Sidetracked post - Torchwood: Children of Earth (spoilers)

I've been a huge fan of Captain Jack and his Torchwood team since series one. So hearing a 5 part special, Children of Earth, was going to be shown on BBC this past week got me more than excited.

The series was shown over 5 days, in 1 hour episodes, and based around a single adventure (in the past, Torchwood episodes usually showed 1 story per week).
On day 1, every child on Earth stood still with blank expressions on their faces and simultaneously spoke the same words in English, "We are coming, Back!"
Through the week, we learnt that "We" were a species of Alien named the 456, who visited the planet once in 1965 and requested a "gift" of 12 children. It was eventually revealed that Captain Jack Harkness had been the person who delivered 12 orphaned children to the aliens.
The 456 returned and asked for another "gift". They want 10% of the children of Earth, and the government felt they had no choice but to comply, knowing that the 456 would wipe out the planet if refused.

Jack and Ianto are also a couple now, after series two. Also, fan's should remember that most of the Torchwood team died in the last series, leaving only Ianto, Jack and Gwen.
Gwen finds out that she's pregnant, but that takes a backburner during this series. Making only small references between her husband Rhys and herself. Rhys joins forces with Torchwood, along with a few other new faces, when the government call for Jack's assassination and Torchwood's destruction.

As the week continues, the government plan and begin collection of the 10%, calling them "Units" and deciding to target low performing schools in poor area's. They base the decision on the assumption that these are expendable children. Children who won't make much difference to the future of earth.
The gather these children, telling parent's that they're planning to innoculate against the various times the children have stopped and began speaking in unison, but being unsuccessful in stopping panic. Parent's keep children off school as insiders have leaked information.

Don't think Torchwood don't try... they make an attempt to stop the 456, refusing the offer to them in return for letting them leave peacefully. It is refused and Thames House, where the aliens have landed in a specially made box, is gassed.. killing Ianto.

It's useless, and watching children screaming and being rounded up by soldiers, is heartbreaking.
I sobbed, screamed and begged the screen, wanting it to just stop, as consideration for the innoculation lie was forgotten and force began to be used to collect the last few thousand children and take them to the final collection points, a series of Army bases where the collected children were stood in huge crowds ready to be taken. The public have no idea, unlike the government who find out minutes before they set the collection in motion, that the 456 don't "need" the children, but use them as a drug. They get a hit from the chemicals that the children give out.

I'm not going to say much more, but this isn't a series to miss for anyone, and I defy any parent to watch the whole 5 days and not say the same words I did.

"I would rather die than let my child go.... under ANY circumstances."
Watching some parents taking their children back to the school without a single explanation of whats been happening. Seeing headteachers assisting the army in rounding up children onto buses. Witnessing the army and other officials, along with our government, preparing these innocent, unaware children to be abducted by an alien race for ANY reason, especially to be used as drugs!

I really hope this is all sealed well and truly inside the "fiction" box and padlocked closed, because as a parent, I'd take on the 456 myself to save my child, and I am sure most parents would be with me on that.