STORY PLACEMENT

 THIS STORY TAKES

 PLACE BETWEEN THE BBC

 RADIO 4 AUDIO DRAMA

 "THE DEAD LINE" AND

 THE BBC / STARZ MINI-

 SERIES "MIRACLE DAY."

  

 WRITTEN BY

 RUSSELL T. DAVIES (1, 3, 5),

 JOHN FAY (2, 4)

 & JAMES MORAN (3)

 

 DIRECTED BY

 EUROS LYN

 

 RATINGS

 6.47 MILLION

 

 RECOMMENDED 

 PURCHASE

 'CHILDREN OF EARTH' BLU

 -RAY DVD (BBCBD0041)

 RELEASED IN JULY 2009.

 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

  

 BLURB

 1965: Twelve children

 are gathered on a

 deserted moor, before

 being surrounded by a

 harsh, bright light...

 and then they are

 gone!
 
 Today: all over

 Earth, children stop

 moving. Stop playing,

 stop laughing. Then,

 as one, they begin to

 speak with the same

 voice, announcing the

 imminent arrival of a

 new alien threat. "We

 are coming...".

 As the British

 government closes

 ranks, it issues a

 death warrant

 against Captain Jack

 and Torchwood...

 

                                      

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Children of Earth

6TH JULY 2009 - 10TH JULY 2009

(5 60-MINUTE EPISODES)

 

  1. DAY ONE      2. DAY TWO     3. DAY THREE

 

4. DAY FOUR      5. DAY FIVE

 

 

                                                       

 

 

As the titles rolled at the end of Exit Wounds, with half the regular cast dead

and the continuity announcer silent I didn’t expect the most successful show ever to come

out of BBC Three to return at all; let alone for a slick and glossy five-part BBC One mini-series. However, when the plans for Children of Earth were made public, a great many

took umbrage with the new season’s length being more than slashed in half; series’ lead John Barrowman even went so far as to say that it felt like the show was being “punished”. But running time is certainly not everything, and were I given the choice of either watching

a full thirteen-week season of Torchwood next year or a five-hour mini-series of the same sort of class as Children of Earth, then I would plump for the latter every time.

 

Before I sat down at the weekend to watch all five episodes, my colleague Daniel Tessier (who had watched the series throughout the week, “as nature intended”) gave me a heads up as to the level of treat that I was in for. He even went so far as to say that this serial felt

like “another show”. And within minutes of Day One (confusingly the second Torchwood episode to bear the name!), I could see precisely what he meant.

 

There is a difference in the production; often subtle, but undeniably present. Here Euros Lyn’ cinematic direction evokes a very definite, big-budget blockbuster flavour - in Children of Earth the grass is greener, the lights are brighter, and the title card is most certainly whiter. Hell; the team’s trademark SUV even gives way to a sports car, and those picturesque

aerial shots of Cardiff are gradually replaced by equally scenic aerial shots of the UK’s capital city. Even the way in which the title sequence is abandoned in favour of the credits rolling over the action is reminiscent of many contemporary movies, really adding to the story’s distinctive ‘event’ feel.

 

“It’s like science has won… She died because she thought she was nothing.”

 

There’s also something fresh and invigorating about the serial’s opening. Gwen’s manner

in particular (as she cheerily greets the photograph of the deceased Owen and Toshiko, for instance) suggests that old wounds are finally starting to heal and that Children of Earth will mark a new beginning for the Torchwood team. Further, the way that we are introduced to both the outwardly suitable Owen-replacement, Rupesh Patanjali (Rik Makarem), and also the regular-written-all-over-her Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) only compounds this feeling.

 

I was disappointed though that Freema Agyeman (now lost to Law & Order) and Noel Clarke were not on hand to reprise their roles as Martha Jones and Mickey Smith respectively; after all, the way that the Doctor Who episode Journey’s End had concluded practically promised them to Torchwood. Nevertheless, one big swerve and one amiable new character later and I had forgotten all about the Doctor’s erstwhile companions.

 

 

Nevertheless, with the Torchwood team operating at just sixty per cent capacity, it stood

to reason that more screen time had to be given to Gwen’s hapless and eminently popular ‘everyman’ husband, Rhys. I’m a massive fan of the character and so was delighted to see him enjoy such a large share of the action. Whether he’s eating pies; scrounging meals in cafés whilst on the lam; buying houses; entertaining fatherhood; or even piecing together

the disparate pieces of the puzzle faster than his police-trained wife, Kai Owen’s character fills his bigger role effortlessly.

 

Further, the writers’ decision to have Gwen fall pregnant fits in marvellously not only with Rhys’ expanded role in this serial, but also the story’s overriding premise. After all, who would want to bring a child into a world where an alien race could just show up out of the

blue and threaten take it away? Bleak, but insatiably compelling.

 

But as well as Gwen and Rhys’ unborn child, the story’s writers’ give us even more of a vested interest in the children of this planet. Prior to this mini-series, Torchwood never introduced us to the families of the regulars (save for in Gwen’s case), primarily because they did not seem to have families. Children of Earth, on the other hand, introduces us to Ianto’s sister, Rhiannon (Katy Wix); her laughable husband, Johnny (Rhodri Lewis); as well as Jack’s daughter, Alice (Lucy Cohu). And what’s more, it makes each and every one of these new characters players.

 

 

As they have a child, and particularly as they do not appear to live in the most affluent of areas, we experience much of the sheer terror of Children of Earth through Rhiannon and Johnny. On Day Five especially, when Johnny’s “ten quid a kid” scheme suddenly changes from a babysitting job into an outright war with the nation’s armed forces, you really feel for the pair. I had to stifle a cheer as the oft-unpleasant Johnny led his estate’s charge against the soldiers.

 

It is Jack’s daughter, however, that is likely to raise more eyebrows. Though I had gathered from earlier stories that Jack had been married before at least once, and had even dared to speculate that he’d most probably littered most of the 19th and 20th centuries with bastard offspring, I really did not expect him to have an apparently ordinary, middle-aged daughter and young grandson living in Cardiff, right under his nose. Children of Earth reveals that Jack married a fellow Torchwood employee, Lucia Morretti, and together they had Alice. However, prior to her death in 2006, Lucia had helped Alice to distance herself from her “dangerous” father and his life. Cohu and Barrowman are electric together, especially as matters progress. As one character remarks during the story, Alice is certainly her father’s daughter, albeit with a touch of Italian fire.

 

However, what I think really sets Children of Earth apart from the two seasons of television that have come before it is the strength of the supporting cast. As many of the characters

on both sides of the fence are integral to this much broader and deeper story, they seem to appear on screen almost as much as our heroes and as such have to be gripping enough

to hold the viewers’ interest over five hours. I found it very refreshing to see new characters played by the likes of Nicholas Farrell, Susan Brown, Paul Copley, and especially Peter Capaldi (Doctor Who: The Fires of Pompeii) being afforded as much time and care as

the noted actors playing them warrant.

 

 

Turning to the mini-series’ storyline itself, it is very tightly plotted and dexterously paced. Like many Doctor Who fans, I have recently had the great pleasure of viewing all 244 minutes of The War Games gloriously remastered on DVD, and though it still stands up well today the four hours really feel like four hours, whereas the five hours of Children of Earth seem to zip past in a handful of heartbeats.

 

For starters, the story’s basic foundation – that an alien race is holding the world to ransom, demanding ten per cent of its children or else – is superbly executed. The first few episodes of the story are extraordinarily creepy as the children of Earth are intermittently possessed

by the unseen species 456, but once the 456 actually arrive Children of Earth ceases to be first-rate science-fiction and instead becomes first-rate drama full stop.

 

“We want ten per cent of the children of this world.”

 

I love how the 456 are realised. The steamy glass tank in which they are housed is so simple, but so effective; it has a delightful 1950s B-movie / Quatermass quality to it. It

also brought to mind the ethos employed on another of my favourite shows, The X-Files,

in that what you do not show is often scarier than what you do – a series that Children of Earth seems to have borrowed from quite heavily.

 

Indeed, the conspiracy of men sat at the heart of the British Government really brought The X-Files’ mythology episodes to mind, as did the opening 1965 ‘abduction’ sequence which mirrors a sequence shown in The X-Files episode One Son rather uncannily, both in terms of how it is presented and what is being sacrificed. Where the two differ though is that the conspirators in The X-Files are a wholly self-serving bunch, whereas in Children of Earth John Frobisher (the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office) is at least doing what he believes is right. He may well be a patsy for pitiless Prime Minister Brian Green, but he is certainly an altogether more interesting character; I’d even go so far as to say one of the most fascinating that Torchwood has ever produced. Capaldi’s performance is absolutely peerless.

 

“All those kids on street corners. We finally got rid of them.”

 

On balance I think that my favourite episode is the fourth, which dwells on the government’s deliberations about how best to deal with the crisis (or to put it another way, where to get the children from to satisfy the 456’s demands). It is heartbreaking to see the world’s leaders acquiesce so readily, and even more so to watch them slide towards their inevitable solution (egged on as they are by the unmasked Nicholas Briggs, who also weighs in with one hell of a performance).

 

“You’re shooting up on children… Our children!”

 

Even when it becomes known what the 456 intend to do with the children – to keep them alive in a state of perpetual but putrid youth so that they can get high from the chemicals in their body – the world’s leaders still continue to collaborate. The scenes of military trucks pulling up outside schools and mothers being forced back by armoured soldiers are very potent indeed; they certainly give weight to Gwen’s beautiful speech on Day Five about

how, on days like this, the Doctor must turn away from the world in shame. And rightly so. Children of Earth is not a story about aliens taking over the world. It is a story about addicts that we most probably helped to create coming back to blackmail us. This is a story about our own selfishness and cowardice, and how it damn near tore the world apart.

 

Indeed, writers Russell T Davies, James Moran and John Fay really have to be praised for their thought-provoking and at times downright agonising writing. And, in Children of Earth,

it is usually Jack on the receiving ends of their outrageous fortune. In previous seasons, the anguish that goes hand in hand with Jack’s apparent immortality has been played on lightly, but never too overtly. Here, however, the gloves come off.

 

“Do you ever think that one day your luck will run out?”

 

A popular source of debate ever since Torchwood first aired has been concerning what it would take to finally finish off the Hub’s brash Captain, and a bomb in his belly is certain

one way to put paid to any sentiments that he could be killed (or as good as) by completely destroying his body. Now we know that even after being literally torn limb from limb and incinerated – reduced to a bag of bones - “…his Lazarus qualities remain undiminished”

but that, despite this, he actually feels every single second of the agony. The scene where

we see Jack start to reform in the mortuary, every subcutaneous layer exposed and raw, is one of the most gruesome things I’ve seen within the genre since Anakin Skywalker wound up on the wrong side of his old Master. And this is just the physical side of things…

 

Children of Earth sees a dark page from Jack’s past return to haunt him; a deal with the Devil that he should never have made. Children of Earth sees the team’s Hub in Cardiff

Bay destroyed; the Hub that Jack spent over a century cultivating. And, most lamentably

of all, Children of Earth sees the man that Jack has eventually allowed himself to love die

in his arms.

 

“In a thousand years time, you won’t remember me.”

 

The relationship between Jack and Ianto is handled with great skill and tact by the writers across the five episodes. As the story begins (presumably shortly after the events of last week’s radio drama, The Dead Line, which saw Phil Ford broach the same relationship

with equivalent poise) the pair are at the stage where they are starting to be recognised

as a couple, and both are really struggling to get used to the idea. For Jack, another full-on

love affair is a terrifying prospect to say the least, given that he will ultimately have to watch his lover grow old and die, and then suffer eternity without him; and for Ianto, it is almost as frightening a prospect, knowing that he can never be anything more than “a blip in time” to the man who lives forever. His sister asking him why he has suddenly “gone bender” does not help matters either. But then Ianto just dies. Suddenly. Just as Owen did as the end of Reset. A virus is released, and he croaks. Ever so brutal, ever so bloody real.

 

And although in the end Jack is able to save the children of Earth, he is forced to willingly sacrifice his grandson in order to do so – which, when you think about it, is essentially the same decision faced by the world’s leaders, only in microcosm. The only thing that really sets Jack’s actions apart from the world leaders’ are their majestic defiance; he will not cowardly sacrifice any more children to appease the 456, but he will sacrifice his own flesh and blood to save the rest of the world’s children. Majestic defiance will doubtless come as scant consolation for Jack’s daughter though, who will in all probability never utter another word to her father again.

 

“I have lived so many lives. It’s time to find another one.”

 

The closing moments of Children of Earth feel like a real end. With Gwen ready to drop a sprog and the emotionally-cripped Jack off to hitch-hike a ride around the galaxy, Cardiff is suddenly left without anyone to watch over it. Without anyone to salvage its cosmic flotsam and jetsam. Without anyone to save it…

 

If you have managed to trawl your way through the preceding two thousand words or so, you will have gathered that Children of Earth is must-see television. Explosive, dramatic, and ever so, ever so, stylish; this marathon is one of the most compelling and psychologically draining five hours of television that I have ever seen. Indeed, as much as I have enjoyed

the last brace of Doctor Who ‘specials’, it really has to be said that Children of Earth is in another league altogether. This really is my kind of telly. No holds barred.

 

The above notwithstanding, I think that the greatest testament that I could provide is to share that, having refused to watch the series with me, my wife (a non-Doctor Who / Torchwood fan) happened to sit down for a cuppa half-way through Day Three… and not get up again until the titles rolled at the end of Day Five. If that is not a definition of spellbinding, I do not know what is.

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2009

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

 

                                                       

 

 

For one week, Torchwood returned and finally became the show that it promised

to be. the previous two series had been good fun, with some real variation in terms of both tone and quality. With Children of Earth  though, the series has become something more than just a filler for Doctor Who, with swearing and knob gags. This was thrilling, must-see drama. It’s like a different show.

 

Some people have taken issue with the show’s cut-down status – five hour-long episodes

as opposed to thirteen fifty-minuters – including star of the show John Barrowman, and BBC America, who wanted a third full season (which is easier for syndication). Nevertheless, the decision to make this a single serial was the right one to make. Allowing one story to play out over five hours gives it room to breathe and develop at a pace that suits it. The serial

has a coherence and impact lacking in any previous Torchwood episode, and trumps much of recent Doctor Who in its entertainment and emotional strength.

 

The core of the serial boils down to two classic themes: family and responsibility. The family aspect is the more overt of the two; not only do we meet Ianto’s sister and her children, we discover that Jack is a father and grandfather. Even Gwen is expecting a baby. The political machinations experienced by John Frobisher are offset by glimpses of his home life with his wife and daughters. Yet the family aspect is inextricably linked to that of responsibility. Is Ja-ck’s responsibility to his daughter, his team, or his world? Is Frobisher’s to his country, his career, or his family?

 

The writing team created a thrilling, pacy yet emotionally affecting script, yet the real strength of this serial is in the performances - absolutely every actor is on top form. John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Eve Myles and Kai Owen are better than they’ve ever been.

 

“It’s not men. It’s just him. Only him.”

 

I was particularly impressed by how each of the two couples were portrayed. Barrowman and David-Lloyd give convincing performances as two people who are dealing with ever-

growing feelings for one another, feelings that are taking them into territory they don’t know how to deal with. For Jack, a man who has had to live with loss and incredible responsibility, becoming involved in a serous relationship is terrifying. For Ianto, there is the difficulty in adapting to new facets of his sexuality; something that Im familiar with and think was played here with subtlety and intelligence. Meanwhile, it’s wonderful to see Kai Owen’s Rhys given

a bigger piece of the action, as both a character in the show and a member of the Torch-wood team, as he and Gwen are here a far more convincing couple than they have ever been before. This time, I found myself caring about their relationship, whereas previously

it came across more as an arbitrary source of tension .

 

 

It’s difficult to cover all the actors here, so many of them giving exemplary performances. Particular praise has to go to Paul Copley’s idiosyncratic but sympathetic performance as Clem, Lucy Cohu as Alice, Susan Brown as Frobisher’s aide Bridget, Nicholas Farrell as Prime Minister Brian Green and Liz May Brice’s unnerving steely performance as Agent Johnson. It’s great to see Nick Briggs on screen, too. Standing out was Cush Jumbo as

Lois Habiba – a name we’ll never forget, it was repeated so often – who gave a beautifully believable and understated performance as an ordinary woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances. You could believe her journey from the sidelines of the event to its very centre. Lois is surely a character who will turn up again someday, somewhere in the ever growing universe shared by Torchwood and Doctor Who.

 

However, the stand-out performance was, without doubt, Peter Capaldi as John Frobisher. We know this man is one of our country’s finest actors, but his turn here was breathtaking. Every moment of Frobisher’s heartbreaking trial was perfectly illustrated. The character, a good man driven to terrible choices, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and given responsibilities no one should have to bear, was perfectly written and acted. It’s a shame there is no way we can ever see his character return, but his gut-wrenchingly tragic end was the only way he could go out.

 

“At 8.40am this morning, every child in the world stopped.”

 

The story consistently played with expectations. From the outset, we’re led to believe we’re watching a different sort of story, one that will follow young idealistic Doctor Rupesh Patinjali join team Torchwood and no doubt help save the world. Yet he turns out to be an undercover agent, and is rapidly bumped off (although, why are these character’s always so surprised when their ruthless co-conspirators turn on them?). By the end of Day One, Torchwood are on the run, their lives threatened and their country against them. Yet even this is not the main thrust of the show, instead being a method of putting our team in a position that will make it more difficult for them to fight the oncoming menace. Later, in the fourth episode, it appears that Jack is finally taking control and that events will begin to be resolved – but by the time the episode closes, the aliens retain the upper hand, all hope is lost and Ianto is dead! Truly the most unexpected death in the show since Suzie’s suicide back at the very beginning of the first series.

 

“You never will be just a blip in time, Ianto. Not for me.”

 

There are a host of arresting images on offer. Chiefly, the sight of all the world’s children standing deathly still and chanting in unison will stay with us. Beyond that, the bizarre nature of the alien 456, linked up to a perpetually young, emaciated child is harrowing. There are some genuine moments of horror here, too, generally involving horrible things happening to Jack – one minute agonisingly reassembling after being torn apart by explosives, the next, being entombed alive in concrete. Indeed, it is Jack’s suffering that remains the very core of the show, and the physical side of it is the very least traumatic. No, it’s the emotional strain that he has to shoulder that is his great burden. We get to understand the character much better here than before, as we see the pain he has to deal with, as he watches his children and his lovers grow old and die while he just continues. Then, at the last, he has to make the horrific decision to sacrifice his grandson to save humanity – not only losing him, but his daughter as well.

 

We are constantly kept questioning right and wrong throughoutl. Is it right to sacrifice one child to save ten million? How about ten million lives to save six billion? As reprehensible

the actions of the Prime Minister here are, what kind of choice do the government have in

a situation like this? There are no easy answers to these questions. There is one moment,

at the beginning of the final episode, when Gwen asks the question that has popped into all our minds by this point – where’s the Doctor when we need him?

 

It’s good to see this addressed, however philosophically, yet the true answer is that he has no place in this story. The dilemma here is one that Doctor Who will never have to deal with, that of a no-win scenario. The closest we’ve got is in The Parting of the Ways, yet there the day is saved, essentially, by magic. The Doctor may lose a life, but he’s got plenty more. In Doctor Who, the Doctor will always find a way out. Here, a solution is eventually discovered, at the nick of time, but a high price is paid. And let’s not forget, there are presumably still some of the original children given to the 456 up there, still in their state of perpetual misery.

 

“The hit. The chemicals are good.”

 

Another unusual twist is the nature of the 456 aliens. Initially, they seem to be some kind of composite life form. We assume that the children are somehow necessary to their survival. Yet their actions are far less noble than trying to survive – they are mere junkies, looking for

a stronger hit and a chance for profit. It’s a grim picture in which the human race is utterly used by these creatures, and, despite the fact that there are probably only a dozen of them nearby, we are left totally helpless. It’s easy to forget when watching these shows that if an advanced alien species did arrive on Earth, we’d surely have little or no defence against them.

 

Yet the villain of the piece isn’t really the creepy 456 in its broiling tank of gases. It isn’t even the cold-hearted Agent Johnson, who finds even her loyalty to her state tested and switches from unceasing foe to unlikely ally. It’s the Prime Minister, constantly trying to cover his own back, regardless of the consequences for others. Even when we begin to sympathise with him, reflecting on the impossible choice he has to make, he then shafts his loyal supporter Frobisher, demanding his kids be handed over to the creatures, knowing exactly what will happen to them. It’s a moment of supreme satisfaction when he finally gets his comeuppa-nce, if unexpected – the final episode was so grim, I fully expected him to get off scot-free! Still, it’s an interesting point that this story highlights: we are living in a nation where most people are far more frightened of their government than they are of terrorism and other outside threats. It’s no accident that Gwen is branded a terrorist, subject to shoot-to-kill orders, or that the government’s treatment of asylum seekers comes under scrutiny.

 

 

It’s also satisfying to be reminded that this is part of a larger universe, although this never becomes heavy-handed. Aside from the mentions of the Doctor, we get a quick reason for while Martha Jones isn’t around to help (although, I wonder – did the production team want her, only to find Freema unavailable?) UNIT are on hand to deal with the alien threat, though they have no more success than anyone else, and we know from previous episodes that their actions can be just as reprehensible as the government’s. You have to wonder about the long-term effects, however. How long can the contemporary settings in the Whoniverse function when everyone is now fully aware of the existence of aliens? It’s been a running joke for so long that it’s stopped being funny, and is in danger of damaging the credibility of the show. We can’t relate to a modern day setting that is increasingly divorced from our own. I also can’t help noticing the astonishing rate at which this version of the United Kingdom is getting through Prime Ministers.

 

 

At the end of the day, this serial was a stunning piece of television that rightly dominated the airwaves for its duration. Whether the series returns remains to be seen; apparently a fourth series is ready and waiting to go before cameras as soon as it’s given the green light, but with only two team members left alive, and one of them off planet for the forseeable future, it’s hard to see what sort of show it might be. Whether or not Torchwood returns though, it’s fair to say that Children of Earth will surely go down as its finest hour.

 

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2009

 

Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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