Torchwood: Miracle Day and Web of Lies Debut Finales

As any self-respecting Doctor Whooligan knows, the Torchwood: Miracle Day companion series Web of Lies is releasing its tenth and final episode this Saturday, one day after the Torchwood: Miracle Day finale airs on Starz.

The series is a unique blend of short three to five-minute motion comic episodes (a la Showtime’s Dexter: Early Cuts) that contain mini-games (puzzles, word combinations, etc.) that must be solved in order to advance the story.

It’s an interesting way to tell a side-tale and certainly fleshes out the Torchwood universe, but that fleshing out will cost you. A Web of Lies preview is free on YouTube, but the entire 10-part companion series is available exclusively through an app for the iPad and iPhone, costing $2.99 for the entire catalog or $.99 for three episode bundles.

For those of you not watching Torchwood: Miracle Day, the story follows Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), former members of the British organization Torchwood (which – again as any self-respecting Doctor Whooligan will tell you – is an anagram of “Doctor Who”), as they are pulled into a conspiracy around “Miracle Day.” Miracle Day is the day when everyone, everywhere, is no longer able to die (which is explored in some disturbing ways in the program and makes for some great inebriated/intellectual conversations in print).

Web of Lies is a parallel

story that revolves around Holly (Eliza Dushku) as she tries to unravel a conspiracy connected to Miracle Day after her brother is shot. Holly’s story is connected to an event in 2007 featuring the abduction of Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper’s attempt to rescue him. Flashing back and forth between the two timelines, Web of Lies follows the plot of the television series, but offers new information only available to people watching the digital series.

Written by Streamy Award-winning Jane Espenson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse) and Ryan Scott (Torchwood: Miracle Day) and produced by BBC Worldwide, Web of Lies is a great example of using digital video to supplement an existing television property. Similar to how Showtime approached the aforementioned Dexter: Early Cuts, Espenson, Scott, and BBC Worldwide are using digital video to expand the season-long arc of a show into something more than what’s on TV. The program is a fun extra to what most Doctor Whooligans would call a too-short 10-episode season. It’s something superfans will appreciate and the casual Starz-watchers who don’t know a TARDIS from a Jigowatt won’t care if they’ve missed.

Purchase your very own digital copy of Torchwood: Web of Lies here. And if you live anywhere near Streampunk, Brooklyn, I recommend you take your iPhone or iPad and your person to this bar to consume the content.