Torchwood: Children of Earth

Chapter the 339th, where other members of Torchwood discover they don't know Jack. 

Plot:

One day, across the world, all children suddenly stop moving for a few minutes. Later, they do the same again, but this time they go on to speak, in unison. This keeps happening; each message they speak is eerier and eerier, warning that something is returning. Some force is controlling them, and a branch of the UK government (represented by civil servant John Frobisher and technician Dekker) seems very clued up on it. They start making preparations for a visit by aliens known to them as the 456 (a number relating to the frequency they broadcast on). The government did a deal with the aliens in the 1960s, giving them twelve children under threat of the release of a virus that would have wiped out millions. One adult is also controlled by this unseen force, and speaks along with the children. This is Clem McDonald. He was the only one of the twelve who managed to escape. Captain Jack was one of the handlers delivering the children back then. An order is given by Frobisher to kill him and the rest of Torchwood as part of a cover-up. Gwen and Ianto manage to get away before the Torchwood Hub in Cardiff is destroyed. Jack is blown up, but his remains are taken away, as his death-defying abilities cause him to slowly reform. Gwen and Ianto (assisted by Rhys) break his rebuilt self out of where he was being held, and (assisted by PC Andy) they collect Clem too. In hiding, they work with a political aide Lois Habiba whom they've recruited to use Torchwood tech to infiltrate and record the government's dealings with the 456. The aliens demand ten percent of the world population of children. Lois records discussions between politicians on how to choose which children to be handed over.

As part of negotiations, it is revealed that the 456 hook themselves up to the children to imbibe certain chemicals from them, for their narcotic effects. Using the threat to release the recordings as a bargaining chip, Jack and Ianto talk their way into the room in Thames House where an ambassador of the 456 is based: they confront the alien and it releases a lethal virus. Jack is resurrected, but Ianto is dead. The 456 also kill Clem, who they refer to as the Remnant, by remote control with a sonic signal. The government starts to round up children from poorer families, with a cover story of a mass inoculation programme to stop the children from coming under alien control. Gwen, Rhys and Ianto's sister and brother-in-law help some children to evade the army who are gathering up the kids. The Prime Minister informs Frobisher that his children are also to be given to the 456 to demonstrate that it is not just ordinary families that are making the sacrifice. To avoid this, Frobisher shoots his wife, two children and then himself dead. Jack realises that the 456 killed Clem as otherwise he might have provided an opportunity for them to be killed. He needs to send a signal but needs a child that's hooked in to the 456's control. He uses his grandson, the child of a mother who was herself the issue from a decades old dalliance. The solution works, and the 456 leave Earth, but Jack's grandson is killed and his mother swears she will never see Jack again. Consumed by guilt, Jack decides to leave Earth and travel the galaxy.

Context:

It was mid-September 2025, and my eldest (young man of 19) was a week away from returning to university for his second year. He's a huge Peter Capaldi fan, mainly from his work in The Thick of It, but from his performance as the Doctor too. I mentioned that I was about to blog a story that featured Capaldi and that the actor was very good in it; he was persuaded to join me. The two of us watched the five episodes stripped across a week, one episode per evening, just as it was originally broadcast. I'd wanted to blog a Torchwood story (and thought I may as well blog the indisputably best one) as I'd covered at least one story from all other Doctor Who spin-off series. The only issue was that it failed the very first of my canon test questions: Does it star the Doctor? It stars an actor that would later go on to play the Doctor, but that doesn't cut it. Given that I will in future, just for completeness, cover the as yet unaired spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea - which now looks to be coming in 2026 rather than 2025 - and that won't feature the Doctor either, I will have to tolerate a very occasional relaxing of this rule. The character anyway has something of a presence in Children of Earth just because of his absence. The rest of the canon questions were fine. Was it released as an official Doctor Who or official spin-off story (i.e. its not an unofficial fan-made proposition)? Yes. Is there a dramatic context to the story (i.e. it's not just a skit)? Yes. Was it released with the intention of being the main attraction for audience engagement (i.e. it's not just an extra on a DVD or Blu-ray)? Yes. Have I already covered it in passing with another connected story? No.

Milestone watch: I've been blogging new and classic Doctor Who stories in random order since 2015, and I'm now approaching the point where I catch up. Aside from spin-offs like Torchwood: Children of Earth, the tally stands at 12 Doctors' televisual eras completed (Doctors 1-4, 6-9 and 11-14), and 38 out of the 41 seasons completed to date (classic seasons 1-18, 20-26, and new series 1, 2, and 4-14). Of the 892 episodes of Doctor Who from An Unearthly Child up to The Reality War, 10 now remain.

First Time Round:

As I've mentioned when covering stories from 2009 for the blog before, Doctor Who's so-called 'gap year' (2009 was the first year since the 21st century return of the show that a full series was not broadcast) was really nothing of the sort: there were several goodies for Doctor Who fans spread across the year that meant only ever a few months' at a maximum elapsed before one could see something new. In July, this Torchwood story was one such goodie, broadcast an episode per night across a week (matching the narrative structure of each episode being set over the course of a single one of five consecutive days). I watched each one live as they went out on BBC1. I think it's fair to say that the strength of reaction surprised a lot of people; the story was a steep step-up in quality from the previous two seasons, and it attracted a reasonably large audience. That was nothing, though, compared to the size and surprise of the fan backlash regarding the death of series regular Ianto Jones; the main memory I have from first time around is, alas, all of that nonsense (more details in the Deeper Thoughts section below).

Reaction:

Let's start with Peter Capaldi, whose presence in the cast was one of the major reasons I picked this story to watch. His performance as John Frobisher - an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary situations, a man who goes to extraordinary lengths for somewhat tawdry aims; a man who's ruthless and determined but weak, and yet aware of his own weakness - is not just the best performance he's ever given in any 'Whoniverse' story, but might also be Capaldi's best work in anything ever. I know this is a bold claim, but just watch him over the course of these five episodes. Every expression, every twitch, every tiny movement of a muscle, all are completely under his control and finely calibrated. Sometimes he's giving this acting masterclass without even appearing to be moving; it's like his skin is able to act independently of any other body part. He embodies the role, in every sense of that word. It's not as showy as this sounds. The prevailing tone of the piece is fairly realistic, but this is no kitchen-sink drama. It's Torchwood: there are pyrotechnics and car chases and aliens. Capaldi's aligned with that overall tone, but grounded enough that one never sees - not from his first appearance all the way up to the character's devastatingly tragic final moments - any Capaldi on screen, only John Frobisher, worrying himself to death as he tries to do his job while gradually running out of options. This wasn't a rehearsal for playing the Doctor (no doubt there are some fan-fics out there that posit it, but its very hard to reconcile that final scene with John Frobisher being the twelfth Doctor in disguise); the actor had already played a guest character in the main show, and now was doing the same in a Who spin-off, he probably thought this was his last roll of the dice. It was lucky that the show carried on long enough that he could play the main role eventually.

With such a powerhouse performance from one member of the cast, it's perhaps surprising that Capaldi doesn't stand out that much. He's just one of an incredibly strong guest cast, none of whom equal him, but many come close. There's too many to mention them all but a few to pick out: Nicholas Farrell as slippery Prime Minister Brian Green, the real villain of the piece; Ian Gelder as Dekker, the amoral techie with a keen sense of self-preservation; Paul Copley bringing the pathos, as well as the humanity, as Clem McDonald, the only adult affected by the 456's control; Cush Jumbo as Lois Habiba, the slightly unwilling rookie recruit to Torchwood. Then there's a pre-Ghosts Katy Wix as Rhiannon Davies, Ianto's sister. The scenes of Ianto and his family are some of the funniest and most real that Torchwood ever had. Every member of the guest cast in whatever role, big or small, is taking the excellent material in the script and making it even better. A good example of this is the chilling COBRA scenes, where politicians and civil servants sit in Cabinet Office Briefing Room A and discuss the vast Trolley problem scenario with which they are confronted. Nicholas Briggs, who's usually heard but not seen on Doctor Who as he voices Daleks, Cybermen and many other creatures, has a rare in-camera role, and shines with only a few lines of dialogue. All this talent is a good buffer protecting the regular cast. The narrative sees the Torchwood team isolated and mainly working on their own (they barely interact with Capladi's Frobisher, for example). Without meaning to be too negative, this is possibly a reason why this story tends to be more well thought of than other Torchwood tales. The - somewhat arch and fabricated - dramatic world of the regular characters does not dominate the running time, and we continually cut to other characters to keep the action grounded in reality.

With no offence meant to them or any of their fans, the actors playing the surviving members of Torchwood (John Barrowman as Captain Jack, Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper and Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto) don't have great range. What they can do they do well: they can do action, they can do sass, they can do standing and staring mysteriously into the middle-distance as they contemplate what action or sass is just about to happen. It's a stretch to expect much more than that (and it is generally enough, to be fair). There's a couple of times that Barrowman is asked to go beyond this into grief and anguish, and the moments don't quite convince; neither do Myles and David-Lloyd's depictions of the betrayal of Jack turning out to have been involved with an earlier grubby scheme to placate the 456 from decades before (but this shouldn't have come as much of a surprise to them if they stopped to think about it - why else would the government want him killed?). Doing much better are the semi-regulars of Torchwood, Kai Owen as Rhys Williams and Tom Price as PC Andy, who both get given softball comedy material (and - to give both of them their due - knock it out of the park). It doesn't really matter too much, as the story has so many groups of characters to cut to, all of them being put through the ultimate in dramatic twists and turns. Kudos is deserved for Russell T Davies and the other writers: what's on the page is so strong that any cast would have looked good delivering it; that it's a top drawer guest cast, and pretty likeable set of regulars, elevates this to a special level.

One of the key strengths of the script is the simple but effective ideas that drive it: every scene of the possessed kids acting and talking in sync is instantly and eerily effective, and doesn't trouble the effects budget. Apart from some body horror based on the indestructible Jack reforming after being blown to bits, the terrors of Children of Earth are pretty low tech, and all the more striking because of that. This extends to the conception of baddies the 456 on page and on screen. It's a straightforward analogue: they are gangsters who deal in drugs pulling a protection racket; unknowably more powerful than the human race, they have us at their mercy. The visuals of the creatures are also perfect: shrouded and mysterious in clouds of vapour, expressing themselves with thrashing alien limbs and splats of expectorated goo. That motivation for an adversary, and the scary visuals, would not have been possible to do in the more family-friendly main show; with this story, Torchwood is finally utilising its post-watershed status effectively to work for the drama, rather than just add sex and swearing to sci-fi tales. Children of Earth is bleak, with many reprehensible characters surviving to the end without any comeuppance. Ideas and visuals are perfectly framed by the structure, the relentless nature of each episode covering a day brings the audience in inevitable increments, closer and closer, to the dilemmas and compromises inherent in the story's basic premise: what would - what could - any of us sacrifice for the greater good? Ultimately, Frobisher and Jack are shown as the only ones brave or ruthless enough to sacrifice their own progeny, the former to escape a terrible fate for his family, the latter to save the world at an awful cost.

The devastating ending somewhat makes up for the only weak point of the narrative, the ending of the fourth episode. The violent retribution of the 456, including Ianto's death, is effective at upping the ante, but it involves both him and Jack acting out of character: they meticulously plan infiltrating the government meetings using all technology they have to use; but, they abandon all that once they get into a room with the 456; it seems suicidally remiss of them to have given no thought to what they would do once they have confronted the baddies. The shock of a regular character getting killed off covers this up on first watch, but with each repeat viewing this gap in character logic makes the event seem more and more pointless. It is most uncharacteristic of Torchwood of all teams to go off half-cocked. This is a minor flaw in the scheme of things, though, and the rest of the story stands up there with the best that Doctor Who and all its spin-offs have to offer. It's certainly odd, though: one of the greatest stories in the Whoniverse is a Torchwood story; who would have guessed that before the story aired? It seems unbelievable even at the time of writing, 16 years on.

Connectivity:

Both Torchwood: Children of Earth and Exploration Earth: The Time Machine are Doctor Who spin-offs with the word Earth somewhere in the title.

Deeper Thoughts:

Ianto, we hardly knew ye. At the time of writing this (2025), the internet is ever prone to go into meltdown; it barely takes a whisper. In 2009, before the mass adoption of social media, it was less common; nonetheless, 2009 saw a meltdown take place related to the events at the end of part four of Torchwood Children of Earth. I could have put lots of spoiler warnings above about Ianto's death at that point in the narrative, but it would have been pointless. There's a shrine. There's a f**king shrine, for chrissakes. Almost immediately after the broadcast of the episode, fans started to leave flowers, photos and messages in the Cardiff Bay location where the entrance to the underground Torchwood Hub was fictionally based. And they haven't really stopped since. The shrine is still there after all these years; it's become a tourist attraction of sorts and has its own Tripadvisor entry and wikipedia page. It is one of the manifestations of fandom mentality that I most struggle to understand. For a start, these offerings aren't being placed at the site of the character's demise - he dies in Thames House in London, so really the shrine should be there. Wherever these fans choose to do it, though, they are paying tribute to a person who doesn't exist. Clearly, the character meant a lot more to many than he did to me; he must have meant more to people than the characters of Tosh and Owen (regulars who were killed off in the series the year before Children of Earth and got not even a single bloom left for them anywhere in the Cardiff area). People buy or pick flowers, write or draw, bring photos and even merch and go some distance out of their way to travel to a dockside wall, all to commemorate the life and death of someone who doesn't exist. Believe it or not, though, this is not the strangest reaction people had to Ianto's passing.

In 2009, I knew James Moran - co-writer of one of the episodes of Children of Earth - a tiny bit. He was the most successful of a group of screenwriting bloggers, of whom I was also a (much less successful) member, a friend of a friend, and I'd socialised with him briefly in person at a screenwriting festival in 2008. He was not a bosom buddy, nor even much of an acquaintance; so, perhaps it was presumptuous of me to take a tiny bit of personal offence at the torrent of hate that was directed at him online after Children of Earth's fourth episode aired. Given that Moran is a real human being, and the people directing hate at him were taking a huge chunk of personal offence about the fate of an entirely fictional person, I feel I should be forgiven for my presumption in this instance. It was just horrible. As I said at the start of these thoughts, there's been many a virtual pile-on in the years since, some of which probably make 'Ianto-gate' look like a tea party; nonetheless, it was the worst I'd witnessed up to that point (I was a web savvy Doctor Who fan too, so I wasn't unaccustomed, alas, to online bile). To summarise for those unaware of the history: immediately after the tragic end of Ianto aired, Moran was bombarded on twitter and in the comments section of his blog by fans expressing in strong terms their unhappiness at the events of the episode. He was accused of misleading, manipulating and mocking fandom, and much else besides. He had to suspend comments on the blog and disappear from the web for a while. If the shrine was the more positive side of the overreaction, this was the ugly side. It's worth pointing out that Moran didn't write the fourth episode, he co-wrote the third in which no beloved characters die. He just happened to be the only one of the writers with an online presence, and hence was the only person available to whom the baying mob could vent their ire.

There was more activity beyond the shrine and the online whine; there was a Save Ianto Jones campaign that demanded that the character be brought back somehow and encouraged readers of its website to inundate the BBC with complaints (they also raised a large amount of money for charity, let it be noted). Why was it Ianto that inspired such feeling? He had something of a status as an LGBTQ+ Who icon, because of the plot arc threaded through Torchwood before and including Children of Earth about his attraction for and relationship with Captain Jack. A number of commentators in the immediate aftermath of the character's death mentioned that destroying a same sex relationship in such a dramatic way was disappointingly heteronormative (some even reportedly said is was homophobic / biphobic). I've got a small amount of sympathy with this point of view, but as mentioned it wasn't exactly rare for Torchwood to kill characters off. From its very first episode, it was made very clear that Torchwood operated in a part of the Whoniverse that was a lot more dangerous and less cuddly than Doctor Who's snug corner; people - off all ages, colours, creeds and orientations - were likely to die. Nobody was calling for the old guy or the young lad killed off by the 456 to be brought back (and nobody knew anything definitive about their sexuality). No, I suspect the concerns about Ianto's status as an LGBTQ+  icon were a post facto rationalisation; the disproportionate reaction came first. It's a mystery. Torchwood fans obviously adored him, and maybe even they themselves didn't fully know why. That's no excuse for attacking people online, of course. Ianto was never 'saved' but he'll never be forgotten: the shrine remains as an enduring reminder of the character and that moment of fan excess.

In Summary:

One of the greatest stories in the Whoniverse is a Torchwood story - go figure.