Torchwood Children of Earth Day 1 Review (spoilers)

I have enjoyed Doctor Who for years. I started watching in grad school. WWOR out of New York, which was available on cable in Tuscaloosa, ran the episodes on Saturdays. Then PBS in Georgia ran the show while I lived in Rome. Then when I came back to Alabama there was Doctor Who on APT. I was very upset when the show was cancelled.

I was in London the week that Russell T. Davies new version of Doctor Who was launched. All the magazines had articles about the new Doctor Who. Some of the old Who fans were upset. Some were happy that someone had thought enough of the show to resurrect it. I was in the latter category. I did not get to see that first episode of the new Doctor Who for several months but I was very happy to know that somewhere in the world people were watching "the doctor". Then here it was on our tv, Doctor Who. Christopher Eccleston was the first of the new doctors. He was darker than most of the older doctors but he had one big advantage, he had kick ass stories to tell.

I enjoyed all of that first season. I really liked the Steven Moffat stories The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances which introduced the character of Captain Jack Harkness. Now I will not pretend that I like Captain Jack from his first introduction in Doctor Who. I thought he was handsome and not to be trusted. But he was different from any other character I had ever seen. And with the writing and the acting I came, like many others, to be a fan of Captain Jack. When I first heard that Russell T. Davies was going to do a spin off of Doctor Who and it was to be called Torchwood I did not hold much hope for it. Spin offs have often been pale imitations of their parent show. I set my DVR to record Torchwood but I did not watch the episodes until almost the end of the first season. Finally one Saturday while cleaning out a closet I started the first episode of Torchwood. The first episode was alright. It was exciting but it didn't seem to be that great. But I kept watching. Episode two about the "sex" monster almost turned me off the series. But I kept watching and episode three about the alien device that could let people see things from the past, I thought okay I could like this series, but the fifth episode about the fairies was the one what really made me a fan. From that point on I was determined to see all of this series.

Series one was good. Series two was better. I loved the first few episode of Series Two and then Torchwood turned dark and death started to be a character. You just had to realize that bad things where in store for the guys and girls of Torchwood. Then Owen died and Jack brought him back but at what price. Then the last episode of season two left me in tears. Not only was Owen gone for good but we lost Tosh as well. Poor Jack, Ianto and Gwen they had to go on. And now Children of Earth is upon us. It is an abbreviated third series which started in the UK on July 6th. BBCAmerica does not show these episodes until July 20th (the 40th anniversay of the moon walk) and the first day of BBCAmerica's HD channel. But being the impatient type I have seen the first two episodes from Youtube and they are fantastic. The series may be shorter but wow they are coming out with all guns blazing (quite literally in Gwen's case).

For some reason the government has decided that Torchwood is dangerous to what ever plan they have for an alien race called the 456. When the Aliens start communicating though the children of earth and Torchwood (well Jack) offers his help they are targeted for death. Jack is killed and a bomb is planned inside him. His killers know what he will come back to life and take their bomb into the Hub. He does but thanks to Gwen's pregnancy scan Jack realizes that he is carrying his on little bundle. He gets Gwen and Ianto out of the Hub just before he explodes. Gwen is then targeted by some guys pretending to be EMTs but she gets away and Ianto also manages to escape.

Oh and on the day before all of this happens we meet Jack's daughter and Grandson. Turns out the daughter doesn't want him around, to hard to explain why your Dad never ages. The grandson called him Uncle Jack. Ianto also goes home. He visits his sister and her family. Turns out they have heard rumors about Ianto and a gorgeous man (like a film star) . Ianto explains that that was his boss but does finally admit that he and Jack are more than co-workers. Jack and Ianto's trips to see family could seem less than pure when you realize each was hoping to borrow a child to figure out how the alien messages are being relayed through the children. They have the right idea but the wrong way to go about it. Our heroes are flawed. Not exactly a surprise. Russell T. Davies has not lost his punch. That first episode is some of his finest writing to date.
More to come....