Children of Earth: Day One (TV story)


 * For the Series 1 Torchwood episode Day One, see separate entry.

Children of Earth: Day One was the first episode of the third series of Torchwood. It introduced several new recurring characters of the series and was the first story to depart from the thirteen-part format in favour of a story arc.

Synopsis
When all children on the Earth stop and start 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 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, September 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. It is also the first time in the series Jack and Ianto are exclusively referred to as a couple, with Jack assuring Ianto they are. 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 if the phenomenon 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 patient in an East Grinstead mental institution — Timothy White — also stops and speaks the same words as the children. The Torchwood team then discover 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 computer flags Torchwood as classified. Curious, she logs on as BridgetSpears and discovers that Torchwood was established to defend the Earth against extraterrestrial threats.

Back at the Hub, Jack and Ianto realise that they need to question a child. Jack visits his daughter, Alice Carter, and her son Steven, Jack's grandson. Alice refuses to let Jack use Steven. Ianto visits his sister, Rhiannon Davies, and tries to talk her into letting him take one of her children on an 'outing,' but she refuses. She also questions Ianto about his having been seen out to dinner with a man, and Ianto admits his feelings for Jack. The Torchwood S.U.V is stolen during Ianto's visit.

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. Leaving the psychiatric institute, Gwen calls Ianto, now back at the Hub, and tells him to initiate a search for information about MacDonald, missing children, and Scotland. Ianto's research triggers an alarm at an unidentified military monitoring station.

At the Home Office, Frobisher orders Bridget Spears to issue a blank page, that is, an order to kill. Four people are on the list, one of which is Captain Jack Harkness (The others are Colinel Michael Sanders, Ellen Hunt and Captain Andrew Staines). 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 recognises Jack's name from his earlier phone call.

Jack goes back to Cardiff hospital hoping to question a child in the Children's Ward. Dr. Patanjali tells him that another ethnic man has died; when Jack goes with him to examine the body, Dr. Patanjali shoots him. A young woman named Johnson comes in and waits to see if Jack revives, proving the rumours about his immortality. She kills Jack again, then orders her men to surgically implant a bomb in his body. Patanjali is shown to have been a spy, under orders to infiltrate Torchwood. Johnson kills Rupesh in cold blood to stop Jack from finding him and learning why he was shot. Jack revives again, finding Patanjali's body on the floor next to him. He returns to the Hub.

Using a scanner in the Torchwood Hub, Gwen realises that Clement's claims are true -- she is pregnant. Jack arrives and places his hand on hers, inadvertently scanning himself. There is a bomb in his stomach. He tells Gwen and Ianto to get out before the bomb detonates. Ianto wants to stay behind, to try to defuse the bomb, but there is no time. Jack forces him to an exit, saying, "I can survive anything!" He kisses Ianto, watches him rise on the elevator, and tells him, "I'll come back...I always do." The Hub blows up in a massive explosion, knocking the running Gwen to the ground.

Meanwhile, all of the children chant, "We are coming, we are coming, we are coming ... back".

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Lois Habiba - Cush Jumbo
 * Dr. Rupesh Patanjali - Rik Makarem
 * Alice Carter - Lucy Cohu
 * Steven Carter - Bear McCausland
 * Bridget Spears - Susan Brown
 * John Frobisher - Peter Capaldi
 * Johnson - Liz May Brice
 * Clem MacDonald - Paul Copley
 * Brian Green - Nicholas Farrell
 * Rhiannon Davies - Katy Wix
 * Colonel Oduya - Charles Abomeli
 * Johnny Davies - Rhodri Lewis
 * Anna Frobisher - Hilary Maclean
 * David Davies - Luke Perry
 * Mica Davies - Aimee Davies
 * Holly Frobisher - Julia Joyce
 * Lily Frobisher - Madeline Rakic-Platt
 * Young Clem - Gregory Furguson
 * Chinese girl - Jennifer Chew
 * Father - Scott Bailey
 * Boy - Jordan Baker

Real world

 * Humourous nod to BBC Comedy Gavin and Stacey, "What's occurring?!" Ruth Jones, one of the creators of Gavin and Stacey, guest starred in the series 2 episode Adrift.
 * Jack and Ianto are jokingly called "The Chuckle Brothers" by Gwen.
 * The setting of the hospital is the same as BBC hospital show Casualty.
 * One of the people on Frobisher's hit list is a Colonel Michael Sanders. This may be a reference to the founder of fast food restaurant, KFC.

Individuals

 * Frost Lynch, the company owned by Mark Lynch in Combat is the realty agency promoting the house Rhys is visiting.
 * A photo of Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper is on Gwen's workspace.
 * The families of both Jack and Ianto Jones are introduced. It is learned that Jack has a grown daughter and a grandson.
 * Although in a relationship with Jack, Ianto establishes he has never felt this way for another man.
 * Jack dies three times.
 * Brian Green is the fifth Prime Minister to appear in the revived Doctor Who universe, following the unidentified PM killed by the Slitheen in DW: Aliens of London, Harriet Jones, Harold Saxon, and Aubrey Fairchild. (Tony Blair was also mentioned as having been Prime Minister in DW: Rise of the Cybermen.)

UNIT

 * UNIT as an organisation is mentioned many times, and a UNIT officer meets with Frobisher. Despite the real-life decision to remove the "United Nations" name from the UNIT acronym, it is stated in dialogue that UNIT is still under the command of the UN as it orders UNIT to yellow alert.

Companions

 * Either intentionally or by coincidence, Frobisher is also the name of a 1980s-era companion of the Sixth Doctor in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strips.

Music

 * When Jack mentions Martha Jones' name, the musical motif "Martha's Theme" from Doctor Who can be heard. 

Story notes

 * Freema Agyeman was originally expected to appear as Martha Jones throughout the mini-series. When her appointment to the TV series Law & Order: UK made her unavailable for the whole production, Davies wrote a cameo appearance for her in Day One. Ultimately her schedule prevented her from appearing for a cameo, too. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter, which includes the script for the aborted cameo.)

Ratings

 * 5.9 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures. 6.47 million viewers, according to official viewing figures.

Myths
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Filming locations
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Production errors
To be added

Continuity

 * Martha Jones has gone on honeymoon (September 2009), she is confirmed to be married to Mickey Smith several months later in December 2009. (DW: The End of Time) It was confirmed by Russell T Davies in the commentary for that episode that the honeymoon was part of her marriage to Mickey.
 * At this point, Martha appears to still be with UNIT, as Jack bemoans that a sergeant is his contact with UNIT instead of Martha, which means that Martha did not take Jack's implied offer of a job with Torchwood in Journey's End. By the time of The End of Time, Martha will have left UNIT and be working freelance together with Mickey.
 * Colonel Mace has been relocated to Vancouver by UNIT.
 * When Rhys calls Gwen about a house that he has seen up for sale, the estate agent sign outside it says Frost and Lynch which is the same estate agency from the episode Combat which Mark Lynch owned alongside running the Weevil fight club.
 * The "Gizmo" which Gwen uses to turn off the CCTV appears to be the same device that Dr Tanizaki used to examine Lisa Hallett in Cyberwoman.
 * Whether intentional or not, the "blank page" resembles psychic paper.
 * Although Torchwood is still supposed to be a "secret" organisation, the fact it is becoming known by the public is referenced in several scenes, most notably when Gwen states that if you ask people about Torchwood, they usually send people towards Cardiff Bay (where the Hub is located), and at one point Gwen exchanges humorous words regarding her job with a man outside the main entrance. (This isn't the first time Torchwood's "secrecy" is called into question; see, for example, TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and BBCR: Lost Souls.)
 * When Lois reads up on the history of Torchwood, the text on screen references the events of DW: Tooth and Claw.
 * Rupesh states that due to recent events (not specifically referenced but likely to include things like the Webstar attack (DW: The Runaway Bride) and the relocation of Earth (DW: The Stolen Earth)), half the world now knows of or believes in the existence of alien life, while the other half is in denial. Suicide rates have risen since the events occurred, which Rupesh ascribes to crises of faith. This may also be reflected by the insanity and suicide of Alex Hopkins, who learns about upcoming events in 1999 (TW: Fragments).
 * The destruction of the Hub in a massive explosion leaves open the question of the fate of artefacts and creatures kept within the facility, including any imprisoned Weevils as well as Jack's brother, Gray, last seen to be in stasis. It is shown in The End of Time and End of the Road that at least a few items were recovered by individuals for their personal use.
 * When John Frobisher mentions informing the Prime Minister, Mr Dekker refers to how elected officials "just come and go," a reference to Britain's recent frequent change of prime ministers such as Harriet Jones through 2006/2007, Harold Saxon through 2007/2008, and Aubrey Fairchild through to Spring 2009.
 * Brian Green refers to how it all comes "raining down from the skies, made of metal, and stinking green," referencing in particular the Daleks during their 2009 Invasion of Earth (DW: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End), and also possibly refering to the Slitheen invasion (DW: Aliens of London / World War Three). He also mentions running a country whose threats are all now from above, refering to all of the common invasions of Earth in the 21st century.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after: BBCR: The Dead Line
 * This story occurs before: TW: Children of Earth: Day Two

Home video releases

 * This Episode was released on DVD along with the rest of Children of Earth on the 13th of July, 2009 in the UK.