Something Borrowed (TV story)

Something Borrowed
Main enemy:	Nostrovites
Key crew
Writer:	Phil Ford
Director:	Ashley Way
Producer:	Richard Stokes and Chris Chibnall
Release details
Release number:	22
Premiere broadcast:	5th March 2008

Synopsis

Gwen Cooper is about to get married to her fiancé Rhys. Only one problem on her hen night she has forgotten what happened and she is heavily pregnant with an alien shape shifters baby the next day. With the alien on the lose it set out eating people and trying to find its egg and the only way for the alien to get the egg is to rip open its carrier, Gwen...

Plot

Gwen is late for her hen's night as a result of following an alien:

The creature, after being chased by Gwen, roughly pushes her to the ground. Gwen ends up flat on her back and the alien bites her. It is then killed by Jack, who helps the sprawled out Gwen to her feet.

It's discovered that the alien transferred eggs to Gwen, maturing inside her body to the point where she appears pregnant. During Gwen's examination, Jack tries to persuade Gwen to cancel the wedding. Owen mentions that if she were going to die, it would have happened already; so Gwen proceeds with the wedding. Rhys also tries to postpone the wedding but, at the insistence of Gwen, decides to have their wedding anyway; the alien fertilisation being explained as Gwen's pregnancy to Rhys.

The creature is a Nostrovite, a race of carnivourous shape shifters who hunt in pairs and mate for life. After fertilisation, the female transfers eggs to the male, who transfers them to a host incubate them until the correct time. The female then kills the host, releasing the offspring.

Tosh arrives at the wedding venue after being sent by Jack to guard Gwen. After being propositioned by Rhys' best man Banana Boat; Tosh soon reaches Gwen and delivers her new wedding dress before discussing the possibility of a relationship between Tosh and Owen. The Nostrovite follows and murders the DJ, eating most of him. Her presence is detected by Tosh and Banana, as he followed Tosh. After trapping them on the bed in a black web-like construct, the Nostrovite joins the wedding guests.

Gwen and Rhys are at the altar when Jack demands the wedding be stopped. Owen and Ianto rescue Tosh and Banana; and also Mervin's mangled corpse. A bridesmaid enters the room, and upon seeing Mervin's body flees. Ianto fails to stop her and she screams murder to the entire wedding party. After firing and chasing the Nostrovite; Tosh and Jack lose the alien.

Jack questions Owen about Gwen; and he says Barbara, Rhys' mother, is with them. Tosh mentions that Barbara is with Gwen's mother in the garden. Tosh and Jack reach the couple's room, where Jack calls Barbara an 'ugly bitch', and after being punched by Rhys; Jack is told that the woman is actually Rhys' mother. They reach the garden to find the Nostrovite still with Gwen's mother. They confront her, and the Nostrovite holds Gwen's mother hostage, demanding her child. Gwen walks towards them, but just as the Nostrovite releases Gwen's mother, Gwen reveals a hidden gun and fires several times as it flees.

Owen suggests using the singularity scalpel to destroy the egg. He sends Gwen to her room, but asks Rhys to wait while he tells Rhys about the Scalpel; and teaches Rhys how to use it. Jack enters Gwen's room whilst Owen and Rhys are outside; and he and Gwen share a heated conversation. They nearly kiss as Jack transforms into the Nostrovite. Owen enters, shooting the Nostrovite whilst Gwen exits with Rhys. After realising Owen is dead, she leaves for Gwen.

Rhys and Gwen reach the stable and Rhys explains Owen's plan to remove the egg. As the Nostrovite tries to enter, Rhys succeeds in removing the egg. Just as the egg is vaporised, the Nostrovite enters, impersonating Rhys' mother. She attacks Rhys, who protects himself with a malfunctioning chainsaw. After killing the creature with a powerful gun, Jack picks Gwen up; before proclaiming 'The hero always gets the girl'.

Rhys and Gwen’s wedding resumes, and the couple are wed. At the reception, Rhys and Gwen notice everyone falling asleep realising has Jack RetConned the wedding party. Jack offers the couple pills, but Gwen declines; stating that there’d 'be no secrets in this marriage'. They exit, thanking the team for everything. Jack and the others clean up, Ianto stating the irony of fighting aliens by day and reverting to cleaner by night. Later, Jack enters the Hub alone, blowing some confetti in the air. He retrieves an old tin box, containing pictures from his past. He looks through them, reminiscing, but picks one up and stops. This picture in particular shows Jack and his bride at their wedding.

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
• Brenda Williams — Nerys Hughes
• Mary Cooper — Sharon Morgan
• Geraint Cooper — William Thomas
• Barry Williams — Robin Griffith
• Carrie — Collette Brown
• Megan — Danielle Henry
• Trina — Ceri Ann Gregory
• Banana Boat — Jonathan Lewis Owen
• Mervyn — Morgan Hopkins
• Registrar — Valerie Murray
• Shop Assistant — Pethrow Gooden

Production crew

to be added

References

• The Singularity Scalpel is given a name.
• Jack mentions the movie Evil Dead when he sees Rhys with a chainsaw.
• All of Gwen's wedding guests are given level 6 retcon (with champagne), Jack also offers it to Gwen and Rhys.
• The Nostrovite doesn't attack Owen, realizing that he is actually dead. Owen was killed in Reset and returned to partial life in Dead Man Walking.
• At the end of the episode Jack takes out a photo of himself and presumably his wife. It's possible that this is a photo of Lucia Moretti, the mother of Alice Carter (TW: Children of Earth)

Story notes

• William Thomas previously appeared in DW: Remembrance of the Daleks and DW: Boom Town, making him the first actor to have appeared in the 'classic series', the BBC Wales series and Torchwood.
• Nerys Hughes previously appeared in DW: Kinda.
• Gwen states that she would marry Rhys even if "Weevils crawled out of the sewers", or "the sky was full of spaceships". Weevils did crawl of the sewers in Exit Wounds, and the sky was full of Dalek spaceships in DW: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
• One of Gwen and Rhys' guests works at the Flat Holm facility and is later a Reality bomb test subject aboard the Crucible during the events of DW: The Stolen Earth/ Journey's End.
• This episode marks the first time we see Jack swear onscreen.

Ratings

to be added

Myths

• It was rumoured Rhys would die in this episode. (This was false)
• The "big gun" would be the gun used by Jack in DW: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways. (Also false, though it would be used in DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End.)

Filming Locations

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• At the end, Jack administers retcon to everyone at the wedding reception, to make them forget the alien encounter (not to mention Gwen's sudden pregnancy). Wouldn't this result in them, therefore, forgetting the wedding of Gwen and Rhys? Made even more complicated is the fact Gwen and Rhys are themselves offered retcon, so they too might have forgotten the wedding. Perhaps retcon allows for the implantation of false memories; this is in fact implied by Jack's statement about there being a long evening ahead after the retcon goes into effect.
• Even if retcon allows false memories to be implanted, it's somewhat more difficult to rectify the fact one of the wedding guests in fact died. Perhaps the false memory omitted the man, who would turn up dead in another venue, as per established Torchwood cover-up policy. It is explained in the Torchwood Archives book that Torchwood took the dead man and made his death look like suicide.

Continuity

• The singularity scalpel was last used in Reset.
• Owen is unable to properly use his left hand because of the damage sustained to it in A Day in the Death.

DVD releases

• This story along with the rest of Torchwood Series 2 is due to be released in a complete series boxset.

See also

• NA: Happy Endings

External links

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