Review by: Kevin Bachelder (Tuning In To SciFi TV)

***SPOILER WARNING***
This review contains spoiler information about Day Four of the miniseries. Don’t continue reading if you don’t want to know what happens.

We find out straight away that Jack was basically the government’s delivery boy back in 1965. He thinks the reason why they picked him was because he can’t be killed but they only wanted him because, as they put it, “He didn’t care”. Ouch! It turns out that in exchange for the twelve orphaned children the 456 gave us an anti-virus formula that could potentially save 25 million lives. This scenario sets things up nicely for what we see play out later in the episode. The idea that we’re willing to make a small sacrifice in exchange for the welfare of a larger group is something the 456 will use against us again many years later.

The events that take place at the end of this excellent episode are probably what we’re all most interested in so I hope you’ll excuse the following very basic recap of what happens in the middle of the episode just so we have more time at the end to discuss the BIG stuff.

We get a glimpse inside the alien guest box when the 456 allows a cameraman to come in and record video that shows that a child is alive in there and s/he is somehow physically connected to the 456. They tell us “We do not harm the children…they feel no pain…they live long beyond their years”. So I guess that makes it OK then? Either way they threaten to “Wipe out your entire species” if we don’t give them exactly what they want. Even after seeing all of this the government types try to play hard ball with the 456 in the negotiations regarding how many children…excuse me…how many ‘units’ we will give them. Folks will probably be appalled at the way the government representatives are more concerned about protecting their own loved ones and covering their own rear ends rather than serving the public at large. Because of this behavior the Torchwood team realizes they can use the video recordings of these negotiations to blackmail the government types. They threaten to release the recordings to the general public unless they are allowed to step in and take over the negotiations with the 456. It’s a well thought out plan involving everyone. I really enjoyed watching this plan play out.

Read the entire review by Kevin Bachelder at TuningIntoScifiTV.com.

Catch more Torchwood discussions between Kevin, Brent and Wendy in their series of special podcasts being released each night during the Torchwood: Children of Earth airings on BBC America. While you’re visiting TuningIntoScifiTV.com you can also check out their weekly podcast discussing all your favorite Scifi and Genre TV shows.