Children of Earth: Day One (TV story)

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"Children of Earth: Day One" is the first of a five-part serial of the third series of Torchwood.

Synopsis

When every child on the Earth stops and starts chanting "We Are Coming", the Torchwood team has to investigate. Could this be the start of a global crisis?

Plot

One night in Scotland, 1965, a group of young children in Scotland are being driven in a school bus to an undisclosed location. When the bus stops, the children exit and walk towards a light that gets brighter as they draw closer. One of the children is hesitant, and eventually flees as the light covers a large area.

44 years later, in Cardiff, 2009, at 8:40 am GMT, Gwen Cooper is withdrawing money from an ATM when she notices two children standing completely still and completely unresponsive. In fact, all the children all over the United Kingdom freeze. After a minute, the children start moving again, acting as if nothing had happened. Gwen goes to the Hub and begins to investigate the incident.

Meanwhile, at a hospital, Dr. Rupesh Patanjali attempts to save a man's life, but is unsuccessful. Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones, whom Dr. Patanjali believes are the man's neighbours, ask if they can see the body alone. Jack uses a laser torch to open up the man and extracts an alien organ. Dr. Patanjali suddenly re-enters, sees the alien organ, and asks if the men are Torchwood, which Jack quickly denies. Dr. Patanjali tells them that the bodies of five ethnic males have disappeared over the past two months, but Jack tells him that it's a problem for the NHS to handle, and he and Ianto drive away. Back at the Hub, Gwen tells them what has happened with the children.

Meanwhile, a woman named Lois Habiba begins her first day at work for her new boss, Bridget Spears, assistant to Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, John Frobisher. Frobischer is visited by UNIT Colonel Oduya, who tells him that children 'stopped' at the exact same time all over the world, as the Torchwood team also discovers. Oduya says that UNIT has been taken to yellow alert, although they don't yet know is the phenonemon is extraterrestrial in origin.

Dr. Patanjali appears, wandering in the plaza outside the Hub. Gwen goes out to meet him, as the self-appointed "recruitment officer," since, as Jack says, the team needs a doctor. While the two are talking, all the children again suddenly stop at 10:30 am. This time, they begin to scream, then chant in unison: "We are coming." The Torchwood team later discovers that an adult man, Timothy White, in a in West Sussex psychiatric hospital also stops and speaks the same words as the children and that every child in the world spoke the same words in English.

Frobisher is told by the Head of MI5's Technology division, Mr. Dekker, who is also in charge of alien monitoring, that the aliens called The 456 have re-established contact for the first time since 1965, transmitting a burst of compressed information on frequency 456. Frobisher meets with the Prime Minister, Brian Green, and suggests that "it might be best if certain historical events were taken off the record." Green agrees, but refuses Frobisher's request that he issue a 'blank page,' saying that he doesn't want his name attached. Green places Frobisher in charge of the crisis so Green can have deniability if the things go wrong.

Lois fields a phone call from Jack Harkness, and when she logs it, the compter flags Torchwood as classified. Curious, she logs on as Bridget Spears and discovers that Torchwood was established to defend the Earth against extraterrestrial threats.

Gwen visits Timothy White who tells her that when he was a child, he was put on a bus and taken away with a group of children; they were told that they were going to a new home. He watched the other children approach a bright light, which took them. But he escaped; he had gotten scared and ran away. His real name is Clem MacDonald. He has an unusually heightened sense of smell; Clem tells Gwen that the aliens are coming back, that he has been smelling them for months and that she is three-weeks pregnant.

Back at the hub, Jack and Ianto decided they need to investigate a child that has been affected by the 456. Jack visits his daughter, Alice Carter, as she has a son, i.e., his grandson. She says to Jack that she will not let him use Steven. Ianto visits his sister and tries to get her to allow him to take one of her children on an outing, but she refuses. She also questions Ianto about his having been seen with a man, and Ianto admits his feelings for Jack. Ianto's car is stolen while he is at his sister's.

Back at the Home Office, Frobisher orders Bridget Spears to issue a blank page, that is, to order the deaths of a list of people that includes Jack Harkness. Lois, watching Bridget and seeing that she is in some distress, goes into Bridget's e-mail account and sees the blank page order. She recognizes Jack's name from his earlier phone call.

Clement runs away detecting this but Jack ends up going back to Cardiff hospital and is shot by Rupesh even though Jack had considered hiring him as the new medical officer. Government Assassin Agent Johnson comes in and places a detonator in Jack's body. She then shoots Rupesh to stop Jack from using him to find out why he was shot. Using a scanner in the Torchwood hub Gwen realises that Clement's claims are true. Jack runs in and sees. He places his hand on hers, scanning himself. It is revealed that there is a bomb in his stomach. He then tells Gwen to get out before the bomb denonates, due to the fact that she's pregnant. Ianto stays behind trying to work out a solution on the computer, refusing to leave, but Jack forces him to an exit, saying "I can survive anything!" He then grabs Ianto and kisses him, before watching him leave, his last words being "I'll come back...I always do." Meanwhile, all the children are still chanting "We are coming". Jack watches Ianto leave, before looking at the screen and seeing that he only has 3 seconds left. Outside, Gwen manages to escape and begins running, only to turn around to see the hub blow up.

Cast

Production crew

to be added

References

Continuity

Story notes

Ratings

  • 5.9 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes and Errors

  • Wouldn't Tosh's Time Lock (DW: Journey's End) contain the explosion in the Hub? Probably not, because when the Dalek trapped in the time lock exploded it destroyed the lock. (Journey's End) Gwen says at the time "There goes the time lock"
  • The time rift would be uncontrolled because of the destruction of the hub, however everything still seems to be unaffected. The Hub was more often used to monitor the rift, not specifically to control it. Also, the Hub was, most likely, only created some time in the nineteenth century; hence, there rift is most likely not volatile enough to often cause major trouble in Cardiff within only six months, despite the destruction of the Hub.
  • What happened to Jack's brother Gray? He was frozen in the Hub when it exploded. Most likely his body was destroyed, unless the vaults etc. can be salvaged.
  • When Lois looks up the history of Torchwood on the Government Information Network using Bridget's password, it says that Torchwood was established by "HRH Queen Victoria". It should have said "HM Queen Victoria". Queen Victoria was the first monarch to be called "Her Imperial and Royal Majesty" which was still shortened to HRH and was not changed to HM until after her reign.
  • Do the government also go after Archie at Torchwood 2, Glasgow? No as he had nothing to do with the 1965 arrival of the 456. (According to the Torchwood file Lois reads, Torchwood 2 is believed to be disbanded. No mention is made of Torchwood 4.)

DVD releases

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

See also

to be added

External links

Footnotes

v • e
Torchwood television stories
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Children of Earth: Day One • Day Two • Day Three • Day Four • Day Five
Series 4
Stories listed here are only those that have been officially licensed by the BBC.
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