I Want to Believe

Torchwood: Children of Earth: Day Three

 Incredible. The best so far.

The confrontation between Frobisher and the 456 halfway through the episode? Sweet Jesus that's intense! Oldest trick in the book, not showing the monster, but it's the way to go. We have no idea what the hell is in that tank aside from the fact that it leaves a lovely residue and is prone to violent outbursts seemingly at random. Some of the sound effects came out a bit Raxacoricofallapatorian, but I really didn't care. That's no Slitheen. That's a threat. The foggy visuals and the deep voice are important, but the timing really sells it. The suddenness of the physical outbursts. The occasional delay or refusal to respond. It's clear who's in charge of this conversation and it's not the one who's doing the all the talking.

Which is why Capaldi's performance at Frobisher is so important to selling the scene. Luckily he's superb. At the end of the exchange, when he shudders and slumps (you and me both, friend), that's magic. Frobisher has been the surprise standout of this show and the real lynchpin of the story. His conversation with Jack, his reception of the news that he's the scapegoat: there's such humanity to the character, and it's a pleasure when he's on screen.

Lois is winning me over. Although Jumbo is occasionally overshadowed by Capaldi, her performance is itself a marvelous part of the episode, with her bluff being a defining moment both for her character and the suitably nasty Bridget Spears. It's the secondary characters who really shine. I'm even willing to forgive the unfortunately small role of PC Andy for the sake of the daring escape attempt by Alice.

This episode has everything I've come to like about the new Torchwood and then some. It develops the mysteries in an interesting way, contains some fantastic character acting by a cast broad enough that I couldn't praise them all without making this review seem like a shopping list, and a monster whose creepiness sells the alien threat hard enough to justify all the fuss. In short, I loved it.

But I'm still troubled by it. There's a lot of optimism for the future of Torchwood buzzing around the net over the past couple of days, but is that optimism really justified if the only way Torchwood's managed to make a hit is by sidelining its own main characters? Frobisher is the star of this story, and the plot is the government's handling of 456's arrival. Torchwood itself has been demoted to subplot status, at least so far. A confrontation between Torchwood and the 456 seems inevitable, once the team manages to get their act together. The destruction, scattering, reunion, and re-establishment of the Torchwood team over the past two hours is a transparent ploy on behalf of the writers: it serves the dual function of padding for length and stalling for time, keeping the team busy for two episodes while the groundwork is laid for Day Four and Day Five. I think. It will be hard to say until we've seen the story in its entirety

This type of storytelling is normal and forgivable, even occasionally appropriate, and here it's working well. to reiterate: I love Children of Earth thus far and Day Three has some of its best moments yet. What I'm troubled by is not the story but an external consideration: if The Powers That Be have decided that the proper way to write Torchwood is to keep the stars in secondary roles while the plot is happening elsewhere, that may make for a good story but isn't it problematic in the long run?

Maybe it's a moot point, because the revelations about Jack's involvement with the events of 1965 have put him dramatically front and center. Which solves that problem but opens up an entirely different can of worms. It's a return to Torchwood's old formula, with the same old "Jack's-mysterious-past-catches-up-with-him" storytelling that's been a hallmark of this program since the beginning. The Doctor-ifying of Jack is one of the most annoying things in the contemporary Whoniverse, with the companion-ifying of the rest of the Torchwood team being a natural consequence of that. Jack is not the Doctor. Trying to make him the Doctor cheapens Jack, the Doctor, and the rest of the Torchwood team. And  it looks like we may be going down that road again.

All of that is troubling. But Children of Earth has been awesome so far and there's just so much to love about this most recent installment. Maybe that's why I find myself feeling like it's too good to be true, and that a sudden, sharp drop in quality is inevitable. I hope I'm wrong.

And by the way, where's Nick Briggs? Isn't he meant to be in this? I hope he jumps out of nowhere to provide a deus ex machina in the last ten minutes of Day Five. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Oh, God. I've jinxed it, haven't I?