Small Worlds (TV story): Difference between revisions

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{{Infobox Story SMW
{{Infobox Torchwood
|image                 = SmallWorlds1.jpg
|image = [[file:Fairy.jpg|250px]]
|series               = ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]''
|story name = Small Worlds
|season number         = Series 1 (Torchwood)
|series = [[Torchwood]] - [[List of Torchwood television stories|TV Stories]]
|series episode number = 5
|series number = [[Series 1 (Torchwood)|Series 1]]
|scripturl      = https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/documents/torchwood-1-episode-5-small-worlds-yellow-revisions-02102006.pdf
|number = 5
|main character        = [[Jack Harkness|Jack]], [[Gwen Cooper|Gwen]], [[Owen Harper|Owen]], [[Toshiko Sato|Tosh]], [[Ianto Jones|Ianto]]
|featuring = <ul><li>[[Jack Harkness]]</li><li>[[Gwen Cooper]]</li><li>[[Toshiko Sato]]</li><li>[[Owen Harper]]</li><li>[[Ianto Jones]]</ul>
|featuring            = [[Rhys Williams|Rhys]]
|enemy = [[Fairies]]<br>[[Jasmine Pierce]]<br>[[Mark Goodson]]<br>[[Roy (Small Worlds)|Roy]]
|enemy                 = [[Fairy|Fairies]]
|setting = [[Cardiff]], [[2007]]
|setting              = [[Cardiff]], [[2000s]]{{note|Episodes 1-10 of the [[Series 1 (Torchwood)|first series]] of ''[[Torchwood (series)|Torchwood]]'' are set anywhere from [[2006]]-[[2009]] as a result of [[Aliens of London dating controversy|conflicting evidence]] shown in the episodes {{cs|Ghost Machine (TV story)}}, {{cs|Greeks Bearing Gifts (TV story)}}, {{cs|Random Shoes (TV story)}}, {{cs|To the Last Man (TV story)}}, {{cs|Reset (TV story)}}, {{cs|Adrift (TV story)}}, {{cs|Fragments (TV story)}}, {{cs|Exit Wounds (TV story)}}, and {{cs|The New World (TV story)}}. As episode 10, {{cs|Out of Time (TV story)}}, is set at the end of [[December]], this means that episodes 11-13 are almost certainly set the year after episodes 1-10.}}
|writer = [[Peter J. Hammond]]
|writer               = Peter J. Hammond
|director = [[Alice Troughton]]
|director             = [[Alice Troughton]]
|producer = [[Richard Stokes]]
|producer             = [[Richard Stokes]]
|broadcast date = [[12th November]] [[2006]]
|broadcast date       = 12 November 2006
|previous story = [[Cyberwoman]]
|network              = BBC Three
|next story = [[Countrycide]]
|prev                  = Cyberwoman (TV story)
|next                 = Countrycide (TV story)
|clip                  = Captain Jack Encounters the Fairies Small Worlds Torchwood
|clip2                = Captain Jack Lets Jasmine Go Small Worlds Torchwood
|format                = 1x47-minute episode
}}
}}
'''''Small Worlds''''' is the fifth episode of the [[Series 1 (Torchwood)|first series]] of ''[[Torchwood]]''.
'''''Small Worlds''''' was the fifth episode in the [[Series 1 (Torchwood)|first series]] of ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]''. It was written by [[Peter J. Hammond]], and directed by [[Alice Troughton]].
 
It was the first story to explore [[Jack Harkness|Jack]]'s past in any detail, such as revealing that Jack had been in a relationship with a [[British]] woman, [[Estelle Cole]], in the mid-[[20th century]].
 
== Synopsis ==
== Synopsis ==
Jack encounters monsters from his past: Fairies, with the ability to choke people and change the weather, make a series of killings centered around a little girl, the [[Chosen One]].
[[Jack Harkness|Jack]] encounters monsters from his past: [[Fairy|fairies]], with the ability to choke people with [[rose]] petals and control the [[weather]], make a series of [[kill]]ings centred around a little girl, the [[Chosen One]]. He also reunites with an old friend, but will [[Estelle Cole]] be safe when she starts to get a little too close to these fairies? And how can [[Torchwood Three|Torchwood]] stop a force from the dawn of time, masters of [[Earth]], their domain? More importantly, what is so crucial about a little girl named [[Jasmine Pierce|Jasmine]], for whom these creatures will gladly tear the world apart?


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
At the Torchwood Hub, Jack wakes from a nightmare of dead soldiers in a train carriage with rose petals spilling out of their mouths, to find a single rose petal atop his desk. Ianto informs Jack that there are strange weather patterns in the area. The next day, Jack takes Gwen to visit an old friend of his, [[Estelle Cole]], who is giving a talk on fairies. Estelle shows them the Cottingley Fairies photographs, then compares them to photographs she had taken the day before, and claims to have found proof of the fairy's existence. After her talk at her home, Jack and Estelle discuss the photographs and the nature of fairies. Gwen asks Estelle and Jack about an old photograph she found of Jack, but they both claim that that was Jack's father who had relations with Estelle during World War II, and Jack looks just like him. Jack asks Estelle to call if she encounters any more fairies. On the way back to Torchwood, Jack explains to Gwen that the fairies are in fact creatures from the dawn of time and are not bound by linear time, and can be very dangerous. Jack instructs Toshiko to watch for strange weather patterns in the area in order to locate the fairies.
An [[Estelle Cole|elderly woman]] walks through the woods at night, speaking into a tape recorder about what she hopes to witness. Peeking round a bush, she sees a number of small glowing winged lifeforms, fluttering and giggling over a small circle of standing stones. Ecstatic at seeing her "little darlings", the woman snaps a few pictures before leaving. She doesn't notice them transform into something a lot more dangerous-looking, something that looks very displeased at being discovered...
 
At [[the Hub]], [[Jack Harkness|Jack]] wakes from a [[nightmare]] of dead [[soldier]]s in a [[train]] carriage with [[rose]] petals spilling out of their mouths. He finds a single rose petal atop his desk. [[Ianto Jones|Ianto]], still in-office, informs Jack about strange weather patterns in the area.
 
The next day, Jack takes [[Gwen Cooper|Gwen]] to visit an old friend of his, [[Estelle Cole]], give a talk on [[fairy|fairies]]. Estelle shows them the [[Cottingley fairy photos]], then compares them to [[photograph]]s she had taken the day before. She claims to have found proof of the fairies' existence.
 
After her presentation, Jack and Estelle discuss the photographs and the nature of fairies at her home. Gwen asks Estelle and Jack about an old photograph she found of Jack. They both claim it is of Jack's father, and say that he had a relationship with Estelle during [[World War II]]. Estelle mentions that Jack looks and walks just like his father. Jack interrupts that thought, and asks Estelle to let him know if she encounters any more fairies.
 
On the way back to Torchwood, Jack explains to Gwen that the fairies are creatures from the dawn of time and are not bound by linear [[time]]. He says that the fairies can be very dangerous. Jack instructs [[Toshiko Sato|Toshiko]] to watch for strange weather patterns in the area in order to locate the creatures.
 
Meanwhile, a young girl, [[Jasmine Pierce]], decides to walk home from [[Coed y Garreg Primary School|school]] alone as her [[Lynn Pierce|mother]]'s boyfriend, [[Roy (Small Worlds)|Roy]], did not arrive on time to pick her up. She encounters a man, [[Mark Goodson]], a [[Paedophilia|paedophile]], who tries to lure her into his [[car]]. When Goodson makes a grab for Jasmine, a strong wind kicks up, accompanied by strange, ethereal voices. Goodson retreats into his car while Jasmine continues to skip home to play with her fairy friends in the nearby woods.
 
Later, a tense Goodson, still hearing the voices, stumbles through the [[Cardiff]] market, stalked by something unseen by the other shoppers. Something strikes at him and he starts to cough up rose petals. He gets himself arrested to seek the safety of a jail cell, where he admits to his paedophilia to the police officers at the station, hoping that the creatures will leave him alone. That night, however, he hears wings buzzing as he tries to sleep and, rolling over, screams as the same hostile creature from the woods lunges at him... He is found the next day, dead by [[asphyxiation]], but with no external evidence of strangulation and the CCTV shows only him in his death throes; no sign of the creature. The baffled police summon Torchwood, who find Goodson's mouth filled with [[blood]] soaked rose petals. Jack confirms that Goodson was killed by the fairies as part of their protection of a "[[Chosen One]]", a child who will soon become one of them if Torchwood cannot find her in time. Finding the Chosen One is the only advantage they have over the fairies, who cannot be fought in any other way. They cannot be trapped or killed, and have control over the elements themselves; but the Chosen Ones are important to them.
 
Late at night, Estelle hears the strange voices after attempting to communicate with the fairies using [[crystal]]s, and realises that bad fairies are present. She calls Jack to alert him. However, before Torchwood can arrive, she [[drown]]s in a [[rain]]storm although everything around her is completely dry, as she went outside to find her [[cat]] [[Moses]], who hid under the bushes as she drowned. Jack mourns her loss, and Gwen makes him admit that it was he who had a relationship with Estelle long ago. Jack explains that he has seen the rose petals before, on a train in [[Lahore]] in [[1909]]. Some of his troops had drunkenly run over a little girl. A week later, all of his men died, their mouths stuffed with petals, and he realised that the young girl had been a Chosen One. Gwen returns home to find her own [[flat]] in disarray and seriously vandalised, with [[leaves]] and [[rock]] patterns on the floor, the rocks resembling the stone circle in Roundstone Wood. The team understand that the fairies are becoming more protective and aggressive, using the stone circle as a warning to Torchwood not to interfere in their affairs.
 
At her [[Coed y Garreg Primary School|school]] the next day, Jasmine is bullied by [[Bullies (Small Worlds)|two girls]] and the fairies come to her defence, making a huge gale sweep up around the bullies and sending all the other children fleeing in terror, apart from Jasmine, who watches in glee. Her teacher [[Kate (Small Worlds)|Kate]] manages to push through the gale and grab the girls, making the fairies cease their assault. Torchwood arrives to find the school closing for the day and interrogate Jasmine's teacher. Kate says that no-one was harmed, but the only one not affected by the storm was Jasmine.
 
Meanwhile, Jasmine's mother [[Lynn Pierce|Lynn]] and Roy are celebrating five years together with a backyard barbecue party. Jasmine helps her mother with the food, and gives disturbing answers to her mother's questions, when she asked about her about her fairy friends. When Jasmine goes outside, she finds that the backyard has been fenced off by Roy to prevent her from going to the woods. Angry, she bites him. He slaps her and calls her a bitch, which prompts an immediate response from the fairies. The sky begins to turn grey and thunder rumbles, but the party continues. As Roy makes a speech, the fairies reveal themselves in their true form and attack, killing Roy by clogging his throat with petals as punishment for his child abuse.
 
Torchwood arrives in time to prevent harm to other guests, but Jasmine and the fairies race off to the woods. Jack catches up with her and demands that the fairies not take her away. They refuse, stating that she is their Chosen One and if she is prevented from going, the fairies will kill the entire world in response. Admitting he has no other choice, Jack requests a promise that Jasmine will not be harmed. The fairies respond that she [[Immortality|will live forever]]. Jack lets Jasmine go, and she skips away, thanking Jack in an ethereal voice, surrounded by glowing fairies, and vanishes into [[The Invisible|the Lost Lands]]. Lynn, seeing this, starts sobbing angrily and beats Jack over and over. The only thing Jack can do is apologise, feeling guilty of the choice he was forced to decide on. Lynn has lost both her boyfriend and her only daughter in one afternoon.


Meanwhile, a young girl, Jasmine Pierce, decides to walk home from school alone when her stepfather Roy does not arrive on time. She encounters a man, Goodson, who tries to lure her into his car. When Goodson makes a grab for Jasmine, a strong wind kicks up along with strange, ethereal voices, and Goodson is forced to retreat into his car as Jasmine continues to skip on her way home to play with her fairy friends in the nearby woods. Later, a tense Goodson arrives at the Cardiff market, still hearing the strange voices, and tries to run through it. He is attacked by something unseen by the other shoppers, and starts to cough up rose petals. He manages to get himself arrested, declaring himself a paedophile in order to seek the safety of a jail cell. However, he continues to be attacked by unknown forces, and is found the next day dead by asphyxiation. Torchwood arrives and find Goodson's mouth filled with rose petals. Jack confirms that Goodson's death was by the fairies as part of their protection of a "Chosen One", a child that will soon become theirs if Torchwood cannot find her in time.
The Torchwood Three crew return to their transport vehicle with tension in the air. Gwen, Owen, and Toshiko are evidently disturbed by Jack's concession to the fairies' demands, but all proceed silently. None of them speak a word about what just transpired, afraid to set off a powder keg, but they make little effort to hide their disapproval. Jack notices a few dirty looks from his peers, leaving him to defensively respond, "What else could I do?"


Late at night, Estelle starts to hear the strange voices and calls up Jack to alert him. However, before Torchwood can arrive, she is killed, having drowned in a rainstorm despite the area around her being completely dry. Jack mourns her death, and Gwen realizes that it was Jack himself who loved Estelle. Jack explains that he has seen the rose petals before, back in [[Lahore]] in [[1909]], a week after some of his troops had drunkenly run over a little girl. While on a train, the rest of his men died, their mouths filled with leaves, and he realized that the young girl was a Chosen One. Gwen returns home with Rhys to find her own house in disarray, with leaves and rock patterns on the floor. The team realizes that the fairies are becoming more protective.
Back at the Hub, Gwen sorts through the pictures in the case. A Cottingley Fairies photograph from [[1917]] appears on the board room monitor screen. Spotting something, she zooms in on the photograph until the face on one of the fairies becomes clear. It is Jasmine, frozen in mid-dance, smiling. A fairy voice whispers: "Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." ("[[The Stolen Child]]", by {{w|William Butler Yeats}})


At her school the next day, Jasmine is bullied by two girls at school, and a large gale sweeps over the area. Torchwood arrives to learn that no one was harmed but the only one not affected by the storm was Jasmine. They make their way to her home. Meanwhile, Roy and Jasmine's mother Lynn are having a five-year anniversary party. Jasmine, helping her mother with the food, finds that the backyard has been fenced off by Roy to prevent her from going to the woods. Angrily she bites him, causing him to slap her. A sudden wind rushes up, and the fairies make themselves visible to everyone present, attacking and killing Roy. Torchwood inexplicably allows the murder to occur, but tell the other guests to leave. Jasmine and the fairies race off to the woods through a hole one of them made in the fence. Jack catches up to Jasmine and insist that she be allowed to live with her mother among Humans, but they refuse, threatening that if she is prevented from going, many more people will die, with Jasmine claiming that the fairies are powerful enough to freeze the entire world and kill the Human species; they would still be able to travel to the past and retrieve children from earlier eras as Chosen Ones. Jack requests a promise that Jasmine will not be harmed, and then lets them take her. Jasmine and the fairies disappear. Lynn, having witnessed this and the death of her husband, cries angrily and hits Jack over and over, with Jack only able to apologize to her and to rhetorically ask his team what else he could have done.
== Cast ==
* [[Jack Harkness|Captain Jack Harkness]] - [[John Barrowman]]
* [[Gwen Cooper]] - [[Eve Myles]]
* [[Owen Harper]] - [[Burn Gorman]]
* [[Toshiko Sato]] - [[Naoko Mori]]
* [[Ianto Jones]] - [[Gareth David-Lloyd]]
* [[Estelle Cole|Estelle]] - [[Eve Pearce]]
* [[Jasmine Pierce|Jasmine]] - [[Lara Phillipart]]
* [[Lynn Pierce|Lynn]] - [[Adrienne O'Sullivan]]
* [[Roy (Small Worlds)|Roy]] - [[William Travis]]
* [[Mark Goodson|Goodson]] - [[Rodger Barclay]]
* [[Kate (Small Worlds)|Kate]] - [[Heledd Baskerville]]
* [[Woman police constable (Small Worlds)|WPC]] - [[Ffion Wilkins]]
* [[Custody sergeant (Small Worlds)|Custody Sergeant]] - [[Nathan Sussex]]
* [[Man in street (Small Worlds)|Man in Street]] - [[Paul Jones]]
* [[Bully (Small Worlds)|Bullies]] - [[Sophie Davies]] and [[Victoria Gourley]]


Back at the Hub, Gwen is sorting through the pictures in the case when a Cottingley photograph from 1917 inexplicably appears on the board room monitor. Spotting something, she zooms in on the photograph until the face on one of the fairies becomes clearly visible. It is Jasmine, smiling out of the picture, frozen in mid-dance.
=== Uncredited Cast ===


==Cast==
* [[Rhys Williams]] - [[Kai Owen]]
*Captain [[Jack Harkness]] - [[John Barrowman]]
*[[Gwen Cooper]] - [[Eve Myles]]
*[[Owen Harper]] - [[Burn Gorman]]
*[[Toshiko Sato]] - [[Naoko Mori]]
*[[Ianto Jones]] - [[Gareth David-Lloyd]]
*[[Estelle Cole]] - [[Eve Pearce]]
*[[Jasmine Pierce]] - [[Lara Phillipart]]
*[[Lynn Pierce]] - [[Adrienne O'Sullivan]]
*[[Roy (Small Worlds)|Roy]] - [[William Travis]]
*[[Mark Goodson]] - [[Rodger Barclay]]
*[[Kate]] - [[Heledd Baskerville]]
*[[WPC]] - [[Ffion Wilkins]]
*[[Custody Sergeant]] - [[Nathan Sussex]]
*[[Man In Street]] - [[Paul Jones]]
*[[Bully 1|Bully]] - [[Sophie Davies]]
*[[Bully 2|Bully]] - [[Victoria Gourley]]


==Crew==
== Crew ==
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==References==
== Worldbuilding ==
*Jack wonders if the fairies are part [[Mara]], a creature seen in the [[Fifth Doctor]] stories [[DW]]: ''[[Kinda (TV story)|Kinda]]'' and ''[[Snakedance]]''
===  Foods and beverages ===
===Music===
* Roy is drinking St Nicholas Welsh Lager [[beer]] during the party. 
*''Better do Better ''- [[Hard-Fi]]
== Story notes ==
*''Born to be a Dancer ''- [[Kaiser Chiefs]]
* The episode was repeated on [[BBC Two]], three days later at 9:00pm on Wednesday [[15 November (releases)|15 November]] [[2006 (releases)|2006]].
*''Ooh La La'' - [[The Kooks]]
* Owen claims that [[Harry Houdini]] believed in the [[Cottingley fairy|Cottingley fairies]]. In reality, he didn't and got into frequent discussions with his friend [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] over them.
* Gwen also states that the girls who took the photos admitted the whole incident was a hoax in their later years. While it is true that they confessed to faking the photos, both women went to their graves insisting that they really did see fairies.
* This story is the only episode in the first series of ''Torchwood ''to not contain any swearing.
 
=== Ratings ===
* 1.26 million viewers<ref>[https://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-top-10/ BARB Ratings - October, 2006]</ref>
 
=== Filming locations ===
''to be added''


==Story notes==
=== Broadcasts ===
*This episode's plot (a young girl been taken away by fairies) is very similar to the Spice Girl's music video for their song "Viva Forever".
{| class="wikitable sortable"
*The novel trilogy "Tithe", "Valiant" and "Ironside" by Holly Black features a hidden world of modern faeries (fairies) who like to indulge in murder and torture as entertainment. As in ''Small Worlds'', the faeries can look classic (i.e. small with wings) or large and demonic.
!Date
*This episode is also similar to the ''[[W:C:Charmed|Charmed]]'' episode "[[W:C:Charmed:Once Upon A Time|Once Upon a Time]]".
!Time
*Owen claims that Harry Houdini believed in the Cottingley fairies. In reality, he didn't, and got into frequent discussions with his friend Arthur Conan Doyle over them.
!Channel
!class="unsortable"|Notes
|-
|[[Sunday]] [[12 November (releases)|12 November]] [[2006 (releases)|2006]]
|22:00
|[[BBC Three]]
|First broadcast.
|-
|[[Wednesday]] [[15 November (releases)|15 November]] [[2006 (releases)|2006]]
|21:00
|[[BBC Two England]]
|
|-
|[[Monday]] [[5 February (releases)|5 February]] [[2007 (releases)|2007]]
|01:55
|[[BBC Three]]
|
|-
|[[Friday]] [[12 October (releases)|12 October]] [[2007 (releases)|2007]]
|21:00
|[[BBC Three]]
|
|-
|[[Saturday]] [[13 October (releases)|13 October]] [[2007 (releases)|2007]]
|02:40
|[[BBC Three]]
|
|-
|[[Thursday]] [[20 May (releases)|20 May]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]]
|22:40
|[[BBC HD]]
|
|}


===Ratings===
=== Production errors ===
*BBC3 - 1.3 million viewers
{{Torchwood discontinuity}}
*BBC2 - 2.4 million viewers
* When Roy is putting up the fence, the overhead view shows him nailing the third post. The view from the side shows him nailing in a different post, however.


===Myths===
== Continuity ==
''to be added''
* Jack wonders if the fairies are part [[Mara]] which is shown in [[TV]]: ''[[Kinda (TV story)|Kinda]] and [[Snakedance (TV story)|Snakedance]]''
* Jack's immortality enables him to survive the attack from the Fairies, an ability seen in [[TV]]: {{cs|The Parting of the Ways (TV story)}}, and {{cs|Everything Changes (TV story)}}.
* Gwen sees a picture of Jack in his Second World War attire. She initially thinks it is his grandfather, but later realises it was Jack himself when he served during the war as shown in [[TV]]: {{cs|The Doctor Dances (TV story)}}.


===Filming locations===
== Home video releases ==
''to be added''
[[File:TWS1Part1.jpg|thumb|Series one, part one DVD cover]]


===Production errors===
=== DVD releases ===
*When Roy is making the fence, the overhead view shows him nailing the third post. The view from the side shows him nailing in a different post, however.
* This episode, with four others, was first released on a DVD entitled ''Torchwood: Series 1, part 1'' on [[26 December (releases)|26 December]] [[2006 (releases)|2006]].
* It was later released in ''Torchwood: The Complete First Series'' on [[19 November (releases)|19 November]] [[2007 (releases)|2007]].
* It was also released in the Series 1-4 boxset (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011.)


==Continuity==
=== Blu-ray releases ===
{{Torchwood discontinuity}}
* Released in the US with the rest of Series 1 as a Complete First Season set on 16 September 2008.
''to be added''


==Home video releases==
* It was released in the Series 1-3 Blu-ray boxset on 26 October 2009 in the UK. The US release was on 19 July 2011.
This episode was first released on DVD, with four other episodes entitle ''Torchwood: Series 1, part 1'' on 26 [[December]] [[2006]]. It was later released in ''Torchwood:The Complete first series'' on 19th [[November]] [[2007]]
* It was also released in the Series 1-4 Blu-ray boxset. (Region 2 release: [[14 November (releases)|14 November]] [[2011 (releases)|2011]])


==See also==
== External links ==
''to be added''
{{dwrefguide|torchwood_05.htm|Small Worlds}}
* {{briefhistory|torchwood/2006e.html|Small Worlds}}
* {{locguide|smallworlds|Small Worlds}}
* {{whoniverse|tw1_05|Small Worlds}}


==External links==
== Footnotes ==
*{{dwrefguide|torchwood_05.htm|Small Worlds}}
=== Notes ===
*{{briefhistory|torchwood/2006e.html|Small Worlds}}
{{notelist}}
*{{locguide|smallworlds|Small Worlds}}
=== Citations ===
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Torchwood series 1}}


{{TWTV}}
{{TitleSort}}
[[fr:Small Worlds]]
[[fr:Small Worlds]]
[[he:עולמות קטנים (סיפור טלוויזיה)]]
[[ro:Small Worlds]]
[[ru:Маленькие миры]]
[[Category:Torchwood television stories]]
[[Category:Torchwood television stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in 2007]]
[[Category:2006 television stories]]
[[Category:2006 television stories]]
[[Category:Series 1 (Torchwood) stories]]
[[Category:Series 1 (Torchwood) stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in Cardiff]]
[[Category:Stories set in the 2000s]]

Latest revision as of 20:29, 3 November 2024

RealWorld.png

Small Worlds was the fifth episode in the first series of Torchwood. It was written by Peter J. Hammond, and directed by Alice Troughton.

It was the first story to explore Jack's past in any detail, such as revealing that Jack had been in a relationship with a British woman, Estelle Cole, in the mid-20th century.

Synopsis[[edit] | [edit source]]

Jack encounters monsters from his past: fairies, with the ability to choke people with rose petals and control the weather, make a series of killings centred around a little girl, the Chosen One. He also reunites with an old friend, but will Estelle Cole be safe when she starts to get a little too close to these fairies? And how can Torchwood stop a force from the dawn of time, masters of Earth, their domain? More importantly, what is so crucial about a little girl named Jasmine, for whom these creatures will gladly tear the world apart?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

An elderly woman walks through the woods at night, speaking into a tape recorder about what she hopes to witness. Peeking round a bush, she sees a number of small glowing winged lifeforms, fluttering and giggling over a small circle of standing stones. Ecstatic at seeing her "little darlings", the woman snaps a few pictures before leaving. She doesn't notice them transform into something a lot more dangerous-looking, something that looks very displeased at being discovered...

At the Hub, Jack wakes from a nightmare of dead soldiers in a train carriage with rose petals spilling out of their mouths. He finds a single rose petal atop his desk. Ianto, still in-office, informs Jack about strange weather patterns in the area.

The next day, Jack takes Gwen to visit an old friend of his, Estelle Cole, give a talk on fairies. Estelle shows them the Cottingley fairy photos, then compares them to photographs she had taken the day before. She claims to have found proof of the fairies' existence.

After her presentation, Jack and Estelle discuss the photographs and the nature of fairies at her home. Gwen asks Estelle and Jack about an old photograph she found of Jack. They both claim it is of Jack's father, and say that he had a relationship with Estelle during World War II. Estelle mentions that Jack looks and walks just like his father. Jack interrupts that thought, and asks Estelle to let him know if she encounters any more fairies.

On the way back to Torchwood, Jack explains to Gwen that the fairies are creatures from the dawn of time and are not bound by linear time. He says that the fairies can be very dangerous. Jack instructs Toshiko to watch for strange weather patterns in the area in order to locate the creatures.

Meanwhile, a young girl, Jasmine Pierce, decides to walk home from school alone as her mother's boyfriend, Roy, did not arrive on time to pick her up. She encounters a man, Mark Goodson, a paedophile, who tries to lure her into his car. When Goodson makes a grab for Jasmine, a strong wind kicks up, accompanied by strange, ethereal voices. Goodson retreats into his car while Jasmine continues to skip home to play with her fairy friends in the nearby woods.

Later, a tense Goodson, still hearing the voices, stumbles through the Cardiff market, stalked by something unseen by the other shoppers. Something strikes at him and he starts to cough up rose petals. He gets himself arrested to seek the safety of a jail cell, where he admits to his paedophilia to the police officers at the station, hoping that the creatures will leave him alone. That night, however, he hears wings buzzing as he tries to sleep and, rolling over, screams as the same hostile creature from the woods lunges at him... He is found the next day, dead by asphyxiation, but with no external evidence of strangulation and the CCTV shows only him in his death throes; no sign of the creature. The baffled police summon Torchwood, who find Goodson's mouth filled with blood soaked rose petals. Jack confirms that Goodson was killed by the fairies as part of their protection of a "Chosen One", a child who will soon become one of them if Torchwood cannot find her in time. Finding the Chosen One is the only advantage they have over the fairies, who cannot be fought in any other way. They cannot be trapped or killed, and have control over the elements themselves; but the Chosen Ones are important to them.

Late at night, Estelle hears the strange voices after attempting to communicate with the fairies using crystals, and realises that bad fairies are present. She calls Jack to alert him. However, before Torchwood can arrive, she drowns in a rainstorm although everything around her is completely dry, as she went outside to find her cat Moses, who hid under the bushes as she drowned. Jack mourns her loss, and Gwen makes him admit that it was he who had a relationship with Estelle long ago. Jack explains that he has seen the rose petals before, on a train in Lahore in 1909. Some of his troops had drunkenly run over a little girl. A week later, all of his men died, their mouths stuffed with petals, and he realised that the young girl had been a Chosen One. Gwen returns home to find her own flat in disarray and seriously vandalised, with leaves and rock patterns on the floor, the rocks resembling the stone circle in Roundstone Wood. The team understand that the fairies are becoming more protective and aggressive, using the stone circle as a warning to Torchwood not to interfere in their affairs.

At her school the next day, Jasmine is bullied by two girls and the fairies come to her defence, making a huge gale sweep up around the bullies and sending all the other children fleeing in terror, apart from Jasmine, who watches in glee. Her teacher Kate manages to push through the gale and grab the girls, making the fairies cease their assault. Torchwood arrives to find the school closing for the day and interrogate Jasmine's teacher. Kate says that no-one was harmed, but the only one not affected by the storm was Jasmine.

Meanwhile, Jasmine's mother Lynn and Roy are celebrating five years together with a backyard barbecue party. Jasmine helps her mother with the food, and gives disturbing answers to her mother's questions, when she asked about her about her fairy friends. When Jasmine goes outside, she finds that the backyard has been fenced off by Roy to prevent her from going to the woods. Angry, she bites him. He slaps her and calls her a bitch, which prompts an immediate response from the fairies. The sky begins to turn grey and thunder rumbles, but the party continues. As Roy makes a speech, the fairies reveal themselves in their true form and attack, killing Roy by clogging his throat with petals as punishment for his child abuse.

Torchwood arrives in time to prevent harm to other guests, but Jasmine and the fairies race off to the woods. Jack catches up with her and demands that the fairies not take her away. They refuse, stating that she is their Chosen One and if she is prevented from going, the fairies will kill the entire world in response. Admitting he has no other choice, Jack requests a promise that Jasmine will not be harmed. The fairies respond that she will live forever. Jack lets Jasmine go, and she skips away, thanking Jack in an ethereal voice, surrounded by glowing fairies, and vanishes into the Lost Lands. Lynn, seeing this, starts sobbing angrily and beats Jack over and over. The only thing Jack can do is apologise, feeling guilty of the choice he was forced to decide on. Lynn has lost both her boyfriend and her only daughter in one afternoon.

The Torchwood Three crew return to their transport vehicle with tension in the air. Gwen, Owen, and Toshiko are evidently disturbed by Jack's concession to the fairies' demands, but all proceed silently. None of them speak a word about what just transpired, afraid to set off a powder keg, but they make little effort to hide their disapproval. Jack notices a few dirty looks from his peers, leaving him to defensively respond, "What else could I do?"

Back at the Hub, Gwen sorts through the pictures in the case. A Cottingley Fairies photograph from 1917 appears on the board room monitor screen. Spotting something, she zooms in on the photograph until the face on one of the fairies becomes clear. It is Jasmine, frozen in mid-dance, smiling. A fairy voice whispers: "Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild With a faery, hand in hand, For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand." ("The Stolen Child", by William Butler Yeats)

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Uncredited Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

 Foods and beverages[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Roy is drinking St Nicholas Welsh Lager beer during the party. 

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The episode was repeated on BBC Two, three days later at 9:00pm on Wednesday 15 November 2006.
  • Owen claims that Harry Houdini believed in the Cottingley fairies. In reality, he didn't and got into frequent discussions with his friend Arthur Conan Doyle over them.
  • Gwen also states that the girls who took the photos admitted the whole incident was a hoax in their later years. While it is true that they confessed to faking the photos, both women went to their graves insisting that they really did see fairies.
  • This story is the only episode in the first series of Torchwood to not contain any swearing.

Ratings[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • 1.26 million viewers[1]

Filming locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

to be added

Broadcasts[[edit] | [edit source]]

Date Time Channel Notes
Sunday 12 November 2006 22:00 BBC Three First broadcast.
Wednesday 15 November 2006 21:00 BBC Two England
Monday 5 February 2007 01:55 BBC Three
Friday 12 October 2007 21:00 BBC Three
Saturday 13 October 2007 02:40 BBC Three
Thursday 20 May 2010 22:40 BBC HD

Production errors[[edit] | [edit source]]

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • When Roy is putting up the fence, the overhead view shows him nailing the third post. The view from the side shows him nailing in a different post, however.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Jack wonders if the fairies are part Mara which is shown in TV: Kinda and Snakedance
  • Jack's immortality enables him to survive the attack from the Fairies, an ability seen in TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"], and Everything Changes [+]Loading...["Everything Changes (TV story)"].
  • Gwen sees a picture of Jack in his Second World War attire. She initially thinks it is his grandfather, but later realises it was Jack himself when he served during the war as shown in TV: The Doctor Dances [+]Loading...["The Doctor Dances (TV story)"].

Home video releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

Series one, part one DVD cover

DVD releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This episode, with four others, was first released on a DVD entitled Torchwood: Series 1, part 1 on 26 December 2006.
  • It was later released in Torchwood: The Complete First Series on 19 November 2007.
  • It was also released in the Series 1-4 boxset (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011.)

Blu-ray releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Released in the US with the rest of Series 1 as a Complete First Season set on 16 September 2008.
  • It was released in the Series 1-3 Blu-ray boxset on 26 October 2009 in the UK. The US release was on 19 July 2011.
  • It was also released in the Series 1-4 Blu-ray boxset. (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011)

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ Episodes 1-10 of the first series of Torchwood are set anywhere from 2006-2009 as a result of conflicting evidence shown in the episodes Ghost Machine [+]Loading...["Ghost Machine (TV story)"], Greeks Bearing Gifts [+]Loading...["Greeks Bearing Gifts (TV story)"], Random Shoes [+]Loading...["Random Shoes (TV story)"], To the Last Man [+]Loading...["To the Last Man (TV story)"], Reset [+]Loading...["Reset (TV story)"], Adrift [+]Loading...["Adrift (TV story)"], Fragments [+]Loading...["Fragments (TV story)"], Exit Wounds [+]Loading...["Exit Wounds (TV story)"], and The New World [+]Loading...["The New World (TV story)"]. As episode 10, Out of Time [+]Loading...["Out of Time (TV story)"], is set at the end of December, this means that episodes 11-13 are almost certainly set the year after episodes 1-10.

Citations[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ BARB Ratings - October, 2006
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Torchwood television stories
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Children of Earth: Day One • Day Two • Day Three • Day Four • Day Five
Series 4
Stories listed here are only those that have been officially licensed by the BBC.
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