Torchwood discovers a machine that allows them to view the ghosts that walk among us. Using it, prompts Owen to investigate an unsolved crime – one that could change all their futures.
Length 48’31”
First transmitted
10pm, 29th October 2006, BBC Three and BBC HD
9pm, 1st November 2006, BBC Two
Guest Cast
Kai Owen (Rhys Williams); Gareth Thomas (Ed Morgan); Ben McKay ([Sean ‘Bernie’ Harris]); John Normington (Tom [Erasmus] Flanagan); Emily Evans (Lizzie Liews); Christopher Elson (Young Ed Morgan); Christopher Greene (Young Tom [Erasmus] Flanagan); Julie Gibbs (Bernie’s Mum); Ian Kay (Snooker Player); Ryan Conway (Kid in Arcade); Kathryn Howard (Woman in Shop)
Writer Helen Raynor
Director Colin Teague
Setting
Cardiff (including central, Splott and Butetown), across four days. Probably during October/November, as the ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ final had just been broadcast, and three of the four seasons shown to date ended in early Winter.This episode finally confirms Torchwood is set in 2007: Flanagan was evacuated 66 years ago, in 1941.
Did You Spot?
The Hayes Island snack bar in the opening, which is visible in ‘Rose’ (2005) as Rose almost leaves Henrick’s in the opening scene. Amongst fake IDs for the Regional Water Division and Gas Supply Services, Owen has a fake ID for UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce first seen in ‘The Invasion’ (1968) and most recently seen in ‘The Christmas Invasion’ (2005); he has indentical photos in all his IDs. In the scene where the team discuss Bernie, and also in the final scene, the television sets from ‘The Idiot’s Lantern’ (2006) can be seen in Jack’s office – according to Ed Thomas in that week’s Radio Times, Magpie’s business was bought up by his son and some of the sets were bought by Torchwood.
Twisted Reality
Cardiff Central Station’s CCTV seems to be the only one in the world without a burnt-in timecode.
Love is in the Air
Gwen and Rhys have their first tiff over her unpredictable hours (although quite how stable they were when she worked for the Police is anyone’s guess). Jack manages to make a weapons training session seem like foreplay. We see a flashback to happier days for Gwen and Rhys. Rhys’ friends Dav and Karen “had a barney”.
If it’s Alien, it’s Ours
The ghost machine of the title, a Quantum Transducer filled with nanotechnology. Some money described by Jack as “driftwood”.
Captain Jack’s Large Weapon
He introduces Gwen to his rather large collection; at least eight different handguns and pistols are spotted.
Torchwood Shop: Now Open for Business
The Torchwood branded ear-muffs.
Cymru am Byth
Cardiff’s phone book (with Y Llyfr Ffon emblazoned across the cover) is proudly displayed. Whilst Estate Agents may not use the name, the residents and employees of the Splott area do indeed affectionately refer to it as Splo’.
To Live and Die in Cardiff
Elizabeth Lewis was murdered in 1963, which Owen and Bernie witness. Ed Morgan dies at the end.
Sounds Brilliant
‘Sing’, from Travis’ third album ‘The Invisible Band’ (2001) is playing in the pub when the team interrogate Bernie. Later, when Sato and Harper are talking in a different pub, ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, the sixth single (and the first single from the second album ‘The Libertines’) from The Libertines (2004) is heard in the background.
Quotables
“I didn’t know a soul here. And, there was a mix up. I’d kept my head down so much they forgot all about me. So, they left me, all on my own. Felt like the end of the world. I wandered down this tunnel. Totally lost. Forgotten. Looking for someone, anyone, who’d look after me. Why don’t they come for me, I kept thinking. No one knows me. I’m lost.” – Tom
“Ever had déjà vu? Felt someone walk over your grave? Ever felt someone behind you in an empty room? Well, there was. There always is.” – Jack
“A ghost.” – Gwen
“Hold it firmly; don’t grip it. Breathe in. Focus. Breathe out. Squeeze gently.” – Jack
“Wow!” – Gwen
(ed. We know what you’re thinking, but this is Jack teaching Gwen to fire a gun)
“Look, I don’t mind you working all the hours. I really don’t. Just as long as you still want to come home at the end of it all.” – Rhys
“I do. I’m here. And, you’re gorgeous.” – Gwen
“Don’t hurt me please, I got asthma.” – Bernie
“I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m gonna bloody kill you.” Owen
“I used to see it in people’s faces when they looked at me. They knew. I tried to hide, but they knew.” – Edwin
“The city will be awake soon. All those people. All that energy.” – Jack
“All those ghosts.” – Gwen
“We’re surrounded by them. We can’t see them. We can’t touch them. But, they’re there all right. A million shadows of human emotion. We’ve just got to learn to live with them.” – Jack
Weren’t You In?
Gareth Thomas has a long and illustrious career on British TV, including eleven episodes of ‘Sutherland’s Law’ (1973), ‘Children of the Stones’ (1973), the title role in ‘Blakes 7’ (1978-81), ‘Heartbeat’ (1999-2004), ‘Distant Shores’ (2005) and seventy other guest starring roles. John Normington has a similarly lengthy resume, with his sixty TV credits including ‘Bootle Saddles’ (1984), ‘My Family and Other Animals’ (1987) and two ‘Doctor Who’ appearances: Morgus in 5The Caves of Androzani’ (1984) and Trevor Sigma in ‘The Happiness Patrol’ (1988).
Unanswered Questions
For the first time (outside the HD broadcast) we see the opening “you gotta be ready” saga sell – which includes a clear image of the notice on the Hub entrance that a staircase contains 105 steps. This can’t possibly go up (that’s roughly 8 stories) but does it really go that far down? How was the team alerted to the device in the first place? And why did it take Tosh so long to track him down? How has Gwen managed to keep her ID badge from the Police (or is this just a Torchwood fake)? Why does Jack get so annoyed when they can’t locate Bernie? Why does he give up finding where the device came from so quickly? Why does he jump out of the way of the gun if he’s immortal? (Force of habit?) If Jack doesn’t sleep, how does his brain cope without daily REM cycles? What makes Gwen take the ghost machine home with her when she’s seen the consequences of alien tech being taken off the base without permission? Each of the other times the device was used, it sent the holders 40-60 years in the past. How does Gwen manage to control it to see only a few years in the past in her apartment? Why when Gwen sees her future vision, does she only see herself? When the event happened for real, Owen, Jack and Ed were all standing right there. Was the ghost machine meant to be used in two separate pieces? Gwen pushed both buttons to activate the future vision, but Bernie said he only used the other half once – does using the machine in one piece have different effects than using them separately? Why does Gwen activate it in the first place, when it could easily be a bomb or anything? Why does Bernie say “I knew you’d come for me?” to Gwen when he hadn’t met her yet? Ianto appears to be pouring everyone a drink, but only he is seen actually drinking; why didn’t the others join him?
Fuck Ups
How on Earth does Gwen manage to run all the way down Queen Street and through Cardiff station (quite a distance!) without breaking more than a bit of a sweat? Furthermore, why does no-one seem to care that two people have just jumped the ticket barriers (besides a bit of a huff from the gentleman in blue)? Why are Jack and Owen so far behind despite only being held up a few seconds (perhaps they don’t share Gwen’s superhuman speed) – even taking into account time running a little differently during her “hallucination”? How are they able to identify Bernie from such a low res image (especially as they’d had difficulty with a similar picture of Carys the week before). Torchwood is using a 2006 phone book. When Jack’s running a search for Sean Harris the same list of names scrolls through twice. Why does Jack keep Magpie’s televisions on? Surely they can only show static (as seen) as there are no more 405-line broadcasts they could pick up. If another creature like the Wire were to invade it (as hinted by Ed Thomas in the Radio Times – see “Did You Spot?” above), it couldn’t use that system to travel along – it would have to use 625-line, with many more subcarriers it could hide in. So, the televisions being on is basically pointless. Whilst Jack’s recommendation of Gwen’s posture when firing a gun is aesthetically pleasing, it’s certainly not best for first time shooters, as the recoil can be much greater than expected.
Torchwood: Declassified Episode 3 (9’12”) Broadcast BBC Three, Monday 30th October, 2:40am.
Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori, Julie Gardner and Russell T Davies explain the plot and Owen’s important role in it. Davies, Colin Teague, Gardner, John Barrowman, Gorman, Mori then talk further about Owen’s character and how he fits into the team dynamic. Gardner, Davies, Barrowman, Mori and Teague tell us how Owen develops in the episode. Gorman, Gardner, Helen Raynor, Teague, Davies and Richard Stokes talk about the joy of writing for Cardiff, and the Owen/Bernie chase sequence specifically. Finally, Gorman, Mori, David Lloyd-Jones and Davies preview the next episode.
Site Review by Rob Tizzard
The trailer for episode three got me wanting more, it looked awesome. So as I sit down all smiley for it, the smile fades quickly due to an insanely cheesy intro. It’s John’s voice, it’s just too showbiz to takes seriously in this context. It would have been far more effective to simply go straight into the pre-titles sequence, which was stunning. Vibrant, urgent and a little chilling at the end, near perfect if it wasn’t for Jack’s Madonna-style headpiece.
OK, so we have a proper team now who begin an investigation into the object recovered and the vision experienced by Gwen. There’s a nice dynamic building between Gwen and Owen, then Gwen’s boyfriend calls in and I’m still wondering exactly how long he’s going to stick around. Tosh is in the background still, but I look forward to her spot light time as she shines whenever on-screen.
Something else I for one really like about this show is the Cardiff setting, and I know I’m in the minority here having read all the newspaper reviews.
It’s not an area I’m familiar with either in TV or in life, how often do other cities feature on TV and no one seems to mention that. It adds a nice edge to see the team wandering around this strangely clean area anyway.
This story gives us a little more of Owen and I found it interesting to hear the Actor mention how Owen becomes more human as the series goes on in ‘Declassified’ after what I said in earlier reviews. We discover he can afford a huge flat that is far from typically furnished, and that he has strong feeling about the incident he witnessed in his vision. Regarding the vision, I found the male’s voice sounded like a woman and was waiting for the reveal of a butch lesbian.
It’s a good and obvious idea for a story, but could have been executed so much better. The gun scene was unnecessary and a little irresponsible I felt, and Jack is making me cringe again, please don’t eat with your mouth full sir. The ending is totally out of left field again and yields interesting consequences and as for next time…
Reader Reviews
From Russell T Davies planning schedule:
Episode 1: The new girl meets the mysterious stranger and gets drawn into his dangerous world. Joins him in the end.
Episode 2: The new girl gets her first taste of this exciting new life. Character piece to develop her and make her see what’s she’s got herself into. Plot can be very thin.
Episode 3: The new team is now working together and they encounter ghosts that aren’t really ghosts – in Cardiff!
OK, so which RTD produced series am I describing there? Well, you’d be forgiven for being confused as we’ve seen him use the same recipe twice in just under eighteen months.
So, is the same formula working again? I’m left feeling pretty much the same about the first three episodes of Torchwood as I felt about Doctor Who’s return last year. The first episode was a good, tight introduction, in which the end seems to come up out of nowhere. Episode two has special effects and lots of character building, but very little plot, and what is there isn’t worth much.
That brings us to episode three – where most people agree that Doctor Who stopped being about the introductions to new audiences, and started being an adventure series again. That basically happens here as well, but we also get a sad story about ruined lives and get to see that Owen isn’t just Torchwood’s “mouth on legs”. Burn Gorman really shows a level of emotion I didn’t expect from him (or his character). Even Gareth Thomas showing up as the older Edwin makes you feel sorry for him. He’s lived his life with this regret, just waiting for someone to find him out and punish him. Perhaps Edwin knew what he was doing when he fell on the knife.
We get to see more of the dark, brooding Jack, to which I hope we get some more answers soon. This is not the same Captain Jack we knew in Doctor Who. Something has changed him. Something is under his skin. Yet, he always shows a soft spot for Gwen. And, just how is Gwen’s relationship with Rhys going to turn out. She obviously loves him, but does she love him enough. Hiding the alien device right behind his back seems to be a metaphor of how their life is going to be now. Can they survive?
At least after three episodes the series is starting to show some of its promise. All the actors and characters are starting to come into their own and hopefully it will just keep getting better.
Tobias Rogers
After the first two episodes of Torchwood failed by varying degrees to live up to my expectations of an adult SF drama series, the third has given me some hope for the series’ prospects. While ‘Everything Changes’ felt ill-thought out and at times silly and unfocused, and Day One seemed like standard Doctor Who with sex gleefully bolted on, ‘Ghost Machine’ really hit all the buttons for me. A consistent, serious and dark tone pervaded the episode, with an intelligent, maturely written script with disturbing overtones from the pen of Helen Raynor. Direction was excellent and the production well acted with Burn Gorman coming to the fore among the regular cast and a terrific turn from former Blake’s 7 actor, Gareth Thomas. Gripping stuff throughout. After two ‘kiddult’ episodes which left a fair bit to be desired, it now feels like the Torchwood that I really hoped for has arrived, albeit a little belatedly. More like this, please!
Alan Hayes
