Torchwood Meta: On CoE and Why It's Bad Drama

[merucha]

This is very long. It's my way to express to myself my dissatisfaction with CoE.  Don't read it you don't want to. The next chapter of Andy's story coming up tomorrow!

            One of the reasons I left Star Trek fandom yea many years ago was that I was utterly bored with the arguments about “story” versus “characters.” You know, the people who would say the character has to do that action in order to advance the story versus that action is very out of character for that individual and therefore unbelievable. The two aligned along the “hard’ versus “soft” science-fiction axis, though not totally.

 

            There seems to be a similar division in the reactions to CoE, which would be totally understandable IF THE STORY WERE A GOOD ONE. But it isn’t. Not even by television standards, which is a low bar to set indeed. And the worst part about it is that the wounds are, as they say, self-inflicted.

           First, if you’re a Torchwood fan but not a Doctor Who fan, some of these things might carry less weight, but bear with me. Torchwood belongs, or did, until this series, in the Whoniverse. There are certain conventions about this Universe which are utterly disregarded in CoE. In The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor tells the Sycorax to go home and tell all other alien races to keep their paws off Earth: tell whoever you meet that the Earth is defended. Now, that doesn’t stop the aliens from trying, but… there is always a defense. Until now.  I’d like to see the Doctor’s explanation when Jack calls him on it. Do you think they will make the Doctor into the kind of monster who says it was for the good of mankind? Or sorry Jack, everyone you love is expendable anyway and buck up, there'll be others? Or even worse, have the Doctor indulge in one of his tiresome pity-parties?

 

            Another convention disregarded is the whole idea of UNIT as a warlike group that would shoot at anything that moves. In Journey’s End, Martha is sent by UNIT to use something called the Osterhagen Key, a device that would destroy the Earth by detonating nuclear warheads, rather than let it fall into the hands of the Daleks. I just watched Planet of the Dead. In this particular instance the UNIT people are called to deal with a wormhole. Their commander lines them up in front of it and says, pretty much, whatever comes through, shoot it dead.  So UNIT would accept orders to capitulate without a single shot?

 

            The biggest and best is a little something called the Shadow Proclamation. It’s a large organization which maintains order among races, including employing a set of enforcers called the Judoon. Often the Doctor would quote its treaties and conventions to emphasize that he had the right to act against beings that did not conform to its dictates. In fact in The Stolen Earth the Doctor is asked to lead the forces of the Shadow Proclamation against whoever was stealing planets. What are the odds that Jack, considering where/when he was born, an experienced Time Agent, and a Companion, wouldn’t have known about it? And, with the communications part of his wrist device thingie, call in the Judoon?

 

            But, you say, but that can be explained away one way or the other. All right, I say, then let’s talk character in action:

 

            Martha Jones, the woman who walked the Earth for a year and defeated a mad Time Lord in the process can’t find a way to get back to London…

 

            Sarah Jane Smith, a former Companion with a supercomputer and a superintelligent mechanical dog, never even bothers to try to do anything…

 

            Jack Harkness, a man who we are told has spent over one hundred years preparing for the moment where everything changes, doesn’t have a plan. A successful conman and thief, not to mention successful Time Agent, can’t figure out some way to deal with these aliens and flails about like a tyro, to the point that he has to be given instructions on how to steal from his least experienced agent. And even worse, the man we have been told for two series is the one who will do the bad thing, the nasty thing, no matter how bad and nasty, in order to save the Earth, has to be motivated by the death of his lover to sacrifice his grandson…

 

            Ianto Jones, the man who keeps everything going in Torchwood by making sure everything works as it should, doesn’t lock his car well enough so thieves get to it, and forgets to pick up a gas mask even though he knows the aliens live in a poisonous atmosphere…

 

            Everyone one in the government, except one lone temp, is a coward and a poltroon. Now, I know bureaucrats suck, but, honestly, not one to raise a ruckus?... Even in the Bourne movies there are at least two good government types…

 

            Everyone is terrified of these aliens, who the last time they were on Earth, didn’t really threaten much, instead, they offered a vaccine in trade, a vaccine that healed millions…

 

            Any one of us can think of three or four ways in which Ianto would still be dead but the response from the fans would be totally different.  Can you imagine how different it would have been if Ianto had died saving Steven? But at bottom, the whole CoE arc is bad plotting. Which, to be honest, is not unusual in Torchwood and Doctor Who. The thing that attracts us to these two shows is the characters. All the quirky, insane, brilliant, terrible, silly people that make up the Whoniverse, and who always, until now, acted according to their character. Without them, it all falls apart.

 

Comments

[ldycat1170.livejournal.com]

You are brillant. You have covered many of the same points as other fans have, but since I know you do your research for your stories, all of these are very valid points. I wish that the writers and especially RTD would get off his high horse and take a look at what could have been done to make it better by looking in the very universe they established.
bravo my dear.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

I wish that the writers and especially RTD would get off his high horse and take a look at what could have been done to make it better by looking in the very universe they established.

What? And have to do something that made sense instead of their American audition tape? As if! (as the kids used to say)

[beth-mccombs.livejournal.com]

Can I just cheer here because I couldn't figure out why CoE bothered me aside... too many failures of logic.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

It's rubbish plotting. It's rubbishing your own Universe in order to "do drama". Logic? HAH! Leave it to the Vulcans (hey, the new Star Trek movie destroyed ALL OF VULCAN and it made more sense than CoE!)

[tintop-lizzy.livejournal.com]

American audition tape, yes, sadly for us. Smug reaction calculated to be dissmisive and agressive and put himself in the centre of the Whoniverse? Yes. let's agree to not do that for him.

Best originator/writer/ thingy of 30 years of Who? Verity Lambert will smash him thoroughly and with few polite words ON RTD's way into somewhere not very exiting( because I beleve strongly people make their own definition of where they go after they die). And if it is all RTD then why didn't he make a new hero instead of recycling a revered one?

[merucha.livejournal.com]

VL would clean the floor with the silly prat...

And I think he couldn't make a new hero because he couldn't. I don't think he has as much clout with the Beeb as people think. He couldn't sell Excxalibur, which was the original idea for Torchwood, and created for Eve, until he put it in the Whoniverse and brought Jack over.

I am really, really concerned for Jack and his ultimate fate in the last Tennant special. RTD seems to be going out of his way to smash the toys on his way out.

[scorpiodragon.livejournal.com]

This is why I love reading your fanfic and meta's because you are whipcord smart and make very intelligent arguments.

Ianto's death as well as Stephen's angers me because I don't understand the why's of it other then maybe stripping Jack of all his earthly connections, but even then there are better ways of handling that. I thought Gareth and John did a beautiful job acting Ianto's death scene.

I don't understand Davies and I can't figure out how a season 4 would workout now.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Neither can I. I'll be waiting to see... Gareth and John were fantastic throughout this whole thing. But considering what a great job RTD is doing of smashing the toys, I'm worried about Captain Jack's future!

[42footprints.livejournal.com]

Emma, you're such a bright woman. No wonder you had problems with Children of Earth.

I, too, spent it thinking of the Doctor, Martha, Sarah Jane and K9, the Shadow Proclamation, Jack's phenomenal charm, and Ianto's preparedness. There were plot holes you could drop the Hub through. The actual writing wasn't that bad, but the plotting behind it was terrible.

The political overtones were so heavy as to be stifling. They swamped the characters, who ended up flailing around in them with nothing to grip onto. It felt like a party political broadcast by the Russell T Davies Party. There was no redemption, not for anyone.

RTD has said that he wants to carry on basing Torchwood around Jack. Now, any Jack with half a spine is going to be furious about the fact that the Doctor, Martha, Sarah Jane, and pretty much anyone else you could mention, just let him fight this on his own. He'll also, perfectly naturally, resent Gwen for having her perfect marriage and pretty little baby while everything he loved was systematically destroyed. They'll never be able to work together, not with that as a background. Jack would have to go away for a hundred years, maybe more, before he could stomach coming back to Cardiff.

I was reading And Death Shall Have No Dominion the other day, and thinking of Jack. There's a long fic in my head about what he does and where he goes post CoE. I'm wondering if I have the commitment to write it :)

[faithharkness.livejournal.com]

If you write it, I'll read it. Hell, I'll even beta if you want. Because I want someone to give me that grieving process. Without it, none of us are whole. And I might watch it centered around a pissed off, broken Jack (the way you've explained him here). It could be good--if they get good writers who can plot. On second thought, I'll pitch the idea to someone out here. They'd handle it better.

[faithharkness.livejournal.com]

*claps with all her might* Yes, exactly. As I just told temporal_witch, "RTD killed Ianto because he could, which is lazy writing." I've killed Ianto off. Teach has killed Ianto off (temporarily). A lot of good writers have killed Ianto off. And you know why we still read them? Because it had PURPOSE. Because it gave depth to the characters and the plot. Because there WAS a plot. "Because I can" is not the best mindset to use when writing. And I've been wondering myself about the Shadow Proclamation. Where the hell were they? They'll send the Judoon after a freaking haemovore, but not an entire race trying to eat our children? Eff that. Now that I think on it, RTD broke more than Torchwood--he broke the Whoniverse. Get the hell out of my sandbox, RTD.

*climbs down off soapbox. Again. Some more*

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Now that I think on it, RTD broke more than Torchwood--he broke the Whoniverse. Yes. On purpose. I wonder if his parting was not the love fest they all AGREED it was, because he's been breaking toys right and left...

[sophyl.livejournal.com]

"Everyone one in the government, except one lone temp, is a coward and a poltroon."

It's not just everyone in the government, it's everyone in EVERY GOVERNMENT on the planet. How realistic it that, when there has not been one other moment in history when all governments on earth acted together in concert? Not one leader anywhere said, "No, I'm not going to hand over my country's children to intergalactic junkies just because the British government told me to." Last I looked, governments were made up of politicians who would be more than eager to throw each other under the bus if would make themselves look good.

Which brings up my next point: I can't imagine a government or politician anywhere that would willingly kill mankind's best hope of defeating an alien threat just to cover up the actions committed by the administration that was in power 45 years before. They'd be throwing the members of that administration under the aforementioned bus. No, their first concern would be to employ the best available means to fight the aliens (Jack Harkness and Torchwood), not "Let's destroy our only chance to win."

In order for CoE to work, the audience has to accept the fact that every major character behaves with a stupidity that defies belief and, in the case of Torchwood, totally out of character. It's an acceptance I'm unwilling to give.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

In order for CoE to work, the audience has to accept the fact that every major character behaves with a stupidity that defies belief and, in the case of Torchwood, totally out of character. It's an acceptance I'm unwilling to give.

BINGO!!!!

[cyberdigi.livejournal.com]

*comes out of lurkdom*

That's essentially my feelings on COE (which I won't be watching for a long time but I know the major things that happen)

I've come to terms with Ianto's death, and agree with RTD (to a degree), that it made it more realistic. However he assassinated his characters' characters, and that I find inexcusable.

I personally believe he's used COE as a way to clean house so he can rebuild it around Gwen or Gwen's child (who will be just like Gwen). Something like 'Oh this didn't turn out how I intended why don't I use series 3 to get rid of everything and try again and this time they WILL like who I want them to in the way I want them to.'

If series 4 turns out the way I anticipate I most definitely won't even consider watching and Torchwood will likely end.

*is wondering what is about COE posts that makes me leave lurkdom*

[merucha.livejournal.com]

As I said, I wouldn't have been pissed off at Ianto's death if it wasn't such a... lousy plot device. It's Torchwood; people die. But HOW they die is important. Especially in the Whoniverse, where respect for life and the value of the individual is essential.

[urnssadomen.livejournal.com]

"In The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor tells the Sycorax to go home and tell all other alien races to keep their paws off Earth: tell whoever you meet that the Earth is defended. Now, that doesn’t stop the aliens from trying, but… there is always a defense. Until now."

Ok, TW London shot that thing down under Harriet Jones' order; they didn't get a chance to spread the warning. I think Harriet made the right judgment call, at the time. No one would expect TW London to fall within a year. Similarly, no one would expect Harriet's timeline (she was supposed to be elected for 3 terms) got changed by the Docotor b/c she disagreed with him (that's really what it was boiled down to; she hurt his ego). Consequently, Master got a hole in Time where he sneaked in and became the PM. (RTD made a similar comment on that matter.) Either way, Ten's an arse, but we know that.

That to be said. I agree with you, the plot sucked. Almost every player suddenly lost a pair or just conveniently forgotten. (Except Doctor of course. Like Harriet Jones said, it's impossible for him to show up every time. And frankly, I don't want him to; Superman type bothers me.) Everyone's OOC, Unit, Ianto, Harkness and Gwen (in a good way).

What really bugs me was that Jack claimed that TW is ready. Any one person can tell him that they were no where near ready, which was proven in "Turn Left". Jack Harkness took wrong lesson from TW London. It's not don't temper with unfamiliar techs or don't have a huge organization; it should be "making sure you have big enough guns such that when shit blows up at your face, you can actually clean the mess." The TW in Rose's world learned the right lesson. Did you guys see those standard issue BMFG and the teleport thingy?

Therefore, at this point, I'm not sure what's worse, TW's overall stupidity or the enormously bad plot line of COE. Frankly, the only good and made sense characters were those got killed off. (Ianto only made sense until COE, a.k.a. when RTD got his paw on him.) I like Jack, but often then not he just came off as all barking no biting. My most memorable moment of him was when he teleported Mary to the Sun; JB delivered his character brilliantly, cruel decisive and swift. That's the Jack everyone include himself claimed him to be, but often than not he appeared to be soft, careless and brainless.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Hey, Jack negativity are fighting words :D

The problem with Torchwood was often writing. When you got a good writer, you got a good Jack: Small Worlds, Greeks Bearing Gifts, etc. But when you didn't... BUT the biggest problem was that there was no attempt at maintaining the larger arc in mind. And that is bad plotting, and it gets you back to the beginning.

And the thing was, they did seem to have a larger overarching arc... and it turned out to be... let's kill Ianto and crush Jack so we can make an American audition tape. One third The Quatermass Experiment, and one third 24, and one third sheer stupid.

Dreck.

That's IT!!

[faithharkness.livejournal.com]

It's finally come together in my brain--the reason I react so badly to CoE.

If this had been a fanfic posted online, we would have bitch-slapped the author for the rampant OOC-ness. We would have told them to stop making Gwen such a Mary Sue. We would have pointed out the plot holes and ignorance of the Whoniverse canon. We would have reported them to badfic. We'd have ranted on fanficrants. We would have kindly asked the author to STFU and get out of our fandom. That's why it bugs me--it's bad fanfic that got made into film!!

Re: That's IT!!

[sophyl.livejournal.com]

But that's the whole point, we know they are out of character because we actually watch the shows and pay attention to what happens on the screen.

After CoE, however, I am convinced that RTD has never watched a single episode of Torchwood. He couldn't have, because if he had, he would have created situations and written dialog, actions and reactions that would have fit the characters of Torchwood.

[faithharkness.livejournal.com]

And now thanks to your meta and the resulting thread, I have an idea for S4 Torchwood which doesn't ignore canon but makes it all okay anyway after I'm done supergluing everything back together. Because I needed another epic. :)

[merucha.livejournal.com]

You go, girl! Why should you be any different?

[gypsylady.livejournal.com]

At last! Someone who can put my thoughts into coherent words.

I kept stopping the playback of CoE and asking my dog (who wisely kept quiet) things like, "Martha doesn't have a mobile phone?" and "What's Luke Smith doing through all this?" and "WTF SHADOW PROCLAMATIION WTF RTD!!!!!!!!!!!!" I guess for their biggest budget show they put in their biggest plotholes.

But for crying out loud! The entire f*cking PLANET rolls over and just takes it from an alien who can't even breathe our atmosphere? And Ianto, sans the hazmat equipment I refuse to believe he didn't rustle up, shooting at the f*cking glass containing the deadly poisonous gas? No wai! And especially when you consider that releasing that gas would kill at least everyone on that floor if not on that block.

OOC BIG F*CKNG TIME!

Phew! I feel better. I enjoyed CoE but it wasn't Torchwood to me. It was some doomsday movie, like "Outbreak" or the like.

And on that note I think I'm off to pen (keyboard?) something to fixit entirely. And I mean from where the hell was Sarah Jane on down.

(I mean, really. Jack needs a kid. He can't get Stephen and he doesn't think about Ianto's sister's kids. But it never occured to him to call Sarah Jane and say, "The government is trying to kill us, can you help? Is your son okay?") (I'll stop now. Brain won't let it go but I'll stop typing.)

[merucha.livejournal.com]

I wanted to watch the whole thing but, after the second episode I was like, What the hell am I watching? Who are these people? So I stopped. I did watch the death scene, which was gorgeously acted... and assorted bits and pieces of 4 & 5, but... no. That much disrespect from a creator towards his creation was painful.

[love-jackianto.livejournal.com]

Great meta. Whenever someone says CoE was the best television ever I have to scratch my head and think, have they ever SEEN this show? or do they know how government
ACTUALLY works? and that's just the tip of the plothole iceberg.

I think what happened was that RTD wouldn't let anything, not logic, not even his own canon get in the way of his 'drama'. From what I've heard RTD had the idea for CoE just sitting around so he took it and used Torchwood to tell the story (it would have worked better if they had used other characters) and he wrote the characters to fit the story instead of writing the story to fit the characters.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard RTD had the idea for CoE just sitting around so he took it and used Torchwood to tell the story (it would have worked better if they had used other characters) and he wrote the characters to fit the story instead of writing the story to fit the characters.

This makes sense, because by the third epi I was wondering who the hell were these people? On the other hand, the idea was at best half-baked. I'm starting to wonder how did he earn that genius label everyone throws around...

[flobberchops.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

I'd love to be able to ask TPTB at the BBC WTF they were thinking letting a script this bad be filmed.

Seriously, they didn't have a halfway decent story editor with at least a basic knowledge and understanding of the Whoniverse or Torchwood, or basic story structure for that matter, anywhere in the building?

Any story that can only progress if the characters either behave totally out of character or as if they've all just been hit in the head with the stupid stick is just plain bad writing.

And this, I think, is what makes me most angry about CoE. It keeps being hailed as "great writing" and it was utter drivel.

If a student in a screenwriting programme had submitted those scripts for a class, they would have been sent home with a flea in their ear and told not to be so lazy in their thinking and writing.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it feels as if they're trying to diffuse all the anger by pointing to the "it's a great story!" meme. And that only makes me angrier because it is, as you say, utter drivel!

[rhianona]

*claps* Very valid points and several of the reasons I don't like COE. I think you put it correctly when you say that TW is part of the Who 'verse and as such, there are established conventions that should be followed, and weren't. One of the things I'm worried about is that when Jack inevitably shows up on DW again, the Doctor will either ignore what happened, dismiss it or, like you said, attempt to compare it to his own situation, which just - ugh.

Have you read the After Elton article on Buffy v. Torchwood and the killing of gay characters? The article brings up some very strong points on the death of Ianto v. the death of Tara and how each affected the audiences and overall story. The writer liked COE until day 4, which I find a bit mind-boggling, but he has some very good points.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's very well done. I don't really "do" Buffy (except for Spike, who I would do in a New York minutes *snicker*), but I remember people talking about the Tara story, and I did see the last two episodes of that arc. It was a fantastic set up and delivery. It had MEANING.

I am very worried for the Captain Jack character. If Moffat really wants a clean slate, and who can blame him, Jack might become the Face of Boe earlier than he expected! Not because of Moffat... but because RTD is in a "break the toys" mood, and Jack might have no protection!

[cprefect.livejournal.com]

Bravo! and well said, I agree

[merucha.livejournal.com]

I just needed to... hear myself say it, you know?

[kelticbanshee]

Right now, I bow to you. Fantastic points, all of them.

And yeah, we'll put up with bad story arcs if we get good charactrers. We'll even put up with bad characters if we get good story arcs. As someone said on my LJ today, CoE: epic fail on both, because the story sucks, and the characters are not the characters we've followed through S1 and S2

Mind if I link to this from my LJ, yet again? :)

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Please do! And yes, I will put up with one or the other, but not both. And then, the arrogance with which they conduct themselves, as if we should be grateful they're throwing their creative pearls in front of the fan swine...

[sarahjane6.livejournal.com]

First this wasn't too long. You point by point brought out why this story is so bad. In the end I think we just watched 5 episodes used by RTD to indulge his desire to kill off a character that for the fans took on too much importance. I once though we, the fans, killed Ianto. You have to look hard and wide to find a story where Ianto isn't an integral part. Good, bad or indifferent Ianto lends himself to be written about...more even that Jack.

COE seems to have been written by people who have never heard of or seen an episode of either Doctor Who or Torchwood. Hmm, were do we think this might lead in a possible season four.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

According to sophyl upthread, according to Eve Myles is the Gwen show all the way... good luck to her. Me,I'll use the time to practice my Italian...

[gingerlr.livejournal.com]

I mentioned a couple of times that I thought it good TV but also didn't think it was Torchwood. It kept me on my seat for the five nights but my brain was telling me 'Good Action', not 'Good Torchwood'.

My guilty pleasure is disaster films. More blowing up of things, the better. Plot, what plot? I think my brain took that route with this and it wasn't until I started watching it the second time that I was going "Huh? This is Torchwood?"

I'm still at the point of not knowing what to think about this. Not heard anything about the new Doctor. Just saw Planet of the Dead. Can't see Jack coming back to Earth with Gwen as head of TW.

I just don't know if I'm making sense but you said it so nicely.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

I think everyone is more or less at your stage. I wrote it out so I could hear myself say it, you know? Say it and maybe it will make sense.

I like blow-them-ups too! But this was supposed to be Torchwood and it wasn't even The X-Files. It was... stuff... I've taken to calling it "one third the Quatermass Experiment, one third 24, and one third utter stupid."

The new Doctor has Moffat at the helm and I have a great deal of faith in his not screwing it up. My biggest concern is that he will want a clean break from all this mishegoss and there goes Captain Jack in the last Tennant special. Oh well, we'll keep them all going...

[astraplain.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this.

A bit off topic, but if you don't follow the work of Henry Jenkins (http://www.henryjenkins.org/), you might find it interesting. He examines, among other things, the relationship between creator, product, and audience. Clearly RTD hasn't read any of Jenkins' work.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Your welcome. I think I'll follow up on that. It's an interesting topic to me these days :D

[robling-t.livejournal.com]

I'll be an outlier and say that if Torchwood had ever given off the impression that any of its writers had so much at glanced at another script from the series it wouldn't have been Torchwood, because part of the funky charm is that the team are so crap at what they do, but that said, CoE didn't even manage internal consistency within itself, which is Bad for a group of 5 episodes supposedly structured as a single story. I can perhaps spot them some of the larger Whoniverse continuity issues for the sake of clarity with a wider BBC1 audience who might not be as familiar with the larger context as we are, but they could at the very least have paid more attention to whether their continuing argument was holding together over the 5 nights...

[merucha.livejournal.com]

That's what I cannot comprehend about all the adulation for CoE. The PLOT is crap. The x-Files and Buffy did conspiracy stories better half-asleep. The only thing that digs it slightly out of the muck is the actinng. Even JB, who tends to act with his body a bit too much (as behooves a stage actor) rose to the occassion and delivered a fantastic performance.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

word

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I was wondering if I was the only one who was bothered just as much by the plot holes as by Ianto's death, but it doesn't seem so!

[kuroneko-tyger.livejournal.com]

Only point of contention with this (because otherwise you've said everything i could possibly say) is this:

Everyone is terrified of these aliens, who the last time they were on Earth, didn’t really threaten much, instead, they offered a vaccine in trade, a vaccine that healed millions…

I could be wrong, and I'm at work, so I can't rewatch that episode, but the impression I gathered was that the aliens were the ones that had sent the virus in the first place, and the numbers that it would kill were pretty staggering. Maybe not overtly scary, but it would give me shivers knowing that they managed to infect however many people unknowingly. They way you have it worded (to me at least) is that they just happened to have the vaccine to bargin with, instead of holding so-and-so amount of people hostage.

Otherwise I think you have the best CoE reaction that I've read yet! I've actually put off reading your other stories (Bred in the Bone and Fallout ..new part, yay!... to read through this whole post, and comments!

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Well, I might have missed that... but the implication from what I remember is that they exchanged for a cure to the flu.

It is revealed that Jack gave away the children in exchange for a cure for a new strain of Indonesian flu, which the 456 claimed would kill 25 million people. This is from Wikipedia so mileage varies as to accuracy...

And the author would like you to read her fics!!!! :D

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

Which is why as far as I'm concerned, CoE never happened. In my head Torchwood went off the air after Exit Wounds aside from a brief cameo in the finale of Dr Who season four.

[merucha.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. I declared this journal CoE free a while ago!