Review of Torchwood: Children of Earth Day One

Captain Jack and co. Move to Prime Time BBC1 for Series 3

Jul 6, 2009

The Torchwood team investigate why all the children in the world have suddenly stopped while evading government attack in this electrifying series opener.

What would a series of Doctor Who or its spin-off Torchwood be without an alien force that threatens the world by means of a farfetched plan? Apparently not very much or writer Russell T Davies wouldn’t keep relying on it as a source of plot for his latest adventure of the dashing Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) and his ever diminishing team of miscreants.

All Children in the World Stop

Torchwood: Children of Earth is a five-part mini-series which starts with all children in the world suddenly stopping for several minutes. Surely this is every parents dream come true but it soon becomes clear after some examination that it has something to do with an imminent alien invasion and government cover-ups when the kids creepily shout in unison “we are coming”.

The Torchwood investigation is interwoven with some sub-Spooks scenes of officials and secret agents sneaking about referring to something called the 456. The rather wet Dr Rupesh Patanjali (Rik Makarem) appeared to be a new bland recruit but thankfully in one of many promised twists turns out to be working for a government agency and is shot dead. Oh, and Jack is implanted with a bomb that exploded in the conclusion but given his indestructible nature and the fact he is the lead he should be up and smiling rakishly in no time.

Day One: An Episode of Relationships

Torchwood is better when it loses the attitude of “hey it’s after 9pm, let’s all swear and have sex while investigating Scooby Doo mysteries” and actually tells good character driven stories. The latter may rarely make an appearance but like Doctor Who the series is on much safer ground when there are dramatic talkie moments rather than CGI filled alien warfare. And this first opener was full of talking and was very good because of that reason.

Most of Children of Earth Day One focussed on development of relationships and revelations that will impact later on in the series. Gwen (Eve Myles) discovers she is pregnant, Jack and Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) became a quarrelling couple and Jack visits his aging daughter Alice (Lucy Cohu).

The impressive Peter Capaldi was in familiar settings inside the Home Office as a civil servant and it was nice to see him in a position normally on the receiving end of a Malcolm Tucker rant attack in The Thick of It. Paul Copley gave a twitchy performance as a former child who managed to escape the original alien contact in the 1960s where several kids were taken away, and who might just be the key to this saga.

Given its move to the main station this was one of the episodes that has perhaps been closest to replicating the modern Doctor Who formula, as the plot slowly unravelled through cryptic lines, the production stepped up a notch, a strange new alien threat looms large over the entire globe and it had a handful of tense action thrown in for good measure. All that was missing was the cheery know-it-all himself.

The five consecutive nights scheduling could be the show’s biggest success or downfall depending on how the target audience receive it. Some might find the constant bombardment a little hard to swallow but it also means not having to wait another week to find out what happens next. The BBC obviously has a great deal of confidence in Children of Earth to give up five primetime slots on its flagship channel. Then again it would do the same with Andrew Lloyd Webber fronted talent competitions given the chance.

There is already plenty of mystery set up for this story for fans to chew on. Who or what are the 456? What do they want? What happened to the children from the 60s? Who is coming back? Why use the children? How are the government involved? All these questions and more should be answered given that this is a self contained serial so the only way to find out is to tune in all week. Or just read spoilers online. Whichever works best.

Torchwood: Children of Earth runs for five consecutive nights on BBC One at 9pm until Friday, July 10.

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