Please be aware of spoilers!

2022/10/23

For a few months now I was looking to the rewatch of Torchwood Series 3, not so much the first two seasons but I really wanted to give series 3 “Children of Earth” another watch. Reason why I think, because the last few months I was watching the UK series The Midwich Cuckoos, where children also are being used by aliens. I remember when Torchwood first aired I was really impressed with the quality of this series 3. The story, the grandness, the pace, the aliens, government involvement, Jack’s involvement in 1965, it all was there, it was a rollercoaster ride 5 episodes long! It was  a miniseries or limited series as it is called nowadays, so a different form than the first two series which both had 13 episodes. I’ve rewatched series 3 two or three times since, so it was really time for another look. For me series 3 is the very best Torchwood series (or season).

Torchwood series 3 first aired in July 2009 and at that time I was convinced that this could not be an American TV show, because of what the lead character does and has done in the past. I don’t think a CBS or a FOX would have dared to air this, to let the hero of a show do something like Jack Harkness has done then and do now in the present. Probably now, 13 years later I think standard networks like CBS, FOX, ABC etcetera still would be cautious today to let your lead character what he does. That alone makes Torchwood Series 3 so innovative. Believe me, I sometimes found it to be uncomfortable to watch certain scenes, and I think that is how you should feel if you are a decent human being. For instance, in the last episode how these children are being chased by these soldiers, using force if needed, I found it uncomfortable then and with this latest rewatch I still do. Having said that, it is a very strong season, series or whatever!

What is a shame and still don’t understand why Tosh had to die in season two, I expected Owen to die because in fact he already was dead and then you just hope in series 3 that the team stays complete! Well you know now you are watching a British show, they like to “play” with the audience a bit more, keeping us, viewers, on our toes. As I said, it was the situation in 2009, I think this is happening more now also in North American shows.

When the first episode starts you see the Torchwood team being kinda relaxed, making fun, being comfortable with each other, in their jobs. Then it happens children are being taken over by an alien entity all over the world and let them say things like: We are coming. We get to see that Jack has a daughter and a grandson! But the grandson doesn’t know Jack’s his grandfather, he is been told he is an uncle. Jack visits his daughter but with a clear intention, he tries to use his grandson to find out what is happening to the children, but his daughter sees through subterfuge and points him the way to the door. This is already something that a normal grandfather wouldn’t even consider I think, but Jack does. Meanwhile it becomes clear that this isn’t the first time, back in the 60’s, in 1965 aliens also visited the UK, they then didn’t use the children as they do in the present but they come for the same thing as they did then, children. One out of twelve children was left behind in 1965 and he is well in his 70’s now and he also is a mouthpiece for these aliens. Children now are saying: we are coming….back

We also get a close look at how this is been dealt with by the government. John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) reports directly to the Prime Minister, who doesn’t want to know that the aliens, called 456, because of the frequency the first were discovered, where in the UK 44 years earlier, because then he won’t get the blame. The PM is a bit of a coward and makes Frobisher responsible man so that if it goes south, he as PM is not to blame. Meanwhile in Frobisher’s office a new colleague starts to work, Lois Habiba, she falls with her butt into chaos as this is the first day the aliens make contact via the children. Lois becomes quite literally the eyes and ears of Torchwood inside Thames house.

Torchwood suddenly is a treat, mostly because Jack Harkness knows the truth, that the aliens, 456, had been there before, in 1965. So the Prime Minister has set out a hit on Jack and two other men, Lois has seen this document. The Torchwood hub gets destroyed, Jack tells Ianto, Gwen to escape and when the hub exploded, Jack is in the middle of it. Gwen and Ianto escape separately and wait for Jack to come back from the death. Habiba is nosey and when Gwen calls for Frobisher, Habiba is the one come talking to them because she realizes, Frobisher would have them killed. She decides to help Gwen. Frobiser’s team, led by Johnson, quite a bitch(!), they find Jack and because they know what he is, immortal, they lock him up, at least what’s left of him, in a cell. When he regenerates, Johnson lets his cell fill with cement, so he is no position to do anything anymore. But of course Ianto and Gwen are coming to save him in a spectacular way!

When Johnson finds out that Harkness has a daughter and a grandchild, Frobisher orders her to pick them up. Ianto remembers his first Torchwood location and after Ianto & Gwen save Jack, they go there but there is nothing, an old empty place. So they decide to become the criminals the government accuses them of. This way they collect everything they need to get back into the “game” so to speak. Gwen asks Lois to spy for them because they need to know what is happening inside in Thames house where the aliens will be received, after, by their instruction, a glass box has been build where they can breathe. Lois at first is against it, because it is treason, but Gwen manages to convince her. Gwen gives her lenses which are a camera, so what she sees and hear, Torchwood does also. The aliens tell them what they want, they want 10% of our children’s population! Gwen breaks out the old man who was there also as a child in 1965 and he feels a man coming whom he is a afraid of, that man is Jack! Jack is the one who, in 1965, gave those kids to the aliens, as a gift! He didn’t seem to have any problems with it.

The 456 offered a cure for a deadly new flu strain that will soon arise, and, in return, wanted twelve children. Jack is the one who will “give” the children away, why him? Simply because no one else wants to and Jack doesn’t care. Because the English government feels they have no chance against the 456, they agree (together with the governments all over the world) to collect 10% of the population worldwide. What they don’t know that Lois is still recording everything. Via Lois Torchwood lets the government know that if Torchwood is denied access to the aliens, they will make everything public. So they reluctantly agree. When Jack and Ianto go into Thames house and refuse the offer the aliens have made! As a response the aliens release a lethal virus into Thames house which also kills Ianto! Jack is panicking and says to the aliens that he will take it all back as long as Ianto doesn’t die!  - So 1 person for him becomes more important than the 10% children of the world. Like Ianto, Jack also dies, but of course later on wakes up again. The aliens also kill Clem, the man who stayed behind as a boy in 1965.

Lois has been locked up because she was an accomplice to Torchwood (what has happened to her? Jack promises to help free her but we haven’t heard of her again), meanwhile the governments all over the world are collecting the 10% that is needed for the aliens demand. Gwen and Rhys are helping Ianto’s sister, her husband and their children get away because they belong to the demographic of the governments selection, children who aren’t destined to become important for their country. When Frobisher asks what is going to become of these children, the aliens tell them that they live a long life. After some insisting they show a child who has traveled with them. He looks terrible, they are using these children as a drug, it makes them feel good! Meanwhile Jack’s daughter and his grandson are being released. With the help of Dekker and Johnson the devise a way to defeat the 456 using a reconstitution wave of the same wavelength the 456 used to kill Clem, using the children as one vast transmitter. But the need a child for that, the only available child is his grandson. However, Dekker points out that the child will fry! Meanwhile the children are being chased, captured like they are criminals but Jacks idea works and the aliens, 456, scream, explode and then also disappear! Of course his daughter no longer wants to have anything to do with him. He tells Gwen and Rhys that he is going away for a while, he cannot stay after what’s happened, what he has done.

Final Word:

Last episode was at times very uncomfortable to watch, how easy men and women become animals, this is how politics work, how these children are no more than units to give away. Also Jack using his grandson, was very confronting. This is, I believe, not something you will see often on American shows, a hero of a show using his or hers own grandchild or any person for that matter. But even though you have these uncomfortable feelings, or despite perhaps even, you realize, this is great TV, this is a fantastic rollercoaster ride! Five fantastic episodes, a story that, never loses the fast pace, it’s definitely something you wanna binge watch on one evening! Rewatch definitely recommended!

Screencaps taken from: KissThemGoodbye.net