Rate and Discuss 4.10: The Blood Line

[Dirk Gently]

I agree with a lot of the quibbles people have said.
I was actually talking to the TV & my Wife about the fact that they obviously mentioned the mole trace & 1 person got up & left the room!! I mean come on, there's a mole & as soon as the trace is running someone leaves & no one notices? Really?!!

Liked the twist of Ester dying & Rex becoming immortal.
RE: R.B-J; Charlotte had to be at Ester's funeral because at the beginning they were friends in the CIA & to not be there would have been suspicious. After all until Rex got on the phone no one knew she was the mole & as such still in a great place to spy on the CIA for the Families.

[Dirk Gently]

OH, and I've voted 6/10 but that's a total story vote not just for this one episode, as it probably deserved a 7.

[Jason Thompson]

In deed, they are all pretty useless with basic spy stuff. Gwen is the only one who thinks to use a false name ever in the whole show. Esther was upset that her name was on the staff list of an overflow camp, because on a mission of infiltration neither she nor Rex had used false names. In episode 9 Rex asks permission to go 'off-grid', then minutes later his name is on a list that shows everyone where he is! The next episode he calls in help and Shapiro brings out webcams and lets everyone know what's going on. Then, having deduced someone betrayed them, someone in the depertment, he announces to everyone that he's going to trace the mole, but totally fails to enforce any kind of lockdown to stop anyone leaving the room, and then totally fails to notice Charlotte suspiciously leaving her bag behind while the trace is running.

But then, Charlotte also got out her super-secret mobile phone and sat it on her desk in the middle of the office at one point, and later it turns out it's registered to her name. Basically, no-one here is actually any good at keeping basic secrets!

[Rob McCow]

All I know is that Torchwood died for me this series.

[The456]

And, to be honest, we're not really any more enlightened about what cause the Miracle than we were in week one. It's a magic crack that's been there forever that can do strange things for no apparent reason. Well, okay then.

The "family" woman said that the average life expectancy of the planet was exactly the same as the two points, Buenos Aires and Shanghai, the poles of the blessing. The Miracle was caused by the "Mafia" style families taking the blood of the freak that couldn't die and feeding it to the blessing that then altered it's "morphic" field and so nobody could die. The irony is that because Jack can never die his blood now becomes mortal, so feeding that back into the blessing reverses the process. Rex can rejuvenate because his "Jack" blood got reversed, though I'm guessing it's a one off. It's a very simple plot streched to buggery.

[The456]

RTD good concepts, bad writing and continuity..

[The456]

"It's a very simple plot streched to buggery"..........and I mean that most sincerely folks !!

RTD needs to get a grip, it's not all about his sexuality.....Torchwood UK was passable but the Angelo scene was over the top and you wouldn't expect to see it in that context.

[Junkyard]

I really, really enjoyed it.

But, then again, I enjoyed pretty much all of Miracle Day. There was some absolutely wonderful stuff in this. I've always believed that RTD has a real talent for writing fantastic dialogue, and I felt that that shined through here. I think that the new style of writing Torchwood (locking all the authors in a room together and thoroughly plotting it out), along with being co-written by Jane Esepenson, seriously helped avoid his classic ending of "pull the solution out of thin air", which meant that this fundamentally worked.

It wasn't rushed, it wasn't messy. It just worked. We saw Oswald Danes go full circle. We found out how the whole thing worked. It was just so well done, and a great way to end this all.

If you haven't seen it yet, you should know by now that this thread WILL contain spoilers. So, don't whine at me if I now spoil it for you.

I was really sad that Esther didn't make it. I was honestly hoping that she would survive, being my second-favourite piece of eye candy through the whole series. But, beyond that - nothing too devastating happened. This wasn't Children of Earth-style depressing.

I also LOVED that elements were lined up for a sequel series. The family are still out there, Jilly Kitzenger (yum) is still working for them. And now Rex has supposedly got Jack's immortality, too.

I really hope that Starz recommission this. While the writing/plotting hasn't always been perfect, this has been a lot of fun. And I loved it.

I give this episode 8/10. Not perfect, but very, very enjoyable.

About a week after this has aired in the UK, I will be starting a thread to rate the season as a whole.

This post sums up my feelings on the whole series.Not perfect (few things are) but very enjoyable.

[Awesome Wells]

"It's a very simple plot streched to buggery"..........and I mean that most sincerely folks !!

RTD needs to get a grip, it's not all about his sexuality.....Torchwood UK was passable but the Angelo scene was over the top and you wouldn't expect to see it in that context.

It's quiz time!

What wouldn't people expect to see in what context? What was passable about Torchwood UK? What isn't all about RTD's sexuality? What does he need to "get a grip" of? (I think this might be the most revealing remark here.) What does the word "streched" mean?

Send your answers to the Daily Mail letters page.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

The "family" woman said that the average life expectancy of the planet was exactly the same as the two points, Buenos Aires and Shanghai, the poles of the blessing. The Miracle was caused by the "Mafia" style families taking the blood of the freak that couldn't die and feeding it to the blessing that then altered it's "morphic" field and so nobody could die. The irony is that because Jack can never die his blood now becomes mortal, so feeding that back into the blessing reverses the process. Rex can rejuvenate because his "Jack" blood got reversed, though I'm guessing it's a one off. It's a very simple plot streched to buggery.

What I meant was that we have no idea what this crack is or how it managed to do any of that. We've known all along (or for weeks at least) that The Families have made everyone immortal, the question being how. The explanation might as well have been "by magic" for all the difference it made. Which I suppose is fair enough if you like things being left mysterious, but after the Big Mysterious Crack was revealed at the end of part 9, I expected that part 10 would at least have some explanation as to what it was, or why it mattered that it was on opposite sides of the Earth, but we didn't learn anything more about it at all really. It's just a weird thing that makes magic things happen. But since episode 1 we've known that a magic thing happened that must have been caused by a weird thing, so it's not very satisfying really.

[Alex Me]

I think it's telling on the series that my first thought at the end of this episode was "Thank goodness it's finally over". A good concept, with some good ideas, that just went on too long. Too many plot points were introduced and then forgotten about, and the rules about how 'not dying' worked seem to change.

There was some good things to it though. Both Danes and Kissinger where good fun to watch, and some of the humour was quite good I suppose. 5/10

[Zbigniev Hamson]

It's not really good enough I don't think. Ten episodes was too long. Ten weeks was FAR too long. Far too many plot threads were brought up and just abandoned. Far too many plot inconsistencies from week to week. Too many absolutely stupid and downright unbelievable actions from the characters. Just mediocre television frankly. Not absolutely awful, but just not particularly worthy of being watched by anyone other than someone with too much time on their hands and no access to anything of quality. Sort of like Cleopatra 2525, but with less tits.

If this didn't have something to do with Doctor Who then I have to wonder how many of us would bother watching it. And since it barely does have anything to do with Doctor Who, I think I'll be done with it now thank you very much.

I could say more about how there's a difference between a successful writer and a good one, and where I think RTD actually falls on this spectrum, but that's for another thread really

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

It's not really good enough I don't think. Ten episodes was too long. Ten weeks was FAR too long. Far too many plot threads were brought up and just abandoned. Far too many plot inconsistencies from week to week. Too many absolutely stupid and downright unbelievable actions from the characters. Just mediocre television frankly. Not absolutely awful, but just not particularly worthy of being watched by anyone other than someone with too much time on their hands and no access to anything of quality. Sort of like Cleopatra 2525, but with less tits.

If this didn't have something to do with Doctor Who then I have to wonder how many of us would bother watching it. And since it barely does have anything to do with Doctor Who, I think I'll be done with it now thank you very much.

I could say more about how there's a difference between a successful writer and a good one, and where I think RTD actually falls on this spectrum, but that's for another thread really

In The Writer's Tale Russell as good as admitted he'd used up most of his best sci-fi ideas to save Children of Earth from disaster. There clearly weren't enough good ideas left to make Miracle Day more than an occasionally enjoyable runaround. However I agree this is a discussion for another thread.

[The456]

What I meant was that we have no idea what this crack is or how it managed to do any of that. We've known all along (or for weeks at least) that The Families have made everyone immortal, the question being how. The explanation might as well have been "by magic" for all the difference it made. Which I suppose is fair enough if you like things being left mysterious, but after the Big Mysterious Crack was revealed at the end of part 9, I expected that part 10 would at least have some explanation as to what it was, or why it mattered that it was on opposite sides of the Earth, but we didn't learn anything more about it at all really. It's just a weird thing that makes magic things happen. But since episode 1 we've known that a magic thing happened that must have been caused by a weird thing, so it's not very satisfying really.

You didn't "listen" to the dialogue, the "crack" aka "blessing" has always been there, it's what "binds" the planet and somehow with it's morphic field controls mortality. The families discovered it and fed Jacks blood into it, playing with it, abusing it, the morphic field changed etc etc etc. It's crazy and I guess a bit like saying I have a giant pink frog in my loft that predicts the correct lottery numbers every week.

[Rob McCow]

I have a giant pink frog in my loft that predicts the correct lottery numbers every week.

OMG that would have been a much better Torchwood series!!!

[Dirk Gently]

I guess a bit like saying I have a giant pink frog in my loft that predicts the correct lottery numbers every week.

Surely by the time you'd be revealing that bit of news you'd have said that you have a pink frog in a secure house on your estate guarded by your private army.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

You didn't "listen" to the dialogue, the "crack" aka "blessing" has always been there, it's what "binds" the planet and somehow with it's morphic field controls mortality. The families discovered it and fed Jacks blood into it, playing with it, abusing it, the morphic field changed etc etc etc. It's crazy and I guess a bit like saying I have a giant pink frog in my loft that predicts the correct lottery numbers every week.

So a "weird thing" then, which is what I said, or weren't you listening

[The456]

Yes it's "weird" just like my pink frog but you said...........
"What I meant was that we have no idea what this crack is or how it managed to do any of that."
Well we did............"the "crack" aka "blessing" has always been there, it's what "binds" the planet and somehow with it's morphic field controls mortality."

[Martin Curnow]

Re-watched the episode last night before deleting to free up some space on Sky+.

How hot was Gwen looking in that black dress? Phwoarr!!!