The New World (TV story)

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The New World was the first episode of the fourth series of Torchwood.

Synopsis

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. [1]

Plot

Oswald Danes is about to be put to death by lethal injection. As he is receiving the fatal concoction, he starts thrashing around on the gurney. At the CIA, Esther Drummond is on the phone with Rex Matheson, who keeps asking "what is Torchwood anyway?" As Esther is talking he is impaled by metal rods that fall from the truck ahead. All of a sudden all instances of the word Torchwood are wiped from the system. Esther claims it is must have been a virus. Gwen Cooper, former Torchwood agent, has woken up from a nightmare. Oswald is talking to a governor's assistant whom Oswald tells he can't be held and executed again because of the Eighth and Fifth Amendments. Gwen is talking to her daughter Anwen, telling her about a singing alien she once met but Rhys walks in, upset she is talking to their baby about Torchwood. They complain about the number of helicopters that fly over their private estate of land, and are quick to pick up guns when the doorbell rings. Rhys placates Gwen as she has a panic attack, telling her that the Torchwood days are over. They recieve a phone call from Gwen's mother telling her that her father is in hospital, and they rush back to Cardiff, despite Rhys's warnings. Her father is still alive due to the Miracle but still unwell, with both her parents telling her that she shouldn't have come; "What if somebody sees you?"

Rex Matheson is taken to hospital and Esther is told that his survival of such an accident was a "Miracle", of which there has been a lot of in the last 24 hours. Soon all the headlines are naming this day as Miracle Day, as no-one on the entire planet has died, but people soon begin to be concerned. Rex is soon recovering and talking to Esther on his mobile, realising that the Torchwood files were uncovered at the exact moment when the last person died/first minute of no deaths. This prompts Esther to go looking for hard copies of the lost data, which were all categorised under 456 files. She goes and finds the buried hard copies of all the data among boxes and files, discovering pictures of Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen, but is interrupted by Jack appearing behind her, shooting at a suicide bomber who had "killed" the archivist and blown up the building. Jack and Esther jump into a fountain pool below. Jack tells Esther everything about Torchwood, Gwen and Extra-Terrestrial Lifeforms, and then gives her a dose of the 'smart drug' Retcon - a selective amnesia pill.

Esther wakes up and finds a rash on her body, Jack later goes to same hospital Rex is in, where they have the remains of the suicide bomber, the man is still alive even though his whole body was burnt by the explosion, they attempt to detach the head and the head of the man is still alive. Rex secretly watches the operation via hacking into the security cameras. He tells Esther to book him a flight to the UK, and Rex goes to Heathrow airport. He drives to Gwen and Rhys's house in Wales, and he demands they tell him about Torchwood, but a helicopter flies to the house and the pilot fires a missile at the house. Gwen, Rhys, and Rex run and see Jack fireing at the Helicopter, as they attempt to drive away Gwen shoots the Helicopter down with a missile launcher. The group arrive in Cardiff and Rex orders the police to arrest Jack, Gwen, and Rhys.

Cast

Crew

US unit

UK unit

References

  • Jack uses the alias Owen Harper.
  • Gwen and Rhys have gone into hiding, seemingly under a witness protection program.
  • UNIT and Geneva are referenced.
  • The numbers 456 appears again.
  • Rendition is when an individual is taken from one legal jurisdiction to another. Matheson justifies his rendition of what remains of Torchwood Three by citing US Code 3184. In real life, this section of code actually does have to do with taking fugitives from another country to the United States.

Story notes

  • Oswald Danes's release from prison plays with the audience's expectations. According to old American frontier legend, anyone who survives an execution is automatically set free. As this legend is actually untrue, the episode depicts a series of legal arguments — including unlawful imprisonment and force majeure arguments — that lead to Danes's release.

Ratings

1.51 millions (Starz)

4.83 millions (BBC)

Myths

to be added

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.
  • The first time Rex has his phone taken from him on the plane, the arm is bare. However, during the flashback, the arm is covered with Jack's vortex manipulator and sleeve. This is apparently deliberate to keep Jack's identity hidden.
  • A television station covering Danes' parole, KCNU, has an on-screen graphic identifying it as being based in Kentucky. This is an impossibility, as all Kentucky stations (and nearly all US broadcast stations east of the Mississippi River) start with the letter "W". --This is partially true. In the 1930s, the Federal Communications Commission started the requirement of 4-letter "W" stations east of and 4-letter "K" stations west of the Mississippi river. There are five stations east of the Mississippi with 'grandfathered' call letters beginning with a K and two west of the Mississippi beginning with a W.

Continuity

  • Esther finds files that show pictures of the 456 incident. (TW: Children of Earth)
  • Esther also sees a picture of Jack, actually a publicity still from DW: The Empty Child.
  • Gwen is said to have joined Torchwood in October 2006, the time the first episode of Torchwood aired. However, it was actually 2007, as Gwen joined Torchwood a year after the Doctor accidentally brought Rose Tyler to 2006 instead of 2005. (TW: Everything Changes, DW: Aliens of London)
  • Jack's comment about being "plain old human" after losing his immortality is similar to comments made by the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor in DW: Journey's End.
  • After Esther comments about how she feels responsible for Rex's life-threatening accident, Jack replies he knows the feeling, possibly referring to the deaths of many Torchwood members and his grandson, for which he previously claimed to feel responsible. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)
  • Esther asks Jack if the old photos she found of him were of his father. Rose Tyler previously used this to explain the Ninth Doctor's presence in the Kennedy assassination. (DW: Rose)
  • The scene where Gwen ties Rex to a radiator is similar to when Amy Pond once did the same thing to the Doctor (DW: The Eleventh Hour).
  • Jack uses the alias Owen Harper when infiltrating the hospital to study the bomber's remains. Owen Harper was the Torchwood medical officer who died at the conclusion of TW: Exit Wounds.

Home video releases

to be added

Footnotes

  1. ↑ http://doctorwhotv.co.uk/torchwood-miracle-day-the-new-world-22214.htm#ixzz1QgdaVZG2

External links

to be added

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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