Torchwood - Miracle Day episode 1
Jul. 19th, 2011 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcLess a review, more random wibbling.
Wow, I'm glad I recorded this, rather than watching it live. It meant I could fastforward through the grisly bits. And there were a lot of grisly bits.
But yes, an excellent episode, nicely setting up the situation and its ramifications, and using the CIA to introduce the Torchwood Institute to an American audience[1]. And the idea that someone tried to call Torchwood just before this happened is intriguing.
And then a nice contrast between Washington and the Welsh beach where Gwen and Rhys now have a cottage. (And the world's calmest baby. Seriously, nothing makes little Anwen cry.) I was a bit afraid that this was going to be a very "valleys and sheep" view of Wales, but soon they have a reason to go back to Cardiff, thanks to a call from PC ... sorry, Sergeant Andy.
And they don't know about Miracle Day? Does being incommunicado mean not listening to the radio in case aliens can trace the signal?
Barrowman plays Jack very well, still more subdued in these post-Ianto days, even before he learns he's now ... mortal? Is he actually mortal mortal, or is he in the same boat as everyone else, injurable but unkillable? Suppose there's only one way to find out, and it's not one that encourages experimentation. The Esther/Jack scene seemed designed to mirror Gwen's first scenes -- she finds out about Torchwood, then she gets Retconned, then something jogs her memory.
Not convinced by the legal aspects; either that a murderous paedophile would be released from prison on the grounds that he "served his sentence" by being executed on the day people stopped dying, or that a lone CIA agent, apparently operating without any real backing from the Agency, can extradite two British citizens on a whim. Then again, the whole scene between Rex leaving the hospital and arriving in Heathrow seemed to move implausibly fast.
Given RTD's recent DWM peice where he went on about Doctor Who refs, I couldn't help being disapointed that the London hospital Dr Juarez namechecks is the real Royal Free, and not the fictional Royal Hope. And continuity error: Esther says Gwen joined Torchwood in October 2006. That was when "Everything Changes" was broadcast, but it must have been set in 2007. Sorry, Rusty, but you're the one who included a one year timeskip in your second contemporary story, and now you're stuck with it.
[1]I'd be interested to know what Americans who didn't watch it when it was an import on BBC America make of it.
Wow, I'm glad I recorded this, rather than watching it live. It meant I could fastforward through the grisly bits. And there were a lot of grisly bits.
But yes, an excellent episode, nicely setting up the situation and its ramifications, and using the CIA to introduce the Torchwood Institute to an American audience[1]. And the idea that someone tried to call Torchwood just before this happened is intriguing.
And then a nice contrast between Washington and the Welsh beach where Gwen and Rhys now have a cottage. (And the world's calmest baby. Seriously, nothing makes little Anwen cry.) I was a bit afraid that this was going to be a very "valleys and sheep" view of Wales, but soon they have a reason to go back to Cardiff, thanks to a call from PC ... sorry, Sergeant Andy.
And they don't know about Miracle Day? Does being incommunicado mean not listening to the radio in case aliens can trace the signal?
Barrowman plays Jack very well, still more subdued in these post-Ianto days, even before he learns he's now ... mortal? Is he actually mortal mortal, or is he in the same boat as everyone else, injurable but unkillable? Suppose there's only one way to find out, and it's not one that encourages experimentation. The Esther/Jack scene seemed designed to mirror Gwen's first scenes -- she finds out about Torchwood, then she gets Retconned, then something jogs her memory.
Not convinced by the legal aspects; either that a murderous paedophile would be released from prison on the grounds that he "served his sentence" by being executed on the day people stopped dying, or that a lone CIA agent, apparently operating without any real backing from the Agency, can extradite two British citizens on a whim. Then again, the whole scene between Rex leaving the hospital and arriving in Heathrow seemed to move implausibly fast.
Given RTD's recent DWM peice where he went on about Doctor Who refs, I couldn't help being disapointed that the London hospital Dr Juarez namechecks is the real Royal Free, and not the fictional Royal Hope. And continuity error: Esther says Gwen joined Torchwood in October 2006. That was when "Everything Changes" was broadcast, but it must have been set in 2007. Sorry, Rusty, but you're the one who included a one year timeskip in your second contemporary story, and now you're stuck with it.
[1]I'd be interested to know what Americans who didn't watch it when it was an import on BBC America make of it.
