History Series / TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth

* AdultFear:
** The series features the kidnapping of children to send to the 456, at the approval of the government. At the conclusion, [[spoiler:one child is sacrificed horribly to avert this]]. [[spoiler: That child is Jack Harkness' grandson.]] [[spoiler: And Jack had to use the machine to kill him. With vibrations. Over the course of several agonizing minutes. All while listening to his daughter screaming for her son]].
** [[spoiler: Jack's lover, Ianto, was killed due to Jack's mistake in confronting the 456 without any real plan or safety precautions]]

** Jack makes his way through the heavily fortified [=MI5=] building to confront the 456. He threatens the alienS, tells them to leave Earth, and then, when the aliens don't leave, Jack doesn't do anything because he didn't actually have a plan to stop the 456.

* KarmaHoudini: Well, considering their actions across the whole mini, the entire UK government getting off with anything less than being publically lynched could be considered this. But specifically, there is also Bridget Spears, Frobisher's assistant who looks like she'll be coming out of the series smelling of roses, despite being just as loathsome as the rest of her colleagues.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Everyone's excuse for [[spoiler:handing over children to aliens]] for an unknown purpose. However, what's originally justified as a NecessaryEvil to save the entire human race quickly becomes [[spoiler:a social eugenics program]].

* HumanResources: [[spoiler:The children]] produce chemicals that the 456 use -- not to [[NecessaryEvil stay alive]], or run technology that can only be PoweredByAForsakenChild, but [[spoiler:[[DrugsAreBad simply to get high]]]].

* ThePlaguemaster: The 456 seem to have a specialty in virology, [[spoiler: exchanging an anti-virus to a mutated Indonesian Influenza for the twelve children in 1965, and killing Ianto and all of Thames House with one as well.]]

* InfantImmortality: Averted with the (unseen) deaths of children in road accidents (because they froze while crossing the street), [[spoiler:Frobisher's daughters]], and the onscreen death of [[spoiler:Jack's grandson]].

* DeathOfAChild: Famously the first onscreen death in the entire [[TheVerse Whoniverse]], and one of the several reasons why ''Children of Earth'' is considered one of the Whoniverse's darkest stories of all. In Day 5, [[spoiler:Jack reluctantly sacrifices Steven, his own grandson, to stop the 456 claiming millions of other children -- specifically, he uses Steven as the needed center of a resonance which fries his brain]]. What makes it worse is [[spoiler:Jack's daughter (Steven's mother) being forced to watch his brutal death and broken;y cradling his body afterwards. At the end, Steven's death is implied to be the final straw that drives Jack to leave Earth]].

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Frobisher]].

** Later, once the 456 demand [[spoiler:12% of the world's children]], the government plan to [[spoiler:deliver the children to them, and after the children have disappeared they'll tell the world that they didn't know the 456 were going to abduct them, in order to save their own hides]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The 456 are finally defeated by [[spoiler: turning the signal they used to control the children against them. Moreover, ''they themselves'' broadcast the signal that was used to defeat them]].

* {{Irony}}: Alice threatens Johnson with the vengeance of Jack Harkness if [[spoiler:her child is harmed]], only to have Jack do it instead.

* MassOhCrap: The politicians have a couple. Torchwood Three joins in with them when they see [[spoiler:the child from 1965 hooked up to the 4576 ambassador]]. Later, when the politicians realize that the 456 [[spoiler:want the children and are hooking them up to their bodies because the kids are an inter-galactic narcotic supply]].

** The government begin attempting to justify [[spoiler:handing 10% of the world's children over to the 456]] this way, making justifications that it'll reduce overpopulation andit'll enable them to get rid of social liabilities whom they think won't contribute anything meaningful to society.

* BreakingTheFellowship
* ButtMonkey: Frobisher.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: {{Inverted}}; when Jack dies at the end of Day 1 it isn't that painful. But his resurrection, on the other hand, causes him to scream in pain from having to regenerate his entire body, bones, muscles, skin and all.

* ForTheEvulz: The 456 can communicate with Earth easily without making kids speak in unison, they just do that for fun.

* GovernmentConspiracy

* TheNameless: 456 is merely a placeholder name for the aliens, derived from the frequency on which they first contacted humanity. Even when asked directly for the name of its species, the 456 tells Frobisher to just keep using that designation.

* PyrrhicVictory: For Jack.

* SexySecretary: Lois.

** More so, what happened to Gray, Jack's brother when the Hub blew up? In ''Exit Wounds'', he's chloroformed and put in the Hub's cold storage. Was he a goner or did he survive? The novel ''Long Time Dead'' reveals Susie of all people survived and came back to life again, so it's possible Gray made it. And how about Torchwood's pet pterodactyl Myfawny and their pet Weevil Janet? Myfawny was said to come and go from the base as she pleased, so she has an alibi. And Weevils have an "incoming danger" instinct, so she could have broke out of her cell and bolted.

->''"''Children of Earth ''is an awful and angry parable about the world we have built and what it would take for it all to come crashing down. The answer, on the one hand, is clearly a lot - it’s not like alien invasions demanding 10% of the world’s children are what you’d call common. And yet the line between order and madness is still depicted as so thin as to vanish nearly overnight."''
-->--'''[[http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/outside-the-government-torchwood-children-of-earth-day-one/ El Sandifer]]'''

* DeadStarWalking: The promotional material suggested that Dr Rupesh Patanjali would be joining the team as TheMedic (to replace Owen Harper). He turns out to be TheMole sent to infiltrate Torchwood, and is left dead on the floor so Jack will return directly to Torchwood with his bomb and not waste time try to find him.

* Jack makes his way through the heavily fortified [=MI5=] building to confront the 456. He threatens the alienS, tells them to leave Earth, and then, when the aliens don't leave, Jack doesn't do anything because he didn't actually have a plan to stop the 456.

* AllGirlsLikePonies: "We want a pony...we want a pony..."

* BerserkButton: Jack's [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jump off the slippery slope]] at the end of Children of Earth is implied to be a result of [[spoiler:[[MoralEventHorizon Ianto's death]]]], culminating in Jack [[spoiler:[[ThisIsUnforgivable sacrificing his own grandson.]]]]
** Meta-example, but when [[spoiler:Ianto was killed]] in ''[[WhamEpisode The Children of Earth]]'', a significant section of the fandom reacted massively. Want proof? A large number of fans created a ''[[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Ianto_Jones_memorial_at_Mermaid_Quay.jpg shrine]]'' at Cardiff bay, and there are quite a few petitions and campaigns online all with the message to the effect of "[[spoiler:bring Ianto back]] or we will never watch the show again". And plenty followed through.

* FixFic: A larger raft of fics address [[spoiler:Ianto's death]] and [[spoiler:Jack's actions regarding his grandson.]] One large and vocal subset of these fans have even [[spoiler:[[http://community.livejournal.com/savecoffeeboy created a campaign and a website to coordinate efforts]] to petition The Powers That Be to bring Ianto back]]. Unlike the series creators or one main actor's comments in interviews, there are well over a thousand registered members -- with more joining daily.

* TrashTheSet: The Torchwood Hub.

* WrittenInAbsence: Creator/FreemaAgeyman's commitment to ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'' meant that Martha couldn't appear, so it's explained that she's on her honeymoon.

* * SleazyPolitician: Brian Green is an obvious example. His very first scene features him ordering Frobisher to murder several people, but then telling him to make sure his name was not on the orders. Of course, most of the politicians seen during this story are equally bad.

* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: PlayedForDrama and Lampshaded by Gwen when she wonders why the Doctor doesn't come to help as [[spoiler: the military starts rounding up the children]]. The real-world reason is that this show isn't family-friendly the way ''Doctor Who'' is and they didn't want to attract the wrong audience by having him show up in it; in-universe the Doctor isn't all-knowing and generally can't control where/when he goes anyway -- also, he can't alter certain fixed points in time, which this may be. But Gwen isn't aware of all this...so she believes the reason is that he's too ashamed of humanity when it acts the way it's acting now to help.

* SleazyPolitician: Brian Green is an obvious example. His very first scene features him ordering Frobisher to murder several people, but then telling him to make sure his name was not on the orders. Of course, most of the politicians seen during this story are equally bad.

* WhyAmITicking: Jack is 'killed' so he can be cut open and a bomb hidden inside his body, in order to destroy both him and the Torchwood Hub.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: An important plot point, as it's a clue the aliens have been to Earth -- and specifically the United Kingdom -- before. Jack suggests the aliens might simply be speaking the most common language on Earth, but Ianto points out that's actually Mandarin Chinese (though, that said, English is more widespread).

** The series features the kidnap of children to send to the 456, at the approval of the government. At the conclusion, [[spoiler:one child is sacrificed horribly to avert this]]. [[spoiler: That child is Jack Harkness' grandson.]] [[spoiler: And Jack had to use the machine to kill him. With vibrations. Over the course of several agonizing minutes. All while listening to his daughter screaming for her son]]