56 Days left and I am so relieved! Why am I revealed? Because today the list of episode titles for Torchwood: Miracle Day was released and I am officially not a snitch! I can now admit that a source told me the titles for episodes 2 and 3 MONTHS ago and I somehow managed to keep my mouth shut. Not because I don't love you all, but because I was told this in confidence and I didn't want to break that. In fact I told Mickie I found out something when I did and she got really mad at me for not telling her, then felt bad about getting upset, it was pretty cute.
But back to why we're here, episode titles hooray! Here's the list in order each followed by my commentary as to what they could possible mean, or random ramblings, we'll see how this goes:
1. The New World
The New World eh? Well doesn't that sound a bit familiar! In case you weren't around then (or paying attention) the original title of Series 4 of Torchwood was Torchwood: The New World. They of course later changed it to Torchwood: Miracle Day a change they announced along with the series plot. I definitely thought that maybe this was the title all along and new world was just a dummy title to not give anything away. Someone who works on the show told me that's not the case and this episode title certainly seems to confirm that. What do I think of it? It seems fitting. I imagine this first episode to be about the "new world" as in the world as it is now as opposed to then, the then being Torchwood past. This may be referring to a world without Torchwood and Jack and so on, a world that we'll see fall to pieces with the appearance of the Miracle Day Dilemma (MDD).
2. Rendition
Rendition. When I first heard this title those month ago I really had no clue what to make of it. I just kept thinking of renditions of a song and then I thought of John Barrowman renditions of a song and then I was talking myself out of believing this episode could have anything to do with Copacabana. That being said if Jack wanted to give us his rendition of Manilow or anything, who am I to argue? Can you IMAGINE Jack singing on the show? I know I can, makes me think of that episode of Angel, wait what? Shhh I am getting off topic and that's another blog for another day, what was I saying? Rendition, right...
(from Dictionary.com - I cheat, I always cheat)
ren·di·tion (rn-dshn) n.
1. The act of rendering.
2. An interpretation of a musical score or a dramatic piece.
3. A performance of a musical or dramatic work.
4. A translation, often interpretive.
5. A surrender.
I always thought of rendition as meaning something like 2 and 4. An interpretation, not necessarily musical, a new version of something previously established. So this to me would seem to imply a new rendition of Torchwood, the team. I don't know if that's the case considering how early it is, maybe it's a new rendition of their lives or of the world. That would make sense. But, since I did cheat...wouldn't it be so writer like to title the episode after number 5? What if rendition is a surrender? Well that could mean a lot of things. It could be an enemy surrendering, it could be surrendering to circumstances out of your control or it could be surrendering to the inevitable. I think if this is the definition they are working with it's most likely a surrender of the characters to a life in Torchwood. But I'm really just think typing...
3. Dead Of Night
I can go really abstract here, I can look for deep meanings and nods to song lyrics but since I rambled so much in the last one and I'm really not sure what to make this out as, I'm gonna keep it short...Dead of Night...it's dark...it's a dark time. Ok? Moving on...
4. Escape To L.A.
This is a good title. I love my Torchwood characters escaping to LA! They are running to me and it's because of this episode and those that follow that I got see some filming and got to meet John Barrowman. What is this episode going to be about? I imagine about escaping to LA? Torchwood going to LA? Bad guys going to LA? Someone I think...may be going to LA. I could be wrong.
5. The Categories Of Life
"You people and your quaint little categories" Oh come on! You were all thinking it too! I did get a smile form this title because of the reminder of the Jack moment and because it make me think of Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. Which is only the case because I am a giant philosophy nerd, but what are the chances that this is what it's about?
Wait...a....second...
Follow me on this (dumbed down for your non-boring pleasure - with only the important bits) the categorical imperative is a philosophy that talks about willing universal laws. Wait, let me try this...the first formulation of Kant's Categorical Imperative says the following:
"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction."
I'm trying really hard not to turn this into a philosophy essay what I want to get to is the idea of universal laws. Pretty much an action is tested for morality in one way by testing it's universibility. Can you will that everyone in the world always act in that way? An example Kant uses is lying. If everyone always lied than no one would believe anyone and so forth. It's not the point. What I am trying to get at is the idea of making something universal, like Jack's immortality. It is an interesting reading of the situation because I often wonder about Jack's reaction, if he could will that his immortality become universal. That's also actually also on my to-blog about list, we'll get into that more sometime. What I am getting at is this episode title could be a nod to philosophy geeks or I may be reading too much into this, as I do so many things. Ok I'll shut up now.
6. The Middle Men
Ah yes, the men in the middle. They aren't on one side or another, top or bottom, they are the Jan Brady of our tale. Middle Men, oh dear. Don't really know what to make of this. Hmmm, nope, I got nothing.
7. Immortal Sins
Immortal sins or sins of the immortal? This gets me all philosophy-feeling again. Have you guys ever heard of the Ring of Gyges? It's pretty much the ring in The Lord of the RIngs without all the evil baggage. It's a ring of invisibility and it's a story told to demonstrate how people who are impervious to punishment or failure would turn to evil. This makes me think I could be right about the human threat that I discussed in my 64 Days blog. I'll spare this blog the legnth by not rehashing, but by all means check out that blog.
8. End Of The Road
Well the end of the road. The title and the placement in the series suggests this is the choice episode. All the difficult choices our heros have to face will likely happen around here. Sacrifices will be made, lives will be, well OK lives won't be lost, but sacrifices maybe. End of the road, could be a lot of things, too soon to really guess.
9. The Gathering
I think this one will have to do with the group of people in the unhappy face masks? Maybe? Gathering together? For a reason? I don't really know. This could just be the world coming together to fight for a unified cause, it could be a gathering of the team, it could be calling on old friends, lots of ways this could go. If you don't know about the unhappy face masks check out my 70 Days blog for that clip.
10. The Blood Line
A line of blood, like a conga line of people dying? Maybe they will pan out and we'll see massive world deaths domino style. No? Maybe not? The first thing I see is the word blood which makes me think we're gonna have the massive world-wide death scene at the end like I supposed in my 90 Days blog. I know it seems like I am linking to a lot of blogs but it's because a lot of these thoughts have been covered, some of which I didn't even link to. Maybe you should just read them all? It'll give you something to do while we wait, that is the idea after all. Where was I? Blood line, sounds death-ish, s'pose only time will tell.
~End individual episode thoughts~
But, there is one thing I wanted to mention before I go. While I was writing this blog a lot of the episode titles sounded familiar and it got me googling.With exception of episode 5 all of the titles are exact or approximate movie titles. 5 may be as well but I couldn't find it. It's my experience with the work of brilliant tv writers that nothing is ever a coincidence, even if the movies don't give us further insight into the episode, the naming was almost certainly intentional. Even if it was just for the sake of having fun with it. Just thought I'd point that out.
So what do you all make of the episode titles? Do you think I am reading too much into something as simple as a title? Any theories of your own? xx
<3Dana
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But back to why we're here, episode titles hooray! Here's the list in order each followed by my commentary as to what they could possible mean, or random ramblings, we'll see how this goes:
1. The New World
The New World eh? Well doesn't that sound a bit familiar! In case you weren't around then (or paying attention) the original title of Series 4 of Torchwood was Torchwood: The New World. They of course later changed it to Torchwood: Miracle Day a change they announced along with the series plot. I definitely thought that maybe this was the title all along and new world was just a dummy title to not give anything away. Someone who works on the show told me that's not the case and this episode title certainly seems to confirm that. What do I think of it? It seems fitting. I imagine this first episode to be about the "new world" as in the world as it is now as opposed to then, the then being Torchwood past. This may be referring to a world without Torchwood and Jack and so on, a world that we'll see fall to pieces with the appearance of the Miracle Day Dilemma (MDD).
2. Rendition
Rendition. When I first heard this title those month ago I really had no clue what to make of it. I just kept thinking of renditions of a song and then I thought of John Barrowman renditions of a song and then I was talking myself out of believing this episode could have anything to do with Copacabana. That being said if Jack wanted to give us his rendition of Manilow or anything, who am I to argue? Can you IMAGINE Jack singing on the show? I know I can, makes me think of that episode of Angel, wait what? Shhh I am getting off topic and that's another blog for another day, what was I saying? Rendition, right...
(from Dictionary.com - I cheat, I always cheat)
ren·di·tion (rn-dshn) n.
1. The act of rendering.
2. An interpretation of a musical score or a dramatic piece.
3. A performance of a musical or dramatic work.
4. A translation, often interpretive.
5. A surrender.
I always thought of rendition as meaning something like 2 and 4. An interpretation, not necessarily musical, a new version of something previously established. So this to me would seem to imply a new rendition of Torchwood, the team. I don't know if that's the case considering how early it is, maybe it's a new rendition of their lives or of the world. That would make sense. But, since I did cheat...wouldn't it be so writer like to title the episode after number 5? What if rendition is a surrender? Well that could mean a lot of things. It could be an enemy surrendering, it could be surrendering to circumstances out of your control or it could be surrendering to the inevitable. I think if this is the definition they are working with it's most likely a surrender of the characters to a life in Torchwood. But I'm really just think typing...
3. Dead Of Night
I can go really abstract here, I can look for deep meanings and nods to song lyrics but since I rambled so much in the last one and I'm really not sure what to make this out as, I'm gonna keep it short...Dead of Night...it's dark...it's a dark time. Ok? Moving on...
4. Escape To L.A.
This is a good title. I love my Torchwood characters escaping to LA! They are running to me and it's because of this episode and those that follow that I got see some filming and got to meet John Barrowman. What is this episode going to be about? I imagine about escaping to LA? Torchwood going to LA? Bad guys going to LA? Someone I think...may be going to LA. I could be wrong.
5. The Categories Of Life
"You people and your quaint little categories" Oh come on! You were all thinking it too! I did get a smile form this title because of the reminder of the Jack moment and because it make me think of Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative. Which is only the case because I am a giant philosophy nerd, but what are the chances that this is what it's about?
Wait...a....second...
Follow me on this (dumbed down for your non-boring pleasure - with only the important bits) the categorical imperative is a philosophy that talks about willing universal laws. Wait, let me try this...the first formulation of Kant's Categorical Imperative says the following:
"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction."
I'm trying really hard not to turn this into a philosophy essay what I want to get to is the idea of universal laws. Pretty much an action is tested for morality in one way by testing it's universibility. Can you will that everyone in the world always act in that way? An example Kant uses is lying. If everyone always lied than no one would believe anyone and so forth. It's not the point. What I am trying to get at is the idea of making something universal, like Jack's immortality. It is an interesting reading of the situation because I often wonder about Jack's reaction, if he could will that his immortality become universal. That's also actually also on my to-blog about list, we'll get into that more sometime. What I am getting at is this episode title could be a nod to philosophy geeks or I may be reading too much into this, as I do so many things. Ok I'll shut up now.
6. The Middle Men
Ah yes, the men in the middle. They aren't on one side or another, top or bottom, they are the Jan Brady of our tale. Middle Men, oh dear. Don't really know what to make of this. Hmmm, nope, I got nothing.
7. Immortal Sins
Immortal sins or sins of the immortal? This gets me all philosophy-feeling again. Have you guys ever heard of the Ring of Gyges? It's pretty much the ring in The Lord of the RIngs without all the evil baggage. It's a ring of invisibility and it's a story told to demonstrate how people who are impervious to punishment or failure would turn to evil. This makes me think I could be right about the human threat that I discussed in my 64 Days blog. I'll spare this blog the legnth by not rehashing, but by all means check out that blog.
8. End Of The Road
Well the end of the road. The title and the placement in the series suggests this is the choice episode. All the difficult choices our heros have to face will likely happen around here. Sacrifices will be made, lives will be, well OK lives won't be lost, but sacrifices maybe. End of the road, could be a lot of things, too soon to really guess.
9. The Gathering
I think this one will have to do with the group of people in the unhappy face masks? Maybe? Gathering together? For a reason? I don't really know. This could just be the world coming together to fight for a unified cause, it could be a gathering of the team, it could be calling on old friends, lots of ways this could go. If you don't know about the unhappy face masks check out my 70 Days blog for that clip.
10. The Blood Line
A line of blood, like a conga line of people dying? Maybe they will pan out and we'll see massive world deaths domino style. No? Maybe not? The first thing I see is the word blood which makes me think we're gonna have the massive world-wide death scene at the end like I supposed in my 90 Days blog. I know it seems like I am linking to a lot of blogs but it's because a lot of these thoughts have been covered, some of which I didn't even link to. Maybe you should just read them all? It'll give you something to do while we wait, that is the idea after all. Where was I? Blood line, sounds death-ish, s'pose only time will tell.
~End individual episode thoughts~
But, there is one thing I wanted to mention before I go. While I was writing this blog a lot of the episode titles sounded familiar and it got me googling.With exception of episode 5 all of the titles are exact or approximate movie titles. 5 may be as well but I couldn't find it. It's my experience with the work of brilliant tv writers that nothing is ever a coincidence, even if the movies don't give us further insight into the episode, the naming was almost certainly intentional. Even if it was just for the sake of having fun with it. Just thought I'd point that out.
So what do you all make of the episode titles? Do you think I am reading too much into something as simple as a title? Any theories of your own? xx
<3Dana
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