Everything Changes (TV story)
Everything Changes is the first episode of the first series of Torchwood together with the following episode, "Day One". It introduces four of the five members of Torchwood Three: Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones and Suzie Costello.
Synopsis
When Torchwood arrives on the scene of a brutal murder, WPC Gwen Cooper's burning curiosity is challenged. Their attitude, their approach and their technology is at odds with everything she believes in. But investigating the investigators leads her into a dark, paranoid world she never imagined existed.
Plot
During a murder investigation in Cardiff, PC Gwen Cooper spies on a mysterious group of four people calling themselves "Torchwood" led by Captain Jack Harkness, with one member Suzie Costello using a metal gauntlet to temporarily bring the victim to life to attempt to learn who his killer was. Jack notes Gwen's presence, causing her to flee the scene. The next day, she runs into Jack again at a hospital, and following him, finds a sealed-off area where she runs into a Weevil, who kills an innocent porter. Jack shows up and gives Gwen the opportunity to escape. As she leaves the hospital, she spots the Torchwood vehicle, and follows it herself while learning from her office that the vehicle is unregistered, and that while there was a "Jack Harkness" that disappeared in 1941, there is no record of one today. She follows the vehicle to Roald Dahl Plass, and though is able to follow them on foot, somehow loses sight of them as they pass by the large fountain in the area. She learns from her partner Andy that all personnel at the hospital have been accounted for.
Catching sight of a pizza delivery scooter, she inquires at the local pizza store and learns they make deliveries to Torchwood. Guised as a pizza delivery girl, she enters a tourist center where Ianto presses a button to reveal a secret passageway and lets her through. Following it, Gwen eventually finds herself at the Hub of Torchwood, where the rest of the Torchwood team initially tries to ignore her entrance but break out into fits of laughter, well aware of who Gwen is. Jack shows Gwen around the Hub, showing her the captured Weevil from the hospital, then they leave the Hub via a sidewalk slab lift, ending up right in front of the fountain in Roald Dahl Plass. Jack explains that a perception field exists around the spot they are standing, making them invisible to passer byers and why Gwen lost track of the team earlier. Jack takes Gwen to a pub, and over a drink, explains the purpose of Torchwood, there to help control the flotsam and jetsam of the time-space vortex that falls to Earth due to the presence of the rift that exists right where the Hub is located. As Gwen wonders why Jack is telling her all of this, he explains that he has placed an amnesia pill in her drink, and she will have forgotten all of this in the morning. Gwen races home to try to type out a message to herself before the pill's effects are complete, but falls asleep; Ianto hacks Gwen's computer and wipes the message clean.
The next day at work, Gwen is shown a drawing of the knife believed used on the victim two days ago, which begins to trigger a series of memories. These solidify when she spots a Millennium Centre programme with the word "Remember" in her own handwriting at home, and she returns to the Plass. There, Suzie is waiting for her, and explains the effects of the amnesia pill could be broken with a specific image, that being the knife. Suzie goes onto explain that she was the one that killed the man before as well as other victims, all in order to test the metal gauntlet and to try to learn how to make the resurrection permanent. Suzie then pulls a gun on Gwen, but just as Jack rises from the pavement elevator, Suzie turns and shoots him in the head. However, Jack manages to survive, his wounds healing themselves, and tries to coax Suzie to stop. Suzie puts the gun under her chin and kills herself. Gwen falls to her knees, remembering everything.
In the Hub, the metal gauntlet is sealed away in a box labelled "NOT FOR USE", while Suzie's body is placed into their morgue. Standing on the roof of the Millennium Centre, Jack tells Gwen that he died once, but was brought back to life. Since then, he has been immortal, at least until he can find the right sort of doctor who can explain what happened. Jack goes on to explain that in the 21st century, "everything changes", and agrees with Gwen that perhaps Torchwood can do more to help people, and offers her a job, which she accepts.
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
- Suzie Costello - Indira Varma
- Young cop - Guy Lewis
- PC Andy Davidson - Tom Price
- SOCO - Jason May
- John Tucker - Rhys Swinburn
- Yvonne - Olwen Medi
- DI Jacobs - Gwyn Vaughan-Jones
- Officer - Dion Davis
- Hospital porter - Jams Thomas
- Weevil - Paul Kasey
- Security Guard - Mark Heal
- Pizza lad - Gary Shepheard
- Man - Gwilym Havard Davies
- Woman - Cathryn Davies
Crew
- Writer - Russell T Davies
- Director - Brian Kelly
- 1st Assistant Director - Peter Bennett
- 2nd Assistant Director - Steffan Morris
- 3rd Assistant Director - Lynsey Muir
- Executive Producers - Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
- Producer - Richard Stokes
- Co-Producer - Chris Chibnall
References
- The Resurrection gauntlet and the life knife make their first appearance.
Story Notes
- This story had the working title; Flotsam And Jetsam.
- Owen's use of the pheremone spray was effectively "date rape."
- As the first post-watershed production of the Doctor Who franchise, the episode features several firsts, including the first use of the F-word in a televised Doctor Who franchise production.
- Several scenes were trimmed from the episode for broadcast on the CBC in Canada, including a scene in which Owen, using the pheremone spray, also seduces the blonde's angry boyfriend.
Ratings
- BBC3 - 2.5 million viewers
- BBC2 - 3.03 million viewers
Myths
- The missing Torchwood 4 is a sly Babylon 5 reference: Babylon 4 also mysteriously disappeared.
Filming Locations
to be added
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
to be added
Continuity
- Torchwood is first referred to in DW: Bad Wolf.
- It makes it's first 'physical' appearance in DW: The Christmas Invasion.
- It was created in DW: Tooth and Claw.
- It is implied that Jack's immortality is a side effect of his resurrection by Rose near the end of DW: The Parting of the Ways. It isn't clear whether Rose remembers resurrecting Jack although she clearly believes him to be alive as does the Doctor (DW: Children in Need Special). This is confirmed by the Doctor in DW: Utopia.
- Captain Jack was last seen on the Game Station in DW: The Parting of the Ways.
- The Cardiff rift first appeared in DW: The Unquiet Dead.
- The Perception filter is on the exact spot where the TARDIS landed in DW: Boom Town.
- Toshiko Sato first appeared in DW: Aliens of London.
- The glove, the knife and Suzie herself make a further appearance in TW: They Keep Killing Suzie.
- A similar glove appears in TW: Dead Man Walking.
DVD Releases
to be added
See also
to be added
External Links
- Doctor Who: Torchwood Reference Guide: Detailed Synopsis - Everything Changes
- A Brief History of Time (Travel): Everything Changes
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