Torchwood - American Style.

You know when the candidates in the Apprentice are axed and they have faces like a bag of spanners then on the Fired show, they miraculously look like film stars. Well that's the feeling I got watching Torchwood: Miracle Day. Gone is the parochial approach, where Cardiff was the white hot centre of the universe. American money has arrived and everything has a sharper sheen. Well apart from the script, Russell T Davies is still dishing out the bold statements every other sentence. But I read Jane Espenson is coming on board, so at least we'll have some snappy, urgent dialogue down the line. But just not yet.

The problem with Torchwood, like the Harry Potter films, is that they think we all know what happened last time out. I haven't a clue, so that took a while. But, that apart, it wasn't a bad opener . I mean, what other Torchwood starts with Bill Pullman being executed? It's usually a Cardiff flat with an alien in the airing cupboard. Throw in explosions, beach helicopter chases and Mekhi Phifer, from ER, tear arsing around like Jack Bauer and you can certainly see production values have been upped. The first episode alone must be BBC Four's budget for two years.

The plot is not bad, everyone immortal except for Captain Jack should have some legs to it. If Flash Forward can do twenty odd, this can certainly do ten. But what will the repercussions be? I always have a problem with all those alien invasions in Doctor Who, humanity should be traumatised for decades on the back of just one Cyberman invasion. But the bouncebackability from no death, no matter how long it lasts, surely would rumble for a century.

But at least we can look forward to Torchwood now, getting excited by what new American guest star will turn up, what special effects we will be dazzled by. Wouldn't it be good if American money could help some other BBC dramas? Think of the jolt it would give Holby City and New Tricks. Perhaps we would all watch them then.

Over