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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Friday, August 12, 2011

Production Code

106

Written by

John Shiban

Directed by

Guy Ferland

Runtime

50 minutes

Time Travel

Present

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

LGBTQA+

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

Miracle Day

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, Los Angeles, USA, Wales

UK Viewers

4.6 million

Synopsis

With Gwen Cooper, Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond trapped on different sides of the Atlantic, it's a race against time as Jack Harkness goes straight to the heart of the conspiracy.

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3 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

This episode, ironically (given the title), feels more like a sort of middle ground. It doesn't really further the plot so much, apart from in the shock ending (which makes me really intrigued to find out what they want in Jack).

 

There are, however, some really epic moments. I loved Gwen's retort to the doctor that if you're turning a blind eye to the corruption going on, you can't call yourself a 'doctor' anymore, and her other badass moment when she just totally blows up the incinerators at the Wales concentration camp. The Ester fight scene with Vera's killer was also very, very cool, and extremely well choreographed.

 

And how cool is it to see Ernie Hudson in the Doctor Who universe? How the hell did they manage to get a Ghostbuster to appear? He must have cost a fortune!

 


WhoPotterVian

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This review contains spoilers!

Like the lesser Miracle Day episodes, this one is just okay at best. It moves the characters around, shuffles them to the next major plot point, and that's about it. Like I've said before, Miracle Day desperately needed a severe edit. Cutting out the bloat and trimming things down to a tight five episodes could have made Miracle Day as strong as Children of Earth.

Instead it meanders a lot. Worse, The Middle Men in my opinion kind of fails to follow up on the best and most tantalizing aspects of Miracle Day. Namely the brutality and inhumanity the government resorts to as they struggle with an immortal human race. It's a really neat idea but here that effect gets blunted when we are trying so hard to disclose the camps to the outside world. I do like how even after they succeed nothing really changes - that's interesting. On the other hand, though, it feels like nothing really comes out of these death camps. It's got some good shock value but the ideas aren't really explored much further than what we are initially presented with.


dema1020

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This review contains spoilers!

No one knows what’s going on! Not even Ernie Hudson! It’s almost like it’s not leading anywhere and nothing has been plotted out properly. Torchwood as 24, unravelling who is pulling the strings whilst getting away with every kind of investigation. Some good drama in this one. Gwen Cooper is in especially fine form but all the regular cast have some nice moments in this one.


15thDoctor

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AVG. Rating178 members
3.03 / 5

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AVG. Rating293 votes
3.92 / 5

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AVG. Rating37 votes
3.15 / 5

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Quotes

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GWEN: They built a concentration camp here in Britain today and you, you, you are one of the staff.

PATEL: The entire healthcare system is about to collapse. What else am I supposed to do?

GWEN: You say no. You say no, that's what you do. For the love of God, you say no.

PATEL: I can't.

GWEN: Don't you dare. Don't you dare. Don't you dare look at me and tell me you're obeying orders. Don't you bloody dare. Oh, and one more thing. Don't call yourself a doctor. Not anymore. Shame on you.

Transcript Needs checking

[Stuart's office]

(PhiCorp HQ, Los Angeles)

JANET: I pulled everything I could find on the Shanghai deal. And you're due to chair the PhiCorp executive board at four o'clock.
STUART: Thanks, Janet.
JANET: Stuart, is everything all right? You don't seem happy.
STUART: Everything's fine. We're living in miraculous times. I couldn't be happier. You shouldn't call me Stuart in the office.
JANET: Sorry, Mister Owens.

(Janet leaves.)

PSYCHIATRIST [on TV]: Of course, suicide is impossible now, but people are becoming inventive. They're finding ways to get as close to death as possible. That's the philosophy of the 45 Club. People who believe that jumping from forty five floors up or higher is the only guaranteed way to lose consciousness forever. It's sick, but just the same, the 45 Club is catching on.
INTERVIEWER [on TV]: I've seen the reports from New York, San Francisco, London, Milan. They all indicate


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