Miracle Day: The New World

"Wales is insane!"

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: TV

Broadcast: 14th July 2011

Series: Torchwood 4.01

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Rhys 

Synopsis 

One day, nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next and the next. People keep ageing, they get hurt and sick, but they never die.

This can't be a natural event. CIA Agent Rex Matheson investigates and the answer lies in a dead and buried secret organisation. Torchwood.

Verdict 

Miracle Day: The New World was a fantastic start to the fourth series of Torchwood! Well, it's been an incredibly long time since I blogged Children of Earth, which was the whole of the third series, and despite doing a few audios in the gap between watching, a gap that is done twenty or so months long, I must say that it was tremendous to be watching Torchwood once again! It really was back with a bang. There's a noticeable gap since the last series and I think the production point of the story makes it more obvious that this series was on prime time BBC1. It certainly seems more like a drama and I must say that Russell T Davies does an excellent job in pleasing the faithful viewers as well as placing this as a perfect jumping on point for any new watchers of the programme. I was really impressed by that. The episode kicks off a mammoth asventure of ten stories so it's no secret as to what the next nine blog entries are going to be. And it started excellently. The concept is just incredible with death being pretty much cancelled. Nobody at all was dying. It didn't matter what happened to a person. They just couldn't die. We even saw a man who had been blown up have his head severed from his body and still he survived. It was stupendous really but it now seemed that the human race had achieved immortality, whether it wanted it or not. Seeing the death sentence of Oswald Danes being carried out without an execution actually occurring was interesting and I must admit that I was surprised the "she should have ran faster" line found a place in the Doctor Who universe. I had no problem with it but I imagine some fans may have been put off by it. His character was horrible but that was exactly what he was supposed to be so that was good. Bill Pullman played the role sublimely. We were introduced to a number of new characters and I particularly liked Esther. She really is lovely and I liked how she was investigating the mysterious Torchwood which had suddenly disappeared from all records. The continuation from Children of Earth with the numerous mentions of the 456 was good and I also loved the references to Day One, Day Four and Day Five of that third series umbrella title. Rex was a very good character and I loved his reaction to Wales. I think it's the first time the name of my nation has appeared in my opening quote but I had no other option. The Severn Bridge comment was marvellous and really made things feel homely. The scenes in Cardiff also had that effect on me. I probably should've waited until I go back to university to watch this but now I've started I'm not going to stop. Speaking of Wales though, I was delighted to see Gwen once again and I think I had forgotten how wonderfully Welsh she is. Eve Myles is just lovely and she was just awesome in the episode. Gwen was glad to see Jack again which was good and I loved how proudly she said 'Torchwood' after shooting down the helicopter when asked who they were. Jack referencing Tooth and Claw to Esther was terrific and I liked that there was still a Doctor Who element to things. Andy appearing again was great and I liked that the story managed to establish what the series was to focus on as well as having its own good little story. The ending was unexpected with Rex ordering rendition for Torchwood and an extradition to the USA. It sets things up nicely and the problem of curing immortality can now be handled. I look forward to seeing how things pan out but for now, a great episode and it's great to have Torchwood back on my screen! 

Rating: 9/10