Review: Torchwood 3.5: Day Five

*slits wrists*

Torchwood - Children of Earth, Day Five
Written 15/5/13

RTD's melodrama is in full force, and in this final RTD review I aim to look at the end of Children of Earth and how this miniseries hid its faults behind a fascade of seriousness. Day Five is by far the bleakest hour in the miniseries, and pushes the series to its logical conclusions in a way which is shocking and dark in a quite non-constructive way. The aim seems to be to fuck up as much as possible about the series and then see what fits into place after the fact. Which is a great way to do things.
     As Gwen and Jack mourn Ianto, the Government prepares to put the 456's plans into place, dragging children away from primary schools. Gwen and Rhys are airlifted to Cardiff to inform Ianto's sister of what happened. When Frobisher's children are chosen for the program to make the government look like the victims, he acquires a gun and takes his family out Columbine style. Bridget Spears visits Lois Habiba and learns how to use the Torchwood contact lenses. Jack is lifted from prison by Agent Johnson, who also kidnaps Dekker, bringing them both together to work on a solution. Through some technobabble, Jack works out that he can send the wave they used to kill Clem back at them, but he needs a child to focus on if the signal is ever going to be strong enough. They use Jack's grandson Steven and save the day at the cost of his life. As the dust settles, Bridget wipes the smug smile off the Prime Minister's face as she reveals that she has recordings of everything he's said and plans to ruin his career with them.
     The expenditure of Jack's grandson was at the time shocking and painful, but despite how inhuman it may seem of me, I can see why Jack did it. He's over 2000 years old, and his daughter has been restricting access to his grandson to the extent that they hardly know each other. Is it that much of a surprise that when it comes to a utilitarian choice between a kid he hardly knows and the 10% statistic, Jack chooses the 10%? Much more shocking was the death of John Frobisher and co, with RTD's script taking a decidedly more anti-suicide turn than his Osterhagen Key rubbish in Journey's End.

     The episode had an overall sense of bleak desperation, one that seemed entirely melancholic without anything to back it up. Torchwood in the past was about dragging humanity from the inhumane, about Gwen's measures to maintain her compassion in the face of a group of people who had lost touch with the rest of the world. If you rob the show of that dynamic, if you make it as bleak as you can possibly make it, then it creates a real disconnect with the audience that I find hard to reconcile. Children of Earth had some okay moments in it, but it forgot what Torchwood was, and thus I can't like it as much as I do the first two series.

Thanks.

Review: Torchwood 3.4: Day Four

"I'll never let go!" Dude, wrong Jack

Torchwood - Children of Earth, Day Four
Written 5/5/13

Day Four is the best episode of Children of Earth, if only because, like any good Torchwood episode, it has something to say. It may not be all car-chases and explosions, but it does show our characters fighting the good fight in a way which is manipulated to feel extraordinarily triumphant until the soul-shattering conclusion. Everything dark, everything truly scary about Children of Earth is right here - a mixture of Adult Fears, tearing away at the comfortable assumptions of trust we have in our day-to-day lives and showing what monsters ordinary people can become.
     Torchwood watches as the government deliberates over how to respond to the 456's demands. Initially Frobisher is sent to offer 62 kids (0.0001% of the overall population of Britain.) As the gang reel from discovering Jack's involvement in 1965, the 456 responds, reasserting to each country that they want 10%. The Cabinet decides to honour their demands, with Ryan Yates (Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs) deciding that a population reduction would be good, while truly evil Denise (Deborah Findley) decided to pick off the 10% from the lowest performing schools, claiming that if you're from the lower classes then you're obviously set for the dole or the prison cells. In a combined move, Torchwood gets ready to save the day: Lois bribes the cabinet to allow Jack and Ianto onto Floor 13, while they deliberately let Johnson trace their location to win her round to the Torchwood cause with the evidence presented. Just before their triumph is complete, the 456 responds to Jack's bravado by sealing off the MI5 building and releasing a virus that kills everyone inside except Jack and a lucky Mr. Dekker. As Gwen and Jack mourn Ianto's death, they admit that they don't know what to do from hereon in.

I doubt they could have done Children of Earth in the current
climate of secret paedos everywhere.

     The cabinet scene is perhaps one of the most difficult things I've ever had to watch for this blog. I'm used to a sort of cackling evil that comes with Classic Who, the glint in the eye of Max Capricorn. This is exactly what Midnight tried and failed to be - the slow, methodical translation of human faults and fears and self-preservation into despicable, banal, calculated evil. The politicians trying to protect their families - that I understand. But as a Northerner I've been subject to enough Government scorn because of the perceptions of my class and geographical position, because of snobbery and ignorance, that seeing the logical and quite realistic ramifications of that in this scenario hit quite close to home.
    Even more gruesome, though, was the revelation of what exactly the 456 wanted with the children. We were shown that they use the kids to harvest some kind of addictive substance, and the reason why they've come back is because they're on the last kid and they're beginning to suffer some serious withdrawl. So, in other words, the 456 are selfish space junkies, scooping up your kids and sucking them dry to get high. It's certainly novel, and it carries the series into territory that most people didn't think it could. In Miracle Day we end up with Death Camps specifically for burning people alive, and I think that they couldn't have gotten away with that without this issue to basically say, "Yeah, we went there."
    Ianto's death scene is probably what most people remember from this episode, and true to form I'm an apathetic douchebag. Ianto was cool, but for me he never really shined as anything other than a walking snark dispenser, as opposed to Owen and Tosh, who both had in-depth characterisations and storylines that didn't include hiding half-Cyber-converted girlfriends in the basement. Their last stand of firing bullets at the bullet-proof glass made me giggle more than anything - Jack can survive entering the 456's chamber, so the only reason I can think of why he didn't go in and put the gun to the creature's face is for drama and silliness.

"What else are the league tables for?" indeed....

     Day Four is, in the end, a spectacular example of what I think RTD was aiming for with this series. It had the action, the well-developed characters and concepts, and it explored the darkness of the human soul in a way which prime-time British TV rarely ever does. Ianto's death was unnecessary and sensationalist, done for the sole reason of simply having a death and not as part of any noticable character beats, but it did add to a sense of hopelessness that next week's hasty resolution will suffer because of. The bell tolls, my friends.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: The last RTD-written thing I'll ever review.

Review: Torchwood 3.3: Day Three

The 456 arrive.

Torchwood - Children of Earth, Day Three
Another shortie. Written 4/5/13

It's the hour format. That's what it is, that's what's bothering me. I've spent the past couple of months watching shows with a 40-45 minute runtime almost exclusively, and Children of Earth's added 15 minutes is getting me all distressed. This third day saw the mini-series formative stages finally give way to the core dilemma, surrounding the grotesque 456 and their demand for 10% of the Children of Earth. The rather well-done personality of the 456, and the tragedies that surround it, are gonna develop som'more next week, but give it time.
     The gang relocate to an old Torchwood London hangar, going out and stealing from people in order to build up enough tech for the mandatory technobabble. Gwen tracks down Lois Habiba, and gives her the camera contact lenses from Reset so that Torchwood can see what's happening inside Thames House. Agent Johnson captures Alice and Steven, Jack's daughter and grandson, just as the children stop again and point at Thames House, where a pillar of fire accompanies the 456's teleport. The alien has Frobisher organise a meeting of diplomats, with corrupt Prime Minister John Green continuing to use Frobisher as a scapegoat. Gwen rescues Clement Macdonald from prison and takes him back. They watch the meeting, wherin the 456 demand 10% of the world's children. Jack returns to the hangar after attempting to blackmail Frobisher, and the team discovers through Clement that he gave the 456 a gift of 12 children in 1965.
     I know this was meant to be shown back-to-back over a week as a single story rather than reviewed episodically. I'm rather shooting myself in the foot on that one. I just really can't think of anything to say about Day Three. It was okay, I guess. The nice chunky ideas the Children of Earth would become known for pop up on Day Four, with Day Three seeming more focussed on how the contact lens technology gets round the barrier of having no sound functions.

The team watch the conference via Lois' contact lenses.

     Feels a little like I'm wasting your time, here. The very few of you that do read. But I can't really come up with much to say about Day Three, other than that the 456 are here now and they want yo kids. The cast and crew are doing a great job, even if on an episode-by-episode basis the pace leaves a little something to be desired. Children of Earth may not feel much like Torchwood any more, but for what it is, it's been pretty good.

Thanks.

Review: Torchwood 3.2: Day Two

Ianto, Gwen and Rhys help free Jack.

Torchwood - Children of Earth, Day Two
Bit of a shorter one this week. Written 28/4/13

Questions running through my mind... I know that Frobisher doesn't want Jack bragging about the last time the 456 were here, but why kill them? Why destroy the goddamn Hub? The one person you want to get rid of is immortal, and you know it, and the other two members are just as clueless. It's almost as if some great godly figure wanted to make the scenario more tense by setting the world against Torchwood for no decent reason. Fancy that, eh?
     The hub destroyed, Ianto and Gwen get out alive, but "The Government", which appears to include day-to-day ambulance drivers, is out to get them both for reasons unknown. Agent Johnson tries to hunt both of them down, eventually giving up and taking Jack's body in pieces. In a cell, it re-arranges itself, leading her to fill the cell with concrete. Gwen and Rhys pop down to London and, after speaking with Lois Habiba, sneak into the place. Ianto helps bust Jack out by using a forklift truck to somehow lift the concrete block out of the wall and drop it down a cliff. Just as the new crew assemble, the Government have followed some 456 instructions and created a mysterious chamber on the top floor of Whitehall.
     This was very much an episode of going through the motions, moving characters away from Cardiff and into the bland, generic wasteland that is TV London. As the show's distinctive Welsh roots wither and die away, the only really decent moments came in the form of Rhys' utter badassery, considering that he's doing a pretty decent job of the whole "secret operative" thing on his second time out. I also loved the quiet conversations between him and Gwen, especially where she tells him that she's pregnant and doesn't even have to say the words.

"Mr. Dekker, please stop hugging the chamber..."

     The second day was one of story administration, laying out the canopés for the next day's first appearance from the enigmatic 456. It had a lot of cool character moments and I was glad to see the gang working together again, but I do get this overwhelming sense of loss as we not only lose the Hub which housed the series for two years but also lose Cardiff, the city that provided a lot of the series' distinct charm.

Thanks.

Review: Torchwood 3.1: Day One

"...among those dark, Satanic mills."

Torchwood - Children of Earth, Day One
Written 26/4/13

The third series never properly materialised. Despite plans for Freema Agyemen and Noel Clarke to pop over from Doctor Who and fill out the cast, both actors had other commitments (More important than Torchwood? Bah) and the planned thirteen episodes were cut down to five. Torchwood had left Episode Avenue and gone straight to Serial Junction, with the new planned series playing out over five consecutive days in the middle of 2009's Who-less Summer.
     One morning, every child in the world stops for a solid minute. Jack and Ianto come back from attempting to stealth-recruit Dr. Rupesh Patanjali and discover the scale of the problem. In Whitehall, admin woman Lois Habiba starts her job as assistant to Bridget Spears, herself the assistant to civil servant John Frobisher. Around breaktime, all the children stop again and scream, following it with an ominous "We are coming". Frobisher is told by the techy Mr. Dekker that the 456 are coming back. Torchwood notices that the transmissions were focussed around Britain, being in English and scheduled for times when children are out in the open. Gwen meets an old man who is also being affected, who tells her that she's pregnant. Before they learn any further, Rupesh reveals his position as a spy, and Jack has a bomb placed in his chest by government agent Johnson (Liz May Brice, Bad Girls). Ianto and Gwen get out alive but the Hub is blown up and Torchwood is now on the run.
     The shift to BBC One came with a shift towards a more adult drama in terms of setting and the way that the show treated the titular organisation. Children of Earth immediately treats Torchwood like a real political entity that poses a threat in a governmental crisis rather than a merry band of outcasts hunting aliens across Cardiff. I don't really know whether I like the change or not - it's gone all explody and secret agenty. It feels a little more like Spooks now than it does the ballsy cult show it was before. I suppose I'm saying it's all gone a bit mainstream. Dear lord, didn't think I'd ever end up using that argument. But they did blow up my precious Hub, and I really can't forgive them for that.

Jack gets a serious case of indigestion.

     I appreciated the look into both Jack and Ianto's pasts - Jack's daughter Alice and his grandson Steven, Ianto's sister and her family. Jack's personal mythology is large enough and complex enough that it was often hard to get a good grasp on anyone he might call family, so I think that was well done, and Ianto's family are immediately fun due to comedienne Katy Wix in the role of his sister.
     Children of Earth certainly gets off to a strong start, with the changes both bad and good making themselves firmly known. There's enough left of the old style for it to feel fairly continuous, but it's quite clear that this is a very different beast to what we once called Torchwood. I had to really question whether I could do this week-long story in five bits, but so far it's looking pretty good.

Thanks.

NEXT WEEK: Day Two, naturally.