Monday, August 1, 2011

Torchwood Miracle Day Theory

WARNING: Don't read this if you don't want any potential spoilers or if you just hate listening to other people's stupid plot predictions for shows you enjoy.  If this were someone else's blog, I wouldn't read it.  Other people's theories usually drive me nuts.
Speaking of crazy...

Bill Pullman is watching you and breathing heavily.

I typically try to restrain from forming pet plot theories before big reveals for shows I like.  For movies, it doesn't matter as much, because you'll find out within a couple of hours or less what's really going on.  Usually movie plot twists are easy to see coming, unless the director is trying so hard to keep it a surprise that the clues are obscure to the point of being invisible or there are no clues and the result comes out of left field.  Television shows, though, develop slowly because it takes months (or years) to get the resolution.  Any theories I start out with usually change three episodes later based on new information or because I've simply had more time to think on it.  I find pet theories get in the way of enjoying a series, because I invariably fall into the trap of trying to make all new information fit into my pre-existing notion of how the show should be progressing.  Anything that doesn't fit might get discarded as irrelevant only to later turn out to be pivotal, and vice-versa.  Then I get annoyed with myself for having put blinders on myself and also irrationally at the writers for not agreeing with me on how their show should be playing out.

But watching the latest episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day has stirred my need to theorize, and I don't feel like resisting.  Who cares?  My idea is most likely going to be wrong, the information spurring it will probably turn out to be coincidentally correlational, and anyway no one reads this blog.  Likely I'm seeing similarities between information presented in "Escape to LA" and previous Doctor Who events because they were both created by Russell T. Davies, and typically writers repeat themselves in tiny ways, whether consciously or not.

So once the idea of the "Families" was brought up towards the end of the episode, the first thing that popped into my mind was the Family of Blood from season three of Doctor Who.  What if other families of their species are also seeking immortality?  We know they can take over human bodies.  Of course, the problem is that they only live for a few months, but maybe they put themselves in stasis or have bred countless generations or some other plot device that allows them to be behind all this shit (see, justification for my ideas are already fermenting).  Also, they used a Time Agent Vortex Manipulator when they were hunting the Tenth Doctor; was that the thing Jack supposedly "gave" them? (Whether or not this was a willing gift is obviously up in the air.)  Perhaps after failing to gain immortality through the Doctor, another Family secured the Vortex Manipulator and used it to go back in time to Earth's past and begin long-term plans to ensure their eventual immortality?  Maybe even one of the original Family members was freed from their eternal imprisonment and went on to lay the groundwork for the "miracle".  If so, it seems Brother would be the best choice, since the Doctor just up and left him in a field to watch over England forever.

He'll be making that creepy stalker face for all eternity, otherwise.

Leaks about future Miracle Day episodes refer to the organization behind it all as "The Three Families" (thus the triangle).  Maybe they're three separate alien species, each a family, coming together for whatever nefarious shit aliens get up to in the Torchwood/Doctor Who universe, who knows.  More than likely whoever's behind all this is someone/thing completely new and I'm just spinning my wheels.  But it'd be neat to see more ties between Torchwood and its parent show, no matter how remote, because as much as I respect the show is supposed to develop into its own thing, I'd like to see evidence that it's still in the same universe, you know?

3 comments:

  1. I have a few theories of my own, nuber one being that this is the series where Jack becomes the Face of Bo, without the body( first episode, Jack gets the doc to remove the bombers head, and it's still alive...eww), but this could only happen at the end of the series, when Jack has his immortality back.
    The Family of Blood reference is, I think, a red herring, being used to throw you off the scent, so to speak, since Jack wasn't even in those episodes, and therefore has no reference to them in the Whoiverse. They were more of a Time Lord problem, than a time cop problem ;)
    Wouldn't it be nice to have one of the Doctors, (or maybe more!) cameo in with this series, as maybe a tie-in to the Good Man Goes To War part 2?
    Just thoughts I'm thinking of while I wait for the next ep :)
    Cheers from NZ

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  2. I have been thinking for a few episodes now that a great tie in to Doctor Who would be if this was all attached to The Silence. We know they are coming back in part 2 of series 6. Even though the Doctor got them kicked off earth with the whole "you should kill us all on site" message. They definitely have a plan for earth. Also, I feel it has to tie in somehow because it is the same universe and both story arcs are on too large a scale to not be noticed by the others (meaning The Doctor would find out if no one on earth could die, and Torchwood would be affect by an alien race that controlled the entire world for decades or longer). Maybe I just want this to happen so I'm seeing patterns in things that aren't there, but there has been a lot of talk during Torchwood about how whoever is responsible for the miracle has been around for a long time, and has been planning it for a long time but is hidden to everyone. Even the major players seem to know nothing. Especially now with this Owens guy from Phicorp saying that Phicorp is profiting by seeming to have been doing exactly what they needed to do to prepare...but it all seemed to happen by coincidence. As though maybe, The Silence found a way to continue controlling the outcome of humanity's future. This is just an idea, but I alsowanted to get it down...just in case I'm right. Even the timing of the series suggests a connection. Doctor who takes a break, Torchwood airs, Doctor Who comes back near the end to finish the story. I don't think we are gonna see The Doctor in Torchwood, nor Torchwood making an appearance in Doctor Who. I just think Torchwood: Miracle Day will be another side, Jack's side, of what is happening in the Doctor Who Universe

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  3. Thoroughly enjoying Miracle day, whilst watching I had a theory that based around the cybermen - whether they had returned and needed to produce more, so what better way than to make ever lasting humans ? Ever lasting humans: ever lasting cybermen ? Although the burning part of it kinda threw my theory off balance, thinking why would cybermen burn what they need ? But who knows, im stoked to find out ! :D

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