Blimey.

It is quite something when a series with so many known parameters and constituent elements can still be juggled together and delivered in a fresh manner. And yet Steven Moffat once again manages to do just that in Let's Kill Hitler!

For instance, regeneration. Back in The Christmas Invasion we learn that Time Lords are in a state of flux during the first fifteen hours where-in their bodies can 'regenerate' any damage. Then, in Journey's End the Doctor reveals that residual regenerative energy can be siphoned off into an appropriate vessel. For Let's Kill Hitler, Moffat skillfully revisits those ideas in the form of River, at one point reveling in her ability to shake off a hail of bullets, and then ultimately channeling her own energy into the Doctor to save him.

Then, for River herself, the signposts were pretty easy to read that the little girl from Day of the Moon was going to be her, cemented in A Good Man Goes To War with her being conceived in the time vortex within the TARDIS; but then not only does Moffat play a neat trick by having us first think it is River in the red corvette at the start only to see Mels instead, reveal her as a childhood friend of Amy and Rory, only then to further reveal it really was River after all! (why didn't I pick up on the name "Mels" straight away?!!!). Not only that, Moffat also gently guides us into preparation for the possibility of a black Doctor!

The stuff with Hitler was amusing, especially as the eponymous character is actually only a comedy sideline - though he did of course play a pivotal role in "killing" Mels, which is quite ironic considering it was her suggestion to go kill him! And of course nobody knew the Teseracta crew were also there for similar reasons!

As usual with Doctor Who, it is so easy to be taken along for the ride from beginning to end, and the cracks in the plot are easily plastered up by the sheer pace and display put on. One crack in particular that stuck out for me was quite how Mels ended up where she was. We see the young Melody regenerate into her at the end of Day of the Moon ... but this was in 1969(ish) and River says she only changed this once, so how did a young black girl get from New York City to Leadworth, not to mention being "born" at least couple of decades before her parents? Time Lords (should we call her that?) may age differently from humans, but then she seemed to match up with them rather well. Mind you, this could be a previously unknown facet of Time Lord physiology that they can control how they age (possibly borne out by an aside by River on getting younger tonight?).

But that's a minor niggle in amongst the gems, especially in the acting. The interplay between Matt Smith as the Doctor, and Nina Toussaint-White/Alex Kingston as Melody was great fun, and I should also mention Caitlin Blackwood being as enchanting as ever as both the young, innocent Amelia and the TARDIS's voice interface - "fish fingers and custard" was worthy of a great cheer!

I must admit I didn't find sub-plot of the crew on the Teselecta as interesting as what was revolving 'outside'. The antibodies almost felt like a contrived "alien of the week" was needed to menace our regulars, and the crew's mission to punish those who have committed heinous crimes might have been laudable except that it was (a) torture, and (b) they didn't seem to care that much about others they happened to steal identities off to reach their goal either. Still, I don't think we've seen the last of them ...

On the other hand River goes from strength to strength. The wibbly wobbly timey wimey way in which we've encountered her has been one of the most fun elements of recent series, and now we have her arising phoenix-like into the Doctor's life for the first time (her perception). And full credit to the consummate ability of Alex Kingston to bring River 'to life' as someone totally ignorant of who she will become to the Doctor (and us) yet the little quirks of her personality we know and love literally evolving as the episode progresses. There are still some big gaps in her life though, but these quite possibly will feature in future storylines! And I'm looking forward to them!

Back to intriguing ideas, as well as the question of Time Lord's "ethnicity" neatly answered this episode, there's also the moment when River ploughs all her remaining lives into the Doctor - have we just seen Moffat's masterplan for the Doctor to continue on beyond his thirteenth incarnation subtly put into motion ... (or did she really use up 504 lives if you accept the Death of the Doctor comment of course!)

I'll leave you with an even more subtle idea, which maybe even Moffat hasn't considered (not that I believe that for one moment, nothing he writes is throwaway!); this series has effectively revealed with River that it is possible to 'reboot' the Time Lords (well, Time Lord-like beings) as a more innocent race to once again inhabit the universe ...

So here we are in 1927 New York, which means that Jack's infiltration mission with the Night Travellers in the 1920s must have come to an end - this is plausible I guess, in that the only date we have for that setting in series two's From Out Of The Rain was 1925 and that isn't tied directly to Jack. However, I was surprised how his American accent caused little concern for someone arriving in America on a UK passport (which was authentic in that the style came into use in 1920 ... though I couldn't tell if it was a 1927 "Northern Ireland" or earlier "Ireland" version!).

But why is he wearing his modern day coat? The story implied that this is Jack v1, i.e. the one who originally joined Torchwood in the late 19th Century, but with that coat here did he actually go back in his timeline yet again in some future Miracle Day revelation? Or am I now desperately looking for some plot rationalisation over how he came to be dressed that way?

Once again we have an episode that says a lot but doesn't do much. About all we learned from the episode was that Jack had a relationship with Angelo, and that back in 'our time' it seems Angelo is still about and wants Jack dead - or is that by the other three instead, who wanted 'ownership' over Jack in 1928 (and who happened to clasp hands in the now familiar triangular symbol/logo the Miracle protagonists use on their phones etc. - an important plot clue?).

Unlike Gwen's monologue in Children of Earth, Jack's mention of the Doctor seems a bit forced in the script, and the reference to the Trickster Brigade is all well and good but serves nothing to the plot whatsoever, another bit of plot padding to keep the episode from stalling. Then again, for all I know the Trickster himself will be revealed in Episode Ten!!! (Actually, when all the talk of WWII and altered timelines came up I thought for one moment that this was going to tie in with Let's Kill Hitler and that's what Ed Russell's comments about timing of the broadcast was really about!)

However, whilst the plot itself might be shaky, character-wise the episode performed well with an interesting exploration of Jack's view of the ephemeral nature of his relationships with us mortals; as mentioned above, though, it isn't clear if this is pre- or post- Ianto Jack - if he had only been on Earth for some 40 years so far would he have had that many relationships? Still, as other reviewers have observed, this series does seem to be concentrating on Jack's male exploits (and possibly some slash-fiction asperations on the part of the writer who handled both these encounters this series?!!). Not that this matters to the story per se, but it does feel neglectful of the character's inception as an omnisexual 51st Century guy (something that River seems to have taken up the reigns of in Doctor Who, judging by her anecdotes!).

Speaking of which: okay BBC, so what standards are being applied for scene censorhsip in Torchwood? Episode three sees a brief scene cut from transmission for its sexual content, but episode seven sees a much longer, explicit scene broadcast at an earlier time than the previous excised one, plus what seems to be male anatomy on show! So why bother trimming episode three at all? (unless there was a problem with Vera and Rex?!?!).

Also, the scenes with Jack and Angelo inter-played well with what looked to be a bitter parting between Jack and Gwen in the car as their own relationship descended into distrust and seemingly ready to annihilate each other to protect their lives. These were again great scenes, but it was all so neatly forgiven and forgotten at the episode's climax that the whole emotional impact was somewhat undermined.

(Who am I trying to kid: we are now more than 3/4 way through and there is so much that doesn't seem relevant to the Miracle (or maybe it is) that the plot is ducking and diving to the extent that it isn't making a blind bit of sense to me which direction it is actually trying to go in!)

Still, yay for Esther for lighting up the screen for those few moments she had this week, and for being the one who sussed it all out yet again, saving everybody in the process. The true heroine of the series!


Anyway to summarise, we had some great character scenes (with good acting from John Barrowman and an even better performance from Daniele Favilli!), but little to further the overall plot; I know sometimes it is good to take a breather from the action (a problem with some Who episodes is that you don't get a chance to breathe) but not for several episodes in the same series!


(and, having had Nana Visitor for a minute in this episode, let's hope "Next Time" John De Lancie gets a bit more screen time, not to mention a meatier role ... but episode eight and another previously unheard of new character pops up?!!).

The Middle Men would seem to be an apt name for this episode, which falls in the middle of the run so far; however it could also be used to describe what can only be termed a middling episode, too - if we've seen episodes that seem to tread water, this one comes across as simply giving up and putting its feet on the shallow bottom for a rest.

After last week's ending and subsequent "Next Time", I was expecting rather more; however, we ended up with 50 minutes (this is the shortest one shown on BBC1 so far) wherein, erm, Gwen spends practically all her time in one place, Esther and Rex spend practically all of their time in one place, Jack (the alleged star of the show) spends practically none of his time on-screen at all, and Oswald obviously realised what was coming and so had a snooze off-screen completely!

Okay so what did happen? We had Maloney trying to cover up the effective murder of Vera and then torturing Rex. I assume we're watching someone who is rapidly losing the plot (in which case I totally sympathise!). We had Gwen shouting her mouth off at a doctor in such a way that I fully expected her to get arrested rather than allowed to roam the camp as she pleases, even though last week she'd pretty much blown her cover. Jack had about the only bit of plot movement in his meeting with Owens - yay for Ernie Hudson - but only insomuch as it shows episode four was a wasted runaround. (Actually I got distracted more by remembering that this was filmed when John Barrowman had his birthday!). Speaking of Owens, the whole 45 Club thing just seemed to be a set-up for a pre-titles "joke" - sheesh!

This took 50 minutes.

It's not that Torchwood is bad, it's just that it is soooo slow, and this verges on boring, and that is a killer for me. My fiancee regularly despairs at some of the shows I stick with on television when she gave up on them ages before, and we both agree that we're only watching it for the "Torchwood" name, not through the story itself. We keep on thinking next week's will be better, but we're running out of those! (read her review of The Middle Men here)

Indeed, the "Next Time" is often the best part, as it does make me feel like it will be better and I should watch (which is a trailer's function, of course). But it's like watching Doctor Who DVDs where you know the story that is "Coming Soon" is shite but you still go "oooh" when you see it!

Damn it, Children of Earth really set the bench too high; Miracle Day does hold together better than Series One and does have consistent characters - though I'm starting to wonder about Gwen's integrity ...

Category Three: live and kicking.
Category Two: injured but in a non "fatal" condition
Category One: injured beyond medical assistance, catatonic, effectively "dead"

If these were categories of Miracle Day, then its feels that finally the series is lurching out of Category One and back into some semblance of life. Far more happened in this one episode than has happened in the previous three, and to be honest we could have "operated" on those hours and come out with something a lot more sprightly - at this point in Children of Earth we were almost permanently kept out of breath keeping up with the pace of story telling in pure Category Three throughout!

As I've mentioned before, I think this is way too drawn out for ten episodes, and could easily have been condensed. But, if you have to fill 500 minutes of television ...

It wasn't running, but at least it was past a crawl. We had Gwen and Rhys breaking into Area 51 - I mean Cowbridge Overflow Camp on our side of the pond, whilst Rex, Esther and Vera make similar inroads in America (one up for the Welsh contingent needing less people grin). During which we discover that people are being sorted into those that have some chance to survive and others that are considered "finished" and are burnt up in a non-too-subtle comparison with what was happening during the Second World War. It was a nice revelation (sorry Oswald!), though heavily signposted along the way - but its a shame the producers have Gwen explicitly mention concentration camps in case the audience could not work this out themselves - hmm!

I must admit I was genuinely shocked by Vera's demise. In previous posts I've said I was ambivalent to her character, but I guess I found I was rooting for her as her fate became clearer. But then this is Torchwood, people die (young), and her death is in keeping with the "grittier" stance of this spin-off. But she was a redundant character anyway, so in some ways it was just a way of not having to juggle the character with the others.

However, Jack did bugger all! In fact it almost seems as if the writers are saying "look you don't need Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood any longer", with all the 'action' moving to the other characters and he just putting his feet up at home to watch television, or just winding Oswald up - the latter again having the greater share of screen time and probably justifying his actor's salary! Jilly's existance is still 50/50 though.

Technically the show ran very well, though Murray Gold's music continues to be a bit of a distraction - something a lot of US shows suffer from of course as it seems to be that producers need continual generic lift music to accompany drama. It's okay in general, but its presence leads to a loss of intensity when a scene really needs it as you've already tuned it into the background.

All this does come across a bit negative, but actually I did quite enjoy the episode and felt myself pulled into the drama a little, which is a good thing. BUT it should have been doing this all the way through!!!

Mind you: STOP CUTTING NEWS REPORTS INTO JARRING IMAGES OF FACES/MOUTHS CONSTANTLY ZOOMING AND PANNING - IT'S LIKE YOU'RE ABOUT TO PASS OUT OR SOMETHING!!!

Oh, and what was it with the trailer with Gwen talking to camera? That really does seem like an acknowledgement of how CoE worked so well, now!


(in the style of episode exposition, for those who didn't realise, the Cowbridge overflow camp and Area 51 in Doctor Who's Day of the Moon were filmed in the same hangar in St Athan!)

One of the major problems with Miracle Day so far is the amount of padding that it has had. The first three episodes could easily have been condensed into one 50 minute episode (or perhaps 75 minutes), and it has felt that, given 10 episodes to fill, the material has been extended out to fit that, rathar than written specifically for that length (originally a five parter like Children of Earth?). Still, episode four and finally something is happening!

Or was there. Actually thinking back on what I just watched, there was Esther/sister plot, the tracking of Torchwood in L.A., the hospital opening and Oswald's ascension, the Ellis Hartley Monroe campaign, and the Torchwood infiltration of Phicorp. And plenty of waffle as usual. But I guess the fact that the team actually saw some action this week, going on their mission and having an "enemy" to fight gave it more oomph than in previous weeks.

Plus, the growing revelations of the Phicorp manipulation of Miracle Day and those affected by it is intriguing, and I find myself being drawn into that mystery and how it relates to Jack's past ... but I hope it doesn't disappear into the sidelines for another couple of episodes.

I was a bit surprised that there were a number of (non)gory moments this week, especially for a Starz show. Frumpkin didn't have his eye gouged out and used in a Wesley Snipes reenactment from Demolition Man, and Monroe's squish-up in the car-compressor was clean - though the eye still roving about inside was a little creepy. Full kudos to "guest of the week" Mare Winningham - I agree with the voice of Phicorp, though, it would have been nice for her to have carried on!

Alexa Havins is still glowing as Esther, and is now a character I actually care about. Her naivety over would happen to her sister's family and of being followed is beautifully played, and I really hope she survives the end of the tale! Likewise, Bill Pullman's performance just gets better and better, and now the 'annoying' drawl he started with is clearly the unconfident Oswald, practically gone as he seizes the situation and reinvents himself as the "people's champion".

John Barrowman and Eve Myles continue to carry the show, though there still seems to be a missing spark in their characters that used to ignite previous series. Can't quite place what it is, but it might be the lack of "action" that they undertake themselves. Thinking about it, all we've really had is a chase across a beach, and then Gwen decking Lyn, but that's about it so far. The old Torchwood team certainly didn't rally through when "The Gentleman" (good old Christopher Thomas Howell as the other "guest of the week"!) knocked them about in the server room, but then that might have been a plot manipulation to make new boy Rex seem more integral to the team. [as an aside I have never seen a server room that clean, and spot the wobbly server!!!]

Still not bothered about him as a character though, if the "Dead is Dead" ideal of those who should have died do so, I wouldn't be that bothered if he doesn't make it to the end. I half expected his father to shoot him to put him out of our misery. But then he wouldn't die anyway! Still not feeling anything for Vera or Jilly, either, though the latter almost had me wondering if there's a hidden agenda there still to come out - to crib a favourite City of Death line, "my dear, nobody could be as stupid as she seems" ...

This week, the Sky+ Planner lost Falling Skies and Body of Proof as bland American "generic make-by-numbers" series that really didn't engage my interest; Torchwood hasn't quite reached that level, phew. But all those arguments about this not being as much Welsh as American? Rubbish, it's an American show that has Welsh characters in and just because some scenes were shot in Wales that doesn't make it non-American. Just look at The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon for a proper British show in America scenario!

And as for the "Next Time" - have we reached the point where we blatantly recycle Children of Earth already? If Gwen had wondered what the Doctor thought we'd have screamed at the telly!!!