One Rule (audio story)

One Rule
Main character(s):	Yvonne Hartman
Featuring:	Ianto Jones, Rajesh Singh
Main enemy:	The Committee
Main setting:	Cardiff, 26 March 2005
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Joseph Lidster
Director:	Barnaby Edwards
Music:	Blair Mowat
Sound:	Neil Gardner
Cover by:	Lee Binding
Release details
Story number:	1.4
Release number:	4
Release date:	7 December 2015
Production code:	BFPTWCD04
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78178-922-3
Official trailer
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Big Finish Torchwood series
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One Rule was the fourth audio story in the first season of the Big Finish Torchwood series. It featured Yvonne Hartman for the first time in any medium since her television debut.

Publisher's summary

It's been three weeks since the Mayor of Cardiff was killed by a shop dummy and the fight is on to see who will replace him.

Yvonne Hartman is visiting the city to retrieve an invaluable alien device. She's in charge of Torchwood One, she's saving the British Empire and she doesn't care about local politics. But she is going to find herself caught up in that fight. There's a bloodthirsty alien stalking the streets and there's a special offer on at the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

It's the 26th of March 2005 and it's the day that everything changes.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• Yvonne Hartman - Tracy-Ann Oberman
• Barry Jackson - Gareth Armstrong
• Helen Evans - Rebecca Lacey
• Ross Bevan - Dan Starkey
• Meredith Bevan - Catrin Stewart

Uncredited

• Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
• Andy Davidson - Tom Price

References

• Ross Bevan was born in 1968.
• Bevan is looking forward to the new series of Strictly Come Dancing.
• Yvonne has tea with the Queen twice a week.
• According to Yvonne, Jack Harkness does not have the interest of Torchwood at heart. Because of this, she requires Barry Jackson to keep an eye out for the return of a particular alien, as she knows Harkness will fail to notify her.
• Ianto Jones and Raj Singh work as her assistants at Torchwood One.
• Yvonne observes Jack along with Suzie Costello and Toshiko Sato in the frozen Hub. At this point, the three of them are the only members of the Torchwood Three team.
• The Auton invasion, brought forth by the Nestene Consciousness transmitting a signal to animate all plastic on Earth via the London Eye before it was defeated by the Ninth Doctor, occurred three weeks ago and had spread beyond London to at least Cardiff before it was stopped, where Barry used it as a cover for his murder of former Lord Mayor of Cardiff Roy Llewellyn.
• Noting Torchwood's absence in the Auton invasion to Yvonne, Barry notes that Torchwood has been there for the previous invasions along with UNIT and "the others".
• Strictly Come Dancing is mentioned by one of the people in the restaurant. Yvonne calls it a fad, just as Charles and Camilla will be within a couple of weeks.
• Cardiff is undergoing regeneration projects.
• Barry described chicken satay.
• Berta is a masseuse.
• Barry mentions prawn crackers.
• Raheem is a taxi driver.
• Skip is a bartender.
• Yvonne tells Helen that she is a member of MI5.
• Yvonne compares Mike, the bouncer of the Priory Nightclub, to a Neanderthal.

Notes

• This story was recorded on 11 September 2015 at The Soundhouse Studios.
• Gwen Cooper and Andy Davidson have one line cameos in this story, set two years before Gwen joined Torchwood Three in 2007.
• This story takes place on 26 March 2005, the same day that Series 1 of the revived series of Doctor Who premiered on BBC One.
• The title of the story can be viewed as a multi-layered pun. Not only is it the "one rule" of Yvonne Hartman, as explicitly stated in the story, but can also be read as a "rule of Torchwood One" or even the fact that the story depicts the period when Torchwood One ruled over Torchwood Three, which is also unequivocally depicted in the story.

Continuity

• Whilst talking to Ianto on the phone, Yvonne tells him to ask Lisa Hallett out. (TV: Cyberwoman)
• Torchwood One are attempting to ascertain the nature and purpose of the Void Ship. (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday)
• Torchwood Three possesses a Drahvin scanner, which is procured by Yvonne. (TV: Galaxy 4)
• Yvonne says "Happy Day". (TV: Army of Ghosts)
• The Lord Mayor of Cardiff Roy Llewellyn was killed by the Auton invasion which reached Cardiff on 5 March 2005. (TV: Rose) He would eventually be succeeded by Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, posing as Margaret Blaine. (TV: Boom Town)
• Both Barry and Helen, who are running in the mayoral race, moan about London's lack of interest in Cardiff. This is reminiscent of when Blon went "native" during her time as Lord Mayor. (TV: Boom Town)
• A cover story was concocted to explain away the invasion on 5 March as a "terrorist attack". Such measures were previously taken for the first Auton invasion in the 1970s. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy; TV: Spearhead from Space)
• Yvonne speaks of the incident on New Year's Eve 1999 involving the murder of the Torchwood Three team by its leader Alex Hopkins, who went mad after seeing the coming "change" in the 21st century before committing suicide. (TV: Fragments)
• Yvonne says that she is doing it "for Queen and Country" before downing a pint of Diamond White beer. She would maintain that she did her duty for Queen and Country immediately before her forced cyber-conversion during the Battle of Canary Wharf in 2007. (TV: Doomsday)
• Gwen Cooper and Andy Davidson are members of the Cardiff police force. (TV: Everything Changes)
• Yvonne says, "When I say 'run'..." (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, et. al)
• Yvonne tells Barry and Helen that she is a people person. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
• Skip Jameson was still working at the Priory Nightclub in 2009. (AUDIO: In the Shadows)
• Yvonne explains to Helen and Barry that Torchwood's presence in Cardiff is down to the space-time rift running through the city. (TV: The Unquiet Dead, Everything Changes) Yvonne states that alien objects and species come through the rift and that Torchwood seizes them and uses them to defend Britain. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
• Helen was born and raised in Splott. (TV: Ghost Machine, Random Shoes, et. al)
• Ianto manages to hack into a London Credit Bank ATM. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
• Barry is an enabler of the Committee. (AUDIO: The Conspiracy)
• Yvonne says, "If it's alien, it's ours". (TV: Army of Ghosts)
• Yvonne tells Barry that Torchwood is awaiting the return of one particular alien to Cardiff. (TV: Boom Town)

External links

• Official One Rule page at bigfinish.com