Oh my goodness. What a ride this mini-series was. Five nights of packed action with me going 'no!', 'wow', 'holy crap'. Oh yes, I do have an extensive vocabulary.
I loved the arc, the story, the race against time, and the absolute anguish of these characters. It was bloody brilliant. No wonder Torchwood: Children of Earth was a smashing success as reported in SFX.
If you haven't watched Torchwood series, do so. Season 1 took a little getting used to - the style more than anything. I got more into it as time wore on and it was the latter half of the season and then season 2 that stood out more for me. The characters are not cardboard cut-outs. And the ending of season 2, oh goodness.
Now the ending of COE, again not what I expected. And really the two characters that have kept me going with this series left standing - good old (literally) omnisexual Cap'n Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper. I wonder if there will be more to this series or if they will just have Jack meeting up with the new Doctor...
Torchwood is a spin-off from Doctor Who, with the character of Jack. In fact it's an anagram, and when Doctor Who was being relaunched, to keep it quiet they used the name 'Torchwood'. Clever, eh.
So back to COE. We have children suddenly stopping all at the same time in the street, all around the world. Then they speak in unison 'We are coming'. Next is 'We are coming...back'. OK so these aliens, have been here before. In fact they have been named the 456 (the frequency they used back in 1965). Then 'We are coming tomorrow'. But of course they mean to London and to a specifically built environment they transmitted details for.
The fact that they have visited before sets off in motion a kill order for Captain Jack, and just when they find good news in the team (that Gwen is pregnant), they realise that Jack has a bomb in him. Now Jack can't die - but still can he escape being blown up from the inside out?While not much remains, he does return, gruesomely though quite quickly.
See Captain Jack was there in 1965 when these aliens had dealt with Earth before. And what did they want then - 12 children in exchange for an antivirus to a nasty flu. This time the 456s want 10% of the children of the world. Not much eh? And what do they want them for - they're used as drugs. So the 456s are alien junkies. And the British government wants
to cover their past dealings with them.
Lots of dodging authorities, getting caught, people dying including Jack's lover, Ianto. But the saddest was the sacrifice Jack has to make for the sake of the millions of children - his own grandson. And he has to live with it for an eternity. Absolutely crushing. So Jack leaves Earth leaving a very pregnant Gwen with her husband Rhys. For the last part of day 5 I couldn't stop the waterworks - sensitive soul that I am.
I really hope to see Captain Jack and Gwen again.
4 comments:
I'll have to get this out on DVD. I only saw the scene where some mad woman kept trying to kill Jack. Every time I came in the room, she was killing him again!
I watch Doctor Who and saw Jack in the various episodes there, and one of them is very sad indeed... Boo hoo.
They are repeating it every Tuesday night for the next few weeks Christina, so there's still time to watch if you have UKTV. And yes, the operative was very persistent. I have only seen parts of Doctor Who with Jack in series 1. I am in dire need of Doctor Who education!
I need to get this series on DVD too. I've watched a couple of the later ones and really enjoyed them.
Hope enjoy the whole lot Shelley. From what I've read Torchwood's story is incredible in production - first season aired on BBC 3 and then season 2 on BBC 2, and this COE series was on BBC 1. So it's popularity put it on the prime time channel. Good for them.
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