Doctor Who and Related Transcripts

Torchwood transcripts - series 2

Episode 2: Sleeper

Go here for the main Torchwood page.

Episode transcribed by beccaelizabeth (e-mail address beccaelizabeth @ yahoo.com ) of the Torchwood Transcripts LiveJournal community as follows.
Transcript hosted at beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1323313.html (link valid on 11 March 2010).

Right! Disclaimer time: We all know this belongs to the BBC, the very nice people who make pretty guys kiss for us. I pay my licence fee but that don't mean I own any of it. So clearly I'm pretty much hoping they don't mind. But it's not like anyone will be reading these things and not watching, right? Everyone can go watch on the website. But we'll be buying the DVDs and everything. Yes? Yes.


Key:
LOCATION
(stage directions)
emphasis
NAME: of who is saying this bit here
'this is when they're on comms' (or being telepaths, but that was only in 1-07)
#singing.#
stuff I added that wasn't in the subtitles
stuff on subtitles but I didn't hear it
*action* like in chat, or a *sound effect*.
between // and // they're talking over each other, same time.

If that all looks a bit complicated please to be coming up with something simpler.

Torchwood 2-02 Sleeper
This programme contains very strong language.


opening credits

JACK: (voiceover)
Torchwood.
Outside the Government, beyond the police.
Fighting for the future on behalf of the human race.
The 21st century is when everything changes,
and Torchwood is ready.

INT NIGHT Beth's bedroom.
(*crunch*: two people lie in bed in a dark room, hear crunch crash from the other room. Wake up.)
BETH: Mike did you hear that?
MIKE: Someone's in the living room!
BETH: Are you gonna go in there?
MIKE: Are you? (Picks up cricket bat, leaves slowly)
(BETH: picks up phone and dials)
999: Emergency, which service?
BETH: Police. My name's Beth Halloran, I'm at 114 Brodsky Gardens. I think there's a burglar in the flat, come quickly.
BURGLAR: Come on then! (Mike comes flying back in to the room, crunched.) Stay down. (Two burglars keep talking in the background, much confusion.)
BETH: Mike! Mike!
BURGLAR: Sit down!
BETH: There's two of them! My husband's been injured, send an ambulance!
BURGLAR: Get the TV stuff unhooked.
BETH: Just take whatever you want!
BURGLAR: Keep her quiet. Wait, wait. Did you hear that?
999: Emergency Are there any other exits {?}
BURGLARS: What's happening? Get away from me! What is that thing? Please, don't... Don't... Please...Stop, Stop! I'm sorry! What's going on?! I'm sorry! No-o-o-o! Get away! No-O-O-o!

(All the camera sees is a knocked over bedside lamp, slowly getting brighter until the screen whites out and...)

TORCHWOOD opening credits

EXT NIGHT Street outside Beth's flat
(Pictures starts on Burglar in balaclava under a silver space blanket on top of a very crunched looking police car. Ambulance looking after him in background. Jack and Tosh in the SUV pull up.)

JACK: Tosh, what happened here?
TOSH: Two IC one males, one fatality, one seriously wounded after a fall from a fifth-floor window onto a police vehicle.
(Owen runs out as soon as the SUV stops, heads for the injured man.)
OWEN: Bloody hell! Here you are, has he been stabilised?
JACK: Gwen, Owen, go with him to the hospital, see if he says anything. Interview the husband and wife while you're there. Tosh, with me.
(Heads into the building; camera pans up and goes whoosh to)

INT NIGHT Beth's flat, now trashed
(Close on smashed through blinds and window.)

POLICEMAN: Bit weird, this one. Might be one of yours. Nobody saw anything, heard anything, blah, blah, blah. The usual. Dunno why we bother asking anymore.
JACK: Thanks so much, we'll take it from here now. If you could just wait outside.
POLICEMAN: In my opinion, the husband did it. He was looking for trouble expecting to be burgled.
JACK: Really?
POLICEMAN: Yeah, look. No other reason I can think of for keeping sports equipment in the bedroom.
JACK: Oh, you should come round to my house for a game of hockey sometime. (Hand on his back to get him out of the room, closes the door in his face as he turns again.)
TOSH: Making friends?
JACK: Not really. What have you got?
TOSH: No glass inside, so it was definitely broken out.
JACK: Police say the stab wounds were caused by some long, narrow blade. Which that isn't. No other weapons in the room could have done this. So how the hell did they manage it?
TOSH: Husband was unconscious, and the wife probably weighs less than I do. I can't see either of them doing this.
JACK: When you fear for your life You'd be surprised what you can do.

INT Hospital ward
(Mike in bed with ouch bandaged on his head. Beth in a chair next to him, holding his hand. Owen swabs and tests his other hand as they talk. Gwen stands and asks the questions.)

BETH: I didn't see anything. We all heard this weird noise, then the next thing I know, I'm in the corner and he's just sitting there, dead. The other one was just gone.
GWEN: And then what?
BETH: Nothing. I just stayed there till the police arrived. I couldn't move. I should have checked on Mike.
MIKE: Don't be silly. You did the right thing. I'm fine.
BETH: Be quiet, you. The doctor said you should rest.
MIKE: I don't think the doctor meant my mouth.
BETH: Actually, he did, he was very specific. He said, 'No talking for a whole week.'
MIKE: Lies, lies! Why so many lies?!
GWEN: OK, thanks for your time. We'll let you get some rest now.

INT Hospital corridor

OWEN: Not a trace of blood on their hands, either of them.
GWEN: Then who did it?
OWEN: She did, obviously.
GWEN: Why obviously?
OWEN: Well, look at her.
(Gwen and Owen move until they have a view of the hospital bed. Beth has her head in her hands, Mike is comforting her.)
MIKE: It's OK.
(Back in the corridor.)
GWEN: Yeah, I can see what you're saying, she's absolutely terrified.
OWEN: It's always the one you least suspect. They're all in the room together, Hubby's out cold, and somehow she survives while two burglars get mangled? She did it, she must have.
GWEN: How?
OWEN: I haven't worked that bit out yet.
GWEN: Ah, I see, I see.
OWEN: All right then, Jessica Fletcher, who done it?
GWEN: The husband. His wife's in danger, he has keeps a cricket bat under the bed. You fill in the blanks from there.
OWEN: Right, OK. So, he kills one man, wearing gloves, and then he swallows the murder weapon and the gloves, and then he knocks himself out?
GWEN: Something like that, // yeah.
OWEN: Right. // To be continued.
(earpiece bleeps, Owen taps it to pick up.)
OWEN: Yeah?
JACK: 'It's me. Anything?'
OWEN: No, nothing. They're completely clear.
JACK: Well, one of them did it, we just need to figure out how. Stay with the burglar all night if you have to. 'Keep an eye on those two.'
OWEN: 'OK, fair enough.'
JACK: Tosh...
OWEN: That was Jack. He says that you should stay with the burglar, and find out if he knows anything, all night, if you have to. I know. And keep an eye on the other two.
GWEN: Brilliant. Brilliant. Oh, will you get me a coffee before you go?
OWEN: Yeah, yeah, course. What are team mates for? You haven't got a pound for the machine, have you? (Light box beside them buzzes, flickers, and goes out.) Hospitals. They have to fall apart before anyone fixes them.
GWEN: Pound. Coffee.
OWEN: Thank you!

INT Different hospital ward
(You can tell it's a hospital cause there's all sorts of drugs in bottles in front. Camera moves past to see beat up burglar on bed. There's bleeping machines and not a whole lot else going on. Gwen is Very Sleepy. Her now empty coffee cup dangles in her hand as she nods and tries to keep her head up. Then she drops it. Startles awake. Bends down to pick it up. Sitting up sees the Burglar awake.)

GWEN: Oh, you're safe, all right? You're safe, just tell me who did this to you.
BURGLAR: The woman... in the flat, keep her away from me!
(Beeps turn into beeeeeeep and the alarm goes off. Medical badness. Lots of staff come in.)
NURSES: Page the doctor. Can you move, please? We need to lie him down.

INT Hub, Interrogation room
(Starts with an image of a curved mirror. There's lots of mirrors in this one – we see Jack in a mirror in the bedroom earlier. Maybe because of the identity theme? Reflections in glass are all over the place too.)
(Cut to Beth with a bag over her head. Jack snatches it off. Then camera moves to side so Beth is on the right, Jack on the left, and Gwen standing under the mirror between them looking uncomfortable. Jack is being all In Charge. He's got the cold blue shirt with his sleeves rolled up and everything.)

JACK: Tell me everything.
BETH: Where am I? Where's my husband?
JACK: He's safe.
BETH: What do you mean, safe? What have you done with him?
JACK: Nothing yet. Tell me what happened in the flat, Beth. It had to be you or Mike, so how did you do it?
BETH: You can't treat people like this. I've been burgled, attacked! I want a lawyer, I want a phone call. If you're charging me with something...
JACK: We're not charging you with anything. We don't have to. And There'll be no lawyer, no phone calls, just us, and this room for as long as it takes. Now, tell me what happened!
BETH: I told her... and the police. Please, I don't know anything!
(Ianto and Owen are watching all this through the glass from the level above.)
(Gwen moves in and spreads out victim photos of the stabbed burglar.)
JACK: Look at them. The second one just died in the hospital. 'Keep her away from me, the woman in the flat.' Those were his dying words. Now Why would he say something like that?!
BETH: I don't know, I swear. I never touched him.
JACK: Is it Mike? Are you covering for him?
BETH: No!
(Light blows)
GWEN: Jack?
(Jack leaves)
GWEN: Beth, we know these men attacked you and your husband. Now, if you fought back, people will understand. It was self-defence.
BETH: I promise...I promise I have no idea what happened to them. All I know is that it wasn't me.

INT Hub observation window above interrogation room, new and behind one way mirror

IANTO: 'Just us and this room for as long as it takes?' Terrifying.
JACK: Really?
IANTO: Absolutely. Shivers down my spine.
JACK: You don't look scared.
IANTO: Oh, it...passed.
JACK: (Growls, raises fist. Turns and walks away.) Tosh, anything on the body scan?
TOSH: Nothing out of the ordinary.
JACK: What about the light? Power surge?
TOSH: Nothing from us. There was an electro-magnetic build-up around her, but I can't see how she caused it.
OWEN: Same thing happened at the hospital Jack. Can't be a coincidence.
JACK: It's her, I know it is. OK, let's do some tests, see who or what we're dealing with.
OWEN: I'm on it.

INT Hub, Corridor
(Two of them walking through fairly dark corridor.)
BETH: What kind of tests?
GWEN: Just little things to clear this all up. Blood samples...
BETH: Blood samples? I haven't done anything!
GWEN: Look... I believe you, but this is our job. Something strange happened at your flat. We've gotta make sure you had nothing to do with it.
BETH: I didn't.
GWEN: Then you've nothing to worry about. They're doing these tests whether you like it or not Beth. Don't make this any harder on yourself. Come on.

INT Hub, central area
(Enter through the door next to the armoury, see them through the weapons on the glass. Then cuts to a big shot of the whole hub, looking up the tower, all those nice arched levels they CGIed last week.)

BETH: This is where you work?
GWEN: Yep. Cosy, isn't it?
BETH: Who are you people? Don't you have any windows?
GWEN: It wouldn't really be in keeping with the whole secrecy thing, people looking in.
(Beth bends to look at some gizmo. Ianto leans out of the rift manipulator compartment in the fountain.)
IANTO: We don't sniff the sub-etheric resonator.
BETH: Sorry. It's so big. This is crazy.
GWEN: Yep.
BETH: I suddenly feel very, very small.
GWEN: Come on. Let's just get these tests done. Then you can get home, OK? Come on, Owen.

INT Hub, Autopsy area

OWEN: We'll start with a few blood tests, nothing to worry about, just a little... needle.
JACK: What?
OWEN: Needle's snapped.
BETH: Haven't you got a nurse to do this?
GWEN: He's a doctor. It's OK.
(Owen holds up second needle, also snapped.)
BETH: I'm not gonna do this if you can't even... (Owen holds up scalpel.) What are you doing?
OWEN: Bear with me.
BETH: Hey, hey!
(Scalpel snaps too, with little tinkly noise.)
OWEN: When was the last time you were in hospital, Beth?
BETH: I don't remember. I don't think I ever have. Why, what's wrong with me?
OWEN: Any operations? Checkups?
BETH: No, nothing.
OWEN: When was the last time you felt ill? You had a cold? Anything?
BETH: I don't think I ever have. I take a lot of vitamin C.
OWEN: Mm, hell of a lot I reckon.
JACK: OK, Beth. You make light bulbs blow, we can't break your skin. What planet are you from?
BETH: Earth.
JACK: Stop wasting our time! We know you're an alien!
BETH: There's no such thing as aliens.
(Gwen does a grin... it looks kind of apologetic and slightly 'we're all mad here' to me.)

INT Hub, Cells
(See Beth reflected in the glass, as Jack pulls her in front of the cell. See weevil appear, growl. See reflections line up together, weevil-Beth.)

JACK: Beth, Janet. Janet, Beth.

On Hub monitors
(We watch Gwen watch, look away, and fiddle with her engagement ring, carefully in shot. Huh.)

BETH: What is it?
JACK: It's an alien. But you know that cause you are, too.
BETH: No, it's not.

Cells again

BETH: I'm not. I work in an office...
JACK: Why do you give off electro-magnetic waves? Why?!
BETH: I don't know! Stop it! Why are you doing this?! I want Mike. I want to go home.
(Weevil gets right close to the glass, reflections aligning, then sniffs and starts to back away, crooning, all body language submissive.)
BETH: Why is it doing that?
JACK: I don't know. It's never done it before.
BETH: This is real, isn't it?
JACK: Yeah.
BETH: I don't know about my skin, or any of that other stuff. I just... How can I prove it to you? How can I... prove to you... that I'm not an alien?
(Weevil cowers in far corner, trying to back out the door apparently.)

EXT DAY Cardiff from above
(Zooming in above the Millennium place, time passes marker.)

INT Hub, desk area
(Ianto wheels in a chair with straps on the arms. Jack carries in a box. Puts it down by Tosh, gets out a metal helmet as looks like a cage. Ominous.)

TOSH: You said we weren't allowed to use that again.
JACK: It's just a mind probe.
IANTO: Remember what happened last time we used it?
JACK: That was different. That species has extremely high blood pressure.
IANTO: Oh, right, their heads must explode all the time.
(Gwen does big eyes of WTF, Tosh does headtilt of old fashioned look.)
GWEN: Jack, You can't do this. What if you're wrong? If she's human, it'll kill her.
(Ianto sits in chair.)
JACK: I'm not wrong. We have to find out what she is.
(Ianto's hands are now in the straps.)
TOSH: Take it easy, Jack. Stop at the first sign of trouble.
IANTO: Or the first sign of exploding.
JACK: Gwen... bring her up.
GWEN: OK
(Ianto judders and makes buzzy noises: as someone else said, Electro-cute. Episode writer says this is not just mucking around but to make a point in a different way.)
JACK: (Points finger) Hey!
(Ianto gets out of chair. Owen gives Ianto an exasperated look.)

(Cut to close up of straps, Beth strapped in to chair by Tosh.)
TOSH: Not too tight, is it?
BETH: It's fine. Are you sure this is safe?
GWEN: Yep.
BETH: Just try not to, you know, kill me, or anything, OK?
IANTO: You'll probably get dehydrated during the probing.
(Ianto brings her bottled water with a straw, lets her drink. Which is a pretty good way to calm her even if it isn't true – gets her thinking they're concerned enough to think about her health after this. She drinks a bit.)
BETH: Thank you.
(Owen holds plugged in tech crown, now full of glowy, over Beth's head, and looks to Jack. Jack nods. He lowers it on to Beth. Tosh types some stuff then nods to Jack.)
TOSH: We're all set.
JACK: The probe drills down through your consciousness, so if there's anything hidden, it'll pop to the surface.
BETH: Will it hurt?
JACK: Yeah.
BETH: Your bedside manner's rubbish.
GWEN: You should see his manners in bed, they're atrocious. Apparently. So I've heard. (Tosh is staring at her.)
IANTO: Oh, they are. I remember this // one...
JACK: (*ahems* loudly)//
(Jack is all eyes front serious. Gwen goes to kneel in front of Beth. You can see Beth's wedding ring real clearly.)
GWEN: All right, we all ready?
BETH: I suppose.
GWEN: OK, we'll do this slowly. Tosh will control the probe, Owen will make sure you're not in any danger, Ianto will have more water when you need it, and I'll be right here, OK?
BETH: What about him? What does he do?
JACK: I'll be watching.
GWEN: Are you ready, Beth?
BETH: (nods)
GWEN: (mouths? Very quiet) All right. (Backs up to stand next to Jack again, hand over mouth.)
JACK: OK, Tosh.
(Sound effects and Beth sort of screaming. The probe has started.)
BETH: Human.
OWEN: Safe.
JACK: Who killed the burglars, Beth?
BETH: I don't know! I... Ah!
OWEN: Safe.
JACK: What planet are you from?
BETH: I'm human! Oh, God, it hurts! Please, please, stop!
JACK: Go deeper.
TOSH: Are you sure? // She...
JACK: Do it! //
OWEN: Vital signs are all over the place, but still safe.
TOSH: Getting electro-magnetic build-up again.
JACK: Who killed those men?!
BETH: I don't know! Make it stop!
GWEN: That's it For God's sake, come on!
JACK: Go deeper.
OWEN: Safe.
JACK: Deeper!
(Lots of reaction shots, some more of that blood flow stuff they've been using, and maybe a bit of a nuclear explosion?)
IANTO: (Bites lip, worried.) Something's happening to the lights! (Which they can all see but nobody is doing anything about.)
TOSH: The electro-magnetic pulse is off the scale.
OWEN: She can't take much more! I don't know how much more she can take!
TOSH: Jack, we've got to stop this!
(BETH: Slumps. Reaction shots on each of Team Torchwood. Then she straightens up, face blank, turns her hands palm upwards, and transforms her right forearm into something glowy and bumpy and quite probably alien. Jack looks silently satisfied. Gwen looks gobsmacked.)
GWEN: Oh, my God!
JACK: (Holds her back.) I wouldn't get that close. Toshiko, what happened?
TOSH: Hit a buried compartment. Locked away. She couldn't have been aware of it.
JACK: Who are you?
BETH: Kayehla Janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal.
JACK: Where are you from?
BETH: Kayehla Janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal.
JACK: How do you like my boots?
BETH: (Looks down, then forward again.) Kayehla Janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal.
(JACK: grabs the new blue scanner thingy and starts checking out her arm.)
GWEN: Jack, what is it, what is she saying?
JACK: Name, rank, serial number, and that's all she's gonna say.
TOSH: How do you know?
JACK: Cause I know who she is and why she's here. (Tosses scanner to Ianto, who catches it.) Switch off the probe.
TOSH: Off.
(Transformation reverses, Beth starts panting and looking pained again.)
BETH: Oh, you weren't lying, that really hurt! Did you find anything?
(Long pause while everyone looks at each other and then looks to Jack.)

INT Hub, New meeting room
(Team Torchwood around the table, Jack at the head again.)

JACK: She's a sleeper agent. It all clicked when I saw the implant.
OWEN: A sleeper agent? Who for?
JACK: No-one knows very much, they don't leave survivors. Official designation is Cell 114 (said one one four). They infiltrate planets, adapting their bodies, gathering intelligence, sometimes for years, watching, until they're ready to take over.
GWEN: OK, that's...creepy.
JACK: If we're lucky, she's the first. They send an advance guard to gather intel. Given false memories so they blend in. She has no idea she's not human. Her real self must have taken over briefly, killed the burglars. Self preservation.
OWEN: Told you she did it.
JACK: Yeah, The point is, by the time they attack, they know every single thing about the planet. Tosh.
TOSH: The implant gathers information. Normal X-rays don't show it. She's projecting a false image. It's got all this data stored inside it. This is a force-field generator. It creates an impervious layer above the skin, just a nanometre thick. That's why you couldn't get the needle inside her.
OWEN: Right, well... God, look, they even know about us.
IANTO: They know more about this place than I do. (thumps table) Nobody knows more than I do.
GWEN: What if there's more of them? What are we gonna do about this?
JACK: For a start... I think we should tell her.

INT Hub, cells
(Beth, behind the glass in a cell now, reacts but doesn't speak. Hand to mouth, wedding ring again plain to see.)

(on screen)
BETH: Kayehla janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal.
JACK: Where are you from?
BETH: Kayehla janees, putaak graszh...
(/on screen)

BETH: Can you turn it off, please?
(GWEN: does so.)
BETH: (Examining her right forearm.) So I killed those men?
JACK: Yes.
BETH: And I'm a mass-murdering alien?
JACK: Yes.
BETH: My whole life... all my memories, they can't be fake. I know I love Mike... and he loves me.
GWEN: He does, and you do.
BETH: So what's real?
GWEN: You both are, you both fell in love. That happened. Do you feel human?
BETH: Yes.
GWEN: Yes. Well, then you are. What makes us human? Is it our minds or our bodies? (Looks to Jack, who has Captain calm face on.)
BETH: And what happens when the disguise comes off? I want to have kids one day. Is feeling human... enough for that? (Gwen looks down. Jack reaction shot of non reaction again.) Can you fix me? Can you make me human?
JACK: No. Eventually, you'll activate. Your real memories will come back, and Beth will disappear.
BETH: What do you mean, activate?
JACK: Once you gather enough information, you'll send it back home, and start the invasion.
BETH: There must be something you can do. All this technology, everything you do here... You can't keep me locked up next to that thing! (Gwen reaches out to her then drops her hand. Looks down again. Close up on Beth.) Are you gonna kill // me?
GWEN: No.// No, of course we're not. (Gwen looks to Jack, who does not look reassuring.)
BETH: Have you killed other aliens?
GWEN: Only when we've had to. When it was the last resort - kill or be killed.
(Now the glass reflection is Jack. Hmmm.)
BETH: I wish this wasn't happening. I'd never know. I'd just live a normal life.
JACK: Until the day of the attack.
BETH: I won't do anything! I'm not that person!
JACK: (Comes up close to the glass now, arms crossed.) I'm sorry, but you are.
(In the back Gwen closes her eyes, looks down, looks to Jack. He walks away. Beth covers her mouth with both hands, wedding ring on top again, and breathes heavy, nearly crying. She reaches out one hand to catch herself as she almost collapses forwards, then pulls it back over her mouth again. Gwen does Compassionate Pouting and walks out.)

INT Hub, main area

JACK: (Walking in front of armoury.) We can't let her go, she's too dangerous.
TOSH: We could freeze her. Use the alien cryogenics. Wake her up if we figure out how to stop her memories from coming back.
GWEN: Freeze her? For how long?
TOSH: As long as it takes. At least she'd be alive.
JACK: Her implant would still gather information.
GWEN: Can't we deactivate it?
TOSH: I can isolate the transceiver and fry it in an EM pulse. Right now It's not sending or receiving anything now. I've checked it five times on every frequency.
OWEN: Won't that let them know we're onto them?
TOSH: No. If we freeze her, she'll never activate and they'll never know.
OWEN: What about her husband?
JACK: She'd have to disappear completely. (Looks at Gwen.) No goodbyes.

INT Hub dark corridors again.

BETH: We had a holiday booked. Nothing special, just a weekend away. Am I ever gonna see him again?
GWEN: I don't know.
BETH: (*screams*, flashes of violent images) Oh, those men... (more flashes) Oh, my God, those poor men! What's happening?!
JACK: The real memory is coming back, destroying the fake human persona. The sooner we do this, the better for everyone.
GWEN: Beth? Beth, come on.

INT Hub, Autopsy area
(Owen pulls out some kind of box on one of the dead people slides.)

BETH: Promise me something, if you can't figure out how to keep me human, don't wake me up. Just turn the machine off.
GWEN: That's not a promise I can keep.
BETH: OK, you then. (Looks to Jack.) I bet you can. Just don't let me hurt anyone.
JACK: You have my word.
(Gwen stares at him. Jack crosses his arms.)
BETH: It's funny, I've always had this nagging feeling like I didn't fit in. Just. . .so desperate to have a more exciting life.
TOSH: I'm going to hit the transceiver with an EM pulse.
GWEN: You won't feel anything. It won't harm you.
TOSH: It'll take out the force-field generator too I'm afraid, so I'll have to fry them both.
BETH: Do it. I don't want to be invincible.
OWEN: After that I'm gonna sedate you, then we'll freeze you.
GWEN: It'll be just like going to sleep.
OWEN: Only a bit colder.
BETH: Bye, Gwen.
GWEN: Bye.
TOSH: Done.

(Slow ominous zoom in to screen showing her implant – bleeping.)

EXT Day Cardiff from above
(flickering quickly between places)

INT Day, Someone's kitchen
(One guy talking, one lady on leather sofa looking over the back up at him. He brings her a drink.)

DAVID: 'If you want the whole bloody seat to yourself, be my guest. In fact,' I said, 'why don't we ask the other passengers to get off, and you can have the whole carriage to yourself? Would you like that?'
WOMAN: You didn't!
DAVID: I did. I was really loud, too. I couldn't help it, I was just really annoyed. So then... So then, right, she gives me the dirtiest look, right, and she...
(His arm starts bleeping. His whole demeanour changes. He goes blank, and slowly puts the glass down.)
WOMAN: David? (Arm glows) What is that?! (Pulls sleeve back to reveal implant.) What's happened to your arm? Hey! Where are you going? David, you're scaring me! What are you doing? What's happening? Come back here! David! (He snaps her neck.)

(Ambulance guy doing CPR on guy in street. Bleeping. Stops doing that, raises arm. Implant glows and transforms. He stands and stares at camera ominously, then turns and walks off.)

(Woman with baby carriage in street, bleeping, goes blank, arm transform, drops the carriage which rolls into the street and we hear traffic crash as she walks off, face blank.)

INT Hub, Autopsy area.

OWEN: It's done. I'm sending her down to the vault.
(Slides box into drawer. Gwen, sitting cross legged and curled up above that drawer, gets up as a mechanism starts to whir and heads off fast.)

INT Hub, Morgue
(Ianto slides the box into a drawer. 007 again. Gwen stands next to it. He turns to look at her. They walk off together. He offers her his arm and she takes it.

Slow zoom in to door 007... then inside to the box, where she WAKES UP.)

INT Hub, desk area
(Gwen walks in, then lights go flickery and stuff starts to bleep. Alarm.)
JACK: Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?
GWEN: Oh, shit!
JACK: What happened?
GWEN: Beth's gone.
JACK: I thought she was frozen!
OWEN: She was! All Her vitals were at zero.
TOSH: Checking systems, command history...
JACK: What did she do? Is it a virus, a lockdown?
TOSH: No, she just turned off the lights.
JACK: What is it with her and light bulbs?
TOSH: She went through the tunnels.
IANTO: Time to change the locks again.
JACK: She knew everything about this place, it was all in her arm. The tunnels, layout, security codes. She could've shut us down, blown us up, anything!
GWEN: She didn't.
OWEN: I swear she was frozen.
JACK: Tosh, you switched off the transceiver?
TOSH: Yes.
JACK: Are you sure?
TOSH: Well, I was until you asked. Unless there was another false image.
OWEN: Hang on, hang on. Everything about her was a lie. All of her vital signs were a false image. She can fool the equipment, tell it what we're expecting to see, so she gets scared and it projects an increased heart rate, we try and freeze it and it does the opposite.
TOSH: Simulating that much information would need a huge amount of energy. No wonder she had a big electro-magnetic field.
OWEN: That's why the lights blew when she got upset.
TOSH: So, what's she doing? Did we activate her?
JACK: She couldn't be activated. If she was, we'd all be dead. We took her off the network. She has some other agenda.

INT Hospital room

BETH: Hey. How are you feeling?
MIKE: What's going on? Nobody will tell me anything. You all right?
BETH: I'm fine. Listen, you know I love you, don't you?
MIKE: Course I do. I love you, too.
BETH: Do you promise?
MIKE: Why?
BETH: I just had to be sure. I have to go away.
MIKE: What do you mean? Where?
BETH: I can't tell you, but it's for your own good.
MIKE: Beth, what are you talking about?
BETH: No. I'm sorry. I just... I have to stay away from you. If I don't... I'm gonna end up hurting you.
MIKE: Well, this is hurting me. Don't go.
BETH: Whatever happens... just know that I love you... and I always will.
MIKE: If you've... If you've done something, I don't care, just don't leave me. We'll get through this.
BETH: No, not this time. I have to put things straight, and I can't do that anywhere near you. I love you too much for that.
MIKE: Don't let the police take you! (She leans in close, big hug.) I'm not gonna let you go. I don't care what it is, I don't care what...
(squishy noise)
MIKE: What was that?
BETH: I don't know. It sounded like... (A huge great alien arm blade going right through his middle? Yup. That's what it looks like too. Rather nice reveal on huge great blade all squishy with blood, and bleeding on his hospital robe.) Ah... uh... uh... Oh my God! Oh my... He... Help! Help! Somebody, get a doctor! Help! Somebody!
MIKE: What are... you? (collapses)
BETH: Somebody! (pounding call button desperately)
JACK: Beth! (runs in gun pulled, keeps it aimed even when he steps past to check Mike.)
BETH: Sorry... I was just...It was an accident, I just wanted to say goodbye...
JACK: She's got a weapon system built into her arm.
GWEN: (wand of alien turn off) Clear.
JACK: It's getting worse. She's losing control, we need to contain her fast.
GWEN: Come on, Beth. Let's get you back.
BETH: No! No!
JACK: Come on! Come on!
GWEN: Get up! Go.
(Hospital staff run in)
NURSES: He's bleeding.
(Mikes robe is completely soaked now, and that's the last image we see.)

INT DAY someone's front hall by the stairs
(I can find names for the guys but not the girls. This vaguely irritates me.)
PATRICK: So, what else happened at school today?
SISTER: Alex has got a girlfriend.
PATRICK: Oh?
ALEX: Have not!
SISTER: Have too. She's called Jessica.
ALEX: I'm gonna kill you so much.
(*ding dong*, man answers door)
ALIEN!DAVID: Patrick Grainger?
MOTHER: Alex, don't kill your sister. (at the door – transform, *squish* *stabby stab stab*) Not before tea anyway! Patrick? Oh, my God, stop it! Get away from him! Oh, no! Please, don't hurt my children!
SISTER: No, please! (We get closeup of the Mother's frozen horror as she's spattered with blood from that final stab through the head.)

EXT DAY under a big road
(Big fuel tanker pulls to a stop under the big bridge thing. Swings around to block road he's on, other car has to pull up behind him. Driver, ambulance guy, gets out. Other driver behind him gets out too.)
ANNOYED DRIVER: Oi! Fuckflap! Get back in that truck or I'll shove it up your arse!
(detonator meet truck... though how him in the story knew it was a detonator I don't know. Maybe Cardiff residents are psychic; or the survivors have learned to overreact.)
ANNOYED DRIVER: Oh, shit! (legs it)

INT DAY Hospital corridor
(Jack and Gwen, Beth between them, come out into corridor of convenient glass windows.)
JACK: Tosh? We got her. It's all over. We're on our way.
(KABOOOOOOM. Windows blow in.)

INT Hub
(shaking, reactions)
TOSH: What's going on?

INT Hospital

JACK: You OK?
GWEN: Yeah... I think so, yeah.
JACK: What the hell was that?

INT Hub

TOSH: Petrol tanker. Looks like someone wanted to take out the M4 link road for some... No! It's not the road. There's an underground fuel pipeline. It's the special fuel supply for the military, they use it in emergencies.
OWEN: Not any more. Hold on. I've got a report coming through. Patrick Grainger's been murdered.
TOSH: Who?
OWEN: Leader of the Council, stabbed several times in the chest, and once in the forehead. Sound familiar?

GWEN: (Seen in hospital, walking) Why would anyone want to kill him?

IANTO: 'He's also the city' co-ordinator. Takes charge of the city during in case of major emergencies, has all the security protocols.
OWEN: Well How do you know that?
IANTO: I know everything. And it says so on the bottom of the screen.

INT to EXT Hospital
(Walk and talk until they're out the front door.)

JACK: They're putting all the pieces in place. Gwen, take her. Tosh, Owen, it's starting, it's happening right now.

EXT City street
(Alien woman walks with arm implant showing and detonator in left hand. Face of scary blankness. Walks in somewhere I can't get to pause clean but it starts with 'Telecommunications'.)
(KABOOM again, the really impressive one on the street with the car and all, people getting thrown around, windows blowing out, smoke... the one that is in the declassified and was right after the actual terrorist thing.)
(Reactions around the street, people running in, debris, smoke. Gorgeous.)

EXT Hospital car park

JACK: Tosh? It's not just her. She's part of a cell, and they've activated. It's happening. Tell me how to stop it!
BETH: It can't be.
JACK: Think!
GWEN: Beth, look at me. Look at me! How do we stop this?
BETH: I don't know. I'm cut off from the cell. I don't know what the mission is. I'm sorry.
GWEN: What about your implant. How did you get out of Torchwood?
BETH: The technology is part of me. I can switch it on, I can use the tools.
GWEN: Can you do that now? Can you trace the other cell?!
BETH: No! What if it goes wrong?
GWEN: If you don't, Beth, other people will die. Not just Mike.
BETH: There's only one left. I can track him.
JACK: Let's go. Come on.

(SUV drives away)

EXT Streets

(Little sequence of cars. Alien!David driving, blood all over his shirt and his arm bleeding. Seems to have the SUV only in teal. When he changes gears you can see his wedding band too. He takes his hands mostly off the wheel to fiddle with the implant. So, not only evil, but a bad driver.)

(SUV pulls up between a bus stop sign and a row of shops. The 'TORCHWOOD' down the side is clearly visible – secrecy, ur doin it wrong. Jack climbs out.)
JACK: Hang on, I've got an idea.

INT Hub, desks
(Owen fiddling with phone, bleeps but doesn't call.)

TOSH: No. I can't just hook something up! The entire telephone network is down!
OWEN: What about a mobile connection?
TOSH: The entire telephone network is down!
IANTO: Mobiles, landlines, tin cans with bits of string. Everything. Absolutely everything. No phones, phones all broken. (Does phone fingers) Hello? Anyone there? No, cause the phones aren't working.

EXT street
(Jack is taping something to the wing mirror.)
GWEN: What's that?
JACK: CB radio. They knocked out the phones, but they can't knock out the radio waves. Not yet, anyway.

INT Hub (mixed with EXT streets)

OWEN: What about we try...
TOSH: There is no way of getting in touch with Jack! No way!

JACK: (close up on radio in office) 'Tosh, Owen, can you hear me?'

TOSH: Jack; Thank God. What happened?

JACK: There's a cell, it's active. Four including Beth, two are dead. We're tracking the last guy now. If we can get to him before he does anything, we can stop this.

TOSH: What can I do?

JACK: He's heading for an abandoned farm just outside the city. I need to know what's out there.

OWEN: Where the hell's he going? There's nothing there!

TOSH: Nothing on the surface.


BETH: He's nearly there, we need to hurry.
JACK: Yeah, Hurrying, thank you.
GWEN: What happens when it starts Beth?
JACK: How do you get in the heavy weapons?
BETH: I don't know. I think we just have this arm stuff.
GWEN: How do you manage to take over so quickly?
BETH: I don't know. I didn't even know how to use this thing until today.

(Alien!David crashes through a gate with scary warning signs near it. Danger, Keep Out)

IANTO: This is as far back as they go. There used to be a coal mine in the cliff The army sealed it off in the 40s, doesn't say why.

TOSH: Let me see if I can get into the military files. (typitty) Come on, guys, that wasn't even difficult. (number 3769412, or 6, it's still changing) You disappoint me.

IANTO: It's almost obscene what you do to security systems. (Is it just me or does he sound turned on?)

TOSH: Oh, God.
JACK: 'What is it?'
TOSH: The mineshaft. The military are using it for storage. Nuclear warheads. Ten of them. 'Nobody's supposed to know, not even us.'

GWEN: That's how it starts.
JACK: No heavy weapons.
GWEN: Exactly. They don't need any! They use our own against us.
JACK: We left the key under the doormat. All you need is to walk in and take over.

TOSH: Please Tell me you can stop this.
JACK: Going as fast as we can. If we don't, we won't feel a thing. 'We're all at the centre of the blast radius.'
TOSH: That's comforting.
JACK: 'Come on,' have a little faith! With a dashing hero like me on the case, how can we fail?

IANTO: He is dashing, you have to give him that.

OWEN: And what if they can't stop it?
TOSH: They'll stop it.
OWEN: Yeah, but if they can't?
IANTO: Then it's all over.
OWEN: Let's all have sex.
IANTO: And I thought the end of the world couldn't get any worse.

EXT Some grassy outside place, with a brick building and a road
(And a bunch of soldiers, some behind camo netting, though they're all pretty clearly visible most of the time.)

SOLDIERS: Halt! Stop the vehicle! Get out of the vehicle now! Lie face down on the ground! On the ground or we shoot! Fire!

(Does the implacable Terminator thing... which looks a bit odd on middle aged businessman. Arm blade on one side, machine gun on other.)

(SUV gets to the gate he crashed earlier. Mix shots of their progress with the slaughter and subsequent security code hacking. Door clanks and alarms.)

GWEN: Have we thought this part of the plan through?
JACK: This isn't gonna be pretty, brace yourselves.
GWEN: How are we going to stop him, Jack?
JACK: Like this.
(Runs him down. SUV pulls up and team get out. Alien!David crawls towards mission objective. Jack runs up, turns him over, aims his little gun.)
JACK: This wasn't supposed to happen today. How do we stop it?
(Gwen gets the scanner out)
JACK: Gwen? Gwen!
(Arm blade, stabby! Impaled Jack. Plus it comes out the back of the greatcoat. Does he not know not to mess up the coat? Nicely central in that bit in the back though, will leave a pretty repair. Gwen has turn off wand out now.)
ALIEN!DAVID: It doesn't matter. You can't stop us. We know what your weakness is. We know who you are, Jack Harkness. We know all about you, and Torchwood. We got a lot of information before you switched her off. You'll be factored into our plans.
JACK: Gwen?
GWEN: Nearly there. I've got it. He's done.
(Jack stands up, pulling back from the blade. Well I guess it's one way to keep it trapped away from your team mate. He aims gun again.)
JACK: Don't bother, your transmitter's dead. So is your force-field.
ALIEN!DAVID: You're lying.
JACK: Oh, yeah? (*bang*) Factor that into your plans. Now, when are the others coming?
ALIEN!DAVID: They're already here. (detonator shell bleeps) I won't let you take me.
JACK: Run!
(KABOOM the third, with big pretty fireball. Our Heroes are safely away and just get to stumble a bit.)

INT Hub
OWEN: It's done.
(Gwen walks up from autopsy bay to workstation; Tosh and Jack are coming out of his office, where he's changed shirts into the dark one.)
TOSH: I'll do it, but I'm not happy.
JACK: Just do what you have to.
(Ianto walks in holding taped up aerial, Jack turns hurriedly and goes back into office, avoidy, Ianto not amused follows him.)

INT Hub, nice new greenhouse area
(Gwen comes up stairs and walks in. Beth is staring at probably alien plants.)

GWEN: We're set with the cryogenics when you're ready.
BETH: Will it work this time?
GWEN: Tosh has reconfigured the casket. It'll work around the implant. No more false images.
BETH: If we'd been one minute later
GWEN: We weren't. We stopped him.
BETH: Then{?} What happens when you have to stop me? If the freezing doesn't work?
GWEN: It won't come to that.
BETH: I can feel it coming. It's pushing me out. What will you do when I lose my last bit of me?
GWEN: We will figure something out, Beth.
BETH: No, we won't. I'm too dangerous for that, we both know it.
(Gwen looks down)
BETH: Do you... have someone... at home?
GWEN: A fiancé.
BETH: Have you ever hurt them?
GWEN: More than once, yes.
BETH: Remember how guilty you felt? Imagine that... times a billion... all the time... every second of the day. That's how I feel now. And the worst part is, when I turn back, I won't feel guilty any more. I'll want to carry out my mission. I won't even care about Mike. I'll forget all about him. I don't wanna die as one of those things, Gwen. I don't wanna forget about Mike.
GWEN: Then don't. Let's do this. Who knows what we'll be able to do in a month? A year?
BETH: Thanks for being so good to me. Remember me the way I am now. Remember... Beth. (stabby arm reveal!)
GWEN: Beth... Beth...
(Backs them out onto the balcony, gets blade arm around her throat.)
BETH: I won't let you freeze me! I'll kill you all!
(Everyone gets the guns out and aimed steady.)
Owen??: Let her go! Let her go!
GWEN: No! Wait, wait, wait, don't shoot! It's a trick. She won't hurt me.
TOSH: Move away from her now!
JACK: Everybody, calm down! Beth.....you don't want to do this. Let Gwen go.
BETH: I'll kill her first, then all of you, then the rest of your miserable species!
GWEN: Beth, please! They will kill you. You have proved to be better than that, you helped us to stop the invasion. You can be human. Please Beth!
BETH: Not human enough.
GWEN: Beth.
BETH: Goodbye, Gwen. Good luck.
(Blade arm back ready to stab...)
(*bang bang ba bang ba bang* ... 4 people, multiple shots each, I think I counted 14 in all...)
(All reposition, Owen... forward and up the spiral stairs I think, Jack runs up the side stairs and around. Jack keeps gun steady on her.)

GWEN: She wanted you to shoot her! She used her last shred of humanity to do this.
OWEN: We couldn't take that chance. She must have known that.
JACK: She did. (Drops aim.) She just wanted to make it easier for us.

(Long pull out on her bloodied corpse. Starts with only the human parts showing, then pulls back enough to show the blade, the alien arm. Then Gwen kneeling next to her, touching her. Then Jack leaning in to touch Gwen.)

EXT NIGHT Cardiff streets from above
(Slow view of orange roads looking like those blood vessels earlier, night so time passed, then)

INT Hub, Jack's office
(Jack sits there fiddling with the broken off blade. Gwen comes in, surprising him now the desk has moved away from that door view. He puts blade down and puts his feet up but he's anything but casual.)

GWEN: Do you think we stopped it?
JACK: Maybe. Maybe we've just put it off for a while, I don't know. We don't know anything.
GWEN: We know plenty. We know about the implant. We can disable their force-field. We know how they attack. We know that they can be killed. While they think they have the element of surprise, we know they haven't. But, until that day, we just keep doing what we do.
JACK: Oh, (sits up properly again, does silly pirate accent) them be fightin' words, they be, Gwen. (laughs together) So, have you set a date?
GWEN: Oh, don't get me started, please. My mam's already been on the phone, saying, 'What about the local church Gwen? It's ever so lovely.'
JACK: Go home. Keep doing what we do.
GWEN: Good night, Jack.

(Broodypants picks up blade and stares at it in suitably thinky mode, then looks up at ceiling and therefore the outside world. They're still out there.)



Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd E-mail subtitling@bbc.co. uk


(Everything in these was by beccaelizabeth, various stages of sleep deprived.)

 

 

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