New World, Old Faces

Hello Everyone :-)

Last night was the UK airing of the first episode of ‘Torchwood: Miracle Day’ called ‘The New World’.

We open in America with convicted paedophile/rapist/murderer Oswald Danes on death row about to be given a lethal injection. The injection is administered and complications arise as he convulses and the injection fails to kill him. Meanwhile, CIA Agent Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer) is on the phone to his colleague Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins) as members of US intelligence services have received e-mails simply containing the word ‘Torchwood’ which she discovers is a UK intelligence agency that has been shut down. Matheson has a car crash and is rushed to hospital where he survives despite the odds being against him.
We rejoin Gwen (Eve Myles) who has moved to the isolated coast of Wales with her Husband Rhys (Kai Owen) and daughter Anwen and lives in fear that someone will find her and try and restart Torchwood
Back in the US Esther visits Matheson in hospital and is told by the surgeon that no one has died that day and it transpires that the following day no ones dies either until it becomes apparent that there is some power at work that has stopped people dying. She does some digging and finds some archive information about the team only to be met by Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) who gives her amnesia drugs so she forgets about Torchwood thus keeping him and Gwen safe.

Naturally there’s been a bit of hype surrounding this new series. The fact it’s set both in the UK and America is a point of interest and the acclaim that the previous series ‘Children of Earth’ garnered makes me intrigued to see if they can replicate that success.

I like this episode. There is a lot of introduction, partly for the new characters of the Torchwood Universe, partly as a reintroduction to the characters from previous series but most notably it serves as a starting point for the show's new American audience. It definitely has an element of getting them used to characters, places and generally get a feel for the show.
It’s great to have Eve Myles back. I love Gwen; she is my favourite, female Russell T Davies creation. She’s initially cautious in this episode about her identity and people finding her but that doesn’t last and it’s made obvious that Gwen misses the days of Torchwood. Also I’m starting a campaign to get Gwen the ‘Kick Ass Mum of the year Award’ purely for the scene when she fires a Bazooka at a Helicopter.
Mekhi Phifer is quite good as the prickly, workaholic CIA Agent. It’s hard to sympathize with him and his injuries as he tracks down the remaining Torchwood members but I’ve a feeling he’s going to soften up as the series progresses.
Alexa Havins is a bit dull as Esther but you never know she might perk up a bit later on in the series.
Obviously the star of the show is Barrowman. Captain Jack is a fan favourite and seeing him on screen again is a joy. He’s introduced in a fantastic way, pure Harkness style, but his conversation with Esther is restrained and pensive which is nice because at the end of last series he was a right bastard (to put it lightly) so morally he’s had a lot to mull over.

I had some concerns about flitting back and forth from the US to the UK but it actually works really well. It’s good to see that this kind of shiz doesn’t just go down within a stones throw of The Millennium Stadium.

There are 10 episodes in this series and this one is very much a scene setter. That said there’s enough action and intrigue to keep you interested and I’m still enjoying the novelty of seeing old characters again. Hopefully next week will ramp up the action but for now, Jack’s back and it’s all looking good!

I think it’s about time for…

Reasons to be Cheerful
1. Ricky Gervais has responded to accusation of ‘dwarf cruelty’ made in The Sun newspaper. Ricky replied by saying
"Dear Sun, Ricky Gervais here. I object to your claims of dwarf cruelty on the set of my new sitcom.”
"I take their welfare very seriously and I even keep them in protective cases when they are not fighting." I love that! I mean the ridiculousness of the The Sun making these claims is mad, accusations of ‘dwarf cruelty’ in a show written by and starring arguably the worlds most famous dwarf actor???? Ricky, you are a legend!

2. This is possibly my favourite ‘Reason to be Cheerful’ in the history of this blog. Stuart Baggs the brand, star of the last series of ‘The Apprentice’ has a one man show at the Edinburgh Festival. I’m tempted to come home early from my holiday just so I can go and see the man himself wax lyrical about his “field of ponies”.

3. Hobbit News! Meet the dwarves Fili and Kili played by Dean O'Gorman and Aidan Turner who we’ve previously seen in the excellent ‘Being Human’. They look brilliant and it also answers the question of what are we going to look at now we haven’t got Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom; Answer – Aiden Turner :-)

4. A shed load of pictures of 'The Amazing Spiderman' have been released. I was dubious about the choice of Andrew Garfield to play the web slinger but after seeing these I'm quite excited. How gorgeous is Emma Stone as a Blonde?!?! Her an Garfield make a sickeningly beautiful couple. And yay Rhys Ifans! And yay Martin Sheen! Just a whole lot of Yay!

Just one final thing, there's a blog run by some of my friends that I've started reading and it's really good. I have little to no knowledge of Football (all my information comes via the yummy Dan Lobb from 'Daybreak' at about 10 past 6 in the morning so I'm never in the right frame of mind to give it my full attention) but I found all this genuinely interesting. They also have a highly amusing podcast to which you can find a link on the blog. Read it please!

That’s it for today

Goodbye till next time :-)
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