'We live in an era that doesn't deserve subtlety'. Fucking killer line right there.

"We live in an age that doesn't deserve subtlety" I think I nodded so hard my neck broke

Imagine what it was like for Amy and Roy coming back after Miracle Day? Everyone talking about that event where nobody died and it was like and being like "WTF why didn't the doctor fix this?"

Miracle Day, to me, is like the 'Return of Doctor Mysterio' of Torchwood. It feels totally out of place, but I find it so much fun to sit through, that I really couldn't care less.

I stand by my opinion that Miracle Day is still one of the most fun-to-watch installments from the Whoniverse ever.

I've not watched Miracle Day since broadcast but I remember *hating* it, to the extent where its bad reception seemed to make sense of why Torchwood was never renewed. However, I think you're right in that watching it in a post-Trump/post-Pandemic world might make endear it, somewhat. I'm a bit afraid to revisit it, but will probably have to bite the bullet at some point.

one of my main issues with miracle day is that I honestly feel like it is too... bootlickery for lack of a better term at points. Like I think it is trying to piggy back off of the cynicism and distrust in the system that CoE so beautifully portrayed but like idk just the way the CIA is portrayed as being rough around the edges but mostly good by the end felt a little off to me. Like nah, make the CIA an actual villain, have them consistently working against our protagonists. While CoE showed how good (or at the very least not deeply bad) people can be ruined by what they must do in the system (as shown by Frobisher), miracle day showed a lot of the issues in the system as being the fault of bad actors and I strongly prefer the former view, I think it is more accurate and better gets at the cynicism I love from torchwood.

There's some REALLY good ideas in Miracle Day. I watched it for the first time in lockdown and there's some obvious relevance. The idea of conscience corpses being cremated, Oswald Danes winning praise despite being a monster and pharmaceutical companies just abusing the whole thing is so brilliant. Sadly it just falls apart as it goes along, it shouldn't be so long as the story doesn't really have enough to do with all that time

I personally believe this is underrated, clunky but still fun

2:57 you know how Russell works, he's OCD creatively-speaking. Either does his little six episode miniseries' alone, or intensely overlooks a small group of writers with larger franchises. He'll have done his own draft on every one of those scripts, believe me. Only five writers he ever gave a pass to.

Miracle Day is criminally underrated and I will defend it to my dying breath

Whilst it has its flaws, I absolutely love miracle day. It was kind of ahead of its time (which is actually a really bad thing for the world) it gets so much hate and I’ve never understood it all, sure it’s a little over long and Rex is a prick but when it goes for it, it hits hard and knocks it out the park. It delivers some of the best drama in the whole whoniverse. My favourite scene in this whole show is when Jack and Gwen, two characters with so much history and love tell each other they would happily kill each other to survive/keep loved ones safe it just feels so grimly real.

Fun fact Oswald was such a disgusting monster of a character that was so well performed the part of me still dislikes the actor on Impulse whenever I see anything else, same thing happened with Dolores Umbridge's actress.

My biggest problem is how inconsistent the miracle is. Early in the series they break the agent's neck on the plane and she chases them through the carpark with her head on backwards. Then later, they can render people vegetables, killing them for all practical purposes y breaking their necks.

Nightowl actually told me about the reading of Children of Earth being a declaration that Torchwood as a team were useless. The story could have been told without them and they barely managed to save the world. Lots of franchises reach a point where they have to decide to adapt or die (e.g Logan, Dr Falls and Survival). Torchwood is absolutely the show to pick the latter. Seemingly they've gone further here. Jack is now mortal and predictable, there's no fun to be had with him (can't even enjoy his flirting and sleeping around cause we're just thinking about Ianto) all the stories that can be told with him have already been done (this might even extend to the villains, barely characterised after 10 episodes, they're so blatantly not the point here. The sci-fi aspect of the sci-fi show isn't the focus. It's why he hadn't come back for ages, it explains why the only thing Moffat thought he could do with him was cut his head off and turn him into Face of Boe. That's not a knock on the character it just happens to every archetype like that at a certain point. It's probably happened to the 7th Dr at certain points during the novels and audios.(I think a Bernice Summerfield audio parodied his tendency to get help from his future self).

My American cousin had an interesting introduction to Torchwood - she started with Miracle day because it was available on Starz. I then told her that Torchwood was an actual big series over here and really enjoyed watching the older episodes as a sort of prequel. I feel like Miracle Day could be a good way to get Americans into the original series as a whole

Damn, I wonder how Amy and Rory coped during these events. I believe they were on Earth during Miracle Day’s events as Eleven was searching for Melody. Hell… I wonder how former characters like the Bannermen Road gang, Ace, Martha and many other characters coped. The storyline was absolutely horrifying. I don’t care what anyone says I absolutely love Miracle Day.

I think Miracle Day's an odd one. I've watched it a couple of times and both times whilst watching, I've been bored out of my mind and heavily disliked it. But looking back on it, I seem to forget about all the dull parts and think about how good the plot and the ideas are. I feel like if it just was just cut down to maybe 7 episodes, I'd like it as much whilst watching as I do in retrospect. Since there's a lot going for it but most of that's just buried underneath boring conversations.

Really great video :) I think its honestly inspired me to do a full rewatch of Torchwood for the first time in like 6 years to reevaluate it :) fantastic job :)

I always wanted Gwen to have an adventure with the doctor, see how they would interact and different methods to get to the same action, both passionately trying to do the right thing,

One of your best videos Sam!. Loved it!

I genuinely think the only issue with Miracle Day was the runtime.

Oh thank you, ive just been looking for someone interesting to watch, this is perfect timing for me. Never seen a video on miracle day before :)

It's so nice to see some appreciation just for the pure execution of the concept, I've died on this hill for years that it's highly under-rated.

Oh wow, it's been a while since we've had a retrospective, I'll give it a watch now :D Got my sunday night popcorn and everything

DAVIS is back, with a brand new thumbnail!

I watched it all as it went out - I've not watched it since and would be interested to go back At the time I was very dissappointed, not cause of the American setting etc but because it takes a LONG time for things to actually happen Watching it S L O W L Y play out over 10 weeks was very frustrating as the plot felt stretched (especially compared to the tight, pacy Children of Earth - which haha I watched at 11 am amazed I wasn't traumatised by that)

The scene at the airport of Lyn Peterfield walking down the tarmac with her neck broken and the whole of Torchwood trying not to look at her as they drive away is one that I will take to the grave.

I think miracle day needs to be watched when you've not watched Torchwood in a while, because I think when binge watching the whole series and then going from children of earth to miracle day, I think I can say that you're expecting the same quality which of course isn't what I feel miracle day does So I think watching it with a fresh mind gives it some points where you can see it in a different perspective TLDR: Miracle Day, good premise but just not as good as I expected but can be redeemable when you haven't watched Torchwood for some time

Hey, I recently binged Torchwood for the first time and finished Miracle Day a few weeks back... Perfect timing... I personally found it odd but at about episode 3 I got the feel of what it was going for and began to enjoy it for what it's worth. The tonal shift midway through also improved it in my eyes. I got the feeling Oswald was slightly being redeemed at the end and it concerned me due to what he had done before he said the line "RUN FASTER, I'M COMING" and immediately he fell back to the horrible man he was 100% Edit: Why is this NEVER talked about in the rest of the Whoniverse? Like, it went on long enough that the Doctor surely found out right?

The Torchwood hub was in the Time Fracture??! I feel like everyone had a cooler experience than me haha.

Miracle day is criminally underrated, not perfect by any means but so much better then given credit for

I still remember the “ what’s dead is dead” campaign the politicians were pushing in this show, I enjoyed the way they edited this.

I have been saying for a while, all this needs is some KZfaqr to do an analysis video saying it’s actually quite good - I should have known you would be the one to deliver. But maybe this does hit a little differently if you watch it now, postTrump, during Covid - Maybe it was too out there in 2011, but now it feels pretty harrowing

For me this held up a lot better as something to watch in 2 days than over 10 weeks, the plot tangents and such are more forgivable when they aren't all you get at a time. Part of me does feel like there's a missed oppertunity, having a series where 'no one can die' but actually 'well incinneration maybe still works and you can render someone unconsious so that's basically the same thing'. Now a series where everyone had jack level immortality and people had to figure out how to live with each other when you couldn't just blow people you don't like up would be something.

Jack Harkness may be a bag of old tricks, but I still wish he reappeared in Doctor Who more often. Time of the Doctor, for example.

Good arguements, well made. Makes me want to go back and rewatch

I love the idea that sometimes the doctor can't be there to save us because we disappoint him. We bring certain things on ourselves and that of course hurts him but he can't fix it for us. That's not his job.

stars are making a reboot of miracle day set in 2022 and with an all-American cast

I watch Miracle day ba k in 2011 and just finished re watching it. It definitely hits different pre and post pandemic.

To be honest, the best part about Miracle Day for me is that it is nowhere near as bleak as Children of Earth or Years and Years. Seriously Russell do you need therapy because *fuuuuuuuucking hell*

the thing with the stars reboots of miracle day is they can get away with things that the BBC cannot get ever away with

Miracle day is the only full series of torchwood I've seen and I loved it, even though it gave 12 year old me a few nightmares.

I like Miracle Day for the same reason I like the Legend of Korra: compared to what came before each one, the writing quality has higher highs and lower lows.

I think the largest issue Miracle Day faced was it was following up *Children of Earth*. Which is like having to follow up Alien(s) or Terminator 2.

Oh shit I'm in this one! Thanks sammy You know what I was *this* close to ending that comment with 'Havent watched it, not gunno.' Like, I had it typed and everything, but I didn't want to ruin your pretty edit. Still ain't watching it. I will outlive God before I go back on a prejudice.

god damn i forgot about that shot of the crumpled car. this show is so visually interesting and artistic the whole way through, honestly more than doctor who ever dared to be

Glad you liked it. Iv always thought it got judged way to harshly

I've seen Miracle Day multiple times over (at least 5 times through, if not more (a couple of those were when watching Torchwood through with other people)), and whilst I hate it, I also love it too. There's so much it gets wrong and so much it gets right. It really fits Torchwood, but not Doctor Who. I'd happily watch it again and will hate it all the way through, but still come out of it knowing I'll still watch it again some time in the future.

Y'know? I disagree because I felt like it went for twice as long as needed, but I appreciated hearing your take.

Im glad im not the only one who likes it

The RTD Expanded Universe came to an end with this and SJA Series 5

2:55 true again with "73 yard"

(He definitely is those things though.) Miracle day is interesting - but it probably needed to be reduced a bit.

I've seen two episodes of Torchwood and I'll keep watching if you tell me one thing: does PC Andy survive? Because I love him and will protect him with my entire life.

Eve Myles rocks my socks.

I didnt realise you did an actual video on Miracle Day, i always remember (ages back) you saying how it was americanised and tbh after finishing CoE its the reason i left the show there, a perfect finale. However, that being said i've heard Miracle Day has some really interesting ideas and a interesting core concept, it just sounds like horrible execution, excited to watch this as i still want to know about MD without actually watching 10hrs of it. :)

Question: What episodes of Miracle Day would you place in the top 5 best and worst episodes?

I missed torchwood growing up, i had a choice between doctor who and torchwood, and obviously i chose doctor who, and i missed all of this! 😅

I loved it

The only torchwood season I've seen, should I check out the three others?

The biggest issue I have with Miracle Day is how Jack had his focus reduced across the series, and instead focused on an FBI Agent that wasn’t as interesting

Yeah, this was a season that had some great ideas... and didn't know what to do with any of them. The blessing, the families, the great reset - all reduced to excuses for runarounds, explosions, and mystery for its own sake.

I actually love Miracle day, its just slightly bloated

I've always loved torchwood ever since I saw it as a kid. keeps me entertained throughout and who doesn't love Gwen, she's the most badass person in the whoniverse

Damn there are some diabolical take in this my man

The honest truth is Torchwood just wasnt very well written, it tackled intresting concepts and challenging issues, but it had all the finesse of a warhog at a picnic, a good example was an epsiode that dealt with people who'd been returned and featured a guy who was horribly burned after surviving a planet destruction, aged well past all his peers and when reuninted with a loved one is normal(ish) at first then when he starts screaming in an inhuman manner its revealed he's like that 23 hours a day. It's such a hamfisted way to examine issues related to truama and its impact on individuals and those around them, I mean serious, dude is completely lucid for an hour then starts screaming like an alien... There was room here to explore something really intresting, how experincing unimaginable horror and being returned subjective years for you but weeks for everyone else and how that would impact an individual, instead we get an edgey shock visual of a guy screaming and that was Torchwood all over everything was done with edgy shock value with zero thought to anything but how 'adult' and not Doctor Who it could be. (Don't even get me started on the child abduction one) show was an utter waste of potential

I just watched all of Torchwood for the first time. I really want to talk to someone about it but no one I know has watched the show or cares so I'm going to leave my opinion in your comments section. Season 1 for me was very hit and miss, I really loved a few specific episodes but most I found "meh" and a couple I disliked. All in all I appreciated the show was trying to find it's feet and I was excited to see what happened next. Personally season 2 had more hits and I enjoyed it more (I especially loved Rys and Ianto in season 2, both their characters where done much better) but it still had a few episodes that didn't do it for me. At the end I was feeling slightly unsatisfied but still enjoyed the season very much and would say i liked Torchwood if it has ended there. Children of earth rocked me, it was really tricky to watch but an incredible piece of tv that had me on the edge of my seat. Truly fantastic even if it was harrowing and one of the best things I'd watched in a long time. However I did struggle to not see The Doctor whenever Peter Capaldi was on screen but that's not a problem with the season, just my emotional attachment to Capaldi as the doctor (to be clear Peter was amazing and showed just how talented he is). Miracle day was not as good a children of earth (that's a really difficult position to best) but I absolutely loved it. A few parts where slow but for the most parts it absolutely brought my favourite parts of the series into the storyline. I really enjoyed it and am sad there's no more. The only thing I would say about Miracle Day was I really missed Jack/Iantos dynamic and felt like I wanted Jack to be grieving Ianto a bit more. In reality I don't actually think season 4 needed a more mopey Jack (he's mopey enough) but I did really miss Ianto and could feel the gap where he'd normally be. All in all I'd absolutely say I love Torchwood. It's definitely not consistent but neither is doctor who. I don't think I'd recommend it to many people because I don't know anyone who it would be right for but personally it was fab for me and I'd definitely watch it again.

As an American I thought this series was off even for American series but still enjoyed it.

My main/biggest criticism of _'Miracle Day'_ wasn't the Americanisation/Bastardisation of _'Torchwood'_ (though that was pretty f’ing awful), but was the fact that *_IT WASN’T/ISN’T CANON!_* It happens simultaneously with Amy, Rory & River seeing The Astronaut kill The Doctor; obviously The Doctor "dying" means he can't help Torchwood (it might even be, as a stretch, excused as a fixed point in time, so The Doctor couldn’t fix it anyway), but if it was canon, time getting all f’ed up would be seen/mentioned in Torchwood, or _at the very least,_ all of Mankind being immortal & the entire world going to $h¡t for a while, because of it, would _most definitely_ have been mentioned on _'Doctor Who'!_ 😠😡🤬

watched it for the first time recently and really enjoyed it, more than I did season 1 and 2 neither of which I could finish because they where so rough. Certainly isn't better than Children of Earth but an unfortunately underrated story

ohoh now this is a wonderful surprise

I just finished binge watching this and it wasn’t my favourite series but I enjoyed it for what it was but “the blessing” is a cop out if you ask me

It's funny, that clip of Gwen talking to the doctor and saying shame on you to her....is anyone actually moved by the phrase shame on you? Pretty sure even if I did something shameful if someone said shame on you to me I'd probably laugh at em, it's just such an over the top, dramatic, old fashioned phrase 😂

Alright. I'm convinced. Will give it a second chance.

I remember kind of liking this. I haven’t seen it since broadcast though. I think it mainly suffered from the inevitable comparisons to Children of Earth.

As an american. Rex is sadly incredibly realistic to what American police are like. As unlikable as he is. He is dead on what he should be.

I struggled with Miracle Day. It wasn't the American angle. Pacing was off, and the whole thing felt a bit ham-fisted. The series pretty much tells you what you're supposed to feel about each character.

I liked it personally

The idea of no one being able to die is fantastic, but man does this story fall flat

It's not badly written. It's just very long, and American. But other than that, a fantastic piece of television.

I immensely enjoy Miracle Day despite all it's glaring flaws. It's dark but camp in a way only Torchwood and Russell can pull off. My primary issue is that the story is far too huge in its scale to be a Torchwood story. It should have had huge repercussions on the Whoniverse, but it's never even mentioned, not even in passing. Oh, and I think the ideal number of episodes for this story is 8. I think that's enough time to explore the tiniest of implications of the event and also to wrap it up nicely

It’s actually interesting that you say some episodes waste time because this was actually a cut down version of the original outline as the initial plan was for a 13 episode run with some episodes set to be written by none other than Mr Chris Chibnall (is it a good thing or a bad thing they got cut?? I guess we’ll never know) Also you’re absolutely right that the episodes not written by Russel still feel very ‘Russel’ as the transfer from Cardiff to LA means it wasn’t one writer writing one episode anymore but each episode was done by a team of writers including big man RTD who would also write the final draft of each episode kind of explaining why he only write one or two himself. Fun fact: Russel actually makes a cameo in Miracle Day!

Personally, i love miracle day and i dont know why

I like the Lost Highway guy in there

I think the central idea of"Nobody Dies" is really interesting and at points the series really explores it well but I don't think it belongs in a Torchwood series, because it's just too big an idea to be fully executed in just one series, especially when a lot of the time is wasted on new characters we didn't really need. I think Oswald Danes is a completely pointless character and actually really boring at times, Rex is a horrible guy who you don't care for and Esther is just a bit boring as well. And I don't like what they did with Gwen's character either. Even though she has some badass moment's, she comes across as really cold and heartless, nothing like how she was in previous series. The show just shouldn't have become partially owned and controlled by an American company, if it had stayed in the BBC with Russell and his writers it would have been much better.

I don't generally like dark TV, but Miracle day was so f*cked up, I actually couldn't stop watching till the end.

I watched all of Torchwood in such a short time, I didn't even go online to read what other people thought. And as someone who is a big fan of the US and watches a lot of US shows, I didn't even notice that they americanised it (now, I definitely have to agree, I knew *something* felt off) and I was very surprised finding out people passionately hated Miracle Day, I thought it was fine. Very interesting thought experiment, Season 2 and 3 are wayyyy better. I would have preferred if after Children of Earth, they would have done one or two more seasons like 1 and 2 with this typical "Monster of the Week" theme, where they rebuild Torchwood (and Gwen would not be preggo yet), maybe kill off one of the characters in the finale to keep things interesting and then you could have had another one of those "specials" like Miracle Day. I really liked the premise, they just should have thought of a different solution, since it's not Jack's blood that makes him immortal. That's the one thing that really annoys me.

I want to hear about the audios now

I really like the ideas of Miracle day. My main issue is that in my opinion, Miracle Day does not deserve to be ten episodes. I remember getting around episode 7 and just wanting it all too end because I was so bored. I think if it were cut down by two episodes at least it would flow a lot better.

Torchwood has an advantage over Doctor Who in that it can ask the tough questions about us as people without making concessions for the family audience Doctor Who is targeted at. No comedic side relief to mitigate the traumatising of the kiddies. Exploring the ramifications of a popular unable to die, yet unable to heal (basically a Planet of post-Reset Owens) is something even the Virgin New Adventures would think twice about, and that range of books goes into dark places. Children of Earth showed how far people in power will go in the name of self-preservation, sacrificing people who are simply statistics to them so they’ll keep as close to their status quo as possible. Miracle Day showed how people, governments will react and prioritise pragmatism over compassion in a crisis, needing to step in to cull a growing population that has lost the ability to take losses naturally. From a pragmatic perspective the measures taken do make sense. The cause of the Miracle, and therefore a way to stop its effects, isn’t known by those best placed to do something about it. Torchwood themselves only have an opportunity to act by episode ten. There’s no projected end date, Earth is in this for the long haul as much as everyone knows and the population needs to take a loss even if humans take things into their own hands because the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.

I watched Miracle Day when it aired. There was some good episodes and some time wasters, but overall I dug the crazy, dark concept.

One of my Favourite sci fi series there was, never got the hate, you can explain why to me and I’ll probably disagree, and that’s fine because my opinion

That woman and Gwen fighting in the lift, with Gwen trying to stop the lift leaving so Jack could get in really annoyed me

I loved Miracle Day. Terrifying and well-explored. I think it was episodes 7 & 8 that I felt were the weakest and generally kind of unnecessary, but overall it's great. Also, I love long stories. Children of Earth was definitely more consistently good, but I think Miracle Day might have some material that's better than CoE ever got. I probably like the two series equally.

I think for me, it’s biggest weakness is its pacing. It did not need to be 10 episodes long. Had it been about 5 episodes long, I would have loved it because it is a good story! It’s just told awkwardly. Children of Earth would have made a better ending IMO but it’s cool enough I guess.

I remember hating the show because it kept teasing with the reveals, dragging it out for weeks In retrospect, a lot of that stuff I thought was filler was actually very realistic and interesting world building, the exploration of the concept is incredibly thorough

You can say whatever you want about Miracle Day. But the ending of The Categories of Life (EP 5) is one of the best scenes in all 41 torchwood TV Episodes

I feel like there were tons of great ideas but few satisfying conclusions overall, I feel like if they had made it a 5-7 episode season instead of 10 it would have been alot better. Also I wasn't really convinced it was part of the Doctor Who universe, I know it's not that important but it still felt too disconnected from the rest (wich might be what people mean when they say it's americanised). I think it was kind of doomed from the start due to the fact it's the season following children of earth Also I wasn't very convinced with jack not being able to die since it contradicts how his immortality works.

There was the making of a Children of Earth tier story here, but there problems as you described made it borderline unwatchable for me. It's about 2x as long as it should be, the villains are completely underdeveloped and mean nothing to 9 hours of the runtime, the two new members are awful and a huge step down. If they had focused more on the families hunting Torchwood, combined with the bits with Gwen's family and the camps, it would have made for a far more interesting story. The one thing I disagree is that Oswald Danes was good, I couldn't stand either the character, the story or the actor. Maybe it was too American for my taste.