Torchwood/Children of Earth: Day Four

Children of Earth: Day Four
Season 3, Episode 4
Airdate	July 9, 2009
Written by	John Fay
Directed by	Euros Lyn
← 3x03 Children of Earth: Day Three	3x05 → Children of Earth: Day Five
Torchwood — Season Three

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Children of Earth: Day Four is the fourth episode of the third season of Torchwood and the thirtieth overall.

Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Peter Capaldi (John Frobisher), Paul Copley (Clement McDonald), Nicholas Farell (Brian Green), Susan Brown (Bridget Spears), Lucy Cohu (Alice Carter), Cush Jumbo (Lois Habiba), Liz May Brice (Johnson), Ian Gelder (Mr Dekker), Colin McFarlane (General Pierce), Deborah Finlay (Denise Riley), Nicholas Briggs (Rick Yates), Patric Naiambana (Defence Secretary), Charles Abomeli (Colonel Oduya), Katy Wix (Rhiannon Davies), Rhodri Lewis (Johnny Davies), Hillary Maclean (Anna Frobisher), Sophie Hunter (Venessa), Luke Perry (David Davies), Aimee Davies Mica Davies), Bear McCauslan (Steven Carter), Julia Joyce (Holly Frobisher), Madeliene Rakic-Platt (Lilly Frobisher), Simon Poland (456 Voice), Gregory Ferguson (Young Clem), Ben Lloyd-Holmes (Operative), Louise Minchin (Newsreader), Anthony Debaeck (French Newsreader), Lachelle Call (Trinity Wells)

Plot Overview

"THREE,TWO,FIVE,ZERO,ZERO,ZERO"

Scotland 1965, The handover of 12 children, none of whom will be missed, to the 456 with the promise they would live for ever. The government have made a bargain with the 456 for an anti-virus for a new strain of Indonesian flu that will strike the world killing 25 million people. Jack is employed to hand the children over but in the light Clem McDonald runs. The 456 provide the anti-virus.

The present, negotiations continue with the 456 and the government offer one child for every million of population. For Great Britain this would be 62 children taken from failed ayslum seekers. The 456 refuse and contiue to demand 10% and give the world one day to select and deliver or face extinction of the human species.

The children of the world stop and begin uttering numbers over and over. A different number in each country. In Britain 325000, 325000. which is 10% of the children. The 456 will accept nothing less.

Captain Jack and the team have been monitoring events through the camera lenses supplied to Lois Habiba and with the information on tape being kept by Rhys at a secret location Jack and Ianto intends to force there way into Thames House to confront The 456.

Entering Thames House, Captain Jack and Ianto make there way to the 13th floor but their intervention has disasterous results.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Denise Riley, Rick Yates, and the Defence Secretary, with others, are part of the COBRA commitee of the British Government.

Trivia

Allusions and References

COBRA is the acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A which is activated during times of national crisis. It is usually chaired by the Prime Minister with Senior Ministers, key government officials, Police and Military personel attending.

Quotes

• COBRA cabinet meeting Denise: "No, the first resposibility of government is to protect the best interests of this country. Right? Then let's say it. In a national emergency a country must plan for the future and discriminate between those who are vital to continued stability and those who are not. And now that We've established that our kids are exempt the whole principal of random selection is dead in the water..Let me finish, now look on the one hand we've got good schools and I don't just mean those producing graduates, I mean the pupils who will go on to staff our hospitals, our offices, our factories, the workforce of the future.We need them, accept it?..Yes. So, set against that you've got the failing schools full of the less able, the less socially useful, those destined to spend a lifetime on benefits, occupying places on the dole queue, and frankly the prisons.Now look should we treat them equally? God knows we've tried and we've failed and now the time has come to choose and if we can't identify the lowest achieving 10% of this country's children, then what are the school league tables for?".