Torchwood: Miracle Day – ‘The New World’ Synopsis

The BBC Press Office have now released the full official synopsis for the Torchwood: Miracle Day exciting opening episode, ‘The New World’, given the name of the working title for the whole series before they came up with “Miracle Day” as a name.

One day, nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next, and the next, people keep ageing – they get hurt and sick, but they never die. The result: a population boom, overnight.


With all the extra people, resources are finite. It’s said that in four month's time, the human race will cease to be viable. But this can’t be a natural event – someone’s got to be behind it. It’s a race against time as CIA agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking: "What is Torchwood?", he’s drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human ... for ever.


In the launch episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day, Agent Rex Matheson is impaled in a car crash and miraculously survives, while his analyst, Esther Drummond, sets out to discover what Torchwood is. Far away, in Wales, Gwen Cooper lives in hiding with her husband Rhys and daughter Anwen – she’s the last surviving Torchwood member and is determined to stay hidden. In Kentucky, convicted murderer Oswald Danes survives his own execution. And when Esther meets the mysterious Captain Jack Harkness, assassins are activated to kill them all...

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM
• BBC One (UK) – Thursday 14th July 9PM

What do you think of this? Are you looking forward to ‘Miracle Day’?
Please comment.

TW: Miracle Day BBC Teaser Trailer

The BBC have released their first teaser trailer for Torchwood: Miracle Day. It contains as many clips as Starz’s first ‘Earth-bomb’ teaser a couple of months ago.

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM
• BBC One (UK) – Thursday 14th July 9PM

What do you think of this?
Please comment.

Torchwood UK Airdate Confirmed

The BBC have finally confirmed the broadcast date that Torchwood: Miracle Day will premiere in the UK on BBC One in a press release today, and it isn’t good for us Britons…

“Torchwood: Miracle Day will screen in the UK on BBC One, on Thursday nights. The series will begin on Thursday 14th July, at 9pm.”

So in the UK, despite the fact the new series of Torchwood is half produced and funded by the BBC with Starz, we’re getting it SIX days after the US and five days after Australia and Canada. I try not to litter my blog posts with my own personal opinions too much, but this truly is a mess.

Not the series itself – I have no doubt that it will be magnificent – but this is 2011, where they managed to get Doctor Who Series 6 (in which only Utah-shot scenes were helped by BBC America) to air in the US and in the UK on the same day. The BBC should get it’s act together because otherwise it’ll have even more angry fans and viewers on its hands by the time the next series comes than they already do with this series.

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM
• BBC One (UK) – Thursday 14th July 9PM

What are your opinions on this?
Please comment.

Russell T Davies on Front Row

Russell T Davies was featured in an interview earlier tonight by Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4 to promote the new series of Torchwood: Miracle Day. He speaks about how the series and it’s co-production with US cable channel Starz came about and gives some information about his next TV drama project…

Screenwriter and producer Russell T Davies discusses taking Wales to LA for the latest Torchwood story, Miracle Day. He responds to the claim that the watershed is being ignored in British TV, and reveals that he has written the first episode of his next original drama.

BBC Radio 4 Front Row - Russell T Davies Torchwood Interview

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM
• BBC One (UK) – Thursday 14th July 9PM

What do you think of this?
Please comment.

Ultimate Sonic-Building Set

Character Options have released information about an upcoming toy of the Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, but not as we know it. The Doctor Who Ultimate Sonic Screwdriver Build Set enables you to make your own variations of sonic screwdrivers using interchangeable pieces of each version, with up to 80 different possibilities.


Combine the sections from each of the three Sonic Screwdrivers in different ways to create your own version. With over 80 possible combinations each with light and multiple sound effects this really is the ultimate sonic screwdriver set.

The Ultimate Sonic Screwdriver Build Set is available to pre-order now and is set for release by 15th July 2011 across the UK for a retail price of £24.99, although in many places has already been reduced to £18.99.

> ForbiddenPlanet.co.uk
> ForbiddenPlanet.com
> WhoOne.co.uk

What are your thoughts on this? Are you going to buy it?
Please comment.

Georgia Moffett in Marple

Just a brief post to inform those of you who didn’t know, that last night Georgia Moffett - otherwise known to Doctor Who fans from 2008’s ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ as the episode’s eponymous hero, Jenny and fiancé of David Tennant and mother of his child - starred in ITV’s Marple ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?’, based on the Miss Marple novel of the same name.

In the murder mystery drama, Georgia plays one of the primary leading characters, playing Frankie Derwent who takes her own initiative alongside Miss Marple in investigating the situation for herself. Also in the episode is Richard Briers (Henry Parker in Torchwood 'A Day In The Death') and Samantha Bond (Miss Wormwood in The Sarah Jane Adventures 'Invasion of the Bane' & 'Enemy of the Bane').



The episode is available to UK residents on ITV Player to re-watch or catch up for one week after broadcast.
> Marple on ITV Player

>'The Doctor's Daughter' Episode Guide

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Torchwood Prequel Novels

The covers and synopses of the three Torchwood novels previously announced by Russell T Davies (when he also gave further information on the upcoming Torchwood audio dramas) have now been released by BBC Books. All three novels act individually as prequels to Torchwood: Miracle Day, telling the stories of how the team members and events reach their positions in the new TV series…

Torchwood: First Born - by James Goss
Released: 21st July 2011
Gwen and Rhys are on the run. Rhys was hoping this meant a windswept cottage on a cliff top, but he’s had to settle for a miserable caravan in the isolated village of Rawbone. With the locals taking an unhealthy interest in their daughter, Gwen and Rhys start to realise that something is very wrong.

As they uncover the village’s terrible past, Gwen discovers that Torchwood will never leave her behind, and now she and Rhys stand alone in defence of the Earth. And the children of Rawbone can only bring her closer to the secret forces that want her out of the way.

Based on the hit series created by Russell T Davies, First Born is a prequel to Torchwood: Miracle Day, starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles as Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper, with Kai Owen as Rhys Williams.


Torchwood: Long Time Dead - by Sarah Pinborough
Released: 4th August 2011
Cardiff Bay. The government has ordered the excavation of the wreckage of a secret underground base. DCI Tom Cutler is watching from a distance, fascinated by the process. There are people in his dreams. People he feels he should know.

The disbanded Torchwood Institute spent a century accumulating non-terrestrial artefacts and catching aliens. Who knows what – or who – might still be intact down there. But by the time they find the first body, Suzie Costello is long gone.

Based on the hit series created by Russell T Davies, Long Time Dead is a prequel to Torchwood: Miracle Day, starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles as Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper. It features Suzie Costello, as played by Indira Varma.


Torchwood: The Men Who Sold The World - by Guy Adams
Released: 18th August 2011
When Oscar Lupe appears 20,000 feet up in the air, his body is frozen solid and free-falling to earth. It shatters on impact. Soon after, a CIA Special Activities Division squad goes rogue with a cargo marked ‘Torchwood’ that they’ve been escorting from somewhere called Cardiff.

The Agency puts Rex Matheson on the case. As the strange deaths pile up, Rex realises there must be experimental tech out there, but someone is obstructing him at every turn. Rex is the CIA’s golden boy – but has he met his match in the evasive Mr Wynter…?

Based on the hit series created by Russell T Davies, The Men Who Sold The World is a prequel to Torchwood: Miracle Day, starring John Barrowman and Eve Myles as Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper, with Mekhi Phifer as Rex Matheson.

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• BBC One (UK) - Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM

What do you think of this news? What do you think of ‘Web Of Lies’?
Please comment.

Roy Skelton dies age 79

British actor and voice artist Roy Skelton has passed away.

He was best-known for lending his voice talents to the Daleks from 1967-88 in Doctor Who and the characters of Zippy and George in Rainbow from 1972-92.
Here’s the BBC’s report:

Actor and singer Roy Skelton, best known for voicing puppets George and Zippy in the popular children's programme Rainbow, has died aged 79.
His daughter Samantha Skelton told the BBC that her father passed away after suffering a stroke.
The actor joined Rainbow in the early 1970s and remained with the show until it ended in 1992.
Geoffrey Hayes, who also starred in the show, said: "He really brought Zippy and George to life through his voice." Skelton was "fabulous at improvising if something went wrong," he added.
"The most wonderful thing was if Zippy and George were having an argument between themselves, it sounded like he'd double-tracked it as they seemed to be talking over each other. It was a wonderful technique and I don't know how he did it.
"Although he was known for Zippy and George he was actually a fabulous actor with a great singing voice and a wonderful raconteur - he used to tell us some wonderful stories."
Skelton also voiced the Daleks in Doctor Who from 1967 to 1988, as well as the Cybermen and the Krotons.
In 2002, he guest-starred in the audio drama Sarah Jane Smith: Test Of Nerve.
He reprised the role of Zippy in 2008 for the BBC One series Ashes to Ashes.

Roy Skelton (1932-2011)

Doctor Who Series 7 – 14 Episodes CONFIRMED

Earlier on today, some of you may have been aware of a tweet that supposedly respectable UK news magazine Private Eye, headed up by editor Ian Hislop of Have I Got News For You on the BBC, which falsely claimed that Doctor Who would not return next year for a full Series 7, but instead demoted again to four specials spread throughout the year.

In fact, the BBC have officially commissioned a full 13-episode length series of Doctor Who for 2012 as well as a 2012 Christmas special - ALL episodes of which will feature Matt Smith as The Doctor. Fear no more!
Here is a tweet from them following this…


@PrivateEyeNews - Private Eye Magazine
So. Farewell then #Doctor_Who -- full story on the chaos at the BBC (and in the Tardis) in the new issue of Private Eye.

This ‘news’ has, just hours later, been revealed as a complete lie, so don’t worry. Steven Moffat soon after the said tweet from Private Eye later debunked the magazine’s claim…


@steven_moffat - Steven Moffat
14 eps + Matt DEFINITELY. I've got a plan and I'm NOT TELLING YOU WHAT IT IS. Now hush or River shoots you with her Spoiler Gun. #formaqueue

See, this is definitely another benefit of having Doctor Who’s showrunner and head writer on Twitter. But who else never expected Private Eye to stoop as low as The Sun?

> Private Eye on Twitter
> Steven Moffat on Twitter

What do you think about this?
Please comment.

‘A Good Man Goes To War’ Unreleased Music

TheSkaroRevenger has uploaded a series of tracks of unreleased music from last night’s episode, ‘A Good Man Goes To War’. From the Doctor’s army, to the reveal of River Song’s true identity, you can hear their accompanying music all on his YouTube channel DrWhoUnreleasedMusic, and listen to them in this playlist…

> Dr Who Unreleased Music – YouTube Channel

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Please comment.

Torchwood Audio Titles & Ianto’s Back!

Russell T Davies has revealed, through the breaking of news in the latest Doctor Who Magazine issue 435, that the upcoming Torchwood audio dramas will be set prior to the events of ‘Children Of Earth’ in 2009 and will feature Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones once more! He has been able to jet off to Los Angeles for a few days to record the audios with his old Torchwood friends.

DWM 435 also confirmed the titles of each of the three audios that will air some time near ‘Miracle Day’…
- Submission by Ryan Scott
- House of the Dead by James Goss
- The Devil and Miss Carew by Rupert Laight


As Russell T Davies also revealed in the magazine, one of these audios also marks the first joint mission between Torchwood and U.N.I.T. as they team up in a story together, while he also explained that three new Torchwood novels are also going to be released featuring the trio of Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto, in order to “exploit the narrative gap in a way which would be impossible for radio".

> More Torchwood Audios - Kai Owen Confirmed

What are your thoughts of this? Are you glad Ianto’s coming back in some form?
Please comment.

‘Survival’ Unreleased Music

TheSkaroRevenger has uploaded a three-part compilation of tracks of unreleased music from the Doctor Who 1989 Seventh Doctor story, ‘Survival’, featuring popular companion Ace and nemesis the Anthony Ainley incarnation of The Master. The story is famously the final serial of the classic series as we know it before it was cancelled, meaning a sixteen-year wait for fans, until the show would return in 2005, interrupted only by the 1996 TV Movie.

 

Synopsis:
The Doctor takes Ace back home to Perivale so she can catch up with her old friends. But Perivale has changed, the old gang has split up, and some of them have vanished without trace. They are not the only ones - West London is plagued by unexplained disappearances.
        Before long the mysterious kidnappers make themselves known. A race of galactic hunters called the Cheetah people have found a way to transport themselves to Earth - and the entire human race is their prey. They have been shown the doorway to the planet by an old foe of the Doctor, a bitter and desperate enemy who needs the Doctor's help to free him from a diabolic enchantment.


> Dr Who Unreleased Music – YouTube Channel

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Please comment.

‘Earthshock’ Unreleased Music

TheSkaroRevenger has uploaded a series of tracks of unreleased music from the Doctor Who 1982 Fifth Doctor story, ‘Earthshock’, featuring Tegan, Adric and Nyssa. The story was also acted as the big return of the Cybermen, with a slight redesign from their previous story.

Synopsis:
A conference to unite military powers against the Cybermen is taking place and the Cybermen plot to destroy the Earth by crashing a space freighter into it. The Doctor must stop them, whatever the cost...


> Dr Who Unreleased Music – YouTube Channel

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Please comment.

Torchwood: Web Of Lies – More Info

The latest Doctor Who Magazine issue 435 has revealed official confirmation for the previously unofficially confirmed news concerning the new Torchwood online spin-off, ‘Web of Lies’, along with further information on the subject. As I previously reported, Eliza Dushku (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse fame) has been confirmed as starring in the web-based spin-off tie-in to Torchwood: Miracle Day.

‘Web Of Lies’ has been produced by BBC Worldwide Productions with ten three-minute episodes, all written by Espenson and Ryan Scott. The style of the ‘Miracle Day’ tie-in series has been described as animated "motion comics", much like the pre-2005 online story ‘Scream Of The Shalka’.

Showrunner of Torchwood, Russell T Davies, is quoted in the latest DWM as saying:
“This is a hugely exciting innovation, a fully-scripted animated adventure with interactive elements, with fantastic voice talents -John Barrowman and Eve Myles reprise their roles as Jack and Gwen, alongside special guest star Eliza Dushku, and co-starring Bob Harris. The adventures will run in weekly instalments, parallel with the event of Miracle Day, adding new clues, new insights, and new dangers, as everyone races to find out the truth behind the mysterious Miracle...”



Other than these details, nothing else is known of Torchwood: Web Of Lies, though we can assume due to the fact there are ten episodes that each episode will be available online directly following each ‘Miracle Day’ episode.

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• BBC One (UK) - Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM

What do you think of this news? What do you think of ‘Web Of Lies’?
Please comment.

‘A Good Man Goes To War’ Clip – Demons Run

The official BBC Doctor Who site have released a second preview clip of the upcoming seventh episode of Doctor Who Series 6, 'A Good Man Goes To War’. It features Dorium (the blue trader previously seen in the pre-title sequence of ‘The Pandorica Opens’ and the prequel for this episode) having a conversation with Madame Kovarian (“Eye-Patch Lady”) and General Manton about The Doctor and the stories they have heard of him...

BBC - Doctor Who - The Doctor Goes to War Preview Clip #2

> BBC Doctor Who

Doctor Who ‘A Good Man Goes To War’ premieres on BBC One this Saturday 4th June at 6:40PM.

What are your thoughts on this? What do you think of this clip?
Please comment.

TW Miracle Day – In Production Video

Starz have released a behind-the-scenes video, including interviews with cast and producers and brand new exclusive clips, of the much-anticipated upcoming series of Torchwood: Miracle Day. The video was originally region-locked so that only US viewers could play it, but as the internet works, it has been converted into an internationally viewable video.

With thanks to Doctor Who TV

> Starz - Torchwood site

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• BBC One (UK) - Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM

What do you think of this news? What do you think of the video?
Please comment.

Sarah Jane Adventures – Series 5 Episode Titles

The latest Doctor Who Magazine – issue 435, available from today – has apparently announced the titles of the three episodes that feature in Series 5 of The Sarah Jane Adventures, though none of these are officially confirmed as of yet (hence the "TBC" - To Be Confirmed signifier) and may change. The series had been cut short in its filming and production as a whole, due to the tragic death of beloved star of the CBBC series and classic Who companion Elisabeth Sladen, for whom the following three 2-parter stories are being broadcast in commemoration to.

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• 5.1-2: Sky (TBC) – by Phil Ford
• 5.3-4: The Curse of Clyde Langer (TBC) – by Phil Ford
• 5.5-6: The Man Who Wasn't There (TBC) – by Gareth Roberts

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The BBC have confirmed that no further episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be produced.
> Sarah Jane Adventures Will Not Return


Doctor Who Magazine issue 435 is out now and is available in WHSmith, selected Tesco & Asda stores in the UK and any good newsagent for £4.50.

What are your thoughts of this?
Please comment.

TW Miracle Day – ‘The New World’ Images

The official set of promotional shots and scene photos have been released of Torchwood: Miracle Day episode 1, entitled ‘The New World’. Among the images is the official shot for the first episode (top left, featuring Rex, Gwen & Jack outside her house), PC Andy's return to the show (5th row down, middle column), and a new regular character for ‘Miracle Day’ called Vera Juarez (2nd row, 3rd from the left)…

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Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres (local time zones)…

• BBC One (UK) - Starz (USA) - Space (Canada) – Friday 8th July
• UKTV (Australia) - Saturday 9th July 8:30PM

What do you think of this news? What do you think of the promo shots?
Please comment.