Children of Earth: Day One (TV story)

"Children of Earth: Day One" is the first of a five-part serial of the third series of Torchwood.

Synopsis
When every child on the Earth stops and starts 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 children in a school bus are going to an undisclosed location, when the bus stops. Every child on board leaves the bus, when they are walking towards a bright light getting brighter the closer they get. One of the children, Clement MacDonald is very hesitant in approaching, and decides to wait as the light covers a large area.

44 years later, in Cardiff, 2009, at 8:40am, GMT, Gwen Cooper is withdrawing money from an ATM, when she notices two children staying completely still; far from a coincidence, as they are completely unresponsive to their parents. Elsewhere, all the children coming to school all over the United Kingdom freezes for a minute, including when Rhys Williams is trying to truck goods when children block the road. After that minute, the children start moving again, acting like children again. Gwen decides to go to the Hub and investigate.

Meanwhile at a hospital, Dr. Rupesh Patanjali attempts to save a man's life, but he dies. Rupesh sees Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones, whom he believes are their neighbours tells them about the death. The two wonder if they can see the body alone, which he grants. When they get their privacy, Jack uses a laser torch to open him up and gather an alien organ, which Torchwood believes is beneficial. Rupesh suddenly enters again, and immediately assumes they're Torchwood, which Jack quickly denies, until he hears from Rupesh that a few ethnic males have disappeared, but Jack thinks the NHS could handle it, and drives away. Meanwhile a woman called Lois Habiba walks into the Home Office and begins work her for her new boss, Bridget Spears; the PA to Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, John Frobisher.

Jack and Ianto get back to the hub and Gwen tells them what has happened. They soon discover that a man Clement MacDonald in a Psychiatric Hospital has also quoted what the children have been saying. Gwen pays him a visit and he says that when he was a child, he was put on a bus and taken far out with a group of children. He escapes though from being abducted. He also reveals to Gwen that she is pregnant. Lois gets a phone call from Torchwood and she begins to dig up information on them by logging on as Bridget. John Frobisher learns the aliens that are responsible are the 456. He has a meeting with the Prime Minister, Brian Green. Green places Frobisher in charge of the crisis so Green can have deniability if the crisis goes wrong.

Back at the hub, Jack and Ianto decided they need to investigate a child that has been affected by the 456. Jack visits his daughter Alice Carter as she has a son i.e his grandson. She says to Jack that she will not let him use Steven. Ianto on the other hand visits his sister and tries to get her to do so. But she has other priorities. Ianto comes out to her. Frobisher orders Susan to order the deaths of Jack and Clement. Clement runs away detecting this but Jack ends up going back to Cardiff hospital and is shot by Rupesh even though Jack had considered hiring him as the new medical officer. Government Assassin Agent Johnson comes in and places a detonator in Jack's body. She then shoots Rupesh to stop Jack from using him to find out why he was shot. Using a scanner in the Torchwood hub Gwen realises that Clement's claims are true. Jack runs in and sees. He places his hand on hers, scanning himself. It is revealed that there is a bomb in his stomach. He then tells Gwen to get out before the bomb denonates, due to the fact that she's pregnant. Ianto stays behind trying to work out a solution on the computer, refusing to leave, but Jack forces him to an exit, saying "I can survive anything!" He then grabs Ianto and kisses him, before watching him leave, his last words being "I'll come back...I always do." Meanwhile, all the children are still chanting "We are coming". Jack watches Ianto leave, before looking at the screen and seeing that he only has 3 seconds left. Outside, Gwen manages to escape and begins running, only to turn around to see the hub blow up.

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 PM - 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

Production crew
to be added

Continuity

 * A photo of Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper on Gwen's Workspace.
 * Martha Jones has gone on honeymoon with Tom Milligan.
 * UNIT are mentioned many times
 * Colonel Mace (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem'/'The Poison Sky) has been relocated to Vancouver by UNIT.
 * The families of both Jack and Ianto are introduced
 * Although in a relationship with Jack, Ianto establishes he has never felt this way for another man. Nevertheless, Clem is able to identify him as a "queer" by scent.
 * Jack dies three times
 * 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.
 * John Frobisher's daughter, Holly, is played by Julia Joyce, who appeared as young Rose Tyler in DW: Father's Day.
 * The "Gizmo" which Gwen uses to turn off the CCTV appears to be the same device that Dr Tanizaki used to examine Lisa in Cyberwoman

Ratings

 * 5.9 million viewers, according to unofficial overnight figures

Myths
to be added

Filming Locations
to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes and Errors

 * Wouldn't Tosh's Time Lock (DW: Journey's End) contain the explosion in the Hub? Probably not, because when the Dalek trapped in the time lock exploded it destroyed the lock. (Journey's End) Gwen says at the time "There goes the time lock"


 * The time rift would be uncontrolled because of the destruction of the hub, however everything still seems to be unaffected. The Hub was more often used to monitor the rift, not specifically to control it. Also, the Hub was, most likely, only created some time in the nineteenth century; hence, there rift is most likely not volatile enough to often cause major trouble in Cardiff within only six months, despite the destruction of the Hub.


 * What happened to Jack's brother Gray? He was frozen in the Hub when it exploded. Most likely his body was destroyed, unless the vaults etc. can be salvaged.
 * When Lois looks up the history of Torchwood on the Government Information Network using Bridget's password, it says that Torchwood was established by "HRH Queen Victoria". It should have said "HM Queen Victoria". Queen Victoria was the first monarch to be called "Her Imperial and Royal Majesty" which was still shortened to HRH and was not changed to HM&#160;until after her reign.
 * Do the government also go after Archie at Torchwood 2, Glasgow? No as he had nothing to do with the 1965 arrival of the 456. (According to the Torchwood file Lois reads, Torchwood 2 is believed to be disbanded. No mention is made of Torchwood 4.)

DVD releases

 * This Episode will be released on DVD along with the rest of Children of Earth on the 13th of July.