A few people have been asking us why we are not enjoying Caprica.  Well, I can’t really speak for my co-hosts, but I thought I’d consolidate and share all of my views on Caprica here.  Hopefully this can help explain why Caprica just isn’t a show I enjoy tuning in to at present.  And also, perhaps, why I continue to watch in the hope that it may become a show that I can enjoy.

If you listen to this week’s podcast, you will hear that this started as an e-mail response to a listener who asked (very politely, I might add) what our thoughts were on Caprica.  I’m re-printing my response here (cleaned up a little for the purposes of this article).

First of all, to my mind Caprica is a whiny, dreadfully slow moving character drama.  Every single character is in a depressed state and or causes you to be depressed when watching them.  However, none of the characters have really been characters that I enjoy watching (save maybe the avatar Zoe at times).  So as a result, a show that plods along painfully slow and delves into every angst-filled moment of the depressing lives of miserable characters that I don’t even like tends to turn me off.

It’s also supposedly a science fiction series.  However, the only real science fiction story elements (the creation of the cylons and the virtual reality/AI world in which the avatar Zoe lives) are treated as if they are seasoning on a lightly seasoned meal.  Sugar for a careful diabetic.  Salt for a patient with high blood pressure.  They are ignored more than they are ever addressed.  (Sorry, folks, but just being set on an alien world does not a science fiction story make.  Without story to back up setting, it’s all just — pardon the expression — window dressing.)

And ultimately, Caprica is meant to be a prequel to Battlestar Galactica.  Yet apart from a few brief glimpses of cylons under development, we’ve had no story progression toward the universe we see in BSG.  The key questions one would ask coming into BSG (e.g. “How did the cylons reach a point of being able to rebel successfully and start their own culture?”  Or “Why do the cylons hate humans so much?”) are not addressed by the series.  At least not in any fashion more direct that flying around the world to visit your corner drug store and then flying back the other way to get home.

If a viewer treats it as a pure character drama and actually likes a couple of the characters, then I can see why they would think it’s a great show.  To me, it fails on two fronts:  As a science fiction prequel to BSG, it lacks focus on anything science fiction and it lacks any movement toward telling us how this universe got to the point of BSG; As a character drama, it lacks any characters I really like or care to see go through week after week of depressing, plodding storylines.

If Caprica eventually realizes that it is a science fiction story, or even if it realizes that it is meant to be a prequel to a beloved SyFy show, then I may change my mind about it.  I sincerely hope that it does.

Another item to complete the series has finally arrived – Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season Four. Titan Books has closed the series of companion books with a foreward by Adama himself. Edward James Olmos acknowledges all the writers and crew of the story, and especially the fans, who gave all their hard work to tell their story a powerful meaning. The Companion closes with perhaps the long-term cultural impact of the show with a final section describing the BSG cast and crew visit to the UN. The UN panel discussion covered many of the issues that BSG tackled like torture, terrorism and religious wars, and their relevance to the UN’s mission today.

As with the previous BSG companion guides, the author, Sharon Gosling, had access to the writers and actors for comments that cannot be found in just the DVD extras or online websites. The guide has special details about each season 4 episode. Whether you liked the series conclusion or not, the section on the finale “Daybreak” provides delicious insights from creators Ron Moore and David Eick and director Michael Rymer about how they came to the series’ end. These glimpses behind the scenes discuss the story, and the unique collaboration of the entire team to create what we eventually saw on screen.

For anyone jonesing for more BSG, and certainly those “completion-ists” in the fandom, the Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season Four should sit nicely next to the companion guides for seasons one through three on the bookshelf.

Read it now.

The Guild is the brainchild of actor and comedian Felicia Day.  As creator, writer, executive producer, and lead actor on the low budget web series, Day has broken down the barrier between amateur web-based new media and mainstream old media.  Indeed, it was a discussion of The Guild with friend Joss Whedon during the recent writers’ strike in Hollywood that eventually led to her role in the Emmy award winning Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog, Whedon’s own new media adventure.

The Guild is a comedy series about the on and off-line adventures of a guild (or “team”) of World of Warcraft (WOW) players.  WOW is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) that has captured the free time of tons of folks around the world.  Even my own son is a WOW addict, so I know the type.  Felicia Day has admitted to being a former addict herself.  For Day to create a web comedy series revolving around that culture and its players only made sense.

To understand The Guild, you need not be aware of on-line gaming culture.  But it helps.  Indeed, unlike many shows that focus on an industry, profession, or hobby, The Guild doesn’t get its gaming details wrong.  The characters and jokes will be funny to you if you’ve never played a single on-line game, but if you have (even if you’re an old First Person Shooter (FPS) veteran like myself), then the series has a new depth of humor that will send you to the floor, rolling and laughing, many times.

The first season began appearing on-line in mid-2007.  Day has written and spoken many times about how shoe-string this first season really was.  Episodes were shot whenever enough cash came in through donations from fans.  Sometimes weeks or more would pass between filming sessions.  However long it took, and however low the budget was, the show managed to hit the ground running with very identifiable characters and laugh-out-loud writing and performances.

By the time the second season completed shooting, Day and her production team had found a source of funding to help keep the production on-schedule: Microsoft.  Indeed, Microsoft’s Xbox Live and MSN Video web site began featuring the show prominently.  Season three has started to appear on the e-Street as of this writing, and it looks like the team has managed to maintain and even evolve the spirit of what made The Guild a hit.

The good news for fans of the show, Felicia Day, new media, or those just curious to check out what all the fuss is about, is that seasons one and two have been released on DVD.  Indeed, a combined season one and two DVD is also now available.  All of these DVDs are very reasonably priced (Amazon, for instance, lists the combined DVD for US$14.99).  The extras include commentary, behind the scenes footage, outtakes, and tons of fun.

So if you enjoy brief, but densely packed doses of off-the-wall comedy mixed with some real human emotion, or if you’re a gamer looking to have some fun at your own expense, then The Guild is definitely worth your time.  If you’d like to get started now, then here’s the first episode for your convenience:

Season 1 – Episode 1: Wake-Up Call

*Spoilers* and snark for the Pilot episode follow the break.

A car drives along a dark foggy road. The couple in the front seat is talking until a body crashes into the windshield. Hubby jumps out to investigate and gets attacked by a vampire. The wife quickly follows him to her shrieking death on the deserted road. Cue the Title Card.

This could be the tease for a season 1 episode of the CW’s companion show Supernatural, but the tone of Vampire Diaries shifts to a bright domestic kitchen scene. The teen children of the dead couple are getting ready for the first day of high school. Elena and her brother Jeremy are now orphans living with their young “cool” (clueless) aunt Jenna. They spent the summer dealing with the death of the parents. Elena spent time alone journaling, while the younger Jeremy got stoned and chased the wrong SkankyGirl.

This high school has the cliché bunch often found in CW ensembles. Elena seems popular for no reason. Jeremy is crushing on Vicky, the SkankyGirl, but she is dating Tyler (ThatGuy – the handsome selfish pig). Elena’s friend Bonnie comes from a line of psychics and is occasionally correct. Caroline is Elena’s Frenemy. Matt is Elena’s Spurned Ex (and Vicky’s brother), filling out the support characters orbiting Elena. They are all blandly beautiful but nobody, not even the psychic is interesting yet.

Mystic Falls is a hotspot for vampires. Enter the conflicted and mysterious Stefan Salvatore, who stands out for his hawt-ness (according to Bonnie). He has Angel’s hair but Max’s blank expressions. Stefan lives with his “Uncle Zach” who is really Stefan’s nephew. It’s every teen’s fantasy to see an adult deferring to them, so that’s the uncle’s job (until Zach and ClueLess Aunt Jenna eventually hookup in future episodes.)

Stefan is from Mystic Falls, but left around the Civil War. It gets very Dark Shadows once we learn that Stefan has returned because Elena is a live ringer for dead Katherine from 1864. Stefan’s brother, Damon (Ian Somerholder) makes memorable entrances – first as a fog stalking Elena, and then as a crow pecking at his brother. Damon has returned to torment his brother and steal his crush for reasons yet-to-be revealed.

At first look this is a more gothic Joey-Dawson-Pacey triangle. Damon is all bad and Stefan is all bland. Stefan and Elena have a common love of mopey journaling in graveyards as their attraction. The only thing duller would be if they start journaling about Spielburg movies. If Damon continues to bring the menace and add some Pacey-like humour and vulnerability, then he’s got Dawson beat easy to win Elena.

The gothic mystery finally starts at the underage drinking party in the woods. The whispery angst and fog churns until Vicky gets bitten. BitGirl somehow immediately recognizes that a vampire attacked her and tells her brother Matt. Tee up Matt to be lead investigator next week into Stefan’s mysterious ways. Damon is the real prime suspect of course, and the one interesting character thus far.

As a person way past the Twilight years, the gothic fog and the Scream elements are interesting enough to check in again next week on Damon’s growing body count and the town’s paranoia about vampires returning home to roost.

Check out the CW teaser for the next episode:

Being Human airs on BBCAmerica on Saturday evenings. If you missed Episode 1, BBCAmerica will re-run it on 8/1 at 8pm EST just before Episode 2 airs at 9pm EST.

*** Spoiler Warning***

This review of Episode 1 of Being Human contains spoilers for Episode 1 so proceed if you already know or want to know what happened.

Meet the Neighbors – By Wendy Hembrock

A ghost, a werewolf and a vampire get an apartment together in London… This could be the setup for a British spinoff of True Blood. While the premise of Being Human involves three characters who are unnatural or supernatural, this show explores the human condition in a mix of humour, horror, and heart.

True Blood comparisons aside, the show made me think that the main monsters, Mitchell (vampire), George (werewolf) or Annie (ghost) could have graduated from the teen horrors of Skins into their cozy apartment. (That’s a compliment if you aren’t familiar with Skins, another compelling BBC show.)

Turns out that three monsters coming to grips with what they are is a lot like human twenty-somethings. Their lives veer drastically from their hopes, plans or dreams as they stumble into adulthood.

Mitchell was originally a twenty-something soldier back in WWI. He got vamped by a gang of bloodsuckers, led by Herrick. Mitchell was Herrick’s favorite, but they’ve fallen out since Mitchell is trying to make it amongst the humans. Herrick is keeping on the down low as a police constable, while he makes his dastardly plans with his gang of vampires. He finds Mitchell’s efforts to avoid feeding irrational, since “a shark wants to be a shark.”

Mitchell is a charming rogue and natural leader. For all he says he doesn’t want to kill humans for blood, he puts himself in the way of temptation a lot. He works in a hospital with access to bags of the red stuff he hooks up with Lauren, a nurse, and bites her. After the hookup, he leaves the nurse to wake up and deal with vampification alone…which proves he’s charming and ruthless like many 20 year-old guys… and kind of stupid since Lauren wants paybacks.

Mitchell doesn’t ‘fess up what he did to his roomie George either. George also works at the hospital. He was recently attacked and turned into a werewolf. His lack of control over the violent change into his wolf-side makes him awkward in scary funny ways. George runs away to the woods to “change” before moonrise, only to find it full of humans doing nasty thing in the dark, so he flees back to the apartment, where he’s “safe” to turn. When George’s transformation becomes too violent to hear or watch, Annie and Mitchell vacate the apartment, sitting on the doorstep, clutching the telly and each other, like kids thrown out of the house by an alcoholic parent destroying the place in a rage. The next day they dutifully clean up his mess and urge George not to blame himself.

Episode 1 begins with the guys settling into a new apartment that’s available since Annie died in the apartment, and haunts the place scaring the normal humans away. Annie seems to be “stuck”. Girlfriend is seriously high-strung too. Before she was haunting folks, she might have been a stalker. She lures her former fiance, Owen, (also the landlord) to the apartment by texting him from George’s phone about sink repairs. For unknown reasons, when Owen arrives, he can’t see her, but he senses her. Lauren swings from thrilled to see her lover, to distraught over the abrupt end of her own life, then to jealous that he has a new girlfriend.

Episode 1 made a promising start. The burdens each bears makes each empathetic, and their failures are woefully pathetic and sometimes laughable as human failings. There are hints at larger mysteries too, like how exactly Annie died, what does Herrick plan, and what will angry Lauren throw at Mitchell next.

As roommates and neighbors go, I’ve seen worse than these three. Get acquainted with George, Mitchell and Annie in these prequel videos…

*** Spoiler Warning ***

What follows is a review of Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Five. It contains spoilers about the Day Five episode so only proceed if you want to know what happened.

Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day Five
By Kevin Bachelder

Since the Torchwood team’s plan failed so horribly at the end of day four we start out this episode by seeing the government types working out their plan to give the 456 all the children they requested.  They’ve got a plan to pull children out of certain lower performing schools.  The spin they are giving the public is that they are being taken for inoculations that will help prevent the ‘stopping’ and ‘chanting in unison’ problems.  We also see politicians trying to protect their families as well as trying to find a way not to be blamed once the children disappear.  A good part of this episode is spent watching this story line play out.  While it’s a necessary part of the overall story it’s too bad that it had to take screen time away from the characters we’ve come to care more about.

A big reveal early on in the episode is when Colonel Oduya of UNIT goes to talk to the 456 and asks them why they want the children.  The response is chilling.  The 456 says it’s for ‘The hit…they create chemicals…the chemicals are good…we feel good’.  You mean to tell me this has all been one big drug deal!  After feeling a little numb from the loss of Ianto this information snapped my head back into things.  Shortly after this we are treated to a very well done scene as we see Jack and Gwen meeting with Mr. Frobisher.  Gwen still wants to keep pushing things by threatening to release the video recordings but Jack tells her “Phone Rhys…tell him we lost”.  Gwen’s call to Rhys is really touching.  He asks if he should release the recordings but she tells him “It’s too late sweetheart…they’ve killed him…not just Clem…they…they killed Ianto”.  You can feel the real emotion in this scene.  I enjoyed the way that Rhys has become a part of the team in this mini-series after being so much in the background in the past.

Another big development is when Mr. Frobisher is called to see the Prime Minister in private.  Mr. Frobisher has naturally been seen as one of the bad guys throughout the story but we also realize that he’s been used by the Prime Minister as his pawn.  Prime Minister Green tells him that his children will be taken for inoculations as a way to show the public at large that everything is OK.  After all Mr. Frobisher has done on behalf of the Prime Minister this is how he is repaid.   He tries to protest but being the life long civil servant he can’t bring himself to blow the whistle but as we find out later he also can’t allow his daughters to be given to the 456.  His solution is to have his secretary Bridget fill out a ‘requisition 31’.  Even though she initially protests she eventually does this for him.  It turns out to be a box.  Later when he goes home to see his family we find out that there’s a hand gun in that box.  He uses that gun to kill his wife and two daughters before killing himself.  I found this to be consistent with whom this character was.  As awful as this was to do I believe he saw it as his only option since he had been trained for so many years to serve the public.  He couldn’t go against that by trying to run away or by drawing attention to himself by telling the public the real truth.

Gwen and Rhys were allowed to go see Ianto’s sister Rhiannon and they try to save several children by hiding them from the military that have been sent to their neighborhood to round up children.  The best part of this story line was when Gwen, Rhys and Rhiannon were with the children in an old building trying to quiet so they could hide from the military.  Rhys has a camcorder and Gwen is recording the segment that was used in many of the promos we saw and heard leading up to the series premiere.  We see Gwen talking about how she always meant to ask Jack about ‘That Doctor of his’.  She says “All those times in history when there was no sign of him I wanted to know why not…I don’t need to ask anymore…sometimes the doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame.”   That really does sum up nicely how things might look if you were on the outside looking in on how the politicians were handling this situation.

Back at the military compound Jack’s daughter Alice and her son Steven have been waiting with Johnson and some of her troops.  Johnson starts to talk with Alice about protecting the state and Alice takes this opportunity to tell Johnson “If you’re duty is to protect the state above and beyond any other authority then the one person you need right now is Jack Harkness”.  This talk leads to Johnson sending in troops to get Jack out of jail as well as to kidnap Mr. Dekker.  She has both of them brought to the military compound.   She offers up their systems to the two of them to see if they can find a way to stop the 456 since the children are on the verge of being taken away forever.  After some brainstorming the two of them latch on that odd sound wave they heard when the 456 remotely killed Clem.  They think they can possibly use that sound wave against the 456 by copying it but Jack says they have no way of transmitting it.  Dekker says “Of course you have”.  To which Jack says “Shut up”.  For a moment I didn’t understand why he said that.  Then Dekker explains “Same way as them…the 456 use children…we need a child”.  They need a child as the center of the resonance to reach the other children.  However, as Dekker puts it “that child is going to fry”.  Since the only child that’s available for miles around is Jack’s grandson Steven we understand why he wanted to find another way.  But, alas, there is no time so Jack is put on the spot and must sacrifice his own grandson to save millions of other children.  Jack’s daughter Alice is naturally devastated once she realizes what’s going to happen.  She tells Jack “No…Dad…No” but he simply ignores her pleas as Johnson’s military crew restrains her.  It’s difficult to watch what happens to Steven as Dekker and Jack execute their plan.  He is asked to stand at the center of all their equipment and as they start the process he shakes violently and then he starts to bleed just like Clem did before he died.  The bottom line is that the plan works and the 456 are forced to go back to wherever they came from.

Later on we see Jack sitting in a hallway at the military compound when Alice comes through a doorway at one end of the hallway.  Not a word is spoken as she just looks at Jack and he looks at her.  After a brief period of time she simply turns around and goes back out the way she came in so that she doesn’t have to walk by him.  Since the characters of Alice and Steven were introduced in this mini-series the emotional impact of this wasn’t quite what it might have been if we were given more time to get to know both of them.

We then get a “six months later” prompt on the screen.  With this we see a very pregnant Gwen getting out of a car with Rhys out in a clearing at night.  Jack is waiting for them nearby.  Gwen asks “Did it work?”  Jack says “I’ve travelled all sorts of places…this planet is too small…haven’t travelled far enough yet”.  Gwen asks if he is ever coming back.  He says “What for?”  Gwen responds “Me”.   Jack thinks it was all his fault.  He appears to be a broken man.  He says he wants to make a new life for himself.   Gwen is breaking down in tears as she tells him he can’t run away but he says “Oh yes I can…just watch me” and with that he teleports away.

Much like at the end of day four we’re left with an empty feeling in our stomach at this point.  As viewers we like it when shows go out on a high note and we want to be reassured that everything will be OK with the characters we care for.  However, we don’t get any of that here.  Instead we’re left to wonder where do we go from here?  I’m good with that.  I love a happy ending as much as the next person but this mini-series punched us in the gut and made sure we realized just how dangerous things are when you’re associated with Torchwood.  The series was very well done and got me emotionally engaged and as a viewer that doesn’t always happen to me so I’ll have to be happy with that for the time being.

Be sure to check out our Torchwood bonus discussion podcasts being released each night after the Torchwood: Children of Earth episode airs on BBC America. You can find our Day Five discussion here.

*** Spoiler Warning ***

What follows is a review of Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Four. It contains spoilers about the Day Four episode so only proceed if you want to know what happened.

Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day Four
By Kevin Bachelder

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.

Once the government types realize that Torchwood has them ‘over a barrel’ they let Jack and Ianto into the throne room to confront the 456.  Jack starts things off by threatening to release the video of all of these back room negotiations saying that this will cause millions of people all around the world to rise up against the 456.  At first the 456 seems quite surprised by this development.  They say “You yielded in the past…you will do so again”.  Jack tells them that “An injury to one is an injury to all”.  However, the 456 appears to be adjusting to this situation as they tell Jack “Based on the human infant mortality rate a child dies every 3 seconds…the human response to this is to accept and adapt”.  Jack says “We’re adapting right now and we’re making this a war.”  On the one hand this statement made me think Yea, you tell him Jack but on the other hand I thought Wow he’s coming on pretty strong here.  Rather than backing down or trying to negotiate this stalemate the 456 says very emphatically “Then the fight begins…action has been taken…you wanted a demonstration of war…a virus has been released…it will kill everyone in the building”.  As Thames house goes into lockdown mode, with no one getting in or out, panic naturally ensues with people running for the exits.  The 456 then starts to make a sound that I don’t think we’ve heard before.   This sound is obviously being broadcast and while my initial fear was that this might affect the children in some way it actually affects just Clem who’s back at the Torchwood warehouse with Gwen and Johnson.  He starts to writhe in terrible pain with blood coming out of his ears and nose.   He quickly dies in Gwen’s arms.  This must have been a horrible way to die.  The 456 states “The remnant has been disconnected”.  So, it turns out that Clem was right along in that the 456 were somehow ‘tuned in’ to him.  Jack tells Ianto “We’ve got to get you out of here…I can survive anything but you can’t”.  Ianto calmly states “Too late…I breathed the air”.  Jack pleads to the 456 “No…not him” but it’s too late for either of them to escape and they are powerless to stop the virus.  As Ianto lies dying in his arms Jack says to him “It’s all my fault”.  Ianto says “Don’t forget me”.  Since the two of them have had several discussions about their future over the past four days it makes this scene even harder to watch.  Jack obviously feels like he caused Ianto’s death.

As viewers we went from the high of thinking that the Torchwood team was on the verge of ‘saving the day’ to the low of losing another beloved member of the Torchwood team.  I realized too late, much like Jack, that this plan was seriously flawed from the start.  The 456 have shown how powerful they are.  Our previous encounter with them back in 1965 showed that they were experienced with deadly viruses.  Mr. Dekker told us back in day two that the atmosphere they requested for their alien guest box was a poisonous concoction.  After watching the 456 consistently overpower the government types in their negotiating sessions why did the Torchwood team think that doing something similar would work for them?  Did Jack and the team just get too cocky?  All these thoughts and questions ran through my head as I witnessed the end of this episode.  You may recall from my day one review that I said I wasn’t sure I wanted more ‘dark’ Torchwood episodes but here I was totally enthralled in this story even though it went to a very dark place.  While you may or may not agree with the direction our story just took you can’t help but appreciate the way they were able to emotionally draw us in.

As we close out the episode Gwen goes to the temporary morgue area where she pulls back the sheets from Jack and Ianto’s bodies.  Naturally Jack jumps back to life but that won’t be happening to Ianto.  It’s fitting that as the episode fades out we hear Gwen’s voiceover say “There’s nothing we can do”.  Can it get any darker that this?

Be sure to check out our Torchwood bonus discussion podcasts being released each night after the Torchwood: Children of Earth episode airs on BBC America. You can find our Day Four discussion here.

*** Spoiler Warning ***

What follows is a review of Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Three. It contains spoilers about the Day Three episode so only proceed if you want to know what happened.

Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day Three
By Kevin Bachelder

Before the Torchwood team can try to ‘save the world’ they need a place to call home so Ianto shows the team their new base of operations. It’s an abandoned warehouse that used to an old Torchwood one facility back in the ‘90s. They quickly realize they’re going to need a lot more than just the clothes on their back to deal with the problem. This leads them to come up with a plan to become petty criminals stealing credit cards, laptops and other things to finance their efforts. Much like the Jack escape plan from day two you need to try and not think too hard about this plot line otherwise you might ask too many questions that can’t really be answered.

Since the Hub explosion, Jack’s daughter Alice has been trying to reach him on his private mobile phone.   Her concern leads to a mistake when she stops a woman on the street and asks to use her mobile phone.  She calls a different number to try and reach Jack and gets snared by Johnson’s military group listening in on the call.   Doesn’t she know that CCTV is everywhere! That starts them researching her and that turns up a fabricated past, so they know she must be someone worth having.  Alice senses the danger coming but can’t get away from the overwhelming forces that arrive.  She and her son Steven are taken prisoner and brought to the same facility where Jack was previously held.

Now that the team has some resources at their disposal they quickly realize they need to get into Thames house to see what’s going on. Their only real “inside” option is our temp Lois. Gwen pops in to see her at the coffee shop where they first met and Gwen tells her how much they need her help . Taking a page right out of a James Bond film Gwen shows Lois the Torchwood contacts which allow them to remotely see and hear whatever the person wearing the contacts sees and hears. I’ll leave it up to your imagination to think about how those could be used if they really existed. Lois isn’t convinced that she should do this but at least she takes the contacts with her. Back at Torchwood central Ianto and Jack are trying to figure out why the government wanted him out of the way. Ianto starts looking into Clem MacDonald’s past. Clem was the one adult who was being controlled just like the children. He also has the ability to smell the aliens as well. As Ianto tells Jack more details about Clem’s past, including his time at an orphanage in the mid 60s, at this point you can see that Jack is onto something. He wants to see older photos of the other people that were on Frobisher’s kill list. Once he sees the faces he’s off on his own with no explanation to Ianto.

In the meantime the children are now collectively pointing to the center of London and this leads to one of the more memorable alien arrival scenes that I can recall. We see a giant “pillar of fire” coming down from the sky directly into the alien guest box at Thames house. Mr. Frobisher and Mr. Dekker witness the arrival of the 456 firsthand. We only get small glimpses of the 456 through the fog of chemicals inside their guest box. We can’t really make out exactly what they look like but we do hear some violent trashing sounds as well as see them occasionally vomiting or spewing some type of liquid. Quite the first impression now that they are here. The 456 are able to communicate in English and they say they want to speak with ‘the world’. After Mr. Frobisher explains some basic diplomatic protocols to them they agree to let him be their conduit to the rest of the government types that have assembled along with Prime Minister Brian Greene to oversee the discussions with the 456.

It seems that when Jack took off he went to Mr. Frobisher’s house where he stole Mrs. Frobisher’s mobile phone so he could easily contact Mr. Frobisher. Jack asks him if this is 1965 all over again and is that why they tried to have him killed. Jack threatens to tell the world what’s really going on but Frobisher tells him that he has Jack’s daughter and grandson as hostages.

Lois finally decides to put on the contacts so the Torchwood team is able to see and hear what’s happening in the 456 throne room. Once all the formalities of communication are worked out between the 456 and Mr. Frobisher they say they have a request. They want a gift. They say “We want your children…we will take your children… we want 10% of the children of this world.” Not only can they control the children and use them to communicate with us but now they want to take millions of them!

While we’re digesting this “gift request” we cut back to see the Torchwood team who now have Clem with them since he’s obviously an important piece of this puzzle. Through Clem’s flashbacks/nightmares we know that he was there in 1965 but somehow escaped being taken. Clem starts to get very agitated and says he can “smell him…the man…he’s coming back”. With that Jack walks in and Clem wonders why Jack looks the same. We see a flashback where Jack is the one telling the children to walk into that light back in 1965. Gwen is trying to calm Clem down by telling him that Jack fights aliens. She says “Isn’t that right Jack?” To which Jack replies “No, I gave them the kids…1965…I gave them twelve children as a gift.”

I don’t know about you but they got me good with that one…didn’t see that coming at all. I’ve gotten so used to seeing Jack as our hero that I forget about his checkered past.

Be sure to check out our Torchwood bonus discussion podcasts being released each night after the Torchwood: Children of Earth episode airs on BBC America. You can find our Day Three discussion here.

*** Spoiler Warning ***

What follows is a review of Torchwood: Children of Earth Day Two. It contains spoilers about the Day Two episode so only proceed if you want to know what happened.

Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day Two
By Kevin Bachelder

The great thing about this being a nightly mini-series is that we didn’t have to wait too long to find out that Gwen and Ianto were okay after the blast.  Now, that doesn’t mean they’re safe but at least they are each in one piece.  That’s more than we can say about Jack.  Johnson’s military group finds just a few of Jack’s body parts in the rubble of the blast.  However, Johnson puts it very well later in the episode when she comments about his “Lazarus qualities”.  Those qualities will eventually allow him to regenerate.  For the time being Gwen and Ianto need to get away from the hub explosion scene as quickly as possible since everyone in a uniform seems to be trying to kill them.  Meanwhile Jack, well more specifically some of Jack’s body parts, is taken back to a secure facility by Johnson’s team.

This episode is where we get to find out what roles each of the characters will be playing in relation to each other.  Johnson is the female leader of the military group and she’s often in touch with Mr. Frobisher about the status of their ‘clean up’ efforts.  We get to see Police Constable Andy.  Regular Torchwood fans will recall that Andy worked with Gwen when she was still on the police force before joining Torchwood.  He also gets the funniest line of the episode.  When he first sees Johnson barking out orders at the hub explosion site he says to his partner “If she’s anti-terrorist I wouldn’t mind being uncle terrorist”.   Mr. Frobisher also spends some time with Prime Minister Brian Green and we get a great example as to why we probably won’t like the Prime Minister very much when he tells Mr. Frobisher that “he’s put him on the front line which is the first to fall”.  That line is sure to inspire loyalty!   Most of us can identify with our favorite temp Lois because she’s starting to wonder what’s really going on here.  Her snooping while using Mr. Frobisher’s assistant’s computer password is what’s giving her some insight into who’s who in all of this.  She even speaks up at one point to let Mr. Frobisher know that Jack had called him the other day so maybe he could help in all of this.  Naturally, Mr. Frobisher tells her otherwise.  This works out well since later on Gwen calls Mr. Frobisher but luckily enough Lois takes that call.  Gwen is trying to setup a meeting with Mr. Frobisher to talk about all of this but Lois is smart enough to show up at the meeting instead and this is when the big plan to retrieve Jack is hatched.  After Lois gives Gwen and Rhys an incredible amount of inside information on how to get Jack out Gwen tells her “when this is all over and you want a job see me”.  So maybe Lois is Torchwood material after all?

On the alien front we have Mr. Dekker telling Mr.  Frobisher that the 456 need to have something built on the top floor of the Thames building.  The children are now saying “we are coming back” so there’s sure to be suspicion about when they were here before.  The one adult who also speaks in unison with the children, Clem MacDonald, is making quite the impression at the pub by telling the locals that he can smell the aliens.  Clem has obviously got a major role to play in all of this.

The big jail break scene to get Jack out is a fun adventure for our team.  However, you’ll really need to put on some ‘plot blinders’ in order to enjoy the scene.  It’s quite a bit far-fetched but it was done well enough that I’m good with it.  The important thing is that the Torchwood team is back together again.

The most recent chant from the children tells us that “we are coming…tomorrow” so it seems Day Three is when Dekker’s new alien guest box will be put to the test and the big question is…

With no base of operations will Jack and the team be ready for their arrival?

Be sure to check out our Torchwood bonus discussion podcasts being released each night after the Torchwood: Children of Earth episode airs on BBC America. You can find our Day Two discussion here.

*** Spoiler Warning ***

What follows is a review of Torchwood: Children of Earth Day One. It contains spoilers about the Day One episode so only proceed if you want to know what happened.

Torchwood: Children of Earth – Day One
By Kevin Bachelder

When I first heard that series three of Torchwood would be a single story set over five episodes/nights I was a little apprehensive.   I’ve been a fan of Torchwood from the very first episode “Everything Changes”.  However, I must admit that I enjoyed series one more than series two.  I believe that might be because of the serious turn the show took in series two due to the loss of Owen and Tosh.  I thought the series two story lines were well done but I wasn’t sure that was the Torchwood that I wanted to see.  So I was very pleased to see that the opening of this episode jumped right into the story by giving us a bit of a mystery and taking us back to 1965 where we see some children walking into a bright light.  Was this a reference back to a previous storyline?  At this point we’re not sure but it certainly got me caught up in the story right away so I forgot my previous concerns and just jumped right into things.

Moving back to the present day we get to see several examples of children just stopping in the middle of their normal activities.  Since this is the first time we’ve seen this it seems nothing more than just ‘odd’.  The children don’t stay this way for long but long enough for Gwen to witness this happening and for the government higher ups to have become aware of it as well.

I found myself enjoying the quick introductions of several new characters such as Rupesh, a doctor that Ianto and Jack encounter on one of their missions.  We also meet Mr. Frobisher, the civil servant and his secretary Bridget.  They just happen to have a new temp named Lois who started work today.  Think she might play a key role in our story?  Time will tell.

My mind couldn’t help but wonder if any of these folks would become part of the new Torchwood team.  We even get teased a bit in this direction since Rupesh goes to the Torchwood hub to learn more after his earlier encounter with Jack and Ianto.  Gwen even gets to interview him and talk about Torchwood a bit.  However, another incident with the children forces everyone into action.  As the team is running back to the hub Jack has to stop Rupesh from trying to enter.  When Rupesh asks Gwen what’s inside the building she replies “it’s a big science fiction super base”.  I got a good laugh out of her blunt honesty.  That was a Torchwood series one moment to me.

On a more serious note we also get to meet Mr. Dekker who looks like the classic scientist who never leaves his lab.  He’s the one who tells Mr. Frobisher that this is being done by the “456” and that “I warned you”.  Never the kind of thing you want to hear and it sets Mr. Frobisher into motion talking with the prime minister about all of this and what they can do.  We also get several glimpses into the personal lives of Gwen, Rhys, Ianto and especially Jack.  Even with the world in peril there’s still time to remind us why we love these characters.  From here the pacing of the story really starts to pick up.   Subsequent incidents with the children ‘stopping’ are now accompied by them speaking in unison:  “we are…we are…we are coming!”.  So watching the children do all this has gone from feeling just a little ‘odd’ to feeling down right “creepy”.  We also find out that there’s one adult who’s doing this same thing and he may hold the key to understanding what’s happening.  Throw in a government plot, a twist involving that doctor we thought we liked plus a hidden bomb inside the Torchwood hub and you have all the makings of a great start to this series.   Day One ends with an explosion that puts the team and Torchwood itself in jeopardy.  Gwen appears to be alive, but what about Ianto, Jack and the Hub?  I’m glad we can tune in tomorrow to find out!

Be sure to check out our Torchwood episode discussion podcasts being released each night during the Torchwood: Children of Earth airings on BBC America. You can find our day one discussion here.