Agree with all of this - especially the bit in bold. I recommend this to people regardless of their interest in sci-fi or not.

It was just an out and out fantastic piece of TV and quite possibly the best thing to come out of the whole Dr Who universe.

Certainly the best British SF from recent years - some of the old Nigel Kneal stuff like Quatermass would give it a run for its money once budget and effects are taken into account. Not sure I'd say it was on a par with BSG miniseries though...

Should the Doctor have been there? Problem is, he could never have sacrificed Jack's grandson, and being the Doctor he'd have been able to find a way not to. Wouldn't have been so hard hitting then.

I suppose that will always be an issue with situations like this set in the Doctor who universe (whoineverse?) On one hand, you can get great big events like that in CofE and what looks to be happening in Miracle Day, and produce some really brilliant and hard hitting stuff that could not even be touched upon in Doctor Who. On the other hand though, events like this, escpcially on earth, would almost never miss the attention or intervention on the Doctor, but since he can almost never appear in Torchwood for more than a cameo (i'm guessing), you'll never get same effect.

I suppose theres a balance really, and if it creates drama as good as CofE, then I'm willinging to forgoe some out of character absences (not that my opinion accounts for anything in the writing of the story, would be cool if it did though )

Edit: Just thought of a stupid, but viable way it could happen without the Doctor being too much out of charcter. Doctor turns up, gets convientaly knocked out or otherwise engaged for the duration of the events, ala Merlin (if you watch, I hope you get the refrence) and wake up's up after it's all happened, and can't go back because that would be going back on his personal timeline, agasint the rules, and we all know how much he likes sticking to them

There could be a line like 'we've just had word...the Doctor has been disabled...' something like that. Easily dealt with!

'Children of Earth' was standout event television. a fantastic achievement! Like someone above said, Peter Capaldi's performance really helped to sell the whole thing. He, along with everyone else, played it 100% genuine, pure human drama, no 'oh I'm in a sci-fi thing so it's not serious' going on.

It really was great telly, helped by the scheduling over 5 consecutive nights as well.

There were a couple of dodgy bits (day 2 in particular), but as you say, Capaldi was excellent.

The stand-out scene for me was the scene in the Cabinet office where they are debating what course of action to take.

All in all, brilliantly done, I just hope they don`t show the first 2 series in the States to "whet their appitite" for Miracle Day. It could halve the viewing figures...

Well, The Doctor doesn't decide where he goes. Sexy/Idris obviously thought it wasn't worth intervening. I'm very glad he wasn't in it. The mention he got gave an ominous tone to episode five, but anything more than that would have changed in into a Doctor story. It may anger some people, but I honestly believe this was better than any Doctor story I have ever seen.

This was something I would have no problem recommending to anyone who likes cerebral science-fiction. I even try to get my friends who don't like DW to watch it because it is just spectacular sci-fi.