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Crack force

4.10
Writers: Russell T Davies, Jane Espenson
Director: Bill Gierhart

THE ONE WHERE Jack’s blood stops the Miracle.

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VERDICT How can an episode that features a Mexican stand-off on opposite sides of the world be so disappointing? But it exemplifies what’s wrong and what's right with this finale. There are some emotional, shocking and spectacular moments that grip you (Gwen’s opening speech, Charlotte’s betrayal, Gwen shooting Jack, Esther’s scarily casual death, Gwen’s fight with Jilly) but none of them can overcome the fact that you’re sitting there going, “Is that it? The whole 10 episodes has been about a misunderstood crack?” There’s far too much standing around spouting technobabble (bordering on pseudo-theology) or discussing banking crises, so that by the time the fireworks do come you’ve pretty much lost interest.
Like we feared after last week, Oswald has been a mere plot device all along being engineered into position to provide a handy diversion for the heroes in the climax . What a waste of time his whole plotline was.
The families look like they could have been interesting adversaries if they hadn’t been introduced at five minutes to climax.

It’s all so frustrating, because there are flashes of brilliance, when characters affect you, when dialogue moves you when plot twists surprise you and when explosions dazzle you. But none of that cancels out the huge, great, yawning disappointment that the big revelation is irritatingly vague and amorphous, and that the big resolution involves a lot of nattering and a wearying succession of noble sacrifices (with an equally wearying number of surprise resurrections). Torchwood: Miracle Day , it seems, was never interested in the rich moral, social, economic, political and religious issues of living forever. Shame, really.

TWIST OR STICK? Were we supposed to be shocked by Rex’s resurrection at the very end of the show? Surely the fact he survived being drained of blood had tipped us off already?

LMFAO Loved Jack’s spiel about Silurians, Racnoss, the Doctor, etc, then admitting he didn’t have a clue what was going on about.

BEST LINE
Gwen: “How much bloody lipstick can you wear?”

Dave Golder

Dave is a TV and film journalist who specializes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. He's written books about film posters and post-apocalypses, alongside writing for SFX Magazine for many years.