Torchwood Miracle Day blog: 'Dead of Night'

This week’s Torchwood came amidst something of a furore, as sex made a comeback. Well, sort of. We saw newbie Rex (Mekhi Phifer) getting it on with Dr Vera (Arlene Tur), and Jack (John Barrowman) picking out the nearest barman. However, the sex scenes were cut from the BBC’s broadcast, opening a great big can of worms and leading to contradictory reports about whether the plot needed them or not. What I would say is that, if the latter principle was applied to the rest of the episode, how long would it actually have been?

If you were asked to describe what actually happened, you could do it in 10 seconds: ‘They found out that this drugs company might have known that Miracle Day was going to happen.’ 50 minutes, and that was literally all that was achieved. The writers seem to have forgotten that, as it’s a serial story, there needs to be a compulsion that you can’t miss an episode. Where are the cliffhangers, the cryptic clues, the shock reveals…? And where are the aliens?

In last week’s episode, the new Torchwood team was just beginning to come together; here, it becomes fully formed, but it’s not a team that you especially care for. True, Gwen (Eve Myles) continues to be great fun (despite having to do an awful scene where she had to pretend that she didn’t know that British ‘crisps’ are American ‘chips’ – next you’ll be telling me that she gets confused when one of her new American friends refers to their pants…) As for the others, Jack remains his old self, but Rex is just… well, I’m not really sure what his purpose is. He spends most of his time growling at Jack, or ‘flirting’ with Vera (seriously, there is no chemistry there, a bit of Resistant Materials maybe…).

The remaining newbie, Esther (Alexa Havins), is a bit better, with at least some attempts at depth being made in this episode. (If you’d have asked me about her last week, I’d have said she was blander than a white box containing some rich tea biscuits, vanilla ice cream and Stephen Mulhern.) Unfortunately, though, they were attempts and nothing more. She’s just ticking off ‘Pretty Girl on the Run’ stereotypes, as she worries about her sister and that she’s slowing everyone down…

Elsewhere, the sort-of 5th member of the team, Vera, continues to be the only doctor in the world to display an ounce of common sense, and is used, once again, to interact with characters who reveal another of Miracle Day’s effects. Last week, it was all about germs developing, this week, she met some copper who informed us that they can’t charge anyone with murder or attempted murder anymore as it’s not possible. Give that man a cupcake. Having said that, the level of pantomime with which he performed his “the whole system is collapsing!” line provided the episode’s best laugh. Is the sky falling as well?

If it weren’t for a terrific turn from Lauren Ambrose as PR witch Jilly Kitzinger, I don’t really know what else this episode had to offer. There was yet more speculation, but no more answers, and yet more considerations of the effects, before being instantly forgotten. For a programme where no one (bar the obvious) can die, Torchwood is showing remarkably few signs of life.

Read last week's blog here

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