By Day Three of Children of Earth we were more than halfway through that saga, during which we'd had plenty of fun and action along the way, not least the destruction of Torchwood's "home", the arrival of the protagonist, plus Jack's bum(!) Episode three of Miracle Day is just over a quarter of the way through this story, and though there have been some 'exciting' bits, much of what we've seen on screen so far could easily have been condensed into a tighter narrative for one or perhaps an additional half episode, but not 160 minutes worth!
One of the issues I've always had with RTD's style in episodes of Doctor Who is that it often felt like a number of great scenes that were then patchworked together with faff to simply get from one to the other. The New World suffered from that, almost a "how do we move from this set piece to the next". This was followed by the nadir of Rendition taking a whole episode to move the characters from point A (Wales) to point B (Washington) - it could have been covered in one scene! With Dead of Night it's more of that patchwork strategy - again, some lovely character scenes but with some horrendous padding linking them together.
So the better bits in my view? The banter between the new Torchwood crew was nice, though at points it did seem to be a bit like "now US audience, this is what the Brits call our things". Jack's chat to Gwen on the phone was poignant, especially as we the viewers know that Gwen's attention is firmly on her real family, not his 'version' of one (nice reference to Ianto too). The return of the contact lenses was a good touch, too. But to be honest I'm hard-pressed to name another stand-out point at this stage! Oh, the Soulless were quite disturbing, those masks are creepy ... but I did wonder whether they'd actually play a more important role or if they're just another bit of "story dressing" to fill up some gaps. I still find my interest in the show is only being drawn along by Jack and Gwen; I have little interest in the other characters in their own scenes, particularly. At this stage Esther is still the one I enjoy the most of the "newbies", whilst Rex continues to annoy me. Oswald is getting better - Bill Pullman seemed to lose the drawl in this episode which made the character immediately more engrossing. But Jilly - good grief. I'm neutral on Vera, we'll see how she progresses.
Personally I thought the real point was how Jack was dealing with relationships, and the phone conversation with Gwen afterwards was what it was really about, how he feels about his team after what happened two years before.
Speaking of Gold's music, that is one thing that is really beginning to niggle me. It sounds more like muzak in places, a bland "sound-by-numbers" to accompany those bits of screen time that are filling out themselves. It certainly isn't Torchwood - the three radio plays broadcast beforehand immediately "felt" like Torchwood - these television episodes just don't. I imagine he is composing the way the producers want, but then those producers have got that wrong. There is none of the passion or grandeur of his Doctor Who or Casanova work, and certainly none of the mood of the first three series of Torchwood. This is probably the most contributing factor of how the series can feel "Americanised" than anything else, as the Britishness is just being subverted. When he gets the chance, Gold is injecting some energy into it (like the beach chase in The New World), but (at the moment) sadly these have been scarce.
I hope it picks up next week (I know I thought that last week), and I know I'll watch next week, too, but it's definitely the "this is Torchwood" habit reasoning and not the "I have to see the next episode" drive that Children of Earth had. Still, seven episodes to redeem itself - like I said we're only a quarter of the way there and the latter part could radically change my outlook on the show.
Please be up to it!
