Everything Changes (TV story)

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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

In a rainy side lane in Cardiff, police and SOCO teams examine the dead body of a man stabbed in the back, the third such victim. PC Gwen Cooper arrives, and is surprised when the teams are pulled back to allow a group of four mysterious people, identified only as "Torchwood", to take over the crime scene.

Gwen climbs an adjacent multi-storey car park to get a better look. One woman, named Suzie by a tall American in a long coat who appears to be the leader, takes out a metal gauntlet and brings the victim back to life for two minutes. Unfortunately, the man is unable to come to terms with his death and, in any case, is unable to identify his killer. The two minutes pass and he dies again. The tall man, who identified himself to the corpse as Captain Jack Harkness, startles Gwen by looking up and addressing her, and she runs.

The next day, Gwen is injured while breaking up a pub brawl. At the hospital, she spots the same tall man running up the stairs. She gives chase, but the upper floor is sealed off. Gwen asks a porter about this, and the porter says he heard there had been a chemical spill. Gwen enters the sealed area and sees a humanoid figure down the corridor. As she nears it, asking questions, it becomes apparent it is not human, but Gwen just thinks it is someone in a mask playing a prank. When the porter shows up, he marvels at the sophistication of the mask, but the creature sinks its fangs into his neck. The Torchwood team suddenly appear to subdue the creature and at Jack's prompting, Gwen runs again.

In the car park, Gwen sees the Torchwood vehicle leaving, and gives chase in her police car. Calling its registration number in, she finds that the car does not exist, and in addition, the only Captain Jack Harkness on record disappeared in 1941. Gwen follows the team to Roald Dahl Plass, in front of the Wales Millennium Centre, but when she is momentarily distracted, they vanish. Her partner Andy shows up and tells her that all personnel at the hospital have been accounted for.

That evening, Gwen returns to the square, hoping to spot something out of the ordinary. She sees a Jubilee Pizza delivery scooter circling the area and decides to check with them, finding out that they have a delivery record for "Torchwood". Buying a couple of pizzas, she goes to the address, which appears to be a tourist information centre on the bayfront, and pretends to be delivering pizza to a "Mr Harkness". A man in a suit presses a button, revealing a secret door, and waves her through. Going down a lift, she steps through a circular doorway into a larger, multi-levelled chamber centered on the fountain in the square — the Hub.

Inside, she sees Suzie welding something at a bench, a severed hand floating in a case, and others looking busy at their workbenches. Eventually, one of them cannot hold it in and bursts out laughing, which sets everyone off; they knew she was coming in. The Japanese woman confirms that Torchwood covered up the porter's death by means of a cover story.

Gwen is worried that they will do something similar to her, but Jack takes Gwen to see the creature, which is being kept in a holding cell. They call it a Weevil. Jack explains that they are alien, and usually live in the sewers; recently, more have been coming up to the surface and attacking people, but they are not sure why. Jack introduces Gwen to everyone — Dr Toshiko Sato, computer genius; Dr Owen Harper; Suzie Costello, second in command; and Ianto Jones, the man in the suit. Jack then takes Gwen back out through the "scenic route", a stone slab that rises from the Hub right up next to the fountain. Gwen is mystified as to why no-one notices them, but Jack explains that the stone has a perception filter that makes anyone on it virtually invisible until they step off the stone.

Later at a bar, Jack tells Gwen about Torchwood. They do not just catch aliens, but also scavenge what they leave behind to arm the human race for what is to come in the 21st century. They are separate from the government, outside the police and beyond the United Nations — the governments of the world have no control over Torchwood, to prevent them from using their technology for their own purposes. Cardiff is Torchwood Three, and they have set up here because there is a space-time rift going through the city which washes up all kinds of alien flotsam and jetsam. Jack assures Gwen that all Torchwood devices remain at the Hub, but it is shown that Suzie, Owen and Toshiko have all taken a device with them. Owen uses a pheromone spray to pick up a girl at a bar and then uses it on her angry boyfriend as well, Toshiko uses a hand-held device to scan whole books in seconds and Suzie has taken the glove home to experiment with it.

Gwen offers to be Torchwood's liaison with the police, but Jack informs her that he has slipped an amnesia pill along with a sedative into her drink and that she will not remember any of this the next morning. Gwen, horrified, runs home and tries to type a note to herself on the computer, but soon succumbs to the effects of the sedative just as Ianto intercepts and deletes the message. The next day she is awakened by her boyfriend, her memory of the previous night gone.

Back at work, Gwen sees a sketch of the murder weapon that was reconstructed from the stab wound, a unique knife with three blades. Over the course of the day, she finds that she cannot stop thinking about it, getting flashes of the knife sitting among sparks, beyond a door. Back at her flat, she notices the word "Remember" written on a Millennium Centre programme and returns to the square, where she sees Suzie step out from the shadows.

Suzie tells her that she has seen the police report about the weapon and knows why Gwen is here, even if she herself does not: the amnesia pill can be tripped by a specific image. Suzie shows Gwen the knife that Gwen saw on her welding workbench earlier and confesses that she is the killer. The glove needs fresh corpses to work properly — the more violent the death, the better it works — and Suzie wanted to learn to control it better and make the resurrection process permanent.

Suzie knows that Torchwood will now find out, and pulls a gun on Gwen. Jack rises on the slab, but Suzie has been working at Torchwood so long that she can see through the perception filter and shoots Jack in the head. She is about to shoot Gwen when Jack rises from behind her, his wound healing rapidly, and orders her to put down the gun. With no way out, Suzie puts the gun under her chin and kills herself. Gwen falls to her knees, remembering everything.

Back in the Hub, Jack puts the glove and knife in a box and seals it with a lock labelled "NOT FOR USE", storing it away while the rest of the team sheepishly return their stolen devices. Suzie's body is also put in a body bag and placed in a vault.

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. He agrees with Gwen that perhaps Torchwood can do more to help people, and offers her a job, which she accepts. Meanwhile, overhead, Torchwood's pterodactyl swoops over Cardiff…

Cast

Crew

to be added

References

Story Notes

  • This story had the working title; Flotsam And Jetsam.
  • Owen's use of the pheremone spray might be construed as an attempt at "date rape"

Ratings

  • BBC3 - 2.5 million viewers
  • BBC2 - 3.0 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

  • How he reached the Earth in his subjective past is explained in DW: Utopia.

DVD Releases

to be added

See also

to be added

External Links

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