I did not watch a lot of Torchwood. It was mostly on BBC America, and the few episodes I saw on the Sci Fi Channel showed up so sporadically in both time and date that I didn’t even know when it was on half the time.
But the few I did see, well, I have to admit there was something there. Especially when I got my hands on an advance copy, which is only just available on DVD today, of Torchwood: Children of Earth.
In Torchwood: Children of Earth, the Torchwood crew is going to go through five really, REALLY unpleasant days of an alien invasion by a race that calls itself the 456. The 456 wants only one thing–Earth’s children. Further complicating matters is that there’s one lone survivor of the 456’s last invasion, and he knows they’re on their way. But can Torchwood manage to defeat the 456 before the children of Earth are lost forever?
It resembles nothing so much as a really, REALLY dark version of Men in Black but for England. And it almost seems badly out of place–most Torchwood episodes involved the handful of Torchwood employees tackling that week’s Special Guest Villain / Paranormal Oddity. And if you haven’t seen a lot of Torchwood before, you’re going to be just a little lost on some of the finer points of who’s who and what’s what.
But–and this is the really interesting part–if you haven’t seen a lot of Torchwood, you can actually go in blind on this one. It functions just as well as a stand-alone as it does part of a greater series, if somewhat differently. I have to admit that I got taken up with the whole thing, watching the interestingly-laid paths of science fiction and action with plenty of thriller capability.
It’s pretty solid, and a little chilling. This is, as I said, a much darker iteration of the normal Torchwood series. Longtime fans may be put off by this and may even go so far as to wonder if this is a whole new direction for the Torchwood series to go in. Even the DVD menu was a chiller, frankly–the first time I heard the 456 speak I got the willies something fierce. In fact, I don’t know what it is, but calling an alien race “the 456″ is somehow the most ominous name I’ve heard in a long time. I’ve heard a lot of alien race names that carried plenty of fiendish glottals–the K’Klikkit, the K’Tang, the Ur-Quan (both Kohr-Ah and Kzer-Za)–but somehow, something as simple as a race that goes by three numbers in sequence (those of you who remember Star Trek: Voyager and Species 8472, you have to admit that’s somehow not so foreboding. Maybe it’s the addition of “species” or the lack of sequence, I don’t know) is just the creepiest thing in some while.
Oh, and special advance warning for those who haven’t seen the show: brace yourselves in advance for some homosexuality and naked men.
The critical thing to remember is, Torchwood: Children of Earth has a lot going for it, but you’re going to have to clear your schedule. Like FIVE HOURS of your schedule. But if you do, you should enjoy the results. The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Torchwood: Children of Earth a seven out of ten for managing to be accessible to the newcomers and yet valuable to those who’ve seen some episodes before.
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