Everything Changes (TV story)

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The 21st century is where everything changes, and you've got to be ready!Jack Harkness


Everything Changes is the first episode of the first series of Torchwood together with the following episode, "Day One". It introduces four of the five members of Torchwood Three: Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones and Suzie Costello.

Synopsis

Torchwood arrives on the scene of a brutal murder. PC Gwen Cooper's curiosity is challenged by their attitude; their approach and their technology is at odds with everything she believes in, but in investigating them she finds a dark, dangerous and mysterious world, right in the heart of Cardiff.

Plot

During a murder investigation in Cardiff, PC Gwen Cooper spies on a mysterious group of people from "Torchwood" led by Captain Jack Harkness, with one member Suzie Costello using a metal gauntlet to temporarily bring the victim of murder to life in an attempt to learn the identity of his murderer. Jack notes Gwen's presence, causing her to flee the scene. The next day, she runs into once more Jack at a hospital, and following him, finds a sealed-off area where she runs into a Weevil, who kills a porter. Jack arrives, spraying something at the Weevil giving Gwen a chance to escape. As she leaves the hospital she sees the Torchwood vehicle, and follows it herself while learning from her office that the vehicle is unregistered, and that while there was a "Jack Harkness" that disappeared in 1941, there is no record of one today. She follows the vehicle to Roald Dahl Plass, and though is able to follow them on foot, somehow loses sight of them as they pass by the Water Tower (the large fountain). She learns from her partner Andy that all personnel at the hospital have been accounted for.

Catching sight of a pizza delivery scooter, she inquires at the local pizza store and learns they make deliveries to Torchwood. Diguised as a pizza delivery girl, she enters a tourist centre where Ianto allows her entry into Torchwood she walks down a secret passageway and lets her through. Following it, Gwen eventually finds herself at the Hub of Torchwood, where the rest of the Torchwood team initially tries to ignore her entrance but break out into fits of laughter, well aware of who Gwen is. Jack shows Gwen around the Hub, showing her the captured Weevil from the hospital, then they leave the Hub via a path slab lift, ending up right in front of the Water Tower in Roald Dahl Plass. Jack explains that a perception field exists around the spot they are standing, making them invisible to passer byes and why Gwen lost track of the team earlier. Jack takes Gwen to a pub, and over a drink, explains the purpose of Torchwood, there to help control the flotsam and jetsam of the time-space vortex that falls to Earth due to the presence of the rift that exists right where the Hub is located. As Gwen wonders why Jack is telling her all of this, he explains that he has placed an amnesia pill in her drink, and she will have forgotten all of this in the morning. Gwen races home to try to type out a message to herself before the pill's effects are complete, but falls asleep; Ianto hacks Gwen's computer and wipes the message clean.

The next day at work, Gwen is shown a drawing of the knife believed used on the victim two days ago, which begins to trigger a series of memories. These solidify when she spots a Millennium Centre programme with the word "Remember" in her own handwriting at home, and she returns to the Plass. There, Suzie is waiting for her, and explains the effects of the amnesia pill could be broken with a specific image, that being the knife. Suzie goes onto explain that she was the one that killed the man before as well as other victims, all in order to test the metal gauntlet and to try to learn how to make the resurrection permanent. Suzie then pulls a gun on Gwen, but just as Jack rises from the pavement elevator, Suzie turns and shoots him in the head. However, Jack survives, his wounds healing themselves, and tries to coax Suzie to stop. Suzie puts the gun under her chin and kills herself. Gwen falls to her knees, remembering everything.

In the Hub, the metal gauntlet is sealed away, while Suzie's body is placed into their morgue. Standing on the roof of the Millennium Centre, Jack tells Gwen that he died once, but was brought back to life. Since then, he has been immortal, at least until he can find the right sort of doctor who can explain what happened. Jack goes on to explain that in the 21st century, "everything changes", and agrees with Gwen that perhaps Torchwood can do more to help people, and offers her a job, which she accepts.

Cast

References

  • The resurrection gauntlet and the life knife make their first appearance.
  • The only information the Cardiff police have on Captain Jack Harkness is an American volunteer who went missing from RAF 133 Squadron on 21st January 1941 at the height at the Blitz.
  • Jack explains to Gwen that the base in Cardiff is actually Torchwood Three. Torchwood One was in London, but it was destroyed during the Battle of Canary Wharf, Torchwood Two is in Glasgow and is run by a very strange man, and Torchwood Four has gone missing, but they’re hoping to find it again sometime soon.
  • Captain Jack Harkness' explanation for the 'not-beeing-seen' square at Roald Dahl Plass is that they have detected signs of a 'perception filter'. This was in fact left over from the TARDIS that had landed on that same spot in Boom Town, except that Jack was already there during that episode as an earlier version of himself. This perception filter would later be used in The Sound of Drums.

Story Notes

  • This story had the working title; Flotsam And Jetsam.
  • As the first post-watershed production of the Doctor Who franchise, the episode features several firsts, including the first use of the F-word in a televised Doctor Who franchise production.
  • Several scenes were trimmed from the episode for broadcast on the CBC in Canada, including a scene in which Owen, using the pheromone spray, also seduces the blonde's angry boyfriend.
  • It has been suggested that Owen's use of the pheromone spray was effectively "date rape."[1]

Ratings

  • BBC3 - 2.5 million viewers
  • BBC2 - 3.03 million viewers

Myths

  • The missing Torchwood 4 is a sly Babylon 5 reference: Babylon 4 also mysteriously disappeared.

Filming Locations

  • Millicent Street, Cardiff, Wales (Resurrection in the rain)
  • NCP Tredegar Street, Cardiff, Wales (Gwen spies on Torchwood resurrecting)
  • NCP Cardiff Rapports, Cardiff, Wales
  • Old Natwest Bank, Cardiff (Entrance of police station)
  • Dorset Street, Cardiff, Wales
  • Cornwall (pub), Cardiff, Wales (Pub where Gwen and Andy break up fight)
  • Newport Road Lane, Cardiff (Location where Gwen first sees Torchwood SUV)
  • A4232 (Grangetown/Butetown Link), Cardiff (Gwen in pursuit of the Torchwood SUV)
  • Mumbai Bay Takeaway, James Street, Cardiff (Jubilee Pizza, where Gwen goes, tracking down Torchwood)
  • Cardiff Castle, Cardiff (Part of the tunnel entrance into Torchwood)
  • Icon, Cardiff, Wales (Location where Owen tries the spray)
  • Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, Wales (Bar where Jack and Gwen have a beer, prior to him retconning her)
  • St Mary's Street, Cardiff
  • Altolusso, Bute Terrace, Cardiff (One of the tall building shots with Jack standing on top)
  • King Edward VII Avenue (A4161 underpass), Cardiff (Location where Gwen runs home after her meeting with Jack and her subsequent retconning)
  • Mermaid Quayside, Cardiff Bay (The tourist information shop/entrance to Torchwood)
  • Roald Dahl Plass, Cardiff (Exterior of Torchwood)
  • BBC Studios, Upper Boat Studios, Upper Boat Tonteg Road, Treforest Industrial Estate, Pontypridd

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • Jack pronounces estrogen at the very beginning of the episode as "ee-strogen". An American would pronounce it "eh-strogen". Jack is from the Boeshane Peninsula; it could be a regional aspect to it, like ordinary accents. Flashbacks in "Adam" show a young Jack saying "Mum" instead of the more American "Mom." Alternatively, Jack may have been living in the UK long enough to have become used to pronouncing certain words in their British form. In THE STOLEN EARTH he says to Gwen and Ianto "Im sorry, we're dead" in a very english accent. Jack isn't American. He was only pretending to be American when he met the Doctor, and he kept the accent. Therefore he may say things differently.

Continuity

  • How he reached the Earth in his subjective past is explained in DW: Utopia.
  • How Jack and the others came to work for Torchwood is seen in TW: Fragments.

DVD Releases

to be added

See also

to be added

External Links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Cult Spy: Catching Up With 'Torchwood' Accessed on 11th October 2008
v • e
Torchwood television stories
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Children of Earth: Day One • Day Two • Day Three • Day Four • Day Five
Series 4
Stories listed here are only those that have been officially licensed by the BBC.


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