Russell T Davies on "Torchwood: Miracle Day": "It's Shocking" and "Feels New"

Torchwood: Miracle Dayis the provocative title for the provocative minseries Starz will air starting July 1st as the next installment of the Torchwood franchise. Torchwood creator Russell T Davies appeared at the Television Critics Association along with Torchwood stars Eve Myles, Bill Pullman and Mekhi Phifer to discuss the new series with journalists during a panel for the show.

Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman, Eve Myles, Russell T Davies

Russell opened by saying that the Torchwood: The New World had never been anything but a working title. "That was a secret title to hide the real title," said Davies "which is now beknown as Torchwood: Miracle Day. That’s what this show is about, and the premise is a miracle that happens to the world. It’s as simple as this, that one day on Earth no one dies. Not a single person on Earth dies. The next day no one dies. The next day no one dies and on and on and on. Now, the sixth day, the old stay old and keep getting older. The dying keep dying, but no one quite dies. The possibility of death ceases to exist. Great news for some people, but globally — and that’s what the whole show is about. Actually, it’s an instant overnight population boom where, suddenly, the Earth relies on people dying. That’s how the whole system works: the food, the room, the temperature. So, suddenly, you’ve got a crisis affecting everyone on the planet, and that’s where the Torchwood team and our brand-new characters come in."

One of those new characters is Oswald, the show's villain played by Bill Pullman. After first joking that he's playing "the President of the United States," Pullman described his character by saying "I am a convicted murderer and a pedophile. And I’m put through lethal injections to be executed, and I live. That’s the beginning [of the series].

John Barrowman who plays Captain Jack wasn't able to participate on the panel as he was on stage in the UK, but Davies did reveal that Barrowman would soon be flying  to Los Angeles and in fact that filming was scheduled to start this coming Monday.

Asked about the fact that he had killed off quite a few of Torchwood's original castmembers and whether he had thought Children of the Earth might have been the end of the franchise, Davies said no. "It’s actually a feature of Torchwood that I think promises to hold back a lot of more straightforward science fiction shows on big networks is that you get a cast of 12, and they are all under contract for seven years. So they all stay with you for seven years. Torchwood was always at a high body count because I think it makes the story stronger and more dangerous and more frightening. You cannot guarantee who here will survive, and I think that raises the stakes for everyone."

Asked what might bring Captain Jack back to earth after the events of COE, Davies responded, "The question you are touching into is how much of a continuation this is for new and old viewers in a way because Torchwood has a history, Captain Jack has a history. It’s very important to say that, in many ways, while loving and embracing everything we have done in the past, this is a new start for Torchwood. It’s a new launch."

As to how large a role Barrowman will have in Miracle Davies was emphatic that the actor's part hadn't been diminished. "He’s a full lead role in this. He’s literally flying out on Sunday? But it’s an absolutely full, a great, big lead role because, of course, Captain Jack is an immortal, and what we are talking about is the world turns immortal. So there’s an awful lot of story packed into that.

While Davies' shows have always been very gay-inclusive, not surprising since Davies is gay himself, he's always been very clear that he doesn't write queer characters as part of some sort of agenda. Asked about GLBT themes in his work, Davies first joked that he'd just been outed, but then again emphasized the point saying, "It’s like — you know, I could get on my soapbox and say how important it is to be, but it’s not a soapbox. It’s just simply who I am is a gay man in the world, given opportunities to write on all sorts of networks, which I’m immensely grateful for, and so it’s not like — it’s not like I include gay characters because it’s my duty or anything. It’s just my nature.

"It’s simply second-nature for me to do that. It would be rather odd if I didn’t do that. And I’ve been very lucky. I think you are very lucky when you are the man who created Queer as Folk because not many people ever dare stop you, having done that. I think, if you were a new writer, people could say “Let’s with a gayness.” But, actually, seriously, the world has moved on. That doesn’t happen anymore.

"I mean, this programming Captain Jack as great, big, swaggering bisexual lead character, people don’t blink about that anymore. Certainly, no one at Starz ever even raised an eyebrow. That’s last year, you know. It’s like — it’s just been healthy and progressive. And I think the bigger an audience you can get, you know — we want a brand-new audience on Starz. We want to increase the audience on BBC One. We must sell this to 57 countries, and they can all see that on the screen, and that’s got to be good."