Dead of Night (TV story)

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Dead of Night was the third episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. It featured the first appearance of the Soulless masked cult, and the establishment of a new Torchwood team. It also featured Jack Harkness's first direct confrontation with Oswald Danes and a deeper, troubling look at Jilly Kitzinger's employment with the pharmaceutical company PhiCorp.

Synopsis

Torchwood goes on the run and finds a new enemy, but as they launch a raid on PhiCorp headquarters, Jack must confront the mysterious Oswald Danes.

Plot

Rex Matheson has broken into Brian Friedkin's house, while the news show that Oswald Danes has been seen by the world as an expert. Friedkin tells that "they" have been around for decades. Rex shoots near Friedkin's ear, nearly making him deaf. Rex escapes with Gwen and Jack. Rex reveals a cell phone, which was used to contact Friedkin.

A parade of masked men and women, who call themselves the Soulless, march throughout D.C., carrying candles. Jack, meanwhile, has located Rhys and Anwen. Gwen gives out mobiles purchased off Jack's account. They find that they cannot trace the call. They've hit a vine and and are tracing 500,000 calls. Jack, instead, decides to search for the cause of the morphic field. Esther Drummond finds that the CIA has blocked off a warehouse in D.C. They steal a car, and head over.

They reach 3rd on Boston Avenue. They knock out a guard and find the warehouse is just millions of painkillers from PhiCorp. Rex discovers millions more, and it dawns on them PhiCorp must have been ready for the Miracle. The NIH has realised that aborted pregnancies or miscarriages are impossible. Some countries consider putting contraceptives in their water supplies. Jilly Kitzinger attempts to bring Vera Juarez to PhiCorp, and Vera agrees to come over later.

Rex decides to meet his former instructor at Freeville Hotel. When he gets near, he notices that the CIA have already entered. They decide to again enter PhiCorp on their own. Rex leaves after an argument with Jack. Along the way to PhiCorp, Jack finds his arm is infected and decides to go drink. He meets Brad there, who loves his trench coat. Rex goes to Vera for his wound to be dressed again and they have sex. Jack and Brad also have sex.

Oswald Danes, meanwhile, is being harassed by people who want him dead. Even the police officers beat him up. Rex asks Vera for help, but she refuses. Jack, intoxicated, calls Gwen and has a long talk about how they're the only two Torchwood members left; when Jack tries to talk to her about the bond between them, Esther interrupts the call; she has found Rhys and Anwen's imprisonment area and sends a Skype to Gwen.

Jilly Kitzinger again tries to take Oswald for her employers. He agrees to take the flight to Dallas. In the morning, Vera decides that she'll try to help Rex. Rex returns to Gwen, Jack and Esther. Gwen will be fitted with the camera contact lenses, since they are isomorphic. Vera is surprised when Gwen shows up instead of Rex. They find that Oswald's there; Rex tells Gwen not to follow him. Oswald is taken to the people in dark suits. They find that PhiCorp has distributed worldwide. A senator legislates that drugs do not have to be prescribed.

Jack confronts Oswald in the waiting room of a broadcast centre by sneaking in through a window. Oswald mistakes him for one of the crew members for conducting his latest interview. He asks Jack who will be interviewing him. Unable to come up with a feasible answer, Jack gives up and threatens him with a gun. He asks Oswald why he met to PhiCorp, and if they mentioned a man named Jack Harkness. Oswald is in the dark about the purpose of his meeting and deduces Jack's name by the fact he cares about it so much. Jack then poses the burning question in his mind. Earlier, he saw a video which Oswald claimed he felt forgiven, which Jack knows is a lie, since Danes doesn't feel any remorse. Oswald decides to give him the real truth, exposing the most repugnant aspects of his sociopathic personality. He praises the fact he killed Susie Cabina because she flaunted her innocence. She bruised so easily that Oswald felt like he was "painting her" with each blow, and when she died, he felt her life force leave through him, a feeling he accuses Jack of knowing as well. Oswald relives the ecstasy every night, because it was the best moment of his life.

Jack realises Oswald's intentions for his actions — he is upset that nothing in his life will ever match up to that day. Because of this, the murderer is searching for execution, since the very act of living has become like torture. Jack, thoroughly disgusted, warns Danes that they he'll broadcast the message easily from inside the centre. Oswald deflates the threat immediately when he calls for his PhiCorp-appointed protection. Two guards emerge to take Jack. Danes decides to take out his earlier beating by two cops on Harkness, ordering the guards to "hurt him a little, but not in the face", just like how the cops brutalised him. Jack is battered by the guards and tossed out of the broadcast centre. A naive woman outside asks him if he got to touch Danes.

On the broadcast, Oswald says that PhiCorp is to be joined. The future is now infinite and frightening, but he is offering the people a hand of assistance. He calls for the people to walk with him on the journey into a great enterprise. Jack bitterly stares at the television in the display window of the broadcast centre, watching Oswald Danes twist the world around his finger.

Cast

Crew

General production staff


Camera and lighting department

Art department


 Make-up and prosthetics


General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
          

The Starz broadcast carried a final credit of "Originally Developed and Produced by BBC Cymru Wales. The BBC One broadcast says, instead, "BBC Worldwide Productions for BBC Cymru Wales and STARZ Originals".


References

Drugs and medicines

  • PhiCorp has been stockpiling pain-killing drugs for over a year.

Individuals

  • Esther Drummond has an older sister for whom she cares.
  • Esther's job at the CIA was to read and search through blogs.
  • Jack Harkness has protected sex with a bartender called Brad.
  • Ianto Jones is mentioned, and the deaths of past Torchwood members are also referenced.
  • Rex describes Jack as being a man in his forties.
  • Rex is sitting in front of the Garfield Building when Vera calls.
  • Rex and Vera Juarez have a sexual relationship. Rex had previously made a joke to Vera, asking if her ex-husband called her to ask for drugs and sex; he joked "Right now, I'll settle for the drugs".

Technology

Theories and concepts

Religion

  • A Christian preacher is on television inside the diner where Oswald is spotted by two angry American citizens, proclaiming the Miracle as an act of God.
  • Vera speaks to Dr Carey Murphy, who is a pro-life Catholic defending the humans who are born malformed due to failed abortions caused by the Miracle. She dryly tells him, "I was a Catholic too once. I got better."

Weapons

Story notes

  • The two sex scenes in the episode, one involving Jack and Brad, and another involving Vera and Rex, were seen in the US (Starz), Canadian (Space) and Australian (UKTV) broadcasts, but were edited in the UK (BBC) broadcast, with the scene between Rex and Vera excised completely. [1]
  • This is the first time in any of the Doctor Who spin-offs or main show that a woman's posterior is seen fully.
  • Unlike broadcasts of Doctor Who and previous series of Torchwood this series was broadcast in the United States, Australia and Canada before the United Kingdom.

Ratings

  • UK: 5.49 million

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • Note the car that Rex is driving when he pulls away from Gwen and Jack, leaving them behind. It's a four door car. In the next shot of Rex driving down the freeway the model of the car has changed and is now a two door car.
  • Noticeable continuity errors involving arm and prop placement are seen in the sequence where Vera smokes a cigarette as she speaks to Jilly.
  • The Eye-5's lip-reading software goofs when Gwen demonstrates them to Rex; when it plays back what Rex says to test it, the computer says Resenting instead of Representing.

Continuity

  • When Rex decides what the team should do, Jack rhetorically asks him who's giving the orders. Rex then asks Jack what they should do, and Jack repeats Rex's suggestion. Jack had a similar exchange (only with roles reversed) with the Ninth Doctor in TV: Boom Town.
  • Jack remembers Ianto Jones's death, thinking that the Miracle could have saved his life. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four)

Home video releases

This episode was released worldwide in a box set containing all ten episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day. In the United Kingdom, it was released on Region 2 DVD and Region Free Blu-ray on 14 November 2011.[2] In Australia, it was released in Region 4 DVD and Region B Blu-Ray on 1 December 2011.[3] In New Zealand, the same sets were released on 7 December 2011.[4] In North America, it was released on Region 1 DVD and Region Free Blu-Ray on 3 April 2012.[5]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Catriona Wightman (Friday, July 22 2011). 'Torchwood' sex scene changes 'make little difference', says BBC. DigitalSpy.
  2. ↑ Amazon.co.uk listing
  3. ↑ EZYDVD.com.au listing
  4. ↑ Mightyape.co.nz listing
  5. ↑ Amazon.com listing
v • e
Torchwood television stories
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Children of Earth: Day One • Day Two • Day Three • Day Four • Day Five
Series 4
Stories listed here are only those that have been officially licensed by the BBC.


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