Torchwood - Miracle Day (Series 4) [DVD]

Let me start off by saying I love Torchwood. It has always been brilliant and it got better with every series (Series 2 is my personal favourite though). The americanisation of this fourth series has seen its fair share of ups and downs. There were many things to enjoy in this series, but the problem is it was let down by a very slow moving story which was all the time giving us questions and never any answers, I mean you don't even find out the who, what, why and how until the last 2 episodes, when they should have been revealed about half way in. Another problem is that Torchwood is a sci-fi show about a team of people who fight aliens, yet there was no aliens to be seen the entire series, plus the fact there wasn't even a clear strong protagonist for our team to fight. The best episode of the series is the 7th, called 'Immortal Sins'. It focuses heavily on Captain Jack and gives us more insight into his past while at the same time presenting us with a real, believable love between two characters that reminded me of the series 1 episode 'Captain Jack Harkness' and let me tell you that both these episodes broke my heart. One brilliant episode is not enough to make up for the averageness that was the rest of the series, with episodes 2 and 3 being outright filler in my eyes. I do hope another series gets made because in the end it is Torchwood and I do love it, plus the last episode sets some seeds for another series. Overall, it's a good series, not the best, you'll enjoy it, but just know it moves quite slowly.

I got into Torchwood very late. Having see a couple of episodes from series 1 and 2 and really enjoyed them, I went and bought the boxed set of series 1, 2 and 3. Despite having had huge viewing figures for Children Of Earth, I far preferred the first two series with their self contained episodes and because of that I was a little less excited by Children of Earth. A bit of a downhill dip, but I could see that others might not think so. Fair play. Then, along comes Miracle Day.

Not quite a complete disaster, but close to it. I saw the episode of Torchwood Confidential where RTD said "We had to blow up the Torchwood hub" Really Russell? Did you REALLY??? So let's examine that idea shall we? You decided it was a good idea to take the hub of a story, a special place where we were told there was a rift in time and space, creating all kinds of amazing incidents, then blow it to bits. You took a story about defending the earth from aliens, then didn't put an alien in the entire series? What a load of tosh! Talk about overstepping the "We need a new formula line" Has it not ocurred to those involved in production that people LIKE the formula, that's why we watch! This is a case of taking your favorite formula for raspberry ripple ice cream and making it with a new formula where you think it's cute to take all the rasberries out and introduce a formula where you substitute it for Beef and Mashed Potatoe. Sure, I like beef & mash, but IT THOUGHT I WAS BUYING RASPBERRY RIPPLE!!!

Slow, over padded (The story could have EASILY been told in five episodes, not ten), entirely pointless "sex scenes" which didn't enhance the plot an inch, Poorly acted by the Americans, hammed up in far too many scenes. Have I gone on enough?

I think I watched this series because I wanted it to be as good as 1 and 2. I wanted it to take me back to the things that I had come to enjoy in the first two series. But just like many broken relationships, if Children of Earth was like realising that you and your partner really didn't have much in common any more and deciding taking a break, then Miracle Day was getting back together because you remembered the good times, only to discover that the break up was really the best thing you could have done.

Thanks for the memories RTD. It's not you, it's me. .......Nope... actually, it's most certainly YOU.

The latest series of Torchwood was produced by BBC Worldwide and the American channel Starz. I have got the Blu-ray version. The cover strangely only features three out of the four main characters, Jack, Gwen and Rex. It looks well made and is rated a UK 15 for "strong bloody violence, gore, strong sex and threat". The set consists of 4 discs, with one of the main characters visible on each disc. Discs 1 and 2 contain three episodes each, while 3 and 4 contain only 2. Each episode is introduced by the head writer Russell T Davies, who also wrote Doctor Who from 2005-2010, and John Barrowman, who plays Jack. Each disc contains one or two special features; these include Behind the Scenes, FX on Miracle Day, Motion Comic: Web of Lies, Character profiles and deleted scenes. There is also a commentary available on the first and last episodes by Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner, the executive producers.

Now down to the programme itself. Many have criticised it as it moved away from the direction of the other series of Torchwood, being set mostly in America and developed by American TV companies. The viewing figures in the US were not great, where it aired a week earlier than it did in Britain to the outrage of many fans. Personally, I really enjoyed it. While not being as good as the first 2 series of Torchwood, it was better than Children of Earth in my opinion. The story spans one central plot, with all the episodes linked together. More and more is revealed every episode, and we learn a bit more about Jacks past. To avoid spoilers I won't go through the plot, but it is interesting and most of the episodes are great, although there are one or two which aren't so good. One negative point I would like to make is that it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The future of Torchwood is unknown, and it ends on a cliffhanger and has a surprising ending that nobody could have predicted.