To the Last Man (TV story)

To the Last Man
Key crew
Writer:	Helen Raynor
Director:	Andy Goddard
Release details
Release number:	16
Premiere broadcast:	30th January 2008

Synopsis

Once a year, for a single day, Tommy Brockless is defrosted in the Torchwood hub to make sure he's still working. He is kept alive until the day he is needed, and when ghosts appear at a hospital it's clear that time has come...

Plot

Tommy Brockless, a young World War I soldier, shell-shocked from his experiences in the trenches, is the key to saving the world. He is taken into custody by Torchwood in 1918 - Torchwood having been told to do so by his future self - and held in cryonic storage until the time comes for him to save the world. He is awoken one day each year for a medical check-up and a "day out" as a precautionary measure in case he is needed.

A time shift is set to cause 1918 and the present to bleed together at an unspecified time, and when this happens it is Tommy who will be "stitching" the fragments of 1918 back to their rightful place in time.

It is ninety years before this eventually happens and fragments of 1918 are appearing in an old abandoned hospital. Before the team realise that this is the year, Toshiko becomes infatuated with Tommy. Owen, noticing the closeness between them and having experienced something similar (cf. "Out of Time"), warns Tosh about the eventuality of saying goodbye.

When Tommy is told what he must do - actions that will result in him not seeing Toshiko again - Tommy initially refuses to take part. However, with encouragement from Toshiko, he begins to see the bigger picture and agrees. Toshiko is reluctant to do this, as Jack explains that Tommy is destined to be court martialled and shot for cowardice upon being sent back to the trenches. Jack eventually persuades her that it is for the greater good and she relents. During a brief time shift, Tommy tells Torchwood employees from that era that they must take him into custody. Then, with the next time shift, after a tearful goodbye, Tommy goes back to his own time. However, in his own time he reverts back to being shell-shocked and forgets all about Torchwood and why he has the Rift Key therefore the time shift still continues. As the time shifts are forcing the rift open Toshiko is able to be psychically transmitted into Tommy's mind in the past and encourages him to the use the key. Tommy turns the key in his Rift manipulator device, dragging all of 1918 back with him

Cast

• Captain Jack Harkness — John Barrowman
• Gwen Cooper — Eve Myles
• Owen Harper — Burn Gorman
• Toshiko Sato — Naoko Mori
• Ianto Jones — Gareth David-Lloyd
• Tommy Brockless — Anthony Lewis
• Gerald Carter — Roderic Culver
• Harriet Derbyshire — Siobhan Hewlett
• Nurse — Lizzie Rogan
• Foreman — Ricky Fearon

Production crew

to be added

References

• There is a scan of a Cyberman in the medical area of the Hub.
• Bilis Manger's antique shop was also described as a "stitch in time".
• The episode establishes that some form of military conflict in Iraq is taking place in the Doctor Who Universe as it is taking place in the real world. Tommy asks Tosh if it's a war and she replies "not really" leaving it ambiguous as to whether this is the same conflict initiated by the United States in 2003 in the real world, or if it is a different conflict.
• The partnership of Gerald and Harriet appears similar to that of Mulder and Scully on The X-Files, or that of Sapphire & Steel.

Story notes

to be added

Ratings

• Unofficial Overnight - 3.2 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

• Toshiko and Tommy visit the Norwegian Church in Harbor Drive, Cardiff Bay.
• Penarth Pier, was where Toshiko Sato and Tommy first kissed.
• The Eli Jenkins pub on Bute Crescent, Cardiff Bay.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• This episode shows a calendar dated Friday 20th (June 2008, Feb 2009 or March 2009). However, a poster in a hospital in Last of the Time Lords showed it was October, and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang seems to be only hours after that. The hospital is in a state of disrepair so it could be an old calendar
• Gwen witnesses Tommy's annual revival procedure for the first time, suggesting her adventures so far with Torchwood have taken place over less than a year, however this is not consistent with some of the dates provided for season 1 episodes which suggest she was with Torchwood during the previous defrosting. Jack may have chosen to not reveal this aspect of Torchwood to her at that time; or, it could simply have happened on her day off. Alternatively, as Owen states that Tommy is taken out of cryo every year or so, it's possible his scheduled unfreezing was delayed by events
• Whilst been chased by Tommy on the pier, Tosh drops her handbag twice. (YES , THIS IS AN ERROR, PROBABLY DUE TO EDITING)
• Tommy states that he is from Blackley in Lancashire but pronounces it "Black-lee". The correct pronunciation is more like "Blake-lee" (Wikipedia entry)
• An observation about the paradox created in this episode: Thawed Tommy is sent back to 1918, closing the Rift and later to be shot. Torchwood 1918 takes their-time Tommy (since There can be only one). Since Torchwood 1918 live in linear time, they supposedly deep freeze Tommy and write instructions in a temporal-locked container which won't open in "present-day" Torchwood as there is no hole in the rift, leaving a Tommy in the freezer to live on past the day he supposedly would have stitched the rift. Alternatively, linear time doesn't play very well with a hole in the rift and from that perspective, the scene will be played all over again and again and again; from Tommy's perspective one Tommy will always be replaced with the next... Don't think about the specifics of time travel - it will hurt your head

Continuity

• Tommy remarks how silly it would be to save the world in pyjamas, a side reference to DW: The Christmas Invasion, or possibly The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• A Torchwood team from another era is seen for the first time.

DVD releases

• This story along with the rest of Torchwood Series 2 was released in a complete series boxset in 2008.
• The American DVD release of the episode was titled "Last Man Standing".

See also

to be added

External links

• Torchwood Locations - To the Last Man
• To the Last Man at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• To the Last Man at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• To the Last Man at The Locations Guide