This is one of the fundamental bases of the story. The British gave in in 1965, so the 456 assume the human race will again. They even said as much.


It happens every day. How many children are placed under care orders in the UK every day and parted from their familes? How may children die in the UK every day without so much as a mention in the press? The background reason was gruesome and fantastic but the bare fact is we don't place a lot of value on a lot of our children. Again, the 456 said as much - 'why should you care now when you never have before?'


If they played them the video from inside the tank, I'd imagine it would be very very few.

Jon

^^^Having never seen the show, I can't say what the video shows.

But TBH I would rather certain adults went than children.

Random lottery.
Unless there's volunteers.

Not an option.

Mark

If you haven't seen it, then contributing is pointless.

Sorry, but as you don't know why the children were wanted and the danger of refusing, then you can't understand the decision-making process.

I am with the "fight" option, but as noted, we didn't know what we were fighting against.

I understood the "government's'" idea. Seeing as how this seems to be "mention Douglas Adams" week, it's a bit like the Golgafrinchams getting rid of the useless members of their population, but the reality of it on Torchwood almost had me moved to tears myself and I could never sanction picking on a certain group of society. Taking asylum seekers was never going to work if they really wanted 10%.

As much as I would be praying for my children to be spared, I would think that a lottery would be fair, but there is a risk that some would lose two or even more kids and that would be unacceptable if some families were spared. Alphabetically is probably even more ridiculous- how would you actually administer such a process AND make it fair?

So, it's back to the fight and quite possibly die option.

Only to a degree.
I had a quick read about the episodes online.

Besides, I don't think that just because I haven't seen it, I can't have a say.

From what I've learnt:

- kids are mind-controlled by aliens
- aliens demand 10% of the world's children
- aliens have made a previous demand before, which was accepted
- aliens are not gonna play teddy bear's picnic with the children
- if 'we' refuse, everyone dies


I was still leaning towards the fight-and-die option last night. This morning, I've had a bit of a longer think about it and feel that, in some way, it is more unfair to allow extinction of the human race than cruelty to a proportion of children. Fighting back with no hope of success would mean 100% of the children would never know adulthood, would never have a future, as opposed to 90% being able to do this.

EDIT: I will download and watch this miniseries later tonight.

Fair enough. You seem to know enough about it, but I do think that what actually happens to the children is important.

It’s a very tricky one, without going into Spoiler City, the Doctor was mentioned, and his absence at times was questioned and answered by Gwen in a very powerful way.

We can invoke Spock - the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or the one). To save humanity, then giving up the 10% is better. A random lottery would be the best option. I can’t justify in my mind making a choice based on school attainment targets or raiding sink estates for kids. Social cleansing like that is repugnant, despite the problems you would solve.

However, there would be a guilt that we as a people would have to live with forever, and we know then that the 456 would return with higher demands next time. The price for compliance is too high - it would just be better to refuse and fight as others have suggested.

The whole scenario is horrible - my other half got a text from a friend who was driven to tears by it last night. Proper TV FTW!

+1

Mark

it wasn't the fact that it was about children for me, as that is emotive and was designed to be and portrayed as such

it was the process that involved the decision making by Govt to

rationalise the lose of 'only' 10% of the children (units)
once rationalised how to choose the 'units' (children)
how they would implement that decision once arrived at
the resources that would be used in carrying out that decision

how they would enforce and control then act after the decision
then force the enforcers to carry out the removal of the 'units'
the resulting fall out after the event had been accomplished

it was, i believe, how Govt would react and the lengths that they themselves would go to make sure that they and theirs would not be included. then justify the decision not only to themselves but sell it to the population after the event. using our own forces against our own population to enforce a decision that no one other then Govt ministers had made, for our own good.

in short the powers to be rolled over and gave up

the person who write this has a good idea how Govt operates and it would seem does not hold Govt in very high regard …

What if it was the kids from Britain's Got Problems? I haven't seen Torchwood, but I don't think the aliens would be back after that exchange...