Torchwood : Children of Earth ...

 

Torchwood : Children of Earth is probably the best of the Torchwood series.  For one thing it features to-be-Doctor-Who-himself Peter Capaldi in his most forgotten but probably his most subtle performance of no less than 3 in the Doctor Who universe…. Permanent Secretary John Frobisher.

Permanent Secretary John Frobisher is a workaholic Civil Servant who is in charge of “negotiating” inside the MI5’s HQ with a mysterious being call the 456.  The 456 (named after “a wavelength") is a fantastic villain – we never see it fully and it exists in a large box of toxic gasses.  All we see of the 456 is some kind of green protuberances in the mist that it occasionally bangs against the glass walls.  It also appears to extrude some kind of spurts of what look like a kind of green vomit against the walls of its chamber in heightened states of emotion.  When it speaks the 456 speaks in short threatening sentences. 

Frobisher is over-promoted to the job of managing the 456 because everyone else wants to keep their hands clean and his negotiations do not go well.  While other villains in these kinds of stories seek to take over the Earth the 456 has already successfully invaded once and its aim is not so much to invade the Earth but to blackmail it with the threat of worldwide pandemics.  Frobisher is instructed to accede to the blackmail and finds himself embroiled in an ever more disastrous series of compromises which result in ruthlessly amoral Cabinet discussions whereby the Prime Minister and his cronies sit around a table discussing which subsections of the public to sacrifice in order to avert the pandemic while preserving their own and their own families.  It’s an all too chillingly believable scenario and remarkably topical given the current pandemic.

Frobisher also gives instructions to blow up the Torchwood hub and kill Captain Jack and so the Torchwood team and Gwen’s husband go on the run.  One has to admit some kind of sympathy too with the authorities when Jack’s gung-ho style of alien confrontation results in the death of almost everyone in the MI5 building including the much missed… 

New character Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) reveals a lot of the plot to us via some quite cool webcam contact lenses as Martha Jones was unavailable due to having a better gig.  The actual resolution of the alien threat is not really the point of this drama - the point is watching the humans squabble over who is and isn't important in society.  Then again isn't that what all political argument is in the end?

This satire hits so many nails on the head and is really very nightmarish in places.  You really do believe that something like this could happen.  Indeed, some may say that as I write the Cabinet are sitting round a table (or in a zoom meeting) discussing whose death is worse than a continuing pandemic.  Some may very well say that.  I couldn’t possibly comment.

Forward to Miracle Day

Backwards to Series 1 and 2