It may be hard to believe now, given the show’s currently appalling ratings and the general distaste sci-fi fans have for it, but in the early 2000s Doctor Who was a huge hit, bordering on becoming a major cultural phenomenon. It was such a big deal that the series started spawning spinoffs. The first and best of those spinoffs was called Torchwood, and unlike Doctor Who it wasn’t wasn’t meant for kids.
Launched in 2006, Torchwood took a popular side character from the Eccleston years of Doctor Who, named Captain Jack Harkness, and gave him his own show. Jack is an immortal and the show they dropped him in ended up being sort of like a mix between Joss Whedon’s Angel and The X-Files.
It was actually even better than it sounds. Torchwood was a very adult-themed approach to the sci-fi ideas of Doctor Who, and during its short run on BBC America, it was one of the best shows on television.
Torchwood: Children Of Earth Is The Doctor Who Universe’s Best Effort
One of the strengths of Torchwood was always its ability to get right to the point, without sacrificing character development. However, in 2009 the series released a 5-part miniseries called Torchwood: Children of Earth, and it went with an entirely different formula.
During that brief five part run the show hit an entirely new, high level. In the process it created the best television viewing Doctor Who has ever produced, even though at no point did it feature The Doctor.
One of Torchwood was always its ability to get right to the point, without sacrificing character development. In this 5-part miniseries, they attempted to go in the other direction. Rather than squeezing a two hour story into a forty-five minute episode, Torchwood: Children of the Earth feels like they squeezed a two hour story into forty-five minutes, and then stretched it out into a five hours.
As a result, Torchwood: Children of the Earth ends up being about a lot more than your usual Torchwood episode or even your usual episode of Doctor Who. The focus isn’t really on the Torchwood team as much as it is on a series of new characters brought in to flesh out their extra running time. Some fans may have been left wondering when they’d get to the point, but it works, if only because those new supporting characters are so good.
Peter Capaldi Is In It, But Not Playing The Doctor
In particular there’s John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi), a civil servant, the equivalent of government middle management. Late in the story we’re told by one of his loyal underlings: “John Frobisher was a good man. Always remember that.” And that’s the real tragedy of his story.
Peter Capaldi would eventually go on to play The Doctor, but he’s not playing him here. And while he was good as The Doctor in his seasons on Doctor Who, nothing he did there is as good as his performance in Children of Earth.
John Frobisher is a good man, a hard working man, a uniquely British man who puts his head down and tries to get done what needs to get done. When the unthinkable happens he’s forced into a series of horrible, hopeless choices.
Terrifying Aliens Made More Terrifying With Low-Budget Special Effects
The unthinkable involves aliens and a terrifying choice involving the world’s children. Everyone on the planet is dead unless we do what these recently landed aliens want.
The aliens are particularly terrifying because they’re never fully seen. They land in Britain’s government center riding a beam of vicious fire and they’re contained inside a glass room where the atmosphere has been replaced with the murky poison they prefer to breath.
In that deadly fog we see only horrible shapes and flailing claws. When they speak there’s a thrashing about and the splashing of some hideous fluid. It’s a brilliant piece of production design, suspenseful and frightening, all done on a modest budget.
The Torchwood Team Is Left Out Of The Action
While the government attempts to deal with the nightmare in their midst, in the background works what’s left of the Torchwood team. After two seasons they’re now down to three members; Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd), and the immortal (literally) Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman); and someone wants them dead.
Since it’s Torchwood, you know that means there’s a very good chance that by the time it’s over one or more of them really could be dead, which keeps the stakes high not only because of some vague threat to the world as a whole, but on a more intimate level for the people you’ve already come to know over two seasons of watching them on the show.
Yet because they’re trying not to end up as corpses, the Torchwood team is mostly left out of what’s happening with the whole alien invasion plot. They’re left working around the fringes while something bigger unfolds. It’s incredible, but fans may have been disappointed that Jack Harkness isn’t always in the thick of things.
The cast is fantastic, especially Peter Capaldi as Frobisher. Children of Earth is compelling science fiction, full of suspense and terrifying truths. If there’s a problem, it’s only that the whole thing is a huge, huge downer.
Torchwood Is A Hopeless Downer, And That’s Perfect
Remember that sickening ending to The Mist? Now imagine that emotional punch in the gut stretched over five hours and you’ll have some inkling of what Children of the Earth has in store for you. It’s a wrenching story, thoughtful and smart, but also dark and depressing.
There’s no light at the end of the tunnel in any episode of Torchwood. There never is. There’s only the choice between bad and even worse. If there’s hope, it’s found only in the people forced to make those choices, people who bear up under the worst life has to offer, put their head down, and keep on going as long as they can.
It’s a uniquely British perspective, a perspective which seems on the verge of going extinct in the modern world. That uniquely British view still exists in Torchwood: Children of Earth.
Children Of Earth Destroyed Torchwood
Torchwood would go on for another season after Children of Earth, with a run called Torchwood: Miracle Day. It wasn’t good. The series seemed to have lost its touch.
Part of the problem was that eventually they moved the show to be set in California. In the process it lost a lot of its Britishness. It lost a lot of what made it special.
Torchwood writer Chris Chibnall seems to agree, calling Children of Earth “the best iteration of Torchwood.” But maybe that’s why it was never as good.
Chibnall explains that Children of Earth, “…also destroys everything about Torchwood; in order to make it work, you have to destroy the things that we were writing for.”
Creation through destruction. That’s why Torchwood: Children of Earth is so good. It’s also why Torchwood was never the same again afterward.
Torchwood is currently available to stream free for subscribers on Max.