On another note, I couldn’t help wondering whether the notion of Jack becoming mortal while everyone else gains Jack’s immortality has something to do with… well, Jack himself. Or certainly someone who knows Jack very well, and wants him dead. After all, what better way to kill an immortal being than to transfer his gift to leave him vunerable to people he knows he can’t kill. I almost wouldn’t put it past his daughter, Alice, to have found some way to reverse her father’s immortality so she can punish him for Steven’s death.

The acting from Mekhi Phifer was awful, and his dialogue was cringeworthy to say the least. Alexa Havins as Esther Drummond was interesting if for no other reason than her character resembled Gwen way back pre-Torchwood initiation in “Everything Changes/Day One”. She was all wide-eyed curiosity, and I could see how the audience could follow the mystery through her eyes. Bill Patton on the other hand played Oswald Danes as though he were drunk. The man is a fine actor but there was just something very odd about his performance. Perhaps this is how his character is supposed to be so I’ll hold judgement until I’ve caught more of his performance.

Rhys, Gwen and Jack were the same, thank goodness but therein lies the problem – everything else around them wasn’t. The American setting at the beginning just seemed wrong and, dare I say it, fake. Normally, and unsurprisingly, American studios “do” American situations well but the scenes I saw in the hospital and certainly with Rex Matheson seemed as though from rehearsals rather than actual takes. I liked Arlene Tur as surgeon Vera Juarez and though she would make a good Torchwood operative but sadly we know that isn’t going to be the longterm case.

Everything about the episode seemed flat. It was slow, plodding and for all the “fizz and fire” promised by the injection of American money and location, this, for me, was not Torchwood. It didn’t feel like Torchwood and in places was barely recognisable as such. I really wanted to be proved wrong that selling the majority of the production to Starz would produce an incredible show but sadly all I saw was one that could have come from any American network and which revolved around explosions and set pieces rather than plausible plot. Even the event of Miracle Day itself seemed lost within the need to blow buildings up or Phifer’s ludicrous and very cliched rendition of a CIA agent. All in all, the show tried but failed, and mainly because it is now too American as I knew it would be and has lost a lot of atmosphere in the trip across the pond.

As with the excellently atmosphere “Children of Earth” a few years ago, it does seem that restricted budgets seem to bring more creativity out in the writers and production staff of this show, relying more on building tension and characters within a limited time frame and environment because they simply don’t have the money to just blow everything up. For me, this is a sad day for Torchwood because, as in the show, Torchwood no longer exists.

@cybergirl
I agree, we can’t end up with Torchwood being just Gwen, Rhys, and Anwen, no matter how much we like them. Besides, Barrowman keeps saying how much he would love to come back and make an appearance in Doctor Who. And even if they do want to end the series after this(I don’t know anything, just speculating) killing Jack is NOT the way to do it.
And I think you’re right- Gwen might have to make a decision about her father just like Jack had to about his grandson.
Blimey, RTD likes going for the impossible moral decisions, doesn’t he?

It’s funny, though, the weird scenarios you can put together if you think about it long enough. For example, the Face of Boe is only a living head and on Miracle Day, they cut off the bomb guy’s head and he was still alive.

I’m sure it’s not connected though, just a thought, doesn’t explain how, if he is the Face of Boe, Jack’s head gets as big as the Face of Boe.

The must worrying thought for me is that with this new format and a very powerful, authority figure in Rex then they may get rid of good old Captain Jack and now he is mortal they can do that – I very much hope they dont.

The stories are already forming in my head on how they could do it – Jack sacrificing himself for example

As for how/why it has happened – Im not sure if it is an enemy or an ally of Torchwood because with all of the documents being wiped out and destroyed that even reference them then it is just what they wanted – for no one to know about them. On the other hand, the force behind the wipe could just want all references gone so that they can destroy whats left of it.

As for how its connected to miracle day I have no idea, I dont get how it connects from a computer virus to everyone living forever

Whoever it is doing it, they are most definetly very very powerful – I mean they must have power over the time vortex or something similar – how else could they take away Jacks immortality???