Out of Time (TV story)

Out of Time was the tenth episode in the first series of Torchwood. It was written by Catherine Tregenna and directed by Alice Troughton.

	online here
	Jack, Gwen, Owen
	Rhys, Ianto, Tosh
	Cardiff, December, 2000s
	Catherine Tregenna
	Alice Troughton
	Richard Stokes
	17 December 2006
	BBC Three
	1x50-minute episode
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Torchwood
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You may wish to consult Out of Time for other, similarly-named pages.

It saw Owen Harper strike up a libido-driven relationship with Diane Holmes, who was removed from a bygone era after passing through the Cardiff Rift. Although Owen meant to use her simply for sexual favours, pleasure gave way to romance, and he began falling in love with her. However, Diane chose to part ways with Owen and return to the past through the Rift. The hope of seeing her again later influenced him to spur a disastrous act near the end of the series.

Synopsis

When a plane from the 1950s lands in modern Cardiff, courtesy of the Rift, the passengers are reoriented by the Torchwood team, who become drawn closely to their lives.

Plot

A plane called the Sky Gypsy lands on a Cardiff air strip. Out step the pilot, Diane Holmes, and passengers Emma-Louise Cowell and John Ellis. The Torchwood team welcome them. The people on the plane think that they are in the year 1953, but Jack informs them they fell through the rift and were transported over fifty years into their future. The team make it their duty to look after the occupants of the plane until they can adapt to the 21st century.

Gwen looks after Emma. She takes her home, where she lies to Rhys that Emma is her cousin and that she came for a visit. The couple take her to a nightclub, where Emma soon gains the attentions of a young man. Gwen and Rhys separate Emma from the man when they start kissing, and Gwen explains to her that things are different than in the 1950s. Emma eventually finds a job as a shop-girl in London. Gwen is hesitant, wanting to get her a job in Cardiff where she can look after her, but she has to change her mind when Rhys discovers that Emma is not Gwen's cousin and is upset at just how easily Gwen lied to him. Gwen agrees to let Emma go and tells her to not talk to strangers when travelling to London. As Emma leaves, they wish each other a happy Christmas.

Jack stays with John as he dies.

Meanwhile, Jack starts a friendship with John, who wants to find his son, Alan. Tosh finds him, and John pays a visit, but is devastated to find his son is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Severely depressed, John takes Ianto's car to kill himself by carbon monoxide poisoning. Jack tries to convince him to stop, but John says that he died decades ago. A reluctant Jack joins him in the car, as a friend, as the carbon monoxide slowly kills John. Jack's immortality leaves him unaffected; all he can do is express sorrow at the sight of another life cut short.

Owen, meanwhile, looks after Diane, who wants to fly, but can't because her license expired decades ago. Owen convinces her to go out to lunch with him and they soon begin a sexual relationship. As it progresses, Owen falls in love with Diane, and she admits to the same feelings. One morning, Owen finds she has gone, having left a note on his pillow. He rushes to the airfield, where he finds Diane attempting to take off in the Sky Gypsy. Owen tries to convince her to stay, but she is confident that due to the exact weather conditions from where she took off being present now, the rift will open again and take her back to her own time. After she kisses Owen goodbye, she takes off and her plane disappears into the clouds. Heartbroken, Owen cries softly.

In the end, Jack, Gwen and Owen think back on how the three have touched their lives.

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
• Diane - Louise Delamere
• John Ellis - Mark Lewis Jones
• Emma - Olivia Hallinan
• Alan Ellis - Sam Beazley
• Nurse - Marion Fenner
• Alesha - Janine Carrington
• Jade - Rhea Bailey
• Flying Instructor - Andrew MacBean
• Barman - Ciaran Dowd

Crew

Created by Russell T Davies

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner

Written by Catherine Tregenna	Produced by Richard Stokes	Directed by Alice Troughton	Director of Photography Ray Orton	Production Designer Edward Thomas	Visual Effects The Mill
Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold Ben Foster	Costume Designer Ray Holman	Edited by Bobby Sheikh

General production staff Production Executive - Julie Scott Co-producer - Chris Chibnall Associate Producer - Terry Reeve Assistant Producer - Sophie Fante Production Manager - Catrin Lewis Defis Location Manager - Paul Davies Unit Manager - Geraint Havard Jones Production Co-ordinator - Carmelina Palumbo Production Secretary - Margarita Felices Script Secretary - Claire Thomas Senior Production Accountant - Endaf Emyr Williams Production Accountant - Ceri Tothill Accounts Assistants - Debi Griffiths, Kath Blackman, Beth Britton Script department Script Editor - Brian Minchin Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Nick Rae 2nd Assistant Director - Lynsey Muir 3rd Assistant Director - Paul Bennett Continuity - Suzannah Binding Camera Operator - Jenny Budd Focus Puller - Alwyn Hughes Grip - Dai Hopkins Camera Assistant - Steve Davies Boom Operator - Kevin Staples Gaffer - Micky Reeves Best Boy - Llyr Evans	Art department Chief Supervising Art Director - Stephen Nicholas Supervising Art Director - Keith Dunne Assistant Art Director - Nadia Dand Art Department Production Manager - Jonathan Allison Art Department Operations Manager - Adrian Anscombe Art Department Co-ordinator - Matthew North Production Buyer - Blaanid Maddrell Storyboard Artist - Shaun Williams Design Assistants - Ben Austin, Al Roberts Standby Props - Andy Harris Standby Carpenter - Will Pope Standby Rigger - Keith Freeman Property Master - Stuart Wooddisse Props Chargehand - Dewi Thomas Props Makers - Penny Howarth, Nick Robatto, Mark Cordory Construction Manager - Matthew Hywel-Davies Construction Chargehand - Scott Fisher Costume department Costume Supervisor - Bobby Peach Costume Assistants - Maire Jones, Maria Franchi, Sara Morgan	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Claire Pritchard Make-up Assistants - Sarah Astley-Hughes, Kate Roberts Casting Casting Associate - Andy Brierley General post-production staff Post-production Supervisors - Helen Vallis, Chris Blatchford Post-production Co-ordinator - Marie Brown Assistant Editor - Matt Mullins On-line Editors - Jon Everett, Matthew Clarke Special and visual effects Colourist - Mick Vincent Sound Sound Recordist - Dave Baumber Dubbing Mixer - Tim Ricketts Supervising Sound Editor - Doug Sinclair Sound FX Editor - Howard Eaves Sound Editor - Paul McFadden

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.

Worldbuilding

Books

• Glitter and Miss B are magazines.
• Cardiff Examiner is a Cardiff newspaper.
• South Wales Mail is a South Wales newspaper.

Individuals

• Emma was flying to Dublin to visit her Auntie Nora and Uncle Finn, who have been having trouble with their kids and wanted her to babysit for them.
• Jack mentions that he has died once and that he also fell through time.
• Amelia Earhart, another famous woman pilot, went missing on 2 July, 1937.
• Owen decides to make Diane a "f*ck buddy".
• Emma mentions Deborah Kerr.

Influences

• There are similarities between this episode and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Neutral Zone", in which three people from the late-20th century are discovered cryogenically frozen in the year 2364 and must adjust to the era they find themselves in. The primary difference between the two episodes is that the temporally-displaced people are the focus of the narrative in Out of Time, while in the Star Trek episode theirs is the B-story for the episode. Amelia Earhart, who's also mentioned in this episode, re-appears in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The 37's".

Products

• Emma buys Super Excel Waterproof Luscious Lashes Mascara.

Music

• Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is playing on John's radio.
• "I See You Baby" is playing in the bar.
• "Just Blew in from the Windy City" from Calamity Jane is Emma's favourite song.

Events

• Alan mentions the 1953 FA Cup and the match between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers.

Locations

• Diane Holmes flew over the Bengal Bay.

Story notes

• The episode was repeated on BBC Two, three days later at 9:00pm on Wednesday 20 December 2006.
• This was the first Torchwood episode to have no antagonist or enemy of any kind.

Ratings

• 1.03 million viewers.

Filming locations

• Plane landing at the beginning of the episode - RAF St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan
• John visits the Millennium Stadium's gate 3 - Westgate Street, Cardiff
• The restaurant Owen and Diane visit is The Pearl of the Orient - Cardiff Bay.

Broadcasts

Date	Time	Channel	Notes
Sunday 17 December 2006	22:00	BBC Three	First broadcast.
Monday 18 December 2006	01:15	BBC Three
Tuesday 19 December 2006	22:30	BBC Three
Wednesday 20 December 2006	01:50	BBC Three
Wednesday 20 December 2006	21:00	BBC Two England
Friday 22 December 2006	21:00	BBC Three
Saturday 23 December 2006	01:55	BBC Three
Saturday 30 December 2006	21:45	BBC Three
Monday 12 March 2007	01:30	BBC Three
Monday 29 March 2007	02:00	BBC HD
Friday 30 November 2007	21:00	BBC Three
Saturday 1 December 2007	02:40	BBC Three
Friday 25 June 2010	00:20	BBC HD

Production errors

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 events occur in December. However, in several scenes, including those of the airfield and outside the supermarket, the foliage on the trees indicates that the episode was filmed during the summertime.
• During a scene in the conference room, a window can be clearly seen behind the characters, and a street can be seen outside. This is impossible because the Hub is underground.

Continuity

• Jack refers to the space-time riff in Cardiff and how people and things from different planets and time period tend to slip through it as shown in TV: The Unquiet Dead ^[+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"] and Boom Town ^[+]Loading...["Boom Town (TV story)"].
• Jack does not die in the car because he is immortal. His immortality was established several times, like in TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways"] and Everything Changes ^[+]Loading...["Everything Changes (TV story)"]. However, this time, he does not die and resurrect but simply does not die. This ability to not even die at all from certain causes of death is later displayed in TV: Utopia ^[+]Loading...["Utopia (TV story)"].

Home video releases

Series one, part three DVD cover

DVD releases

• Out of Time was first released on DVD, with three other episodes as Torchwood: Series 1, part 3 on 26 March 2007.
• It was later included in Torchwood: The Complete First Series set on 19 November 2007.
• It was also released in the Series 1-4 boxset (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011.)

Blu-ray releases

• Released 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)

External links

• Out of Time at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Out of Time at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
• Out of Time at The Locations Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Out of Time at The Whoniverse

Footnotes