Rate and Discuss Season 4: Miracle Day

[Anthony Williams]

With it now all out of the way, and having had some time to think and meditate on the series as a whole, I'm curious as to what the members of PS thought of Miracle Day as a whole?

[Rob McCow]

Unwatchable!

[Anthony Williams]

I've given this 6/10.

While I was watching it, I found each episode exciting. I went into it, not expecting much. And I was quite delighted. Each episode was intreaguing and thoroughly enjoyable.

Yet, now that it is finished, I can't help but feel at least slightly disappointed. While I loved much of the dialogue, it's easy to see in retrospect that the premise was too thin to sustain ten episodes. This would've been a great five-part series in the vein of Children of Earth (grim as that was), but I can't help but feel that it was overstretched. Or, at least, it didn't go far enough into the issues that it should have. The whole series seemed to revolve around the medical aspect, the political machinations and the mysterious Family. What about the other impacts? There was a very brief mention of how the Miracle affected the economic situation, but it could've examined many, many more aspects of this. For example, what about overseas? Both China and India already suffer from overcrowding. Things like that could've been dealt with, to really strengthen the show out.

Overall, I felt that it was a good concept, but just spread a little too thinly. It's a shame.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I've yet to read an overall review of this series anywhere which doesn't basically say that there wasn't enough plot and genuine development to properly sustain ten episodes and I have to say I don't disagree.
I really enjoyed episode 1, episode 7 (which being so Jack-centred felt like almost the only "proper" Torchwood episode of the series) and (leaving aside the attempt at scientific explanation which was quite frankly a load of bollards) episode 10. Take out the wasted concepts like the Soulless (they could have amounted to *so* much more than just wandering around with creepy masks to pad out episode 3), and actually did we need to have the character of Oswald Danes in this series at all?
Something that could have worked would be if the families' original plan could have been wrapped up around mid-series leaving room for us to actually find out what Plan B is. Unfortunately the whole premise was so overstretched that I suspect if the families were to appear in series 5 (if we get one) people will switch off in droves and that will pretty much guarantee the end if we haven't got there already.
I've gone with 6/10 mainly because I did enjoy most of the episodes on an individual basis even though I was disappointed that they didn't come up with some better developed ideas to sustain a ten part story.

[Anthony Williams]

I've gone with 6/10 mainly because I did enjoy most of the episodes on an individual basis even though I was disappointed that they didn't come up with some better developed ideas to sustain a ten part story.

That pretty much sums up how I felt about it all

[SiHart]

It encouraged me to take the step I wanted to take before Children of Earth and give up watching the show. This did nothing to convince me that more Torchwood is a good thing, I'm afraid.

[Jason Thompson]

This series was a great premise but there was not enough substance, as others have said, to sustain ten episodes. And that’s a shame, because there should have been. A lot of time was spent on the problem of what to do with the people who would normally have died, but some of the other issues were swept under the rug with a line or two. The economic collapse was mentioned but we saw no sign of it affecting anyone on the show at all. What about the problems of food supply? Water?

A few have questioned the need for a character like Oswald Danes, but he’s a really obvious character to have. In countries with the death penalty then a lack of death is clearly going to cause problems for the judicial system, and with the variety of feelings about the death penalty, the concomitant variety of reactions to it being rendered suddenly ineffective makes for some good drama. I actually rather liked the fact that he didn’t see the light, and no-one in the main cast actually did the ‘well maybe he wasn’t so bad after all’ crap. Even when he died he was crowing about going to find all the bad little girls in hell.

But then there was some really poor writing, both in terms of characterisation and in terms of structure. Episode 7 centres around the flashbacks to the past, explaining the whole business with Angelo. But those flashbacks seem oddly disconnected from the plot. They start before Jack has any idea Angelo is involved, and before Gwen starts prompting him to try and remember something from the past. They are therefore too obviously stuck in there for the viewer rather than as a natural narrative flow. Then the family of Angelo are built up as the big bad, kidnapping Gwen’s family, when it turns out they just want to talk to Jack and find out who is really behind the miracle. Why all the heavy-handed stuff? And what about the fact that PC Andy ends up shooting someone who later turns out not to be the actual enemy? And let’s not go into the utterly inept CIA people who use real names everywhere, announce to the whole office that they will find the traitor in their midst while utterly failing to spot the one person who reacts by getting up and leaving the room, and so on.

For several episodes we have Jack assuring us all that there is nothing special about his blood, and indeed there wouldn’t be, as Jack was made immortal by Rose’s use of the time vortex energy, not by some biochemical means, and yet at the end it turns out that actually there is something special about Jack’s blood, to the point where, for some reason, the Blessing attracts it like a magnet, and Rex can be rendered immortal by having it inside him when the Blessing resets things, despite it not rendering him mortal when he transfused it.

So, an interesting premise inadequately explored with a rubbish explanation, spread out too thinly. Had this been half as long it could well have been brilliant. But it wasn’t.

[Dirk Gently]

Yep, Jason pretty much covers what I thought. Too much screen time (never thought I'd ever say that) & not enough quality script to fill it, disjointed plot & poor chracterisation all contribute to a really poor 10 part serial.
If I didn't know Rusty had written the lot I would have said it was written by about 7 different writers.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

If I didn't know Rusty had written the lot I would have said it was written by about 7 different writers.

There were actually five writers including RTD, although obviously he was still head writer and ultimately the blame for the story not being told in a more satisfactory way must lie with him.

I think Jason makes a very valid point about someone who has earned the death penalty being unable to die being a great concept but I found that having introduced Oswald as quite an interesting anti-hero, his messianic shenanigans in the middle of the series didn't lead to anything and he even managed to disappear for a couple of weeks without being missed. He had some good last scenes in the final episode but seemed to be there mainly to blow up the Shanghai base. I did like the idea of him ultimately coming full circle in character terms but again like so many elements of this series he could have been better used.

[Andrew Curnow]

I pretty much agree with the general view, that whereas Children of Earth hit the ground running and kept building to a strong finish, this series just never quite seemed to find its feet properly at all. There were too many weak moments which were apparent at first viewing - the CIA mole, the standing around chatting ending, etc - which meant no episode really left me with a sense of "Wow!"

For all that, I'd like to see Torchwood back again, but I think they ought to learn the lessons of this year. Either make a shorter story, or even go back to the individual stories of the first two seasons. And make Gwen less annoying, please!!!