Torchwood: Children of Earth - Day Three

WARNING: There Be Spoilers Ahead!

The "big reveal" of the alien species known as the 456 was always going to be a make or break moment for Torchwood: Children Of Earth.

I was keeping everything crossed that they didn't turn out to be Russell T Davies' standard "creature-that-looks-like-some-animal-from-Earth" that has become as much a cliché for the Whoniverse as the strange nose ridges on alien races in Star Trek.

At the other extreme, I would have been equally unimpressed with will-o-the-wisp balls of light, after the two and a half-day build-up to their arrival.

But the 456 didn't disappoint - they were wonderfully, truly alien; vague Lovecraftian tentacled shapes inside their gas-filled chamber at Thames House - occasionally lashing out with splashes of glorious ichor - with enough left to the imagination to make them true Cthulhoid horrors of the mind.

At this point I'd be quite happy if they remained vague shapes in the mist - to see any more of their physique would strip them of their mystique.

While Rachel and I have not been trying to second guess the plot too much, at least one other blog seems to have called it reasonably correctly when he suggested that Captain Jack was being targeted by Frobisher because he had been involved in the first contact, 40 years ago, with the 456, when a dozen children were handed over "as a gift".

The unfolding Government conspiracy seems to now be centering on keeping this initial contact with the 456 a secret from the rest of the world, which is why British Prime Minister Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) has engineered matters so that 'expendable' civil servant Frobisher is the frontman for the nations of the world in diplomatic negotiations with the alien entities.

The arrival of the 456 came exactly at the mid-point of this five-episode mini-series and changed the pace of the show - probably only temporarily - as the second half of tonight's episode was dominated by the negotiations with the 456.

These were being monitored by Torchwood via their trusty contact lens-camera, as worn by the ever-helpful Lois Habiba (who must be being primed for a permenant role on Team Torchwood... should she survive the week).

With the climatic revelation of what the 456 actually want - 10 per cent of the Earth's children - and Jack's role in the original close encounter, the stakes continue to rise and, on the form to date, pretty much guarantee all bets are off for the final two episodes.

Although Torchwood retains its touchstones of the Whoniverse (e.g. a namecheck for The Doctor and a more prominent role for UNIT), Children Of Earth increasingly reminds me of that classic of British '70s sci-fi Quatermass, although not as enigmatic - and hopefully not as ultimately depressing.

Tomorrow: