simply 10 shows of events not ideas, with a big reset button and a countdown at the end.

To be fair I think RTD has earned a little more respect from me (torchwood wise, with Children of Earth) than to assume his worst excesses will be on display here.

Sarn

I was only half watching the BBC version, was it just me or was the only difference the massive spoiler clip at the end of the BBC version? Thanks but I'd rather not see extended clips of what's to come.

pixelburp

Sarn wrote: »

I was only half watching the BBC version, was it just me or was the only difference the massive spoiler clip at the end of the BBC version? Thanks but I'd rather not see extended clips of what's to come.

Yup, was going to post the same thing - as far as I saw, there was no difference between the BBC & American versions. I actually thought they'd censor the surgical decapitation scene, but nope; it was there in all it's glory

Also agreed on the preview at the end of the episode - pretty much the entire arc of the series was given away. To anyone about to watch the episode - turn off at the end!

mike65

I've only ever dipped in and out of Torchwood, twas okay if rather cartoony at times. I wasn't aware that this series was a co-production with Starz until I checked imdb.

Daemos

I'd rather watch Cyberwoman than that episode again. Terrible. None of the new characters appealed to me, and it seemed to be a whole episode explaining what we already knew. Hopefully it picks up next week.

pixelburp

Daemos wrote: »

I'd rather watch Cyberwoman than that episode again. Terrible. None of the new characters appealed to me, and it seemed to be a whole episode explaining what we already knew. Hopefully it picks up next week.

Well that was probably to placate the American audience, but I agree about the new characters. Mekhi Phifer seems only capable of playing obnoxious a$$hole characters, and his Torchwood one shows no sign of breaking that mould. Terrible, 1-note performance.

On the upside though, Eva Myles.
*swoon*

Cyndaquil

I thought it was a bit, "meh". I can understand that they want to introduce the concept to US viewers, but the episode didn't really go anywhere after introducing the basic concept. Hopefully the rest of the season will up the pace a bit. If they do decide to go ahead with a fifth season I wish they'd return to the old "threat of the week" format, although COE was good.

popebenny16

pixelburp wrote: »

On the upside though, Eva Myles.
*swoon*

Could not put it better . It looks from the trailer clip - which is standard operating proceedure for the BBC dont forget -

that Gwen gets "morally ambigious" with someone this run. Poor Rhys, lets hope she kept some of those amnesia pills

Well, it wasn't subtle, but then again, I wasnt expecting it to be, and the trailer clip just re-inforced everything I feared about the next nine weeks. Will that stop me watching? Hell, no. it looks as entertaining as hell, fast paced, may not be too witty, but so what. I liked the way Jack suggested "what if we remove the head" but there were places where a little more imagination with the script could have been used. Example - who are the people in the chopper, why are they trying to kill Gwen? After shooting down the chopper, why not hang around, drag their immortal but crippled ass outta there and torture the solution? Nope, we need to keep suspence going till episode seven on that one. (this is a prime example of what Christopher H. Bidmead described as RTD's first draft writing).

But you gotta try and not allow such things get to you, so I have said my bit and wont go on about it much more. The Big Concept is not explained, we dont know why people are not dying, neither do the characters, which is a good touch. One of the best UK Sci-FI series in the past, the ITV Quatermass Serial, had that exact same central problem. Hopefully this is going along the same lines and the charcters gradually figuring out what is going on and what to do about it is very promising.

although from the clip is seems like the "goverments of the world knew this was going to happen" line may be heading our way

.

It was nice to see that not only do people not die, neither does Rex's mobile phone. Dont forget, he left hopsital with it, in america, with no sign of a charger, and it worked all the way to Gwens gaff.

And, for those of you who have memories, isnt the premise and the way that people seem to be able to live on seem a bit like the episode "A day in the death" and Owen Harpic's little bout of living while dead and having his body being injured and all that? He shagged Gwen too, maybe everyone will have to this time. That'll keep me going for nine weeks. Poor Rhys, though.

Flashgordon197

Firstly let me say Im heartened at the return of the series. I was never a doctor Who fan but enjoyed the last series of this show. The Welsh lass is a real looker and a good actress too.

Im not sure how moving this series to LA will work. I liked the welsh connection -and the overall Britishness of the show. I think what happened was finance-money was thrown at the series after its decent ratings and obviously the partner investor is from the States. BUT if cherly cole could not last a few weeks in the states-I really dont see how the welsh accents will bring in viewers.


The concept of the first show is excellent-nobody dies. Brilliant and provocative.

I never thought much of the actor who plays Jack Hargreaves but I always liked his character. The black CIA officer-so far he is entertaining but its early days .

Skerries

popebenny16 wrote: »

It was nice to see that not only do people not die, neither does Rex's mobile phone. Dont forget, he left hopsital with it, in america, with no sign of a charger, and it worked all the way to Gwens gaff.

yeah but if you remember Jack took it off him during the flight so he couldn't use it until they landed as you see him continue his conversation

popebenny16

Skerries wrote: »

yeah but if you remember Jack took it off him during the flight so he couldn't use it until they landed as you see him continue his conversation

like someone out of blue peter i came prepaired for this. that may have saved several hours, but he then had to get from whereever that plane landed to middle-of-nowhere wales on his own and in constant contact with base. i think this is a terribly important plot strand. jack may need that battery to save the day in ep 10.

popebenny16

If nobody can die, who cares about lack of food to feed everyone??? :P

yes, i know, they wont die, just be very hungry. jog it off. or eat other people, who, presumably although in your digestive system, wont die either. nor when they are, erm, not in your digestive system and in the toilet and then in the sewer.

blastman

Flashgordon197 wrote: »

I never thought much of the actor who plays Jack Hargreaves but I always liked his character.

Can't say I've spotted him in the series yet....

Flashgordon197

blastman wrote: »

Can't say I've spotted him in the series yet....

My mistake Jack Harkness-the actor who plays him aint that great.

popebenny16

blastman wrote: »

Can't say I've spotted him in the series yet....

he was renting that house to gwen and rhys. Out of Town, that was a really good show from when ITV was a imaginative and proper TV network.

Mr.Saturn

I've yet to watch it, but is the Dr.Who spinoffery still intact? Are there any references? Or is it, as I suspected, being ignored?

pixelburp

Mr.Saturn wrote: »

I've yet to watch it, but is the Dr.Who spinoffery still intact? Are there any references? Or is it, as I suspected, being ignored?

Nope, there's no sense that this is still a Dr. Who spinoff, in fact there's an argument that it's barely a Torchwood spinoff. There's zero references, nods or suggestions as to the origins of Torchwood.

Daemos

pixelburp wrote: »

Nope, there's no sense that this is still a Dr. Who spinoff, in fact there's an argument that it's barely a Torchwood spinoff. There's zero references, nods or suggestions as to the origins of Torchwood.

You mean except for them saying why Torchwood was founded, and Owen Harper FBI...

pixelburp

Daemos wrote: »

You mean except for them saying why Torchwood was founded, and Owen Harper FBI...

Well he asked if there were nods towards Dr. Who, which there isnt (hence "the origins of Torchwood"). Yes we got a wee wink & nod towards Torchwood's previous series, but the fact it's a Dr. Who spinoff is now purely coincidental

mike65

Frasier was Frasier the moment it started, not Cheers goes West.

Anyway I enjoyed tonight's episode more, I like the way they are dropping in more of the challenges that not dying would present to the world.

Flashgordon197

So far its still good . Obviously with the big bucks put in this-its going to have less of an original Torch wood feel and more American. Its trying for a wider audience. The writing/acting are all good but the CIA black Dude is being played way over the top. He is really comical.Perhaps hysterical/comical acting is part of the whole Doctor who thing? I was critical of Jack's acting (I dont know the actor's name) but its improving.