Cyberwoman (TV story)

Cyberwoman was the fourth episode in the first series of Torchwood. It was written by Chris Chibnall, and directed by James Strong.

	Jack, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, Ianto
	Lisa Hallett
	Cardiff, 2000s
	Chris Chibnall
	James Strong
	Richard Stokes
	5 November 2006
	BBC Three
Torchwood
← Previous	Ghost Machine
Next →	Small Worlds

You may be looking for the titular character.

This episode marked the first time that Ianto Jones played a major part in the series. It also marked the first appearance of a villain from Doctor Who. Additionally, Gwen Cooper discovered that Owen Harper had developed a sexual attraction to her in a not-so-subtle way, and this powerful lust for her would soon become a temptation that put a wedge in her relationship with Rhys Williams.

Synopsis

Ianto has a dark secret, tied to the basement of the Hub — a secret he will protect at any cost: a semi-converted Cyberwoman! Will Torchwood Three fix things in time before the Cybermen, ripe from battle with their greatest enemy, the Doctor, convert the world?

Plot

During a mundane day at Torchwood Three, the team decide to go get a drink, but Ianto politely stays behind. Once alone, he brings a Japanese doctor named Tanizaki into the Torchwood 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 Hallett, his lover. They both worked at Torchwood One in London before its fall in the Battle of Canary Wharf. Lisa was only partially converted during the battle, and Ianto managed to get his half-Cybernetic girlfriend to safety afterwards. He rigged the equipment in secret to keep her alive, hiding her in the Hub's basement in hopes of curing her. He hopes Dr Tanizaki, a cybernetics expert, can undo the conversion and make her human again.

They take her to the autopsy lab and let her breathe on her own, but soon the rest of the team return 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. After he leaves, Lisa's Cyberman influence takes over. She attempts to "upgrade" Dr Tanizaki to repay him for his favour, killing him.

As the rest of Torchwood deal with the Arcan leisure crawler that's entered their atmosphere, there is a brief power flicker; Ianto 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 bloodied and mutilated after a failed cyber-conversion, 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 re-enters the cybernetic unit and begins to drain more power from Torchwood, soon noticed by the others.

Arming themselves, Gwen and Owen head for the holding cell where the power drain is occurring, believing themselves under attack. Once there, they find and Owen recognises 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, leaving Gwen powerless as the machine's saws and knives get closer to her head.

Gwen is terrified and yells for help. Jack tries to shut off the conversion unit but Lisa had altered the machine. He calls Tosh and tells her to shut power off to the base. Tosh does this, which unfortunately also means entering total lock-down. The team regroup in the Hub as the power is drained further by Lisa to recreate a new army of Cybermen. Jack demands that Ianto tell them 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 be permitted to reason with Lisa before the team attempts to attack her again.

Myfanwy attacks Lisa.

Lisa appears in the Hub and 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 therefore declares the two 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 with emergency power cells so they can open the weapons lockers while Gwen and Owen are to search for any weapons. He will try 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, and hide in a locker. As Lisa searches for them, Gwen and Owen kiss. Gwen's phone rings, alerting Lisa to their hiding place and Gwen and Owen to try to escape. As Lisa corners Gwen, Owen grabs a scalpel and stabs Lisa in the chest seemingly killing her. When Lisa starts to revive, they 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. As it attacks Lisa, the rest of the team, along with the recovered and protesting Ianto, escape through the invisible lift. Upon exiting the lift, Ianto punches Jack. Tosh runs up to them and tells Jack that she rigged the doors to open after a few minutes and Ianto runs to go back inside. At the entrance to Torchwood, Jack and the rest of the Torchwood group catch up to Ianto who pulls a gun on them and threatens to shoot them if they try to stop him. Jack knocks the gun away, pulling his own and threatens to shoot Ianto, 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.

Ianto's anguish over losing Lisa.

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. Then Lisa is suddenly behind her. As Ianto makes his way to the holding cell, he finds Lisa's body has died. The delivery girl, appears calling Ianto. She has a large cut across her forehead, claims she is Lisa and she took the girl's body so they could be together. She begs Ianto to hold her. Crying, Ianto hugs her, then pushes her away and holds her at gunpoint. Lisa tries to explain she did this for Ianto. He cries and fails to shoot. She promises they can be upgraded together. The rest of the Torchwood team arrive just in time to hear that, and open fire on the girl, killing her and leaving Ianto to mourn over Lisa's body.

The next day, Ianto enters the Hub. Jack and Gwen watch him 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 simply states that she didn't. When she asks, he refuses to tell Gwen that he'd ever loved anyone to the extent that Ianto loved Lisa. They continue to watch in silence.

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 - 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	Production Designer Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill
Make-up Designer Marie Doris	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Ray Holman	Edited by Mike Jones	Special Effects Any Effects
Cybermen created by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Co-producer - Chris Chibnall Associate Producer - Terry Reeve Assistant Producer - Sophie Fante Production Managers - Debbi Slater, Marcus Prince Location Manager - Paul Davies Location Scout - Nicky James Unit Manager - Geraint Havard Jones Production Co-ordinator - Carmelina Palumbo Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Kate Powell Production Secretary - Margarita Felices Script Secretary - Helen Pugsley Senior Production Accountant - Endaf Emyr Williams Production Accountant - Ceri Tothill Contracts Assistant - Beth Britton 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 Runners - Glen Coxon, Llywarch Davies Continuity - Llinos Wyn Jones Camera Operator - Gareth Hughes Focus Puller - Duncan Fowlie Grip - Dai Hopkins Camera Assistant - Mani Blaxter Paliwala Boom Operator - Jeff Welch Gaffer - Dave Fowler Best Boy - Steve Slocombe	Art department Chief Supervising Art Director - Stephen Nicholas Supervising Art Director - Keith Dunne Art Department Production Manager - Jonathan Marquand Allison Art Department Operations Manager - Adrian Anscombe Art Department Co-ordinator - Matthew North Associate Designer - Matthew Savage Production Buyer - Ben Morris Concept Artists - Ian Bunting, Peter McKinstry Design Assistants - Ben Austin, Al Roberts Standby Props - Brian Patrick Henry Standby Carpenter - Will Pope Standby Art Director - Dafydd Shurmer Standby Rigger - Keith Freeman Property Master - Nick Thomas Props Storeman - Charlie Malik Specialist Prop Maker - Mark Cordory Props Maker - Penny Howarth Construction Manager - Matthew Hywel-Davies Construction Chargehand - Scott Fisher Graphics - BBC Wales Graphic Design Costume department Costume Supervisor - Charlotte Mitchell Costume Assistants - Bobby Peach, Sara Morgan	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Claire Pritchard Make-up Artists - Sarah Astley-Hughes, Kate Roberts Prosthetics - Neill Gorton, Rob Mayor, Millennium Effects Prosthetics Supervisors - Martin Rezard, Pete Hawkins Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Tom Lucy Stunt Performer - Will Willoughby Casting Casting Associate - Andy Brierley General post-production staff Post-production Supervisors - Helen Vallis, Chris Blatchford Post-production Co-ordinator - Marie Brown Assistant Editor - Matt Mullins On-line Editor - Matthew Clarke Special and visual effects Visual FX Producers - Will Cohen, Marie Jones Visual FX Supervisor - Dave Houghton Visual Effects Co-ordinator - Kim Phelan On-set VFX Supervisor - Barney Curnow 3D Artists - Nicholas Hernandez, Jean-Claude Deguara, Neil Roche 2D Artists - Sara Bennett, Joe Courtis, Charlie Bennett Colourist - Mick Vincent Sound Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Supervising Sound Editor - Doug Sinclair Sound FX Editor - Howard Eaves Sound Editor - Paul McFadden

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

• Lisa is a partially converted Cybus Cyberman.
• Ianto and Lisa once went camping in Brittany.
• Jack references the Cybermen of the prime universe when he confronts Ianto.

Species

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

Story notes

• 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. The Hub set was redressed as a Cyberman factory in The Next Doctor.
• Had the working title "The Trouble With Lisa" .

Ratings

• 1.39 million viewers

Filming locations

• Harbour Drive, Cardiff Bay
• Tredegar House (basement), Newport
• Ba Orient (restaurant and bar), Mermaid Quay

Production errors

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

Continuity

• Owen tells Gwen that the Cybermen brought down Torchwood One, while Ianto was present at the Battle of Canary Wharf. (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday)
• Jack notes that the form of Cyberman faced by Torchwood originated in a parallel world. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)
• The "New mayor, new Cardiff" newspaper article appears again. (TV: Boom Town, Reset)
• Ianto and Lisa started dating in late 2005. (AUDIO: Uprising)
• Toshiko previously found Ianto acting strangely around a chamber in the Torchwood Archive. (PROSE: Slow Decay)

Home video releases

Series one, part one DVD cover

• This episode, with four others, was first released on a DVD entitled Torchwood: Series 1, part 1 on 26 December 2006. It was later released in Torchwood: The Complete First Series on 19 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
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Cyberwoman at The Whoniverse