Ng

Ng
Main aliases:	The Herald, Gwen Cooper
Species:	Ng's species
Job:	Operative, personal assistant
Affiliated with:	Torchwood Three
Children:	Child
First appearance:	Changes Everything
Appearances:	see list
Main voice actor:	Alexandria Riley

Ng was a Torchwood Three operative in the 2010s and 2020s.

Escaping her role as the herald of God, Ng hid in the body of Gwen Cooper until she was exposed, after which Yvonne Hartman kept her on as a member of Torchwood. She made an effort to make amends and helped deal with the effects of God's arrival in Cardiff and fight the Committee, restarting Torchwood to fight Friend following the team's split.

Biography

Origin

Ng, as she would later be called, belonged to a species which did not value love and, as a result, she grew up believing that survival was the most important thing. She bore a child on the Astrals of Evertide and would later think back on the Mothers of Serenity, her child's first starbathe and twilight union and the Mills of Deliverance.

Ng encountered the Mist and made a deal with it; she would gain the ability to possess the bodies of others and the Mist would get the discarded souls of those she possessed. The first body that she stole was her child's, an act which she felt no guilt over. Her powers caught the attention of God, (AUDIO: Misty Eyes) who chose her to become her herald and to travel from planet to planet preparing species for God's arrival, (AUDIO: Future Pain) providing the Mist with numerous souls. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

Eventually, Ng, known as the Herald, tired of all the death that resulted from God's attempt to find a world ready for her love. (AUDIO: Future Pain) She tried to save several planets, but she was unsuccessful as nobody ever listened to her. (AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers)

Hiding from God

Becoming Gwen

When a number of Sorvix fled Sorva through the Rift, Ng followed them to Cardiff and chose to inhabit the body of Gwen Cooper, whom she found interesting and was ideal because of her exposure to Rift energy, to hide from God. (AUDIO: Future Pain) She took over her body, although she was sometimes able to hear Gwen's voice, and pretended to be her for several months, (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn) with Rhys Williams noticing a change in their relationship. (AUDIO: Love Rat)

Ng helped defeat an artificial intelligence created by Friend which copied people's voices to persuade them to buy products. Mr Colchester believed that something was behind the intelligence, but the team were soon distracted by other alien threats before they could investigate further. (AUDIO: How I Conquered the World) These threats included the Sorvix, whose presence in Cardiff Jack Harkness and Mr Colchester became aware of. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)

Raising suspicion

When Torchwood learnt that the Sorvix intended on killing Tyler Steele because of his investigation into the Red Doors Programme, Ng saved him from the bombing of the Refugee Crisis Centre and got him to the Hub where she offered him a job, but he ran away. She woke Tyler up when he was knocked unconscious at a candlelight vigil and took him a coffee after he was rejected by Jack for showing a disregard for human life. (AUDIO: Changes Everything) He went on to get a job with the Mayor.

Ng with a gun. (AUDIO: Among Us 1)

Ng went with Mr Colchester to gather information by observing Madrigal's hen night and called Andy Davidson to have her and the other Sorvix arrested after they killed a stripper and Dean, but the two of them were instead forced to run from 3Sol with Madrigal. After learning more about the Sorvix, Ng returned home and shot Mary Cooper when she told her how she did not feel like she knew her anymore. (AUDIO: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy)

Rhys was concerned by Ng's lack of a reaction to Mary's death, which she explained away by claiming that she blamed herself for it, and they attended Mary's funeral where Ng gave Gwen the opportunity to say goodbye to her mother. Ng intended to go to the Hub after the ceremony and told Rhys to back off when he told her to stay at home, but she relented for the sake of appearances and did not return to work until the next day, when she met Orr and was worried about her ability to get into people's heads. (AUDIO: Orr)

Learning of the Cardiff Bay Intelligent Hotel and Spa from Tyler, Ng went with Mr Colchester to investigate and called in Orr after they failed to make any headway, believing that as an alien they might be more successful. She saved the life of Lady Dakar with CPR and decided that the hotel's computer brain would be taken to the Hub following its defeat, upsetting Orr. Gwen told Ng that she would not give in or give up, but Ng ignored her. (AUDIO: Superiority Complex)

Ng sent Mr Colchester to Bide-a-Wee Care Home to investigate the Committee, but he was unable to learn much from Roy. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

New Cardiff

Ng was informed by Andy that Jack had been killed, so she and Orr joined him and Jack at the mortuary until Orr repeatedly and painfully shifted between forms and had to be taken to the Hub. There, Ng had sex with Jack and they managed to work out that he and several others had been infected with a parasite for which they got a cure from Ro-Jedda thanks to Tyler. When Ng returned home, she found Rhys crying about their relationship and how different she seemed to be, but she decided against killing him and they instead had sex. (AUDIO: Love Rat)

Unbeknownst to Ng, her willingness to have sex with Jack started to make him suspicious of her. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)

Tyler contacted Ng to ask her to investigate Deliverables, but she was busy dealing with Anwen, who told her that she hated her, and had Orr do the research instead. The two of them concluded that Deliverables was using people as a Rift Manipulator and Ng set fire to the water mains on Newport Road to cause maximum disruption, putting an end to Ro-Jedda's influence over the Rift. Thanks to advice from Orr, Ng was able to placate Anwen and said that she was Anwen's new favourite. (AUDIO: Zero Hour)

Ng accused Ro-Jedda of framing Andy for the murder of a refugee and worked to exonerate him, leading Mr Colchester to find that both Andy and Pete Bunton had attended Helen White's diversity seminars. She found blueprints for White's control device whilst looking for her and eventually tracked her down to the docks, where she and her Sorvix bodyguards had been executed as part of a cover-up. When Jack forced a compromise by which Andy was exonerated and 3Sol took over policing, Ng confronted him with Mr Colchester and Ng and Yvonne Hartman arrived to take over. (AUDIO: The Empty Hand)

Exposure

Despite Jack forbidding anybody from speaking with Yvonne, Ng spoke with her in the cells and began to turn against Jack after she claimed that he was connected to Red Doors, whom she also claimed were detonating glitterbombs around the city. Jack's connection was confirmed thanks to CCTV and a fireworm inside Xander Vaughn, so Ng shot him and had Yvonne released to take over from him. She agreed to stay on under her, as did Mr Colchester and Orr, whilst Jack was made to leave and joined Red Doors at Yvonne's suggestion. (AUDIO: Poker Face)

Ng with her arms crossed. (AUDIO: Tagged)

Tyler contacted Ng about Michael Hughes's murder and she was sent by Yvonne to investigate, visiting Andy and asking Serena to get a hold of CCTV footage from a camera which she had been unaware of. Serena, having been the one to kill Mike, hit Ng with her car and a man tried to take her to hospital, but Ng realised that her form was shifting and retconned him after considering killing him. As Serena left for a new life, Ng forced a gun into her hand and killed her, making it look like a suicide, to keep her alien nature a secret. (AUDIO: Tagged)

At Yvonne's suggestion, Ng, Rhys, Mr Colchester and Colin Colchester-Price went to the Escape Room where they were knocked unconscious with gas and made to solve various puzzles made by Escape during which Colin thought it was strange that Ng rarely showed concern for Rhys. She and Rhys had to electric shock one another to climb ladders, which led to a fight between the two of them, and she pulled a lever which she believed would kill Mr Colchester in order to get out. Afterwards, she returned to the Escape Room to interrogate Escape, who said that God would soon arrive. (AUDIO: Escape Room)

When the Rift began to go out of control, Yvonne had Mr Colchester, who was still unhappy with Ng because of her actions in the Escape Room, monitor it and sent Ng to help Andy look into doggers who had burnt to death. The survivors spread word of God and Ng returned to the Hub to prevent her arrival, shooting an assassin who had been sent by Ro-Jedda to kill Tyler and helping him and Mr Colchester close the Rift. However, Jack insisted that they stop to provoke a reaction from Ng, whom Orr was suddenly able to read and identify as an impostor, and the Rift split her and Gwen. She was rendered unconscious, slowly developing her own form. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)

Becoming Ng

Making amends

Ng chose her name as it was the word that her people used to describe an impossible weight that one had to carry. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes) Yvonne employed her help in getting information from Ro-Jedda, locking her up in the next cell and having her pretend to be a prisoner wanting to leave Earth. She ate rats whilst imprisoned as she needed the protein to stabilise her new form and learnt that Ro-Jedda intended to scorch the Earth once the Sorvix rescued her, which led to Yvonne killing Ro-Jedda. Ng was released. (AUDIO: Future Pain)

Whilst Gwen left the city, (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn) Ng was allowed to join Torchwood. (AUDIO: Hostile Environment) Jack did not trust her, however, (AUDIO: See No Evil) and compiled a file on her from what little information she gave him, which he sent on to Gwen. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

Brent Hayden became aware of Ng and imagined her as an assassin with an English accent. (AUDIO: The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood)

Ng with a gun. (AUDIO: Night Watch)

Ng was upset by how Jack was avoiding her and was only acknowledged by him after a predator shrouded the city in darkness, leaving everybody blind. She was left in the Hub with Orr whilst Jack and Yvonne left with night-vision goggles, but she was forced to run when the predator entered and Orr started developing its teeth and urges, finding herself briefly in the presence of God and apologising to her. God remained silent and, unbeknownst to Ng, sent the predator away. (AUDIO: See No Evil)

That night, the Night Sun puts most people to sleep to feed on their dreams, but Ng remained awake by maintaining physical contact with Yvonne, who was wearing a caffeine ring. Jack accused her of deleting the results of a scan of the Night Sun when the computer claimed that it had not yet begun a scan, which Yvonne instead attributed to a figure that the three of them then went looking for. When Ng and Jack started arguing, Yvonne let Ng fall asleep as she did not completely trust her, but she apologised to Ng in the morning. (AUDIO: Night Watch)

The Reset

Ng was on a mission when she spotted Tyler begging on the streets and agreed to have coffee with him at some point. She and Mr Colchester later went to investigate an anonymous report of a Weevil and were tagged with the Oblation app by Tyler, who had lured them there, to force them to listen to him and help him stop the man behind it. Ng was initially angry at Tyler, but she regretted not having listened to him sooner and he was allowed to stay at the Hub by Yvonne. (AUDIO: Hostile Environment)

After Yvonne and Andy swapped bodies, Ng had Andy making tea in the Hub and looked into the phenomenon, tracking a biotrace to Evolved technology in an ice cream van. There, she found God, who told her that she was proud of her and that she had switched Yvonne and Andy, as well as Tyler and Norton Folgate, as part of a test. Ng refused to pass judgement on her teammates, pleasing God, and she and Mr Colchester switched off the Evolved technology, restoring everybody to normal. (AUDIO: Another Man's Shoes)

Still not entirely trusted by Jack, Ng joined him, Mr Colchester and Norton in the Torchwood submersible to stop the Sorvix power plant in the Bristol Channel, soon to go into meltdown, from destroying western Europe. She and Mr Colchester placed detonators around the station and blasted their way in through the hatch against Yvonne's orders, discovering that she and Norton were working with the Committee. They got Jack, whom Norton had used to absorb energy, into the submersible before the station was used by the Committee to cause a tsunami which hit Cardiff. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)

After the flood

Ng and Mr Colchester. (AUDIO: ScrapeJane)

Torchwood was discredited thanks to Jack's actions at the Disaster Recovery Committee's inquiry, (AUDIO: A Mother's Son) but Ng and Mr Colchester continued their work and investigated the death of Jeff Morris as he and Niamh recorded a Cardiff Unknown episode on ScrapeJane. Although she did not initially believe in the myth of ScrapeJane, she did after she had to knock out Mr Colchester to save him from being killed by her and realised that God's lack of belief in herself was responsible for ScrapeJane becoming real. She eventually destroyed it by smashing the stained-glass window that inspired Meredith Pope and telling Meredith a story that she believed in. (AUDIO: ScrapeJane)

On Day Zero, Ng and Mr Colchester pretended to be from Water Wales in order to analyse the poisonous mould which caused the drought and went to the Ritz Tower camp where people fought over control of water created by Orr with God's powers. Ng was worried about Jack after he was shot by a security guard because, as pointed out by Andy, he remained dead for much longer than usual. The drought was ended when Orr washed their hands of humanity and made it rain. (AUDIO: Day Zero)

Ng took Mr Colchester to a storage unit to collect Orr, who had become a conduit to God and whom Ng was best equipped to calm due to her relative emptiness when compared to humans. The three of them tried to get out of the city in Colin's car, but a mob stopped them and they were taken to the Hub by Andy where Ng and Mr Colchester located the Lens for Yvonne to use to direct Orr's powers through the Committee's dimension bridge to destroy Erebus. Ng, Jack, Mr Colchester, Tyler and Orr left the city to avoid arrest whilst Andy took Yvonne into custody. (AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers)

On the run

Torchwood restarts

Torchwood split up and Ng lost contact with Jack. (AUDIO: Aliens Next Door) Feeling guilty for what she had done to Gwen, she got in contact with Kristin Magnúsdóttir of the Icelandic Tourism Information Centre and suggested that she headhunt Gwen to resume fighting aliens. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

Ng on the cul-de-sac. (AUDIO: Aliens Next Door)

Ng received files on the residents of a cul-de-sac from a temping agency and moved into Betty Clerihew's house with Orr to observe Hakan Amine, but she tried to keep Orr from protecting Hakan on account of their empathic powers. Eventually, the two of them offered to save Hakan and helped him escape when his neighbours set fire to his house, after which Orr became overcome by the neighbours' hatred and handed Ng over to them as a scapegoat for their anger. She fought back until she saw her ugliness reflected in Orr's form and then they left, aware that Friend was attempting to manipulate the human race. (AUDIO: Aliens Next Door)

Hoping to have the opportunity to apologise to Gwen, Ng visited her and Rhys in Iceland and made a shield generator out of volcanic rock and speedboat engines to trap them in their lighthouse after realising that the Mist had come to claim Gwen. She became trapped herself until her attempt to contact Kristin broke the force field and was prepared to commit suicide to save Gwen, but, at Gwen's insistence, she expressed her regret to the soul of her child and showed the Mist that she was no longer the person who made the deal. Ng left with Rhys's thanks. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

Ng and Orr got in contact with Mr Colchester and Orr, (AUDIO: Pariahs) who helped investigate Friend. (AUDIO: Moderation) They were also given money by Gwen and Rhys to help restart Torchwood. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes)

Phlobos inquiry

Ng and Orr, armed. (AUDIO: Pariahs)

Ng joined the temping agency that directed her to Mrs Clerihew's cul-de-sac to help put together an inquiry into Phlobos's collection of medical data during the COVID-19 pandemic and learnt that her boss was Yvonne, whom Tyler had helped liberate from HMP Whitcastle. She escorted Orr and Kyle Lansman to the inquiry when they landed in England and Kyle's testimony led to Graham Graves admitting to creating a nanogenetic weapon which proceeded to wipe out everyone in the room but Torchwood. Whilst Yvonne disappeared, Ng, Mr Colchester, Tyler and Orr were confronted by armed police warned of a terrorist attack. (AUDIO: Pariahs)

Ng, along with Mr Colchester, Tyler and Orr, experienced a "psychic boast" in which Friend relayed the story of its origins and rise to power. Although Friend intended for Torchwood to be killed by the police and made scapegoats, Yvonne saved Ng and the others in a tank and took them by minibus to the Cardiff Hub in Cardiff Bay, which became their base as they waited for the Hub to be safe from the Rift scar energy (AUDIO: How I Conquered the World) released by Bilis Manger. (AUDIO: Cuckoo)

Fighting Friend

When several influencer continued making live streams despite having been killed, Ng sent Tyler to monitor Chris and Mr Colchester to monitor Flavella whilst she and Orr looked into the deaths of Octavia and Katie Dazzle. The pair discovered that People Fluid was staffed by deepfakes and Ng tried to get Tyler to convince Chris to redownload the app so that Torchwood could analyse how it killed people, but she had to resort to subterfuge by leaving Chris a mobile phone at his door and was unsuccessful when she tried to save his life. (AUDIO: Doomscroll)

Ng was given a presentation on Deadcoin by Yvonne and was tasked with working with Mr Colchester to cause a city-wide power cut in Carcassonne so that Yvonne could get access to Anya Belasco's office at Deadcoin headquarters. They were successful and Friend's plan to cause economic collapse was thwarted. (AUDIO: Heistland)

Ng and Yvonne. (AUDIO: Among Us 3)

To ensure that Janet allowed Yvonne onto Janet's Late Teatime as part of a plan to stop Friend from sending out a pulse to activate its nanogenetic weapons, Ng got a job as her personal assistant and helped her get to Porchester Studios after she left Mr Colchester's taxi. The day's events, including Ng attacking a guard, convinced Janet to permit Yvonne's appearance on the programme and lead to Friend being defeated and leaving the body of Tommy Jenkins. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Starts at 6PM)

Personality

Ng initially lacked any kind of empathy and did not give any consideration to the people whose bodies she stole, even her own child. Her time possessing Gwen however led to her developing a greater sense of humanity, to the point she and Gwen were able to argue the person she had once been was effectively dead. As a result she never intended to steal a body again. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes) Ng was still somewhat manipulative however, such as deliberately withholding information from Orr whilst investigating a cul-de-sac. (AUDIO: Aliens Next Door)

Yvonne described Ng as a hard worker and a good team player, (AUDIO: See No Evil) and believed that she was far more dependable than Jack for handling day-to-day administration. (AUDIO: Another Man's Shoes) Though he was initially reluctant to even talk to her, (AUDIO: See No Evil) Jack eventually came to trust her. (AUDIO: Misty Eyes) She took three sugars in her tea after developing a sweet tooth. (AUDIO: Another Man's Shoes)

Behind the scenes

• The character mostly pretends to be Gwen Cooper and, hence, was never named in the Aliens Among Us audios. "Ng" (pronounced "eng") was the way she was presented in the cast lists. In interviews, it was mostly treated as an abbreviation of "not Gwen", and at least once as "new Gwen". The name Ng (with this pronunciation) was used in-universe starting from God Among Us 1.
• James Goss and Scott Handcock said that the character was pitched by Russell T Davies, who helped to develop Aliens Among Us for Big Finish Productions. It was the only way to include Gwen Cooper in Aliens Among Us due to the unavailability of Eve Myles for most of the recording sessions for the ongoing series. However, Eve recorded a few lines in a single day for the real Gwen, which were used throughout the series, and the final monologue (written by Davies himself) for the final episode, Herald of the Dawn. Though unavailable for the ongoing series, Eve returned to play Gwen for many standalone stories for Big Finish. (BFX: Aliens Among Us 3)
• According to Goss and Handcock, Alexandria Riley's performance as Gwen "fooled quite a few people", who, upon listening to the first episode of the series, thought that it was Eve Myles playing Gwen. (BFX: Aliens Among Us 3)
• Russell T Davies suggested that "Not Gwen" should kill Andy Davidson, but Goss and Handcock felt it would be too much, as the character is very much loved by the whole team and the fans, and replaced Andy with Gwen's mother. (BFX: Aliens Among Us 3)