Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Five (Spoilers)

No happy ending as Russell T Davies completes the most masterful BBC mini-series since ‘State of Play’, with perhaps the greatest writing of his career. Only one continuity error interrupts the otherwise overwhelming and horrific finale to Torchwood’s greatest triumph and their biggest failure. As Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) betrays Peter Capaldi’s John Frobisher, the inhumanity of the human race to itself becomes clear. And what it takes to tip into fascism turns out to be very little indeed – a casual prejudice here, an abuse of power there, a lie to cover everything up, all in the name of ambition and keeping the status quo. The political commentary veers between an allegory with Nazism, as the children are indeed bussed away to their deaths for a creature which deals in them as drugs, and an indictment of our real world government’s preparedness to sacrifice basic human rights and civil liberties in the name of ‘keeping us safe’. Its severity is surprising for a franchise which has been so flakey in its first two outings, but it couldn’t be more welcome. Writing series 3 for adults has transformed Torchwood beyond all recognition, and has interestingly again (as with Dead Set) proven the value of daily, serialised television.

Day 5 doesn’t end with RTD doesn’t after all reaching for easy answers to ensure the defeat of the 456 – indeed quite the opposite. Humanity may be validated in the small scale sacrifices made by the most vulnerable people, but they’re outweighed by or preparedness to destroy one another. And in between Jack realises he must do the unthinkable if he’s to save 6 billion people, and there’s no coming back from killing your grandson.

The scene where Jack ensures humanity’s final victory is absolutely horrific. And yet again the horror has nothing at all to do with the alien/sci-fi element – the most horrible things done in ‘Children of Earth’ are perpetrated by our hero, and it ensures the franchise cannot go on as before – this is now a series with consequences. It’s challenging television – a biting political thriller, a painful human drama, and laced with commentary by Eve Myles’ Gwen Cooper acknowledging why the Doctor sometimes doesn’t intervene (as here), it really raises the bar for the future of the Whoniverse. If Davies really is to stay with Torchwood (which I hope is the case) he has set an extraordinary standard to maintain; similarly Steven Moffat will no doubt have watched ‘Children of Earth’ with Doctor Who series 5 in mind. I sincerely hope he takes his creation back on board – a broken yet immortal Captain Jack would be a very interesting addition to the cast alongside an unknown quantity eleventh Doctor…

Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Four (Spoilers)

Day 4 descends into unexpected horror, in the best-written, acted and directed episode of ‘Torchwood’ since the franchise’s inception. Writer John Fay, director Euros Lyn and the cast never hit a wrong note and leave you slackjawed after an hour of dark twists, shocking turns and the sort of quality you’d expect from ‘Spooks’ at its best. But that’s the ground ‘Torchwood’ now occupies – edgy adult drama where anything really can happen.

I saw very little of day 4 coming. I didn’t see the strength of the team’s plot against the government catching even the evil henchwoman off guard. I never thought the government would so happily capitulate with the 456. I never thought the 456 would kill everyone in its path when stood up to, even Jack and Ianto.

Ianto?

I actually welled up. Gareth David-Lloyd and John Barrowman’s characters ironically show more love for each other when Ianto is killed than they did in life, bringing out the sheer horror that it is to be Captain Jack, the man who can’t die, and putting the lie to his daughter’s claim that a man who can’t die has nothing to fear. His previous appearances painted him as a cocky superhero – he’s now changed to a man who can’t risk feeling anything about anyone, cursed by Rose’s gift of immortality. But that wasn’t the only strength of day 4.

Fay’s detailed cabinet discussions on dispatching 10% of the child population of the country (and the world) are even more horrific. Their casual collusion with the murderous, unseen alien, with their talk of ‘units’, ‘mystery jabs’ (Peter Capaldi’s Frobisher now resembling his spin doctor of ‘In The Loop’) and ‘low achievers’ is unlike anything I’ve seen in a programme of this kind on the BBC before. In many ways the government’s discrimination-ridden attitudes in choosing to kill all poor children are even worse than the alien’s plans. ‘What (else) are the school league tables for?’ Woah now a fierce political/social commentary which doesn’t just make you wonder, but makes this government even more dangerous than The Master’s. I’ve seen this episode likened to ‘State of Play’ – it’s not an unfair comparison.

The team is broken, humanity is at war with itself. Will RTD ruin everything with an awful, joyous reaffirmation of humanity’s shared solidarity again (as in ‘Last of the Time Lords‘), or will we get a thoroughly darker resolution? After this episode’s shocks and terrible sadness he has to tread very carefully indeed.

Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Three (Spoilers)

I had my doubts about the daily format, but I have to say this works. Forcing the show daily has meant it has had to have energy the entire time – the story can’t let up or drift into soap operatics, there simply isn’t time. It has to have plot, plot and more plot, and Charlie Brooker showed the way last year with the sublime ‘Dead Set’…

Day 3 isn’t perfect. Russell T Davies lapses into some of the weaker storytelling techniques of Doctor Who, such as the Frank Miller-esque newsreader talking heads, but otherwise he and co-writer James Moran knock this episode out of the park again. Jack seems to know the 456, but how? Do Jack and Frobisher know the same dark secret, the secret from 1965 which Clem MacDonald (Paul Copley) was part of? The route to the answers is full of subterfuge, threats and moral ambiguity, and appears to put the entire basis of this Torchwood team under threat. But whose memories of 1965 can be trusted?

The 456 when they arrive, are suitably dramatic and evil, and again both the writing and series pacing work to best effect. They arrive in a burst of fire and without form; we never see them fully, and Davies, Moran and director Euros Lyn take their time to linger on the creepy environment they set up. It works for the same reason Alien does – you know there’s a dangerous alien, but you have no idea what it looks like, nor what its intentions are. But why should such a malevolent creature collude with Frobisher? If it is part of the dark secret, what does it have to gain by keeping it secret too? And how does Jack really fit in? Did he also collude in the horror of 1965, as Clem MacDonald believes (and Jack himself seems to admit), or is something else really going on? We have two more episodes to go, so I’d tend to believe the latter.

The character beats are stronger this episode – Jack’s and Ianto’s talk about Jack’s immortality is a finely observed exchange, and it was nice of RTD to refer directly to the Doctor for once. Keeping both series largely unconnected was a terrible mistake and it’s nice to see it corrected. It’s frustrating that the men’s relationship is still at arm’s length, but it’s reassuring that RTD is moving it on somewhere. Peter Capaldi meanwhile continues to shine as Frobisher – the civil servant who will do anything to make the secret from 1965 go away. The exchange he has with Jack in particular is chilling, and is a really effective counterpoint to his more dastardly henchwoman’s manoevres. His initiating diplomatic relations with the 456 is a very welcome insight into the politics of the post-Master Whoniverse, and is potentially revealing – another advantage of having the series paced in a daily, single-story fashion – things like that can be fleshed out when they would otherwise have been overlooked.

The three teammates (and Rhys) have a long way to go before this is resolved, and it’s difficult to see how RTD can do so cleanly, but he’s clearly introduced Lois Habiba as a new fourth member of the team for the future, even though in both this and last episode he uses her far too much as a deus ex machina. Can Children of Earth break RTD’s track record of starting well and ending poorly?

Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Two (Spoilers)

Day 2 isn’t quite as frenetically paced as Day 1, and the writing by John Fay isn’t quite as tight, but the continuing government conspiracy about ‘the 456’ doesn’t let up, nor is it any the less intriguing. Bereft of headquarters and their government affiliation, Torchwood are on the run for their lives, but why? Gwen refers to Peter Capaldi’s John Frobisher as their man in the government, so why would he want to kill the only people who can help them tackle the 456? What is the dark, dirty secret only he knows? And what is it they’re building at Thames House?

Day 2 retains strong characterisation – Ianto and Jack retain their greater depth through the involvement of their families – Jack’s grandaughter and Ianto’s sister and brother-in-law both play key roles in humanising characters which have for too long been one-note. And their unsuitedness for one another continues to be a theme – their inevitable post-regeneration reunion is as ambivalent (nice ass by the way, Mr Barrowman) as we’ve seen them treat one another before. Can an immortal man ever find love? It is Gwen though who is a revelation – how ruthless is she? I love it! Her’s and Rhys’ relationship is now (finally) the cornerstone of the franchise, now both characters are written consistently – they bring energy and heart to a series which has for too long tried merely to shock. And the sense of menace which envelops the cast, which wasn’t there when Jack was on the run from the Master’s government in Who series 3, works well here. The conspiracy, friends turning into enemies, not knowing who the 456 are or their motivations, keeps an eerie, unsettling quality largely missing when aliens invade in parent show Doctor Who. It’s a nice touch.

So why can’t anyone know about the 456 on pain of death? And how does a lowly civil servant like John Frobisher have the connections to take Torchwood out? Fay (occasionally too often and too obviously) has us constantly asking questions, and only drip-feeding us answers. For the first time we can take nothing for granted – even the tone (I really really liked the horror of Jack’s regeneration), and it oddly settles the show down. It’s an approach which has brought longevity to shows like Doctor Who and Spooks, and thankfully RTD has now given this show which has had so much potential the voice that it needs. So the 456 need a chamber with an acid atmosphere, and they need it tomorrow. Why does the government build it for them, and what do they need it for? We’ve had dark conspiracies at the heart of the Whoniverse government before, but this one is a real delight, and it’s a delight because the real baddies are human – the sci-fi element seems this time merely to be a device to frame a very dark, human drama. It’s just what the *ahem* doctor ordered. Bring on day 3!

Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day One (Spoilers)

Characterisation at last, developing sub-plots at last, and genuine horror – who would have thought that this could have been written by series creator Russell T Davies? RTD has his serious hat on, to this opening episode of the daily mini-series’ considerable advantage, giving unexpected depth to Jack & Ianto’s relationship, stable characterisation to Gwen and twists and turns he hasn’t shown himself capable on Doctor Who for many a year. Torchwood has suffered from insufficient attention to character and sub-plot since the series’ inception – despite the risks of making series 3 a mini series, keeping it one story long looks like a brilliant idea after all.

The children of earth are stopping, stopping and saying ‘we are coming’ in unison across the planet. But who is coming? Who took the children in 1965? What is/was the 456 and why does the Home Office Permanant Secretary John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) want to kill Captain Jack for Torchwood’s stumbling onto a connection to it? Are the 456 the aliens on the way? If so, why put a bomb in Jack’s stomach and blow Torchwood HQ to kingdom come? Clem MacDonald (Paul Copley) might give them some answers, if they can keep him and themselves alive long enough! It’s an episode of creepiness, inexplicable double dealing and not just strong character interaction, but standout moments too. Eve Myles seems finally comfortable as Gwen, and although Barrowman is clearly not playing the Captain Jack he started out as in Who, he’s still hamming it to the limit and has charisma to spare. And to RTD’s credit he finally gives shape to his and Ianto’s relationship, showing the serious love Ianto has for his immortal boss. Will they embrace what they’ve got? Will Gwen’s baby survive? What will the future be for Torchwood at the end of this story (in 4 days’ time)? I’m looking forward to finding out!

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (Spoilers)

And so the first of the 2009 Tennant specials is with us. And before I say anything else, let me make one thing clear: this is a lot better than the Christmas special! There is some frustrating sentimentality (this was co-written by RTD after all), but quite a strong plot and a resumption of continuity, at least to close. It’s hardly pushing the franchise into original territory (I’m expecting Steven Moffat to make inroads on that next year), but it was quirky, Tennant was on good form and Michelle Ryan was surprisingly effective as Lady Christina de Souza.

Be real for a moment and realise an episode co-written by outgoing showrunner Russell T Davies was never going to have many surprises in store. But the disappearance of a London bus through a wormhole into a long destroyed planet is still highly entertaining. Much of this is down to the chemistry between Tennant and Michelle (‘Bionic Woman’) Ryan, and she’s very watchable. Her lovable thief Lady Christina is more than a match for The Doctor – an intelligent, physical heroine despite herself, and enjoyably immoral in contrast with her more immediate predecessors. Hers and Tennant’s chemistry thankfully papers over some cringingly bad scripting and overcomes some terrible casting. Whoever thought Lee Evans was suitable for any role, let alone the mad professor who figures out how to get The Doctor & co home, should be shot. The romp in getting them home is worth it though, and the threat of the alien swarm is well developed. Is there the edge from ‘Silence in the Library‘ or ‘Forest of the Dead‘? Of course not, but that’s not RTD’s strength. It’s a nicely seasonal heroic rescue story, and the finale where Carmen tells him ‘your song is ending’ is delightfully cryptic. ‘It is returning through the dark’ she says – what exactly? Presumably the threat which leads to Ten’s death, but what? With a companion it would feel less of a worry, but with the character now fully alone it’s alarming. ‘He will knock four times’ eh? The Master? The clock is ticking…

I’ll miss Ten when he leaves. David Tennant and Russell T Davies have between them managed to ingrain this incarnation of the character into the national consciousness, and in this era of minimal audience attention that’s no mean achievement. Ten enjoys exploration and humanity so much, he’s almost a throwback to the utopianism which Star Trek has just allegedly thrown off. His inspirational nature is a wonderful, upbeat counterweight to the darkness regularly on our screens, particularly from America, and this special thankfully had little of the smarminess of the Christmas special. The Doctor’s pleased at his success in saving people, but then finds he’s soon to die. I wonder how much more of that subplot will come out in ‘Waters of Mars’…

Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead (Trailer)

The first of the post-Christmas Doctor Who specials, leading to the end of David Tennant’s run and the transition from Tenth to Eleventh Doctor is just days away (645pm on 11th April, BBC1):

Looks like fun (yes, even though it’s co-written by RTD…)!

Doctor Who: The Next Doctor (Spoilers)

Well the Christmas Special for 2008 was good, but not much more than that. Maybe it’s because there was no hint of a companion, maybe because we’ve seen the bitter and withdrawn Doctor before, but this felt a little stale.

It’s London 1851 and the Doctor has gone back for a Christmas in Victorian London to clear his mind after appearing to lose Donna and suffering the machinations of Davros. Except the Cybermen are mysteriously there and so is…his future self? Is David Morrissey the Eleventh Doctor? The Twelfth? Or something else? The answer is enjoyable if rather predictable (the real Eleven isn’t due to debut for another twelve months), caught up in a romp involving Cybermen who escaped the Void (into which they’d been sucked in Doomsday) when Davros collapsed the dimensions in series 4. Of course the Doctor and his various ac hoc sidekicks win, taking down the impressively Transformers-esque CyberKing who never inflicts that much damage, and by the end the Doctor is even feeling a little less bitter and withdrawn about Donna. No doubt an error if she really is unwittingly involved with the Master, so there may be extensive misdirection here, but it was a nice Christmas gift anyway by RTD to his charge whom he is about to leave. I don’t know, I just wish there’d been something…more? It was a Christmas Special I know, but it had next to no gravitas, no surprises and felt very much caught in the holding pattern between current showrunner Davies and his successor Steven Moffat, in which the franchise now resides for the next 12 months. I’m sure the decision to cool off and pare things back down was a wise one, considering how overcluttered season 4’s finale was, but it still left me feeling a little empty, despite the high calibre of the acting.

Don’t get me wrong – I liked it, particularly seeing the cameo shots of Ten’s previous incarnations, but let’s get the franchise moving forwards, and give Tennant the material he’s due (which tends to come from Moffat, let’s face it). We have four more specials in 2009 before he retires as Ten – I hope RTD and whoever he’s selected to work with him next year put him through the paces he and Ten are capable of before Paterson Joseph (please?) and Eleven arrive…

David Tennant Leaves Doctor Who

Awful news. But it does prove Russell T Davies’ interview hint that he knew when he was leaving, and it does explain why Davies and incoming executive producer/lead writer Steven Moffat have each expressed their opinion about who should follow him. Tennant took over after Ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston shamefully ditched the role after only the initial season of the new run, but swiftly eclipsed his popular predecessor, often being voted the most popular of all the Doctors, and rightly so. I was really hoping for at least one series with Moffat, but it appears not to be, which is a real shame.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

But hey the character is about change, and it’s come around again. I know who I think should follow him, but what about you?

Doctor Who 4:13 (Spoilers-R-Us)

“Journey’s End”

Journey’s End indeed, this season finale being RTD’s swan song on the ongoing series, and what a contribution this man has made, even just this week. The amount of media interest and fan speculation has dwarfed even that of series 1. And certain theories from last week were entirely correct, if a little out of sequence. Ten splits the regeneration energy off into the hand, refusing to regenerate himself. Fully reunited with his companions he asks Rose what’s really going on because her world is running ahead of this one – she’s seen the future. She remembers the stars going out, but far more important is she acknowledges that all the timelines converge somehow in Donna, and the surprises continue when the Daleks try to destroy the Tardis – not only does Donna manage to syphon off the regeneration energy, but she causes a second Ten to emerge from the hand. So far so figured out – the Darkness involves the stars going out, but who is Donna really and what’s to become of Ten and his alternate? For that matter why did the Tardis door close itself on Donna when Davros tried to destroy it?

Martha reveals the Osterhagen Key as a doomsday device, and Sarah Jane reveals her own – a warpstar, which can destroy the Crucible world engine. And they need to, because Davros’ Crucible, his world engine, powers a reality bomb, which he plans to use to destroy everything, starting with the stars. It looks like he’ll succeed too, with the companions all transmatted into the Crucible before they can detonate their weapons. And another theme is formally addressed here too, with Davros noting that the Doctor fashions ordinary people into weapons – Rose into Bad Wolf, Jack into an immortal, but Donna into…what? With all the companions and Ten and his alternate trapped and reality’s time running short, she reveals her place in Dalek Caan’s prophecy – part of the threefold man – the Doctor himself. In manipulating the regeneration energy she took on yet another aspect of Ten (his mind) and defeats Davros. Dalek Caan was indeed mad, but his prophecy all along was to destroy the Dalek race once and for all. No more for Steven Moffat to play with there – RTD too is done.

The Crucible is destroyed, the planets are restored, as is the Earth. Sarah Jane leaves back to her own spin-off for good. Jack leaves back for Torchwood, as does Martha, and it appears Mikey too. And this is where the episode falls flat on its face in agony. Rose, Jackie and Ten II go to Rose’s parallel world. And with Ten II physically human, with his human limitations, such as a finite lifespan – he offers everything Rose ever needed from Ten but he could never provide. Rose could use her ‘dimension cannon’ to continue leaping between universes, but Ten explains Ten II needs her to evolve him to the extent that she’s already evolved him – from angry, battle-weary Nine to the rounded character of now. And when Ten II tells her he loves her, she like a sap kisses him, acknowledging that he is in every other respect a precise copy of Ten, and they are left to live out their lives happily in the alternate reality. Rose and her family appear to leave once and for all, not complicating matters for Stephen Moffat either.

And then there’s Donna. The aspect of the Doctor she absorbed is killing her and he has to remove it. But to do that he must expunge her memories of their ever having met. The strange heartbeat we hear had been explained – that was Ten II – he admitted it – but no explanation is offered for how the timelines converged around her. Was it fate? We still don’t even know the true purpose of the attack on her in ‘Turn Left‘. Donna was (remains?) independently powerful since birth, and we are shown key sequences with the ring she’s wearing looming large – most importantly when she absorbs the Doctor’s essence. And was it just me or did it flicker at the very end? It’s an awfully big ring, and a woman lifted an awfully big ring from the Master’s corpse in ‘Last of the Time Lords‘ – a ring which still hasn’t been accounted for.

We know what Donna’s ‘loss’ was destined to be, as well as what she was destined to become, but it was also said outright that she already was ‘something new’. I’m convinced Donna and the Master are still in play, presumably fodder for RTD’s true final word on Who. Irritating as hell, but the endings were clumsy as anything too. Rose settles for a xerox who really isn’t anything like the original, and she still hasn’t got over her feelings? Gah. How convenient, and how demeaning of a character who’s shown so much potential. And yet again Jack’s role is perfunctory. I’m not sure why Barrowman’s still bothering. The edge the character had at the outset made him interesting – whilst he is pretty and engaging, he’s now far from interesting. The theme of time going the way it’s supposed to has run through this series, but it’s far from clear whether it’s complete. Some component subplots seem (as with ‘Bad Wolf’ in series 1) to have been ham fistedly delivered – why Rose didn’t just reveal herself to the Doctor instead of Donna in ‘Partners in Crime‘ remains confused – did she just know (as in ‘Turn Left’) the way things were meant to be? Being in the future in the alternate universe wouldn’t explain that. Or was her last minute insertion into that episode an editorial decision (again as with ‘Bad Wolf’) to catch the die hards off guard, and generate attention for the series? I have to assume the latter, given that there’s no way Rose can reasonably be used again under RTD’s stewardship.

The acting this episode was good where it mattered. Tennant shone as Ten and Ten II (whose ending wasn’t his fault), and Tate excelled as ever, although Freema Agyeman seems to have taken a step backward since series 3. I liked Ten II imprinting himself on Donna – apparently it was scripted that Ten spoke Estuary English instead of Scottish because he imprinted himself on Rose (the first being he encountered post-regeneration), and this is a nice final acknowledgment of that talent. I’m also glad Gallifrey wasn’t one of the stolen planets, and although I’m appalled at the (apparent) final word on Rose, I’m unsurprised that ‘Bad Wolf’ really was just two words, the power of which Rose has established and exploited before. But even there, what was it about Donna’s invoking the words (Rose pointedly not doing so) which caused such a powerful reaction by the Tardis? I wish RTD weren’t channelling Chris Claremont quite so well – sometimes long-term plotlines need to end definitively. Rose’s did, but Donna’s didn’t, nor has the Master’s, nor has this episode’s or even this series’.