Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Three
Jul. 9th, 2009 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which several bombshells are dropped, and the show continues to make me happy.
First of all, one minor complaint: SOMEONE really should have brought up the fact that the last time Britain hosted a first contact, the American President got killed by the British PM who himself turned out to be an alien. (Okay, the last bit might have been covered up, but the Toclafane killing President Winters happened before the paradox set in.) If that's not a good reason why the current President won't get anywhere near Britain, I don't know what is. Otherwise, the conference scenes made me happy because they clarified without doubt UNIT had and has nothing to do with the 456 situation, then and now. (Previous episodes already made it clear that we're dealing with Thames House and the British civil service as the antagonists here, plus of course if you know your DW continuity you know UNIT was founded later than 1965, but I've still seen reviews calling Johnson's wetworks squad UNIT soldiers. Can we stop doing that now, please?)
Torchwood, otoh, was involved in the 1965 children handover, and if that's a surprise to you you haven't paying attention. Not only was it then the alien specialist agency which did exist but there is no reason to go to these lengths to get Jack killed if he doesn't know exactly what happened. The sins of the past, indeed. This makes for a great story, and I can't wait to see how Ianto and Gwen are going to deal with it. They've seen Jack do less than savoury things before, but this is going to hit home in a way previous morally grey acts hadn't. We also get more details about how Alice came to be, and a name and job for her mother. Figures Lucia Moretti would have been a Torchwood employee. (Torchwood: where it's easier to count past agency members who hadn't had sex with Jack than the opposite.) (Sidenote: did anyone catch Alice's exact year of birth? This interests me because I wonder whether Lucia could have known about Jack's role in the 456 incident.) It seems either Lucia, Jack or both also trained Alice in self defense, and it's telling she did teach her son in the form of games. But alas the bad guys had a head start, and there was really no way she'd win against a hit squad, not with a child at her side. Still, Alice rocks.
So does Lois, who is believably scared but comes through. (And hooray for continuity with the contact lenses, last seen - aside from Gwen quickly grabbing them on Day One - in Reset.) Mind you, I think her lie will be exposed sooner or later, but on short term, it was a good idea because Bridget Spears is unlikely to march to Frobisher and say "do you really want me to bring your new bit on the side along?" I'm not sure how to read Ms. Spears' "don't think you're the first": as literally true - i.e. Frobisher has had other office affairs - or as a lie to cover for her own feelings as she carries a torch for her boss but has not thought he'd be available.
Peter Capaldi continues to do a great acting job as Frobisher. As for the 456: the difference between then (secret arrival, no showing off with the children, demand for twelve children only) and now (attention drawing of the whole world, all the children) as well as a certain precedent in RTD's stories - the Toclafane being revealed as the humans from the future - makes me thinkjesuswasbatman' speculation could be right: these aren't the original 456. These are what became of the children who were handed over. And this is also where Clem will play a crucial part in the solution, but not before Jack does something self sacrificial like offering himself to them instead of Alice's son, or Ianto's nephew and niece, and they accept because they remember him as the one who handed them over.
In conclusion: RTD really likes the word "decimate", doesn't he?
First of all, one minor complaint: SOMEONE really should have brought up the fact that the last time Britain hosted a first contact, the American President got killed by the British PM who himself turned out to be an alien. (Okay, the last bit might have been covered up, but the Toclafane killing President Winters happened before the paradox set in.) If that's not a good reason why the current President won't get anywhere near Britain, I don't know what is. Otherwise, the conference scenes made me happy because they clarified without doubt UNIT had and has nothing to do with the 456 situation, then and now. (Previous episodes already made it clear that we're dealing with Thames House and the British civil service as the antagonists here, plus of course if you know your DW continuity you know UNIT was founded later than 1965, but I've still seen reviews calling Johnson's wetworks squad UNIT soldiers. Can we stop doing that now, please?)
Torchwood, otoh, was involved in the 1965 children handover, and if that's a surprise to you you haven't paying attention. Not only was it then the alien specialist agency which did exist but there is no reason to go to these lengths to get Jack killed if he doesn't know exactly what happened. The sins of the past, indeed. This makes for a great story, and I can't wait to see how Ianto and Gwen are going to deal with it. They've seen Jack do less than savoury things before, but this is going to hit home in a way previous morally grey acts hadn't. We also get more details about how Alice came to be, and a name and job for her mother. Figures Lucia Moretti would have been a Torchwood employee. (Torchwood: where it's easier to count past agency members who hadn't had sex with Jack than the opposite.) (Sidenote: did anyone catch Alice's exact year of birth? This interests me because I wonder whether Lucia could have known about Jack's role in the 456 incident.) It seems either Lucia, Jack or both also trained Alice in self defense, and it's telling she did teach her son in the form of games. But alas the bad guys had a head start, and there was really no way she'd win against a hit squad, not with a child at her side. Still, Alice rocks.
So does Lois, who is believably scared but comes through. (And hooray for continuity with the contact lenses, last seen - aside from Gwen quickly grabbing them on Day One - in Reset.) Mind you, I think her lie will be exposed sooner or later, but on short term, it was a good idea because Bridget Spears is unlikely to march to Frobisher and say "do you really want me to bring your new bit on the side along?" I'm not sure how to read Ms. Spears' "don't think you're the first": as literally true - i.e. Frobisher has had other office affairs - or as a lie to cover for her own feelings as she carries a torch for her boss but has not thought he'd be available.
Peter Capaldi continues to do a great acting job as Frobisher. As for the 456: the difference between then (secret arrival, no showing off with the children, demand for twelve children only) and now (attention drawing of the whole world, all the children) as well as a certain precedent in RTD's stories - the Toclafane being revealed as the humans from the future - makes me think
jesuswasbatman' speculation could be right: these aren't the original 456. These are what became of the children who were handed over. And this is also where Clem will play a crucial part in the solution, but not before Jack does something self sacrificial like offering himself to them instead of Alice's son, or Ianto's nephew and niece, and they accept because they remember him as the one who handed them over. In conclusion: RTD really likes the word "decimate", doesn't he?
