Torchwood: Children of Earth – Why it was the greatest series of the Doctor Who spin-off

Was Children of Earth Torchwood’s best series? We certainly think so.

(Image credit: Torchwood/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Torchwood website.)

For many fans, Children of Earth was easily the best series of Torchwood. But why? What makes it continue to stand out ten years on?

When it was announced that the third series of Torchwood would only be five episodes long, it seemed like a massive blow to fans. The first two series had thirteen episodes each, and it seemed like fans were suddenly getting far less for no good reason.

Even worse, we were getting all the episodes in one week. While getting one episode of Torchwood one after another had some appeal, we wouldn’t be able to have that exciting feeling of waiting for the next episode every week. It also meant that we’d have an even longer wait when the series was done. What series could be worth that?

As it turned out, Children of Earth was definitely worth it. It was a major step up for the series, and we hadn’t seen anything like it before. Not just with Torchwood, but on television in general.

A true epic

Making the series focused on one single story gave us a far bigger sense of scale than we’d ever previously had with the series. Even when it came to the finale episodes like End of Days and Exit Wounds, when major events started to happen, it still wasn’t to the same sense of scale that Children of Earth had.

From the very beginning of the series, we knew that Torchwood were dealing with a far bigger problem when all the children in the world stopped. With the exception of their appearance in Doctor Who episodes The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End, we had never seen Torchwood have to worry about an open worldwide problem before. The first episode alone was all about establishing the scale of the threat, before everything hit the fan at the end of it.

On top of that, while we knew that the threat was worldwide, the show made sure to focus on more than just the city to truly show that. Moving out of Cardiff, a city that was as much a part of Torchwood as any of the regular characters, was a risky move. But while it was still important in the series, London was heavily focused on too, as the political side of the series was explored.

Political storytelling

This leads me to my second point of why Children of Earth was so fantastic: the fact that politics were a huge part of it. The series wasn’t just about how Torchwood reacted to a huge alien threat, but how the government reacted to it, too. Both publicly and – more importantly – in secret. Especially when that government was hiding such dark secrets in the first place.

This gave us one of Torchwood‘s most tragic characters: John Frobisher. Easily my favorite character unique to Children of Earth, Frobisher was far from a typical villain. He was a family man, a hard worker, and he believed in doing good for his country. He wasn’t trying to achieve power or glory. He was just doing what he thought was right.

Of course, this lead to him making some truly terrible decisions over the course of the series, due to a dark history his government had that he himself had nothing to do with. Ordering the deaths of so many, including the whole of Torchwood, was a terrible thing to do. But worse than that is that he knows that. He’s not the kind of man who makes decisions like that lightly.

But when he knows a secret as terrible as the British government willingly giving kids to an alien race, with no idea of what would happen to them, he knows how much it could damage the whole of Britain. In that situation, he just does what he thinks is the best possible option. Even during his final, heartbreaking moments, he still believes that he’s doing the only thing he can do.

Horrific choices

In fact, this is true of a great deal of the decisions made by politicians in this series. When faced with the horrific choice of giving ten per cent of the world’s population of children to aliens to use as drugs, or letting the world be destroyed, they believe they have no choice but to give in to their demands.

This leads us to some of the best scenes of the entire series in Day Four. When the politicians talk about which children are selected: is it random? Is it selective? Are their own children exempt? What’s the best possible way to select the children? And – worst of all – is there a way that they can make the outcome of the horrific situation look “good”?

There are only a few scenes like this in Children of Earth, but they leave such an impact. As a commentary of how a government can look at its people, as a way of adding moral complexity to the series, and as another way of just showing the sheer scale of the problem, these scenes add so much.

Major shocks (that are done right)

One thing to keep in mind is that a TV series should never be based on shock factor alone. If a TV series tries to be shocking purely for the sake of it, it never works.

In some ways, this was a key problem of Torchwood‘s first series. That gave us episodes about sex aliens, cannibals and a partially converted Cyberman getting covered in barbecue sauce. The show was very keen to show how “adult” it was compared to its parent series, and sometimes, that didn’t work.

This is why the second series was a huge improvement, as while many Torchwood episodes were fun, they generally went for more “mature” stories rather than “adult”, only going for the shocking moments when it came to the drama.

Which brings us to Children of Earth. This series had some of the biggest and boldest shocks in the Doctor Who universe. The first episode alone featured the destruction of the Torchwood Hub, something that was so essential to Torchwood as a series. It was essentially home for all the characters, arguably more so than the places they lived at. To see it destroyed so early on in Children of Earth very quickly established how dangerous the series was going to get.

But the last two episodes especially gave us some of the best shocking moments. Ianto’s death is a clear and easy example. Not only was he a much loved character, but he didn’t even get to make a grand, heroic sacrifice. He was killed off suddenly and unexpectedly. It was a bold move to make, especially as it reduced the number of official members of Torchwood down to two. But it also made sure to add to the sense of utter despair and desperation that the episode was going for, especially after it looked like Torchwood would save the day earlier the same episode.

More from Winter is Coming

The second big shock was in the final episode, when Frobisher made his final tragic mistake. We all remember that moment when he closed the door, before suddenly hearing the sound of gunshots. It’s a dark, horrifying moment. Even worse is that he made his choice out of love, believing that there was no way for his family to escape a far worse fate…and of course, Torchwood stop the 456 anyway. But at a terrible price.

Which brings us to the last major shock: Jack killing his own grandson to save the world. Is this a moment that goes too far? It’s debatable, but there’s no mistake that it certainly made the ending of the series hugely emotional and memorable.

And that’s why the shocks worked so well in Children of Earth. Yes, their shock factor was huge. But they were also a natural part of the story, too. That’s what separates the shocks that work against a story, and the ones that the audience remember for years to come.

Children of Earth was an incredible achievement. It wasn’t just the best series of Torchwood, but it’s arguably one of the best pieces of television of the twenty-first century. It was a major turning point for the series. But was it also the beginning of the end..?

Was Children of Earth your favorite series of Torchwood? What did you enjoy about it? Was there anything you didn’t like about the series? Let us know in the comments below.