Following the rescue of the freshly-resurrected Jack (John Barrowman), the Torchwood crew take refuge in an abandoned warehouse, where they rather inexplicably manage to create a "Hub2" by stealing credit cards from the public, then networking a few laptops and tapping into the power grid. Later, Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) shops for groceries and buys a new jacket for Jack from the Army surplus store (they stock military clothing c. 1940 in Cardiff?), and Gwen (Eve Myles) recruits the help of Whitehall sympathizer Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo), persuading her to infiltrate Thames House wearing high-tech contact lens that allow the team to see what the government have built on floor 13.
For the second episode in a row, it was noticeable how Torchwood remained on the periphery of this adventure, with the team stuck inside their makeshift Hub2 for the majority of "Day Three", watching events unfold on a laptop while other characters spearhead the drama. Fortunately, this holding pattern wasn't as obvious as it was in "Day Two" and the storyline was robust enough to cope. Once the world's children started pointing towards London and a column of fire punched a hole in the clouds, heralding the arrival of "the 456" into the atmospheric chamber the government had built, "Day Three" hit its stride and began delivering some fun Quatermass-style sci-fi.Directed Euros Lyn did a superb job handling the 456; a Lovecraftian beast obscured inside the opaque blue-gas chamber, speaking through a booming voice translator and sporadically spewing green gunk onto the glass in frustration, anger, or perhaps a scornful phlegm-y laugh. The alien's reactions were suitably unpredictable and strange, creating a palpable sense of tension in the room, particularly when Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) became the spokesperson for the planet's governments -- his face etched with anxiety, especially while trying to broker a private agreement with the aliens that they keep their previous arrival on Earth in the '60s remain a secret.
Elsewhere, the subplots were primarily setting up the next few episodes, with Jack's daughter Alice (puppet-haired Lucy Cohu) making the mistake of saying "Jack Harkness" on a mobile phone, enabling the Enemy Of The State-style MI5 to trace here whereabouts, deduce her relationship to Jack, and dispatch Johnson (Liz May Brice) to capture her and son Steven (Bear McCausland), to use as leverage against Jack. Jack has a similar idea to kidnap and threaten the life of Frobisher's family, but the civil servant calls his bluff, knowing full well that Jack would never go through with his threat. As a final sting in the tail, Gwen brings Clement (Paul Copley) back to Hub2, where he recognizes Jack as "The Man" who facilitated the abduction of twelve orphans as an appeasing "gift" to the 456 back in 1965, meaning Jack's hands are far from clean.
Overall, "Day Three" was pretty good stuff, particularly in how it successfully handled the 456 (one of the few genuinely mysterious and threatening aliens in the Whoniverse), and the fun espionage of Lois sneaking into Floor 13 so that Torchwood can eavesdrop on the diplomatic meeting with the aliens, who have apparently returned to demand that 10% of the world's children be handed over to them (that's 220 million kids, fact-fans.) I'm guessing the consequences of refusing will be terrible and that someone in UNIT is kicking themselves for not getting The Doctor's number on speed-dial.While it was fairly obvious that Jack would be personally involved in the events of 1965, the reveal still worked very nicely and "Day Three" set the scene for what will hopefully be an explosive and thrilling two-hour climax. I'm still not entirely convinced Children Of Earth's plot has justified five-parts, but it feels like the exposition is mostly over and we're now in a position to start getting real answers at a more thrilling pace.
Incidentally, I hate to potentially jinx this, but it seems very likely I'll be interviewing Russell T. Davies early next week -- ostensibly about Children Of Earth's premiere on BBC America on 20 July, but I'm free to discuss Doctor Who and whatever else takes my fancy. If you'd like to submit some questions for RTD (ideally ones you've never heard him asked before), then please feel free to suggest some in the comments below.
8 July 2009
BBC1, 9pm
written by: James Moran directed by: Euros Lyn starring: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Lucy Cohu (Alice Carter), Peter Capaldi (John Frobisher), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Tom Price (PC Andy Davidson), Liz May Brice (Johnson), Nick Briggs (Rick Yates), Susan Brown (Bridget Spears), Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells), Paul Copley (Clement McDonald), Aimee Davies (Mica Davies), Nicholas Farrell (Brian Green), Deborah Finlay (Denise Riley), Ian Gelder (Mr. Dekker), Julia Joyce (Holly Frobisher), Cush Jumbo (Lois Habiba), Rhodri Lewis (Johnny Davies), Ben Lloyd-Holmes (The Operative), Hilary MacLean (Anna Frobisher), Bear McCausland (Steven Carter), Colin McFarlane (General Pierce), Sophie Miller (Vanessa), Luke Perry (David Davies), Simon Poland (456 Voice), Rhiannon (Katy Wix) & Madeline Rakic-Platt (Lilly Frobisher)
