Comments on: Torchwood: Children of Earth

By: Mister Terrific

Mister Terrific — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:41:15 +0000

My wife contends the big problem with it (according to the message boards she frequents; she didn’t watch it because she hates New Who and anything associated with it) was the solution to the alien problem. The contention was that the writers deliberately wrote themselves into a corner and that it was bad writing at its finest.

I thought it was great, myself. But I tend to keep those comments to myself so as to promote family harmony. :)

By: Randall Kirby

Randall Kirby — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:31:49 +0000

Very well done, although I was really very depressed over Jack’s actions at the end. I understand how they work in the concept of this story, and setting a character up for a future story, but still it was a big ol’ bummer.

Also, an I the only one who didn’t buy that all the governments on earth would just simply comply? I mean, you’ve got Americans at the table. That’s a great opportunity for truculence.

By: Matthew Craig

Matthew Craig — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:01:15 +0000

Brit of context: See that woman with the black eyes in the Cabinet?

The real-life politician she’s meant to stand in for quit the Government a couple of months ago, after a serious contretemps with Mr. Brown (et-very-cetera).

Really put a different spin, aha, on the character’s final scene – although, I was honestly disappointed to see her escape without comeuppance. Boo, no comeuppance!

I thought Children of Earth was brilliant, top to bottom. Most of my problems with Torchwood were fixed for Series Two, but this was a cut above. They serialised the show over one week here, as I’m sure you’re aware, and it was a fanTASTic gimmick.

//\Oo/\\

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:49:59 +0000

I only watched a few episodes of Torchwood, but this was quite excelent (I mean, even the most tiny things were improved, like little expositions, unimportant lines etc). Ok, leaving aside little things like “why did the troops left the kids alone right after 456 went away” it was a remarkable set of episodes (by the beggining of the last, things were quite heavy and Gwen’s video set things up perfectly – and I really enjoyed the fitting of the Doctor as this Superman-like moral-global thermometer). When I reach the point that the neighbourhood rebelled against the millitary (“they sold us off!”), I could only remember Dead Set as a good ol’ “populist” drama that managed to strike me as nicely and heavily as this.

“one of the better handled Iraq War metaphors to come along”

I thought it was a very broad stroke that could also fit the Iraq War, but I thought it was played as a decision that is constantly made, that those are the cogs running constantly, that such a board meeting really didn’t had much difference from all others. “Superfluous” people and children are sacrificed (or used as fuel) so the machine can keep on going (isn’t there a line from 456 that says something to that effect?).

Although, I read about the junkie aliens before watching it, and just figured it’d be about imperialist meddlings on basic societal traits (bolivian indians etc). Now I’m still expecting an episode where aliens will destroy all of Earth’s oxygen because a few of the aliens back home keep transforming it into something banal and stupid.

And I really didn’t imagine that Malcom from The Thick Of It could play such a character in Torchwood. Quite devastating.

By: chrisdonia

chrisdonia — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:28:45 +0000

It’s just a terrible pity that the last 5 minutes shat all over what was otherwise a remarkably good RTD storyline.

I can’t see them being able to do much more with the program now. Sigh.

By: Dorian

Dorian — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:26:55 +0000

Sacrificing their children so that a bunch of alien junkies can get a hit isn’t trivial?

By: HermitIX

HermitIX — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:14:59 +0000

I disagree with you when you say “…who are willing to sacrifice their children… over something ultimately stupid and trivial…” It was a choice between 100% of the world’s population or 10% of the world’s prepubescent population. It sucks but in the circumstance the governments were in they really could only make one choice. Give the children. It wasn’t trivial.
The only thing the government was trying to hide was the fact that they gave a dozen children to an alien race 40(?) years ago. That was done to get the cure for an eminent plague, and caused them to come back for more children. Also not trivial.

By: Legible Susan

Legible Susan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:17:44 +0000

Yes, definitely.

It’s a show with time travel, all sorts of alien tech (and room to drop in one you haven’t seen before at any point), and parallel worlds. In canon.

Plus, fanfic writers write AUs all the time.

If people just want to write Jack/Ianto p0rn and don’t want to use their imagination to fit it into continuity, why the heck do they care what happens on the screen anyway?

By: Pab Sungenis

Pab Sungenis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:12:51 +0000

I wholeheartedly disagreed with the insane folks who were ranting that “the show is all about Ianto.” (Wrong. Gwen is the central protagonist, and always has been. Jack is the sidekick.) But I’m sad to see him go, especially after the losses at the end of Series 2.

The beauty of “Torchwood,” once it all came together, was the chemistry between the five team members. A full third series would have been a completely different animal with just the three. I doubt there will be a fourth, and even if there is, it will not be the same show. Too many of the original elements are gone. ER syndrome.

By: François

François — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:14:35 +0000

Very nice review.
I must say I was wondering what you’d thought of CoE and of the reactions of those fans, and I find I completely agree with you.
I loved that Ianto character, and the fact that a gay relationship was so casually integrated in the stories. But I expected him to die sooner or later.
I’m also impressed by the way Davies and the other people working on Torchwood decided to break their toys: they could have done a few more series like the second one and made lots of fans happy, building up an American audience and all that. But they went the opposite way! That takes balls.
Now I really wonder what they’ll do for a fourth series, if there’s one.