Now that the dust has settled on the broadcast of Torchwood: Children of Earth, I’ve finally got over the shock and been able to gather my thoughts on what proved to be a week of breathtaking television drama.
Breathtaking. Funny. Brave. Challenging. Exciting. Witty. Tense. Sickening.
What Russell T Davies and co-writers James Moran and John Fay did across five episodes was craft a Quatermass for the modern age, an intelligent slice of adult drama that, going by the ratings, engaged with a sizeable audience. It was the epitome of event television - everybody in the office has been talking about it, including colleagues who have previously been sniffy about anything science fiction related.
And that was the clincher - it was science fiction to a point, but it was told with the sheen of Spooks or State of Play, rooted in the real world of human fears and failings. I challenge anyone in the audience not to feel a wave of disgust over how the school league tables were going to be used to select the lowest achieving kids in the country. And when the true nature of the 456’s need for the children was revealed, it wasn’t about universal domination or detonating reality bombs. It was about something as small (and for that, utterly horrifying) as where their next hit was coming from. Chilling stuff.
I could write so many words extolling the virtues of Children of Earth, which could get quite boring. So I’ll finish off by singling out one cast member (out of a cast it’s hard to find fault with) for special praise.
On Friday evening, Peter Capaldi’s performance as John Frobisher broke my heart. Throughout the week of Children of Earth, he played a simple man forced into a terrible situation, a plodding civil servant keeping secrets no man should have to. He was manipulated by all around him, used as the fall guy. And he took it. Calmly. Some might say he was weak. But throughout, Capaldi portrayed Frobisher’s relative impotence with a tragic conviction that was quite devastating.
In the final episode, as Frobisher is told by Nicholas Farrell’s abhorrent PM what the fate of his children will be, his outrage still has that same sense of impotence about it - he can’t quite summon the energy after all these years to get truly angry. And his final act is one that can be interpreted in different ways - an act of courage or an act of cowardice? It’s a fine line, but that shows the moral ambiguity running through the whole series that made it so seductive.
But Frobisher’s final act can be seen as a counterpoint to Captain Jack’s plight. Some say that the major weakness of Torchwood is having a central character who can’t die - in short, where’s the jeopardy? But this third run of Torchwood had more subtly than that. On top of the morbid fascination of his regeneration after being ripped apart by a bomb in his tummy, Jack did not have the option of the blessed release that was John Frobisher’s final act. Jack has to live with his actions at the climax of Children of Earth for, well, forever. And that is horrible, thoroughly horrible.
Torchwood should win a stack of awards - but probably won’t, because it’s tagged as science fiction. I hope I’m wrong. But please, if there’s any justice in the world, can we at least see a Bafta nomination for Peter Capaldi? It’s only right and proper.
Oh, and while I’m here, sorry to say, but Jones is bones. He ain’t coming back. So make your own coffee…
The BAFTA should be for John Barrowman. He acted his socks off. And for the writers.
Glad that reference was made to Quatermass, as a huge chunk of the final episode was pretty much ripped off from the 1979 Quatermass serial penned by Nigel Kneale and starring Sir John Mills
Thoroughly agree it was something truly special and rather uncompromising. And spread over a compact five nights it became real event television.
In fact the whole cast deserve BAFTAS! JB was heartbreaking to watch when he sacrificed his grandson, but equally, as you say Peter Capalid was superb!
Absolutely enthralled by it all, but now worried, given the story's conclusion, that the series will be axed. Does anyone know if and when Torchwood will return?
I happened to rent the last Quatermass series right before Children of Earth. Ooops! I think I've seen this before. That having been said, the TW cast was excellent.
Peter Capaldi was the true standout in this excellent series. He acted everybody else off the screen. It was a masterclass.
For 4 episodes, I was gripped - but then came the ending and I'm afraid it was back to "Torchwood as normal." I know from experience that Russell T Davies can't do endings - even "The Second Coming" was more "Coitus interruptus" - so I have to wonder why he didn't hand over the reins to the person who wrote the rather better episode 4...
It was a brilliant mixture of "Spooks" and "Quatermass" for 4 episodes.
But sadly, it all turned to custard at the end...
We had the usual 5 minute "reset switch" rabbit from a hat solution - Jack and a keyboard, apparently, was all that was needed. So that cheapened the previous 4 episodes of wondering how they were going to sort it out.
The Frobishers got an icy, stiff-kneed dismissal half way through the episode, almost a throwaway, when Peter Capaldi was the best thing in it. While a bunch of kids we'd never met got a huge chase scene, and we were expected to care....why, when we hadn't spent 4 episodes getting to know them? My guess is because they're from an estate, while the Frobishers were toffs. R.T.D. flashing his working class credentials?
Plus we were expected to cry a river over Jack's grandson (or even Jack, whose performance can generally, along with Ianto's, be sawn up and used to make furniture). But we hardly knew him! Misplaced emotional emphasis isn't something new for Russell T., ne ususally covers it up with a thick layer of loud music, but you'd think he might have got it right by now.
(I might also mention that the human race was made to look like spineless weaklings, since the 456 didn't do THAT much to justify the fear they seemed to be held in - without Peter Capaldi's fearful reactions (he generally acted everyone else off the screen), we'd hardly have realised that they were terribly dangerous. And would humanity give up their children that easily? I think not! it's all rather at odds with the way the human race is constantly being made out to be the best thing since sliced bread in "new-Who".)
Shame. For 4 episodes, it looked like TW had been turned around.