Torchwood - Children Of Earth

The third season of Torchwood happened over 5 days. I must say that watching the entire season of Torchwood in 5 days was a real treat! It was like watching a DVD collection for all their previous season's 12 or 13 episodes. They should do this for every season!

Let's get to the likes and dislikes I had for this season, and I'm trying NOT to reveal too much because I don't want to spoil it for my friends in other countries who have yet to watch it, although spoiler information is already freely available on many websites.

Anyhow, it started off with the usual intrigue. Children playing and then suddenly coming to a standstill, then they start chanting in a monotonous voice that "We Are Coming". A former group of aliens called the 456, for the frequency they communicate on, broadcast their return to earth through all the children of earth. Because of the frequency in which they broadcast, the children literally stop what they're doing and are words are communicated through them.

A government conspiracy to cover up what they did the last time the 456s were on earth. They demanded a gift of 12 children and the children were given to them, in exchange for an antidote for Indonesian Flu. In order for the present not to know, those previously involved were executed. Jack Harkness was one of them and well, they wanted to kill a man who cannot ever be killed. They also blew up the Hub, which was Torchwood central in Cardiff.

The thing I like is the realism in Torchwood. Emotions are felt, actors actually have tears flowing, or show distinct disgust. No holds bar, they're not afraid to kill of characters, yes, another member of Torchwood bites the dust and I must say, I was disappointed that they got rid of this person. It was rather sad, because although it was not pointless, it appeared so. The writers were not going to give you the Star Trek ending in which time reset and everything went back to the way it was. No, that was not what they wanted, because in real television, if you want impact, you have to either kill someone off or you have to have characters make tough decisions that affect someone else, sometimes even resulting in their death. It's almost like watching Lost, but without the draggy flash-backs or flash-forwards. Morality was tossed back and forth, but when the time came, they didn't have a choice, so sacrifices had to be made, regardless of the final decisions. Kill the one to save the billions.

Also, not to forget, after watching Day 1 of Children of Earth, you would think that Captain Jack Harkness would try to rebuild Torchwood, after losing 2 members in season 2. There were Torchwood potentials like Dr Rupesh Pantajali, Lois Habiba and even Agent Johnson. But by Day 4, I realise that reforming Torchwood will not be happening. It was just too painful to watch the events on how Day 4 ended.

However, through it all, we were strung along through the suspense of having a group of aliens calling themselves the 456 only appear in the 3rd episode onwards. Most of the time, they appeared in their toxic smokey environment, so we never really got a good glimpse of them. I was hoping they came up with something more original, spend less on the number of people recruited for the series and more on the special effects or customes for the alien. And come on, a better name than 456 would have been more appropriate, or maybe because they're drug dealers, they didn't want their species name to be revealed, for fear of the Shadow Proclamation (only the true Doctor Who fans know what I'm talking about)!

Plenty of unanswered questions to go around. Did they just get rid of one of the 456 aliens or the entire species? Where did they come from? How did the aliens arrive, by transmat or by spacecraft, if so, were they destroyed in their spacecraft, or will they come back again? Will we see Captain Jack Harkness again? Will there be a 4th season of Torchwood or is this their last? I couldn't help thinking that they had a low budget and couldn't do too many special effects. Most of the actors were new, fresh faces, but did good debuts, so probably low-budget again. Not too many recurring roles, cos they would be expensive, on top of all the children they had to recruit to say those words, or scream in unison!

We shall have to see what the next season (if there will be) of Torchwood will bring...

3.5 out of 5 stars