Sleeper (TV story)

Sleeper was the second episode in series 2 of Torchwood.

Synopsis

A burglary turns into a slaughter, and Torchwood suspect alien involvement. The investigation escalates into a city-wide assault, and Captain Jack realises that the whole planet is in danger.

Plot

Two burglars break into a flat owned by a woman called Beth and her husband. There’s a struggle, a flash of light, and soon Torchwood are on the scene investigating the grisly fate suffered by the burglars.

Beth cannot remember the events and is taken into custody by Torchwood, who suspect she is not of this earth. When they take her to a cell, she passes a Weevil and it cowers in her presence. Captain Jack, after flirting with Ianto, decides to take drastic measures and subject Beth to a mind probe.

Despite no initial reaction, the probe eventually uncovers alien technology buried under the skin of her right forearm. It emerges that she is an alien ‘sleeper agent’ from a group called Cell 114, yet to be activated and oblivious to its real identity having been given memory implants. They disconnect Beth's implant from the network and decide to freeze her to prevent her from being activated. While the process appears to work, she awakens inside the vaults.

Around Cardiff, three other sleeper agents are suddenly activated, with their right arms transforming into bayonet-like weapons. The change is both immediate and terrifying – a doting husband snaps his wife's neck as she attempts to stop him from leaving, and a young mother walks off while her baby is run over by a car. They carry out a series of suicide bombings at key locations, paving the way for their leader to head for a base containing nuclear warheads.

Beth manages to escape and is found with her ailing husband in hospital. She is struggling to keep her human identity and unconsciously stabs him in his bed as her arm transforms. Jack and Gwen track her to the hospital, which is hit by a suicide bombing carried out by a Cell agent who was a paramedic.

Captain Jack and Gwen convince Beth to temporarily reconnect with the others so that they can track them down, and discover that only one is still alive. They follow the leading sleeper agent to the army base moments before he can detonate the nuclear weapons. Jack is stabbed in the process and the agent tells him that the main invasion force is already on Earth before self-destructing. Back at Torchwood, Beth turns her sword arm on Gwen, forcing the others to shoot and kill her. Gwen believes that Beth knew this would be the case and wanted to be killed.

Cast

Production Crew

Executive Producers - Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner

Co-Producer – Chris Chibnall

Associate Producer – Catrin Lewis Defis

Producer – Richard Stokes

Script Editor - Brian Minchin

Casting Director - Andy Pryor

Production Manager - Rhydian Evans

Sound Recordist - Jeff Matthews

Costume Designer - Ray Holman

Make-Up Designer - Marrie Dorris

Set Decorator – David Morrson

Music – Ben Foster

Visual Effects - The Mill

Visual FX Producer - Marie A. Jones

Visual FX Supervisor - Barney Curnow

Production Designers - Edward Thomas, Julian Luxton

Editor - Mike Hopkins

Director of Photography – Mark Waters

First Assistant Director - Marco Ciglia

Second Assistant Director - James DeHaviland

Production Coordinator - Hannah Simpson

Script Supervisor - Vicky Cole

Camera Operator - Martin Stephens

Camera Assistants – Anna James, Paul Hanning

Grip - John Robinson

Gaffer - Dave Fowler

Stunt Coordinator - Tom Lucy

Stunt Performers - Dean Forster

Stunt Double – Curtis Rivers for John Barrowman

Production Buyer - Clare Keyte

Stand-by Art Director - Lisa McDiarmid

Costume Supervisor - Bobbie Peach

Costume Assistant – Sara Morgan

Make-Up Supervisor - Kate Roberts

Make-Up Artist - Andrea Dowdall

Casting Associate - Andy Brierley

Post Production Supervisors - Chris Blatchford, Helen Vallis

Dubbing Mixer - Peter Jeffreys

Sound FX Editor - Howard Eaves

References

A Weevil in one of the Hub's holding cells appears subdued/recoils at the appearance of a Sleeper agent in a similar way to TW: Dead Man Walking and Exit Wounds.
Owen jokingly refers to Gwen as "Jessica Fletcher" (the Agatha Christie-inspired sleuth of the TV series, Murder, She Wrote).
Mind probes have previously appeared or been mentioned in DW: Frontier in Space and DW: The Five Doctors.
The sleeper agents share similarities with the T-1000 in the Terminator movies: both are infiltrators who are able to turn their hands into stabbing weapons. The Torchwood The Official Magazine Yearbook (2008) says that James Moran was inspired by the Terminator movies in creating Cell 114, as well as the Bourne movies and Doctor Who's Cybermen.

Story notes

to be added

Ratings

Overnight - 3.4 million viewers
Official BARB ratings - 3.78 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

Kai Owen is credited despite Rhys not appearing in this episode.

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

Home video releases

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

External links

Footnotes