Torchwood: Miracle Day - The New World

Writer: Russell T Davies
Director: Bharat Nalluri

Two years after the miniseries format of Children of Earth, designed to conclude the events of the previous two series with a bang, Torchwood finally returns with a new start. This proper full-length story effectively resets the Torchwood Institute, with new characters and new locations, in a joint UK and US production. Most interesting perhaps is that Doctor Who series reviver Russell T Davies has now become a full-timer on the show, no longer distracted by that meddling Time Lord.

A mysterious email is sent to members of the intelligence agencies in the US, bypassing the standard security protocols by simply mentioning the name “Torchwood”.  The same day, no one dies. People get sick, but they don’t die. The next day, no one dies. The next day, and the next day, no one dies. After the disbandment of the Torchwood Institute, surviving member Gwen (Eve Myles) has retreated with husband Rhys (Kai Owen) to raise their child in the arse end of nowhere, suspicious of any and all travellers who appear on their doorstep. Alerted by the activity, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) appears in the US and attempts to erase any and all mention of Torchwood to protect the only remaining member. CIA agent Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins) however discovers the identity of Gwen Cooper, and sends her boss, agent Rex Mathison (Mekhi Phifer) to Wales to interrogate her.

The real questions on people’s minds are: Can the show survive Americanisation? How could Torchwood possibly remain interesting without the gay smoochy smoochy times? On paper it can. Although no homosexual action so far, with an interesting presence full of potential, and the idea of hopping between continents in a worldwide mystery that not even Doctor Who has managed, it seems fool proof. In execution however, it is sadly quite bad. It’s nowhere near the depths of alien whale meat harvesting or evil fairies, but it’s still quite bad. Even excusing the numerous Wales jokes (because Americans don’t know what whales is) Davies’ script is particularly heavy-handed and dumbed down, and Nalluri’s direction lacks zazz. The scenes with Gwen and Rhys playing fugitive especially take way too long to get to wear they’re going, making sure to remind the new American audience of the events of the previous three series, through extended scenes of exposition. And then there is a scene in which Captain Jack Harkness remembers his previous lover, and thus is sad. You’d think that after The End of Time Davies would be good at writing tear-jerkers, but no, it’s just too deliberate. The green ooze flowing into Oswald Danes’ arm, Bill Pullman’s convicted paedophile is similarly just too blatant. Green = poison. Poison = death. Do you get it yet?

The cinematography also has some stupefied moments. Starting on a wide shot of the Raiders-inspired document library kills any and all sense of endlessness and futility in searching by defining the space. After this stage, no matter how many times you re-dress the same set, you’ve still lost the illusion.

The joint production between the UK and America promised a big budget. Clearly that was spent on the multiple plane tickets between continents, forgetting about one of the most important elements of Science Fiction: the visual effects. These effects are terrible even for Torchwood standards. Initially I considered that they might just appear terrible, because previous efforts have been much greater in terms of spectacle, for instance Abaddon, a giant menacing demon stalking over Cardiff (End of Days). But no. The 3D models of the flying rockets and the broken helicopter are really quite lacking, perhaps more so than the flames coming out of them. Similarly, being able to see the mask lines around the eyes of the destructed “corpse” is such an anti-climax. Suspension of disbelief: suspended.

Hopefully this was just a shaky start, and the series will find its footing soon. The potential of the concept is certainly very high, especially the philosophical debates inevitably generated by the released paedophile escaping execution when the rules of the game are changed. It deserves the benefit of the doubt until at least a few more episodes into it.

2 / 5