Children of Earth: Day Three (TV story)

Children of Earth: Day Three
Main enemy:	The 456
Key crew
Writers:	Russell T Davies and James Moran
Director:	Euros Lyn
Producer:	Peter Bennett
Release details
Release number:	29
Premiere broadcast:	8th July 2009

Synopsis

The eyes of the world turn to Britain, as the 456 announce: "We are here," as the new Torchwood adventure continues. As a pillar of fire descends upon London, the members of Torchwood must battle to protect their own families as the fight gets personal. But will Clem's memories destroy everything?

Plot

The team, plus Rhys, have set up a base in an old factory (christened "Hub 2" by Rhys) that was used by Torchwood One for storage. Through her work as a former Police Officer, Gwen knows all the tricks of the criminal trade, namely stealing mobile phones, debit cards and laptops from people off the street. Jack makes off with a car. Soon the base is stocked with equipment and supplies. While he researchs the other people who were targeted for assassination, whose names he didn't know, Jack is shocked. He seems recognize them. He runs off.

In Cardiff, Jack's daughter Alice is still trying to contact him; she goes outside and borrows a girl's mobile to phone the Cardiff police, but the government's scanners pick up the mention of Jack's name and attempt to find the connection between them. Agent Johnson gets word of this and her team take Alice and her son away with them to "help" them, as it would be safer for Alice and Steven. Suddenly, Steven points southeastwards to London. All the children on Earth are pointing towards London.

A pillar of light shoots out of the sky and enters Whitehall. Fiery energy fills the gas containment system. Mr Frobisher and Mr Dekker meet with the aliens, who inform the humans to call them "456". During the discussion, Frobisher extracts a promise from the 456 that it will not mention its previous visit to Earth in 1965.

Gwen surprises Lois Habiba at the cafe and asks her to wear some special contact lenses that allow the Torchwood team to view what is going on through them. Lois protests but takes the contacts with her despite her fear of committing treason. Gwen then phones PC Andy to bail Clem out from police custody and brings him back to the base.

Jack sneaks into Frobisher's house and steals his wife's mobile. He phones Frobisher, having made the connection between the children and the events of 1965 and threatens Frobisher with "blow[ing] this thing sky high". In retaliation, Frobisher informs Jack that they have taken his daughter and grandson into custody will kill them if he does so. Jack threatens to do the same, but Frobisher knows that he would never do such a thing. The conversation ends.

It is now night. Frobisher, Brigit Spears and Lois Habiba enter the gas chamber room where it is being filmed for the prime minister and being transmitted to a conference room where UNIT, the American general and the Prime Minister are watching. Frobisher demands that the 456 cease using human children to communicate through; in return the 456 demand a gift: 10% of the children on Earth.

Back at the warehouse base, Clem tells Gwen that he can smell the man who brought the children to the aliens. When Jack walks in, Clem then recognizes him as the man in 1965 who gave the twelve children up to the aliens. When Gwen protests that Jack is a "good guy" who fights aliens, Jack informs them that in this instance, he had done what was asked. He gave the 456 the children... "as a gift."

Cast

• Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
• Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
• Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
• Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
• Lois Habiba - Cush Jumbo
• Alice Carter - Lucy Cohu
• Steven Carter - Bear McCausland
• Bridget Spears - Susan Brown
• John Frobisher - Peter Capaldi
• Johnson - Liz May Brice
• Clem MacDonald - Paul Copley
• Brian Green PM - Nicholas Farrell
• Andy Davidson - Tom Price
• Trinity Wells - Lachele Carl

Production crew

Written by - Russell T Davies and James Moran

References

• This is the second time in the recent Doctor Who multiverse that an alien asked for ten percent of a population, the first being in The Sound of Drums when the Master kills ten percent of Earth's population. Both stories involved Captain Jack Harkness.
• The Childrens program Trapped! is seen on the television.

Story notes

to be added

Ratings

• 5.9 million viewers ( overnight )

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes and Errors

• When Lois Habiba wears the contact lens, she puts them both in the same eye (her left eye). It is possible that it was the same lens, it may have fallen out of her eye. And it's unclear which shots are of the bathroom mirror.
• The green goo sprayed on the front of the tank disappears and reappears in different shapes several times between shots. Actually, it runs to the bottom of the tank, look at the lower part of the glass
• When Gwen is demonstrating the lenses to Lois, several times she looks in different directions and moves her head, but the display on the laptop doesn't move. (It looks to line up quite well actually. It is possible there is some "lag" between the lenses and the computer display.)
• It seems a bit suspicious that Ianto managed to buy another coat for Jack that was exactly the same in every way to his previous one. Ianto said that he got it in "army surplus special". Also, it's never been stated that the coat destroyed in the Hub was Jack's only coat. Given his tendency to get shot, burned, etc. he presumably has replaced the coat on occasion. There may well be a surplus shop with a dozen of them on the rack and Ianto knew just where to go.
  • Funny thing about it, though, is that it's always been implied that Jack's clothes have also been immune to destruction, like in Journey's End where he's put in an incinerator - and his clothes come out fresh as a daisy. It doesn't ever say that he is incinerated, it is likely that when the Daleks put Jack in and closed the door, Jack found a ledge and safety to hold onto. Plus if he was completely incinerated it would take a very long time for him to come back from almost nothing, as it takes him a whole day to recover even with a whole arm and sholder still intact in Day Two of Children of Earth .
• Gwen gives Lois the contact lenses immediately after removing them from her own eyes and expects her to wear them immediately (she doesn't). Isn't it unhygienic to share contacts in this way? If Torchwood can develop contact lenses with the abilities shown, perhaps they found a way to make them sterile. That, or the lens case contains a cleaning solution we do not see (as many do in real life). It is also possible that Lois sterilized the lenses off-screen'(Yes, it is unhygienic to share contact lenses. However given the seriousness of the situation, that is unlikely to be considered of foremost importance.)'(Even more unrealistic is the fact that Lois does not seem to experience any discomfort while wearing the lenses. Usually, if someone is not used to contacts, the eyes will treat them as foreign objects, e.g. start to tear almost immediately) You're forgetting they are not proper contacts, maybe they have a defence against this.
• Lois doesn't wear glasses, nor is she seen removing any contacts before rather easily putting the Torchwood ones in. Anyone who has ever had contacts for the first time knows it is very difficult -- and for some people, impossible -- to put them in without assistance the first time. Maybe Lois used to wear contacts and had a laser vision correction procedure? It is also possible she removed a pair of her own lenses first, off-screen, though the editing suggests this not to be the case. She could just as likely have not worn her lenses that day.
• The contact lenses that Lois wears use lip reading software. When Martha wore the contact lenses, Torchwood was able to hear everything that Martha heard. Maybe Gwen and Rhys borrowed an early prototype that didn't pick up sound yet (At the time that Martha wore them, they had access to all of Torchwood's technology. This undoubtedly includes other surveillance equipment for them to have used in conjunction with the lenses.)

Continuity

• Lois wears contact lenses with same abilities as Martha wore in Reset.
• The Doctor is mentioned. The last episode of Torchwood to explicitly reference The Doctor was Fragments.

DVD releases

• This Episode was released on DVD along with the rest of Children of Earth on the 13th of July.

See also

to be added