Re: Rate Torchwood: Miracle Day Episode 1: "The New World"

by barnaby morbius Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:20 am

Johnstone McGuckian wrote:Not as good as Day One of CoE, but there's a lot of potential here. It was funny when it was meant to be, it had good action sequences and the fake blood wasn't used sparingly. I'm glad that Torchwood seems to have got rid of the adult=sex thing that it seemed to obsess over in the first two series and certainly appeared in CoE.

A good start to what could well be a very good series. 4/5.

i'm hoping for MORE sex!

lots of dirty, sweaty, hard sex.

as you were

by konstantin Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:11 am

barnaby morbius wrote:
Johnstone McGuckian wrote:Not as good as Day One of CoE, but there's a lot of potential here. It was funny when it was meant to be, it had good action sequences and the fake blood wasn't used sparingly. I'm glad that Torchwood seems to have got rid of the adult=sex thing that it seemed to obsess over in the first two series and certainly appeared in CoE.

A good start to what could well be a very good series. 4/5.

i'm hoping for MORE sex!

lots of dirty, sweaty, hard sex.

as you were

I didn't think the ogri were scheduled for a return in TW

by **Zoltar** Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:21 am

Jennyjenkins wrote:I gave it a 3 - it might have got a 4 had it not been for the annoying spoilering in the "trailer" at the end of the episode - I don't mind a few glimpses of what might be coming next time - however the length of the "trailer" was ridiculous - Husband said why not just look away - not really possible! I'm particularly irritated as I've gone to some lengths to remain unspoilt.

That seems to be the difference between what the US and the UK got. The episode itself was the same, but you got a long "series" trailer and we got a shorter ad for merely the next episode. Shame it was so spoilery.

by The Browncoat Cat Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:18 pm

And that, Mr. Black-Ops Helicopter is how you fire a rocket launcher to cause maximum damage to the target.

Not enough aerial shots of Cardiff, and I suspect that there will be even less as the series progresses. Come on STARZ, if this is successful and they want a second series, I challenge you to rebuild the Hub and to make a series set almost entirely in Wales. You are a cable network, you can do that sort of thing.

Anyway. Of the episode itself, my main problem was for the first 20 minutes it was more 24 than Torchwood. Every so often I was expecting Jack Bauer not Jack Harkness to be on screen. Eve Myles was awesome and so were Kai Owen and John Barrowman. It struck me that Mekhi Phifer's character is being deliberately written as unlike-able to begin with. It a nice touch having someone who has such a great personal investment in what is going on as a major character, and he asked the question I have been asking for months now, are all the survivors going to die when the "Miracle" is switched off.

Did anyone else get a strong sense or deja vu with the character Esther Drummond? Her first encounter with Captain Jack was almost identical to Gwen's first encounter all those years ago.

Final thought: In five years time, how many young American girls called Anwen (means "Very Beautiful") will there be starting Elementary School?

by Guest Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:51 am

It’s A Miracle, A True Blue Spectacle - A Miracle Come True…

Amazingly, Thursday wasn’t entirely a case of all real-life terrible tragedy and bitter blood-soaked recriminations. For it also had its long anticipated fictional counterpart in the breathlessly glossy-paced form of the premiere episode of Torchwood – Miracle Day…

Slightly Ashamed Confession Time…

“What be the “slightly ashamed confession”, oh Sidney Q?”
“That he’s an overly verbose idiot, perhaps?”
“No. He’s gonna’ reveal that he really is and has been Russell (dear old ‘Uncle Rusty’) T Davies all along!”
“Oooooooooooh look! My left big toenail needs trimming.”
“Wibble…”

None of the above actually. (Although there might, just might mind you, be a grain of truth in the “overly verbose”, accusation. But that’s another debate for another time). Instead, my slightly ashamed confession is that with a mere twenty minutes remaining to the airing of the much awaited episode-in-question – I nodded off in front of the television. Yeah, you read that right: I nodded off. And as a result missed the opening ten or so minutes: awakening only at the point where Rex,-The-Wonder-Dog… erm yes, sorry, I mean Rex-The-Abrasively-Driven-and-Dedicated-Yet-Beneth-The-Surface-Deeply Principled-And-Heroically-Inclined-Soon-To-Be-Former-CIA-Agent, was wheeled into hospital suffering from the ever-so-slightly troublesome after-effects of having been impaled through the chest by a bloody big metal pipe.

But worry not. luckily I had set my PVR to record the event. Unfortunately, for some reason currently beyond my ken, the aforementioned PVR rather uncooperatively failed to actually change channel at the Appointed time – resulting in the recording of the final ten minutes of the old edition of Grand Designs, I had been watching in the time leading up to my unplanned nap; rather than the required opening ten minutes of TW:MD. Now take note: I have absolutely nothing against Grand Designs. Indeed, in happier days past a certain Antipodean Eye and I, were avid and dedicated regular viewers. But (and this is the crucial thing to bear in mind) GRAND DESIGNS IS IN NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM, TORCHWOOD! But having said that, I’m more than pleased to report that I quickly picked-up the missed plot threads and threw myself head-first into the unfolding action.

I won’t waste any of our time by rehashing the plot – I’m more than confident we’re all intimately familiar with it by this point anyway. So instead, I’ll simply cheery-pick my overall general first impressions and observations of those things that jumped out of the screen and immediately proceeded bite me on the metaphorical nose.

The Production Was Slick, Polished And Glossy…

Yet thankfully it succeeded in retaining that essential Torchwoody Britishness of tone that might so easily have been lost to the budget-inflated allure of the shows newly injected US resources and input. I suspect that results from the combined eagle-eyed ministrations of “Uncle Rusty” “Dame Julie” and the involvement of the core key team of tried and trusted technical bods from this side of the Big Pond who came steeped in the knowledge and past expertise of Who related productions and immediately proceeded to inform the entire production with the rich fruits of that experience.

Yes – the episode was fast-paced. Yes – it displayed unmistakable elements of staple slickly executed and glossy US styled production conventions and techniques. Yes – it sometimes breathlessly flaunted its newly upgraded budgetary status with near gleefully exaggerated and over-exuberant abandon.

But it did all of those things with flair, heart, a deft undercurrent of wittily mordant humour; and most importantly of all – humanity.

And The Big, Beating Heart Of Torchwood’s Humanity Is…

Gwen Cooper. Older, wiser, slightly tougher and decidedly more cynical – but still unmistakeably the moral and emotional fulcrum of the series. Here we pick-up the character at the point where her efforts to distance herself and her, still relatively recent, family unit from the chaos and danger of her past are about to crumble into ashes; as the rapidly developing events taking place in the wider-world which she has attempted to shut out come crashing in to engulf and draw her back into the former life she so desperately sought to escape. By the end of the episode, we’ve born witness to the dizzyingly-paced, but entirely logical, transformation of Gwen from a passive, guarded, deliberately self-exiled outsider, to a pistol-wielding Earth Mother, whose instinctual compassion for the fate of both her own family and humanity en-massed has been violently kick-started into action by the after-effects of the unprovoked attack on her home by the forces of one of the story’s, as yet, unrevealed key antagonists. It’s an immediately effective gambit from writer RTD. Resulting in Gwen being instantly re-established as the audience’s prime point of emotional identification for what’s yet to come.

And as was really only to be expected given past experience, Eve Myles rises to the task magnificently. Myles has a beguilingly open and expressive face. And she deftly employs the mobility of that canvas to pain a non-stop series of rapidly altering micro portraits which illustrate not only her character’s inner immediate emotional responses, but also act as emotional cues which trigger automatic audience empathy. It’s a delight of a performance – and it serves as a timely reminder of exactly why (in my purely personal opinion) Myles continues to be one of the most consistently charismatic and excellent actors to be intimately connected to the wider Who universe.

As For The American Newcomers…

I like em. It’s early days yet and I’ve yet to form any lasting concrete opinions – but so far I see nothing potentially series stability threatening to fear from them. (Of course, I’m automatically precluding Bill Pullman from the on-going assessment, mainly on the grounds that based on past evidence, the man seemingly doesn’t know how to give a bad performance – and there’s absolutely no evidence on this initial viewing that anything has changed in that respect. But for the moment, I’ll reserve my right to pontificate in greater detail on the new characters until we’re a little further into the story and I feel I’ve managed to get a meaningful handle on them.

So, that’s about it. Slick, exciting, intriguing and carried off with encouraging flair – Torchwood – Miracle Day has on the strength of this opening episode has immediately vaulted to the top of my weekly “Must Watch” television list.

by **Patrick** Sun Jul 17, 2011 8:27 am

I'd like to claim ownership of the "overly verbose" accusation.
Wink

Delightful to hear The Eocene enjoyed the first episode, and I can't wait to hear what he has to say about episode 2.

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