Reviewed by Anne Wollenberg
Stars Eve Myles, John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Kai Owen, Peter Capaldi, Paul Copley,
Susan Brown, Lucy Cohu, Cush Jumbo | Written by Russell T Davies, John Fay & James Moran
UK certification 15 | UK RRP £24.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 295minutes | Directed by Euros Lyn
John Barrowman has been grumbling. The Torchwood star has said that the show’s trimmed-down third series, which featured five episodes instead of the usual 13, made him feel “like we were being punished” for being BBC3’s best-watched series. But never mind Barrowman’s beef with Auntie. Broadcast nightly over the space of a week, Children of Earth is everything science fiction should be, and everything Torchwood should have been when it first aired. Bleak, dark, dramatic and harrowing, it’s immensely watchable, with the added virtue of being perfectly accessible to people who haven’t followed the previous series.
This series kicks off with every child on earth chanting in unison: “We are coming.” An alien race known as the 456 is behind this, and we soon learn it’s not the first time they’ve had dealings with Planet Earth. After a government assassin tries to bump off Captain Jack Harkness by planting a bomb in his stomach, Torchwood is forced into hiding. They can’t trust anyone, even senior civil servant John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi), previously their top man in government. As Frobisher and Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) try to negotiate with the 456, Torchwood enlists the help of a young PA, Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo), to get them in on the action.
Children of Earth’s key theme is family. In on the action are Gwen’s husband Rhys (Kai Owen), Ianto’s sister Rhiannon (Katy Wix) and some relatives of Jack’s too spoilery to reveal. It’s bursting with ethical dilemmas, too. Is an injury to one person an injury to all, or is it okay to sacrifice some lives for the safety of all? The series is packed with terrifying, gut-wrenching scenes, from the British army wrenching children from the arms of their screaming parents to government pow-wows in which politicians either try to exercise damage control or work to save their own backs before anyone else’s, depending on your perception. It’s also absurdly timely, from mentions of a flu epidemic to a comment about school league tables that’s right on the money.
So where is the Doctor? After all, he has a habit of showing up when the human race finds itself in extreme peril. Children of Earth does come up with an answer for that, and indeed the only real gripe is the fact that the conclusion is a little contrived and thus a touch disappointing. It’s also left Torchwood fans wondering what’s going to happen to the show now, given that Children of Earth doesn’t entirely leave the door open for future series. What it does do is feature some outstanding performances, particularly from Eve Myles, who plays Torchwood agent Gwen Cooper, and Peter Capaldi as civil servant Frobisher (who just so happens to share his name with a Doctor Who Magazine comic strip character). What it also does is smack you in the face with a series of emotional punches that will turn anyone who’s not dead inside into a gibbering heap by the end. Whether you thought Torchwood’s early series were dark and sexy or boring and laughable, you need to watch this. It’s outstanding.
EXTRAS ** There’s a half-hour making-of documentary, ‘Torchwood Declassified’, which is a mixture of pointless plot explanation (we don’t need to be told what happens in the show, we’ve just seen it, and it makes no sense to show a clip that spoils the final episode, then start explaining the basic story outline) and interesting insights, particularly into how the prosthetics guys created the 456. Then there’s also a five-minute advert, sorry, extract from the Torchwood in the Shadows audiobook.