With the next special still a bit of a way off we return again to the land of spin-offs, and the return of Torchwood to the small screen for a special mini-series detailing one event and shown (in the UK at least) every night for five succesive days. The nature of the show means I've only one beastie to talk about...but crikey, it's a good one!
From the snippets I saw from Comic-Con I'm assuming that this has already aired and that this post does not constitute spoilers for US fans, correct me if I'm wrong.
The 456
Wow! I'm not the biggest fan of Torchwood but they certainly delivered on this one - even the podcast boys agree! The show was excellent, delving into the depths the human race would go to if faced with ultimate crisis. Not only that but they introduced one of the best Doctor Who villains in the new generation, something original and truly terrifying and something the Who world has needed for a while. As referred to in an earlier post the main show in particular relies on recurring classic monsters for it's big moments and have failed to create original monster that have the same level of menace, or if they do they kill them off within an episode or two. This was something different, this was intriguing, terrifying, and it lasted more than two episodes. The ides of shrouding it in smoke most of the time and not even revealing it's true name was sheer genius, making it scary when the beast seemed to randomly puke up for no reason and made it's eerie demands - good on you Who team, now let's have one for the main show eh?
Actually, this monster wouldn't work on the main show because the doctor would just find his sonic screwdriver and find a non-lethal way to dispatch it, being just human the Torchwood team had to go through real sacrifice to take down this monster, which made thrilling viewing.
The 456 is a code name given to a species that had contatc with Earth on at least two occasions. The name was given based on a carrier frequency they used to communicate and the species adopted this as their name when they visited, choosing to keep their real identity secret. They were large and green in colour with three 'heads' that looked like scorpion tails and they lived in an atmosphere of deadly gases. In 1965 they communicated with the British government to offer the cure to a potential pandemic at the price of 12 children, Torchwood were ordered to comply and Jack Harkness made the trade. Decades later they returned, demanding 10% of all Earth's children and threatening to destroy the planet if the Government didn't comply, their technology allowed them to speak by controlling children, which frightened the governments of the world into submission. Despite being sealed in a tank containing their atmosphere they were able to counterattack and defend themselves against Torchwood and those who tried to stop them. It was revealed that they wanted the children because of certain chemicals they gave off and were essentially addicted to them. They nearly completed their scheme until Torchwood found how to reverse a deadly frequency through children to hurt the species - they quickly retreated and haven't been seen since.
Well with the events that went on who knows if we'll be seeing any more of the Torchwood team and the monsters they battle with, but with another special and more Sarah Jane Adventures upcoming it won't be long before I'm bringing you some fresh new aliens right here on Blogga
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