The Conspiracy (audio story)

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The Conspiracy was the first story in the Torchwood - Monthly Range by Big Finish Productions. It was written by David Llewellyn and featured John Barrowman as Jack Harkness.

It was the first Big Finish audio made with the company's expanded license to feature elements from the new series.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Captain Jack Harkness has always had his suspicions about the Committee. And now Wilson is also talking about the Committee. Apparently the world really is under the control of alien lizards. That's what Wilson says. People have died, disasters have been staged, the suspicious have disappeared.

It's outrageous.

Only Jack knows that Wilson is right. The Committee has arrived.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

George Wilson, a news reporter who resurfaced as a conspiracy theorist after refusing on air to read what he believed was propaganda, has come to Jack's attention with his speeches about the Committee's control over Earth. Jack attends his sold-out show in Cardiff as a member of the press thanks to the Torchwood-funded Plexus Magazine and arranges an interview with him through his daughter, Kate Wilson, after which he is followed by Sam Hallett, a conspiracy theorist who recognised him at the show. Gwen calls him about a Weevil situation before he can approach Sam, however.

Asked by Kate only to avoid the topics of alcoholism and divorce, Jack interviews Wilson and uses what he pretends is a dictaphone to scan the hotel room for alien life, which it detects no trace of. Wilson explains how the Committee caused World War II to create the atom bomb, that they plan to wipe out humanity with economic collapse and overpopulation and denies that he is suffering psychological damage from his time as a journalist. Afterwards, Sam confronts Jack with photographs of him at the site of strange phenomena and knowledge of Torchwood, but Jack threatens him into leaving him alone by claiming he could send him to a Siberian zinc mine.

Jack gets a call from Sam, who has been kidnapped and taken to the construction site of SkyPoint to lure Jack there. Sam falls or is pushed from a ledge just before the police arrive and Jack runs away, finding that Sam had uploaded an unconvincing video in which he claimed that he intended to commit suicide. Enraged, he breaks into Wilson's hotel room to force him to divulge the name of the contact who told him about the Committee, but Wilson admits that he and Kate made everything up after his autobiography failed to sell. However, Jack knows that the Committee is real and that many of the Wilsons' facts were correct.

Jack hacks into the hotel's CCTV to remove any evidence of his being there and notices Kate drop her façade of sympathy as Wilson told her about their meeting just before she calls him and invites him back. She clips his spinal cord with a bullet when he arrives, revealing that she is part of the Committee and that they have seen through his deception on Kepri 5 where he told them that Earth was barren. By feeding truths to Wilson, who adopted her, she has ensured that the public will not believe in the Committee when they make their move because of him being discredited.

Kate kills Wilson and then Jack, intending on making Torchwood look responsible for the deaths of both Sam and Wilson. Jack wakes up alone and escapes before the police can arrive, leaving Cardiff and recording a message for his team telling them that he is going to stop the Committee. They are everywhere on Earth and he is coming for them.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This story was recorded on 30 April 2015 at the Moat Studios. John Barrowman recorded his lines in a studio in America and was directed through a Skype call with the studios in the UK.
  • This is the first Big Finish audio story to feature characters from the 2005 version of Doctor Who. Prior to this, their license only covered the 1963 version of the program. However, elements have been referenced, such as Torchwood itself in Damaged Goods.
  • The synopsis on the Big Finish website was originally redacted to hide story details.
  • This story debuted a new theme composed by Blair Mowat. It also incorporates the dialogue "the 21st century is when everything changes" from the TV series.
  • In fitting with Torchwood's more adult themes, George Wilson uses bleeped out swear words.
  • This is the first new Torchwood story since 2012's Exodus Code.
  • As with the Companion Chronicles, the story is recounted as a first person monologue from Jack Harkness, which is interjected with dramatised sections.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]