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Russell T. Davies is one of Britain's most influential television writers. He reinvented "Doctor Who," created "Queer as Folk" and "Torchwood," and now brings us "Torchwood: Miracle Day." The fourth installment of the "Doctor Who" spinoff, which premieres on Starz tonight, once again features immortal, time-traveling Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and company, this time trying to save the world by figuring out why no one on Earth is dying.

Davies talked to the L.A. Times about the sci-fi series and his career in television.

What was the inspiration behind "Torchwood: Miracle Day"?

It's kind of a classic story, which is: death takes a holiday. That's an idea we've seen in millions of different "Twilight Zones" and things. I thought we'd build off that classic idea. What if we really took over the whole world for a long length of time? What if it changed society, changed who we are?

I think of "Torchwood" now as a show that, we sort of take situations like this and imagine how the human race would react. We did it with the previous miniseries, "Torchwood: Children of Earth." How far you would go to sacrifice people in order to save yourself? The moral pressure that puts on people. "Miracle Day" attacks the infrastructure of society. Within days, the health service comes under pressure. It's all a domino effect. And it allows for this intriguing thriller to unfold. I'm enormously excited by it.

It must be fun to sort of let your imagination run wild with that idea.

Oh, yes. And it really causes you to think. But the story is set on Earth, so it has certain responsibilities so it has to stay credible. It exists by being a reflection of our society and a comment on our society while still being fun.

You’re known for liking stories done on a big scale. Does it get harder to find ways to top yourself?

It doesn't really. I like the fact that I can afford a helicopter chase now and again. But the real drama is the character moments. That's what I really write well. It's the same for "Torchwood." When you reach Episode 9, there's such punch coming where we reveal the secrets of the show in a very clever way. But it doesn’t always have to be drama on a scale. Intimate moments are just as effective. It's just such a great cast. If you want to give me a scene with Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes) locked in a room with Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), then I would happily write you the best drama in the world. It all comes down to good actors in the end.

Can you talk about how you became a show runner?

I started out working behind the scenes in children's television but always wanted to write. In Britain, we don't have show runners and such, or we didn’t used to. I became a writer in the early '90s, and then by 1999 I wrote "Queer as Folk," which took off around the world and became a Showtime series. That’s when I started to become a writer-producer. And when the BBC people brought back "Doctor Who" in 2005, they asked me to relaunch that show. That's when I became the proper show runner -- one of the first show runners in Britain; we sort of invented the title and its responsibilities from the American model.

The dire warning from the Telegraph concerns the deepening of political integration of Europe, to include a fiscal structure tying the monetary Zone together with a central taxation authority. This from a British oracle who brings up the specter of Empire, the English word for Reich. I might also add that the Germans had a Kaiser, which is a variant on Caesar, who turned the Roman Republic into an Empire by becoming Imperator for Life. This is also from a subject of the completely liquidated former British Empire.

What you have in Europe, is the exact opposite of the policies that the British Crown has pursued for its exclusive benefit for centuries. Following the example of and at the instance of the United States, The United Nations with its commensurate global agencies, including the IMF and The World Bank began the process of nation building, under the dominance of the US and its allies. The Atlantic Charter and its signatories express a declaration of intent for the post WWII social order. The amalgamation of the various core and now periphery nation states of Europe, into a more perfect union, has been a gradual process. It seems it is about to cross another one of those bright lines, one of political integration through submission to a centralized taxation. It is not enough to have an easy breezey consumer experience with the Euro, the common currency is leading to some now obvious needs to further political integration to a state of affairs beyond the mere contractual where the Euro is a service provided by a vendor that you can fire at will.

Abraham Lincoln expressed this understanding in his first inaugural speech. The relation of government with its constituent states as in America, is different than a business arrangement of parties brought together in an association via a contract. A government is a perpetual state of human affairs, that does not provide for its liquidation, otherwise, it would not be sovereign unto to itself. If Europe is to have a Eurozone, it will have to expand into the full capacities of nation, just a nation of states, and not a nation state. This will include a central taxing authority and the ability to redistribute tax revenues as needed throughout the nation. Even if it goes from Germany to Greece. The bankers alienation of national assets aside for the moment. Just as the American Articles of Confederation were too weak to produce a proper government that could fully function, that is, finance public projects and pay its debts, the common currency is not enough due to economic integration via world capitalism. Commensurate political integration to allow states to function in the world capital markets is now required to enjoy the efficiencies that a common currency brings. One structural change requires others, so that the whole can function, the whole being, the capital markets and the states of the emerging European Nation.

It wasn’t until the financial crashes in an earlier Europe, forged an alliance of the Crown and the Merchants of England. It was apparent to the financier and merchant, Thomas Gresham for England to be more powerful and he wealthier, his kingdom would have to decouple from the power of Amsterdam.

From “THE LONG 20TH CENTURY” BY GIOVANNI ARRIGHI, 2010 EDITION: P.195…”Gresham began building a bourse in London in imitation of Antwerp’s stock and commodity exchanges with the declared intent of making England independent of foreign ‘nations’ both in trade and credit.”

Upon completion of this task, he requested that Queen Elizabeth not use any strangers or foreigners, but her loyal subjects, she complied and named it the Royal Exchange.

“It took decades before the Royal Exchange could actually satisfy the financial needs of the English government, and it took more than 2 centuries before London could rival Amsterdam as a central money market of the European world economy. But the stabilization of the Pound in 1560-61 and the subsequent establishment of the Royal Exchange, to paraphrase Max Weber, marked the birth of a new kind of ‘memorable alliance’ between the power of money and the power of the gun. It marked the beginning of nationalism in high finance.”

And English nationalism, now jealousy at the growing political integration of Europe into a United States like continental power, will of course relegate England to a permanent diminutive status in global affairs, monetary and otherwise.

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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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