So I've now seen all 5 episodes of Torchwood: Children of Earth. Fantastic, gripping, emotional TV. I hate it when TV critics say "it's more than just sci fi" of a show like this, just as I hate it when Terry Pratchett's books are suddenly discovered by reviewers to - gosh - not actually be about trolls and dwarves but - shockingly - also to contain a big, swooping story with complex themes, emotional depths, and truths about humanity and society.
Torchwood: Children of Earth gets us to ask serious questions of ourselves - could we, in all honesty, say that we we think our politicians would do other than the programme's characters did? Are we sure that we would not sacrifice 10% of the children on earth to save the whole human race? What would we accept to do to ensure it were not our own children that were in that 10%?
But while it would be easy to write a post about why sci fi and fantasy are unfairly treated as niche genres when they are capable of teaching us so much more about ourselves than the zoo-like explotiation TV "reality" shows do, actually I want to look at the future of Torchwood.
I'd dearly like to believe that it has one.
Torchwood started as a BBC3 show (also shown on BBC2), a kind of earth-bound, darker Doctor Who for grown ups. The first series has 5 principle characters: Captain Jack Harkness (from Doctor Who), tech specialist Toshiko Sato, doctor Owen Harper, fixer Ianto Jones and new recruit cop Gwen Cooper. Devised by Russell T Davies, who also wrote groundbreaking Channel 4 series Queer as Folk, the series explored sexuality, fantasy and horror themes as well as classic sci fi.
While it was not quite clear what Torchwood was meant to be in the thirteen episodes of series one, series two was much tighter (and shown on BBC2 with repeats on BBC3 rather than the other way around).
With cameos from James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) and the character Martha Jones from Doctor Who, the series was compelling, and then - suddenly - halfway through, Owen is killed off. Well, ok, this is sci fi after all, the character continues to live for a few episodes. And then is finally killed off, along with Toshiko for good measure.
Hmm.
As a fan you find yourself thinking that we're into Spooks (MI5 I think it's called in the US) territory here - that it's actually dangerous to emotionally invest in the main characters because they'll die, and die horrifically.
The relationship between Doctor Who and Torchwood comes back into play at this point. In the final episode of series 4 of "new Who", Captain Jack is seen walking off with (UNIT soldier and doctor) Martha Jones and (IT genius and anti-cyberman guerilla fighter) Mickey Smith and appears to be offering them jobs.
But we know that Freema Agyeman (Martha) has a starring role in an ITV drama, and Noel Clarke is an award winning writer and film director so probably neither would be available for Torchwood series 3...
So series 3 arrives. Rather than 13 episodes on BBC2, it is to be on BBC1 (that's it, that's the big time for a series, that is!) But cut to just 5 episodes. 5??? But 5 episodes to be screened over 1 week in a primetime postwatershed slot.
And it's been brilliant and got very impressive viewing figures indeed.
And Life, Doctor Who and Combom is much better at covering stats and rumour stuff than I am.
But here's the thing: Torchwood was just three of them, and by the end, only 2 principle characters remianed - one pregnant (with Torchwood hardly a 9-5 job) and the other a distraught man that cannot age who sacrificed a member of his own family to save humanity.
There are a few other characters that could step into the Torchwood team if there were to be a series 4:
- PC Andy (not so bright cop, who didn't actually feature as much as I expected in CoE and who could do the ingenue role that Gwen's so clearly left behind);
- Lois Habiba (reluctant traitor, ex civil servant, PA extrordinaire who could step into th Ianto role);
- Johnson (ruthlessly efficient assassin who believed in doing the right thing to save the world);
- Rhys (haulage manager, nervous father to be - but would we want a husband and wife team in Torchwood?).
And after the Rupesh red herring, a new doctor's needed to fill Owen's shoes...
A series can lose a huge number of characters and still continue as a popular franchise, as Spooks shows.
But actually the biggest challenge is whether Gwen can continue in the series - whether Torchwood is willing to employ writers who can deal with the realities of meshing pregnancy and childrearing with the pace and drama of a sci fi series...
Think about it.
Children of Earth ends with Jack disappearing into the cargohold of a star cruiser (very Ford Prefect) and Gwen six months pregnant.
In my own pregnancy, I had bad morning sickness nausea and could not have spent my pregnancy running. especially not in the designer high heels that are de rigeur for women in sci fi. Oh, and also your centre of gravity shifts, you sweat more, can't wear underwired bras and your feet grow. So poor old Gwen would be sweating along in birkenstocks rather than charging along in Laboutins...
Even if the writers can cope with pregnancy, which usually just means strapping an actress into a fat-tummy suit for a bit, few I think could cope with the idea of writing to combine working for a secret organisation defending the world from aliens and the realities of childrearing.
Possibly Stephen Moffat could, but he's over on Doctor Who rather than Torchwood.
It has, I think, great potential as a subplot: if being the one with the husband is the line that keeps Gwen anchored in the real world, being a mum has even bigger "real world" challenges. You've got the physical and mental exhaustion, time management, finding childcare when you needed it (unless Torchwood pays enough for Rhys to be a stay at home dad, and if his ego could cope with it), actually missing your child and worrying about them almost more than your own safety no matter what situation you face, not "being there" forsignificant events... And they're inquisitive little things - the chances of toddler Williams not finding mummy's gun or an unsuitable alien artifact must be miniscule?
Terry Pratchett touched on these sorts of themes in Carpe Jugulum when he gave Magrat a daughter, but in his story the baby was still small enough to be portable and didn't scream at inappropriate moments.
Russell T Davis said that he conceived Torchwood as female-friendly science fiction. Well, I challenge you Mr Davis, prove it. Show us that a female lead can be a wife and mother and still do a vital job for the good of humankind on some sort of basis.
If Torchwood is over and having a baby was Gwen's closure, as running away for a new life in the stars could well be for immortal Jack, you do us a massive disservice.
If you don't think you can do it, then just email me and I'll write those bits for you. Must be elemens of the writer's job I could do largely from home and combine with raising a child or two?
And besides, with new viewers c/o the finale of series 4 Doctor Who and Children of Earth, would you really kills off a successful franchise?
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