And now, after the brief pause for Shore Leave, we return to Torchwood: Children of Earth<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Mid-way through Day Four<\/i>, I thought I saw where the story was going. Jack Harkness would find a way to deal himself back into the political games surrounding the Four-Five-Six, who made their appalling demands at the end of Day Three<\/i>, and with Jack taking charge, he would deal with the Ambassador, and then all hell would break loose in Day Five<\/i>. Ultimately, Jack and Torchwood would triumph. They might be bruised. They might be bloodied. But it would be a triumph.<\/p>\n
What the fuck did I<\/i> know?<\/p>\n
Children of Earth<\/i>, in its final two episodes, becomes the story of the fall of Jack Harkness. His attempts to win, his attempts to be a hero<\/i> exact an ever-increasing toll. And in the final twenty minutes, as Jack makes a devastating decision, as the tears stream down his face and another character pounds on shatterproof glass, unable to prevent the unfolding horror, Torchwood: Children of Earth<\/i> becomes that rare thing — the spin-off that transcends its parent. I cannot imagine Doctor Who<\/i> ever wandering down these dark corridors. Doctor Who<\/i>, as I wrote a few nights ago, tells stories about monsters, but here, in Children of Earth<\/i>, the real<\/i> monsters don’t have three heads. The real monsters are human. Pushed to their extremes, human beings will do despicable<\/i> things.<\/p>\n
Of the final two episodes, Day Four<\/i> may be the most conventionally painful. The ending evokes genuine emotion, and I am not ashamed to admit that I wept.<\/p>\n
Day Five<\/i>, however, is in a different league entirely.<\/p>\n
There’s a scene that comes about twenty minutes into the episode. Even knowing that it was coming (as I heard about it at Shore Leave) didn’t fully prepare me for its impact. I actually had to stop the episode.<\/p>\n
And the ending, while not as conventionally emotional as the climax to Day Four<\/i>, is shocking in its suddenness and its pointlessness. What happens isn’t futile, but the personal toll exacted makes one think that there should have been a better way.<\/p>\n
A character in an earlier episode said of Jack, “A man who cannot die has nothing to fear.” But that’s not true. Jack Harkness has found the one thing he does<\/i> fear — blood on his hands and memories he can never wash away.<\/p>\n
I don’t know where Torchwood<\/i> goes from here. The story of Jack Harkness isn’t done. We’ve witnessed his fall, and the next act would logically be his redemption. Or, at the very least, a chance at finding an inner peace.<\/p>\n
I had no idea, going into Children of Earth<\/i> a week ago, where the story was going. I hadn’t followed spoilers online. I had no idea about the story or guest stars. I hadn’t followed rumors. I’m glad I didn’t. It was a surprising ride, a dark<\/i> ride.<\/p>\n
I think, at last, we know the reason for Torchwood<\/i>. It’s for stories like this<\/i>. Children of Earth<\/i> is a dark, deeply unsettling look into the dark things people can do. Once, Torchwood<\/i> was just a Doctor Who<\/i> spin-off. It’s become something else now.<\/p>\n
It’s become something better.<\/p>\n
And I’ll venture to say, right now, that this is the best Doctor Who<\/i> story of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And now, after the brief pause for Shore Leave, we return to Torchwood: Children of Earth. Mid-way through Day Four, I thought I saw where the story was going. Jack Harkness would find a way to deal himself back into the political games surrounding the Four-Five-Six, who made their appalling demands at the end ofContinue reading “On Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Four & Day Five”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4082,10,9],"class_list":["post-2446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-who","tag-doctor-who","tag-jack-harkness","tag-torchwood","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}