Ghost Machine (TV story): Difference between revisions

{{Infobox Story

|setting              = [[Cardiff]], [[2000s]]

|writer                = [[Helen Raynor]]

|broadcast date        = [[29 October (releases)|29 October]] [[2006 (releases)|2006]]

|network              = [[BBC Three]]

|clip                  = Seen a ghost? - Torchwood - BBC

|clip2                = Premonitions - Torchwood - BBC

|clip3                = Gun practice - Torchwood - BBC

Tosh finds their quarry on the [[CCTV]] feed and calls out to the tracking team that it's [[Bernie Harris|a man in a hoodie]]. They chase him through a shopping area, until he ducks under a closing exit barrier at the [[High Street Arcade]]. Only Gwen has kept close enough to make it through; Owen and Jack have to pause until the mechanism can be reversed. She chases the man in the hoodie over the gate into the [[Cardiff Central Station|train station]] and through some travellers until she tackles him. The runner squirms away, leaving Gwen with his [[jacket]]. Gwen is angry that she lost him, but Tosh says the signal is still right there. Gwen finds a device in the jacket. It's beeping, and lights on it are flashing, as she lifts it up in both hands she presses a button.

The world around Gwen blurs and the other people disappear. She's in the same station, still night or evening. A little boy, in short pants, coat, and tie, with a little [[grey]] [[hat]], walks out of the booking hall, with a suitcase, two brown paper packages on string, a [[teddy bear]], and a tag pinned to his lapel that says he is [[Tom Flanagan|Tom Erasmus Flanagan]]. Gwen tries to talk to him. He doesn't really answer, but says he's lost and no one there knows who he is. Tom walks back towards the booking hall. Gwen fades back as Jack comes up with Owen, apologising for missing the gate. He asks Gwen if she's alright. Gwen says she's just seen a [[ghost]].

Gwen goes home, finding that Rhys has gone out to [[Daf]]'s to play [[poker]]. She's brought the device home and uses it to see happy scenes, such as her flirting with Rhys in the kitchen when they celebrated her new job as a police constable. Rhys comes back, and they make up. As she kisses him, she hides the device back in her purse. Owen is home drinking [[Alcohol|liquor]] from the bottle. He's taken the reports on Lizzie's murder from Torchwood. With some effort, he finds Eddie's current address on [[Prysse Ave]]. He goes to the address, selecting a false ID from the Gas Supply Services. He talks his way into Eddie's home, even though Eddie doesn't have any gas service. Owen sits down with him and talks to him, saying he knows about the bridge. Owen describes the entire scene of the murder while Morgan visibly gets tense. Morgan chases him out, saying he'll get nothing from him.

== References ==

* Gwen and Owen chase Sean Harris through [[Cardiff Central Station]]. Bernie runs out from the [[High Street Arcade]]. The shops on either side are [[EccentriX]] and [[Wales Tartan Centres]].

* The "leggy newsreader" won ''[[Strictly Come Dancing]]''.

* According to this episode, [[Tom Flanagan]] stayed in Cardiff for 66 years after arriving in [[1941]], placing the story in [[2007]]. [[Aliens of London dating controversy|This clashes with and contradicts dates given in several other stories]].

* Tosh tells Owen that Ed Morgan is claustrophobic, but when she checks his records on the computer, she says he is agoraphobic.

* Jack remembers that Gwen told him she didn't know how to shoot. ([[TV]]: ''[[Day One (TV story)|Day One]]'')

* Gwen's ability to shoot comes into play in both the immediate future, ([[TV]]: ''[[Cyberwoman (TV story)|Cyberwoman]]'') and is explicitly crucial to her survival years later when she uses it to defend herself on the run from the government and interrogate a would-be killer. ([[TV]]: ''[[Children of Earth: Day Two (TV story)|Day Two]]'')

* This episode, with four others, was first released on a DVD entitled ''Torchwood: Series 1, part 1'' on [[26 December (releases)|26 December]] [[2006 (releases)|2006]]. It was later released in ''Torchwood: The Complete First Series'' on [[19 November (releases)|19 November]] [[2007 (releases)|2007]].