Torchwood on Starz (1 Viewer)

[NeilO]

I am thinking that some other organization is using PhiCorp. PhiCorp definitely knew that it was coming, though. It was quite well done how they changed Oswald from saying free drugs for all to free access to drugs for all.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Really enjoying the show so far. I have never seen any of the UK series. Is this essentially a remake, or this this start after the UK series? I know Cameron just reviewed the UK series on BD. Can I watch that w/o spoiling anything in the Starz series?

 

[Kevin Hewell]

It basically picks up after the last series/season.

 

[Matt Hough]

Right, there really is no overlap between the BBC Torchwood's first two series and what's airing now on Starz. The tone is different, too, though this fourth series now and the third series are much closer in tone and execution.

 

[NeilO]

By the way, from http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/07/29/torchwood-may-not-get-renewed/

'Torchwood' might not get renewed anytime soon By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - July 29th, 2011 Starz’s Torchwood may have delivered strong reviews and solid ratings, but fans shouldn’t expect the network to renew the Brit import anytime soon. Before stepping before reporters at TV critics tour, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht told EW he doesn’t envision the cult favorite as an annual event. The show’s 10-episode order was a large and unusual commitment for Torchwood partner BBC, he pointed out, and he hinged the pickup more on whether creator Russell T Davies comes up with a great new idea that can work for both partners. “Torchwood is not one of the show we went into thinking about a yearly return,” Albrecht said moments later to critics. “It’s about Russell T Davies … he has a lot of things on his plate. If Torchwood is at the top of his list, that will effect the future of Torchwood.”

I am not surprised with this. The "renew" label is a bit deceptive here. From what I can see here, they would love to renew it, but they don't want to force RTD to do anything he doesn't want to do. They'll wait and make it an event again.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Everything at the end of last night's episode had me running through both "Doctor Who" specific tropes and general scifi tropes. Who are the pyramid people? The "Doctor Who" fan in me was thinking the fact that they've been here a very long time suggests the Silents. The family reference would point to the Slitheen's species. The generic scifi fan in me thinks they might be artificial intelligence that became sentient without human awareness and now needs bodies to download into. Regardless of the actual reveal, it looks like the puppet masters need a nearly unfathomable number of bodies in very specific locations at a very specific moment in time. And the hitman hinted that whoever or whatever is pulling the strings had dealings with Jack at some point in the past. Given how long he was alive before he left earth -- and God only knows how long he lived before returning to earth -- there's very few massive conspiracies that didn't involve Jack at some point in time.

Right, there really is no overlap between the BBC Torchwood's first two series and what's airing now on Starz. The tone is different, too, though this fourth series now and the third series are much closer in tone and execution.

The way I look at it, the first two seasons are a monster of the week serial, sort of like early "X Files" meets one of the "CSI"s. We get to see Gwen's personal life, but otherwise it's 90 percent built around the office. Series 3, the miniseries, completely nukes the whole existing formula and concept of the show within the first hour. Of the four series, it's got the most serious tone and does the least winking at the audience. Parts of it are among the darkest television I've seen. At times, it's incredibly harrowing. The current series "Miracle Day", series 4, is tonally straddling the line between the two. There were cheeky bits in last night's episode, like the fate of Ellis Hartley Monroe, that were classic "Torchwood" gallows humor. There's some sloppiness of characterization and plotting that reeks of early "Torchwood". At the same time, you get the sense of the relentlessly building pace of series 3. The first few episodes were probably the slowest paced the show has every been, owing to them stretching out a single story over ten hours, but by the end of yesterday's episode I was more or less as at the edge of my seat as I was for the whole of series 3. EDITED TO ADD: If only one of the new American characters survives "Miracle Day", I hope it's the Hispanic doctor. She's got the right mix of world-weariness and indignation.

 

[David Weicker]

As for American characters surviving, I hope Rex survives, if only because he expressed the same outrage I always feel about people in the middle of a extremely time-sensitive, planned-to-the-last-second operation who decide to call a family member (or declare their love, or kiss, or argue) David

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The problem I'm having with "Miracle Day" so far is that we're not being shown the hows and the whys. The ending of tonight's episode was dark as anything we've seen on Torchwood, but we weren't shown how they got to that point or why three quarters of the world is magically following PhiCorp's every directive. "Children of Earth" split time between the decision makers and the Torchwood team, so you knew exactly why the politicians did the horrible things they did. We've been shown nothing to indicate that America and lots of other countries would already have arrived at the place they arrived at tonight. Also, the boss of the California overflow camp was a complete caricature. He seemed to be Jane Espenson's idea of what a Bush appointee was like. First he's racist, then he's sexist, then he's a murderer in about two minutes flat. I just didn't believe the character.

 

[Matt Hough]

Aren't we now halfway through the run of this season? Time for some answers, I think. After showing us the climactic images this week and thus revealing the plight for #1's, the next episode should start now to cue us in to what is going on and how it was done. I have to say that many of the characters are not doing it for me thus far. I'm not developing the kind of rooting interest I need to feel anything when tragedy occurs.

 

[Tony J Case]

EDITED TO ADD: If only one of the new American characters survives "Miracle Day", I hope it's the Hispanic doctor. She's got the right mix of world-weariness and indignation.

Whoops! So much for THAT. . . (assuming, of course that she actually is dead, and that she isn't still aware after being burned to ashes - because that would SUCK.) [quote name="Adam Lenhardt" url="/forum/thread/311691/torchwood-on-starz/30#post_3837167] Also, the boss of the California overflow camp was a complete caricature. He seemed to be Jane Espenson's idea of what a Bush appointee was like. First he's racist, then he's sexist, then he's a murderer in about two minutes flat. I just didn't believe the character.[/quote] Yeah, but unfortunately I have no doubt that people like that actually exist. So, 5 episodes in - time for the halftime assessment. I've been enjoying myself, but this is nowhere near as good as Children of Earth. The story seems to be coasting along at times instead of being a full-out sprint to the finish line like CoE. The breakdown of society stuff is well done (and it's interesting to see how they've managed to sustain the show without giving us any real answers), but I'm hoping they get to the point here pretty soon, that we hurry up and get to the Monster of the Week.

 

[NeilO]

(assuming, of course that she actually is dead, and that she isn't still aware after being burned to ashes - because that would SUCK.)

That was quite a brutal shock. I thought that someone would be able to open up the chamber and get her.

So, 5 episodes in - time for the halftime assessment. I've been enjoying myself, but this is nowhere near as good as Children of Earth. The story seems to be coasting along at times instead of being a full-out sprint to the finish line like CoE. The breakdown of society stuff is well done (and it's interesting to see how they've managed to sustain the show without giving us any real answers), but I'm hoping they get to the point here pretty soon, that we hurry up and get to the Monster of the Week.

Well, presuming that they do get that footage of what happens to category #1s out, that should shake things up. Whether the people ultimately behind this actually want man's inhumanity to man known is another question. I think the spring to the finish line will be starting real soon. Note that Jack's image was taken by Kitzinger - so PhiCorp knows for sure he is still around and trying to do something. P.S. Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones) was on this week's Warehouse 13

 

[Adam Gregorich]

I was suprised that she "died" too. The camp director had a lot of guts shooting her in front of the army officer.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Wow, that was actually a really quality hour of television. So far, the two John Shiban episodes have been the best. Ernie Hudson's scene at the restaurant was a thing of brilliance. Well written and well performed, it got to the heart of my concern with the season so far: how can these horrible, horrible things happen so fast and so uniformly across the globe? The answer is that there is a conductor, and he/she/it has been operating for a long time now. Hudson's character calmly and articulately laying out the whole situation as the product of the subtle but cumulative manipulation of the middlemen throughout the globe was classic "Torchwood" philosophy, and the exact opposite of "Miracle Day's" push-it-to-11 philosophy.

 

[NeilO]

Yes, a great episode. Things are really starting to come together. I almost envy the folk whose first look at the series will be on DVD. I know I wouldn't be able to resist rolling to the next episode right after seeing this one. Over at another forum there is speculation that the gloves we saw in the first two seasons of the show might be somehow connected with the Miracle.

 

[David Weicker]

Another terrific episode, with another great cliffhanger. I just hope they reveal the 'villains' before episode 9. I think it would be really bad if we don't see them until the last episode. I don't want a 'rushed' resolution. There should be at least two episodes to create a satisfying ending. If they try to cram it into just one episode, it could ruin what's come before. Obviously, the orchestrators have encountered Jack before. I wonder if it will be someone/thing from prior Torchwood seasons. Or maybe someone/thing from Doctor Who (and would that work for people who don't know Doctor Who?) David

 

[Tony J Case]

I'm going to have to go against the grain here. It wasn't a bad episode, but it felt like a LOT of padding. I'm really starting to miss the Monster of the Week format, or at least a strong central bad guy like the 456 - there was no real information added to the mystery and the overall plot only ooched forward slightly. I really wish that Rusty would get to the damned point. Still, the man knows how to write a climax - so the last couple of episodes should be really good at least. That said, having slogged through such unspeakably horrible shit as Cyberwoman and Countrycide - hands down the worst episodes I've seen from the series (and I'm including the entire 50 year run of Doctor Who in this too) - then the reasonably watchable yet decidedly mediocre Miracle Day is like a freakin' walk in the park on a sunny day.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The padding has been a problem since the beginning, that's why I didn't hold it against this particular hour. That being said, it's getting pretty obvious that Davies could have happily told this story in five hours if Starz hadn't wanted 10.

 

[Tony J Case]

Eh, padding has been part and parcel of the series since the early days of the sixties where the Doctor and/or companion turned a four part adventure into a six parter by being captured and escaping and being captured and escaping and running up and down corridors time and again. So I'm not coming down on Torchwood for falling into that trope - just that I'm really REALLY ready for the third act to get going here.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This was the first episode that felt like "Torchwood" through and through. All the 1920's stuff who have fit in tonally with the first three seasons of "Torchwood" seamlessly. I loved seeing Jack being Jack. I've criticized Espenson's episodes, but I think it's because she writes the snarky stuff better than the heavy, serious stuff. Jack getting to be playful old Jack she got exactly right. The 1920's stuff took place (chronologically in Jack's life) before the entirety of what we've seen during all four series of "Torchwood". This meant he was still longing to reconnect with his idol the Doctor (though he'd have to wait decades more to do so), and more importantly he wasn't weighted down by all of the horrible things he's done. He certainly wasn't weighted down by killing his own grandson. After all of the hype about how "Torchwood" was leaving Doctor Who behind, it was surprising just how much of a "Who" tie-in tonight's episode was. In addition to Jack explicitly mentioning the Doctor, the monster of the week (and possibly the Big Bad of the whole "Miracle Day" season!) was the Tricksters' Brigade, an existing "Doctor Who" villain.

 

[Tony J Case]

I haven't seen the episode yet (and no, I'm not mad about spoilers, so don't panic) but man - I would have never thought that a Who Villain (well, more accurately a Sarah Jane Adventures villain - but close enough) would have been behind this! Just yesterday I was discussing Torchwood over Chinese and said to my dining companion "You know, I bet The Risen Mitten has something to do with this! But naw - RTD would never bring in a plot device from 5 years ago in an episode that nobody in the Starz viewing audience* would have seen. That way lies fanwank madness!" Guess I was proven wrong. The Trickster is even a MORE obscure villain/plot point than the Risen Mitten! *well, a statistically low number at least. Sure there are the established Who/TW fans who are watching - but I mean of the average, Not-We demographic. The majority of the Starz viewers would never know about old villains beyond perhaps Daleks and Cybermen.