TW: Children of Earth

What would you do to save the world? What price would you pay? Where do you draw the line? This is a question answered by many characters during this adventure.

So, the 456 turn up again and want the Children of Earth (despite the fact that they seemingly are able to control children anyway, and probably could just take them, but...). People give in. Teh end.

Actually, there are two stories here. First up, Torchwood is under attack, although considering they are the main stars, I was expecting the typical "fortunately they just managed to escape without too much harm" (a la Fragments). In some ways this is just to pad the story out and... really doesn't have to much impact. Sure, Torchwood are without all their high-tech gear, but doesn't seem to stop them too much.

Then there's the story of the children. I can't help but think that if it had been adults the 456 wanted, this wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic as it was. (ObLine: "Won't somebody think of the children!?") But since it was children, and this thus became all about the emotional impact of protecting the children, there wasn't much doubt that the children wouldn't be in too much danger.

Although there was plenty of death to be had. Even here I'm not going to reveal too much, but there are some very poignant moments where people are making a stand by dying for a cause, and in some cases making the hard decisions for others to die. No wonder we got the ending we did.

This was a five-night telling, but it was done in very broad scenes, with a lot of time devoted to each point (without, conversely, getting too detailed). I'm not sure how easy this will be to rewatch, not just from knowing what will happen, but also I'm not sure what else there will be gain from each scenes. I don't doubt people will be saying "oh, look at this nuance", but a lot of it will be what people project into each scene.

(Two complaints, from the last episode: bad CGI children scene, and how did everyone know the threat was gone so suddenly?)

People (ie fans) will talk about this for time to come, and it will be analyzed in depth. It's an interesting chapter in the series, and it will be interesting to see the wider implications unfold in the Doctor Who universe.

Next time: Interesting question if there can be one. It's been rumoured that there is a fourth, but the series will need a bit of re-charactering before it's ready to roll.

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