July 27, 2009
Finale of Torchwood: Children of Earth
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.
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 Jack’s daughter, again wants nothing to do with him.
The end of the show jumps ahead seven months when Gwen and Rhys are driving out to a field in the middle of nowhere and they meet Jack. Gwen had been able to retrieve his arm band transmitter from the hub because it is indestructible. Jack activates a signal and a ship beams him up. He’s gone. He had traveled the world but the planet had suddenly become too small for him. Now, he’s back out in the universe.
I love BBC America. It’s my favorite channel because of shows like Torchwood, Dr. Who, How Clean is Your House? and Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares. Having satellite TV ensures that I always get a clear, HD signal into my home from DIRECTV. Plus, when I can’t be home to watch my favorite shows, I can record them on my DVR and see them at my leisure in their original HD clarity. Their package deals are really affordable, too! Which in this economy, means I get great entertainment for a great bargain.
