Children of Earth : Day One ( TV story ) Children of Earth : Day One was the first episode of the third series of " Torchwood " . It marked the beginning of the end for the Torchwood Institute as it had been established over the course of two series by eliminating almost all of its technological resources . It saw two great losses : the destruction of the Torchwood 3 headquarters and the theft of their trademark vehicle . Gwen Cooper also discovered she had recently become pregnant , a discovery which was soon followed by one of Captain Jack Harkness ' s most gratuitous deaths to date . This story featured the second appearance of Peter Capaldi portraying a character within the " Doctor Who " universe . He previously had the role of Caecilius in the story " The Fires of Pompeii " , and would later play the Doctor himself - specifically , the Twelfth Doctor . Synopsis . When all child ren on Earth stop and start chanting " We Are Coming " , the Torchwood team investigates . Could this be the start of a global crisis ? Plot . One night in Scotland , 1965 , young children are driven in a school bus to an undisclosed location . When the bus stops , the children exit and walk towards a light . It grows brighter as they draw closer . One hesitates , then flees as the light covers a large area . Forty - four years later , in Cardiff , September 2009 , at 8 : 40am GMT , Gwen Cooper is withdrawing money from an ATM when she notices two children standing completely still and unresponsive . In fact , all the children all over the United Kingdom freeze . After a minute , the children start moving again , acting as if nothing has happened . Gwen goes to the Hub and begins to investigate the incident . At a hospital , Dr Rupesh Patanjali fails to save a man ' s life . Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones , whom Dr Patanjali believes are the man ' s neighbours , ask to see the body alone . Jack uses a laser saw to open the corpse . He extracts an alien organ . Dr Patanjali re - enters , sees the alien organ and asks if the men are Torchwood . Jack quickly denies it . Dr Patanjali tells them the bodies of five ethnic males have vanished over the past two months . Jack tells him it ' s a problem for the NHS . Ianto and he drive away . Back at the Hub , Gwen tells them what has happened with the children . A woman named Lois Habiba begins her first day at work for her new boss , Bridget Spears , assistant to the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office , John Frobisher . Frobisher is visited by UNIT Colonel Oduya , who tells him children " stopped " at the exact same time all over the world , as the Torchwood team also discovers . Oduya says UNIT has gone to yellow alert , although they don ' t know if the phenomenon is extraterrestrial in origin . Dr Patanjali wanders in the plaza outside the Hub . Gwen goes to meet him , as the self - appointed " recruitment officer , " since , as Jack says , the team needs a doctor . While they talk , all the children again suddenly stop at 10 : 30 am . They scream , then chant in unison : " We are coming . " The Torchwood team later discovers that an adult patient in a mental institution in East Grinstead — Timothy White — also stopped and spoke the same words . Every child in the world said the same words . Mr Dekker , head of MI5 ' s technology division , who is also in charge of alien monitoring , tells Frobisher the aliens called the 456 have re - established contact for the first time since 1965 . Frobisher meets with the Prime Minister , Brian Green , and suggests , " It might be best if certain historical events were taken off the record . " Green agrees , but refuses Frobisher ' s request he issue a " blank page " ; he doesn ' t want his name attached . Green puts Frobisher in charge of the crisis so Green can have deniability if things go wrong . Lois fields a phone call from Jack Harkness . When she logs it , the computer flags Torchwood as classified . Curious , she logs on as Bridget Spears and finds Torchwood was established to defend the Earth against extraterrestrial threats . Back at the Hub , Jack and Ianto agree they need to question a child . Jack visits his daughter , Alice Carter , and her son Steven , his grandson . Alice refuses to let Jack use Steven . Ianto visits his sister , Rhiannon Davies . He tries to talk her into letting him take one of her children on an " outing " , but she refuses . She also asks Ianto about his having been seen out to dinner with a man . Ianto admits his feelings for Jack . He explains he doesn ' t have an inkling for men , but Jack has affected him differently , so he isn ' t broadcasting his sexual choices . Rhiannon promises him that she will not tell anyone about his relationship . However , it becomes evident she gossiped to her husband Johnny when he walks in and thoughtlessly calls Ianto a " gay boy " who , according to his wife , has been " taking it up the arse " . Feeling humiliated , he takes the riffing with a grain of salt and puts up with Johnny to save face . Suddenly , a car alarm begins wailing . Johnny looks out the window and asks whom the " black car " belongs to . Ianto confirms it as the Torchwood SUV . Ianto ignores Johnny ' s warning that his car is a target on their estate . He puts too much faith in the vehicle ' s triple deadlock , a costly mistake . Johnny alerts him a few hooligans have broken into the company car with ease . Panicked , Ianto bursts outside to find the SUV nowhere in sight . Johnny says the local thieves always do a victory lap to parade around in their stolen ride and takes the opportunity to pelt them with bricks on the pass around , rather than calling the authorities as Ianto requests . Surely enough , the Torchwood SUV blazes back into view one last time . The joyriding jokers cheer and whoop as they drive off with the car , one of them mooning the group as they pass by . David cheers the joyriders on from his bedroom window , which earns him a scolding from Rhiannon . An exasperated Ianto watches the car disappear around a corner as Johnny chases the thieves with an armload of bricks . Gwen visits Timothy White . He tells her that when he was a child he was put on a bus and taken away with a group of children ; they were told they were going to a new home . He watched the other children approach a bright light , which took them . He escaped ; he got scared and ran away . His real name is Clem McDonald . He has an unusually heightened sense of smell . Clem tells Gwen the aliens are coming back , that he has been smelling them for months — and that she is three weeks pregnant . Gwen calls Ianto , now back at the Hub , and tells him to start a search for information about MacDonald , missing children , and Scotland . Ianto ' s research triggers an alarm at an unidentified military monitoring station . At the Home Office , Frobisher orders Bridget Spears to issue a blank page , an order to kill . Four people are on the list . One is Captain Jack Harkness . The others are Colonel Michael Sanders , Ellen Hunt and Captain Andrew Staines . Lois sees Bridget is distressed . She goes into Bridget ' s e - mail account and finds the blank page order , recognising Jack ' s name from his earlier phone call . Jack returns to Cardiff hospital , hoping to question a child in the children ' s ward . Dr Patanjali tells him that another ethnic man has died ; when Jack goes with him to examine the body , Dr Patanjali shoots him . A young woman named Johnson comes in and waits until Jack revives , proving the rumours about his immortality . She kills Jack again , then orders her men to surgically implant a bomb in his body . Patanjali is a spy , under orders to infiltrate Torchwood . Johnson kills Patanjali to stop Jack from finding him and learning why he was shot . Jack revives again and returns to the Hub . Gwen uses a scanner at Torchwood . Clement ' s claims are true ; she is pregnant . Jack arrives and places his hand on hers , inadvertently scanning himself , finding the bomb in his stomach . He tells Gwen and Ianto to get out . He kisses Ianto , watches him rise on the elevator , and tells him , " I ' ll come back . . . I always do . " The Hub blows up in a massive explosion , knocking the running Gwen to the ground . Meanwhile , all of the children chant , " We are coming , we are coming , we are coming . . . back " . Story notes . Filming locations . " to be added "