Torchwood's Children is a lighter story than usual for Torchwood. Nobody dies. Nobody has anything really nasty happen. It is, essentially, a transition story. It takes up the story of the children born in ‘Chaulloachla’s’s Children’ nine months after the events of ‘Cuckoo’. Now they are three months old and strange things are going on. All four children are developing unusual skills. Now, this gave me some qualms when I thought of the idea. The trouble is, X-Men has done the whole mutant children threat to national security VERY well, in comic, cartoon and film format. Heroes, the new series from the USA, has also tackled the same idea in a rather more surreal way. So how to say something original about these babies?

How to find an original ‘special skill’ for them all? One with latent ESP, one with super-strength and two with apparently advanced intellect for their very young age, and Etsuko with invisibility, are crossing both X-Men and Heroes, but seriously, there ARE only so many superhero skills. Invisibility, of course, is the skill that Christopher Eccleston’s character has in Heroes, so a little nod to Torchwood’s origins there. But only a little one.

I haven’t yet decided at the time of writing how big a story arc this might be. Now they’ve found a way to keep Etsuko visible it probably won’t come in too often. I have a vague idea about Garrett’s bosses wanting to know if Torchwood know anything. But that might be a subplot, not a major storyline. Basically, though, this story was written because most of the feedback I had on forums and email was from people who assumed the babies WOULD be unusual in this kind of way. So I was giving the people what they wanted. Myfanwy laying an egg, and the question of where she came from originally, also came up in forum discussion so it went in as a subplot.

There was one small change to the original text. Baby Angharad was meant to spell Postman Pat in Welsh. But Postman Pat in Welsh is Postmyn Pat, which wouldn't be exotic enough. Instead Bob The Builder becomes Bob y Adeiladwr.

Aberdeen, of course, is where The Doctor left Sarah Jane in the old days of Doctor Who. Another in-joke. I was quite surprised how long it takes to get from there to Cardiff by train, though.

Jack on Cardiff station with a baby in a sling. The IMAGE just sounds so sweet. It had to go in there.#