Torchwood: Children of Earth - Day Five...

At three points in tonight's 'Day Five' episode of the latest (and surely last?) series of 'Torchwood' I was so close to switching off. Honestly. if you watched it you'll know the moments. Devastated politician John Frobisher, informed by a callous Prime Minister that his children are on the list of those to be sacrificed to the alien 456 and there's nothing he can do about it, requisitions a handgun and goes home to the bosom of his family - his wife and his two kids. They all go upstairs. He joins them in the bedroom. He shuts the door. Three shots ring out. There's a pause. A fourth shot. I could scarcely bear it. The most harrowing thing I have ever sene on television. My hand is on the remote - I'll have to watch this later, this is too much...

No. No, pull yourself toghether, you're a grown man. This is fiction. This is television. This is British television??? Carry on.... Wait...now what? Schoolkids being rounded up and bundled, terrified and screaming, into Army transport as their hysterical mothers watch helplessly? No, don't like this....this ain't right. But I'll carry on....this is tough...

What's this? Captain Jack to the recsue! Hooray! He's feeding the 456 kill frequency back to them, clever man! But he needs to channel it...uh oh...through a kid. The nearest kid available...Jack's grandson Steven. Oh, look...the kid's shaking. there's blood pouring out of his mouth and nose and ears....this is just not right...

And it wasn't right. In finishing off Torchwood (and this is what he's done, make no mistake about it) Russell T Davies has crossed every line in the TV rule book. He's gone too far. But he's done it in a series - in an episode - which is as bleak as television should ever get and probably more brilliant than it's ever been before or can ever be again. I've never seen anything like this episode - I loved it and I hated it. I cheered at it and I had something in my eye now and again. Davies set out to destroy his bastard offspring of Dr Who and, in doing so, he pretty much destroyed the Captain Jack character too. Because let's face it, in a series where your hero hasn't actually done anything terribly heroic (Jack's been either absent or on the backfoot pretty much throughout the entire five episodes) putting him in a situation where he has to countenance the death of a child - his own flesh and blood - is pretty much making your audience loathe the character. You can't come back from that. But then it's all open to debate, isn't it? That's what it was written for; in a series full of moot points this was ther mootest of all. Put yourself in Jack's place. You're seconds away from anarchy and lawlessness and the end of the world, seconds away from addicted aliens absconding millions of innocent kids for their own narcotic needs - and you can stop it all by sacrificing one child. What would you do? It's a snap decision, you've no time to weigh up the pros and cons, no time to sleep on it - it may already be too late. It's a dreadful, horrific dilemma and Jack's decision, greater good or no, turns him instantly into one of the most grotesque and hateful characters on television. You can't come back from that. There's no redemption.

6 million people have been watching 'Children of Earth' this week and I'm pretty sure that 6 million people wouldn't have expected that ending, that level of despair and grief and....just...raw naked drama. I've no intention of debating the finer points of this episode because this time minute critique just can't do it justice, there's just no point. In the end I loved this series because it finally made Torchwood the thing I always hoped it would be - proper adult science-fiction full of all the moral complexities and ambiguities and intrigue that comes with the very best in its genre. I loved 'Day Five' too even though it really was just too much to bear. I may return to this review and amend it when my fried mind allows what I've watched to settle into place...for now I adored this complex, compelling, dark and challenging piece of downbeat TV. And I sort of hated it too... Go figure...

So the future? Two days ago I'd have bet good money on Torchwood returning next year, even though it was clear from the tone of this series that it would have to be a slightly different beast. Now though, it's a tough call. This was as definitive an end to a 'format' as anything I've ever seen. Torchwood as an organisation no longer exists, Jack is a monster who can't live with himself and certainly can't live on Earth, Gwen has a family to raise. It seems sort of final, it seems neat. It seems the right place to stop. I'd go further...bringing Torchwood back after this (and dramatically it'd be easy enough....Jack returns to Earth and seeks out his friend Gwen who, two years later and with a kid at home, is fighting the fight in Cardiff alone with her husband. Not hard to reboot from there...) and to try and put the pieces back in the same position they were in before would devalue the drama of 'Children of Earth', of the devastating events of this series and the chocies Davies and his team made in rounding the show off. But then again did Davies pitch the show this way because he was so sure it was the end? Did the BBC say this was it? How will the show's incredible success and its amazing figures and audience response figures this week change things? Knowing the way Davies works, I daresay he has a contingency plan in place to bring the show back if asked...but then he's leaving the Dr Who stable and off to seek fame and fortune in the States. It's such a tough call. John Barrowman too (and kudos to him; he's so immersed in light entertainment jazz hands showbiz cheese it's easy to overlook the fact that he's a decent actor - and he was outstanding in 'Day Five'); he loves the character of Jack (although he's probably the only one right now) and has said again and again he wants to play Jack forever. So many imponderables...

If this series of Torchwood had come and gone largely unnoticed - as I rather thought it would - I could see this as a final hurrah, a show going out all guns blazing. And that's how I think it should be. But the BBC will be greedily eyeing the response the show's had and the numbers it's achieved so...at the end of the day, who knows what's in store? But I suspect we'll know one way or the other pretty quickly... Torchwood, this time you were wonderful. This has been one Hell of a ride and while it was sometimes very uncomfortable viewing, it's reminded me - in ways only Amercian shows and Dr Who usually do - just how great television drama can still be. Fantastic.