Meat (TV story)

Meat (TV story)

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Meat
Featuring:	Jack Harkness Gwen Cooper Toshiko Sato Owen Harper Ianto Jones
Main enemy:	Meat Organisation
Main setting:	Cardiff, 2008
Key crew
Writer:	Catherine Tregenna
Director:	Colin Teague
Producer:	Richard Stokes Chris Chibnall
Release details
Release number:	17
Premiere broadcast:	6th February 2008

Meat is the fourth episode in the second series of Torchwood.

Synopsis

Gwen's fiancé, Rhys, discovers the truth about Torchwood and helps the team as they investigate a mysterious alien-meat supply. Will Rhys go too far? And can Torchwood save the alien from being used as cheap meat?

Plot

Rhys Williams is out driving when he is telephoned by a work mate to inform him that one of their firm's lorries has crashed. He drives to the site of the crash and see that one of his employees and friend has died. Torchwood appears on the scene and Rhys spots Gwen amongst them.

The Torchwood team confiscates the meat that the lorry was transporting when they suspect it of being alien. Gwen recognises the lorry as one from Rhys' firm. Back at the Hub, Toshiko rings Rhys' office for information pretending to be the police. At home Rhys texts Gwen asking for her to come home. He attempts to get her to confess to being at the crash site but she is evasive.

He sees Gwen meeting up with Jack near the invisible lift in Roald Dahl Plass and follows her to a factory. While there he is captured by a group of men and taken into the factory. Jack and Gwen see this and mistake his actions for collaboration. The men show Rhys that they have captured a live "space whale" (nicknamed the "cash cow" by its captors) which is the source of the meat and which continues to grow despite them cutting chunks of its flesh away while it is still alive. In an act of self-preservation, Rhys agrees to replace his dead employee for the men.

Back at their flat, Rhys and Gwen argue over her being at the crash and Gwen admits to the nature of her work for Torchwood. Rhys is disbelieving until she shows him around the Hub. With Rhys' help the team manages to inflitrate the factory so they can free the alien creature. The team hides in one of Rhys' vans and Rhys drives them to the factory where the team sneaks in.

They locate the creature and plan to stun gun the men and sedate it so they can move it back to the Hub until the Cardiff spacetime Rift reopens. Meanwhile, the men have captured Rhys & Ianto. They confirm that the creature is sentient, but the men discover them and in the fights Rhys is shot. The creature becomes distressed and Owen can see no other option but to euthanise it when it poses a threat to them by struggling. They are able to stun the men and feed them amnesia pills. Back at the Hub, Owen patches up Rhys' wound and Jack orders Gwen to give Rhys a pill too. She finds that she cannot bring herself to do so and Jack relents, disappointed about this but is unwilling to fire Gwen and face losing her from the team.

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
• Policeman - Colin Baxter
• Ruth - Patti Clare
• Vic - Garry lake
• Greg - Gereld Carey
• Dale - Matt Ryan
• Dave - Andy Watts

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner

Written by Catherine Tregenna	Produced by Richard Stokes	Directed by Colin Teague	Director of Photography Mark Waters	Production Designer Edward Thomas Julian Luxton	Visual Effects The Mill
Make-up Designer Marrie Dorris	Casting Director Andy Pryor	Music Ben Foster	Costume Designer Ray Holman	Edited by Mike Hopkins
Original theme music by Murray Gold

General production staff Co-producer - Chris Chibnall Associate Producer - Catrin Lewis Defis Production Manager - Rhydian Evans Production Co-ordinator - Hannah Simpson Script department Script Editor - Brian Minchin Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Marco Ciglia 2nd Assistant Director - James DeHaviland 3rd Assistant Director - Hanna Haffenden Script Supervisor - Vicky Cole Camera Operator - Martin Stephens Grip - John Robinson Camera Assistant - Anna James Gaffer - Dave Fowler	Art department Production Buyer - Clare Keyte Standby Art Director - Lisa McDiarmid Costume department Costume Supervisor - Bobbie Peach	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Kate Roberts Make-up Artist - Andrea Dowdall Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Tom Lucy Casting Casting Associate - Andy Brierley General post-production staff Post-production Supervisors - Chris Blatchford, Helen Vallis Assistant Editor - Matt Mullins On-line Editor - Mark Bright Special and visual effects Visual FX Producer - Marie A. Jones Visual FX Supervisor - Barney Curnow Visual Effects Co-ordinator - Jenna Powell Colourists - Jon Everett, Mick Vincent Sound Dubbing Mixer - Peter Jeffreys 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

• Gwen mentions the drug, retcon.
• The crew eat a meat feast pizza, which events have inspired them to pick the meat off of.
• This is the second time Gwen has told Rhys what she does as a job, although it does not appear to trigger the re-emergence of the memories of the previous time, which Gwen suppressed with Retcon.
• Leighton was taking the meat to Caerwent.

Story notes

• Coincidentally, the episode aired for the first time in Canada at the same time as a tainted meat outbreak in that country was causing mass recalls and deaths.
• The theme of humans exploiting alien life forms would be touched on again only two episodes later in Reset, as well as in the Doctor Who episodes Planet of the Ood and The Beast Below.
• Ianto shows a reaction to the exploiting of the defenseless alien and his endangered teammates; violently attacking the meat-traffickers, slamming one with a door, and stun-gunning another one on the head as he says "Pray they survive".
• This is another episode where Jack and Ianto's relationship is shown, when Tosh tells Owen to go out with someone he works with Ianto and Jack share a look that implies that's what they are doing. Also prior to this, Jack is seen staring at Ianto intentively.
• The Harwood's jingle makes its debut. It is also heard in an impromptu performance by Kai Owen and John Barrowman in the Series 2 gag reel, and again in TWA: Ghost Train.

Ratings

• Unofficial Overnight - 2.9 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

• Although Rhys is wearing handcuffs when shot in the shoulder, he still manages to flail his arms around.
• When Owen and Ianto are at the slaughter house Ianto talks to Jack over the com, he presses it, and it beeps but the com unit isn't there.

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.

to be added

DVD releases

• This story along with the rest of Torchwood Series 2 was released in a complete series boxset in 2008.

External links

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