TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY Premiere Episode Is Excellent!

I was fortunate enough to find out about an advance screening of the first episode of Torchwood:  Miracle Day tonight here in Washington, DC, and I must hurry and post my thoughts on the episode before the retcon sets in.  If you aren't familiar with Torchwood, it's a Doctor Who spinoff about the Torchwood Institute, an orginization that deals with alien threats and attempts to adapt captured alien technology to use against future alien threats.  Miracle Day marks the series' fourth season. A season long arc will span ten episodes and tackle what might become of the world if people just quit dying.  

I've always enjoyed Torchwood, but I've never actually been completely blown away by it.  Until tonight. I'll remain pretty spoiler-free here, but in short, this was a totally solid first episode.  Captain Jack Harkness' entrance is brilliant.  If you are already in love with Eve Myles, you'll walk away from this even deeper in love.  It seems this is being promoted as a good jumping on point, much like the previous season, Children of Earth.  But I don't know how much impact certain things, like the early Gwen Cooper scenes, will have for those unfamiliar with the characters' histories.

This season is a Starz/BBC Wales joint production and takes the team to a more global stage than previous seasons.  It airs on Starz 8 July.  It arrives in the UK... a little later.  Sorry.  In the meantime, we'll keep the comments open for reader reactions to screenings or the broadcast premiere.  And while waiting, Starz has set up a playground at miracleday.com.