'Children of Earth' (Part 5: 'Day Five') by Russell T Davies

The Prime Minister reopens Britain’s schools, announcing the implementation of ‘preventative inoculations’ to protect children against a repeat of recent events – but this is really a cover for the government’s plans to identify those children to be given to the 456. In Downing Street, General Pierce takes over command of the operation from the P.M. and implements preparations for the British army to take the children to a secret rendezvous point at noon. Colonel Oduya arrives at Thames House, where Dekker shows him to Floor 13. Advising the 456 that their plan is going ahead, the Colonel asks why the aliens want the children; when the creature explains that the pre-pubescent children provide certain chemicals that the aliens enjoy, Oduya realises horrifying truth: the 456 are drug-traffickers, and are ‘shooting up’ on humanity’s children… Jack and Gwen meet with Frobisher and Bridget and demand the release of Alice and Stephen, threatening that Rhys will go public with the recordings of the government; but with Lois now charged with espionage the threat is empty, and so Jack makes a deal to allow Gwen and Rhys to go free. Seeing his two friends off in a waiting helicopter, Jack is taken into custody and imprisoned in the cell next to Lois. At Ashton Down, Johnson releases Alice and Stephen and then shows them footage of the 456, before revealing the government’s plans to hand over the children. Frobisher is summoned by the Prime Minister and informed that his children are to be inoculated in a live broadcast, which will encourage the nation’s cooperation. With horror, Frobisher realises that Holly and Lily are to be sacrificed to the 456 as a demonstration that even the government are not exempt from the culling; he vehemently objects, but is overruled by his superior. Leaving the P.M.’s office, Frobisher asks Bridget for ‘Requisition Thirty-One’, a small, innocuous-looking box. Landing in Cardiff, Gwen and Rhys are met by P.C. Andy, who drives them to Rhiannon’s council estate. Bridget visits Lois in her cell and tells her that she believes the Permanent Secretary to be a man of honour, and that the events of the last few days were not his fault. Meanwhile, Frobisher returns home with the gun he has just obtained; climbing the stairs to the room where Anna, Holly and Lily are playing, he slowly closes the door, and then fires four shots… Gwen and Rhys arrive at Rhiannon’s house, where they find the couple surrounded by their neighbours’ kids; Rhiannon and Johnny listen with shock as Gwen gives them the terrible news about Ianto. As twelve o’clock arrives General Pierce gives the order to implement Stage One: Britain’s troops mobilise and begin taking children from their parents by force, bundling their captives aboard a number of large, yellow coaches. As Stage Two is invoked, Rhys warns Gwen that troops have just arrived in Rhiannon’s estate. At Ashton Down, Alice watches as Stephen plays football with some soldiers. When Johnson informs her that the cull has begun, Alice tells her that if the agent really wants to fulfil her job of protecting the state, she will need Jack’s help; Jackson agrees, and it isn’t long before she and her men have broken Jack out of prison and taken him to a nearby helipad. Back at the estate, Johnny rounds up some of his neighbours to hold off the approaching soldiers, while Gwen, Rhys and Rhiannon escape with the children. As P.C. Andy also takes a stand, a riot quickly breaks out. Dekker is captured by soldiers and taken to Ashton Down, where he meets Jack and Alice; using equipment provided by Johnson, the trio go to work to find a way to beat the 456. Gwen, Rhys and Rhiannon get the children to the safety of a disused warehouse; hiding in the dark, Gwen records a log of events on Rhys’ video camera, detailing how the world ended… The Cabinet receive reports of people starting to fight back against the armed forces; they inform the 456 that only eighty percent of the target has been achieved, but the alien insists that the full amount be delivered, and so General Pierce is forced to authorise the troops to exercise maximum force. Jack and Dekker suggest creating a constructive wave, using Johnson’s recording of the 456 transmission that killed Clem to create a new sound. Meanwhile, the abducted children are brought to an airfield, where they are forced into a huge group to await collection by the 456’s matter transporter. Jack and Dekker determine that the only way to use the constructive wave is by using a child. Realising the implications of what Jack is proposing, Alice refuses to allow her father to use Stephen as a weapon; but Jack knows he has no choice, even though his plan will kill the boy. Elsewhere, armed soldiers close in on Gwen and the others; despite Gwen, Rhys and Rhiannon’s best efforts the children are swiftly captured. Jack activates the constructive wave, broadcasting it through Stephen and causing every child on the planet to take up the signal. The effects of the deadly transmission are instantly felt on Floor 13: the 456 thrashes in agony and then explodes in a shower of guts and slime, and then a massive pillar of fire shoots up from the tank, blasting into the skies above London. As Colonel Oduya informs Downing Street that the threat has ended, Gwen, Rhys and Rhiannon are elated that all the children are safe at last. However, this joy is not felt at Ashton Down, where Jack looks on in tears as a devastated Alice cradles the lifeless body of her son. Back at Downing Street, the Prime Minister prepares to give a public statement that will blame everything on General Pierce and the American Forces; Bridget is disgusted at this act of self-preservation, and she informs the P.M. that she will expose his actions using the recordings of everything he has said done, which have been recorded using the special contact lenses that she has been wearing ever since she visited Lois. The Prime Minister’s days are numbered…

Six months later, Rhys and a very pregnant Gwen make a nighttime meeting with Jack on a hill overlooking Cardiff. Jack blames himself for so many deaths – Stephen, Ianto, Owen, Tosh and even Susie – and has travelled all over the planet in an effort to assuage his soul; however, this hasn’t been enough, and knowing that he needs to get away even further, Jack has made contact with a cold-fusion cruiser that is now waiting for him in orbit above the Earth. As Gwen reluctantly gives Jack his wrist manipulator, taken from the wreckage of the Hub, she begs her friend not to run away. But Jack insists he needs to find another life, and after bidding goodbye to Gwen and Rhys he teleports up to the cruiser. Gwen and Rhys return to their car, ready to begin their new life together as a family…

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Peter Capaldi (John Frobisher), Nicholas Farrell (Prime Minister Brian Green), Susan Brown (Bridget Spears), Lucy Cohu (Alice Carter), Ian Gelder (Mr Dekker), Tom Price (P.C. Andy Davidson), Cush Jumbo (Lois Habiba), Liz May Brice (Johnson), Colin McFarlane (General Pierce), Deborah Finlay (Denise Riley), Katy Wix (Rhiannon Davies), Rhodri Lewis (Johnny Davies), Hilary Maclean (Anna Frobisher), Luke Perry (David Davies), Aimee Davies (Mica Davies), Bear McCausland (Steven Carter), Julia Joyce (Holly Frobisher), Madeline Rakic-Platt (Lily Frobisher), Simon Poland (456 Voice), Lorna Bennett (Female Teacher), Rhiannon Oliver (Mum), Louise Minchin (Newsreader)

Directed by Euros Lyn
Produced by Peter Bennett
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1):
10th July 2009 @ 9:00 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper

*Unlike previous seasons, the episodes in Season Three have a running time of sixty minutes each, and were shown over five consectutive days

*This episode was simulcast in High Definition on the BBC's HD Channel