Checkout (unproduced TV story)

Checkout was an unproduced Torchwood television story written by Joseph Lidster. The story was intended as an episode in series 2, before being replaced by Lidster's A Day in the Death ^[+]Loading...["A Day in the Death (TV story)"]. The story would have followed Ianto's coping with being dead, a story arc that would later be transferred to Owen, as well as a Torchwood investigation into the presence of Rift energy in a supermarket. It was featured on "The Lost Episodes" article of TM 24.

Illustration of this story from TM 24
	Jack, Gwen, Tosh, Owen, Ianto
	Rhys, Maggie
	Unnamed demonic creature
	Cardiff, 2000s
Unproduced Torchwood TV stories
Next →	Deadline

Plot outline

to be added

Characters

• Jack Harkness
• Ianto Jones
• Gwen Cooper
• Owen Harper
• Toshiko Sato
• Rhys Williams
• Maggie
• Unnamed demonic creature

Notes

• This story originates from an idea by Russell T Davies, who asked Joseph Lidster to work on a story set in a supermarket. Lidster later described this pitch as "Die Hard in a supermarket", and stated that "he was keen to play up the contrast between the excitingly dark world of Torchwood and the mundanely bright supermarket."
• Much of this story also focuses on the civilian character of Maggie, the last customer in the supermarket who the Torchwood team focus on getting out alive. Her character would later be reused in Lidster's A Day in the Death ^[+]Loading...["A Day in the Death (TV story)"]. In particular, a scene between Ianto and Maggie on the supermarket roof impressed Davies that he asked Lidster to reuse it.
• An earlier draft of this story would have Maggie surviving and escaping the supermarket alive, only to find that her children were dead in her car. Upon reflection, Lidster states that the earlier ending was "completely terrible" and that he was lucky he wasn't "sacked on the spot".
• As Lidster focused on writing other episodes, Russell T Davies took the supermarket idea back to write the opening episode of the series. However, due to pressure from other projects, Davies handed the episode to Chris Chibnall. The final episode became Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang ^[+]Loading...["Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (TV story)"], with the supermarket setting abandoned completely.