Torchwood: Children of Earth – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 29, 2009, 12:53 GMT

In this new series, re-join Captain Jack, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, who are still coming to terms with the death of two of their closest friends, Tosh and Owen. This time the Torchwood team are faced with their fiercest threat to date - one which throws the future of Torchwood and the entire human race spiraling into danger. They battle against the odds but do they stand a chance ...more

As the children of the world begin to act strangely under an alien influence, the Torchwood team is back in action for this mini-series length adventure.  Torchwood is also facing assassination from the very government which they serve and find themselves on the run.

The Torchwood team is down to three members, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), and Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd).  Captain Jack and Ianto is a couple and newlyweds Gwen and Rhys (Kai Owen) are house hunting.  The team is still protecting Earth from alien influence when strange events start happening with the planet’s children. 

Every child on the planet freezes for one minute on a particular day and later in that same day they begin chanting “we are coming.”  This, of course, leads to a panicked planet and parents. 

Civil servant John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) is called into action by the mysterious Mr. Dekker (Ian Gelder) that the 456 are returning.  Frobisher is given the task of dealing with this, as well as the accountability, by Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Ferrell), who wishes to remain blameless, and Frobisher decides that the first order of business to deal with the threat is destroying Torchwood and Captain Jack. 

He sends government agent Johnson (Liz May Brice) to take care of the job.  Luckily his harried secretary Bridget Spears (Susan Brown) has a new temporary assistant, Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo), who realizes what is happening and that Torchwood is their only hope. 

In needing to examine children, Jack approaches his daughter Alice (Lucy Cohu) to get access to his grandson Steven (Bear McCausland) and Ianto approaches his estranged sister Rhiannon (Katy Wix) to get access to his niece.  Both of their plans are rather obvious and they’re turned away. 

One oddity about the chanting children is that an elderly man (Paul Copley) also seems to be tuned into the alien presence as it appears he was involved in events in 1965 that mirror the events currently occurring.  Torchwood begins their investigation, but finds themselves targeted for assassination and on the run, but more importantly Gwen finds out that she’s pregnant.  

When it was decided that David Tennant’s Doctor would begin his long goodbye in a series of series specials it was also decided that Torchwood would undergo a similar format.  Instead of a third series a miniseries length adventure would take its place. 

The UK ratings have been very good so I’d imagine that we’ll be seeing more adventures of Captain Jack, but the miniseries does end up having finality to his earthbound adventures or at least the appearance of that. 

I’ll not spoil it for you but another Torchwood team member will be joining Tosh and Owen on the “disabled” list.  The adventure is an adventurous one and has some thrills and chills.  The vision of every child freezing and intoning “we are coming” reminds you of all of those creepy kids’ horror movies (Village of the Damned, The Innocents, etc.).  We find out more about Jack’s past and the terrible choices that he has to make that only further damage his psyche. 

The government involvement also harkens back to classic BBC serials such as Quatermass (also note the Quatermass reference in Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead), as well as definitely fueling your distrust of those same government entities.  It was a different pace for Torchwood, but it was a fantastic miniseries.

I’d expect we’ll be seeing the show again, but we’re teased at the end that this might be it (not that much of the original cast is left when the credits roll).  

Children of Earth is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  The only special feature is the 31 minute “making of” Torchwood Declassified.  

Children of Earth is a thrill ride over five nights that only builds the suspense up.  It harkens back to the evil government BBC serials of the past while adding a new twist to them as well.  Expertly acted by both our familiar Torchwood regulars as well as guest stars (Peter Capaldi, Cush Jumbo, Ian Gelder, and Susan Brown were standouts to me.

I hope that those that survived the serial might make an appearance in another season of Torchwood if it happens.)  It was an excellent adventure and I hope we see more of the eternal Captain Jack in the future.

Torchwood: Children of Earth is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.