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Welcome to [Torchwood]: Miracle (abandon all hope ye who enter) Day (Beware Spoilers)

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    chiasaur11chiasaur11 Never doubt a raccoon. Do you think it's trademarked?Registered User regular
    I might check out tonight's episode - but I think I'm done. I wrote the recap for Episode 4 a couple days ago and I just don't see this thing getting any better, and in fact, it almost seems as if they're going to start gunning for the opportunity to make Children of Earth seem retroactively WORSE.

    Look. Someone has to do it. At least to the halfway mark.

    For the good of humanity, we cannot let this monstrosity go undocumented.

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    SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    One of the many things that bothered me about the gay sex scene was, "Oh, we don't have to use condoms, because we can't die."

    Yeah, because losing your entire immune system to AIDS is absolutely awesome and has no consequences whatsoever other than death. Also, we can safely assume that Miracle Day is permanent, and that you won't find yourself mortal again at any point in time in the future.

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    SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    Can't Gwen do something about her teeth?

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    SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    Goddamn, Dr. Lady is stupid. She knows that she's working to investigate a massive conspiracy, and she decides that it's a good idea to tell the guy that he's going to be prosecuted and jailed?

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    MrIamMeMrIamMe Registered User regular
    Other than that, wasn't too bad.

    Probably should have had level 1 & 2 patients in there though, just to make it more chilling. As it stands it sucks but its a realistic approach.

    Also, china standing up for human rights over the rest of the world...

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    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Ok now I am definitely done with this show. Good fucking christ that was all over the place.

    EDIT: I should expand on this - RTD has no god damn character consistency. This episode started off veering about wildly, and then kept at it pretty much throughout. Evidently they've given up on establishing "miracle" ground rules since they've been happily changing them up left right and center (i.e. how come Oswald Danes appears to suffer absolutely no ill-effects from the lethal injection whatsoever, whereas other people don't seem to actually be conscious but are "not dead"?)

    All of the Torchwood staff seem to act like idiots, with the notable issue being that they irrelevantly committed all their staff to operational activities leaving the run-down apartment full of high-tech and alien computer hardware unguarded.

    And I just cannot give a fuck about the incineration reveal. I mean, actually it seems very practical: if people are so dead as to be unconscious, then turning them into ash seems like the ideal solution to actually rendering them completely dead. Maybe we should explore this quandry further, but no wait, there's a real risk it would undermine pretty much everything about the premise if they did, so instead we're going to have a tiresome psycho plot in the Overflow camp with the ridiculous number of campy male characters.

    EDIT 2: In fact, I think I've spotted the thing which I absolutely loathe in just about everything the man has created - he has no clue. He did not do the research. Everything he writes is really just a series of ridiculous stereotypes that he's trying to transcribe into a plot - police, detective investigation, covert ops, the media, politicians, the military, "people", the legal system - they all act, in his productions, exactly like people's derisive generalizations say they should.

    electricitylikesme on
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    BethrynBethryn Unhappiness is Mandatory Registered User regular
    Hahaha, this episode was so bad.

    Gwen and Rhys take her dad back to the Camp of Evil, because that's a good fucking idea.
    Rex wanders around a high security pen with a video camera, and the guards obviously all face outward. Not to mention this is the area where the Vera or whatever her name was is dumped by public housing guy and incompetent newbie officer (who lets himself get disarmed by public housing guy???), so muck only knows how Rex a) misses Vera getting dumped into the tiny square the ovens are kept in and b) eludes detection.
    The Jack Pose is used like five times (hint: it wasn't all that great in the original series), and Dane's weird decision to follow him continues to be weird.

    And we learn absolutely nothing new. Like, at least the last episode dropped hints with things like "what you gave them a long time ago Jack", but not only do we see almost nothing of what was on that server besides the overflow camps, but the grand reveal is incineration.

    So far, the plot and character development - much like Children of Earth - could've been fitted into half the episodes. Actually, no, a third in this case.

    ...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    Horrible pacing.
    Also, I kinda missed the China comment because I was multi-tasking at the time, what did China do?

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    TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    My god, this thing is a trainwreck. The only reason I keep watching is to see how bad it will get.

    I feel bad for telling my dad he should watch it when he asked me about it (before it started).

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    BethrynBethryn Unhappiness is Mandatory Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    China said no to the Overflow Camps if I recall correctly.

    Honestly though, the motivation for whatever is behind this is so weird.

    You turn the whole world immortal, and you plan for what's going to happen. You know diseases will spread and population will boom. So you segregate the ill, and effectively kill the "dead" via fire. So what do you gain?

    Immortality for yourself? Maybe, but you have to be damned careful about accidents and illnesses, and since you still age (which is interesting since Jack aged very slowly if at all; the transition from Jack to the Face of Boe was always vague and occurred over the period of a few million years iirc), what do you gain out of it anyway?
    Money? Woohoo, you're pharmaceutical companies and governments; you already had that.
    Power? Well, given the governments are already in on it, I'd say they probably had power enough.
    Control over who lives and who dies? For what purpose? Were they worried about the inevitable population boom? There are plenty of solutions that don't involve moronic crap like this.

    I was hoping it'd be some sort of alien that thrives on 'the essence of life' or something, keeping everyone alive to feast more on the energy, but who knows? The writing seems intent on keeping any sort of relevant information regarding the reason as far away as possible while distracting us with some of the least interesting character 'development' of Torchwood thus far.

    And the only even remote hint of the paranormal being involved was that warehouse. I wasn't even sure if Rex actually meant something like the TARDIS when he said it was "bigger on the inside" or if they just didn't have any idea of the warehouse's scale when they went in.

    Bethryn on
    ...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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    Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    Bethryn wrote:
    I wasn't even sure if Rex actually meant something like the TARDIS when he said it was "bigger on the inside" or if they just didn't have any idea of the warehouse's scale when they went in.
    Actually, it was Jack who said that.

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    Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    I have to say that the overflow camps and "the final solution" isn't that shocking to me. You have people that are brain dead(or close to it), never going to get better and no way to cure them? I say fire up the crematorium and turn them into dust.

    Its not that shocking to a society that has had debates about doctor assisted suicide and "dignity of death". Imortality without eternal youth, means that eventualy everyone of us will turn into cancer ridden, stroke induced vegetables in the end anyways. We would still be dead, we would just still be breathing and taking up space. Giving us a nice dose of morphine and firing up the old crematorium would be a blessing.

    The only radical societal change I can see is there would be more treatment for cases like Rex and voluntary end of life suicide would be legal. That and we we would get rid of Morticans. If we got Jack style Imortality on the other hand... That would fuck things up.

    What should be scary about miracle day is that there are people behind it and Miracle day is only one step in their master plan. Not the Miracle day itself. Like the scary part of Children of Earth wasn't the Aliens, but the goverments eagerness to bargain with them.

    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
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    SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    Gwen's dad has a heart attack, and she goes around yelling for help, even though there's no chance he could die.

    I mean, I suppose that it's possible that he would lose oxygen to the brain and suffer brain damage or something, but I doubt that's what the writer was thinking.

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    The WolfmanThe Wolfman Registered User regular
    I'm not done with the show, but at this point I think all I'm watching it for is for more of the government and medical implications of the Miracle. I still find them interesting as hell. And hell, Strawman has a Point. Burning the people in perpetual comas makes a lot of sense. It only goes into "ooooh eeeevvvviiiiillll" when you include heart attack victims who are only unconscious.

    Raise your hand if you saw what was going to happen to Doctor dumbshit 15 seconds before it happened.

    Also, I got the impression at the end that Oswald might be illiterate. Thing is, they already said he was a schoolteacher, and I have no damn clue what such a revelation would have to do with the plot.

    "The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
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    Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    I knew what the moduls where the moment they called them moduls instead of labratories or "special wards". Shit, I have been thinking about them using a crematorium since episode one.

    The sky was full of stars, every star an exploding ship. One of ours.
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    BethrynBethryn Unhappiness is Mandatory Registered User regular
    I was hoping the modules would take the victims underground to where the aliens were hiding so they could suck the life out of the dead people. 8(

    ...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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    VoodooVVoodooV Registered User regular
    have they completely abandoned the whole "jack is omni sexual, not really gay" thing?

    would that be too complex for the average viewer so they just reduce it down to "jack is gay?"

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    Fatboy RobertsFatboy Roberts Registered User regular
    They've abandoned EVERYTHING that makes Jack, Jack. He's just a gay fuckup with a coat in "Miracle Day," and that's a goddamned shame.

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    override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Is it just me or could the doctor have been like "OTHER PEOPLE KNOW I'M HERE, THINK ABOUT THIS" to the soldier? I mean, "disappearing" someone who shows up for an inspection doesn't actually work, because now that person's missing and you're the last person anyone saw them talk to

    You know I'm kind of pissed off about how good this could have been. The crematoriums make perfect fucking sense for people who are actually gone, like that woman who was the victim of domestic abuse and braindead.

    But come the fuck on you're telling me that they're only doing barely cursory checks on people before throwing them in the frier? Really? Oh right nobody knows they get cremated, it's a big worldwide conspiracy even though there are thousands of these facilities employing millions of people in an age where everyone is carrying a camera.

    override367 on
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    Unco-ordinatedUnco-ordinated NZRegistered User regular
    Didn't RTD crap all over Stargate when they signed Robert Carlyle? Well uh, even the very worst spots of Universe was still better than this shit. I mean really, this is the worst show I've watched since Heroes. It's so, so bad.

    Steam ID - LiquidSolid170 | PSN ID - LiquidSolid
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    override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    It actually makes me angry because of how good the premise is

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    SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    Jack can upload a virus erasing Torchwood from the entire internet, but he can't upload the speech he gave to Oswald directly?

    I mean, you can't even say "People wouldn't believe the statements unless it came from Oswald directly." Oswald is a child killer. Yeah, maybe some people take him to be a prophet, but what about the rest of the world?

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    TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    I have really had to just shut my mind off to watch this, and even then some things slip through and make me go "What the hell?"

    Something I don't think we have talked about is how this show has a really strange episodic format. Each episode is self-contained, but in a very messy way. There is always a clear time jump between episodes but the episodes end on near-cliffhangers. Very off-putting. It wouldn't surprise me next week to see the first scene and go "Wait, didn't we leave off with Rex and Esther in the camp watching the doctor being burned alive? Why are they back at their house planning the next move?"

    And Oswald's storyline has not made any real sense at all.

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    Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    VoodooV wrote:
    have they completely abandoned the whole "jack is omni sexual, not really gay" thing?

    would that be too complex for the average viewer so they just reduce it down to "jack is gay?"

    Not entirely. There was that whole "I only get a kiss?" bit this episode. But it's definitely less nuanced than in previous seasons.

    sig_megas_armed.jpg
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    EliteBattlemanEliteBattleman Registered User regular
    VoodooV wrote:
    have they completely abandoned the whole "jack is omni sexual, not really gay" thing?

    would that be too complex for the average viewer so they just reduce it down to "jack is gay?"

    I'm pretty sure RTD thinks that would be too complex for the average American.

    This is my sig.
    There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
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    aerynkellyaerynkelly nothing to see here, move along Registered User regular
    Definitely, definitely a crap episode. What is the point of the side story of Gwen's dad, I mean really, other than to send Gwen back to the UK. I really hope that ends up being "useful" in some way and she doesn't just come back to the US, because if she does, I'll lose it. I agree that the crematoriums make sense, though I'm not sure I understand why they felt the need to build special camps and hide them from satellites - why not use the crematoriums already built? I suppose this centralizes things, but still, why the cloak and dagger? It's already pretty much been mandated that this is martial law, no choice in the matter, so why not just be upfront with what you're doing? And yes, I caught that China said no to it - which seriously, given their population, I don't know how they could.

    I would be interested in seeing Miracle Day in its entirety, with all the useless crap cut out and proper timeline structuring. As it's already been said, what a mess this is.

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    BethrynBethryn Unhappiness is Mandatory Registered User regular
    I'm pretty sure RTD thinks that would be too complex for the average American.
    I don't think it's that so much as that Jack just has a load of backstory that reintroducing to the audience would be too long and distract from The Real Plot (which is obviously too important to interrupt).

    ...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    aerynkelly wrote:
    Definitely, definitely a crap episode. What is the point of the side story of Gwen's dad, I mean really, other than to send Gwen back to the UK. I really hope that ends up being "useful" in some way and she doesn't just come back to the US, because if she does, I'll lose it. I agree that the crematoriums make sense, though I'm not sure I understand why they felt the need to build special camps and hide them from satellites - why not use the crematoriums already built? I suppose this centralizes things, but still, why the cloak and dagger? It's already pretty much been mandated that this is martial law, no choice in the matter, so why not just be upfront with what you're doing? And yes, I caught that China said no to it - which seriously, given their population, I don't know how they could.

    I would be interested in seeing Miracle Day in its entirety, with all the useless crap cut out and proper timeline structuring. As it's already been said, what a mess this is.

    It is really, really annoying how they've fucked this up - given how good the premise is, as others have said. A big problem seems to be the insistence on making Miracle Day seem like some massive crisis, which it really isn't.

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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    I'm gonna go ahead and guess that the aliens are really benevolent.
    They're part of an enlightened group of aliens that go around and grant various species the gift of immortality, but initially as a test to find out whether or not they're suited for it.

    Phicorp is just one alien faction that wants humanity to fail.

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    ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    Ok now I am definitely done with this show. Good fucking christ that was all over the place.

    EDIT: I should expand on this - RTD has no god damn character consistency. This episode started off veering about wildly, and then kept at it pretty much throughout. Evidently they've given up on establishing "miracle" ground rules since they've been happily changing them up left right and center (i.e. how come Oswald Danes appears to suffer absolutely no ill-effects from the lethal injection whatsoever, whereas other people don't seem to actually be conscious but are "not dead"?).

    Episode 1: Burn victim, 90% of his body has been incinerated. Jack, in a very Jack move (the only one, perhaps), looks on callously and suggests severing what little remains of the spinal column: The victim's head keeps moving. "Fuck yeah," I exclaim.

    Episode 5: People are in comas all over the place.

    Fuck, even last episode: that lady gets mashed up in a car crusher and 'survives'. They really pulled the category 1 out of their ass here. This is such a frustrating waste of a good concept.

    Why have the writers decided that Rhys is the one who's good in a pinch and Gwen is the bumbling idiot? "Help, we were breaking my father out of your facility and he had a heart attack, please help us or he'll..."

    Or he'll what? Keep on yelling? It's been 5 days, how long does it take the average person to accept that death has stopped being a thing?

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    TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    Only halfway through tonight's episode and I already feel like I need to shampoo my brain to get the terribleness out.

    I'll never look down on Season 1-2 of Torchwood again, because they were the best television ever compared to Miracle Day.

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    aerynkellyaerynkelly nothing to see here, move along Registered User regular
    Damn it, she's back off to the states. WTFH

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    aerynkellyaerynkelly nothing to see here, move along Registered User regular
    I'm so digusted right now...gonna have to sleep on this.

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    TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    The last 2 seconds may be the worst "shocked" acting I have ever seen. Especially since she should not have been surprised at all.

    I really don't know if I can make it to the end of the season.

    Tomanta on
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    SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    Wow, did Jack really think that he could force the conspiracy leader to confess by holding a girlfriend that he was going to leave anyway hostage? In what world would that have worked?

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    NecoNeco Worthless Garbage Registered User regular
    You know, I have actually liked most of Torchwood to this point, including the first two seasons. I have not seen a single episode of Miracle Day, but this thread is already depressing me. Maybe...they should just go back to episodic format. Children of Earth was great and all, but maybe they should save those types of series for the stories that are actually good.

    Unless of course, you are just all insane and Miracle Day is actually amazing. Yeah, ok, I will go with that until this lands on Netflix and reality sets back in. :(

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    ArbitraryDescriptorArbitraryDescriptor changed Registered User regular
    Wow, did Jack really think that he could force the conspiracy leader to confess by holding a girlfriend that he was going to leave anyway hostage? In what world would that have worked?

    This one.

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    electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited August 2011
    Wow, it's like they've gone on a whole miniature plot arc which centers on "hey, look how much we don't give a shit about internal consistency".

    EDIT: I didn't think they had too far further down to go from the previous episode, but they sure kicked out the bottom of the barrel.

    electricitylikesme on
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    ShanadeusShanadeus Registered User regular
    This is a really stupid show.

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    SchrodingerSchrodinger Registered User regular
    When this is all over, I should just import all the episodes on my computer and see what happens when this series is trimmed down to 3 hours.

    The problem is that some plot points won't make sense without horrible acting.

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