Since I started watching Torchwood with the ongoing Miracle Day series, I have become curious about the previous series. Everyone I talked to mentioned Children of Earth as the best series, so I decided to try it out. And I am so glad that I did. It’s a short (5 episode) series and the length means that the action is pretty much non-stop. The only problem I have now, is that the ongoing action of Children of Earth makes Miracle Day seem too slow. So, let’s see what the Children of Earth are up to.

Someone’s trying to kill Torchwood and it has something to do with the children. Across a couple days, all the children on the planet stop what they are doing and start chanting (in unison) “They are coming”. One of the people who knows what this means is John Frobisher, who does the day-to-day running of the country. This realization has him order a bomb to be placed in Captain Jack Harkness’s stomach. After it explodes, his remains are captured and put in a cell (since everyone knows about Captain Jack’s regeneration ability) so they can monitor him.

This leaves Ianto and Gwen on the run (with Gwen’s husband). Frobisher is also supervising the construction of an airtight tank. It turns out that their is an alien species (who has made contact with the British government previously) coming and they are trying to get Torchwood out of the way. The alien species (named the 456 based on the wavelength they communicate on) has come to ask for another exchange. Apparently in 1965, there was an exchange of technology and the 456 wish to repeat it, on a bigger scale.

The story then dives into the government(s) discussing how to do the exchange without letting the people know what’s going on and Torchwood trying to stop it and save the world (again). The main thing I loved about this series is that there are real consequences. People die, people are forced to make decisions about their families that they never thought they would have to make. The Torchwood team tries to engage the aliens before they are ready and it blows up in their face and causes more destruction than they thought. The story gets great results by making the stakes literally life or death. The characters are great as well. Captain Jack is dashing and brave and smug and fun. But my favorite characters are Gwen and Rhys. I love the idea of a couple trying to make it work with all the insanity going on. The only thing I didn’t like was the very end with the prime minister. That seemed like they were just trying to give the audience something to cheer about.

Overall, it’s a well done and exciting series with a few minor bumps. But I would highly recommend this to all science fiction fans. You don’t have to know too much about Torchwood to watch it, but a little knowledge does help. Highly recommended.