The New World (TV story)

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.

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 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 receptionist and blown up the building. Jack and Esther jump into a swimming 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.

Cast

 * Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Rex Matheson - Mekhi Phifer
 * Esther Drummond - Alexa Havins
 * Oswald Danes - Bill Pullman
 * Dr. Vera Juarez - Arlene Tur
 * Noah Vickers - Paul James
 * Charlotte Willis - Marina Benedict
 * Alexander Peterssen - Brian Guest
 * Geraint Cooper - William Thomas
 * Mary Cooper - Sharon Morgan
 * Andy Davidson - Tom Price
 * Senior professor Victor Louis Santini - Ron Butler
 * Rosita - Bunnie Rivera
 * Joan Cabina - Heather Ann Smith
 * Senior Guard Cole - Rocky McMurray
 * Female hiker - Penny Bunton
 * Male hiker - Phil Nice
 * Male professor - Clint Jung
 * Female expert - Laura Gardner
 * Female anchor - Nischelle Turner
 * Female anchor - Jackie Torres
 * Female anchor - Jessica Matthews
 * Male anchor - David Grant Wright
 * Male anchor - Jim Castillo
 * TV journalist - Ellen Fox
 * Senior male anchor - Rick Chambers
 * Archivist - Van Epperson
 * British Professor - Robin Sachs
 * Angry nurse - Lauri Hendler
 * Teenage girl - Carla Jeffery
 * Nurse - Charlene Lovings
 * Male nurse - Hymnson Chan
 * Flight attendant - Laura Morgan
 * Anwen Williams - Unknown

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)

TBA (BBC)

Myths
to be added

Filming locations
to be added

Production errors

 * 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".

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