Orphan (Children of Earth: Day Four)
In 1965, an orphan from Holly Tree Lodge, an orphanage in Arbroath, Scotland was, under the guise of moving to Harbour Heights, another orphanage in Plymouth, taken into the Scottish Highlands and given to the 456 by Jack Harkness as a gift, in return for a cure for a deadly new strain of influenza.
The orphan was hooked up to the 456 ambassador and was being used as a drug when the ambassador came to Earth in 2009; remaining inside a tank in Thames House that had a breathable atmosphere for the 456, for the duration of its stay. A cameraman sent into the tank per the ambassador's invitation discovered and filmed the child, much to the horror of the human delegates and Torchwood Three who were watching. The child somewhat blearily noticed the cameraman, his eyes widening in recognition at the sight of another human. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four)
At the end of the crisis, the ambassador apparently exploded before being teleported away with all the tank's contents in a pillar of fire, leaving his death unconfirmed. If the ambassador was in fact killed, the orphan presumably died along with him. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Photos in PROSE: Torchwood: The Encyclopedia reveal that the prop used to portray the child is dressed in 1965 clothes, suspended on vine-like cables, with numerous feeding tubes gruesomely hooked into the belly (which is particularly shrivelled-looking) below the shirt; beyond what was glimpsed through the tank's misty atmosphere in the episode.
