Categories of life

The categories of life was a system used to classify people on Earth during the events of Miracle Day, when people stopped dying. Badly injured people, Categories I and II, were taken to overflow camps. Those in Category I were secretly taken to modules and burned alive, as this seemed the only way humans could die after the Miracle occurred. In theory, the category system was necessary because the global situation was equivalent to an epidemic where victims' bodies would be burned en masse. The bodies of Category I individuals would otherwise remain eternally alive but legally dead under the new laws, and potentially infectious.

In reality, the line between the categories was thin. A Category I could become Category II, should they recover; under this system, Rex Matheson should have been killed, but healed. Likewise, a Category II could slide into Category I if they did not receive proper treatment, and individuals such as Geraint Cooper (who lapsed into a deep state of unconsciousness after suffering a stroke) were lumped into Category I along with the truly brain-dead.

Category I
Those people designated as Category I were brain dead or otherwise unable to function. In the overflow camps, Category I patients were designated with a red clothes peg and sent to the modules to be burned.

Category II
Category II consisted of those who had non-fatal injuries. In the overflow camps, Category II patients were identified with a blue peg.

Category III
Category III referred to anyone who was healthy. It referred to anyone not in Categories I or II. (TW: The Categories of Life)

Behind the Scenes

 * Esther Drummond jokingly referred to Jack Harkness as "Category Jack" due to his becoming mortal, as opposed to the rest of the planet's immortality.