Torchwood: Children of Earth
Children of Earth is the banner title of the third series of the British television science fiction television series Torchwood, broadcast for five episodes on BBC One from 6 to 10 July 2009. Directed by Euros Lyn, who had considerable experience on the revived Doctor Who, the series follows an organization known as Torchwood which defends the Earth against alien threats. Children of Earth
Children of Earth was shown on BBC One on consecutive weeknights in July 2009. Despite the move from BBC Three, the show was cut from a standard thirteen-episode run to just five, something that lead actor John Barrowman felt was almost like a "punishment" from the BBC. Production on the mini-series began in August 2008, with Barrowman along with actors Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and Kai Owen all reprising their roles as Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones and Rhys Williams, respectively.
Upon premiere, the series defied expectations by achieving more than six million viewers during mid-summer evenings, a period which is generally considered a graveyard slot for drama. The series also received critical acclaim, particularly in comparison to the programme's previous two series, receiving a BAFTA Cymru Award, a Saturn Award and Celtic Media Festival Award, all for best serial. The success of the series led to a fourth series, Torchwood: Miracle Day, which was commissioned in conjunction with the US premium cable network Starz.
Episodes
Production
Locations
Filming for the series started in Cardiff in August 2008, with a week's filming taking place in London. Additional filming took place in the Maindee area of Newport for the pub scene, and on the set of BBC's Casualty in Bristol, which doubled as the fictional St. Helen's Hospital in Cardiff. The set for Floor 13 was the largest ever built at Upper Boat Studios. However, many of the scenes set in the corridors of the same building, doubling for Thames House in London, were shot in the corridors of the Guildhall, Swansea.Casting
, Eve Myles, Gareth David Lloyd, Kai Owen and Tom Price all reprise their respective Torchwood roles for the serial. David-Lloyd had first concluded that Ianto was being killed off when his agent told him he was only needed for four out of five episodes.Peter Capaldi and Nick Briggs had both previously been involved in Doctor Who productions prior to Children of Earth. Capaldi, who portrays Home Office Permanent Secretary John Frobisher, previously played Lobus Caecilius in the Doctor Who episode "The Fires of Pompeii", and would return to Doctor Who in 2013 to play the Twelfth Doctor. Briggs, the voice actor who provides voices for several creatures in the revived series of Doctor Who, including the Daleks, appears as Rick Yates, a member of Brian Green's Cabinet. He had also previously played many roles in the Big Finish range of officially licensed audio dramas.
Having been set up to do so by the conclusion of their storylines in "Journey's End", Doctor Who alumni Freema Agyeman and Noel Clarke were due to reprise their roles as Martha Jones and Mickey Smith respectively, but were unable to participate due to "scheduling issues". Davies explained that Agyeman was cast in Law & Order: UK before Children of Earth had been officially commissioned. Because Law & Order offered her thirteen episodes a year, she went with that over Torchwood which had been reduced to five. In response, Davies introduced the character of Lois Habiba, played by Cush Jumbo, to be a "kind of a Martha figure", one with added innocence who is out of her depth. Agyeman didn't rule out returning to the show at a later date, however, and Davies also expressed interest in her returning to the role. Jack and Gwen explain Martha's absence by saying that she is on her honeymoon, and the Doctor Who serial "The End of Time" reveals that she married Mickey rather than her previous fiancé Thomas Milligan.
Children of Earth featured a largely new supporting cast for the duration of the five-episode serial. Further new characters included Clem McDonald, senior Home Office official Bridget Spears, Prime Minister Brian Green, and ruthless operative Agent Johnson. Katy Wix and Rhodri Lewis play Rhiannon and Johnny Davies, Ianto's sister and brother-in-law respectively. Lucy Cohu plays Captain Jack Harkness's daughter Alice. The voice of the 456 was provided by actor and voiceover artist Simon Poland.
Preview
A preview of Children of Earth was screened at the National Film Theatre on 12 June 2009.Broadcast
Children of Earth was first broadcast on BBC One over five nights from 6 to 10 July 2009. It was the programme's first transmission on BBC One, after its first series debuted on BBC Three in 2006 and its second series moved to BBC Two in 2008.Internationally, it was broadcast in Australia from 7 July 2009 on UKTV Australia, and was shown from 20 July 2009 on Space in Canada and BBC America in the U.S..
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album was released on 7 July 2009, containing 40 tracks of incidental music composed by Ben Foster.Unlike with the Torchwood: Original Television Soundtrack the album was released simultaneously for download with the official release of 7 July 2009.
Track listing
Home media
The Region 2 DVD release was released on 13 July 2009, followed by the Region 1 release on both DVD and Blu-ray on 28 July 2009. The Best Buy limited edition included the CD for the audio drama Lost Souls. Music for the fifth episode differed from the original broadcast version. The Region 4 DVD release became available on 1 October 2009.Reception
Reviews
The series was met with critical acclaim. Metacritic, an American review aggregator website, gives Children of Earth a normalised rating of 80 out of 100, indicating "generally favourable reviews", with the highest score being a 91 from Time and the lowest a 60 from The New York Times.Daniel Martin ran a day-by-day review of the show on The Guardian website guardian.co.uk which culminated in a positive assessment of the mini-series as a whole: "... what an incredible week. From its hideous Sex Alien vs Cyberwoman beginnings, Torchwood has become a true treasure." He speculated on the programme's thematic implication that "as people realise their potential in this world, they die", and remarked: "If the same thing does happen to the series it would be awful. But God, it would be poetic."
Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy gave a very favourable pre-review to the first three episodes of the serial. He particularly praised Davies' script for its "economical" and "seamless" re-establishment of the show's returning trio for new viewers whilst not alienating fans. The inter-weaving of the stories for "credible and appealing" supporting characters Rupesh, Clement and Lois was praised; as were the performances from Paul Copley and Liz May Brice. He did however feel that the second episode paled after the explosiveness of the first episode, on which they "failed to capitalise". Summing up the series, Rawson-Jones described Children of Earth as "a powerful human drama, reliant not on special effects but incredible acting, direction and writing" that was a "massive success."
IGN writer Ahsan Haque gave the miniseries a rating of 9.5 out of 10, also awarding it their Editor's Choice Award. John Barrowman's performance was highly praised, saying that he handled "these gut-wrenching moments with poise, yet manages to give us just enough to know how much his choices are tearing him up inside. He might not be able to die physically, but emotionally, what Jack has to suffer and live with is a fate far worse than death." Also, Haque felt that the additions of Rhiannon and Johnny "supply a lot of the grounded humanizing moments that really help the story stay grounded to the human condition, and not turn into a mindless sci-fi action-fest." However, Haque pointed out the "slightly campy feel" as well as technobabble as faults. The review ended with: "Best. Torchwood. Ever. Really, we mean it!"
Mike Hale of The New York Times was more mixed in his review, noting that the mini-series pays tribute to the 1960 British sci-fi film Village of the Damned, and sums up by saying "Children of Earth is still good fun, if not good, exactly." Hale also mentioned the problem with maintaining a 5-hour mini-series over 5 nights, a sentiment echoed by Los Angeles Times reviewer Robert Lloyd who felt that the format led to an inevitable lag in the middle.
Not all reviews were positive. Jim Shelley of The Daily Mirror gave the mini-series an unfavourable review, commenting that "Torchwood is the modern-day Blake's 7: ludicrous plot, hammy acting, an adolescent penchant for 'Issues'. This week's plot was plagiarised from 50s sci-fi classic, The Midwich Cuckoos. Contrary to its scheduling, Torchwood always seems to me like Dr Who lite." He went on to say that he felt a large part of the problem was with lead actor John Barrowman: "Unlike David Tennant's Doctor, Barrowman's endless appearances on friendly drivel like Tonight's the Night, The Kids Are All Right and Any Dream Will Do, is so over-exposed, 'Captain Jack' is about as intriguing or alien as a Weetabix and twice as irritating. Unlike Tennant, as an actor he is just not good enough."