Miracle Day

This article is about the in-universe event. "Miracle Day" is also the umbrella title for series 4 of Torchwood.

"Miracle Day" was the name given to the day in early 2011 on which humans on Earth stopped dying.

The extent of Miracle Day. (TW: The New World)

History

Without any immediately obvious cause, awareness of the event took time to develop. One of the earliest survivals was Oswald Danes, a convicted prisoner in the United States about to be executed; although his lethal injection was carried out flawlessly, the only effect was intense but temporary pain from the drugs. As hours passed, doctors around the planet began to realise that deaths of patients under their care (such as Rex Matheson, who was impaled by a metal pole) had abruptly dropped to zero. Age, disease, trauma, and all other normally fatal conditions continued to hurt and debilitate their victims, but without killing them. The level of damage to the body did not matter. Extreme examples include an attempted suicide bomber whose entire body was almost totally burned and pulverized but who retained some degree of consciousness even after his head was detached from the rest of his body, and a CIA agent whose neck was broken, but who managed to stand and stumble away, her head facing backward. News media and the general public also began to realise the change. Eventually, the name of the event emerged on the back of the word "miracle," which began to trend across social networking sites.

The only thing that seemed to completly kill humans was complete incineration; so long as the bodies remained intact to a certain degree, consciousness and life was still possible to a point, but otherwise human beings would continue to exist despite the impossibility of death or recovery. Even detached body parts would still be animated. However it was later discovered that jumping off a tall enough building caused people to be forever unconcious, yet not dead, allowing suicide to exist to a certain degree.

Unlike the rest of humanity, Jack Harkness, previously an immortal, became vulnerable to injury and death and also began aging at a normal rate. It was initially unclear if this was a deliberate effect of Miracle Day or if whatever process made humanity immortal simply 'crossed wires' and made him mortal instead.

Beyond medical effects, individuals and societies started to react to Miracle Day in myriad ways:

• Due to an unexpected legal loophole, Oswald Danes was released from prison. (TW: The New World)
• Fighting in Somalia ceased, as the combatants could no longer stand to fight enemies that would not die. (TW: The New World)
• The North Korean regime viewed its population as immortal soldiers and began to mobilise troops along its border with South Korea. (TW: The New World)
• In Cardiff, friends and family of those who should have died held vigils outside a city hospital. (TW: The New World)
• Operating under the 456 protocols, the Central Intelligence Agency detained former members of Torchwood on British soil for rendition to the US. (TW: The New World)
• Gwen Cooper and her family emerged from protective isolation to visit Gwen's stricken but still living father in Cardiff. (TW: The New World)
• Tutsi in Rwanda bashed in the heads of Hutu villagers and ran over them with bulldozers. (TW: Rendition)
• India's Prime Minister called for peace with Pakistan, reasoning that they should all make the best of the single life they now had. (TW: Rendition)
• Doctor Vera Juarez ordered an immediate and radical change to long-established emergency room triage procedures - treating minor injuries before major ones, in order to free hospital beds for the inevitable increase in patients. (TW: Rendition)
• Protestors in Egypt rioted, attacking the 'Western Miracle'. (TW: Dead of Night)
• Apparent actual deaths were reported but turned out to be hoaxes. (TW: Dead of Night)
• Candlelight vigils of masked individuals calling themselves the Soulless began, reasoning that eternal life had robbed mankind of their souls. (TW: Dead of Night)
• The percentage of pregnancies that aborted due to birth defects no longer aborted, while retaining the genetic anomalies, resulting in the potential of babies being born without faces or with exposed brains. (TW: Dead of Night)
• Rumours of contraceptives being put into drinking water in China or Japan to control the expanding population growth.
• Police were no longer even allowed to accuse people of 'murder' even in situations where a husband had strangled his wife for so long that her brain had 'died' of oxygen starvation and her larynx was nearly crushed. (TW: Dead of Night)
• Life was divided into categories; Category 3 was normal with no life threatening injuries, Category 2 was fatal injuries or illness (but still alive and concious die to the miracle), and Category 1 was effectively dead, usually deemed as uncincious and unlikely ever to wake up (Although this system failed due to such issues as Category 1 patients recovering from the worst of their injuries over time). (TW: The Categories of Life)
• Governments were forced to set up "overflow camps" (TW: Escape to LA), in which Category 1 and 2 patients were kept. However, these were, in effect, glorified concentration camps, with Category 1 patients being burned alive. (TW: The Categories of Life)

Without death, the human population began to swell rapidly, increasing pressure on resources and on the species itself. The lack of deaths from any disease and the need to keep treating the sick with new medicines was expected to give viruses and bacteria the chance to evolve into unstoppable "superbugs." It was estimated that within four months, Miracle Day would cause a complete environmental and social collapse. (TW: The New World, Rendition)

Notable Survivals

These are notable cases of people surviving due to Miracle Day along with the condition that would have caused their death:

• Oswald Danes - lethal injection. (TW: The New World)
• Rex Matheson - impaled with a pole, stabbed with a pen in the same place twice by Colin Maloney. (TW: The New World)
• CIA Archivist - shot by suicide bomber, blown up by the suicide bomber. (TW: The New World)
• Suicide Bomber - shot by Captain Jack, at the centre of an explosion, decapitated by a surgeon. (TW: The New World)
• Helicopter Flyer - in a helicopter blown up by Gwen Cooper. (TW: The New World)
• Helicopter Machine Gunner - in a helicopter blown up by Gwen Cooper. (TW: The New World)
• Lyn Peterfield - broken neck. (TW: Rendition)
• Strangled Woman - a woman who was strangled by her husband so much that her larnyx was crushed, causing brain death. The husband was charged with nothing but a caution. (TW: Dead of Night)
• Security man - had a rope tied tightly round his neck that would have stopped him breathing. (TW: Escape to LA)
• The Gentleman - shot multiple times by Rex Matheson. (TW: Escape to LA)
• Ellis Hartley Monroe - in a crushed car. (TW: Escape to LA)
• Geraint Cooper - three heart attacks that would have presumably been fatal. (TW: The Categories of Life)
• Zheng Yibao - jumped off a high building, causing him to be unconcious forever but not "dead". (TW: The Middle Men)
• Colin Maloney - strangled by Esther Drummond, shot twice by Ralph. (TW: The Middle Men)
• Armed Guard - shot multiple times by SWAT team officer, shot in the head by Andy Davidson. (TW: Immortal Sins)