Tag: BBC2

An attempted robbery in urban Cardiff ends with one of the criminals dead with a vicious wound left by some kind of blade, and the other in a coma – and a traumatized couple who seem to know nothing about what happened. Torchwood takes over the investigation from the police, and their interest quickly homes in on Beth, one of the couple who was attacked. Her statements don’t seem to add up, but her reactions to being in Torchwood custody seem perfectly normal for a scared civilian. When Jack insists on scanning her with a mind probe, only then does Beth’s true nature emerge – she’s not human at all, but an alien sleeper agent in human form, gathering intelligence and preparing to clear the way for an invasion. When the probe is discontinued, Beth’s seemingly human personality reasserts itself, but her alien physiology makes it impossible to isolate her by something as mundane as stasis or cryogenic freezing. She escapes the Torchwood hub with Jack and Gwen on her trail, but massive explosions, brutal murders and other incidents in and around Cardiff reveal that Beth isn’t the only sleeper agent there. The entire cell has reverted to a single-minded drive to complete the mission – and begin the invasion ahead of schedule.

written by James Moran
directed by Colin Teague
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Beth), Dyfed Potter (Mike), Doug Rollins (David), Claire Cage (David’s Wife), Sean Carlson (Mr. Grainger), Victoria Pugh (Mrs. Grainger), Luke Rutherford (Burglar 1), Alex Harries (Burglar 2), Dominic Coleman (Police Officer), Paul Kasey (Weevil), William Hughes (Boy), Millie Philippart (Girl), Matthew Arwel Pegram (Driver), Derek Lea (Paramedic)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

1918: A young soldier, trying to recover from shellshock experienced on the front in the war, is brought to a hospital in Cardiff – a hospital where the nurses claim to be seeing ghosts. Two people approach him, identifying themselves as members of Torchwood, and secure his immediate release, insisting that he come back to their base of operations with them.

2008: The soldier from 1918 is unfrozen and revived from suspended animation, as Torchwood’s modern-day counterparts try to figure out what connection he has to a series of disturbances in time, centered around the hospital from which he was taken. Toshiko is particularly taken with him, and is appalled to learn that the solution that will stitch the timelines back together in their natural order will require him to return to 1918 permanently. But worse, he won’t return only to be patched up and sent to the frontlines again – he’ll resume his shellshocked state and be executed by firing squad for “cowardice”. Knowing that this fate awaits him, can he muster the courage to return – or will Toshiko let him return – to his own time?

written by Helen Raynor
directed by Andy Goddard
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Anthony Lewis (Thomas), Roderic Culver (Gerald), Siobahn Hewlett (Harriet), Lizzie Rogan (Nurse), Ricky Fearon (Foreman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Torchwood responds to an accident involving a shipment of meat – from the packing plant where Rhys, Gwen’s fiance, works. The truck has wrecked, the driver is dead, and Jack and the team arrive to take a sample of the meat. Rhys has also gotten as call about the aaccident, and sees Gwen on the scene, assuming it’s part of her police work…but she later denies having been there. Owen identifies the meat, and as the team expected, it’s a creature that’s slipped through the rift. Suspicious, Rhys trails Gwen the next day, as she and the rest of her team converge on the slaughterhouse. But before he can confront her, he’s accosted by the men running the operation, and bluffs his way in…where he discovers that they’ve captured a huge, whale-like alien, still alive, which keeps growing and regenerating itself after meat is cut out of its body. Rhys tells Gwen about what he’s seen, and she brings him to the Hub, where it’s decided – very much against Gwen’s wishes – that Rhys is now Torchwood’s best chance to shut down the alien meat operation. Gwen feels that Rhys is taking on the assignment to impress her, trying to compete with her life of secrets and danger, but he temporarily joins the team anyway – even if this mission sends him to the abattoir.

written by Cahterine Tregenna
directed by Colin Teague
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Colin Baxter (Policeman), Patti Clare (Ruth), Garry Lake (Vic), Gerard Carey (Greg), Matt Ryan (Dale)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Rhys helps make Gwen just a little bit late for work, and when she arrives, there’s an unfamiliar face at Torchwood – a man named Adam who everyone else already seems to know. When he puts his hand on her shoulder, however, Gwen remembers him instantly – of course, it’s Adam, a longtime member of the Torchwood team. But when Gwen gets home, she suddenly can’t remember Rhys and thinks he’s an intruder (despite everyone else in Torchwood knowing who he is). Everyone confides in Adam, and more importantly, everyone’s got nothing but good memories of working with Adam. But by chance, Ianto encounters evidence that Adam isn’t a part of Torchwood and never has been – and when he confronts Adam with this discovery, Adam threatens to reveal Ianto’s dark secret.

written by Catherine Tregenna
directed by Andy Goddard
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Bryan Dick (Adam), Demetri Goritsas (Jack’s Father), Lauren Ward (Jack’s Mother), Jack Montgomery (young Jack), Ethan Brooke (Gray), Rhys Myers (young Ethan), Paul Kasey (Weevil), Jo McLaren (Murdered Woman)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The day before Gwen’s wedding is typical Torchwood – a desperate chase to track down a shapeshifting alien vampire from the rift, followed by a bachelorette party. But as the big day dawns, Gwen has more than jitters or the strange bite on her arm to deal with: she awakens to find that she’s not just pregnant, but very pregnant – almost to full term. Despite the reactions of everyone around her, from Rhys to his parents to her own parents, Gwen is determined to go ahead with the wedding. Owen discovers that the baby isn’t Rhys’s – nor is it that of any other human. The male of this vampire species reproduces by infesting a host body through a bite, and the egg grows in that body until the vampire female arrives to harvest it and give birth. Immediately the hunt is on for the female vampire among Gwen’s wedding guests, but even if she can be found and dealt with, the wedding might be derailed just a little bit – and then there’s the small matter of the rest of the wedding party witnessing a hunt for an alien creature.

written by Phil Ford
directed by Ashley Way
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Nerys Hughes (Brenda), Sharon Morgan (Mary), William Thomas (Geraint), Robin Griffith (Barry), Collette Brown (Carrie), Danielle Henry (Megan), Ceri Ann Gregory (Trina), Jonathan Lewis Owen (Banana Boat), Morgan Hopkins (Mervyn), Valerie Murray (Registrar), Pethrow Gooden (Shop Assistant)

Notes: Nerys Hughes guest starred as Todd in the 1982 Doctor Who story Kinda alongside Peter Davison.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

One of Cardiff’s oldest movie houses reopens its doors and celebrates by showing reels of nostalgic silent film discovered in the basement. Gwen, Ianto and Owen visit the first showing, but when the projector won’t shut off – and they see Jack in the film, billed as “the man who can’t die” at a traveling carnival and shooting himself – the silent movie quickly becomes a Torchwood matter. Soon after the film is shown, people begin turning up in a catatonic state near the theater, no longer breathing but still alive. One of the film reels is confiscated and taken back to the Torchwood hub, where Ianto notices that there are people missing from scenes – namely the carnival barker and his main attraction, the mermaid woman. But when the team returns to the theater, they find that not only are these two people there in the flesh, but they’re helping the rest of their carnival emerge from film and into reality – to help them claim more victims.

written by P.J. Hammond
directed by Jonathan Fox Bassett
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Julian Bleach (The Ghostmaker), Camilla Power (Pearl), Craig Gallivan (Jonathan), Gerard Carey (Greg), Steven Marzella (Dave Penn), Hazel Wyn Williams (Faith Penn), Lowri Sian Jones (Nettie), Eileen Essell (Christina), Anwen Carlisle (Restaurant Owner), Yasmin Wilde (Senior Nurse), Caroline Sheen (A&E Nurse), Alastair Sill (Young Dad), Catherine Olding (Young Mum)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

One of Gwen’s old friends in the Cardiff Police asks her to help with a missing persons case, and is disappointed by her apparent lack of interest – until she sees the surveillance video of the disappearance, which has two extraordinary features – a bright light, just out of the camera’s range, at the moment of the disappearance…and the presence of Jack Harkness in the very next frame. Gwen immediately confronts Jack about his whereabouts at the time, and finds his answer evasive. Despite a direct order from Jack to not waste Torchwood’s time with a missing persons case better suited to the police, Gwen pursues the investigation in her spare time, discovering that many more people have gone missing under similar circumstances – and she risks everything to confirm her gut feeling that Jack is involved.

written by Chris Chibnall
directed by Mark Everest
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Tom Price (PC Andy), Ruth Jones (Nikki), Robert Pugh (Jonah), Lorna Gayle (Helen), Oliver Ferriman (young Jonah)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

The late 1800s: After his death and miraculous resurrection are witnessed numerous times in Cardiff, Captain Jack Harkness – laying low in the city after his return from the 51st century, as he waits for the TARDIS to appear and refuel from the rift – is captured by Torchwood. They experiment on him, killing him numerous times, and decide that, like the Doctor, he is an unnatural threat that Torchwood must deal with – unless he pledges his allegiance to them and works for them. Distrustful at first, Jack decides to take Torchwood up on its offer, and begins working to evolve the alien-hunting agency beyond its original mandate.

2002: Toshiko Sato, an IT expert with high security clearances, uses her position to obtain classified plans for a top-secret weapon, which she builds and hands over to the people who are holding her mother hostage. But she hasn’t covered her tracks well enough, because UNIT troops mount a raid during the handover. Toshiko is arrested and held in close confinement with no contact with the outside world, until Captain Jack Harkness arrives, offering her a job with a top-secret agency…

2005: Dr. Owen Harper is baffled when his fiancee begins experiencing the earliest onset of Alzheimer’s Disease in recorded medical history. Owen insists on new MRI scans, which detect an unusual, fast-growing tumor. But Owen’s future bride dies in the operating room, and Owen witnesses the arrival of a man named Captain Jack, who claims that his fiancee has been the victim of an alien parasite. Jack later offers Owen a job with his top-secret agency, saying he needs a medical expert.

2006: While hunting a Weevil solo, Jack is cornered until a young man comes to his aid, clubbing the Weevil and allowing Jack to subdue him. When the stranger casually remarks that the creature looks like a Weevil, Jack rushes away. Jack finds this young man, one Ianto Jones, waiting for him outside of Torchwood’s Cardiff headquarters the next day. Ianto, jobless after the destruction of Torchwood One at Canary Wharf, is looking for a job – and he looks good in a suit. After he proves his worth, Jack may just have one for him.

2008: Minus Gwen, who has overslept, Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team investigate odd readings indicating alien activity. But instead they find bombs mere seconds away from detonating. An old enemy of Jack’s has returned, and the rest of Jack’s team may regret the day they signed up.

written by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jonathan Fox Bassett
music by Ben Foster

Guest Cast: Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Amy Manson (Alice Guppy), Heather Carney (Emily Holroyd), Paul Kasey (Blowfish / Weevil), Skye Bennett (Little Girl), Julian Lewis Jones (Alex), Simon Shackleton (Bob), Gareth Jones (Security Guard), Claire Clifford (Milton), Noriko Aida (Toshiko’s Mother), Andrea Lowe (Katie), Richard Lloyd-King (Doctor), Catherine Morris (Nurse), Selva Rasalingam (Psychiatrist), James Marsters (Captain John Hart), Lachlan Nieboer (Gray)

LogBook entry by Earl Green