torchwood: children of the earth

Last night, Chris and I did a marathon watch of the latest five-part series of Torchwood. The shows aired earlier in the week, and I just didn’t find the time to watch them through the week, so I thought “I’ll just start Day One and Two tonight, and finish the rest tomorrow and through the week. Well that didn’t happen, and around 4AM we finished watching Day Five.

I liked it, though I have a lot of questions about the “what happens next” in the show. (Note, if you haven’t seen the show, don’t click “more” (due to spoilers).)

So the first WTF? moment was when Ianto dies. I didn’t expect that, and I’m not sure I agree with the decision. I understand the over-riding theme of the show being the “sins of the past” catching up with Captain Jack Harkness, but after losing two characters last season, I was just blinking in disbelief when Ianto died. I mean, why? Of course, in Day Five we learn a little more about the why, which only leads me to think again, WTF?

So in Day Five, Captain Jack saves the children of the earth by using his grandson to transmit a message to the “456” and in the process kills grandson (you’ll understand why when you see it). Captain Jack’s daughter watches as her son dies, and natually despises her father as a result. It would seem that the last couple of episodes was about Captain Jack destroying or loosing relationships.

The closing scene sees Captain Jack saying goodbye to Gwen, and then transporting to hitchike a trip with a passing alien space freighter. I was left wondering, did I just watch the last episode of Torchwood? I know that Captain Jack will continue his journey looking for the Doctor (a number of references were made during the series), so it may be that he connects up in the new series of Doctor Who. But I’m at a loss as to what happens next with this show.

As far as the other parts of the story, the most troubling to me was the behind the scenes dialogs that were occuring to “negotiate” with the “456” in meeting the demands that they made. They demand ten-percent of the earth’s children, and we later find out that they need these children as they give them a high. A quirky storyline indeed. The scary part was how the discussions occurred that justified the selection of the ten-percent. Many times while watching this, I realized that this could happen. I know it’s unlikely that it would happen, but the writers really did an excellent job about the internal workings of politics (UK style). The simplicity in which decisions could be made, along with the rationale to “sell it” to the public really troubled me. I still get tingles thinking about it.

Ultimately, the “456” are “defeated” and they leave earth. However, they were here once before, so what happens next time?