The Big Picture
Russell T. Davies created a chilling alien species, the 456, in Torchwood: Children of Earth, with a truly insidious agenda involving Earth’s children. Torchwood: Children of Earth can easily stand alone as a captivating series unrelated to the Whoniverse and is regarded as one of the greatest British TV shows of the last two decades. Davies remains a go-to screenwriter for thought-provoking stories that take risks with intense themes, vivid characterization, and timeliness, as seen in Torchwood and his other acclaimed shows.
Audiences largely associate Russell T. Davies with the landmark shows that defined his career: the groundbreaking British drama Queer as Folk, the searing ’80s-set It’s a Sin, and the 2005 revival of Doctor Who. These shows garnered so much attention that it can be easy to forget Davies has an equally impressive selection of cutting-edge TV drama viewers may not be familiar with, including the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.
The first two seasons of Torchwood were a mixed bag of sci-fi tropes and concepts, unlikable characters, and generic alien-of-the-week storylines, with the show struggling to find an identity unique from its parent show. After a weak start, Torchwood was redefined with the miniseries Children of Earth, which unfolded at a breakneck pace back in July 2009 on BBC One and was followed in 2011 by the STARZ/BBC co-production Miracle Day. Davies had finally stepped out of Doctor Who’s shadow with a standalone story told over five nights, but the miniseries also introduced a terrifying alien threat unlike anything else we’d seen in the Whoniverse before: The 456.
Torchwood
Release Date October 22, 2006
Cast John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Alexa Havins, Mekhi Phifer, Bill Pullman
Main Genre Action
Genres Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Seasons 4
Studio BBC America
What Makes The 456 So Terrifying in ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’?
Image via BBC
Since the 2005 revival of Doctor Who, Davies and his successors have introduced some of the most malevolent and intriguing villains during their time as showrunners: the Weeping Angels, Missy, the Vashta Nerada, Madame Kovarian, and the Silents, just to name a few. Each showrunner has also reinvigorated reliable franchise staples like the Cybermen, the Zygons, and the Daleks.
In Children of Earth, however, Davies created a chilling alien species, vastly powerful and with a truly insidious agenda. The intergalactic octopus-like, projectile-vomiting antagonists were in cahoots with the government of the United Kingdom on a scheme involving corralling and intravenously hooking themselves to a large percentage of Earth’s kids because it made them “feel good.” They convey their request by holding the world to ransom and essentially forcing decent “middle-man” John Frobisher (former Doctor Who Peter Capaldi) to make a hard decision: offer up the children of Earth to the outer space drug traffickers or experience a mass extinction.
What Is ‘Torchwood: Children Of Earth’ About?
In Scotland 1965, a group of children is brought to where they are ushered into a waiting alien light. One boy remains behind. In 2009, across the globe, children stop at the same time, and Torchwood member Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) begins investigating. Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) are picking up an alien hitchhiker from a local hospital, much to the shock of possible new Torchwood member Doctor Rupesh Patanjali (Rik Makarem). At the Home Office, John Frobisher is notified they’ve received a transmission of compressed information, while Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) starts a new position as the new junior secretary to Frosbisher. Panic grips Britain and the rest of the world when Earth’s children begin speaking in unison: “We are coming.”
The story unfolds over a five-day period, with day one culminating in an order to kill Captain Jack with government agent Johnson (Liz May Brice) pursuing the Torchwood team and obliterating the Torchwood hub. We get to see one of Jack’s gnarliest Lazarus-like resurrections – Jack is a fixed point in time following his resurrection by Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) in Doctor Who’s Season 1 finale – and understand the burdens of eternal life. The United Nations gather to negotiate with The 456, with Frobisher acting as an intermediary and fall guy if things go wrong. Gwen finds an ally in Lois and connects with Clement McDonald (Paul Copley), the man who escaped the aliens decades earlier.
‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ Is a Reminder of Russell T. Davies’ Storytelling Strengths
Image via BBC
The adult nature of Torchwood allows a species like The 456 to exist in the Whoniverse, beings with an all-too-human dependence on narcotics. Their drug of choice just happens to the chemicals children emit. The 456 could never appear in Doctor Who by nature of their creepy and criminally-based desires. Children of Earth as a show would easily have worked as a standalone series unrelated to the Whoniverse, and is regarded as one of the greatest British TV shows in the last two decades. With Doctor Who’s specials available on Disney+/BBC, now is time for viewers to remind themselves of Davies’ unrivaled ability as a storyteller and how groundbreaking his work has become on a global scale.
In recent years, Davies has created two fascinating and very human dramas: Years and Years, and It’s a Sin. Taking place in two different timeframes, the two series explore how vital human connection is, even if the characters happen to be in the eye of a storm. In Years and Years, the showrunner posited a scarily possible, what-if future with the rise in power of populist politician Vivian Rook (Emma Thompson), without ever losing the human element essential to his writing or character-driven drama. In It’s a Sin looked backward, with Davies’ historical fiction on LGBTQ+ folks living under the threat of AIDS in 1980s Britain. It was beautiful, intense, and a heartbreaking depiction of how a group of friends’ lives are destroyed by illness, the stigma, and the people who worked tirelessly to advocate and support members of their own community and disseminate accurate information in a time of misinformation.
Both shows, as well as Torchwood: Children of Earth, serve as examples of why Davies remains the go-to-screenwriter for thought-provoking stories that take huge risks with their intense themes, vivid characterization, and timeliness, regardless of where in history, or the future they take place. Davies focuses on down-to-earth human drama with a seam of universal relatability in his work. All his original dramas examine similar themes while offering something fresh and original for newcomers to enjoy.
Doctor Who is available to watch on Disney+ in the U.S., while Torchwood is available to watch on Max.
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