Chaulloachla’s Children is, of course, a vehicle for Toshiko to actually have that baby that was conceived some months back in the story ‘Cuckoo’. I thought of various ways that I could do that, including a lockdown so that the baby had to be born in the Hub, or just simply an unrelated adventure with the baby coming at the end of it. But I thought it would be interesting to explore the idea of one of Chaulloachla’s lackeys trying to take the babies. I simplified the idea a little. There was going to be a really complicated method of getting the full term babies out of the womb using transmat technology that would go wrong, causing the first woman to die. But I decided that an inept alien could cause enough damage with ordinary childbirth.

The reactions of the Torchwood team to Toshiko being missing, I think reflect how each of them would behave. Owen, especially, tends to be a ball of anger and emotions when things are wrong. Many of the episodes reflected that. Ghost Machine, Combat, Captain Jack Harkness, End of Days, were ones where Owen’s anger made extra problems for everyone else.

Toshiko thinking about all four Torchwood men asking if she would like to put their name on the birth certificate was one I played with for a while. I thought of it going into earlier stories but it never quite fitted. Doing it as a flashback memory while she is thinking about them coming to rescue her worked much better than actual scenes of each individual putting the question.

The scene in the airlock, of course, should remind Doctor Who fans of the scene in Invasion of the Dinosaurs where Sarah Jane Smith steps out of what she is convinced is a fake space ship, but with that tiny possibility that she might be wrong.

The race back to the Hub does have one very obvious problem. It is absolutely illegal and very dangerous for a front seat passenger to carry a baby in their arms. But I could not work out any other way for them all to be in the SUV, so it had to stand. 

The guest appearance by Martha Jones is not meant to herald further stories FOR THE MOMENT with her as a character. At least not until I have seen how she fits into Season Two. But an extra medical doctor in the Hub with four women all having babies at once seemed appropriate. It was THAT or have The Doctor turn up in the TARDIS.  

Etsuko, is Japanese for ‘joyful child’. After all the angst, the birth WAS joyful and the name fitted. Also, there is a Japanese poet called Etsuko Mori, and Mori is the surname of the actress who plays Toshiko in the series. So it seemed appropriate. And the surname - “Jack Ianto Alun Owens” – a bit sentimental, but what the hell.