Born July 14th 1964, in Ames, Iowa, Jane Espenson wrote her first script before she had left junior school! It was perhaps inevitable that Jane would grow up to become a television writer and producer!
Many people will know Jane for her involvement in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1998-2003) writing 23 episodes and producing 88.
Since 1994 Jane Espenson’s career has seen her involved in many familiar programmes, such as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1996), Ellen (1997-1998), Angel (1998-2000), The O.C. (2003), Gilmore Girls (2003-2004), Battlestar Galactica (2006-2009), Dollhouse and Warehouse 13 (pilot) (2009), Caprica (2010), Game of Thrones (2011), Once Upon a Time (2011 till present and her new project Husbands that also began in 2011 where Jane is co-creator, having written 14 episodes and is executive producer of the show.
Back in 2011 Jane was also involved in Torchwood: Miracle Day, having written four episodes and was co-producer of the full ten episodes with Russell T Davies.
Torchwood: Miracle Day told the story of a world that never died except for Captain Jack Harkness, because where the world suddenly became immortal, Captain Jack Harkness was the only mortal man on the planet.
In episode three, “Dead of Night”, Rex and Esther have joined forces with Torchwood. They break into Friedkin’s house and take his special ‘phone’ that links directly to the Families hotline.
Captain Jack Harkness has a one night stand with Brad the barman (Dillon Casey) while Rex spends the night with Vera Juarez and recruits her to go to the seminar while Gwen goes and steals info from Kitzinger’s computer.
Oswald Danes is recruited by Phicorp on the condition he promotes their painkiller legislation.
In episode five “Categories of Life” the government sanctions categories for those who should have died but didn’t, those who have persistent injuries or diseases and those who are normal and have no or minor injuries. Category 1s and 2s were sent to Overflow Camps that resembled concentration camps, and consisted of hidden modules, that Rex later discovered were incinerators.
In “Immortal Sins” we were treated to a moment in Jack’s past where in July 1927 he caught an Italian immigrant trying to pass himself off as Jack Harkness in order to get into America. Angelo Colasanto was later released by Jack and the pair began a relationship that would eventually end when Jack was shot in the head after destroying evidence in a refrigeration unit that was housing an alien creature that he was sent to destroy.
When Angelo was caught and sent to Sing Sing prison and released a year later he hadn’t expected to see Jack Harkness waiting for him. He thought he was a devil come to punish him for his sexual acts above the butchers shop, and the way to deal with the devil was to kill him. But when Jack came back to life, the ordeal in the Butcher’s shop in Little Italy was to bring the attention of the Three Families.
At the end of this episode we discovered who wanted Jack Harkness, and it wasn’t who we thought.
In the episode “End of the Road” Jack finally meets up with Angelo after all these years, but the man is in a coma and dies before the end of the episode.
Oswald Danes discovers that there is a Category 0 which means that criminals such as himself will automatically be sent to the incinerator modules.
After locating the Null field beneath Angelo’s bed, a key piece to the device, that Jack can’t risk leaving in the hands of Shapiro, he begs for Rex to let him escape. Gwen has already been deported back to the UK on Shapiro’s authority. As Jack makes for a vehicle he’s shot in the stomach and Esther has to get Jack as far away from the authorities as possible, but as he’s evidently dying in the back of the car, the episode leaves us wondering if he’ll make it to the next one.
In the final episode “The Blood Line” we discover it was all about Jack’s blood and why it was important for Jack’s blood to change the course of history. It was also an episode for saying goodbye to some familiar faces, one belonging to Geraint Wyn Cooper, and Esther Drummond who during this last episode was fatally shot by the Families man in Buenos Aires. Shapiro and the analysts in the CIA were blown up thanks to Charlotte and a well placed handbag, and a detachment of Argentinian soldiers are killed when one of the Families double agents detonates a suicide bomb destroying what we thought was Jack’s blood in the truck.
The finale had Jack ‘dying’ in a pit in old Shanghai, in order to reset the world back to normal.
At the memorial for Esther, the device that Noah had been working on before he was blown up at the CIA headquarters gave Rex the details of the double agent. When he’s shot and ‘killed’ by Charlotte Wills, it shocks the team but then surprises them when he suddenly gasps back life and stares dumbfounded at Jack, Rhys and Gwen. Still with Jack’s blood coursing through his veins, looks like we have another immortal man in Torchwood.
Jane has a terrific imagination to conjure up ideas such as she has for Torchwood, along with her episodes for all other shows listed above. And I can fully understand why it takes such a long time before hearing back from her. This lady is unbelievably busy with every new project, and they are all brilliant.
Whatever her plans are next, I hope it’s with Russell and I hope it’s with another series of Torchwood.
Information sources:
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Jane stands as one of my favorite tv writers. this was a very good article on her and an interesting view of Miracle Day.
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