Ghost Machine (TV story)

Ghost Machine (TV story)

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Ghost Machine
Featuring:	Jack Harkness Gwen Cooper Toshiko Sato Owen Harper Ianto Jones
Main enemy:	Ed Morgan
Main setting:	Cardiff, 2007
Key crew
Writer:	Helen Raynor
Director:	Colin Teague
Producer:	Richard Stokes
Release details
Release number:	3
Premiere broadcast:	29th October 2006

For the titular device, see Quantum transducer.

Ghost Machine was the third episode of series one of Torchwood. Although the plot revolved around the titular device, there were several branching story lines.

Synopsis

When Gwen retrieves an alien object from a fleeing hoodie, she's haunted by a vision of a lonely young boy. As the team tracks down the object's owner, the elusive Bernie Harris, Owen experiences an even more terrifying vision and a long-buried crime resurfaces.

Plot

Jack, Owen and Gwen pursue a man through the Cardiff streets, while Toshiko tracks his alien energy signature through the CCTV network. Gwen separates from the group, chasing down the suspect into a train station, and is able to grab the man's jacket but he gets out of it and runs away. Gwen discovers an alien device in the jacket pocket, and when she activates it, she finds herself seeing a brief vision of the past, that of a young lost boy wandering the train station. Gwen remembers a name tag worn by the boy, and the team is able to track the name down to a old man in Cardiff who admits that during the World War II evacuation, he was sent to Cardiff with no one to meet him and wandered lost through the train station. The group determines from further analysis that the nanotechnology of the "Ghost device" allows people to see moments of the past spurred by strong human emotions, and try to learn how their suspect came upon such technology.

They determine the suspect is Sean "Bernie" Harris, a petty thief from Splott, and travel there to find him. Unsuccessful, they return to the train station to try the device again when Owen activates it while under a bridge, where he witnesses the raping and murder of a young woman named Lizzie Lewis in the 1960s by a man named Ed Morgan. Returning to the Hub, the team investigates the crime to confirm what Owen saw, but that Ed was interrogated but never accused of the crime. Owen insists on trying to bring Ed to justice despite that the case has long since closed, and starts to track Ed on his own. Owen confronts the elderly Ed but gets no information out of him; however, upon leaving his house, he spots Bernie and gives chase, catching up with him. Owen takes Bernie to a pub to learn more about the device while the rest of Torchwood is en route. Bernie explains he found the device in a tin of random objects from an old lady, and that he too saw the murder of Lizzie, and wonders if the team wants the "other half". Torchwood follows Bernie back to Bernie's home to retrieve the other half as well as the other objects in the tin, all alien objects that fell out from the Rift. Bernie explains that he only used the other half once, as it showed him bleeding to death outside his home at his current age. As they leave, Gwen accidentally triggers the second half, and has a vision of herself holding a bloody knife, calling out in vain to Owen. Jack tries calms Gwen down, claiming it just may be a possible future.

As the team recollects, they realize that Ed is paranoid and depressed, and that based on Owen's conversation with him, that he was being blackmailed by Bernie to have Bernie remain quiet about Lizzie's murder; Jack becomes concerned that Owen may have triggered Ed to take action. Learning that Ed has left his home and is heading towards Bernie's, Jack, Gwen, and Owen arrive just in time to disarm Ed from stabbing Bernie with a knife. Owen takes the knife and gives to Gwen, when suddenly Ed rushes Gwen, stating "I knew you'd come for me", and impales himself on the knife. As Gwen realizes she is experiencing the future she saw, Jack and Owen attempt CPR on Ed but are unable to revive him. Jack attempts to comfort Gwen, telling her Ed was suicidal and his death was not her fault, and the device makes people act in ways to try to change the future. The team returns to the Hub, and the device is put into the secure archives.

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
• Ed Morgan — Gareth Thomas
• Bernie Harris — Ben McKay
• Eleri — Llinos Daniel
• Tom Flanagan — John Normington
• Lizzie Lewis — Emily Evans
• Young Ed Morgan — Christopher Elson
• Young Tom Flanagan — Christopher Greene
• Bernie's Mum — Julie Gibbs
• Snooker Player — Ian Kay
• Kid in arcade — Ryan Conway
• Woman in shop — Kathryn Howard

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Marcus Prince

Written by Helen Raynor	Produced by Richard Stokes	Directed by Colin Teague	Director of Photography Mark Waters	Production Designer Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill
Make-up Designer Marrie Dorris	Casting Director Andy Pryor	Music Ben Foster Murray Gold	Costume Designer Ray Holman	Edited by Mike Hopkins

General production staff Co-producer - Chris Chibnall Associate Producer - Terry Reeve Assistant Producer - Sophie Fante Location Manager - Paul Davies Unit Manager - Geraint Havard Jones Production Co-ordinator - Carmelina Palumbo Senior Production Accountant - Endaf Emyr Williams Production Accountant - Ceri Tothill Script department Script Editor - Brian Minchin Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Nick Rae 2nd Assistant Director - Lynsey Muir 3rd Assistant Director - Rhian Salisbury Continuity - Vicky Cole Camera Operator - Gareth Huges Focus Puller - Duncan Fowlie Grip - Dai Hopkins Camera Assistant - Mani Paliwala-Blaxter Boom Operator - Jeff Welch Gaffer - Dave Fowler Best Boy - Steve Slocombe	Art department Chief Supervising Art Director - Stephen Nicholas Art Department Co-ordinator - Matthew North Production Buyer - Catherine Samuel Concept Artist - Peter McKinstry Standby Props - Brian Henry Standby Art Director - Leonie Rintler Property Master - Nick Thomas Construction Manager - Matthew Hywel-Davies Costume department Costume Supervisor - Debra Haggett Costume Assistants - Sam Benbow, Bobbie Peach	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Claire Pritchard Make-up Artists - Sarah Astley, Kate Roberts Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Tom Lucy Stunt Performers - Gary Hoptrough, Jo McLaren, Curtis Rivers Casting Casting Associate - Andy Brierley General post-production staff Post-production Supervisors - Chris Blatchford, Helen Vallis Post-production Co-ordinator - Marie Brown Assistant Editor - Matt Mullins On-line Editor - Matthew Clarke Special and visual effects Visual FX Producers - Will Cohen, Marie A. Jones Visual FX Supervisor - Dave Houghton On-set VFX Supervisor - Barney Curnow 2D Artists - Astrid Busser-Casas, Joseph Courtis Sound Sound Recordist - Jeff Matthews Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Sound Effects Editor - Howard Eaves

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.

References

• Gwen's words after Morgan's death do not exactly mirror those in her earlier vision, perhaps indicating that Jack was correct about it merely being a possible future. Similarly, it appears that Bernie's vision of his own death was also averted.
• As Owen flips through his various fake ID cards, one can be seen for UNIT.
• Tom Flanagan was evacuated during World War II.

Music

• Can't Stand me Now - The Libertines
• Feeling a Moment - Feeder
• Sing - Travis

Story notes

to be added

Ratings

• BBC3 - 1.8 million viewers
• BBC2 - 2.5 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

• The Friary, Cardiff (Gwen and Owen chase the signal.)
• Queen Street, Cardiff (Gwen and Owen chase the signal.)
• High Street, Cardiff (Bernie is pursued into the arcade.)
• High Street Arcade, Cardiff (The chase through the arcade)
• Hayes Island, Cardiff (Gwen and Owen chase the signal.)
• Cardiff Central Station, Cardiff (Gwen first shifts time.)
• Adamsdown Place, Cardiff (Bernie's Mum's House.)
• Barry Shooting Rang, Cardiff (Gwen's shooting lesson.)
• St. David's Hotel, Cardiff (Owen's Flat.)
• Adamsdown Squre, Cardiff (Owen Chases Bernie.)
• Kames Place, Cardiff (Owen Chases Bernie.)
• Inchmarnock Street, Cardiff (Owen Chases Bernie.)
• Lady Margret's Place, Cardiff (Owen Chases Bernie.)
• Gwendoline Place, Cardiff (Owen Chases Bernie.)
• Taff Meed Embankment, Cardiff(Owen witnesses an old murder.)
• Royal Close, Cardiff (Bernie's estate.)
• Cardiff Bay Barrage, Cardiff (Jack and Gwen on the waterfront.)
• Upper Boat Studios, Cardiff

Production errors

• Tosh tells Owen that Ed Morgan is claustrophobic, but when she checks his records on the computer, she says he is agoraphobic. Since one is a fear of enclosed spaces and the other a fear of open spaces, it seems Ed would not be comfortable anywhere!

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.

• The circled "P" emblem of the Preachers from DW: Rise of the Cybermen can be seen as faded graffiti on rusty bins outside Bernie's flat.
• The explanation Jack gives for the ghosts matches the one Sarah Jane Smith would later give in SJA: Eye of the Gorgon.

Timeline

• Ghost Machine occurs before: TWN: Another Life

Home video releases

This episode was first released on DVD, with four other episodes entitle Torchwood: Series 1, part 1 on 26 December 2006. It was later released in Torchwood:The Complete first series on 19th November 2007

External links

• Ghost Machine at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Ghost Machine at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Ghost Machine at The Locations Guide