Trivia / Torchwood: Miracle Day

• Executive Meddling: Bill Pullman mentioned in an interview that Oswald Danes ended up dying because the lawyers said so. Not that we can blame them, but still.
• Exiled from Continuity: Its never been confirmed, but its parent show has never referenced the events of Miracle Day on any level, and even the Big Finish series of audio books don't appear to reference the series either (although this has been attributed to rights issues, as the American co-production means elements from Miracle Day are not covered by the Torchwood license). Ironic, considering Russell T. Davies' reasoning for not recasting or changing anything when crossing the pond was to do with keeping continuity with Torchwoods' parent series. It would take until 11 years later for Torchwood to be mentioned again.
• Franchise Killer: Sadly, the fourth season of Torchwood did not sate everyone's palate. Since it aired, no new television stories have been produced and the series came to a grinding halt for several years. After hibernating, it has shifted into audioplay-format releases as part of Big Finish's line of Doctor Who-related productions, with fifth and sixth seasons being made under the titles Aliens Among Us and God Among Us, as well as monthly standalone releases that continue to this day. BBC America also seems keen on omitting this season from their reruns (to be fair, Miracle Day was made by a different company, and thus requires a different deal).
• Life Imitates Art: Oswald Danes is saved from execution by the Miracle. His lawyers successfully argue that he should be paroled since the death sentence has technically been carried out. In 2015, an American prisoner named Benjamin Schreiber went into septic shock and was clinically dead before doctors managed to revive him. He later argued that this meant his life sentence had been served and he should therefore be set free. The courts disagreed.
• Troubled Production: While production wasn't a complete trainwreck by any means, there were nonetheless a few problems along the way. Firstly, Starz demanded an increase in the number of episodes from 6 to 13, eventually resulting in 10 episodes being decided on as a compromise. Then, Russell T. Davies' partner was diagnosed with cancer, forcing Davies to spend time away from the production and eventually hand over showrunning duties to Jane Espenson. Filming was less problematic, but Bharat Nalluri, who was intended to be the lead director for the series, ended up quitting after just one episode, resulting in a bunch of different directors working on the show over the course of the season.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The series was come upon after the series creator Russell T Davies found his efforts to sell the format rights to the major American networks were hitting a brick wall. Davies wanted to retain continuity ties to the British series, including John Barrowman in the lead role, whereas most of the people he was in talks with at the networks suggested remaking the show wholesale for American audiences, including recasting all of the lead roles, as well as downplaying/dropping Jack's omnisexuality (details vary on the full extent of this). Davies eventually found Starz Entertainment, who were the only guys that were happy to make a true co-production to Davies's specifications.
  • In the DVD Commentary for "The Blood Line", Davies talked about an early version of the Miracle Day storyline that would have run for thirteen episodes which was devised by himself, Jane Espenson and Chris Chibnall. In this storyline, many of the episodes would have been the same but "Immortal Sins" would have killed off Andy Davidson and he would have become a Category One; this may have also been in a different place in the thirteen-episode version. The final two episodes would have been "The Blood Line" up until the thirteenth episode in which the Blessing would have started to kill people in Shanghai and Buenos Aires, resulting in the Blessing sites having to be blown up and destroyed.
  • The original names for Oswald Danes and Esther Drummond were Oswald Jones (yet another Jones) and Esther Katusi. The casting calls had Rex Matheson as white and Esther as unspecified non-white rather than the other way around. Enver Gjokaj and Chad Michael Murray both tried out for the part of Rex (which is funny, since they were both later on Agent Carter) and Amber Stevens tried out for the part of Esther.
  • In a humorous vein, the commentary for the finale says that all the way until shooting, there was to be a gag during the funeral scene of the camera pulling back to show a line of hearses stretching around the block indicating that at least two dozen funerals for overly late deaths were to be taking place at once.
  • James Marsters expressed an interest in returning as Captain John Hart.

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