Day One (TV story)

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An alien addicted to sex is let loose on Cardiff's nightlife. Torchwood must track down the creature's new host and in doing so, confront a violent new form of love in the 21st century.

Synopsis

Gwen's first day on the job sees Cardiff's nightlife at the mercy of an alien who consumes its victims during orgasm leaving behind dust. Torchwood tracks the alien to a sperm bank, but too late for the patrons within. Gwen tricks it into leaving its host and captures it within a portable cell, where it peters out, itself turning to dust.


Plot

Gwen Cooper is having a night out with her boyfriend Rhys on the eve of starting her new job with Torchwood, when suddenly a meteor streaks over the Cardiff night sky, trailing flame. It impacts just outside the city, and as people in the street gape, Gwen receives a message on her mobile phone. It is Torchwood, and she has to go to work.

The Torchwood vehicle drives towards the crash site with Jack, Toshiko, Owen and Gwen aboard. They arrive only to see that the Army is already there. The team push their way past the troops using their Torchwood authority and examine the meteor in the impact crater. As the others move into action, taking samples and readings, Gwen feels inexperienced and out of place. When Owen taunts her, calling her the "New Girl", Gwen tosses a chisel at him and misses, puncturing the skin of the meteor. A purplish gas hisses out of the meteor, coalescing and rising into the air, speeding away.

In an alley next to a nightclub in the city, a young woman, Carys, leaves an angry and weepy voice mail to her boyfriend when she is confronted by the gaseous creature. It backs her against a wall, then flows into her body. Suddenly sexually aggressive, she regains entry into the club by kissing the bouncer, and picks up a man, Matt, standing at the bar. Pushing him into the women's toilet, they proceed to have sex, and at the moment of climax, Matt dissolves into a glowing cloud of dust, the energy portion of which Carys appears to absorb.

Gwen continues to apologise for her mistake, and promises that she will sort out whatever has happened. Ianto informs them of the incident at the nightclub. Arriving, the team finds the CCTV tapes that show Carys and Matt having their deadly sex, and then the alien taking her over in the alley. Jack arranges for a body to be taken out of storage to fake a suicide for Matt, the concept of which horrifies Gwen.

While the team tries to track Carys by cross-checking video from the surveillance cameras with a database containing the faces of the UK population, Carys is feeling the effects of the alien in her body, which is causing her pain. The postman arrives, and Carys pulls him into her house for sex, but the team manages to arrive before she can do the deed. She nearly manages to get away, but Owen uses a portable prison cell, an alien device that throws up a force bubble around her.

Back at the Hub, Gwen places Carys in a holding cell. The alien consciousness takes over Carys momentarily, explaining to Gwen that it is not here for conquest, but to feed off human orgasmic energy. Pain wracks Carys's body again, and when Gwen goes in to help, the two women start kissing passionately. However, Carys pushes Gwen away after a while, saying that it has to be a man. Gwen promises Carys that she will help her, and leaves the cell.

As the base computers gather more information from Carys, the others have some Chinese food. When Jack leaves the table, Owen and Toshiko start grilling Gwen about Jack; even after some time working with him, they know very little about his background. Gwen feels that Jack and the others have lost touch with humanity. She tracks down as much information on Carys as she can to remind them that the girl is still a person who needs their help, which impresses Jack.

Toshiko discovers the alien presence in Carys is producing an ultra-powerful cloud of pheromones around her, turning her into a walking aphrodisiac, which explains Gwen's reaction to her. They realise, too late, that Owen might be affected, and they find him naked and cuffed in the cell. Jack chases Carys around the Hub, but she grabs the case with the severed hand, which upsets Jack. Carys holds it hostage, reaching the Hub's front entrance. She throws it to the floor, distracting Jack long enough for her to leave the Hub. By the time the others enter Roald Dahl Plass, Carys has vanished.

Owen has interpreted the results of the bioscan, and has determined that the physiological changes caused by the alien will eventually cause Carys's body to explode. Meanwhile, Carys wanders the streets of Cardiff, being bombarded by images of sex in the advertising around her. The team tries to imagine where Carys would go, and Toshiko suggests the ex-boyfriend. Once again, the team gets there too late; Carys has taken her revenge and all that is left of Eddie is dust.

Checking her background, the team discovers that Carys had temporarily worked as a receptionist at a fertility clinic, an ideal source of orgasmic energy. They also determine that the alien takes hosts because Earth's atmosphere is poisonous to it. Carys is already at the clinic, dragging the sperm donors into rooms. When the team arrives, there are piles of dust everywhere. When they surround her, Carys collapses, too weak to fight the alien anymore. Jack kisses her, giving up some of his life force to revitalise her.

Gwen then offers to take the host into herself, asking the alien to spare Carys. When the alien flows out of Carys's body, Jack drops the portable prison cell and traps it inside. Separated from its host, the alien dies, falling into a pile of dust. Gwen kisses Jack as a thank you, leaving him with a surprised and thoughtful expression. Gwen and Jack then take Carys back to her father.

Back at the Hub, Jack tells Gwen not to let the job consume her. Gwen has a life and perspective, which is what the team needs. Gwen asks Jack who he is, but he just tells her to lead her normal life, for him. She does so, having a quiet dinner with Rhys, and then going to bed.


Cast


Crew

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References

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Story Notes

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Ratings

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Myths

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Location Filming

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Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

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Continuity

  • The severed hand (seen in "Everything Changes") comes from the Doctor Who episode "The Christmas Invasion".[1] As Jack cradles the hand, a few instrumental notes of "Flavia's Theme" from Doctor Who (played when things get, in the words of the Doctor Who production team, too "Time Lord-y") can be heard.
  • Jack uses a device almost identical to the sonic screwdriver (except it has a green light instead of the usual blue one) to analyse a star map.
  • The blue energy of the portable prison cell resembles that used by Jack in "The Empty Child" to rescue Rose and to stop the bomb in "The Doctor Dances".
  • Jack appears to breathe extra life into Carys, as Rose did to him in "The Parting of the Ways" and the Doctor did to a TARDIS power cell in "Rise of the Cybermen".
  • A picture of Torchwood House as featured in "Tooth and Claw" can be seen in the background in the Hub.
  • The alien is never given a name in the episode, although in Torchwood Declassified Russell T. Davies refers to it as the "sex monster" or the "sex gas orgasm eating monster".


DVD Releases

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See Also

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External Links

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