Book Review: Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller

Outside the Ordinary World is the powerful debut novel by Dori Ostermiller. Spanning almost forty years of painter Sylvia Sandon's life, the novel has a watercolour quality as the author brings to life the burning landscapes of California during the 1970s brushfires, the sweeping beauty of forests in Oregon, and the wintry vistas of present day New England.  With her rich yet subtle style of writing, Ostermiller appeals to the reader’s senses as she describes the tastes, scents and tactile experiences of Sylvia’s childhood and adult life. 

Outside the Ordinary World begins with Sylvia frantically pacing the floor of a therapist’s waiting room as her daughter makes her case against her in the next room.  Some mistakes are destined to be repeated and as Sylvia's world falls apart around her, she recalls the events that tore her family asunder thirty years previously, leading ultimately to the death of her father. 

Sylvia was brought up as a Seventh Day Adventist but as her father distanced himself from the church in order to pursue his medical training and career, Sylvia’s mother Elaine turned to the arms of a lover.  Sylvia was burdened by the weight of her mother’s secret and terrorised by her father’s increasingly violent and abusive behaviour.  As she struggled to reconcile the chaos in her home with the teaching of the church, Sylvia swore that she would never become her mother.

Of course, Sylvia could not have known that the challenges of being a wife and mother would lead her to make the same mistakes and Sylvia soon finds herself walking that same illicit path towards temptation.

It is difficult to do justice to this beautiful story with just a couple of paragraphs.  This is an epic book that begins as the Sandon family drag a U-Haul across the United States in 1968 and leads right up to 2005, when Sylvia has a family of her own.  When I first picked up Outside the Ordinary World, I expected a light romance novel and was taken aback by the richness and complexity of this story. 

Using the technique of alternating chapters, Ostermiller weaves together the story of Sylvia’s troubled upbringing with the events taking place in the present day.  With expert skill, Ostermiller leads the reader to the point where the storylines collide and Syvia must make the choice between submitting to the weight of her past or choosing her own path.

Outside the Ordinary World is the type of book that you can truly immerse yourself in and I longed for the scenery of the novel for some time after I finished reading it.  I enjoyed the glimpse into the world of the Seventh Day Adventists but was pleased to find that this was not a religious novel, but rather a compelling commentary on religion, faith, betrayal and legacy.

I would recommend Outside the Ordinary World to anybody seeking to get lost in a novel and would give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller is published by Mira Books.

You can purchase it at Amazon.co.uk ¦ Amazon.com

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Article first published as Book Review: Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller on Blogcritics.

A copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

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Music Video: Pink Floyd–“Welcome to the Machine”

 

I’ve just spent the past week listening to nothing but Pink Floyd.  I fell in love with Pink Floyd in 1979 when, at the tender age of 6, I absolutely and completely identified with “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”.  Of course, I didn’t really know it at that stage but I had subconsciously fallen in love with the band long before that as Dark Side of the Moon was a favourite of both my parents.  Like The Who, Pink Floyd played a huge part in my musical upbringing and I most likely first heard them in my mother’s tummy.

Unfortunately, like so many of the other great progressive rock bands, Pink Floyd came from a time just before the dawn of music videos and MTV.  I would have liked to have chosen “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” this week but there is no official music video for it (just a half-decent fan-made video over at YouTube).

I decided to choose “Welcome to the Machine” because this song is amazing and it is from one of my favourite albums, Wish You Were Here.  This is one of those songs that were nearly the death of me in high school and certainly the death of many a cassette tapes as I ran it back and played it over and over again.  I swear, the digital age with CDs and mp3s was made just for me.  Obsessing about music has become so much easier.

I don’t think the video above is an official video (Boris Yeltzin and Bill Clinton in the closing scenes was a slight hint), but it is a really decent effort nonetheless.

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TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day – “Immortal Sins”

At the beginning of each episode of the original Torchwood series, Captain Jack Harkness proclaimed, “Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police.  Fighting for the future on behalf of the human race.  The 21st Century is when everything changes and Torchwood is ready.”  This statement captured the excitement and allure of the original series, hinting at the significance of the rift in time and space that just happened to be located in Cardiff, Wales.

Likewise, the seventh episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, “Immortal Sins” is when everything changes and the various threads of the season are gathered together in a simply masterful and superb manner.  Any doubts that I might have had up to this point simply dissipated in what is possibly the best Torchwood episode I have seen to date.

“Immortal Sins” opens up at Ellis Island, New York City, 1927.  A man responds to the call of the immigration inspector for a ‘Jack Harkness’.  Seconds later, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) comes barrelling through, toppling the man and accusing him of stealing his visa. I would refer to him as the ‘real’ Jack Harkness but we all know that is not true.

And so we meet Angelo Colasanto (Daniele Favilli), an Italian immigrant that Jack ultimately assists in entering the United States and with whom he falls in love.  Much of the episode focuses on their tender and passionate love affair as Jack helps Angelo to come to terms with his sexuality.

Meanwhile, in present day, Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) tases Jack and bundles him into a car.  In the first of several powerful scenes featuring Gwen and Jack, Gwen explains that the lenses are in her eyes, that she is being monitored and that they have her husband, mother and child.  As we weave in and out of the story of Jack and Angelo, Jack offers himself in place of Gwen’s family but no further communication is offered through the lenses.  Jack tries to negotiate with Gwen to untie him and very nearly succeeds, only to be met at the last minute with the full extent of Gwen’s rage.  She explains that she loves him but would not hesitate to sacrifice him to save her daughter. 

Referring to his new state of mortality and his need to preserve his own life, Jack rages back, “I love you Gwen Cooper but I will rip your skin from your skull before I let you take this away from me.”  This is powerful stuff and the battle lines are drawn as Jack and Gwen’s relationship is challenged to the limit.

 

Throughout the episode, we witness as Jack infiltrates the operation of New York mobster Salvatore Maranzano.  He tries unsuccessfully to get Angelo to leave before contemplating that, like The Doctor, perhaps he, too, can have a companion.  Together, Jack and Angelo discover a box that is protected and feared by mobster Maranzano, although he has no idea what is inside it.  The box contains a brain parasite that has been sent by The Trickster Brigade to alter the course of history.  It is intended to cause Franklin Roosevelt to yield to the demands of Nazi Germany and allow them to win.

Jack destroys the brain parasite but this sets off alarms and Jack and Angelo are soon cornered.  Angelo watches as Jack is shot in the head and he is captured and driven away as Jack appears to die.  A year later, Angelo is released from prison and is horrified to find that Jack is still alive.  As they struggle to rekindle their relationship, Angelo is overcome by the horror of witnessing Jack’s death and he stabs him in the stomach.  Jack, of course, survives but his survival is witnessed by the landlady and her butcher husband. 

In some of the most gruesome scenes featured in Torchwood to date, Jack is taken to the butcher’s premises and repeatedly killed in front of blood thirsty crowds, only to suffer and die and come alive, again and again.  As three mysterious men negotiate Jack’s purchase, we cut to the present day where Jack and Gwen arrive at a location in the desert and Gwen asks Jack about the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. 

As the episode reaches its shocking climax, Jack is betrayed in a way that will alter his relationships forever and the two storylines in “Immortal Sins” come crashing together, finally revealing who is behind the miracle.  As the end credits began to roll, the first thought that crossed my mind is that I simply cannot wait for next week for the story to continue.

This is the first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day that I have been compelled to watch twice before I could even begin to make sense of it.  There is so much that happens and this episode has far more to do with the overall Torchwood and Doctor Who universe than any in the season so far. 

Like the episodes of the first two seasons, this episode featured a primary enemy, The Trickster’s Brigade.  For viewers not familiar with both Doctor Who and spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, I imagine that Jack’s mention of The Trickster’s Brigade as the entity behind the brain parasite might not have meant much.  For those of us that remember the absolute havoc that The Trickster wreaked in the lives of Sarah Jane Smith and Donna Noble, the name invokes a special sort of terror.

Of course, by the end of the episode, a far greater enemy emerges, one that reaches across the whole Torchwood narrative and forms the basis of Torchwood: Miracle Day. 

 

As I finished watching “Immortal Sins” for the second time, I began to experience a couple of doubts and was concerned by what seemed to be discontinuity within the show as a whole.  It seems important to place this episode within Jack’s timeline.  After all, the coat that he wears and the name he goes by were both stolen from an American World War II volunteer by the name of Captain Jack Harkness in 1941.  “Immortal Sins” is set in 1927 in New York City and Jack requires a visa to enter the city. 

Captain Jack Harkness was a time-travelling conman who first appeared in episode nine, series one of the rebooted Doctor Who, during the London Blitz .  He then became a second companion for the rest of series one, joining The Doctor and Rose in their travels through time and space. 

At the end of series one, Jack is separated from the TARDIS crew and stranded on Satellite 5.  He uses his Vortex manipulator to transport back to Cardiff and arrives in 1869, but the Vortex manipulator burns out.  With no ability to move through time or space, Jack must remain in this timeline until he can meet up again with The Doctor.  He joins the Torchwood Institute in 1899 and is thus on Torchwood business, without the ability to travel through time or space, at the beginning of “Immortal Sins”.  At the start of this episode he has been on Earth for almost 60 years but originally travelled back in time from around 5100 AD.

I think the timeline adds up but am sure to spend the next couple of days dreaming up further possible plot holes.  For now, I will say that I have been pleasantly surprised by Jane Espenson’s script and am almost ready to forgive her for “The Dead of Night” and “The Categories of Life”. 

Following what has been a disappointing and frustratingly slow-moving season to date, “Immortal Sins” proves to be a powerful and riveting episode that draws in aspects from the entire universe of Doctor Who and the related spin-offs.  I’m excited about the various threads of the Torchwood: Miracle Day storyline coming together in the final episodes and look forward to the fears expressed in my review of “Dead of Night” being proven wrong.

All images © 2011 BBC Worldwide Limited.

Article first published as TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day – “Immortal Sins” on Blogcritics.

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Book Review: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

Many of us grew up reading fairy tales but do any of us really know the true stories behind them?  Our parents were fond of telling us that they were only stories, that they weren’t real, but deep down we always suspected that the truth was far more sinister.  Author Anthony Gidwitz knew this too and he has rewritten the famous Brothers Grimm tale Hansel and Gretel from a more frightening, bloody, yet truthful perspective.

A Tale Dark and Grimm is aimed at the ages 9 to 11 age group.  It is a dark, gory tale and it really is a lot of fun.  The back cover of the book contains a warning.  “Reader: Beware!”, it says and goes on to warn of the sorcerers with their dark spells and other terrifying characters contained within the book.  Readers are warned that the book is not for the faint of heart and that unlike many of the stories they might know, this one is true.

It is just the type of warning that will make young readers want to dive right in and devour this dark and irreverent book.  Even though the book is set in the fairy tales of the distant past, there is a decidedly modern tone to A Tale Dark and Grimm which will appeal to the most cynical of readers.  I knew that the author and I were going to get along just fine from the opening line of the book: “Once upon a time, fairy tales were awesome”.

Gidwitz has a witty, cheeky style of writing and he appeals directly to young readers, taking them in to his confidence and leading them along on an exciting adventure.  A Tale Dark and Grimm is, in fact, made up of ten shorter stories that chronicle Hansel and Gretel's adventures from the time they flee their home and enter the woods, to the time they return home in more or less one piece.  The book does feature a rather batty old lady who tries to eat the children but it also stars a soul-stealing warlock, the Devil and the realms of Hell, and a dragon borne of a father’s grief. 

Published by Andersen Press, A Tale Dark and Grimm is just the sort of book to buy for children for Halloween.  It is well-written and entertaining but carries a strong moral code throughout.  It is sufficiently dark and grisly to make children squeal with glee and has the perfect mix of fantasy and irreverence to set their imaginations free.

I would wholeheartedly recommend A Tale Dark and Grimm and rate it four out of five stars.

Buy A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz at Amazon.co.uk ¦Amazon.com

Author Adam Gidwitz is a teacher in Brooklyn, New York.  Inspired by the tales of the Brothers Grimm, he began telling stories to his pupils and was encouraged to write them down.  Of course, Adam insists that he always writes about things that have happened to him personally but notes that if you’ve ever had a childhood, then these dark and grim things have probably happened to you too.

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Article first published as Book Review: A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz on Blogcritics.

A copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

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Music Video: Talking Heads – “Road To Nowhere”

It is crazy to think that I have loved this track for over 25 years now.  Where does the time go??  I fell in love with this song during my first year of high school and you know what that is like! It reminds me of everything that happened that year: It was the year that I discovered boys (especially Donovan Wessels), the year my parents got divorced and my father moved back to England.  It reminds me of a class project that I did with Rachael Shepherd.  We had to dramatise a scene from the book we were reading (Alan Garner’s Elidor) and we set it to this track and got really good marks for that.  It reminds me of our apartment in Susman Avenue and really bad fashion choices.  I think even back then I knew these were not sustainable fashion choices. 

What a fantastic track! Can you believe that it stimulates such a rush of memories?  What was your seminal high school track?

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The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1: trailer and stills

I really did not want to care about the upcoming The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1 yet when I saw the trailer at the cinema recently, I felt myself silently squealing like the fan girl I obviously am.  I think it was the sight of Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in a tuxedo that set me over the edge despite my very best intentions.  Or perhaps it is that I am an incurable romantic and the sight of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in a wedding dress sent me swooning.

Whatever the case, I loved the trailer and cannot wait to see the film.  Of course, based on past experiences, it is entirely possible that I will be as disappointed with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1 as I was with Twilight and Eclipse.  I was thrilled with New Moon.

What impressed me most about the second film, New Moon was that it was visually stunning with generous lashings of the deepest reds and golden browns.  I missed that with Eclipse and it was one of the reasons I was so disappointed with the film.

Judging from the trailer and from the stills released below, it looks like we can look forward again to a visually stunning film with bold colours, stunning cinematography and heavy reliance on water imagery.  I am optimistic that director Bill Condon can succeed where David Slade so obviously failed with Eclipse. 

 

 

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TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day – “The Middle Men”

As this season of Torchwood: Miracle Day crosses the halfway mark, we come to reflect on the first half of the season and the changes that the show has undergone while wondering whether they’ll ever reveal who is behind the miracle. 

One day, at precisely 10:36 pm, people stop dying.  What is initially thought to be a miracle rapidly becomes a disaster of global proportions as the Earth hurtles towards overpopulation and the collapse of the healthcare system.  In an effort to relieve hospitals of the burden of caring for patients that should have died but are simply hanging on, overflow camps are set up in major centres across the globe. 

Life and death is redefined as humans are divided into three categories of life: Category 1 belongs to those that should have died, Category 3 is healthy, functioning people, and Category 2 is everybody in between.  The sinister function behind the overflow camps was revealed in the last episode, “The Categories of Life”, as it turns out that the modules where Category 1 patients are to be kept are in fact ovens, designed for the mass incineration those patients.

This season pairs the last remaining Torchwood members, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) with CIA agents Rex Matheson (Mekhi Pfifer) and Esther Drummond (Alexa Havins).  Matheson initially aims to apprehend the Jack and Gwen but soon, he and Esther find themselves to be targets and a new Torchwood team emerges.  Rex is assisted throughout by Doctor Vera Juarez, a member of the medical boards who joined the team in the last episode.

In the meantime, convicted paedophile and child murderer Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) survives his own execution and is freed under a cruel and unusual punishment technicality.  He quickly becomes the spokesperson for the Miracle Day and is courted by Jilly Kitzinger (Lauren Ambrose) on behalf of the pharmaceutical giant PhiCorp. 

Instead of pursuing a different story arc per episode, as was the case with the first two seasons of Torchwood, Torchwood: Miracle Day has stuck to one major story arc across the full ten episodes.  The pace has been extremely slow to date and this has been compounded by the use of a different writer per episode.  The result has been a disjointed storyline where interesting concepts are often raised but simply dropped the following episode.  I am not referring to the Families (“Escape to L.A.”) or the mysterious blue-eyed man (“The Categories of Life”) (as I am sure that they will return) but what happened to the visually stunning protest marches from “Dead of Night”, for example?

“The Middle Men” opens with PhiCorp CEO Stuart Owens asking a colleague in Shanghai to investigate a PhiCorp construction site as he wants to know whether PhiCorp has anything to do with Miracle Day.  Having suspected since “Dead of Night” that PhiCorp was behind the miracle, it turns out that they may be nothing more than middle men, despite the profits that the miracle has afforded them.  The colleague Zheng Yibao sees something that disturbs him so much that he jumps from the top of a building.  Just minutes earlier, Owens had been watching a television piece on the “45 Club” where people had reinvented the notion of suicide and eternal oblivion by jumping from buildings of at least 45 stories high.

At San Pedro Overflow Camp, Rex Matheson records all that he is seeing, compiling proof of the modules and mass murders while Esther becomes suspicious of camp director Colin Maloney and wonders where Vera Juarez is.  In Cardiff, Gwen and her husband Rhys Williams (Kai Owen) race to rescue her father from the modules at Cowbridge Overflow Camp and in Los Angeles, Captain Jack Harkness confronts Stuart Owens.  Owens reveals to Jack what he knows and when Jack tells him of his only clue, that the miracle involves geography, Owens informs him of a mysterious document originating from the Council of Ministers in Italy that made reference to The Blessing.

This is the first episode in Torchwood: Miracle Day that does not feature Oswald Danes and also the first since “Rendition” that does not feature Jilly Kitzinger.  The episode was written by The X-Files alumni John Shiban and certainly had a darker feel to it.  Perhaps the usual inclusion of Danes and Kitzinger serves to lighten up the show with all of the hype and media frenzy, not to mention Kitzinger’s ambition and Danes’ ruthless manipulation? 

In “Middle Men”, the spotlight shines on the path to genocide as the focus seems to move from Category 1 patients to illegal immigrants.  Darkness descends as we realise that above all, the governments of the world are sanctioning these camps and the extermination ovens within.  The level of terror that was introduced in the final scenes of “Escape to L.A.” are raised once again in the final scene of “The Middle Men” as Gwen realises how personal this has become and the price she might have to pay to save the Earth.

John Shiban has written a dark and terrifying episode and it has left me wishing that he had written the whole season.  My favourite episodes of this season were “Rendition” (written by Doris Egan), “Escape to L.A.” and “The Middle Men” (both written by John Shiban).  Apart from the season opener “The New World” which was written by show creator Russell T. Davies, my worst episodes were “Dead of Night” and “The Categories of Life” which were both written by Jane Espenson.  The bad news is that Jane Espenson has written or co-written three of the four remaining episodes, the last one with Russell T. Davies.

There are aspects of Torchwood: Miracle Day that are brilliant and show the vision, imagination and talent of Russell T. Davies and the writers on the show.  But there are also parts that are terrible or cheesy and I still have difficulty caring about either Rex Matheson or Esther Drummond.  The factors that seem to have contributed most to a shaky season are the single story arc, multiple writers and extremely slow pace.  I really would like to see Torchwood: Miracle Day renewed for a further season but they’d have to follow the example set by the writers of Veronica Mars after their second season and split the season up into more story arcs in future, with more consistent writing or perhaps one lead writer per story arc.

 

All images © 2011 BBC Worldwide Limited.

Article first published as TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day – “The Middle Men” on Blogcritics.

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Book Review: Outlaw by Stephen Davies

When Jake Knight sneaks out of the exclusive Waltham College, embarking on a high-tech, GPS version of Hunt the Thimble, he has no idea how much trouble he will land up in.  Jake follows the clues to Leeds Prison and uses his impressive wall running skills to coast over a wall three times his height.  Too bad it has a massive overhang on the other side.  Naturally, Jake is caught and is lucky not to be expelled from Waltham College.  He is suspended for the rest of the school term and and sent home to join his family in Burkina Faso.

Jake has barely been in Burkina Faso for 24 hours when he is kidnapped along with his sister Kas.  It seems that the children of the British ambassador are perfect targets for a terrorist organisation with an agenda of extortion and coercion.  Jake might just get the adventure he has been seeking, but at what cost?

Outlaw tells the story of the kidnap of Jake and Kas Knight and it is set primarily in the deserts and plains between Ouagadougou and Djibo in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  It is also the story of Yakuuba Sor, the vigilante, Robin Hood-type character who is framed for the kidnap and labelled as a terrorist but who fights against injustice, poverty and corruption on a daily basis. 

Outlaw is a non-stop action adventure that features heart-stopping chases across the desert in vans, on horseback and on a crowded cross-country bus.  This is an exotic, colourful desert tale featuring a levitating sheikh, a Tuareg princess and the Ouagadougou cattle drive. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the chase through the desert and the descriptions of the people, desert camps, culture and customs of Burkina Faso.  I loved the character of Yakuuba Sor and loved his vision and determination to rid his world of corruption.  The only part of the book that I found slightly distracting was the matter of mobile phone signals and battery life, as I found this to be a slight stretch.  Still, I appreciated that the author explained many of the tricks and technology in his afterword, including the iPod, AA battery and cream recharging trick.

While the focus is obviously on the events that take place in the book, author Stephen Davies is careful to draw attention to the real life poverty, human suffering and corruption in the region.  As he weaves his story, he tells of officials who enrich themselves rather than govern, charlatans who prey on the fears and suspicions of locals and demand what little wealth they have, merchants involved in price-fixing, and military personnel who target civilians and extract exorbitant and arbitrary fines.  Exciting, entertaining and educational, Outlaw is perfect for both girls and boys over the age of 11.

Stephen Davies lives in West Africa and resides amongst Fulani herders.  This is the third West African set novel that he has written for the teenage market.  His other two novels are The Yellowcake Conspiracy and Hacking Timbuktu. 

Outlaw is yet another gem of a book from Andersen Press, the publishing imprint of Random House that features quality books for children and young adults. 

I would certainly recommend Outlaw for children aged 11 and over and give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

Buy Outlaw by Stephen Davis at Amazon.co.uk ¦ Amazon.com

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Article first published as Book Review: Outlaw by Stephen Davies on Blogcritics.

A copy of this book was provided to me for the purposes of this review and all opinions contain herein are my own. This review contains affiliate links.

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Music Video: Dexy's Midnight Runners – “Geno”

Dexy’s Midnight Runners might be best known for their massive hit “Come on Eileen” but “Geno” is by far my favourite tracks of theirs.  “Geno” was their second single and first number 1 hit single.  It hit number 1 in the UK charts on May 3, 1980, just in time for my 7th birthday. 

It is strange because “Geno” was notable for being at odds with the post-punk, new wave sound of the day but to me, it epitomises that whole era in music, more so than The Specials, Madness or The Cure.  I guess you could say that my fate as a lover of alternative music and subsequent Coffin Kid was sealed pretty early on. 

My favourite part of “Geno” is the build up and then the first few chords.  I never tire of hearing it and this is one of that tracks that I can play over and over again on repeat.  I loved the trombone and saxophones in this track and it was “Geno” that first made me fall in love with brass instruments. 

Wikipedia says that “Geno” is a tribute to soul singer Geno Washington and that it was performed in the style of Geno Washington's Ram Jam Band.  Which is weird, because I don’t see the similarity at all between this song and, for example, Geno Washington’s “Michael (The Lover)”.  Oh well, I’m glad he inspired them and a pity they weren’t inspired enough to produce more than two number 1 hit singles.

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TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day – "The Categories of Life”

As the final, terrifying scenes unfolded in last week’s episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, it seemed as if the story was finally going somewhere and that the great alien threat was about to be exposed.  By the end of this week’s instalment, “The Categories of Life”, this had still not happened which means that viewers have sat through five episodes of scene setting, weak plotting and no mention of aliens.  The pace is excruciating and I have no doubt that this season should have been dispatched in three or five episodes. 

The slow pace is compounded by the use of different writers each episode which works in Doctor Who or the previous incarnation of Torchwood when there was a new storyline or villain each week.  The effect in Torchwood: Miracle Day is an inconsistent and jumbled story with several false starts and no real build up.  “The Categories of Life” was written by Jane Espenson who wrote “Dead of Night”.

The episode begins with Vera Juarez (Arlene Tur) entering the city hall in Washington D.C., only to discover that all of the other medical panellists have left as their work is done.  The three categories of life have been decided and are being presented to the President.  Vera calls Rex to announce that she is joining their team and flying down to Venice Beach.  She is horrified by the categories as she claims that government have taken control over life and death and that nobody should have that much power.

Meanwhile, Gwen Cooper arrives in Cardiff under a false identity and is met by husband Rhys Williams (Kai Owen).   We learn that the overflow camps are located in old army barracks and when Gwen tries to visit her father, we learn that they are not letting healthy people anywhere near the patients.

Once Vera arrives in Venice Beach, the team gets together to pool their intelligence, with Gwen attending via video link.  The nature of the categories is discussed with category 3 being healthy people, category 1 being those with no brain function or those who should be dead, and category 2 being everyone in between.  I know that this was a pivotal point in the plot of Torchwood: Miracle Day but I found this idea to be weak and poorly executed.  Many of the moral and logistical dilemmas surrounding the miracle had been explored in interesting ways in previous episodes but this just seemed contrived and overly simplistic.

 

 

 

The team discovers that certain modules in the overflow camps are being masked and that their true function is therefore hidden.  Much of the episode then consists of Gwen and Rhys trying to break into the overflow camp in Cardiff to rescue her father, while Vera Juarez, Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond enter the facility in San Pedro to gain more information on the hidden modules.

Captain Jack Harkness (or Mortal Jack, as he is now jokingly called) is left behind during this exercise and decides to attend the Miracle Day Rally in Los Angeles as Oswald Danes (Bill Pullman) is giving a speech.  Convinced that Danes knows his own nature and wills his life to end, Jack seems to persuade Danes to expose PhiCorp and end the miracle.  A mysterious blue-eyed man (Teddy Sears, The Defenders) tells Jilly Kritzinger that she is doing a good job and being noticed by the right people.  All of that hangs in the balance, of course, as we wait to find out whether Danes will, in fact, expose PhiCorp.

The next scene is remarkable in that it was obviously intended to be moving and powerful and it all fell flat.  Oswald Danes rambles on about humans evolving from animals and now into angels and once again, the audience is expected to believe that a stadium full of people (and viewers around the world) are being moved by a paedophile and child murderer.  Not only that, but the Dead is Dead proponents at the rally are so persuaded by this ridiculous rambling that they are willing to forget that he is a dead man and suddenly support him too?  Danes utters the carefully placed keyword ‘revelation’ as suggested by Jilly Kitzinger and the scene closes with people chanting the name of Oswald Danes.

  

I have to admit that the next two scenes were so disturbing that it took me some time after the episode to resolve my feelings about them.  In these scenes, both Rex Matheson in San Pedro and Gwen Cooper in Cardiff realise that the modules are ovens, intended to burn category 1 patients alive.  I found this direction quite disturbing and I could not help but be reminded of the ovens in World War II death camps.  I really hope that the writers intend to whip up some phenomenal storytelling to justify such a gruesome storyline, but I fear it might just be arbitrary and gratuitous.

Worse still, it could be swept under the carpet once we remember that the category 1 patients are not dead after all but are now some living, non-breathing cloud of ash hanging over the world.  At this point, the only good thing I have to say about Torchwood: Miracle Day is that the season is now half way through.  Hopefully the pace will pick up in the remaining five episodes (three of which are written or co-written by Jane Espenson).  One can only hope for a miracle.

All images © 2011 BBC Worldwide Limited.

Article first published as TV Review: Torchwood: Miracle Day – "The Categories of Life” on Blogcritics.

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