Torchwood CoE Day Four
In Torchwood Children of Earth Day Four the other shoe drops in a very heavy fashion. We learn more clearly the real significance of the name of the mini-series. And the brilliance of humor and character in Day Three is brought low by episodes end.
If there is one thing to be said about service in Torchwood it is that to be a member usually means seeing that service end tragically. This has been established over the series with Gwen’s introduction to the team in Season 1 to Season 2’s episode, “Fragments” where we see how Jack Harkness inherited the team. With that in mind, and feeling the short life spans of characters was planned and not part of some throw away plot device with the threat of series cancellation, the biggest plot twist of the mini-series is the boldest and most heartfelt.
Reflecting on Day Four it cannot be helped but to reflect on the loss of Ianto by day’s end. He dies by viral infection while spurring Jack on to be great, instead of repeating the mistakes of his past, namely the giving up of 12 children to the 456 and the subsequent cover up in 1965 that Jack willfully participated in. As we learn Jack did so in 1965 to save humanity from an Indonesian flu virus that would kill 25 million. The whole episode builds to that moment with exposition of plot surrounding Jack and Ianto’s growing relationship, on the 456’s demands for 10 percent of the world’s children, a cruel and callous government choosing to reach the 10 percent of margin of the world’s children by handing over the poorest and most powerless children instead of possibly sacrificing their own, and a horrifying scene where viewers get to see what happens to the children in the grasp of the 456.
Operating outside the law and the norm has its advantages and prices to be paid in the world of Torchwood. Ianto and crew live within a crisp set of philosophical terms, put life in focus, but at the same time cut their time short in comparison to the safe and compromising world represented by civil servants and elected officials in the series.
The comentary on the status quo, like most of the run of the David Tennet Doctor Who run, is biting though. Weighed against what is said about powers that be and the nominal safety of soul numbing sacrifices, living fully, if not shortly always seems the better option.
The 4-5-6 make this point clear as Jack and Ianto confront the alien menace in its tank after a craftily handed plot to get them into the facility and a superb job of acting and bravery by Lois who basically blackmails the British government and US military into submitting to Torchwood’s will. (Identifying herself as a revolutionary in the process interestingly enough)
When Jack says the citizens of Earth won’t be giving up any more children the 456 react with feigned surprise. Nearly scoffing the alien finds it interesting that nearly 29,000 preventable childhood deaths occur everyday, one every 3 seconds, 10 million a year and yet humanity “adapts.” So, why is it so difficult to give up 10 percent now it poses? The number of course is real, and based on a 2005 U.N. study on preventable deaths in poor countries. The 456 (and well the writers of this series) weigh the horrible decisions humans often make in reality, versus their idealism. And when Jack looses Ianto this is no more true. It is when the 456 calls his bluff that the reality of actual sacrifice sets in. Perhaps a little over-played, Ianto is the brave soldier, dying for his beliefs, knowing that his sister’s own children and those in the project he visits in Day One would be the one’s sacrificed.
Day Four of Torchwood:Children of Earth most certainly stands up to the praise the series has received in pre-screen reviewing. It is the strongest Torchwood story yet told and does measurably well in comparison to Doctor Who stories, such as The Master story arch.
Day 5 should definitely be a treat and this has definitely been a series worth watching.
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