Torchwood: Children of Earth
Directed by Euros Lyn
By Miles Baker
If you were looking for a place to get into the Doctor Who revival this is the place. I had been looking for such a place for the last two years — I grew up in a house where Who was worshiped, even naming a cat after one of the Doctor’s assistants — without wanting to jump into what I heard were rocky starts for Who and Torchwood. Well, I sat down to watch an hour of this five-hour mini-series/season and ended up watching all five in a row. It’s a mesmerizing piece of television that’s accessible for Who fans and non-Who fans alike. Everyone I’ve talked to about it has been on board: it’s awesome, and you should watch it if you haven’t already.
This is science fiction with scope and bravery. It’s a huge, interesting, scary problem that leads to a tale of ghastly moral compromises — and there’s no way to look away from it.
Children of Earth chronicles (what would probably be considered) the worst five days in human history. One morning, in Great Britain, all the children in the country stop moving. But it’s not just the kids in Britain, it’s all the kids all over the world, at that exact same moment. But what follows, later that day, is worse, a message spoken in unison by the children: We are coming.
It’s five hours of epic storytelling that’s tightly plotted and covers interesting issues. And, thankfully, the collection of villains is superb. They range from scary to sympathetic to weaselly to totally hate-worthy and back again. The three main characters of Torchwood all get interesting plots as well, but their chemistry together is undeniable. And, I’m not going to lie, it’s refreshing to see a well-portrayed gay couple on television, but particularly in science fiction (there’s a long rant about Star Trek that I’ll spare you here).
It’s great to see a story that doesn’t pull its punches — especially at the end. I was expecting all kinds of resurrections and miracles that don’t come. And even though I wanted them to come, it’s better that they don’t. The writers realize that when you have stories this big that they don’t come without a cost.
I’m not going to say that it’s perfect. There are times when the editing is a little too loose, and some of the stunts are a little improbable or funny looking. But it wouldn’t be a Doctor Who project if everything looked really slick. The faults are endearing, in a way.
As for special features, there’s one good featurette but that’s it. “Torchwood Declassified” talks about the concept for the season, some of the story choices made, and goes into some of the special effects. So, it’s a nice overview of the production but nothing that will light you on fire. The DVD was put out about a week or two after it aired on BBC, so you can see why they didn’t have the time for a big feature blow out.
In short, I really enjoyed it and I think it’s one of those works of science fiction that transcends the genre. If you’re looking for something to fill that Battlestar Galactica-shaped hole in your heart this might do it.
