Torchwood

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.

He's dead.

Sorry, we're closing.

Excuse me, ma'am.

Documents on the body identify the victim as Meredith Roberts.

No obvious signs of violence. Are we saying it wasn't the Weevil?

Give me a chance, Miss Cooper. I've only just started. 'Jack, your VIP visitor is here.'

I didn't realise we were having a visitor.

Suddenly, in an underground mortuary, on a wet night in Cardiff, I hear the song of a nightingale.

Miss Martha Jones.

Oh, it's good to see you, Jack.

Toshiko, Owen, Gwen,

Ianto, meet Martha.

Just a casual visit or... ?

I'm here to complete your postmortem.

Dr Jones is from UNIT.

Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, I get a bit confused. Which one's UNIT?

Intelligence, military, cute red caps.

The acceptable face of intelligence gathering on aliens.

We're more ad hoc. But better looking.

I identified a pattern from UNIT's data on sudden deaths.

Toxic shock. Nothing to link the victims. Different ages, sexes, ethnic origins, occupations.

But there was a statistically significant concentration in South Wales.

Come on, Martha, be honest. You just came all this way to see me.

Still struggling to conquer your shyness, Jack?

So what about this pattern, then, Dr Jones?

They were being written off as suicides or accidents.

Look.

Puncture mark.

Hypodermic needle. You'll find his bloodstream was pumped full of ammonium hydroxide.

Bloodstream. I was going to do that next.

Have you checked his medical records? No. I wasjust about to.

Let's give it a go. You never know, Owen, you might learn something.

One Meredith Roberts, age 45.

I know there's been a major crash on the NHS system.

Wiped a shedload of files.

Including all the victims I flagged up from the UNIT data. And now yours.

A computer crash wouldn't delete data so cleanly. This is deliberate.

Let me look into it.

How's the family? Getting better.

They send their love. Give them mine.

So, End of the World Survivors Club.

God, I am so glad to see you, Jack!

See, you did come all this way just to see me. It's the jaw line.

Once seen, always yearned for.

D'you miss him?

No. I made my choice.

Maybe sometimes. Ah! Tiny bit. Tiny, tiny.

Then I come to my senses again. Anyway, I've got plenty to occupy me.

Oh, yeah, Miss Highfalutin'. What is it? Medical officer?

Oh, yes.

So do I have to call you ma'am? No. Just follow my orders to the letter.

You should have called me if you were looking for a job.

I wasn't. This woman from UNIT rang out of the blue, said I was just what they needed,

that I'd come highly recommended by an impeccable source.

You mean... ? Well, who else would have done it?

He must have thought he owed you a favour.

Guess we all do.

Do you think you could get me one of those white caps for personal use?

Ianto might look good in it.

You want uniforms, get your own. Now, am I going to get the guided tour?

Yes, ma'am, whatever you say, ma'am!

Huah! Leave it!

So that's the hot house. Tour continues this way, ladies, please.

No dawdling. Um, so, you know Jack pretty well, then?

Oh, we were only together for... a few days.

But it was pretty intense.

You mean... ? Oh, God, no! No, not that sort of intense.

Nothing like that.

Why? Are you and him... ? No, no, not at all.

We must be the only two people on the planet.

I know. What are we doing wrong?

Oi, you talking about me?

No, no, we were just discussing alien flora, weren't we? Oh, yeah.

She's no fun. Raise your game, girls!

You've got some well weird kit. What's this?

Be careful. It's an alien artefact.

There's a lot of argument about this.

But for my money, it's got to be a surgical instrument. Really?

He's guessing. Typical medic. Hmm.

Well, I call it a singularity scalpel.

See, what it does is concentrates energy on a tiny fixed point without damaging anything on the way.

It's brilliant. It's amazing. Yeah, do you remember the last time you did that, Owen... ? Yes.

Right, now, all we're going to do is, we're going to vaporise this paper

without even scorching the cup.

This is going to end in tears.

OK.

Aagh!

Er, haven't quite got the calibration right yet.

Jack, there's been another attack. Assault with a hypodermic.

Only this time, the victim survived.

Woman, aged 27. She's in the hospital.

Medical records wiped, just like the others.

Yeah, but the doctors said they'd finished with me.

We're a bit different. We know this is tough on you, Marie.

But did you recognise the man who attacked you?

I already told the police. We're different from them, too. No, I never seen him before.

Did he say anything in the course of the attack? No.

Open wide.

Look, he just, he came towards me with a great big bloody needle, didn't he?

You know, my dog bit him and then I kicked him in the nuts. Respect!

This is a... three four.

So you and Jack go back a long way?

Forward and back, really.

What brought you together?

Let's say we were under the same doctor.

These killings - why the ammonium hydroxide? It's a weird way to kill someone.

Yeah, it's gross. It's like injecting them with bleach.

Unless the objective isn't just killing.

It's destroying something in the victim's bloodstream.

It's getting rid of evidence!

Locally, we've got a murder victim and a survivor.

Both attacked with hypodermics, both with their medical records wiped.

And more cases across the UK.

We think the point of the attacks is to destroy evidence of their medical condition.

Gwen, Ianto, pursue the criminal investigation. OK.

Martha, Owen will follow up with the medical side. Fine.

Tosh, any luck in retrieving those medical records? Not yet.

I'm gonna have to dig down into the system memories,

see if I can find any remnants of deleted or temporary files.

Completely illegally, of course.

Do what you have to. We're not dealing with a freak with some needle fetish.

This is a conspiracy.

Ianto, the police have found another body in Heath Park.

It's got all the hallmarks of the other attacks.

I'll get Gwen, head out there now.

What have you got?

Body was found early this morning. Caucasian male, early 20s. OK, thanks.

Who is he? Barry Leonard. Student.

Doctor said it looked like... Toxic shock.

The attack took place in the woods, so no witnesses, no CCTV.

Same as the others.

Yeah. Tosh just checked Barry's medical records - already wiped.

The puncture mark on his eyeball was identical to the other victims.

I mean, Jack's right.

These attacks are not random, they're clinical. Professional.

More like assassinations.

Except Barry Leonard was a student. Who'd assassinate a student?

Student Loans Company. Yeah, yeah, I think you've just cracked it.

But why delete medical records?

You know, what did all these people have in common? Owen's analysing Marie's test results now.

So we've got no idea where the killer will strike next and the attacks are getting more frequent.

We keep looking, Gwen, we'll find something.

'Martha, call from the hospital.

'Marie's had some sort of seizure.'

They want us at the hospital. Marie's collapsed.

Yeah? My money's on this stuff. From Marie's blood. It's a new one on me.

Yeah, me too. Have you run an isoenzyme analysis on it?

No, not yet. What are you thinking? Parasitic infection? Could be.

It's got to be down to this stuff, or I haven't got a clue what's wrong with her.

Yeah - no infections, no deficiencies in organ function,

perfect cholesterol levels, ideal blood pressure. Yeah, exactly. She's so normal, she's abnormal.

Marie? Marie, can you hear me?

Mmm, yeah.

OK, you've got something in your blood that we don't recognise, all right?

We think it's behind your current illness

and we need to know what's been happening to you so we can help you.

Well, you're the doctors. You tell me.

'Barry was my best mate. We were doing the same course.'

Met him on the first day.

Was Barry doing any sort of drugs at all?

Well, he used to be really clean.

Reckoned he had to be careful about what went into his body because of his diabetes.

Barry was diabetic?

Sure. But when they cured that, he was doing booze, blow...

Wait a minute. You're telling me Barry's diabetes was cured? Sure.

That's impossible. Well, he stopped taking insulin. He was fine.

Owen, something you should know. So who performed this miracle cure?

He was very quiet about that.

All I know is, he was suddenly flashing a load of wedge about.

Barry Leonard is said to have recovered from diabetes.

Thanks, Ianto.

Listen, Marie, you're gonna have to level with us.

This could be a matter of life and death. Have you ever had a serious medical condition?

Too good to be true.

What do you mean?

I had HIV.

You're perfectly clear of antibodies. That's not medically possible.

That's the Reset. Reset? What are we talking about? A drug?

Right, I'm not familiar with Reset, so any idea of a chemical name?

Where d'you get it from, Marie? I got it from the Pharm. The farm?

What farm? No, P-H-A-R-M, the Pharm.

It's a medical research place, all right?

How did you get it from there? They gave it to me.

They paid me a lot of money. They said I should to keep quiet about it cos it was part of the contract.

Are you saying you were a clinical trial subject?

Marie? Convulsing. Marie!

I'll give her another 10ml.

You're all right.

She's dead.

Emergency! Get us out of here!

So it's an alien larva, incubating in human bodies.

We've never seen anything like it.

So it left Marie's body when she died,

looking for another host for its next stage of development.

Which could have been us. Yeah.

Fortunately, when they didn't find one quickly, they died.