I loved Children of Earth and think this is the best series of the lot. Most people do not like the earlier series' saying that it was stupid (Sex Aliens / Cyberwoman etc...) so:

What was it about Children of Earth that generated such hate?

I wasn't aware that it did. As you said, it was the best series of Torchwood - it was Miracle Day that generated such loathing...and rightly so

I think most Torchwood fans (certainly on here) thought that Children of Earth was the best series or that it was a good series.

I understand Miracle Day but every so often I come across a comment on Digital Spy, YouTube etc... that basically says: Children of Earth weakened the show and Miracle Day killed it off. I don't agree with the COE bit as I thought that made Torchwood a good show.

Children Of Earth was one of the most astonishing TV serials that I've ever seen. And everything I've read and heard about it indicates that I'm not alone in this opinion.

I've not heard of any significant 'hate' for CoE. Are you sure you're not confusing it with Miracle Day, which I found to be a severe disappointment after the high standards that CoE set. And, as far as I can see, Miracle Day doesn't have many fans.

I'm not saying every fan hates Children of Earth. I have just seen comments where people say they hate it but do not give a reason why. Here is an example of one of the quotes:

"I'd love to see Jack again but I hated Children of Earth and Miracle Day was rubbish."

Yep, as others have said the general opinion of Children of Earth is very, very strong. And quite rightly - it was a proper, thought-provoking, moral drama with high production values, brilliantly written characters and a small tie to Doctor Who to give it that extra spark.

In fact I only know of one friend of mine who doesn't like it, and even then he admits that it's excellent - he just doesn't like how depressing it was. My Mum loathes all things Doctor Who and Torchwood, but she happened to catch fifteen minutes of this series and was hooked on all five parts...she couldn't believe it was the same writers. My partner hates Torchwood too, but makes an exception for Children of Earth. For me though it is the crown of the Doctor Who universe so far...the absolute best piece of TV drama I've seen from the Whoniverse.

It's just a shame it was followed up by the more-than-mediocre Miracle Day which wrote the existing characters into a corner, and destroyed much hope of the series continuing with a single, overly long ten-part story.

Yeah, peaking at 6.76 million and getting a largely positive critical and fan response was another nail in the coffin.

COE is mostly favoured by fans, but as always there are some who don't like it, which is perfectly OK. I see a fair amount of praise on here for series 1 and 2 but I thought they were very hit and miss myself, especially series 1. On the flip side MD is often slated to death but I didn't think it was that bad. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

Sorry, I'm not answering your question at all am I?

I agree. Back when it aired my Dad (who at that time had never seen Torchwood) sat down and watched all 5 nights and loved it. Miracle Day might (and I stress might) have worked better over 5 nights like COE. Episodes 2-4 could have easily been 1 episode.

You have actually answered my question. So far I can see that most fans did in fact love Children of Earth. It annoys me that so called 'fans' say they hate it and that it helped to kill TW off but do not say why.

Yes, have to agree. Children of Earth was Torchwood's most successful season by a long stretch. OK, it was reduced to just five episodes but it was on every day for a week and got/maintained superb viewing figures. It was 'event telly' to be honest. They should have stuck to that formula!

I guess quite a few long term fans were annoyed that they killed off Ianto during Children of Earth. I think petitions were created etc etc. Personally I wasn't a long term fan so I couldn't care less about his death and I loved this series. It was 'serious, adult' sci-fi that I hoped Torchwood was always going to be. Alas, then can Miracle day and it all fell apart again...

I was more annoyed about the death of Toshiko at the end of Series 2 since she was my favourite character.

Children of Earth was what Torchwood should always have been like. A sci-fi show that was gritty and for adults. It also shows what would happen without the Doctor saving us.

To be honest, and it's only my opinion of course, I think it was an attempt to try and replicate that formula that made Miracle Day so pitifully poor.

There were many examples of how Miracle Day tried to copy the success of Children of Earth (global moral dilemma serial, Gwen talking into cameras) but the most prominent example of that is how the series was made to tell that single story and tried to be an 'event'.

The problem was that with the US broadcaster involvement they were never going to be interested in something as short as five episodes, so we got ten. This dragged out the story massively and spread the scripts far too thin.

And the scheduling for Children of Earth is an absolute rarity - getting any show, let alone a sci-fi show on five nights a week in a prime time slot on your most popular channel is practically unheard of. It was always going to have to revert back to a weekly slot for the fourth series, but Miracle Day seemed to be written in such a way that it wanted to be on once a night. The story didn't have enough oomph behind it to warrant ten weeks of interest.

If the shows fourth series had been kept a wholly British production they may have again gone for a five-part miniseries, but even then you couldn't guarantee it having the same effect that CoE had - in fact it likely would have been derided for trying to copy CoE and unfairly compared to it. To that end, I feel that Children of Earth had such an identity in and of itself that any fourth series was going to have to try to do its own thing from scratch, and Miracle Day didn't - it tried to mould the miniseries formula into a ten episode stretch that would have either benefited from being half the length it was, or from being a completely different story. All in my opinion of course


I was annoyed and upset at the death of Toshiko as well...a fantastic character - well acted and written in a convincing, but understated way. I never got what all the fuss was about Ianto's death as he hadn't ever been particularly well established in the first two series - I mean his death came as a shock and was well written too, but it didn't have anywhere near as great an impact on me as Tosh's death just a few episodes previous. I would have loved to have seen her in Children of Earth.

I think Children of Earth grasped what 'adult sci-fi' was really meant to be. I loved a lot of the first two series, but a lot of it took the concept the wrong way and was needlessly sexed up or 'gritty'. But I think towards the end of Series 2 they hit the nail on the head with what the show should be doing, and then they perfected it with Children of Earth. The episode Adrift is a wonderful piece of adult sci-fi, and I'd say from that episode through to CoE: Day Five is something of a renaissance period for Torchwood.

just as with doctor who, there's alway's going to be an episode/whole series hated by some, no matter how loved it is from the majority. Have to agree with most of the poster's on here and say that children of earth was brilliant, and i've mostly only heard people say good things, although Im sure there are some out there who feel/say differently. When I first read your thread title I thought you'd put children of earth by accident, and actually meant miracle day, as that utter load of american interfering tripe does rightly so generate hate and for good reason i.e - it was a half decent premise, with an awful, mind numbing execution.

Children of earth was good and did well, but it is in reality the only one of the four series produced that has been. Unless the BBC suddenly get a huge pot of money, they won't recommission a series that has such a low strike rate.

There are always people that don't like what the majority do, and vice versa. Unless they're willing to explain why, probably not much reason to give it consideration.

For the record, I think that CoE was great, but having got rid of almost all of the main cast and broken the lead character, they didn't exactly do themselves any favours.

Exactly. Naoko's acting in her final moments were (for me) amazing. The final scene with her staring into Jack's eyes was haunting. He saved her from a life locked up and in that moment she was grateful to him. Her death was one of them rare moments where a TV/Film character actually got to me.

Agreed. I think they paid a great price with the characters to make Children of Earth so good. Upping stakes to the USA and leaving things on a cliffhanger in Miracle Day also didn't do them any favours and has written Jack and Gwen into a corner too.

I always thought I was in a minority of NOT liking it.

Does anyone remember this http://www.saveianto.com/cardiff-shrine.html

Well, speaking as someone who did not particularly enjoy CofE, mmy reason is pretty much in your question. I watched Torchwood from the beginning and it was the silly things about S1 and S2, along with interesting characters and a variety of storylines, that appealed to me. CofE wasn't bad, it was just a bit heavy, I thought. MD was awful, best forgotten, but I know I am not alone feeling that way about it.

Don't understand this post. The majority seem to rate Children of the Earth very highly.

I enjoyed watching it but there were so many things I disliked about coe. I did not like the projectile vomiting aliens, destroying the hub thus desrtroying the show, killing off lanto and jacks grandson. Also when gwen and her husband got to london and went into that cafe and had steak pie and chips. What no gravy or mushy peas? Do they have anything moist down south?

yes, messing up their food order like that, how could RTD have made such an error on such an important scene, that was surely the nail in the coffin for the entire series

Yes, I agree. The formula I was talking about was the 'five episodes across five nights' (which, I think, kept the story tight and immediate). I think you are completely right, though - they kind of missed the point about what made CoE so successful. I honestly think Miracle Day would have been just as successful if they'd done the same five episodes/five nights thing. Ten episodes stretched it out far too much.