The miniseries wrap up of Torchwood: Children of Earth was certainly worth the wait! The four nights prior did a great job of building up suspense and sympathy for the characters. The storylines were shocking at times and the parallels to our own modern day dilemmas could not go unnoticed.
When the aliens were demanding that a tenth of the world's population of children be surrendered to them, or they would wipe out our entire species, the leaders involved in the negotiations had to make a choice as to how they could select which one tenth of the population would go. Then, they would have to come up with a story line that the public would believe. Supposedly, children would be collected for inoculations, when they would really be collected and handed over to the aliens. The brash eliteness of the situation came to a full head when one of the women in the leadership summit admitted that no one was going to send in the children who one day would become doctors and judges but instead, they needed to send in the kids that were already on the path to prison. She said that placement tests are exactly for that reason, aren't they? Take the lowest ten percent of the test scores and send them to the aliens. The admission of such elitism was so shocking and yet, so true. And in this case completely excusable because the situation is one of fantasy and science fiction.
The senselessness of having to sacrifice so many lives was beginning to wear on everyone, especially on John Frobrischer, the civil servant who had been working hardest at devising plans, negotiating with the aliens and taking all of the heat on behalf of the Prime Minister. Then, the Prime Minister tells Frobisher he has to go on TV and show his own daughters being turned over for "inoculation," as it would be good publicity. At first, Frobisher says, "but there is no inoculation…we're just giving them a fake inoculation, right?" The Prime Minister tells him that, no…Frobisher's daughters are to get the real inoculation…they're to be turned over to the aliens. We really hate the Prime Minister, even more than ever.
Frobisher goes to his secretary, Bridget Spears and tells her a code word, which stuns her and makes her robotically go to an evidence type room and sign out a box from a guard. Bridget turns it over to Frobisher, he kisses her on the cheek and he leaves. Bridget remains stunned. The next scenes were handled beautifully though they were completely shocking TV and not for the weak of stomach, so you might not want to read on if you can't handle the worst that a parent can do to his children in order to save them. Bridget goes to see Lois in jail and says that she wants to tell Lois that no matter what she hears about John Frobisher over the next coming days, Bridget wants Lois to know what a good man John Frobisher had always been. While Bridget speaks, the scene is of him going home and sending his wife and girls up stairs. There is an army outside ready to "inoculate" his two daughters. He opens the box his secretary had requisitioned for him and it has a gun inside. He goes up the stairs, into the girls' bedroom and shuts the door. We hear four shots. He has saved his daughters from being "inoculated." His wife will never know the pain of seeing her babies turned over to aliens and he will never live the rest of his life feeling like a failure because he didn't stand up to the Prime Minister to save his children.
Back at Thames House, one of the generals speaks with the alien in the tank and asks why they need the children, do they keep them alive? The alien says something like, "no. They release a chemical, it feels good. The chemicals feel good." The general then says, "it's like drugs? The children are drugs to you?" Suddenly, they realize – it's a drug war. One side is more powerful than the other. Unfortunately, it's the side that wants the drugs and is willing to kill everyone in their way to get the drugs.
When we compare it to our own lives and our own world today, it really is the "lower test scores" set of people that do the fighting and the dying in the drug wars. Chemicals that "feel good" create a demand with a price so high that people are willing to pay anything for them. Lives are lost because chemicals make someone that has more money or power feel good. Whether it's from the high of the chemical or the money and power it brings, on this planet now, there are people much like that alien in the tank demanding that a number of lives be sacrificed for their own pleasure. Russell T. Davies knew what he was doing when he wrote this script! What a commentary!
I haven't even gotten to how Captain Jack (John Barrowman) saves the day. He's finally released from his holding cell from the woman who put him there, Johnson. He figures out how to reverse the alien's signal by sending it back through the children just as they had been broadcasting through the children. In order to do so, they need one child to be the conductor but that child would "be fried" from all of the current going through him. The only child in the vicinity is Jack's own grandson, so it's a case of sacrificing one to save millions. He makes the decision, and they lock his daughter out of the hangar where they are working. They set up the boy to act as the conductor. Sure enough, the plan works and it blows up the alien in the tank and the aliens in the sky disappear. The boy is dead afterward and John Frobisher has killed his family and himself for nothing, but the alien threat is gone. The "alien drug war" is over.
The end of the show jumps ahead seven months when Gwen and Rhys are driving out to a field in the middle of nowhere to meet Jack. Gwen had been able to retrieve his arm band transmitter from the hub because it is indestructible. Jack tells her that he has traveled the world but the planet has suddenly become too small for him. He can't stay, he activates the arm band and a passing ship in the sky beams in aboard. Now, he's back out in the universe.
When the aliens were demanding that a tenth of the world's population of children be surrendered to them, or they would wipe out our entire species, the leaders involved in the negotiations had to make a choice as to how they could select which one tenth of the population would go. Then, they would have to come up with a story line that the public would believe. Supposedly, children would be collected for inoculations, when they would really be collected and handed over to the aliens. The brash eliteness of the situation came to a full head when one of the women in the leadership summit admitted that no one was going to send in the children who one day would become doctors and judges but instead, they needed to send in the kids that were already on the path to prison. She said that placement tests are exactly for that reason, aren't they? Take the lowest ten percent of the test scores and send them to the aliens. The admission of such elitism was so shocking and yet, so true. And in this case completely excusable because the situation is one of fantasy and science fiction.
The senselessness of having to sacrifice so many lives was beginning to wear on everyone, especially on John Frobrischer, the civil servant who had been working hardest at devising plans, negotiating with the aliens and taking all of the heat on behalf of the Prime Minister. Then, the Prime Minister tells Frobisher he has to go on TV and show his own daughters being turned over for "inoculation," as it would be good publicity. At first, Frobisher says, "but there is no inoculation…we're just giving them a fake inoculation, right?" The Prime Minister tells him that, no…Frobisher's daughters are to get the real inoculation…they're to be turned over to the aliens. We really hate the Prime Minister, even more than ever.
Frobisher goes to his secretary, Bridget Spears and tells her a code word, which stuns her and makes her robotically go to an evidence type room and sign out a box from a guard. Bridget turns it over to Frobisher, he kisses her on the cheek and he leaves. Bridget remains stunned. The next scenes were handled beautifully though they were completely shocking TV and not for the weak of stomach, so you might not want to read on if you can't handle the worst that a parent can do to his children in order to save them. Bridget goes to see Lois in jail and says that she wants to tell Lois that no matter what she hears about John Frobisher over the next coming days, Bridget wants Lois to know what a good man John Frobisher had always been. While Bridget speaks, the scene is of him going home and sending his wife and girls up stairs. There is an army outside ready to "inoculate" his two daughters. He opens the box his secretary had requisitioned for him and it has a gun inside. He goes up the stairs, into the girls' bedroom and shuts the door. We hear four shots. He has saved his daughters from being "inoculated." His wife will never know the pain of seeing her babies turned over to aliens and he will never live the rest of his life feeling like a failure because he didn't stand up to the Prime Minister to save his children.
Back at Thames House, one of the generals speaks with the alien in the tank and asks why they need the children, do they keep them alive? The alien says something like, "no. They release a chemical, it feels good. The chemicals feel good." The general then says, "it's like drugs? The children are drugs to you?" Suddenly, they realize – it's a drug war. One side is more powerful than the other. Unfortunately, it's the side that wants the drugs and is willing to kill everyone in their way to get the drugs.
When we compare it to our own lives and our own world today, it really is the "lower test scores" set of people that do the fighting and the dying in the drug wars. Chemicals that "feel good" create a demand with a price so high that people are willing to pay anything for them. Lives are lost because chemicals make someone that has more money or power feel good. Whether it's from the high of the chemical or the money and power it brings, on this planet now, there are people much like that alien in the tank demanding that a number of lives be sacrificed for their own pleasure. Russell T. Davies knew what he was doing when he wrote this script! What a commentary!
I haven't even gotten to how Captain Jack (John Barrowman) saves the day. He's finally released from his holding cell from the woman who put him there, Johnson. He figures out how to reverse the alien's signal by sending it back through the children just as they had been broadcasting through the children. In order to do so, they need one child to be the conductor but that child would "be fried" from all of the current going through him. The only child in the vicinity is Jack's own grandson, so it's a case of sacrificing one to save millions. He makes the decision, and they lock his daughter out of the hangar where they are working. They set up the boy to act as the conductor. Sure enough, the plan works and it blows up the alien in the tank and the aliens in the sky disappear. The boy is dead afterward and John Frobisher has killed his family and himself for nothing, but the alien threat is gone. The "alien drug war" is over.
The end of the show jumps ahead seven months when Gwen and Rhys are driving out to a field in the middle of nowhere to meet Jack. Gwen had been able to retrieve his arm band transmitter from the hub because it is indestructible. Jack tells her that he has traveled the world but the planet has suddenly become too small for him. He can't stay, he activates the arm band and a passing ship in the sky beams in aboard. Now, he's back out in the universe.
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