I agree...he could have taken the super heroic way out of sacrificing his kids to save millions more--but that was Jack's course to take. They could have run I suppose, but I imagine the bodyguards there to protect his family from Jack would have stopped that. Frobisher was probably the best character in this, and as good as most of the performances were (and Barrowman surprised me) Capaldi sure as hell better win some kind of award. It's funny, obviously people have become so used to heroic/unrealistic telly that they can't comprehend something grounded in reality. Frobisher was a good man trapped within something bigger. If people think there weren't good people working in the concentration camps, that all the Nazis were evil because that makes it easier, then they're mistaken. The thing I liked most of all about this series is that it's shown us what we probably would do, as a species, in this situation. I don't have kids, but in all honesty how many parents would sacrifice their own children to save someone elses?
I tell you now, as someone who does have two kids, that there would be no way in hell i'd sacrifice them to save anyone. The entire human race could be threatened and i would still not do it.
I LOVED these episodes, and until I decided to sit down and watch it, I wasn't very keen on Torchwood. I felt really sad when Ianto died because I was actually starting to like him as a character (didn't think much of him in the Doctor Who series finales). But I honestly thought these episodes would bring more people in to the Torchwood team, but instead it's been effectively shut down. Gwen is pregnant, Ianto is dead, and Jack has gone.
I've seen people a bit annoyed that The Doctor wasn't featured in these episodes, and I sort of have to agree. I see The Doctor as a "last resort" defence, when the Earth is in so much trouble, and the suffering of the Human race is so great, he has to get involved. In the last two episodes I felt that this was the case. Earth sacrificing 10% of it's children and there are two people on Earth that can just call The Doctor and ask him to come back to Earth to lend a hand. He certanly wouldn't have sacrificed Jack's grandson. (I was sort of hoping we would get a cameo from him at the end of the episode, which would explain why Jack is in the final episodes).
But other than that, I really enjoyed it, I would watch a series four if they commission it.
I've held off on posting anything because i'm conflicted on how i feel about the final episode. On the one hand, its quite possibly some of the best television i have ever watched, never mind sci-fi. RTD et al finally showed the guts that they have said they had since the start of Torchwood, and finally proved it was a more adult show. THIS is what we have wanted from the beginning, THIS is adult drama, with nary a lesbian alien or cyberwoman in sight. Torchwood should continue.
But plot wise, i'm saddened by how it ended. I dont know about anyone else but i spent the entire episode actually hoping The Doctor would turn up and save the world again, save Jack from making the decision he did. It says alot about how gripping the story was and how much emotion it stirred up that people were hoping for the Deus Ex Machina ending just to save the characters we love from anymore heartbreak. But The Doctor was absent, and Jack made his choice.
I cant see how Torchwood can go on, at least with Jack in charge. Remember his speech back in Series 3 of Doctor Who, how he had rebuilt Torchwood in the Doctors name. Jack crossed the line, he did something the Doctor would never have done. It made him much less of a hero to me, but far, far more human. He's certainly lost any moral high ground he had over everyone else.
Overall this was the best Torchwood so far, and one of the best drama's ever made. If anyone slags off Torchwood again, i will certainly be shoving this serial in their faces. If this is the end of Torchwood, then by god we went out on a high point, albeit an incredibly depressing one.
