Thoughts on Children of Earth, post re-watch

[lefaym]

Thanks to lionessvalenti for reading this through for me.

Also, many of the thoughts here came out of discussions with everyone who attended the re-watch. I don't usually remember the specific details of who said what, but I wouldn't have been able to write this without those discussions. Having said that, however, the opinions I express here are my own, and

Comments

[remuslives23]

Most of the "liked/loved" bits for me were part of the political storyline.

I think this sums up what I think about COE. It could have been a fantastic mini series - gripping, terrifying, fantastic acting... but then they tried to make it Torchwood.

The inclusion of the TW universe made what could have been a brilliant political drama into something that felt clumsy and awkward more often than not. Any scene the TW team was not in was fantastic! The supporting cast was brilliant! The storylines that involved the TW characters (except for Andy) were badly written and felt like the writers were trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole.

I don't know what I'm more annoyed about: that they made such a huge misstep for TW with this series and have possibly ruined it for me, or that they ruined what was actually a bloody good mini series with the awkward inclusion of TW.

the children themselves didn't fight back -- sure, some of them cried, but none of them really struggled.

I laugh everytime I think of my daughter's reaction to this. Hubby and I were talking about those scenes and my nine year old says, 'If they tried to take me, mummy, I'd kick them in the balls and scream my head off!' Now that would be a realistic reaction instead of the children marching off like soldiers!

[lefaym]

Well, as I said above, I don't think the political drama was necessarily incompatible with Torchwood, and I do think it worked in well with what we'd seen previously of Whoniverse UK politics. The problem is that so much of the Torchwood stuff was badly written that it FELT tacked on, even though it could have been incorporated really well.

ETA: Your nine year old is awesome! :D

[remuslives23]

No, you're right. It could have been incorporated beautifully, but it wasn't. It felt very much as though the TW characters were a last minute addition into an already written script (and I think that's not too far from reality) and no one bothered to try and make them fit. I do think that the feeling of the entire series wasn't in line with the first two seasons and that made it jarring before you take into account anything else. COE felt, to me, a bit like a little girl dressing up in her mummy's clothes and pretending to be a grown up.

[kelticbanshee]

Apologies for barging in but...

I think this sums up what I think about COE. It could have been a fantastic mini series - gripping, terrifying, fantastic acting... but then they tried to make it Torchwood.

Amen to that! I've said it since it aired: as a standalone story, it would have been great (despite the plot holes), but just sticking TW labels all over it didn't make it TW!

[remuslives23]

Exactly. The wide gulf between the quality of television provided by the supporting actors and the TW team was blindingly and embarrassingly obvious. Their scenes felt as though they were hurriedly written and squeezed into an already written sci fi plot they found lying around the office.

[kelticbanshee]

Well, I believe that is exactly what happened. The political plot was one of RTD's plotbunnies of old, and he just "generously used it for TW" *eyeroll*