Torchwood Series 3 Children of Earth
Captain Jack and his Team are Targeted as Aliens Threaten Earth
Oct 6, 2009
The Torchwood Team are still reeling from the events of Series 2, when the Earth comes under threat from an alien species called the 456. Earth’s children begin to say in unison ‘we are coming’ over and over. The government realises that hostile alien forces are about to come to Earth and they have a horrifying ultimatum.
Torchwood: Children of Earth (aka Series 3) is set in a five episode story arc and features Torchwood regulars Captain Jack (John Barrowman), Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) and Gwen (Eva Myles). Rhys (Kai Owen), Gwen’s husband, also takes on a more prominent role.
‘We are Coming’
Torchwood is amongst the government agencies that investigate when the children of Earth started saying the same message over and over. The government realises that an alien threat they have previously had dealings with are about to return.
As sinister forces in the government prepare for their encounter with an alien species known only as the 456, Torchwood and the team become a target. With the Hub in ruins and Torchwood under attack from the government it was created to protect, Captain Jack along with his team must try to save the world from the 456.
Each hour represents a day’s events and the story builds up to a horrifying climax in which the government realise what they are going to have to sacrifice to survive. Torchwood struggles to combat the 456, and the forces in government trying to kill them. This time it seems that even Captain Jack’s team might not be able to find a way to stop the alien threat.
A Far Cry from Sex-Addicted Aliens
Torchwood has had a bumpy road. Series 1 introduced the audience to a group of flawed, brooding and selfish people who protected the world but did not seem to like one another very much. By Series 2 Torchwood was a lot more fun. It still dealt with adult themes and suffered tragedies but was not so concerned with distancing itself from Doctor Who. Torchwood: Children of Earth is a terrifying addition to the series in which the team must sacrifice everything to save the Earth.
Captain Jack’s past come back to haunt him and the audience also gains an insight into his past on Earth. After all he hasn’t spent all of his time working with Torchwood. The audience meets his mortal daughter Alice (Lucy Cohu) and grandson Steven (Bear McCausland). Alice has distanced herself from her father and Steven is under the impression that Jack is his uncle.
Gwen and Rhys are also expecting their first baby. Together they question her future with Torchwood. Can she really justify putting herself in danger on a daily basis if she’s a mother, even if it means that she is protecting the world?
The family is a critical element to the series with the families of Ianto and Jack in particular becoming very important.
Torchwood: Children of Earth is a harrowing story in which the government is obviously in over its head. Typically the idiotic Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) defers responsibility to scapegoat John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi), who decides that Torchwood is a danger that could hamper negotiations with the 456. This seems odd considering the fact that the reason for the creation of Torchwood was to protect the world from alien threats. It makes the audience long for the days when evil Time Lord the Master was Prime Minister because even though he was evil he would have known how to deal with the 456.
Captain Jack’s inability to die also features prominently as he is forced to endure watching people around him die whilst he will always go on. The 456 seem to be unbeatable, they think nothing of human lives, and Captain Jack shows the audience the difference between heroes and villains when he is forced to make a heartbreaking decision.
As Torchwood: Children of Earth builds up over its arc the world begins to fall apart and as the situation deteriorates Gwen records a final message she calls “how the world ended”.
8/10
Excellent series that yanks on the heartstrings and will leave the audience to wonder if they have seen the last of Captain Jack and the Torchwood team.
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