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Everything Changes was the first episode in series 1 of Torchwood.
Though not a pilot, it carried many of the narrative burdens of one. It introduced the programme's regular characters, as well as recurring elements such as the Hub, Myfanwy, retcon and the Torchwood SUV.
Written by Russell T Davies, it had the distinction of being his only writing credit until series 3. It also bore certain structural commonalities with Rose, Davies's first episode of Doctor Who. Whereas the earlier script had introduced the mysterious Ninth Doctor through the eyes of Rose Tyler, Everything Changes introduced its audience to the mysterious figure of Captain Jack Harkness through female protagonist Gwen Cooper. Indeed, long-standing fans of Davies' work would have recognised the structure from as far back as Dark Season, RTD's early-1990s children's TV programme.
The story was notable for an attempted bit of subterfuge: Indira Varma was included in the opening titles to suggest that her character, Suzie Costello, was going to be a regular. Her death in the episode was meant to surprise the audience. Because BBC Three decided to air the first two episodes on the same night, however, the effect fell flat. Nevertheless, it did establish another recurring element of the programme: even main characters could die in Torchwood. By the end of series 4, only two of the main cast listed in this episode would still be alive, Gwen and Jack, respectively.
22 October 2016 marked the 10th anniversary of Torchwood. In celebration of this, and due to its popularity, cast and crew were invited to the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff for a special screening of this, the very first ever episode, to be shown for the fans.[1]
Synopsis
The Torchwood Three team arrives at the scene of a brutal murder. PC Gwen Cooper's curiosity is challenged by their attitude; their approach and their technology is at odds with everything she believes in. As she investigates them, she begins to uncover a dark, mysterious and dangerous world right in the heart of Cardiff.
Plot
PC Gwen Cooper arrives on a rainy murder scene, the third of a series of recent killings, and watches as the forensic investigation unit is pulled, mid-investigation, to allow special access to a four-man team in civilian clothing from Torchwood Institute. A forensic tech believes that Torchwood is some kind of special ops group. Gwen's concerned about crime scene contamination and spots a good vantage point on a parking garage and runs up there to observe the team at work.
Captain Jack Harkness is waxing philosophical about the taste of contraceptives in the rain as his team sets up around the body. Dr Owen Harper complains about the rain. Suzie Costello puts a metal gauntlet on her right hand, then places her hand beneath the head of the murdered body and he gasps. Toshiko Sato attempts to question the murder victim, but he takes some time to calm down, and he didn't see his murderer. They have some time remaining, and Tosh doesn't know what else to ask, but Jack does — he introduces himself and asks the victim his name — which is John Tucker — and he wants to know what death is like. John tells him he saw nothing and then falls dead again. Torchwood bickers over what went wrong until, suddenly, Jack yells up to Gwen, "What do you think?"
Gwen runs for it. When she makes it home, her boyfriend Rhys Williams is watching a drama. He mentions he saw the story of the murder on the news and Gwen lies, saying she wasn't involved. She lies awake in bed, watching the clock until at least 2 am.
The next morning, Gwen asks her friend Yvonne to do her a favour and look up Captain Jack Harkness. She serves beverages at a briefing about a series of murders, where they mention that the murders were done with the same weapon, some sort of blade. She and her partner respond to a bar brawl and Gwen gets a good knock to the head. She sees a doctor at the hospital and, as she's leaving, she catches sight of a man in a long coat heading up the stairs. She follows up the stairs to the top floor, which is sealed with plastic and caution tape. She hears a porter entering from the floor below and asks him who sealed off the top floor. He'd assumed it was the police or somebody spraying chemicals. She returns and pushes her way through the plastic. She sees what she assumes to be a strange looking man wearing a mask at the other end of the floor. She asks if he's seen the man in the long coat, but there is no reply, only a soft growl. She keeps talking, with no response. The porter comes through, saying he asked around and couldn't find why it was sealed. He admires the workmanship of the mask, especially the teeth, when the creature bites him in the throat and his blood sprays.
Jack bursts in, and as his team sprays the creature with something and hoods it, he rushes Gwen out of the hallway. She keeps running until she's outside, where she's catching her breath when the Torchwood SUV nearly hits her. She chases it in her patrol car, leaving her partner behind. She calls in the plate to control, and Yvonne asks if she's seeing ghosts, as there has been no Captain Jack Harkness save for an American volunteer that disappeared 21 January 1941.
Gwen follows the SUV to the Wales Millennium Centre, where it drops off the four she'd seen before, and drives away. She quickly parks the patrol car and follows them, yelling to them, but they ignore her. Security distracts her, telling her she needs to move her car, and when she turns back they are gone. Control has no record of the plate, and her partner Andy Davidson shows up, complaining about the walk from the hospital. He says there is no staff missing from the hospital and takes her home.
Even though Rhys has dinner waiting, Gwen lies and says she needs to work. She stakes out the Millennium centre, eventually going to Jubilee Pizza, where they say they deliver to Torchwood. Gwen brings pizza to a small office by the pier. She says they're for Mr Harkness, and Ianto Jones presses a buzzer and points her down a secret passage.
She enters Torchwood Three and a vault door rolls closed behind her, then a metal cage closes around the vault door. She gets her first view of the Hub, including a water feature in the centre, a severed hand in a bubbling container, and a woman welding. Jack walks down to a desk and they all ignore her... Until Owen and Tosh break down laughing, and we find they've been watching her stalk them for the last three hours. Jack immediately brings up the fact Gwen sneaked in as a pizza girl and asks his team, "And before we go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?" Owen replies back, "Me. I'm sorry. I'm a twat."
Gwen confronts them about what she has seen. Tosh says she covered up the murder of the porter, as it's her job to do so. Gwen dodges a pterodactyl as Jack takes her to show her the murderer, telling her it's an alien being they call a Weevil. He brings her back to the main room and introduces the team, over Gwen's protest that it's classified. Jack ignores her concern and gives everyone an assignment, including Gwen.
Jack takes Gwen out the scenic route, a granite slab that lifts them up to the pavement in front of the water tower, where she saw them disappear the night before. Jack demonstrates that the people walking by can't see or hear them until they step off the paving slab. She asks how it works, and he says he has no idea, but he might guess that "there was once a dimensionally transcendental chameleon circuit placed right on this spot, which welded its perception properties to a spatial-temporal rift."
They go to a bar, where Jack ridicules Gwen's disbelief after the Christmas invasion and the Battle of Canary Wharf. He establishes that they catch aliens and scavenge their tech, and don't answer to anyone so that no one government can abuse the power. Gwen's pretty sure they can abuse it themselves, even if there's a rule about no tech leaving the base. They're the third Torchwood, and they're in Cardiff because there is a rift in Cardiff that drops all sorts of alien things there. Gwen assumes that they've been trying to solve the blade murders, but Jack tells her that's not what they're doing. They were only there to get practice using the resurrection gauntlet, which requires recently deceased murder victims, the more violent the death, the better. Although Gwen feels she has a duty to act, Jack reveals that he's drugged her drink with an amnesia pill of Jack's design, laced with a sedative. She says she could just tell somebody else — and Jack threatens to do the same to anyone she tells. Gwen runs for home.
Meanwhile, Tosh, Owen, and Suzie have all taken alien items from the base. Tosh scans a copy of A Tale of Two Cities with one touch and uploads it to her computer. Owen tries to pick up a girl, who shuts him down until he sprays himself with a spray bottle; then she grabs him, kisses him, and drags him out. Her boyfriend catches up with them and is about to punch him when Owen sprays himself again... and the boyfriend kisses him. Owen calls for a taxi. Suzie uses the gauntlet to resurrect a dead fly.
Gwen is home, hurriedly typing notes about Torchwood. Her vision gets blurry and she makes more and more typos until she passes out. Ianto hacks into her home computer and erases her notes. In the morning, Rhys brings her a drink, worrying that she'd been drinking with a head injury. At work, Yvonne asks her about Captain Jack, and Gwen doesn't know what she's talking about. Over by the murder investigation, they've reconstructed the very odd blade weapon from the shape of the wounds. Gwen says she hasn't seen it, but she spends the rest of her day in a daze, until it is 2am and she is, again, awake and staring at the clock. As she closes her eyes to sleep, she remembers that she's seen the blade. She goes back to her computer room and draws the blade on the back of an envelope. She can't remember, but her mental image includes sparks and smoke. She sees a brochure for the Wales Millennium Centre with the word "REMEMBER" scrawled on it.
Gwen goes to Roald Dahl Plass, and Suzie is waiting for her outside the water tower. They face off next to the paving stones on either side of the lift. Gwen remembers the welding gear. Suzie pulls out the knife, saying she's the only one who bothered to read the police report, and she knew that the sight of the knife could break Gwen's amnesia. While Gwen tries to remember, Suzie fumbles with her bag and then pulls out a handgun, saying Gwen is the only person in the public that could make the link. She loves her job but it's driving her mad. She killed three people to practice with the glove, as she thinks that if she becomes good enough with it she could resurrect people permanently. While she is ranting, Jack comes up on the lift. Suzie continues to rant until she says that the perception filter doesn't work on her, and she shoots Jack in the forehead. Gwen gasps.
Suzie cocks the gun and aims it at Gwen, who gasps again as Jack stands up behind Suzie. The hole in his head heals before their eyes. He says it's over, but Suzie has her own ideas about that. She shoots herself in the head and falls down as Gwen says, "I remember."
Ianto seals away the gauntlet and the knife in a lockbox. Owen and Tosh return their devices to the base. Jack zips Suzie's body into a bag and puts her into a cold storage facility in the Hub.
On top of the Millennium centre, Gwen asks why Jack didn't tell Owen and Tosh he was shot in the head and survived. Jack says that Gwen didn't tell them either. He confesses that he was killed a long time ago and brought back to life, and since then he can't die. Maybe if he finds the right sort of doctor he can explain it. He doesn't tell people because it freaks them out, so he asks Gwen to keep it quiet.
He offers Gwen a job, and she accepts, as the pterodactyl flies overhead.
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
- P.C. Andy - Tom Price
- SOCO - Jason May
- Body - Rhys Swinburn
- Yvonne - Olwen Medi
- D.I. Jacobs - Gwyn Vaughan Jones
- Officer - Dion Davis
- Hospital porter - James Thomas
- Weevil - Paul Kasey
- Security Guard - Mark Heal
- Pizza lad - Gary Sheppeard
- Man - Gwilym Havard Davies
- Woman - Cathryn Davis
Crew
| Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner |
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| 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. |
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This episode did not have a "created by Russell T Davies" credit. |
References
- SOCOs investigate John's body.
- Jack tastes oestrogen in the rain.
- Andy believes Torchwood are DNA specialists.
- Andy jokes that in CSI Cardiff, "they'd be measuring the velocity of a kebab".
- The porter suggests Janet try plastic surgery. "Not on the NHS, mind".
- Jack uses Retcon on Gwen.
- Colin calls Owen a "tosser".
- Suzie and Andy use the word "bollocks" as an insult.
Individuals
- Andy asks Gwen if she is going to Slimbo's.
- Jack implies that at one point in his life he's been pregnant, as he's "never doing that again."
- Rhys has been visited by Banana Boat.
- Beyond John, victims include Sarah Pallister and Rani Ghosh.
- The porter asks Dr Mahib about the cordoned off section of the hospital.
- Yvonne states that Temple has been asking about Gwen, suggesting she may be in trouble.
- Myfanwy flies over Gwen's head.
- Jack mentions investigating Chandler and Bell.
- Rhys questions if Gwen has been "out on the lash" with Diane.
- Andy has been arguing football with Geoff.
- Jack is looking for "the right sort of doctor".
Species
- Janet is a Weevil.
- Myfanwy is a pterodactyl.
- Jack mentions the Cybermen.
- Suzie resurrects a fly.
Geography
- John was murdered on Llangyfelach Lane in the city centre.
- Rani was murdered in Robintree Alley.
- Police have cameras watching roads at Coryton and Tredegar Park.
- Yvonne checks the SUV licence plate with colleagues in Swansea.
- Torchwood has a base beneath Cardiff Bay.
Events
- Jack mentions the spaceship over London on Christmas Day and the Battle of Canary Wharf.
- Rhys has convinced Gwen that such events are a form of terrorism - mass hallucinations caused by psychotropic drugs in the water supply.
Organisations
Torchwood
- Local law enforcement considers Torchwood a Special Ops branch.
- Jack states that Torchwood is separate from the government, outside the police and beyond the United Nations.
- Torchwood One was in London, but it was destroyed during the Battle of Canary Wharf.
- Torchwood Two is in Glasgow and is run by a very strange man.
- Torchwood Four has gone missing, but they're hoping to find it again sometime soon.
- There is a staircase consisting of 105 steps between the Torchwood Tourist Information Centre and the Torchwood Hub.
Technology
- Torchwood owns an SUV. The registration number is CF06 FDU.
- Jack's vortex manipulator remotely controls the paving-stone lift up to Roald Dahl Plass.
- Toshiko uses a data scanner.
- Owen uses a pheromone spray.
- Suzie uses the resurrection gauntlet.
- The murder weapon is a three-bladed knife.
Businesses
- Gwen visits Jubilee Pizza.
Food and drink
- Rhys and Banana Boat have been drinking tea.
- Rhys suggests Gwen eat Chinese food from the fridge.
- Rhys cooks hot pot.
Popular Culture
- Andy mentions CSI.
- The porter likens the Weevil to Hellraiser.
- Toshiko scans A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
- Characters in the book include Mr Cruncher, Mr Lorry, Miss Manette, Doctor Manette, Jacques One, Jacques Two, Defarge, the Mender of Roads, a hungry man and a Marquis.
Story notes
- Everything Changes was transmitted back to back with the next episode Day One on its UK premiere.
- The episode was repeated on BBC Two, three days later at 9:00pm on Wednesday 25 October 2006.
- 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, along with a few other strong expletives. The frequency and intensity of swearing on Torchwood would be dialled back in its later seasons.
- A pre-credits sequence of Gwen and Jack on top of the Millennium Centre in a flash forward to the end of the story was cut from the finished programme but appears on the deleted scenes of the series one box set.
- This first episode is seen through the eyes of the human character Gwen in much the same way Doctor Who did with the character of Rose Tyler in 2005, taking the viewer along for the journey.
- A scene showing John Tucker being chased and murdered was shot but was eventually dropped.
- Two alternative scenes were shot showing Gwen being retconned — the one in a traditional bar was dropped in favour of the Buffalo Bar that was used for transmission.
- Several scenes were trimmed from the episode for broadcast on the CBC in Canada, including a scene in which Owen, using the pheromone spray, also seduces the blonde's angry boyfriend.
- It has been suggested that Owen's use of the pheromone spray was effectively "date rape".[2]
- Owen shows bisexual tendencies when he first seduces a girl and then, more or less to avoid trouble, seduces her boyfriend too and goes off with both of them.
- This is the only episode where Indira Varma has her name included in the opening credits. This was done to keep viewers from anticipating that her character would die in this episode, by making her seem like a regular cast member. She was also heavily featured in publicity materials released prior to the broadcast of the episode.
- Yvonne mentions 21 January 1941, during the Blitz as the day Jack failed to report for duty. This would suggest that The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances took place on the evening of 20 January 1941.
- According to a CIA file in the 2011 episode The New World, Gwen is said to have joined Torchwood in October 2006. This clashes with and contradicts dates given in several other stories.
- This story had the working title "Flotsam and Jetsam".[3]
Ratings
- 2.52 million viewers
Filming locations
- Millicent Street, Cardiff, Wales (Resurrection in the rain)
- NCP Tredegar Street, Cardiff, Wales (Gwen spies on Torchwood resurrecting)
- NCP Cardiff Rapports, Cardiff, Wales
- Old Natwest Bank, Cardiff (Entrance of the police station)
- Dorset Street, Cardiff, Wales
- Cornwall (pub), Cardiff, Wales (Pub where Gwen and Andy break up the fight)
- Newport Road Lane, Cardiff (Location where Gwen first sees the Torchwood SUV)
- A4232 (Grangetown/Butetown Link), Cardiff (Gwen in pursuit of the Torchwood SUV)
- Mumbai Bay Takeaway, James Street, Cardiff (Jubilee Pizza, where Gwen goes tracking down Torchwood)
- Cardiff Castle, Cardiff (Part of the tunnel entrance into Torchwood)
- Icon, Cardiff, Wales (Location where Owen tries the spray)
- Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, Wales (Bar where Jack and Gwen have a beer, prior to him retconning her)
- St Mary's Street, Cardiff
- Altolusso, Bute Terrace, Cardiff (One of the tall building shots with Jack standing on top)
- King Edward VII Avenue (A4161 underpass), Cardiff (Location where Gwen runs home after her meeting with Jack and her subsequent retconning)
- Mermaid Quayside, Cardiff Bay (The tourist information shop/entrance to Torchwood)
- Roald Dahl Plass, Cardiff (Exterior of Torchwood)
- Upper Boat Studios, Upper Boat Tonteg Road, Treforest Industrial Estate, Pontypridd
Production errors
- A poster advertising a Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff can be briefly seen in a background shot.
Continuity
- The Torchwood Institute was first referred to as a question when Rose Tyler played The Weakest Link. (TV: Bad Wolf)
- Torchwood was created by Queen Victoria after she met the Tenth Doctor in 1879. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
- Torchwood (as Torchwood One) made its first physical appearance during the Battle of Canary Wharf. (TV: Army of Ghosts) A weapon fired by them earlier destroyed the Sycorax spaceship. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
- Captain Jack was last seen on the Game Station. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
- It is implied and later confirmed by the Doctor, that Jack's immortality is a side effect of his resurrection by Rose while she was the Bad Wolf. (TV: The Parting of the Ways, Utopia)
- The Cardiff Space-Time Rift was first encountered by the Doctor and Rose in 1869 when the invasion of the Gelth was stopped by Gwyneth. (TV: The Unquiet Dead)
- Jack continues to wear his vortex manipulator on his wrist. (TV: The Empty Child) It is revealed later that the time travel and teleportation functions of the manipulator are burned out. (TV: Utopia)
- Jack mentions the Sycorax spaceship over London (TV: The Christmas Invasion) and the Battle of Canary Wharf. (TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)
- Rhys also mentions his mother talking to him about the Christmas events. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
- Toshiko Sato first appeared posing as a doctor, examining the genetically modified pig that crashed the Slitheen craft into Big Ben. (TV: Aliens of London) It would later be revealed that she was covering for Owen, who was hungover and slept in. (TV: Exit Wounds)
- Although not explicitly stated in Torchwood, the hand that Jack treasures and keeps in a jar is later revealed to be the Tenth Doctor's — lost in the fight with the Sycorax following his tenth regeneration. (TV: The Christmas Invasion, Utopia)
- Jubilee Pizza was also ordered by a worker in the GeoComTex Vault. (TV: Dalek) (The name is a behind-the-scenes reference to the Big Finish audio Dalek story by Rob Shearman, AUDIO: Jubilee)
- The perception filter properties of the paving stone are implied to be a side effect of when the TARDIS stood on that spot and, prompted by the trapped programming of the tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator, began to open the Cardiff Rift. (TV: Boom Town) This is the first mention of a perception filter in any Doctor Who-related narrative; the concept was subsequently used in Doctor Who proper.
- Later on during TV: Children of Earth: Day One, Jack and Ianto toy with Rupesh Patanjali, another potential recruit, the same way the group did with Gwen. However, Gwen wouldn't let them make a fool out of someone else and approached him directly as their self-appointed recruitment officer.
Home video releases
DVD releases
- 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.
- It was also released in the Series 1-4 DVD boxset. (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011)
- It was released in Brazil, with all the other episodes in the series, on a DVD entitled Torchwood: Primeira Temporada.
Blu-ray releases
- This episode was released on Blu-ray in the US with the rest of Series 1 as a Complete First Season set on 16 September 2008.
- It was released in the Series 1-3 Blu-ray boxset on 26 October 2009 in the UK. The US release was on 19 July 2011.
- It was also released in the Series 1-4 Blu-ray boxset. (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011)