‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’: Why the 2009 mini-series is the greatest thing ever to come out of the ‘Doctor Who’ universe (Image Credit: Space.com)
Once best known as the birthplace of the legendary Shirley Bassey, Cardiff Bay is now a thriving coastal redevelopment in the Welsh capital. It’s home to arts venue the Millennium Centre as well as the national parliament, the Senedd, and offers stunning views over the Bristol Channel. If you’re a sci-fi fan, however, one of the main attractions is a memorial to a man who never existed.
SPOILER WARNING for ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’
And let’s be honest, watching Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) die in the arms of immortal boyfriend Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) is a tragic moment, up there with Spock’s sacrifice in “The Wrath of Khan” and Wash’s demise in “Serenity“. Even so, it’s far from the most powerful moment in the “Doctor Who” spin-off’s third season, a rollercoaster ride of tears, political skulduggery, and “I can’t believe they went there” drama.
Sixteen years after its debut, “Children of Earth” remains a sci-fi masterpiece, and arguably the best thing ever to come out of the Whoniverse. The incoming “The War Between the Land and the Sea” (also a five-part mini-series) has a lot to live up to…
“Torchwood” was always a strange concoction. Originally conceived as a British answer to Joss Whedon shows like “Buffy” and “Angel”, “Doctor Who”‘s edgier, more grown-up cousin focused on the lives and loves of a team of attractive young agents (led by Captain Jack) running around Cardiff hunting fugitive aliens.
The first two 13-episode seasons were the quintessential mixed bag, at times bold and brilliant, but also tonally inconsistent and susceptible to moments of extreme silliness. There had certainly been little to suggest that a watercooler event of seismic proportions was about to be unleashed.
For its third mission, “Torchwood” experienced a major reinvention. Out went deceased series regulars Owen Harper (Burn Gorman) and Tosh Sato (Naoko Mori) and the monster-of-the-week format, as the stripped-back Cardiff team returned to deal with a single, planet-threatening case.
The BBC’s then-head of fiction Jane Tranter had suggested that “Children of Earth” could air over five consecutive weeknights in July 2009, with each episode corresponding to a day in a serialised adventure. Barrowman said at the time that he felt “Torchwood” was being “punished” with the shorter run, but the new format turbo-charged the show as Davies crafted a blockbuster that became a surprise hit, and redefined the notion of appointment viewing in the pre-streaming age.
Crucially, the writer had a killer hook for the story. “It was every single child in the world stopping and saying, ‘We are coming,'” he recalled in SFX magazine. “I had that idea for years. I remember going with the team to Pizza Express and pitching it at [assistant producer] Brian Minchin, and his face lit up as I described it, which is always a good sign.”
At the start of “Children of Earth”‘s run, it’s not entirely clear who the “we” are, though the upper echelons of the government know rather more than they wish to let on about the nature of “the 456” (the name given to the mysterious visitors, in recognition of the radio frequency they use to communicate).
Torchwood’s investigations quickly make them a target, in an action-packed pair of opening episodes that retain much of the out-there silliness of previous seasons. Thought you were having a bad day? In “Day One”, Torchwood’s base of operations, the Hub, is blown up by a bomb implanted in Captain Jack. Then, while the indestructible former Time Agent is recovering, Wolverine-style, from his obliteration in “Day Two”, he’s encased in concrete, only to be liberated — in a wonderfully bonkers sequence — by Ianto (in full high-viz, no less) driving a stolen digger.
But it’s when the 456 finally beam into their bespoke fish tank in Whitehall — roughly halfway through “Day Three” — that “Children of Earth” attains its classic status. “Doctor Who” has had its fair share of iconic villains over the years, but never anything quite like these guys. Shrouded in mist and prone to spewing noxious green goop over windows, their true form remains a mystery throughout. As with the original “Cloverfield” monster, we’re never given the opportunity to grasp how their grotesque arrangement of heads and limbs fit together, and it’s a disconcerting experience.
That said, even if they were as cuddly as Paddington Bear, these guys would be bad news. They’ve arrived on our doorstep with designs on taking 10% of the world’s children away with them, and they know we have no choice but to “yield”. Eventually — ensuring their removal from everybody’s Christmas card lists — the 456 admit that they want the kids for “the hit”, promising to sentence them to a hellish, artificially extended life as human narcotics.
As despicable as they are, however, the 456 aren’t necessarily the villains of the piece. The United Kingdom — including a complicit Jack Harkness — handed over 12 orphaned children back in 1965, and the one who was left behind (Clem, played by Paul Copley) has been living with the pain ever since. The UK’s actions three decades earlier created a problem for the entire world to fix, but this time the Doctor is clearly in no mood to help us out of our bind. “Sometimes,” says Torchwood agent Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), “the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame.”
There are heroes, of course — civil service personal assistant Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) risks charges of treason to spy on Torchwood’s behalf — but mostly this is a ruthless, government-wide deployment of “Slow Horses”-style “London rules”: always cover your arse.
Choosing the unfortunate 10% of kids who should make the fateful trip to outer space is an impossible task — Thanos’s finger snap was so much easier — but the politicians hardly cover themselves in glory. They even describe children as “units”.
Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) only cares about his approval ratings, and is quite happy to let senior civil servant John Frobisher (future “Doctor Who” star Peter Capaldi) — and his family — take the fall on his behalf. His cabinet, meanwhile, conspires to remove their own children from any ballot, before coldly decreeing that kids from the worst performing schools should be sent away with the 456. These brutal, powerful scenes have now been given extra weight by real-life government responses to the Covid pandemic.
But things get even worse, and not just for poor Ianto, who succumbs to a lethal alien virus in “Day 4”; If this were “24”, he’d be given the silent credits treatment.
Captain Jack discovers a way to turn the 456’s communications back on them, unleashing a signal so lethal it’s guaranteed to send them packing. The problem? They need a child to send the message, and that child will “fry” in the process. Jack’s grandson, Steven (Bear McCausland) is the only kid “available”, and Jack gives the nod to go ahead with the procedure.
The sequence that follows, as Jack’s daughter Alice (Lucy Cohu) powerlessly looks on, is one of the most haunting in TV history, as one of pop culture’s big taboos — the on-screen death of a child — is broken before your eyes. Whether or not sacrificing one child to save millions is the “right” decision — that’s one for philosophers to debate — the devil-may-care Jack would not (and indeed could not) ever be the same again.
Nor would “Torchwood”. The show returned two years later with the 10-part “Miracle Day” — a co-production with US cable channel Starz — but it never hit the heights of its predecessor, an instant classic of British sci-fi. Ianto Jones will never be forgotten, but it’s “Children of Earth” that deserves to go down in Whoniverse history.
Every season of “Torchwood” is available to stream on BBC iPlayer in the UK. “The War Between the Land and the Sea” debuts on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday, December 7.
If you prefer physical media, you can also grab Torchwood: Children of Earth on Blu-ray from Amazon.
