Torchwood: Miracle Day #10 SPOILERS

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm inclined to agree, this was a very lackluster and terrible finale. And the fact that their extending the story beyond this is just plain stupid. It's infuriating because we got something so good with Children of Earth and to come back for Miracle Day, which started out well, just ended up falling (pun intended) really flat. I was expecting something so much more grandiose and epic, but it was pretty freakin' dull and anticlimactic, if you ask me.

 

[Gepard]

Well. That didn't make a lick of sense, but it sure was fun. I wonder what the Doctor would have to say about immortal Rex.

I liked the shout-out to "The Runaway Bride" there near the end. The mention came literally seconds after I thought to myself that The Blessing contradicted the idea of the Racnoss forming the core of the planet. So props to them for making a psychic episode.

Not much else to say, really. It was stupid as hell, just like the rest of the series, but for whatever reason I didn't mind. Any show that can twist things around so much that I'm giggling along with a bomb-laden pedophile at the thought of him chasing underage skirt in Hell must be doing something right.

 

[Guy Gardener]

the show was awesome and ending was fantastic. I am glad ester is still alive with her sisters kids and now rex is imortal as well fantastic ending I am ready for series 5.

If Jack is Captain Scarlet, it was obvious that sooner or later that he was going to meet up with his equal and opposite: Captain Black.

Rex works for the Mysterons?

 

[Checkmate]

Jesus.

First they can't apparently recognize that Mekhi Phifer, and more importantly Rex Matheson, absolutely sucks. But then they had to go and make him immortal?

Uggggggggh.

 

[Brent]

They've taken what's special about Jack and made it not special anymore, complete thumbs down from me. Plus, they got it wrong about what makes him special, its not his blood, it's the fact that he's a fixed point in time.

Very predictable how everything turned out too.

Did not like the butt crack going through Earth plot, what a stupid idea, and it makes absolutely no sense.

I think this is one of those seasons you just pretend never happened.

Meh

 

[Brent]

Oh, and again, they make the CIA look stupid. Hey, we have a mole in here.... everyone, you just go about your business, I'm going to loudly announce we are going to trace the mole, but, you all, just, you know, walk around, stretch, maybe get a cup of coffee, while we figure out which one of you might be the mole.

Not as stupid as the guy in Buenos Aires who couldn't think to tell his men to "Grab him!" when Rex was about to undo all their work.

I noticed that too, they all stood around with guns like idiots, instead of I dunno, actually GRABBING and RESTRAINING Rex.

It's like everyone became an idiot in this season.

 

[Australis]

the show was awesome and ending was fantastic. I am glad ester is still alive with her sisters kids and now rex is imortal as well fantastic ending I am ready for series 5.

Um, no, that was Esther's funeral and that was her sister with the kids.

I thought it was fantastic. Oswald's final speech, Gwen beating the shit out of Kitzinger (long overdue), her Dad dying (as a child of a mother who took a little too long to die, no matter how much I wanted her to stay, also overdue), Jack telling Oswald how small he'd made his life, traitor bitch getting her comeuppance, and finally Rex's WTF moment. I thought that was cool.

Shame de Lancie's character copped it, would have liked to have seen him again. Hell, I'd like to see him in any regular series! He rocks the goatee, perhaps he'd make a good villain in something.

Next season... Plan B!! And I think Rex's immortality might have to do with Jack... but might not be permanent.

On the critical side, the story did take too long to get going, some of the action was silly, like them not grabbing Rex and restraining him, but they might have done more harm than good and released the blood anyway. Rex was really annoying, and it looks like he's going to be around for a while.

Ten episodes is fine, but I don't know if TW can make a a 10 ep story work. Maybe 2x5 ep stories? 2 CoEs would be cool.

 

[I am not Spock]

I actually enjoyed it. It was a good wrap up to season 4. So now they have two immortals? Hmm. Could be interesting if they do a season 5. I imagine we'll be seeing Rex and Kitzenger and the 'Plan B' guys in black next time. Now we have two vampires with a soul (to use an Angel analogy). Rex is Spike! :P Which would be amusing if John Hart shows up!

Everyone got a decent moment to shine. I liked Gwen kicking the crap out of Jilly, and I liked Oswald's final blaze of glory, PC Andy comforting that dying girl was nice, too.

And I was thinking that if there was a bloody great hole through the centre of the earth, the Silurians and the Racnoss might have something to say about it. And then they actually go and mention both! That was a nice touch.

 

[intrinsical]

What? What?! WHAT?!!

It feels to me like RTD saw Moffat's "crack in the universe" Doctor Who storyarc and wanted to make his own version. So we got a crack in the Earth for Torchwood. And everything gets reset back to normal too, just like the end of The Big Bang. For The Doctor, rebooting the universe was just the start. And for Captain Jack Harkness, restoring death is also just the start.

 

[stj]

The technical term for the scenes where they figure out that Jack blood in both ends will kill everyone else on Earth, while the vilains insert thumbs into asses, is "idiot plot." The plot only works if the characters are complete idiots at the appropriate moments.

The whole series is a failure because it's basically a remodeled Children of Earth, except that the peril, immortality without eternal youth and perfect healing, doesn't relate to our real lives. In Children of Earth, the selection of some children to become parts of some monstrous machine for the benefit of a few is a perfect metaphor for our society. Thus, Children of Earth mattered to us, once we bought into, despite the fantastic trappings, and Miracle Day couldn't, not with the best will in the world on the part of the audience.

You can throw in a line about how the rich shouldn't determine who lives and dies, but that's not what was dramatized. The Families were basically a few characters who talked but did nothing villainous on screen! You can have a drama without melodramatic villains but you can't have an action series without them. Having people to chase Torchwood to kill it off filled up some time, but the easy way that plot point was dropped shows how meaningless it was.

What we're left with is that Gwen and Jack, for some obscure reason, decide that everybody on Earth must die. I suppose they are fighting to preserve God's rule over life and death. This is BS. As a theme it is ignominious folly, degrading to the perpetrators and the audience that accepts it in good faith.

 

[Captain Dago]

A moderately entertaining ending to an absolute steaming pile of a season. I won't be watching whatever STARZ has for the Family's "Plan B." Call me when Torchwood goes back to being just a BBC production and I'll consider it.

 

[SG-17]

They've taken what's special about Jack and made it not special anymore, complete thumbs down from me. Plus, they got it wrong about what makes him special, its not his blood, it's the fact that he's a fixed point in time.

Meh

The first few posts on the first page were a discussion about this.

His essence? Everything he is is his "essence", blood included. I bet if you cut out his eye and let it sit it would not decompose or change in any way.

Im talking more like his Aura, i just cant put it into words saddly.

Its nothing physical that keeps him alive its just time cant let him die.

His immortality has shown to have limits/restrictions. It look him hours to heal from that bomb that was planted inside of him and he didn't heal all at once. He regrew (plus he ages). I think that the residual energy from the Vortex suspended him completely in time. Not just his essence, but every single cell of his body. Now his cells can be destroyed like normal cells but because he was complete when he was made immortal he reverts to his base state. Jack doesn't really know the extent of his immortality, neither does the Doctor. So it isn't far-fetched to think that a separated, but whole part of him would remain a fixed point in time as well. As for the writing, it has never been consistent with Jack. The Stet Radiation should have vaporized him, yet a bomb vaporized half of his body.

 

[scnj]

It won't happen under RTD. He has his sights set on Hollywood.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

I didnt think theyd be able to tie it all up in an hour, but eh, they did. Not horrible, rewatchable.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

The bad part:
1. It stressed once again how the premises that lead to the creation and destruction of the miracle were ridiculous.
2. It didn't reveal anything clever about the miracle apart thus bringing the entire arc into the ground.

For both, it would have been million times better if the plot focused on the families and their organisation, and not on the giant vagina going through the Earth trying to eat Jack's blood. Actually that sounds much more interesting than the season.

3. Too much crap seemed to be just there, with little or no purpose, failing to make any great impression on me, making half of the episode not really that good watch.
4. Ugly.

Good part: Some wonderful character moments all over the place.

Charlotte Wills. She was the only truly negative character in the season that received any attention, and for some reason I get morbidly attracted to her when I see her. De Lancie's character's “fuck” was priceless, and I like him more for the fact that I can't completely disconnect him from the image of Q, especially when they share a few traits.

Oswald was great, Gwen was great, I particularly liked her speech of the start of the episode, the Chinese woman was great, the scenes in the ward were great.

I also laughed when Rex resurrected. That was the season's obligatory comedy moment for me. It would have been so weird if he didn't...

Verdict: Okay

 

[PsychoPere]

Twas shit. [...]

Completely agreed on everything in your post.

If there is another season, I highly doubt I'll be coming back for it. I really can't believe how bad this season was.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

BTW, for those saying they changed things saying Jack's blood made him immortal, they didn't do that. They've been clear from the beginning that his blood doesn't cause anything. But what they suggested is his blood too is immortal. That caused something, it caused the Blessing to change.

As for Rex. If I had to guess, it's the Miracle keeping him alive still.

Shame about Esther, I liked her.

 

[David cgc]

Any show that can twist things around so much that I'm giggling along with a bomb-laden pedophile at the thought of him chasing underage skirt in Hell must be doing something right.

I wonder if they were worried about Oswald accidentally becoming too sympathetic, like a Spike or Gul Dukat, where people are taking their side even when they really aren't supposed to. They never let us forget why he was infamous, but at the end, that was just... wow. That was "Waltz" in one amazingly fucked up monologue.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

A moderately entertaining ending to an absolute steaming pile of a season. I won't be watching whatever STARZ has for the Family's "Plan B." Call me when Torchwood goes back to being just a BBC production and I'll consider it.

Well, "Starz" didn't exactly write those episodes. People employed by Starz did. Like Russell T. Davies. Switching back to BBC won't change that, unless BBC would decide to fire Davies.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Well, that was certainly... something. I appreciate a little craziness in the shows I watch (I love True Blood, after all), but killing off one of the most likeable characters on the show and giving one of the least likeable people immortality while a child murdering pedophile screams about chasing his victim in Hell in front of the gigantic bloody churro running through the center of Earth might be stretching my limits a bit. And I'm being generous in calling Rex one of the least likeable, because I'm not sure at times if the child murdering pedophile wasn't through some impossible feat a more likeable character - Mekhi Pfifer's performance and the way his character was written was that bad.

I think the defining characteristic of this show was lack of payoff. The Blessing had all the purpose and functionality of a godlike toaster oven. It's activated by Jack's blood and that's all we need to know about it apparently. I kept expecting Jilly to develop into a character with some important relation to the Families, but it turns out they were just fans of her mad PR skillz. What exactly was the point of that character and why was she a main cast member instead of just some occasional guest star who instead assisted Oswald Danes, who should have had the importance to the Families that she did in order to justify his initial elevation to super-stardom by them? Instead, he has no relation or importance to them whatsoever. Jack's lover is introduced with a full episode focusing on him, and then is casually discarded in the next without so much as a line of dialogue. Why not make him the head of the Families? Saving the Families for a followup is probably going to wind up biting them in the ass as well, because I don't think people are going to tolerate another ten episodes of mysteries about them without knowing if there will be a payoff to their story. They should have just wrapped it up here instead of going for Plan B.

The Argentinian bad guys forgetting for twenty minutes of exposition that you can stop an injured man with more than just guns was especially stupid. But then Agent Q holding his mole hunt in full view of the entire office he was hunting in was up there too. At least he was blow away with a memorable line. Too bad though, because he was an entertaining character.

It was good to see Aceveda again. I liked Gwen's speech about her father and the way they handled his death (which frankly should have been dealt with half a season ago, though). Francis Farmer was a good choice to be a villainous representative of the Families.

All in all though, there was no justification for this story to be ten episodes long given the amount of stretching and the lack of payoff to many of the plot points and character arcs.