Torchwood : Children of Earth Preview

Torchwood : Children of Earth is the 3rd season and the third incarnation of Russell T Davies' Doctor Who spin-off show. With the third series, comes a new added impetous as Torchwood has moved to the BBC's main channel, BBC One. Over three seasons, Torchwood has never stayed on one channel, moving from premiering on the digital-only BBC Three for the first, and BBC Two for the second. With each series has come a slight reinvention of the product. Season One began by resembling several shows, its own parent show for one, and whilst it had its moments of quality, seemed to some like a family TV show with added adult content simply for the sake of it, leading to the Torchwood team sometimes being mocked as the "Scooby Doo Gang" on internet forums and blogs.

Season Two began by bringing more of the same, but as the season evolved the show began to find more adult themes that felt meaningful, and less like adult themes being injected into a family show. With characters being killed, brought back to life, and stories given to them that had meaning, depth and sometimes, incredible power.

Season Three's move to BBC One gave the show new pressures. No longer was it to be considered a secondary show on the BBC, but given a marquee slot on the main channel. The cost of this, and certainly a worry for the fans, was that the season was being shortened to five one-hour long episodes with a concurrent story. This worried many fans worldwide, wondering how the show would fair in a mainstream spot on the most popular channel in the UK, and whether some of the character plots and themes might sink by the wayside due to their more controversial nature, and higher exposure.

Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) are on the trail of a new mysterious occurance. The children of Earth all stopping, at precisely the same moment and chanting "We are coming… We are coming…". The mysterious behaviour catches not only the eyes of Torchwood, but the world at large, including UNIT and the UK and US Governments. The mysterious chanting leads them on a mystery involving a Government conspiracy, seemingly lead by John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi from Doctor Who's episode Fires of Pompeii, and the brilliant government satire The Thick of It), organising the arrival of a mysterious alien force known only as The 456.

Jack, Ianto and Gwen ably assisted by her husband Rhys, begin to investigate and find that there is a conspiracy afoot, that could affect every child on the Earth and lead the entire planet devastated. Who are the 456? Why are they coming to Earth? Have they been here before? And ultimately, do you sacrifice the few, in order to spare the many?

Thankfully all worries about the move to BBC One have been lifted, as Torchwood has evolved and matured into five amazing hours of television. The move to one single concurrent story has been a triumph for the show, and Torchwood's new season not only integrates even tighter with the "Whoniverse" but is now its own show in its own right, beyond its parent program. This season has been easily one of the best pieces of Sci-Fi the UK has produced for years, if not one of the best UK TV dramas in several years.

With the move of show runner and creator Russell T. Davies to work in the United States, the future of Torchwood is still in the air, but after rated an impressive 5.9 million viewers over the 5 nights on average, the BBC would be mad to cancel one of its most popular shows simply because the creator is moving onto pastures new. Torchwood is back, and is better than ever.

Torchwood : Children of Earth airs at 9pm PST (8pm Central) on BBC America and BBC America HD from the 20th July for 5 nights.
It is available in the UK on BBC iPlayer until 17th July, or for purchase on DVD and BluRay in Europe now.