Torchwood: Children of Earth

There will be some vague spoilers. Read at your own risk!

io9 asked Is Torchwood Finally Becoming Better Than Doctor Who? I say yes, absolutely.

The writing on this five-part story arc is as tight as anything–anything–I’ve ever seen on TV. I know John Barrowman felt like Torchwood was being “punished” when the number of episodes for Series 3 was slashed from thirteen, but if it resulted in writing like this, then I’m all for it!

I’m still speechless from the whole thing. Yes, I did see some minor, minor plot problems but they were so easy to miss. I had to rewatch and rethink to find them because as a writer, you don’t want to believe something could be so utterly perfect. I never thought I’d hear myself utter these words: The inconsistencies really don’t matter.

And I’m not turned off by the darkness, either. This isn’t Doctor Who after all. The nature of this alien threat is one order of magnitude more disturbing than Daleks wanting to exterminate the human race again. And this isn’t Independence Day or Star Trek where the best parts of humanity shine in an extraterrestrial crisis. This is a story about the darker sides of “civilized” people. About the zone between hypocrisy and pragmatism, and the horror that often dwells there. And the terrible price of trying to take the moral high ground and failing.

This story was as apocalyptic as it could get without nuclear annihilation or zombies. Because it was about the death of souls.

You were warned about spoilers! So, I don’t want to hear it.

I know a lot of fans are upset about Captain Jack’s actions. I’m not big on Christ figures, but I’ve never seen it pulled off this brilliantly (not even Russell T. Davies’s earlier attempt). Jack literally took the sins of the world (well, that of world governments) on himself, paying the price that they would have to pay otherwise.

You know, I’m going to stop for now, because I’m still struck dumb…