Category: Season 4: Miracle Day

Rex extradites Jack and Gwen to the United States, leaving Rhys – who was never officially a member of Torchwood – in Wales with Anwen, Rhys’ and Gwen’s baby. Rex is mystified when one of his CIA superiors shows up unexpectedly in Wales to escort everyone back to Washington. On the flight back over the Atlantic, Jack falls deathly ill: someone else on the plane has poisoned him, and Rex quickly figures out that the hit has been carried out under orders, but probably not CIA orders. In Washington, Esther Drummond discovers that she and Rex have been set up, framed for something that they know nothing about, and tries to warn Rex that he can trust nobody once the plane lands on American soil. But unless Rex and Gwen can find out how Jack was poisoned, and find an antidote, half of Torchwood will already be gone before the plane lands.

written by Doris Egan
directed by Billy Gierhart
music by Murray Gold

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger), Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez), Dichen Lachman (Lyn Peterfield), Marina Benedict (Charlotte Willis), Paul James (Noah Vickers), Tom Price (Sgt. Andy Davidson), Wayne Knight (Brian Friedkin), Tug Coker (Geoff Reed), Halley Feiffer (Lianna), Finn Witrock (Danny), Richard Augustine (George Sayer), Amy Benedict (Bridget Howe), Sedly Bloomfield (Man #2), Antonio D. Charity (Airport Security Cop), Erin Chenoweth (Greta), Ewan Chung (Yu-King So), Rachel Leah Cohen (Laurie), Joseph Eid (Man #1), Chrissie Marie Fit (Assistant), Bari Hochwald (ER Nurse), Scott Hoxby (Paul Goldstein), Ronobir Lahiri (Simran Baidwan), Don Luce (Gate Guard), David O’Donnell (Dr. Mandell), Jeffery Self (James Percey), Kristi Swensson (Woman), Luke White (EMT), A.J. Tannen (Government Clerk), Glenn Taranto (Security Chief), Richard Wharton (Dr. Paul Bell)

Notes: Wayne Knight unleashed forces he couldn’t control in Jurassic Park (1993), as well as uselessly unleashing Newman’s fury toward Jerry and gang throughout the series run of Seinfeld. Bari Hochwald is another Star Trek frequent flyer now appearching on Torchwood; she appeared as Dr. Bashir’s academic nemesis in Deep Space Nine, fell victim to a radioactive Federation space probe in one of Voyager’s final episodes, and appeared in an early, Klingon-centric episode of Enterprise. This episode’s mention that Oprah Winfrey is trying to land an interview with Oswald Danes would seem to either date Miracle Day prior to Oprah’s talk show going off the air in May 2011, or implies that Oprah’s show is still in production in whatever alternate timeline Torchwood takes place in. Miracle Day was already in production at around the time Winfrey announced her retirement from ongoing daytime TV.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

As the reality of the new condition of humanity sinks in with the public, different people deal with their sudden immortality in different ways. Some indulge in every vice imaginable, safe in the knowledge that it won’t kill them, but Dr. Vera Juarez and others in her field are becoming increasingly aware that while death has been eradicated overnight, disease hasn’t: anyone infected with a disease will simply manifest its symptoms forever. Others form a strange cult, the masked Soulless, whose message seems to be that humanity’s sudden immortality is not a blessing. They get no argument from Jack, who finds new ways to revel in his sudden mortality.

With the bewildered Rex and Esther in tow – now on the run from the CIA themselves thanks to their contact with Torchwood – Jack and Gwen fall into familiar old patterns, investigating how the “miracle” happened and at whose behest. But if they think that the CIA fugitives are Torchwood’s latest recruits, Rex’s lone-wolf behavior and Esther’s nervousness make them uneasy allies at best. And for CIA agents, they seem almost too ready to blow their cover. Gwen strong-arms Dr. Juarez into helping her infiltrate Phi-Corp, an international pharmaceutical company which seems poised to profit from the inevitable spread of disease by seeking Congressional approval for the free and easy distribution of its drugs. What’s more, Phi-Corp is so well-stocked that they likely knew of the “miracle” well in advance.

Phicorp has also picked up an unusual spokesman in convicted killer Oswald Danes. Having survived his own execution and obtained the services of a Phi-Corp public relations agent, Danes is a fast-rising celebrity and the subject of cultish adulation from the Soulless. He’s also the subject of Jack’s intense curiosity, but again, Jack’s every move has been anticipated.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Billy Gierhart
music by Murray Goldr and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez), Wayne Knight (Brian Friedkin), Dillon Casey (Brad), Richard Gilliland (Congressman Morganthall), Tasha Ames (Carla), Thea Andrews (Local Reporter), Richard Augustine (George Sayer), Daryl Crittenden (Young Man), Mitchell Edmonds (Senior TV Anchor), Matt Eyde (Atlanta Cop), Mary Garripoli (Woman Tourist), Ted Mattison (Phi-Corp Rep), Jason Medwin (Sunroof Screamer), George Murdock (Preacher), Brian Treitler (Dr. Murphy), Randa Walker (Candice Perlmutter), Maurice Webster (Cop), Michelle Wong (Nurse), David Youse (Dr. Rosenbloom)

Notes: While its original BBC broadcasts were always intended to be adults-only viewing, Torchwood took a brief detour into material that was too strong for UK viewing standards: the montage of sex scenes (both heterosexual and homosexual) were omitted entirely from the UK broadcast, seen only in America on Starz. As little vital story information is imparted in those scenes, however, it simply means that, while the episode is shorter, the story still tracks. Guest actor George Murdock’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo as a televangelist could be indicative of diminished career expectations, as Murdock played God Himself (or an alien facsimile thereof) in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989); he returned to the Star Trek franchise as Admiral Hansen, giving Captain Picard his fateful marching orders against the Borg in the Next Generation two-parter The Best Of Both Worlds (1990). Writer Jane Espenson – one of the stable of writers who worked with Joss Whedon on Buffy, Angel and Firefly – joined the Torchwood writing staff fresh from a short stint as the showrunner of Battlestar Galactica spinoff Caprica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Torchwood makes a cross-country trip to Los Angeles, home of Phi-Corp’s corporate headquarters, to dig deeper into the pharmaceutical giant and find out how they seemed to know ahead of time that death would become a thing of the past. Jack continues to fixate on Oswald Danes, certain that keeping a careful watch on the convicted-pedophile-turned-charismatic-celebrity will reveal more about Phi-Corp’s plans. Esther and Rex let their guard down, perhaps fatally: Esther goes to visit her sister, only to be turned away at the door and told that she can’t see the kids. Rex’s visit to his father is even less welcoming, while Gwen gets disturbing news from Wales about her father. Oswald Danes and his Phi-Corp PR handler, Jilly Kitzinger, discover that he suddenly has an opposite number: a right-wing political figure who advocates the segregation from society of those who “should” be dead. Phi-Corp’s advance planning becomes more apparent – they’ve already bought up enormous amount of property globally to serve as “overflow camps” – as does their ruthlessness, as an assassin is dispatched to deal with both Danes’ nemesis and with Torchwood as they try to break into Phi-Corp itself.

teleplay by Jim Gray and John Shiban
story by Jim Gray
directed by Billy Gierhart
music by Murray Gold and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger), Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez), C. Thomas Howell (The Gentleman), Mare Winningham (Ellis Hartley Monroe), Juanita Jennings (Bisme Katsui), Candace Brown (Sarah Drummond), Kelvin Yu (Nicholas Frumkin), DeSean Terry (Male Nurse), Roger Vernon Burton (Thin Old Man), Katsy Chappell (Woman), April Clark (Young Mother), Anthony Dilio (Lobby Guard), David Fofi (Burly Guard), Teresa Garza (Spanish Newscaster), Roy Lee Jones (Maurice), JoNell Kennedy (Veronica), Masami Kosaka (Japanese Newscaster), Ronobir Lahiri (Simran), Michael D. Nye (Sick Man), Barbara Mallory (Scared Old Woman), Brian Keith Russell (Landlord), Christian Svensson (Chauffeur), Randa Walker (Candice), David Grant Wright (Male Newscaster)

Notes: Writer John Shiban has a long list of genre credits in Hollywood, with writing and producing duties on series such as Supernatural, The Legend of the Seeker, Star Trek: Enterprise and Vampire Diaries, as well as the non-genre favorite Breaking Bad. His early career was spent working for Chris Carter as a writer, producer and story editor on such series as The X-Files, Harsh Realm, and the final X-Files spinoff, The Lone Gunmen. He has also directed episodes of Breaking Bad and X-Files.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Gwen returns to Cardiff after Rhys informs her that her father has been taken to one of Phi-Corp’s suddenly ubiquitous overflow camps. Dr. Vera Juarez, upon hearing that the U.N. has issued new legal definitions of “categories of life” (with Phi-Corp’s input), leaves Washington for the west coast to join Rex and Torchwood. In Los Angeles, Phi-Corp prepares for a “Miracle Rally” with Oswald Danes as the keynote speaker, though Danes – already suspicious of how elaborately Phi-Corp has covered its own tracks on the internet – is growing irritated with the many drafts of the speech being written for him. Rex decides to exploit his injury to get admitted to an overflow camp, while Esther goes undercover in the camp’s office. Dr. Juarez uses her credentials to give the camp a surprise inspection, and is horrified at what she finds. The camp in Wales is no better, prompting Gwen to try to break her father out of Phi-Corp’s care, with disastrous results. In America, while Jack tries to exploit Danes’ sense that something is wrong at the heart of Phi-Corp, one of the new members of Torchwood will become the first human being to die in many days. But at whose hands?

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Guy Ferland
music by Murray Gold and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Lauren Ambrose (Jilly Kitzinger), Arlene Tur (Dr. Vera Juarez), William Thomas (Geraint Cooper), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), Tom Price (Sgt. Andy Davidson), Fred Koehler (Ralph), Teddy Sears (Blue Eyed Man), Marc Vann (Colin Maloney), Daniel Adegboyega (Guard), Brad Bell (Nurse Chris), Charles Carpenter (News Reporter), Jim Conway (Man), Jonathan Dane (Handsome Man), Teresa Garza (Spanish Newscaster), Brendan Hughes (Pidgeon), Joelle Elizabeth Jacoby (Excited Teenager), Liz Jenkins (Rachel), Ria Jones (Pushy Woman), Masami Kosaka (Japanese Newscaster), Eve Mauro (Maria Candido), Francince Morgan (Stressed Woman), Stuart Nurse (Thomason), Tracy Pfau (Pale Woman), Caroline Whitney Smith (Paramedic), Vito Viscuso (Angry Man), Randa Walker (Candice)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Armed with video of the death of Dr. Vera Juarez in one of the “modules” that have been mandated by law in every overflow camp, Rex now has to escape the camp to get that evidence to the outside world. Having learned of the purpose of the modules, Gwen is taking more aggressive steps to rescue her father from the overflow camp in Wales. Jack, trying to find out who’s pulling the strings at Phi-Corp, pays a surprise visit to one of the company’s top executives, only to discover that Phi-Corp itself is just a pawn in a much larger game. With their cover blown, Rex and Esther find that they can’t escape the overflow camp without shedding blood – either their own or someone else’s – and now that death is back on the table, the stakes have just gotten higher. Even if Torchwood exposes the modules’ ability to kill, the Phi-Corp juggernaut – and whoever is behind it – remains unscathed in the public’s eyes.

written by John Shiban
directed by Guy Ferland
music by Murray Gold and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), William Thomas (Geraint Cooper), Ernie Hudson (Stuart Owens), Fred Koehler (Ralph), Marc Vann (Colin Maloney), Jason Brooks (Press Secretary), Ciera Payton (Janet), Jonathan Spencer (Tony), Eric Steinberg (Zheng Yibao), Alexis Delarosa (Young Guard), Brittnee Garza (Worker), Brendan Hughes (Pidgeon), Liz Jenkins (Rachel), Lena Kaur (Dr. Patel), Janice Kent (Female Psychiatrist), Isaac Stephen Montgomery (Stern Soldier), William Patrick Riley (Hat Check Boy), Marty Ryan (Older Guard), Inger Tudor (Mrs. Owens)

Notes: Ernie Hudson is a favorite with genre audiences for his portrayal of Winston Zeddimore III, the fourth man to sign up for ghost-busting duty, in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Marc Vann, who plays the inept but ambitious head of the San Pedro overflow camp, is a regular on CSI; he also appeared in several episodes of Lost as an unnamed doctor, so his characters have abundant experience in dealing with people who aren’t in the habit of staying dead.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Ellis Island, 1927: Jack Harkness befriends an Italian immigrant and falls in love. Even when it becomes clear that Jack leads a dangerous life and deals with forces beyond human experience, his lover stays by his side – at least until he sees Jack die. A seemingly happy reunion years later turns out to be anything but: Jack is betrayed and tortured, killed repeatedly for nothing more than sport and spectacle. His repeated resurrections, however, draw the attention of someone more powerful.

Los Angeles, 2011: With the forces behind the “miracle” communicating to her via her Torchwood-issued contact lenses, Gwen learns that Rhys, her mother and her child are being held hostage. The price for freeing her family is delivering Jack into the hands of whoever is calling the shots. Thanks to her Torchwood training, it’s a task she’s able to complete with ruthless efficiency – but sensing something wrong, Rex and Esther decide to intervene.

written by Jane Espenson
directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton
music by Murray Gold and Stu Kennedy

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson), Alexa Havins (Esther Drummond), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Sharon Morgan (Mary Cooper), Nana Visitor (Olivia Colasanto), Tom Price (Sgt. Andy Davidson), Daniele Favilli (Angelo Colasanto), Pat Asanti (Inspector), Michael Chomiak (SWAT Member), Cris D’Annunzio (Salvatore Maranzano), Will Green (Young Priest), Paul Hayes (Costerdane), Everton Lawrence (Ablemarch), Griffin Matthews (Young Man), Frank Medrano (Mr. Giardano), Angelica Montesano (Girl in crowd), Shawn Parsons (Frines), Vanna Salviati (Elderly Woman), Jayne Taini (Mrs. Giardano), Darren Dupree Washington (SWAT Leader)

Notes: This episode contains the first explicit Torchwood mention of the Doctor since Children Of Death: Day Five, and the first mention of the Trickster’s Brigade (Doctor Who: Turn Left, Sarah Jane Adventures: The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith) in Torchwood. Though it’s not made clear where the fateful visit to New York City falls in Jack’s personal timeline, he does mention Torchwood (and the Doctor restored the time-travel capability of Jack’s vortex manipulator), so it may well take place after Jack’s departure in Children Of Earth: Day Five.

Nana Visitor is famous to SF TV fans as Major (and later Colonel) Kira Nerys, the Bajoran first officer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She guest starred in several episodes of James Cameron’s Dark Angel series as Madame X (where she also pulled the strings behind evil plots).

LogBook entry by Earl Green