Adam (TV story)

Adam
Featuring:	Jack Harkness Gwen Cooper Toshiko Sato Owen Harper Ianto Jones Adam Smith (introduction; dies)
Main enemy:	Adam Smith Weevil
Main setting:	Cardiff, February, 2008 Boeshane Peninsula, 51st century (Jack's childhood)
Key crew
Writer:	Catherine Tregenna
Director:	Andy Goddard
Producer:	Russell T Davies (Executive Producer) Julie Gardner (Executive Producer)
Release details
Release number:	18
Premiere broadcast:	13th February 2008

Adam was the fifth episode in the second series of Torchwood.

Plot

Adam, a creature of The Void, is drawn through the Cardiff rift by the intense field memories which are had by each member of the Torchwood team. Adam's power is to tamper with the memories of its prey, to sustain its own survival. So, Adam would exist as long the Torchwood team could bear him in their memories. Adam is able to both implant memories and alter the already existing ones of people merely by touching them with its hands. By such means, Jack, Gwen, Owen, Toshiko, and Ianto believe that Adam had been with them since the current team formed three years ago. However, Adam has gotten with them just 48 hours before.

Beside surviving, Adam toys with their minds. Jack retrieves his childhood memories, about his last moments with his father and brother, at the Boeshane Peninsula. Gwen forgets about her fiance Rhys. Toshiko's and Owen's personalities are reversed: Owen becomes an introversive geek and he has a crush on Toshiko. Toshiko unleashes her personality to start a passionate relationship with the same Adam, slighting Owen. Ianto, who discovers Adam's maneuver by not finding him in his everyday diary, is harassed by him, so Ianto believes that he has murdered three young women.

It's Jack's trust in Ianto that leads him to investigate the security feed of Torchwood. Jack discovers then that Adam has been tampering with each one of his team, during the latest 48 hours. Adam is captured then into a cell. Jack orders that all his team would swallow a Retcon amnesia pill to forget all what Adam has done on them. Except him, they do so. At the holding cells, Jack confronts the now weakened Adam for the last time then. Desperately, Adam attempts so Jack keeps some tampered childhood memories, which are so bewildering now, through threats and mental torture. Nonetheless, Jack takes his pill in time and Adam dies then.

On the next day, in the Torchwood team nobody understands why two days are missing in their minds. A floral arrangement and a note of love of Owen, which were intended for Toshiko, survive but Owen dismisses them with a scorning commentary. Also, a Torchwood-labeled bag is found and it had been inked by Adam. Nonetheless nobody knows about Adam, already.

Cast

• Captain Jack Harkness — John Barrowman
• Gwen Cooper — Eve Myles
• Owen Harper — Burn Gorman
• Toshiko Sato — Naoko Mori
• Ianto Jones — Gareth David-Lloyd
• Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
• Adam Smith — Bryan Dick
• Jack's Father — Demetri Goritsas
• Jack's Mother — Lauren Ward
• Young Jack — Jack Montgomery
• Gray — Ethan Brooke
• Young Adam — Rhys Myers
• Weevil - Paul Kasey
• Murdered Woman - Jo Malaren

Production crew

Executive Producers - Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner Co-Producer – Chris Chibnall Associate Producer – Catrin Lewis Defis Producer – Richard Stokes Script Editor - Brian Minchin Casting Director - Andy Pryor Production Manager - Steffan Morris Costume Designer - Ray Holman Make-Up Designer - Marrie Dorris Music – Ben Foster Visual Effects - The Mill Visual FX Producer - Marie A. Jones Visual FX Coordinator – Jenna Powell Visual FX Supervisor - Barney Curnow Digital Matte Painter – Charlie Bennett Production Designer - Edward Thomas, Julian Luxton Editor - Mike Hopkins Director of Photography – Richard Cox

First Assistant Director - Richard Harris Second Assistant Director - Lynsey Muir Production Coordinator - Hannah Simpson Camera Operator - Martin Stephens Gaffer - Dave Fowler Stunt Coordinator - Tom Lucy Production Buyer - Clare Keyte Stand-by Art Director - Beverly Gerard Costume Supervisor - Charlotte Mitchell Make-Up Supervisor - Claire Pritchard Make-Up Artist - Andrea Dowdall Casting Associate - Andy Brierley On-Line Editor – Mark Bright Colourists – Jon Everett, Mick Vincent Post Production Supervisors - Chris Blatchford, Helen Vallis Dubbing Mixer - Peter Jeffreys Sound FX Editor - Howard Eaves

References

• The regular opening flash of sequences is altered to feature two shots of Adam, including one of him holding a Dalek enhanced Tommy Gun, although a giveaway to his nature is that he is in none of the original group shots.
• The Boeshane Peninsula, and Jack's home is seen. However, the nature of the beings which attacked Jack's family isn't revealed as yet.
• Gray is Jack Harkness's brother.
• Adam says he is from "The Void", but it is not known if this is the same Void.
• Adam adds himself into the Torchwood records placing himself as; Adam Smith, that he was born on 16th November 1982 and that he was recruited into Torchwood on 7th May 2005.

Story notes

• The plot element of the group's memories being altered and a "new member" suddenly appearing among them is similar to the plot of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Conundrum", the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Superstar", the Stargate SG-1 episode "The Fifth Man", and the Torchwood novel Border Princes. The similarity to Border Princes is particularly striking as the infiltrator of the novel exhibits some of the same behavior shown by Adam in the episode. In the novel, Gwen and Jack note that this kind of thing could have happened again and again without their knowledge.
• Whilst filming the kiss between Jack and Ianto, the crew pulled a prank on John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd by not calling 'Cut!' after they had stopped filming, causing the kiss to continue for more than two minutes before the two actors realised what was going on. (The only kiss in this episode is when Jack kisses Ianto on the forehead?)

Ratings

• BBC2 - 3.8 million viewers

Myths

• It suggested amongst the internet community that Adam Mitchell would return in this episode. (It was false.)
• As Adam Smith came from the Void it is widely believed that the Daleks and Cybermen could too. However the episode does not confirm if this is the same Void that involved the Daleks and Cybermen.

Filming locations

• Talbot Place, Cardiff (Exterior Gwen and Rhys' flat)
• The Port Of Cardiff, Cardiff Docks, Wales (Jack comes out of sewers, meets Adam)
• Canal Park, Butetown, Cardiff (Adam following Jack around chatting)
• Coney Beach, Porthcawl (Boeshane Peninsula beach)
• Merthyr Mawr Warren, Merthyr Mawr (Beach near (young) Jack's house)
• Waterguard Pub (outside), Harbour Drive, Cardiff (Outside (young) Jack's house)
• Fox Street, Splott, Cardiff (Ianto 'remembers' the murder in an alley)
• BBC Studios, Upper Boat, Tonteg Road, Treforest Industrial Estate, Pontypridd,

Continuity

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.

• Jack first mentioned his home, the Boeshane Peninsula, in DW: Last of the Time Lords. (See also Face of Boe).
• The Void is mentioned, it was last featured actively in DW: Doomsday.
• Gray was previously referenced by John Hart in TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.
• Jack's childhood in the 51st century is explored.

DVD releases

• This story along with the rest of Torchwood Series 2 was released in a complete series boxset.

External links

• Adam at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Adam at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Adam at The Locations Guide