On Monday at 8pm, BBC America’s top-rated series, Torchwood, premieres its third season. Created by Doctor Who’s Russell T. Davies, the zippy-fun sci-fi show shifts from its previous 13 episodes per season to a five-part miniseries. I talked recently with actor John Barrowman, who stars as ambi-sexual Captain Jack Harkness, head of Torchwood, a covert operation looking into not-so-nice extraterrestrial incursions. The Scottish native and onetime Illinoisan explained that the episode reduction has to do with Britain’s BBCs 1, 2 and 3: In moving to flagship-station BBC 1 and gunning for its larger audience, the series, for now, becomes one of the channel’s “event TV” miniseries.

British-network politics aside, if the first part of Torchwood: Children of Earth, is a reliable indication, parts two through five should make for an enjoyable week’s viewing. (The miniseries airs from Monday 20 through Friday 24, 8pm each night.) Torchwood’s charm is maintaining the low-tech ethos of Doctor Who while giving it a higher-tech, contemporary sheen. The writers know the advantage of not overdoing it: Here, the most arresting images are simply little kids who, apparently thanks to intrusive aliens, stop moving—not in the CGI sense but in the live-action, holding-still sense. The images of a group of kids in blue school uniforms followed by another in red uniforms—all silent and still, then screaming, then chanting, “We are coming” in creepy-possessed-kid mode—make for some good ol’ sci-fi entertainment.

And the secondary plot about the relationship between Captain Jack and his fellow Torchwooder, Ianto, gives some character grist to this fantasy-show mill. In the midst of potential world-invasion mayhem, Torchwood inserts a touching, delightful scene between Ianto and his sister, who’s upset at her brother not for suddenly going gay but for not telling her all about it.