Torchwood: Children of Earth, the 5-part 3rd season of the Doctor Who spin-off, is the best thing that's been on television this year (so far).
See? Told you it was quite a big claim.
I seriously believe it though. As I have said on this blog before, Doctor Who is unashamedly one of my favourite TV shows. Even when it's bad, it's usually still got a sparkle of something. But Torchwood this week was better than Who's been lately, undoubtedly.
I'm not 100% sure why, though, but I can take a stab.
Probably the biggest reason is the emotion in it, the sheer 'ohmygod' of it. Torchwood, unlike Who, has never pulled its punches when it comes to threatening major characters. In just three years, only a couple of major characters remain, the rest having been killed off. To put that in perspective, Who, in its entire 50-odd year runtime, has killed off one character permanently. Excluding The Doctor himself, of course, who's died nine times. But he doesn't count.
Children Of Earth, in particular, had a lot of danger, both for the characters and the (in-series) world at large. Usually, whenever there's something Earth threatening, the Doctor just shows up and sorts it out with a wave of his Sonic Screwdriver. Not so here. Torchwood was more or less destroyed at the start of the arc, meaning they barely had access to computers most of the time. Going into the last episode, I had no idea how they were going to wrap it up.
The ending, as it goes, was masterful as well. Captain Jack has finally stopped being, well, a bit rubbish, and jumped up to 'anti-Doctor' levels of awesomeness. Well, awesomeness is perhaps a bit too strong, but the comparison's still there. I'll not spoil the ending, just in case, but what Jack did to save the world I don't think The Doctor could have done.
Emotion came thick and fast too. Pretty much the only emotion we've been getting in Who recently has been The Doctor going all 'I'm never ever ever having another companion again (until next series)' and 'Oh Rose, how I miss thee!' Every. Single. Episode. Torchwood, in the death of Ianto, seriously nearly brought a tear to my eye. It was very well done indeed.
The structure of CoE really can't be overlooked either. The 'event' format worked brilliantly well, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Who trying to replicate it in the future (although, given the earlier broadcast of it, it would probably be tricky for the BBC to schedule). I'd be incredibly surprised if Torchwood doesn't try and do it again next year. CoE will take some beating though.
Finally, though, what really sets Torchwood apart from every other show this year is the simple fact that it's lived up to its promise. It's a proper adult science fiction drama set in the same world as Doctor Who. Before now, it's been, frankly, more childish than Who. What with all it's sex-based storylines, needless swearing and too many flashes of John Barrowman's arse for the average human to take. But now, now, it feels right. Maybe it's the format, maybe it's the lower number of characters, maybe it's the less Cardiff-centric locationing, I don't know. All I know is, he's called the Stig. No, wait, that's not right. I mean it's been the best thing on telly this year, easily the best British thing at least. Long may it continue!
