Immortal Sins (TV story)

Immortal Sins
Main character(s):	Jack, Gwen, Rhys, Rex, Esther
Featuring:	Angelo, Andy, Mary Cooper
Main enemy:	Olivia, brain parasite
Main setting:	New York City, 1927 and 1928 Swansea Bay and Los Angeles, 2011
Key crew
Writer:	Jane Espenson
Director:	Gwyneth Horder-Payton
Producer:	Kelly A Manners
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	19 August 2011
Torchwood
← Previous	The Middle Men
Next →	End of the Road

Immortal Sins was the seventh episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day. For the most part, it consisted of a flashback which introduced the character of Angelo Colasanto. Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond were resigned to cameo roles.

Synopsis

Gwen must fight to protect her family. She takes a terrifying journey with Jack, covering miles and decades, as the long history of the Miracle is partially revealed.

Plot

Gwen drives Jack through California to bring him to the people holding her family.

Flashbacks are seen of Jack's past. In 1920s New York, he awaits his visa at Ellis Island. Angelo Colasanto steals it. Jack confronts him, retrieves his visa and visits Angelo in his cell. They talk, and Jack uses technology to create a visa for Angelo.

Angelo is freed. Jack and he enter a relationship. At one point, they are retrieving an alien from a base when Jack is shot dead. Angelo is captured and imprisoned. Jack returns to America after Angelo's release. Angelo is terrified by Jack's immortality.

Angelo takes Jack to the butcher shop beneath their room,. There are people terrified of Jack. They sadistically attack him with knives, guns and meat hooks to kill him and collect his blood. Three men visit Jack. They seem to know something about his immortality. Angelo, overwhelmed with horror and guilt, eventually lets Jack go. Jack quickly recovers and flees with Angelo to a rooftop, where he explains his immortality before jumping off to his "death". When Angelo reaches the ground, Jack is gone.

As Gwen and Jack arrive, Rex and Esther have contacted Andy Davidson in Wales. He has freed Gwen's family. They train snipers on the three people who want Jack. Jack says he has won, but they say that Jack will come with them anyway. They have the information about the Miracle he wants. Angelo is still alive. He has something to do with the Miracle.

Cast

• Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
• Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
• Rex Matheson - Mekhi Phifer
• Esther Drummond - Alexa Havins
• Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
• Mary Cooper - Sharon Morgan
• Olivia Colasanto - Nana Visitor
• Andy Davidson - Tom Price
• Angelo Colasanto - Daniele Favilli
• Inspector - Pat Asanti
• SWAT Member - Michael Chomiak
• Salvatore Maranzano - Cris D'Annunzio
• Young Priest - Will Green
• Costerdane - Paul Hayes
• Ablemarch - Everton Lawrence
• Young Man - Griffin Matthews
• Mr. Giardano - Frank Medrano
• Girl in Crowd - Angelica Montesano
• Frines - Shawn Parsons
• Elderly Woman - Vanna Salviati
• Mrs. Giardano - Jayne Taini
• SWAT leader - Darren Dupree Washington

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter

Co-executive producers   Jane Espenson and Vlad Wolynetz

Written by Jane Espenson	Produced by Kelly A Manners	Directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton	Director of Photography Nate Goodman	Production Designer Gregory Melton	Visual Effects Lion Visual Effects, Inc.
Key Make-up Artist Todd McIntosh	Casting by John Frank Levey, CSA and Melanie Burgess	Score Murray Gold assistant composer Stu Kennedy	Costume Designer Shawna Trpcic	Edited by Hunter M. Via, A.C.E.	Key Hair Stylist Susan Boyd
Science Advisor - John Sotos, M.D.

General production staff Production Executive - Shelley Stevens Associate Producer - Skip Schoolnik Location Manager - Brad Bemis Unit Production Manager - Robert D. Nellans Production Accountant - Vince Robinette Transportation Coordinator - Heath Culp Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Jefferson Kibbee 2nd Assistant Director - Matt Buckler Script Supervisor - Anne Melville Camera Operator - Jeff Greeley Key Grip - Isaac Chee Chief Lighting Technician - Don Mosley	Art department Set Decorator - Natali Pope Set Designer - Arthur Chadwick Property Master - Eric Bates Construction Coordinator - Chris Forster Computer Graphics - Twisted Media	Make-up and prosthetics Special Make-up Effects - Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger General post-production staff Post-production Supervisor - Peter M. Tassler High Definition Post-Production - Modern Videofilm, Inc. Special and visual effects Visual FX Supervisor - Michael D. Leone Sound Production Sound Mixer - Julian Howarth Supervising Sound Editor - Walt Newman Co-supervisor - Ken Young Music Editor - Tom Trafalski Re-recording Mixers - Dan Hiland, Gary Rogers Post-Production Sound - Warner Bros.

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.
The Starz broadcast carried a final credit of "Originally Developed and Produced by BBC Cymru Wales". The BBC One broadcast says, instead, "BBC Worldwide Productions for BBC Cymru Wales and STARZ Originals".

References

• Jack mentions Clarke's Law.
• Jack and Angelo Colasanto talk about the Doctor and the role of his companions.
• Jack mentions the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt being Governor of New York and President for at least two periods, World War II, and the Trickster's Brigade.
• Jack tells Angelo, "It gets better. And worse again."

Story notes

• Jack explains that the brain parasite would rewrite history by enabling the Third Reich to win the Second World War. One week and a day after this episode was broadcast in the US and only two days after it was broadcast in the UK, the Doctor Who episode Let's Kill Hitler featured Adolf Hitler in a cameo role and was set in Nazi Germany in 1938.
• This is the first time that Jack is killed onscreen during Series 4. He is killed at least seven times in this episode, including from being shot, stabbed, disembowelled, having his thoat slashed and from a high fall.

Ratings

• UK: 4.48 million

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

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

• Jack refers to the Doctor directly and to his travels typically being with a companion.
• The Seventh Doctor, the Fourth Doctor, and the Captain also mentioned Clarke's Law. (DW: Battlefield, DW: The Pirate Planet)
• Jack has very similar dialogue with Angelo that the Ninth Doctor had with Rose Tyler. (DW: Rose)
• Jack tells Angelo that he is a "fixed point in time," words echoed from his time with the Tenth Doctor. This is a continuity issue as he wouldn't be told this until the events of DW: Utopia, eighty-one years later in his personal timeline.
• Jack stating to Angelo that "Men like you kill me" may have been a reference to his former lover Captain John Hart. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, TW: Fragments, TW: Exit Wounds)
• Jack refers to time making him a fixed point. (DW: Utopia)
• The creature Jack and Angelo find was intended to infect Franklin D. Roosevelt and disrupt history for the Trickster's Brigade. (DW: Turn Left, SJA: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, SJA: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith, SJA: The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith)
• A brief video clip is shown of the "death" of Vera Juarez. (TW: The Categories of Life)
• Jack was subjected to similar torture aboard the Valiant, where the Master killed him repeatedly for fun. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)

Timeline

In the present day

• This story occurs after TW: The Middle Men.
• This story occurs before TW: End of the Road.

In flashbacks to 1927 and 1928

• This story occurs after Jack's flashbacks in TW: Small Worlds.
• This story occurs before Jack's flashbacks in TW: Children of Earth: Day Four.

Home video releases

This episode will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 14 November 2011, alongside the other nine episodes.

Footnotes