Torchwood: A Tale of Two Shows

I never thought I'd write about this show. I never thought I'd watch this show; I only became a Doctor Who fan a few months ago, after actively avoiding it for years. When this show premiered in 2006, its description sounded somewhat like something I'd like (at the time, I still really liked Stargate: SG-1, whereas my feelings toward it now are... complicated), but knowing it was a Doctor Who spin-off ultimately kept me away. I also forget whether I was aware of its critical reputation before recently. I'm sure I heard something about it, but it was so off my radar that I didn't really pay attention. Then the ads for the fourth series, a mini-series subtitled Miracle Day, were released. The idea of a world supposedly "blessed" by an undying population was certainly intriguing. Soon after, I began Doctor Who and realized what I had been missing. But even with the knowledge that Torchwood starred Capt. Jack Harkness, one of my favorite recurring characters from the Doctor Who, I still had little interest in watching this. The two things that finally caused me to want to watch it were the newer promos for Miracle Day and the reputation of the third series, the miniseries Children of Earth. Simultaneously, I learned that Children of Earth was supposedly amazing but that the first two series were terrible. I decided that I would gamble on the idea that the criticism of the first two years were hyperbolic and that I would be somewhat lost by jumping into the show in its third year. That was a gamble I lost. Hard.

The difference in quality between the first two series and Children of Earth is almost unreal. (I haven't started Miracle Day yet, but I will soon.) They are essentially two different shows. The first two years were set up as a monster-of-the-week type of show, in which Jack Harkness leads a team of people based in Cardiff, Wales in adventures tracking down extraterrestrial threats and technology. Of the 26 episodes that comprised these first two series, I think there were only five, at most, that I truly enjoyed. These episodes were marked by dumb plots, cringe-worthy dialogue, and awful characterization. Plot-wise, this is a show that featured two episodes in a row that ended with me thinking: "Wait, what just happened? No, seriously, what just happened?" I literally had no idea what the villains' plans were nor what the Torchwood team did to fight against the plans.

Many of the characterization issues were tied to the plot, as characters would act in ways to suit the plot, only for them to act completely different the next week. Possibly the most egregious example was in the universally-reviled episode "Cyberwoman," in which Ianto Jones, who would go on to be a fan-favorite, acted like the stupidest person on the planet, threatened his fellow teammembers both directly and indirectly, and was generally a terrible person. The character of Gwen was also a problem, as she was most definitely a Mary Sue who was almost always right about everything, despite being the newest team member, and was given a free pass by the writers to be irredeemably awful, and suffer no consequences. At one point, she demanded her boyfriend forgive her for having an affair, only to drug him so that he wouldn't remember her telling him about the affair. (The show in general was much too nonchalant about mind rape.) And then there was Jack. He drove me crazy on this show, because he changed from being a likeable scoundrel to a scoundrel who yelled a lot and was devoid of any good ideas. Furthermore, despite his actor John Barrowman proving on Doctor Who that he knows how to act, he seems to have forgotten how on Torchwood. For example, check out this scene from the end of the first series (spoilers, obviously):



However, I must give credit where credit is due. In the first two series, there were a few episodes that were genuinely good, and the writers at least had some balls, as they were not afraid to kill off characters. I guess one could argue that the two who died were the least developed and one who was hated by a significant portion of the fans. But it cannot be denied that the writers killed 2/5 of the cast, and, in my opinion, in a rather heart-wrenching manner. Furthermore, I had grown to really like the hated character. He was a callous jerk, but unlike most of the characters on the show, he was a consistenly callous jerk who was mostly fun to watch (ignoring the awful Fight Club episode that featured him heavily). But overall, the first two series of Torchwood amounted to some of the worst television I have ever intentionally watched.

But then came Children of Earth. It was... something different entirely:



Over the course of five episodes, Torchwood changed from a dumb monster-of-the-week series into one that explored engaging sociological issues. "How much would you sacrifice to save as many people as possible?" "If some people have to die, do you try to ensure that the 'right' people survive?" "How do you value one person's life over another?" (Based on the above trailer and what I'd heard about the series, I thought another theme would be "Imagine you were asked how far you would go to save your children, then imagine that everyone on Earth had been asked that question simultaneously." That ultimately did not come about, so I'll have to write that story myself.)

One source says that Russell T Davies initially wrote this as a story completely unrelated to the Doctor Who universe, then later adapted it to be a Torchwood story, which makes a lot of sense, as the Torchwood characters, while the heroes, get a much smaller percentage of screen-time than you'd think in their own show. But it works. Children of Earth is a story about the extremely dark and dirty nature of politics (a lesson I am being hit over the head with, as I am currently reading the first book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones, and the dangers of the political life are at the heart of the story). The mini-series tells the story of a strange alien species that threatens to destroy the entire human race if its demands are not met, at the heart of which are our children. I doubt there is anything else on Earth that would, when threatened, induce the same kind of hysteria in people, so the governments know that they have to tread lightly. As the miniseries unfolds over five days (also aired over five consecutive days), the attitude changes from "there is no way we will give in to these demands" to "how do we choose which children to sacrifice," to much darker questions. Throughout, the members of the Torchwood team are forced to examine their pasts and futures, and wonder where to draw the line when determining when a "necessary evil" is in fact necessary and what it means to be a human in this world.

Unlike the first two years, nearly everything clicks in Children of Earth. The writing is superb, Barrowman remembers how to act, Gwen becomes tolerable, and the story is not only enjoyable (in the most depressing way possible) but actually makes you think. Furthermore, the characters finally act like humans. Jack and Ianto begin a relationship/fling in the first series, but you'd never know it but for a few random comments. Finally, they act like adults in some kind of relationship. The show also feels like its part of a world beyond Cardiff. Torchwood is an organization independent of the government, but throughout the first two years, it almost seemed as if the government was non-existent. Here, Torchwood is but one entity among many working to "protect" humanity. The most amusing thing, though, is that my reasons for slogging through the 26 episodes prior were rendered irrelevant, as any characterization necessary to understand the characters was established on Doctor Who. The worst tendencies of Gwen and Jack were stripped away (none of which were present on Doctor Who when they were guest stars), while nothing that happened to Ianto before the miniseries was relevant. The only things that would have been relevant were related to the characters Tosh and Owen, who both died. (Descriptions of the miniseries stated that Jack, Gwen, and Ianto would spend part of the miniseries dealing with their friends' deaths, but aside from one shot of a photo of the two of them, that didn't happen.)

I urge you to check out Children of Earth (and most likely Miracle Day, but I haven't seen any of it yet), but stay as far away as possible from the episodes before it, unless you are a glutton for punishment.