Dissected (audio story)

Dissected
Main character(s):	Gwen, Martha
Main enemy:	Chameleon
Main setting:	Hereford, 2009
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Tim Foley
Director:	Scott Handcock
Producer:	James Goss
Music:	Blair Mowat
Sound:	Peter Doggart
Cover by:	Lee Binding
Release details
Story number:	5.12
Release number:	36
Release date:	18 February 2020
Production code:	BFPTWCD36
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78703-706-9
Official trailer
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Torchwood - Monthly Range
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Dissected was the thirty-sixth story in the Torchwood - Monthly Range by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Tim Foley and featured Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones and Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper.

Notably, this was Freema's debut in a Big Finish audio story, although she had previously played Martha in audio in the BBC Torchwood story Lost Souls, released in 2008.

Publisher's summary

Gwen Cooper turns up on Martha Jones's doorstep with a dead body in tow. She needs to ask one final favour of her. And to find out why they stopped being friends.

A lot's happened to Torchwood since Martha left. A lot's happened to Martha since she left Torchwood. And there's something very odd about the dead body Gwen's brought with her.

Tonight Gwen's going to be getting more answers than she bargained for.

Plot

Gwen arrives at a UNIT victim-retrieval station in Hereford in the Torchwood SUV, taking a corpse to Martha for her to perform an autopsy on. Martha believes that he is entirely unrelated to the crash of an automated research ship two miles away, but Gwen is unconvinced and uses a Haxan scanner to show that he is showing signs of life. Martha's technology, however, does not.

Martha examines the body and sees that his skull is fractured, also pointing out that Gwen's scanner is hypersensitive and possibly registering his skin as still alive. Gwen hears the body speak, but Martha explains that it was likely to be gas escaping his body, and sees maggots inside of him. Martha admits that this is strange. Using UNIT technology, she is able to identify the body as being Jonathan Dee.

After receiving a call from Sergeant Kelly, Martha finds that the body's DNA has changed, now registering as Dee and Gwen, and puts the base into lockdown. Her scissors disappear and she accuses Gwen of taking them, leading to Gwen accusing her of being a different person. Testing her, Gwen asks her to name Rhys, which she struggles with, and Martha counters by asking her the names her mother and sister. When Tom comes up, Martha tells Gwen that they had broken up.

Martha says that the body should have blue feet and subtly has Gwen go with her to the observation room, telling her that the body is listening to them and adapting to become the perfect body, apologising for not believing Gwen sooner. The body stands and goes after them, Martha believing that a chameleon had absorbed Jonathan Dee. She activates the stasis mist and, escaping with Gwen, blows up the station with the chameleon inside.

Gwen suggests that Martha pretend that she died in the fire and "go freelance", with the option of returning to UNIT should she ever change her mind. She agrees, saying that they should visit Dee's parents and planning to ask a friend to join her in going off the grid. The chameleon fades away, saying "disappear".

Cast

• Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
• Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman

Worldbuilding

• Martha has been working for UNIT in Hereford.
• Gwen says Myfanwy ate the answer phone once.
• Gwen states that the Torchwood Christmas do turned into a siege when "the waitresses were outed as Drahvins".
• Martha's colleagues plan on throwing her a party at the Dog and Duck.
• Ianto bought some Welsh cakes at a petrol station.
• People within a mile of an alien crash site are termed xenospectators by UNIT.
• Gwen has a scanner from the planet Hax, programmed by Tosh. Martha tells her that the Haxans are hypersensitive and bruise if spoken to too loudly.
• Martha uses stasis mist for sterilisation.
• Martha has prosecco.
• Martha observes that the body shows no signs of petechial haemorrhaging.
• Torchwood have recently gained possession of an ID unit from Barathic. However, it only recognises dogs.
• "Jonathan" was found wearing a jockstrap.
• Through osmosis, a human's skin can continue living twenty-four hour's after their death.
• Martha met the man who invented the guitar.
• Gwen mentions Sherlock Holmes.
• The chameleon has calluses on his left hand.
• Gwen mentions watching Silent Witness.
• Since she last saw Gwen, Martha has visited Switzerland, Mongolia, Alaska, Iceland and New Zealand.
• Martha receives a call from Sergeant Kelly, inviting her to the Dog and Duck. She is with Private Phillips.
• The Chameleon has taken the form of a man called Jonathan Dee.
• Dee is a classical guitarist and did a gig in Wrexham.
• The research ship contains chameleon technology.
• Martha struggles to remember Rhys's name. Gwen cannot remember the names of Martha's mum and sister.
• Martha broke up with Tom Milligan around the same time as the Torchwood Christmas party the previous year, explaining why she didn't attend.

Notes

Textless cover

• Martha cites her separation from Tom Milligan as being the reason she did not attend the Torchwood Christmas party the year before (2008). If this is true, then it would cause a continuity error with Series 4 of Doctor Who wherein Martha was still claiming to be engaged to Tom in early 2009.

Continuity

• Martha and Gwen speak about Tosh and Owen's deaths. (TV: Exit Wounds)
• The waitresses at the Torchwood Christmas party turned out to be Drahvins. (TV: Galaxy 4)
• Gwen says UNIT have everything locked away in vaults. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault, TV: Enemy of the Bane, The Day of the Doctor)
• Gwen recalls the first time Martha came to Torchwood to examine a body. (TV: Reset)
• Martha has been to other planets, including Planet Cat. (TV: Gridlock, etc.)
• Martha mentions going to Switzerland. (AUDIO: Lost Souls)
• Martha and Tom Milligan are no longer engaged. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The End of Time)
• Martha mentions having "been" an alien clone. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)
• Martha recalls the Earth being towed by the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: Journey's End)
• Gwen and Martha have a friend who is adept at coming back from the dead. (TV: Everything Changes etc.)
• Gwen suggests Martha fakes her death and go freelance. Martha says a "friend" may join her. (TV: The End of Time)

External links

• Official Dissected page at bigfinish.com