The True Horror Behind Gwen’s Speech in Children Of Earth

By Owen Quinn author

All photos copyright BBC

“There was one thing I always meant to ask Jack, back in the old days. I wanted to know about that Doctor of his. The man that appears out of nowhere and saves the world except sometimes he doesn’t. All those times in history when there was no sign of him, I wanted to know why not. But I don’t need to ask any more. I know the answer now. Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame. I’m recording this in case anyone ever finds it and you can see; you can see how the world ended.“

There’s never really a minute to catch your breath in an action packed adventure with the bad guys breathing down your neck but sometimes a welcome quiet moment are the ones that make you stop and think on the scope of the threat. They are the moments that burn themselves into your memory and like a cuckoo, never leaves.

In Torchwood’s Children of Earth, the final episode sees the world in chaos. The alien 456 have demanded 10% of the children of Earth and have brought the world to its knees. Torchwood has been destroyed and are being hunted as terrorists. Gwen is pregnant. Politicians plot and show their true commitment to the people. Ianto has been killed by a virus they have released along with Jack Harkness as a demonstration of what will happen if they do not get the children. But Jack revives as he always does and is left to face his lover’s death alone. Children are being rounded up in the thousands and taken and parents are beaten down by the military. The armed forces have been guaranteed their children will not be taken if they round all the rest up. And all because Jack Harkness handed children over to the same species decades previously.

The British Prime Minister, Brian Green, is following  his own agenda to make himself the hero in this horrible decision and make the Americans look like the instigators of the children being taken. He will claim the sudden rounding up of the lower performing school children is to give out mass inoculations. He is cold and uncaring and even orders his man, Frobisher, to hand over his two daughters to the aliens. Rather than let that happen, he goes home and murders them and his wife to prevent them from that fate. Tragically, Jack finds a way to stop the 456 but too late for the Frobisher family. But while we recoil at the murder, Frobisher, future Doctor Peter Capaldi, has actually committed an act of love to maintain his family love and memories. They may be dead but they died together, content at their lives up to that point and now nothing will threaten that ever again.

Gwen and Rhys are at Ianto’s sister’s home telling her about how her brother died when soldiers swarm the area taking the children. While the men of the estate fight back, Gwen and Rhys take the ,kids and run along with Ianto’s sister. They are hiding with no options left to them. The 456 use children as a source of drugs, feeding off them over years like a Capri Sun until all that is left is a husk.

Torchwood, or what’s left of them, are fugitives with Jack now working with his enemy, Agent Johnston, once assigned to wipe Torchwood out but now sees her boss’ real intentions. Not even an ice queen can stand by and see children sent for slaughter. To stop the 456 but with no options left, Jack has to  make a devastating choice that will destroy Torchwood , his daughter and him forever.

Things couldn’t be any more dire and at this point you would expect a certain time traveller in a blue box to appear and save the day, trampling impossible odds like weeds.  And that is the crux of the scene in question as Gwen reflects on how they have come to this and why the Doctor has not come to save the day.

It opens the episode and is shot in black and white. The lighting is beautiful here as it slams home the somber atmosphere. These are people that have ran out of hope and bravely waiting for the end of the world. They have been so used to being saved that the reality of the impact of this horrendous decision will have far reaching consequences that will scar the human race forever. White lines shiver across the screen, reminiscent of the black and white Doctor Who title sequence.

With half of her face in shadow with only her eyes showing, Gwen who is pregnant and being filmed by Rhys, speaks, intermixed with images of children being rounded up, of entire schools being marched onto buses and lorries to be taken to the 456 collection points.

When she talks about the end of the world, she isn’t talking about about it blowing up or an alien invasion like The Stolen Earth or what the Master did to the planet in Last of the Time Lords. Everything decent, moral and good that was humanity will be gone if the children are taken. The world will burn in riots as governments will be stormed and killed for agreeing to sacrifice their children to become snacks for aliens. This is not about safeguarding the rest of the population but the government’s own power bases. But the ordinary people would rather die with their families than give up any child to that fate as we saw with Frobisher. That is what humanity really is; standing together in the face of evil and even if it means death, they will do so willingly rather than live with the knowledge of the fates of the children the 456 took. How could anyone go through the rest of their lives knowing the kids will be alive as they are fed on as we saw in an earlier episode.

Some will point out that the public did not know about 456 but have you met us? Alien invasions are more prevalent than ever, especially at Christmas. There are ordinary people like Clive and Rose that are watching and documenting everything. With millions of children suddenly gone, of course people would protest and investigate; putting it all together. Never underestimate the power of the human race when their children are threatened.

The 456 will come back again and again until there are no more children left. What makes this even more poignant is the fact that Gwen is pregnant so at some point will her child be taken too? She has spoken about an abortion rather than giving birth.  This is such a telling thing because how awful that someone would willingly abort their child which is wanted and will be loved rather than let it be born into a world where it will be taken forcibly by aliens at some stage.

Rhys, as I said, is filming this and when he ends we get the most human response. Rhys is a hardman but is reduced to tears when he ask if Gwen is serious about the abortion and she says no, of course not. He breaks down and it is such a beautiful humanising moment that drives home that this is so bad that even the hardest of us will crumble.

The parallel can be made that we trust those that we vote into government to look after us and all our best interest yet they have, without a real thought, decided to hand over the children to save themselves; not the world but by doing so, ensures their personal agendas are secure. It’s not their kids so it doesn’t matter. They believe the great British public will simply get over it; it is after all, in their best interests. As a parent figure, they don’t know their children at all.

Similarly when we bring a child into this world. We do it because we love each other and want that child to be better than us and have a better life than we did. We are always striving to make it better so that child trusts us to act in its best interests which is not just a natural instinct but a vocation that we willingly take on. Our governments have twisted this into something that will benefit the world. How does sending millions of children to this fate benefit anyone?

To be honest the old woman that touts on Gwen and the hidden children is an important testament to this train of thought. As an older woman, you expect her to not only be a mother but a grandmother too. Granny loves her grandchildren yet us witnessing her casually telling an army patrol about Gwen, Rhys and the children immediately riles us but that’s exactly what would happen. Now don’t forget that among the kids Gwen and Rhys have safe is Ianto’s niece and nephew. They have just lost their uncle and now are facing being sent off to the same aliens that murdered him. This is more than personal for them. Ianto didn’t die heroically. He choked to death on a virus as a demonstration of what will happen if the children are not delivered. The soldiers will not hesitate in killing a pregnant woman and expectant father to carry out their orders. But when those soldiers return home and look upon their kids, can we really expect them to stay silent? If that child asks where their friends are, how does the soldier answer? How quickly will that burden cripple them or force them to go public especially when the streets and playparks are now ghost towns. There is no laughter, no school trips to pantomines and no more birthday parties. Christmas morning will be shunned because the grief will be too much to bear. The politicians will continue as normal while parents will be left grieving as all of their children are gone yet still alive in a feeding frenzy.

But what would happen if the children were taken? Governments would burn, politicians would be strung up, new people would take over governments to ensure that this atrocity never happens again. But power corrupts so who’s to say what replaces the power bases will be any better? Those members of the frontline services that got to keep their kids will be crucified and who knows what the reaction to their children will be? They could be taken by a grieving parent to serve as replacements for the kids they have lost or worse.

People will stop having children in case the 456 return. Even if a child was born, the stress and worry about being taken will have a detrimental effect on the parents. Instead of seeing a young life full of possibilities, they will forever see a child marked for a cruel fate they will be powerless to stop. If someone does fall pregnant, would they have to raise it in secret or will forced abortions be introduced? There would be no need for maternity services so that part of the already fragile health service will collapse impacting the economy so many ways. Yes, Jack discovered the frequency to repel the 456 but now revealed, they can come up with a defense against it. Let’s face it, it was the only weapon humanity had.

No children means no schools, no nurseries, no baby shops. There will be no Sundays in the play park; no trips to farms to see animals, no family friendly places because the very concept of family will no longer exist. People will grow old and die and with no new generations to replace them, the Earth issue with over population will be solved until the world ages to death. As the population dwindles, industry, shops, healthcare and the simple beautiful sight of watching a new mother pushing a pram through the park will crumble. Think of the abandoned playgrounds in Chernobyl sitting rusting for decades and you’ll get the picture.

What about the children that were spared? Will they be banned from reproducing or will it be mandatory for them to be sterilised? Is that the fate of Gwen’s baby? We bring children in to the world to continue our bloodlines and legacies but every bloodline and legacy will end.

When Gwen talks about the end of the world, this is the scenario she is talking about. The Doctor would indeed turn away in shame, He loves the human race and especially the children. I have no doubt that he would burn the 456 to the ground and free them but the world they left behind would be gone forever so what then? The Doctor’s network of Children of Time have been powerless to stop this from happening so it would not surprise me that he would never darken the Earth again leaving the stupid apes to destroy themselves. If he hadn’t been exiled on Earth in his third incarnation, he may well have done just that when the Brigadier blew up the Silurians behind his back. The Doctor had persuaded the reptiles to agree to peace talks but the Brigadier betrayed him. Weakened and broken, the Earth would be ripe for conquest as seen in the Doctor Who season 4 episode Turn left.

This scene is roughly about 53 seconds long but it is the most powerful ones in the history of the show. As the recent The Giggle showed, when the human race is fired up, it is capable of tearing everything apart. The speech invokes our basest instincts to protect our young and what we love. In just 102 words, Gwen demonstrates that the world hangs on a fragile web of trust with the powers that when broken is one step from the apocalypse. Stunning words that we need to remember because what we do in life leaves a legacy and impacts others every single day.

If we are being judged by people from another world then we really need to evaluate ourselves, not just on a personal level but those we entrust to make our lives safe.