Fans of Doctor Who are probably quite familiar with the Torchwood franchise, but the new series Torchwood: Miracle Day aims to bring the secretive government organization Torchwood to a whole new audience. Torchwood has been bumped channel to channel over the years, due to increasing audiences and, consequently, higher budgets, but in 2009, due to budget cuts, it was limited to only five episodes that were released as a serial called Torchwood: Children of Earth. Not only did it recieve high ratings, but critical reviews were good and Torchwood started to look for a new home. After a deal with Fox fell threw (thank goodness), BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Worldwide, and Starz partnered up to bring us the next Torchwood series, Torchwood: Miracle Day.
Torchwood: Miracle Day reunites the only three remaining members of Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), the immortal, bisexual, ex-con that originally appeared in Doctor Who; Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), a former South Wales Police officer who stumbled into the world of Torchwood and acts as the audience surrogate; and Rhys Williams (Kai Owen), the bumbling “everyman” now husband of Agent Cooper who was drawn into the fold when Gwen revealed the truth of her employment. New to the Torchwood mythology is a whole slew of characters due to the relocation to America, but most notable among these will be: Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer), a typically heroic CIA operative; Esther Drummon (Alexa Havins), an optimistic CIA Watch analyst; and Bill Pullman as Oswald Danes, a convicted murderer turned celebrity.
The Premise is essentially that people on Earth have ceased to die. They can get sick and get hurt, but they cannot die. The sudden unending population boom puts a huge strain on Earth’s resources and the powers that be decide that someone has to be behind it. CIA Agent Rex Matheson keeps finding Torchwood when he looks for the source of the conspiracy and Gwen Cooper and Captain Jack Harkness have no choice but to plunge back into the adventure.
I, personally, couldn’t be more excited about Torchwood coming back on the air and am ecstatic that it was dropped by Fox and picked up by Starz. This is a show that needs to be able to cross some lines that most of America isn’t comfortable with. Not to mention that Starz has the buying power to up the production values of Torchwood dramatically. The issues tackled in the third season (Torchwood: Children of Earth) were some of the most difficult, harrowing, and deeply disturbing that I have ever seen from a television series and season 4 promises more of the same. Plus, I sorta have a thing for Captain Jack (seriously, he’s sexy).
Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres July 8, 2011 on Starz.
