Torchwood: Miracle Day: Difference between revisions

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''Torchwood: Miracle Day'' is the fourth series of ''[[~~Torchwood (TV)|~~Torchwood]]'', which began airing on Starz on July 8, 2011. It's a ten-part miniseries, similar to ''[[Torchwood Children of Earth ~~(TV)~~|Children of Earth]]'' in tone. The storyline is a [[BBC]] America / Starz co-production that's set in both Britain and America. Covering the equivalent screen time of 20 episodes of the original ''Doctor Who'' series, this makes it the longest single storyline in the history of the franchise. <ref>''Doctor Who's'' record is either 12 or 14 half-hour episodes, depending on if you count ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' as four stories or one.</ref>

''Torchwood: Miracle Day'' is the fourth series of ''[[Torchwood]]'', which began airing on Starz on July 8, 2011. It's a ten-part miniseries, similar to ''[[Torchwood: Children of Earth|Children of Earth]]'' in tone. The storyline is a [[BBC]] America / Starz co-production that's set in both Britain and America. Covering the equivalent screen time of 20 episodes of the original ''Doctor Who'' series, this makes it the longest single storyline in the history of the franchise. <ref>''Doctor Who's'' record is either 12 or 14 half-hour episodes, depending on if you count ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' as four stories or one.</ref>

''Miracle Day'' takes place some time after the traumatic events of ''Children of Earth''. People on Earth have very suddenly [[The Ageless|stopped dying]], mystifying experts and straining the Earth's resources. This is [[Played for Drama]], as every single realistic result of unending death is explored: people trapped in explosions remain conscious and in horrifying agony forever, both normal hospital procedures and the entire legal system need to be revised within days, the normal 50% in-utero mortality rate of severely disfigured fetuses is no longer in effect, and the undeath is soon found to be [[Age Without Youth]].

Captain Jack Harkness ([[John Barrowman]]) and Gwen Cooper ([[Eve Myles]]), the last members of the Torchwood team, reunite. They're forced to go to America, where they are helped by CIA secret agents Rex Matheson ([[~~Eight~~ Mile|Mekhi Phifer]]) and Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), as well as others sympathetic to their cause. Things quickly get complicated when Jack realises that he's been stripped of his own immortality and healing powers in the process.

Captain Jack Harkness ([[John Barrowman]]) and Gwen Cooper ([[Eve Myles]]), the last members of the Torchwood team, reunite. They're forced to go to America, where they are helped by CIA secret agents Rex Matheson ([[8 Mile|Mekhi Phifer]]) and Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins), as well as others sympathetic to their cause. Things quickly get complicated when Jack realises that he's been stripped of his own immortality and healing powers in the process.

The series is [[Darker and Edgier]], [[Bloodier and Gorier]] and [[Hotter and Sexier]] than ''Torchwood'' had ever been before. Although it still retains its [[Camp]] elements, ''Miracle Day'' is largely serious, with a strong focus on [[Medical Horror]] and [[Body Horror]].

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In a bit of a role reversal from previous airing schedules of both ''Doctor Who'' and ''Torchwood'', The American channel Starz aired the episodes first and then aired in Britain a week later (with Canada and Australia airing them in-between).

For an episode guide, see ''Torchwood'''s [[Torchwood ~~(TV)~~/Recap|Recap page]].

For an episode guide, see ''Torchwood'''s [[Torchwood/Recap|Recap page]].

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=== Tropes in ''Miracle Day'' ===

* [[Actor Allusion]]: Matheson is gleeful at the beginning over someone named "Reynolds" retiring due to his wife's sickness. Mekhi Phifer played Ben Reynolds in ''[[Lie to Me (TV)|Lie to Me]]''.

* [[Actor Allusion]]: Matheson is gleeful at the beginning over someone named "Reynolds" retiring due to his wife's sickness. Mekhi Phifer played Ben Reynolds in ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]''.

* [[Age Without Youth]]: And the myth of Tithonus is explicitly mentioned. The human race has a ''very'' unpleasant future ahead of it.

* [[And I Must Scream]]: Goes hand in hand with [[Fate Worse Than Death]] below. In a world where people can't die, paralyzing injuries just got a whole lot worse.

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* [[Big No]]: {{spoiler|Rex after Esther is shot in the final episode. Gwen also gives a variant later in the same episode when Rex is shot.}}

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Despite the Families surviving to plot another day, the world is back to normal after the nightmare that was the miracle, Torchwood is back, [[The Mole]] was shot to death and rather than die Rex is now immortal, though only time will tell if that's a good thing or not. But Esther and Vera are dead, along with Gwen's dad.}}

* [[Blessed ~~With~~ Suck]]: The whole world.

* [[Blessed with Suck]]: The whole world.

* [[Body Horror]]: Oh ''my''. The first episode alone has a suicide bomber still alive after the attempt, his flesh cooked off, organs destroyed, and barely a few strands of muscle holding his head to his body... which they cut off! ''[[Fate Worse Than Death|It still doesn't kill him.]]''

* [[Book Ends]]: {{spoiler|Oswald Danes dies.}}

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*** [[Word of God|Russell T Davies]] actually speculated in the episode commentary for "The Blood Line" that {{spoiler|the Blessing may have only removed Jack's [[Healing Factor]], and that were he to have died during the Miracle, he would have revived as normal.}}

* [[Call Back]]: Jack directly compares himself to the Doctor, and takes on human companions. {{spoiler|He also admits that they 'kill him', just as his role model once said.}}

** Jack also invokes the names of several alien races featured in both ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and ''[[~~The Sarah Jane Adventures (TV)|~~The Sarah Jane Adventures]]''.

** Jack also invokes the names of several alien races featured in both ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]''.

* [[Camera Sniper]]: Gwen is in Venice Beach, and we see that someone's watching her through the shutter of the camera they're using to photograph her. The shot even pulls back to show the person with the long range lens.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: In the first couple of episodes, we meet a few of Esther's CIA Watch coworkers. In Episode 8, {{spoiler|one of them is revealed to be a [[The Mole|mole]] for the Families}}.

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** Category 3: Anyone who is alive and/or would be treatable under normal circumstances.

** Category 2: Anyone who is alive while suffering from persistent injuries/diseases which would otherwise be fatal.

** Category 1: Anyone who appears to be brain-dead or suffering from something which would be immediately fatal. {{spoiler|They get stuck in [[Kill It ~~With~~ Fire|giant ovens for disposal]].}}

** Category 1: Anyone who appears to be brain-dead or suffering from something which would be immediately fatal. {{spoiler|They get stuck in [[Kill It with Fire|giant ovens for disposal]].}}

** {{spoiler|Category 0: The newest category, set up to deal with cases like Danes so they can continue to enforce the death penalty. We never get to see what this entails, however.}}

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: In a world without death, this happens a lot.

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* [[Just Following Orders]]: In the overflow camps this seems to be a mantra.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: {{spoiler|Jilly}}

* [[Kill It ~~With~~ Fire]]: {{spoiler|When people won't die even though they should, the obvious response is to utterly incinerate their bodies. Can't be alive if there's nothing left. [[And I Must Scream|Or so one would hope.]] For the moment, it does seem to be working, but then it would be rather hard to question inanimate ash to check if there's a soul still in there.}}

* [[Kill It with Fire]]: {{spoiler|When people won't die even though they should, the obvious response is to utterly incinerate their bodies. Can't be alive if there's nothing left. [[And I Must Scream|Or so one would hope.]] For the moment, it does seem to be working, but then it would be rather hard to question inanimate ash to check if there's a soul still in there.}}

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: {{spoiler|Esther, Oswald, Angelo, Shapiro and Vera.}}

* [[Kill the Cutie]]: {{spoiler|Poor, poor Esther... But really, of course Torchwood would kill the nice likeable character. After [[Break the Cutie|slowly destroying her.]]}}

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'''Captain Jack:''' [[Genre Savvy|In my experience, that's how it normally works.]] }}

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Oswald Danes. You can't deny he spends most of his on-screen time manipulating other people to his advantage. Nor can you deny he's a bastard.

* [[Murder By Cremation]]

* [[Murder by Cremation]]

* [[A Nazi By Any Other Name]]: basically what every government in the world utilising overflow camps becomes, {{spoiler|since Category 1 inmates are sent into 'the module', death chambers where they are incinerated alive.}}

* [[A Nazi by Any Other Name]]: basically what every government in the world utilising overflow camps becomes, {{spoiler|since Category 1 inmates are sent into 'the module', death chambers where they are incinerated alive.}}

** Gwen calls one of the camp doctors out on this, going so far as to tell her not to call herself a doctor anymore, because she doesn't deserve it.

** Not to mention the Families' justifications for taking over the world.

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* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: The current Torchwood team consists of Jack, Gwen, a cocky male [[The Lancer|Lancer]] with a fatal hole in his chest whose main purpose seems to be annoying Jack, and a pretty, non-confrontational female [[The Smart Guy|Smart Guy]] whose main purpose seems to be sitting at a computer desk. Remind me, Owen and Tosh did ''die'', right? The only cosmetic difference is that Rex is the [[Token Minority]].

* [[Sudden Principled Stand]]: By Cpl. Coltrane.

* [[Taking You ~~With~~ Me]]: {{spoiler|Oswald}}.

* [[Taking You with Me]]: {{spoiler|Oswald}}.

* [[There Are No Global Consequences]]: Totally averted. Not only has the entire political climate changed, a complete overhaul of the medical care system is in the works since the very definition of life has changed. If anything, the global changes may be happening faster than they would in reality, though it's hard to judge without a real-world example.

** Also, with costs for medical care skyrocketing coupled with having to supply pensions for the immortal, many world governments are starting to go bankrupt, causing a second Great Depression.

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* [[Token Evil Teammate]]: Oswald Danes, for the last two episodes

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Noah tells Charlotte that he can find [[The Mole]]. {{spoiler|''She's'' the mole.}}

* [[Translation ~~With~~ an Agenda]]: The "Harry Bosco" process, {{spoiler|which the Families use to help cover up their activities in Shanghai and Buenos Aires.}}

* [[Translation with an Agenda]]: The "Harry Bosco" process, {{spoiler|which the Families use to help cover up their activities in Shanghai and Buenos Aires.}}

* [[Unfortunate Character Design]]: The Blessing.

* [[UST]]: Davies says that Captain Jack's "unstated love for Gwen Cooper" brings him back to Earth. Rex [[Lampshade Hanging|comments on it]] in "Rendition"; Gwen denies it, but Rex doesn't buy that.

** It's pretty well stated in "Immortal Sins" that [[Anguished Declaration of Love|Jack and Gwen love each other]], but that there are things (the safety of Gwen's daughter, Jack's mortality) that, if threatened, they would kill each other for.

* [[What Happened to ~~The~~ Mouse?]]:

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]:

** A minor plot-line surrounding a new cult that developed after the Miracle, the Soulless, seemingly vanished after the third episode. Though, Sarah, Esther's sister, in "End of the Road" appears to be a believer.

** It would seem likely the Soulless were the starters of the 45 floor club, taking the first chance they could get to end their lives by being made Category 1.