Cyberwoman (TV story)

Cyberwoman (TV story)

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Cyberwoman
Featuring:	Jack Harkness Gwen Cooper Toshiko Sato Owen Harper Ianto Jones
Main enemy:	Lisa Hallett (controlled)
Main setting:	Cardiff, Wales, UK, Earth, 2007
Key crew
Writer:	Chris Chibnall
Director:	James Strong
Producer:	Richard Stokes
Release details
Release number:	4
Premiere broadcast:	5th November 2006

This is about the Torchwood episode. For the race see Cyberman. For the specifically known Cyberwoman, see Lisa Hallett.

Cyberwoman was the fourth episode in the first series of Torchwood. This episode marked the first time Ianto Jones had a major part in the show.

Synopsis

Ianto has a dark secret, tied to the basement of the Hub — a secret he will protect at any cost: a half converted Cyberwoman!

Plot

During a mundane day at Torchwood Three, the team decides to go get a drink, though Ianto politely stays behind. Once the team is gone, he brings a Japanese doctor named Tanizaki into the Hub and takes him to a holding cell deep below the surface. There, a partially cyber-converted woman is strapped to a conversion unit surrounded by instruments keeping her alive. Ianto introduces her to Tanizaki as Lisa, his lover when they both worked at Torchwood One in London. She was only partially converted during the Cyberman invasion, and Ianto rigged the equipment in secret to keep her alive. Ianto hopes that Dr. Tanizaki, a cybernetics expert, can undo the conversion and make her human again. They take her to the autopsy lab and are able to let her breathe on her own, when Ianto learns that the rest of the team is on the way back to Torchwood to deal with a rogue UFO. Ianto leaves Dr. Tanizaki to take Lisa back to the cell while he prepares for the team's arrival. However, after he leaves, Lisa's Cyberman influence takes over, and she attempts to "upgrade" Dr. Tanizaki to repay him for his favour, killing him.

As the rest of Torchwood deal with the UFO, there is a brief power flicker; Ianto quickly covers up by claiming that the generators have been acting up all day and offers to look into it. Returning to Lisa's cell, he finds Dr. Tanizaki's body with Lisa standing over him. Ianto tells Lisa to stay in the cell as he drags off the corpse to hide it from the team. Lisa reenters the cybernetic unit and begins to drain more power from Torchwood, soon noticed by the others. Arming themselves, they head for the holding cell where the power drain is occurring, believing themselves under attack. They find and recognize the cyber-conversion unit, but are attacked by Lisa. Owen is knocked out. Gwen points her gun and tries to reason with Lisa, who knocks the gun out of her hand and pushes her over. Gwen lands on her back on the conversion unit. Before she can sit up Lisa straps her down. Jack tries to shoot Lisa before she can start the unit up, but Ianto tackles him, allowing Lisa to escape after starting up the machine. The restrained Gwen is terrified and yells for help. Tosh manages to shut down the unit by entering lockdown, and finally Jack manages to free Gwen, allowing her to get up. The team regroups in the Hub as the power is drained further by Lisa to recreate a Cyberman army. Jack demands that Ianto tell everything. Ianto pleads that since he cleans up after Torchwood but is never asked about his life, they should help him restore Lisa, but Jack maintains that there is no cure. Ianto asks that he try to reason with Lisa before the team attempts to attack her again.

Ianto tries to remind Lisa she is still human, but she is disgusted by her partially-human appearance. She offers to implant her brain into Ianto, believing that sharing the same life is true love, but Ianto refuses. Lisa declares him incompatible and throws him aside, knocking him unconscious, and sending the rest of the team into action. Jack orders Toshiko to go to the surface to recharge emergency power cells while Gwen and Owen are to search for any weapons, while he tries to delay Lisa's advance. Lisa electrocutes Jack twice, to Gwen's and Owen's shock. Gwen and Owen are momentarily trapped by Lisa in the autopsy lab but manage to escape to the main Hub, where they find Jack, very much alive. Jack sprays Lisa with a special "barbecue sauce" that helps their pet pterodactyl identify its prey, and as it attacks Lisa, the rest of the team, along with the recovered Ianto, escape through the invisible lift. Upon exiting the lift, Ianto immediately punches Jack and tries to go back inside, but Jack threatens him, warning that if he fails to kill Lisa within ten minutes, he will come down and kill them both. Ianto returns to Torchwood by himself.

Unbeknownst to the team, a pizza delivery girl, using Torchwood's other entrance to bring some pizzas ordered earlier by Ianto, finds the pterodactyl on the floor, and then Lisa is suddenly behind her. As Ianto makes his way to the holding cell, he finds that Lisa's body has died. The delivery girl, with a large cut across her forehead, claims that she is Lisa, and that she took the girl's body so they could be together. Ianto hugs her, then pushes her away and holds her at gunpoint. Lisa tries to explain she did this for Ianto, and promises that they can be upgraded together. The rest of the Torchwood team, arriving in time to hear that, open fire on the girl and kill her, leaving Ianto to mourn over Lisa's body.

The next day, Ianto enters the Hub. Jack and Gwen watch Ianto cleaning up and they discuss how Ianto couldn't bear to live without Lisa. Gwen asks Jack if he would have shot her if she had stood by Ianto. Jack only replies that she had not. He refuses to tell Gwen that he loved anyone. They continue to watch.

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
• Lisa Hallett - Caroline Chikezie
• Dr Tanizaki - Togo Igawa
• Annie - Bethan Walker

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner

Written by Chris Chibnall	Produced by Richard Stokes	Directed by James Strong	Director of Photography Mark Waters	Visual Effects The Mill
Make-up Designer Marrie Dorris	Casting Director Andy Pryor	Costume Designer Ray Holman	Edited by Mike Jones

General production staff Co-producer - Chris Chibnall Associate Producer - Terry Reeve Assistant Producer - Sophie Fante Location Manager - Paul Davies Production Runners - Glen Coxon, Llywarch Davies Senior Production Accountant - Ceri Tothill Script department Script Editor - Brian Minchin Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Nick Brown 2nd Assistant Director - Guy de Glanville 3rd Assistant Director - Rhian Salisbury Continuity - Llinos Wyn Jones Camera Operator - Gareth Huges Focus Puller - Duncan Fowlie Grip - Dai Hopkins Camera Assistant - Mani Paliwala-Blaxter Gaffer - Dave Fowler Best Boy - Llyr Evans	Art department Chief Supervising Art Director - Stephen Nicholas Art Department Co-ordinator - Matthew North Production Buyer - Ben Morris Concept Artist - Peter McKinstry Standby Props - Brian Henry Standby Art Director - Dafydd Shurmer Property Master - Nick Thomas Construction Manager - Matthew Hywel-Davies Costume department Costume Supervisor - Charlotte Mitchell Costume Assistants - Sara Morgan, Bobbie Peach	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Claire Pritchard Make-up Artists - Sara Astley, Kate Roberts Casting Casting Associate - Andy Brierley General post-production staff Post-production Co-ordinator - Marie Brown Assistant Editor - Matt Mullins On-line Editor - Matthew Clarke Special and visual effects VFX Co-ordinators - Kim Phelan, Natalie Stopford Colourist - Mick Vincent Sound Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Sound Effects Editor - Howard Eaves

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.

References

Individuals

• Ianto rescued Lisa from the destruction of Torchwood 1.
• Lisa is a partially converted Cybus Cyberman.
• Ianto keeps Lisa in a Cyber-conversion unit in the lower levels of Torchwood 3.
• Ianto and Lisa once went camping in Brittany.

Races and species

• The Torchwood pteranodon attacks Lisa.
• Torchwood sends a request to Arkan leisure crawlers, asking them to stop flying over Cardigan Bay.

Welsh Locations

• UFOs were seen over Cardigan Bay.

Music

• We're No Here - Mogwai
• Chocolate - Snow Patrol

Story notes

• This story had a working title of; The Trouble With Lisa.
• The Torchwood S.U.V doesn't appear in this episode.
• This is the first Cyberman episode where a Cyberman uses both the electrocution ability and the Wrist-Mounted Blaster.
• Lisa mentions that the Torchwood Hub would make a good Cyberman factory. Ironically the Hub set was redressed as a Cyberman factory in DW: The Next Doctor.

Ratings

• BBC3 - 1.4 million viewers
• BBC2 - 2.2 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

to be added

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.

• The invasion of Earth by the Cybus Cybermen occurred in DW: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday.
• The 'New mayor, new Cardiff' newspaper article from Boom Town can be seen on the door as in Reset.

Timeline

• Cyberwoman occurs after: TWN: Another Life
• Cyberwoman occurs before: TW: Small Worlds

Home video releases

This episode was first released on DVD, with four other episodes entitled Torchwood: Series 1, part 1 on 26 December 2006. It was later released in Torchwood: The Complete First Series on 19th November 2007

External links

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