Torchwood and Moral Philosophy

I have been a big fan of the BBC series Dr. Who and its spinoff, Torchwood. "Torchwood", by the way, is an anagram of "Doctor Who." The main character in Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) is immortal. Shoot him, and he coughs back to life a few minutes later. Blow him to bits, and one of the bits will grow back into a new Captain Jack. As one might expect, immortality turns out to be more curse than blessing. Harkness is doomed to love mortals, have babies, and watch everything and everyone he loves die and leave him alone. That's a romantic hero on stilts.

Torchwood is a branch of the English government (which seems to excel in creating branches) created by Queen Victoria to deal with extraterrestrial threats. Jack Harkness leads Torchwood 3, based in the town of Cardiff. The first two seasons were quite good science fiction. The general context of the show is that the universe is crawling with aliens, many of them capable of interstellar travel, and most of them nasty as they want to be. Now is the time that earthlings are beginning to recognize their presence and interference.

I have just finished watching the third season, a five episode miniseries called Children of Earth. It was superb. I don't think I have seen anything in science fiction that was as morally sophisticated as these five episodes. As it happens, I was teaching philosophy and got to the section on ethics just as I was viewing the show. The major themes of modern moral philosophy were woven into the show in a blunt but nonetheless artful way. If it weren't so long, I'd have my students watch it.

I won't spoil anything here, but the plot involves an alien species that wants a lot of human children for, well, not so pleasant purposes. It lays out theme of corruption and sacrifice about as well as they can be in fiction. This is high art so far as film is concerned. If you like science fiction at all, and you like thinking, character, and drama, don't miss Children of Earth.