SERIES ONE? Yes. In its first season,
Torchwood slowly struggled to find its way, boggled in a world full of sci-fi dramas like
Star Trek and
Battlestar Galactia, and as a result there were episodes in the initial run where the show seemed simply to tread water. The finale was handled quite well, serving as a good indication of this spin-off's potential, but overall
Miracle Day had a more solid and consistent line-up of stories to tell. However, if you started watching the programme at Series Three or Four, you might want to return here to find out more about Torchwood Three's Welsh origins.
SERIES TWO? Yes, but only just! Captain Jack Harkness' many long lives were explored in further detail during the improved new run, with episodes like
Adam and
Exit Wounds really doing a good job of filling in back story on the Boeshane Penninsula, and really helping us to engage with the immortal legend more than usual.
Miracle Day attempted this (and failed miserably) with
Immortal Sins, but once again the majority of its episodes were consistently average or good, whereas here again the quality could drop considerably in 'non-arc episodes'. (Image:
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CHILDREN OF EARTH? No, and sadly this was by far the easiest choice to make.
Children of Earth effortlessly managed to make
Torchwood accessible to a more mainstream audience, throwing in deep psychological drama as the world's youth were converted into mindless transmitters for an alien force which intended to use them as eternal drugs, and going the full mile to bring us the huge emotional ramifications for the human race as its governments decided to simply hand over 10% of the Earth's young to the extraterresterial drug-addict.
Miracle Day only had one core, powerful moment of terrible ramifications psychology, which was at the end of
The Categories of Life when Dr Juarez was burnt alive as a supposed 'Category One' patient, a disturbing thought to take away with us at the end of a chilling episode. If we'd had more examples of the Miracle's drastic effects on human nature, and whisked along at a better pace than it did over the ten lengthy episodes, then it might have fared a little better with fans, but as it is the tightly-packed, thrilling
Children of Earth remains the best drama
Torchwood has given us so far. If Series Five returns to either the five-episode format that made this such a hit, or the 'case of the week'-style 13 episode structure, we might end up with a stronger dose of alien fighting...oh by the way, what happened to alien species (bar one) in
Miracle Day? And why doesn't the Doctor notice that everyone on Earth is immortal when he visits us for his death in April 2011? I hope the latter question gets answered in
Who Series Six (alternate universes, perhaps?) very soon...
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