Torchwood: Children of Earth

In which children across the globe are momentarily paralysed - staring into the sky. They all speak in unison. Their message is revealed one word at a time - "We are coming back tomorrow". At the same time, Captain Jack Harkness is approached by Dr Rupesh Patanjali, who has seen a strange pattern of illness amongst the local South East Asian community. In London, a scientist named Dekker announces to the government that he has picked up a message from an alien race which last made contact in the 1950's. They are known only as the 456, as this was the frequency they broadcast on. A civil servant named Frobisher is ordered to eliminate everyone who was involved in the earlier incident with the aliens - and this includes Jack. Dr Patanjali is really working for a government agent named Johnson. He drugs Jack at the hospital, and Johnson has a bomb implanted in his stomach. She then kills the doctor. Jack is unaware of this until he returns to the Hub. He has his friends evacuate before the bomb goes off - completely destroying the Hub.

Gwen, Ianto and Rhys go on the run, and make for London. Johnson has Jack's remains collected up, knowing that he will regenerate. His body is encased in concrete. The team trace where he was taken and rescue him. One adult has been affected along with the children - a man named Clement McDonald, who resides in a mental hospital. Gwen goes to interview him. She learns that back in the 1950's a number of children from a care home were taken out into the countryside one night by Jack, where they were given to the 456. Clement managed to run away. Jack reveals that the aliens gave the British government the cure for a lethal flu strain, and the children were demanded in payment. It is to cover this up that the current government has employed Johnson. Frobisher is tasked with preparing an environment tank at Thames House, to accept one of the aliens. A junior civil servant named Lois Habiba is on Frobisher's team, and  she is approached by Torchwood to help them. She agrees to wear the special contact lenses which Martha Jones once wore to allow the team to spy on events inside the Pharm research centre. One of the 456 materialises inside the tank, and Frobisher goes inside to communicate with it. He discovers that the aliens have kept the original children alive so as to feed off their body chemicals. They have returned because they have become addicted to these chemicals, and now want more children - many more.

They want 10% of the world's children, otherwise they will destroy the planet. Across the globe, the children begin chanting a number equal to 10% of their country's child population. Jack and his team make their presence known to Frobisher and tell him that they will reveal what is going on to the general public if they are prevented from trying to stop the 456. Jack and Ianto go to Thames House to confront the alien. Its response is to flood the building with toxic gas. Dekker survives by donning a hazmat suit, but Ianto and everyone else is killed. The British government, led by Prime Minister Brian Green, comes under pressure from the United Nations once it is known that the UK knew about the 456 but kept it secret. Plans are made up to hand over all the children - with some in government wanting to target children from poorer areas. It will be announced that there will be a random selection for special inoculations. Frobisher is told that his daughters will be part of this selection, as it would look bad to the public if they weren't. He goes home and kills his children, before turning the gun on his wife and then himself.

When some parents refuse to hand their children over, Green calls in the military to remove them forcibly. Gwen and Rhys return to Cardiff to rescue Ianto's niece and other local children. Jack, meanwhile, works with Dekker and Johnson to find a way to defeat the 456. They realise that the frequency they use is a potential weakness. If a signal could be sent along it, it could stop the aliens. In order to do this, one child would have to act as a transmitter - and Dekker warns that this would be fatal. Jack elects to sacrifice his own grandson, Steven. The signal damages the 456 and causes them to retreat, but Steven is killed. Jack's daughter Alice refuses to have anything more to do with him. Lois has informed Frobisher's assistant Bridget Spears about the Torchwood contact lenses. She uses them to get evidence of Green planning to blame the crisis on the United States. Angered about her boss's death, she forces Green to resign otherwise she will release the evidence. Jack goes into hiding. Six months later he contacts Gwen and she and Rhys meet up with him. She is now pregnant. Jack tells them that he still cannot face up to what he has done in killing his grandson. Gwen gives him his Vortex manipulator, salvaged from the ruins of the Hub. Jack uses it to leave the Earth, unsure if he will ever return...

Children of Earth was written by Russell T Davies, John Fay and James Moran, and was first broadcast over five consecutive evenings on BBC 1 from Monday 6th July, 2009. Davies wrote the first and last sections, co-writing the middle episode with Moran. Fay covered the second and fourth installments.
The story comprises the whole of the third season of Torchwood. Each episode is subtitled as Day One, Day Two etc. Fans don't use these subtitles as the episode titles, as the series already had a story in its first season called Day One - the episode about the sex-gas alien.
The story arose from budget cuts at the BBC, when the government refused to allow a licence fee rise. Another 13 episode run was out of the question, so Davies decided to tell a single story over the shorter series length. At the time John Barrowman was angered by this reduction of episodes. The BBC had broadcast a highly successful police drama called Five Days, which covered a criminal investigation in real time over - you guessed it - five consecutive days. Davies decided to use this format. Torchwood had fared reasonably well on BBC 3 for its first series - earning it a promotion to BBC 2 for the second run. It would now feature in prime time on BBC 1, but many thought that it would not be popular due to a summer evening broadcast slot. They were to be proven wrong, as it got very good ratings and great reviews.
The most unpopular aspect of the production was the decision to kill off fan favourite Ianto Jones. The story allows some character background, as we learn about his relationship with his father and meet his sister and her family. The writers were bombarded with pleas and demands for his return, as well as a few death threats. A shrine to Ianto soon appeared on the Cardiff Bay boardwalk close to one of the Hub's secret entrances...

I used to pay my respects every time I went to Cardiff to visit the Doctor Who Experience.
The guest cast is headed by future Doctor and one-time Pompeian marble merchant Peter Capaldi, who plays Frobisher. Fans may have been expecting Emmerdale's Rik Makarem (Dr Patanjali) to have been Owen Harper's replacement on the Torchwood team, but he doesn't make it past the first episode. Someone else who looked like they were being set up for a regular role was Cush Jumbo, who played Lois Habiba.
Other guest artists include Ian Gelder as the creepy Dekker (who you expect to get bumped off but doesn't), Peter Copley who is excellent as Clement McDonald and Nicholas Farrell as dodgy PM Brian Green. Liz May Brice is Johnson (another one you expect to get their comeuppance and doesn't), whilst Bridget Spears is played by Susan Brown. Jack's daughter Alice is Lucy Cohu, and grandson Steven is Bear McCausland. In a small role as a government adviser is Nick (voice of the Daleks) Briggs. Tom Price also makes an appearance in the Cardiff set scenes, playing his regular role of PC Andy Davidson.

Two people who were supposed to have prominent roles in Children of Earth were Freema Agyeman and Noel Clarke. Their joining of the Torchwood team was set up at the end of Journey's End. Agyeman had been offered a starring role in Law & Order: UK. This was a guaranteed 13 episodes, against Torchwood's five, so she naturally went with the legal drama. Much of her role went to the new character of Lois. Martha's presence was retained as a short cameo, but this was also cut when she became totally unavailable.  Clarke was only supposed to be in the last two episodes, but he also had to pull out due to film work.
At the time, everyone pretty much believed that this was the end of Torchwood - but there would be one further series, so far at least, which again opted to tell a single story over its entire run.