Torchwood Team;
• Captain Jack
• Gwen
• Owen
• Tosh
• Ianto
Notable Characters;
• Martha Jones- Former companion of the Tenth Doctor
• Adam Copley- Manager of Pharm
Detailed Plot;
An excellent episode to continue the relatively high standard of the season so far! It begins very mysteriously and excitingly with a Weevil roaming the alley streets of Cardiff, and the Torchwood team were after it. They got close but as they were chasing they came across a dead man.
Inside the hub, somebody of high importance had arrived. It was discovered that the dead man was Meredith Roberts. Jack's VIP guest entered the hub and it was none other than Martha Jones! She was glad to see Jack and it was clear she was now working for UNIT. Deaths in a way similar to Meredith's were increasing and there was a strange pattern developing across South Wales in particular.
Martha had arrived to finish Owen's autopsy and immediately there was banter and flirting between the pair. Tosh was trying to access the medical files of Meredith but it seemed someone or something was purposely crashing the system and making the data hidden, and irretrievable.
Jack and Martha were alone together and there were many references to Last of the Time Lords and the questioning of whether Martha missed the Doctor. It seemed clear that it was the Doctor who got Martha her job in UNIT as she was recommended by an incredibly high source. Now with Gwen, Martha was the wrong side of sexual confusion between her and Jack! It was very comical, and brilliantly new as Torchwood allows much more in terms of explicitness compared with Doctor Who.
Owen was now desperately trying to impress Martha, but failed miserably. The team got news of a new case where a women was attacked in similar circumstances but had survived. Just like Meredith though, her medical files seemed wiped. The method of killing was established, whoever the hit man was he was killing by injecting the eye with a needle, a visible puncture was on the victims. But what was he injecting them with? That question was soon answered. Ammonium hydroxide. It seemed he/she was trying to get rid of evidence of any medical illness or condition somehow!
Tosh was digging deep into both her computer knowledge and the medical systems but wasn't finding much luck. Gwen and Ianto paid a visit to the women who'd survived an attack and after the location of the murder attempt was established, it was clear the murderer didn't want any witnesses. No CCTV, he/she was killing in the likes of woods and back alleys. It was a great conspiracy, so who was killing?
A student friend of a victim was briefly interviewed and he claimed that his friend, now dead, had been cured of diabetes. How was that possible? Maurice, the women in the hospital, gave Torchwood its key information. She claimed that she was cured of HIV by Pharm, a medical company who'd given her a 'reset.' She'd signed a contract to stay quiet but astonishingly she seemed to have had her body reset to factory settings if you like. Incredible! Maurice suddenly became uncomfortable and an internal battle aroused, and she died. Some sort of pheromones escaped her body in a swarm, and Owen got his hands upon a specimen.
Owen knew it was alien and without a host, it'd died. He described how it was similar to a computer anti-virus and could easily reset the human body to factory settings. It seemed Pharm was bundled with alien parasites. The company was researched and it was in with the government and had highly advanced security and systems, strong enough to be able to wipe medical records. Jackpot.
Jack met with Aaron Copley, the Pharm manager. He was touchy and clearly lying and even denied the team access to the research clinic, something Torchwood wasn't used to. In the SUV before leaving, Jack got the highest alien readings that side of the Rift inside the plant. They had aliens alright.
Jack comically mentioned a recent bad experience with a politician, referring to Harold Saxon (The Master of course) from The Sound of Drums. Martha volunteered herself to ironically,become a volunteer of the Pharm. Yet more references to Last of the Time Lords, Jack agreed saying how he'd rely on Martha if the world depended on it, and that he had. Ianto gave out the instructions to Martha of what to do once inside. She was interested in the relationship between he and Jack.
Martha was given contacts, body powered, that were a camera and could even receive messages from the hub! She was given a cover story- meet Samantha Jones. Once inside Pharm she was given a blood test. Professor Copley arrived and just when it seemed Martha had lost his interest, she came up with another cover to get inside. She pretended she'd had a hepatitis infection and upon 'revealing' this, she was given access and accepted straight away. She signed and was now in. But it was to be a long night ahead.
Owen admitted his attraction to Martha but referenced the supposed pool tournament the team were to have as discussed in Adam. But Tosh told Owen the truth, of how she wanted a date with him, and to her surprise he said yes.
Martha exited her accommodation and was searching around, cautiously. Someone was approaching her through the corridors but she came to a locked door that would contain pivotal information. Through the contacts, the hub was decoding the lock and in the nick of time she was through and safe. She immediately went for the computer and tried hacking in but after a few instructions Tosh now had control of the computer and the entire Pharm network systems. Through the network the alien was saw, it was a mayfly. Jack quickly ordered Martha to get out now but as she did alarms were ringing out through the plant.
Pharm's hit man was found- Billy Davies. He was the assassin. Meanwhile, it seemed a creature had escaped within Pharm and it was highly dangerous. Suddenly, a monster mayfly was after Martha! It was humongous, similar to the Vespiform from The Unicorn and the Wasp. The security found the mayfly but now Martha's signal back to the hub was lost. And she was shot in the neck with a tranquilizer.
Gwen had tracked Billy Davies via his phone and just as he was about to finish off another victim, he was caught. Martha was now seen being interrogated by Copley, but she was of course trapped down onto a bed. Aaron knew of Torchwood and told Martha that any attempts of her pretending not to know were futile. But this wasn't the only interrogation going on, as in the hub Billy Davies was being questioned and the Weevil was used to make him talk. He told the information and how the victims would die anyway, it was a side effect. But the mayflies got rid of that side effect. It was all confusing but interestingly mysterious!
Aaron Copley was mightily impressed with Martha's body (not the sight, although how can you not be?). She'd had greatly mutated lymphocytes and it was thanks to her ventures through space and time. She had a near perfect immune system! This was to be used as the model for Copley to make the perfect drug. Aaron wanted to test some imperfects on her, to see just how strong her immune system really was.
Inside the hub and Billy Davies suddenly coughed up blood, he had a mayfly within him, and it was pretty big! Owen used the tool that concentrated on destroying a very precise and small area of matter, the same thing he'd attempted to impress Martha with earlier but miserably failed. He used the tool, and destroyed the mayfly, but killed Billy too. That obviously wasn't meant to occur. Tosh though had come up with a plan to get the Torchwood team into Pharm and rescue Martha.
A car arrived at the Pharm and easily got past security, using the body of Billy to make it look as if he was driving the car. Somewhat comical, Torchwood were now inside. They stormed the facility where Martha was but despite her surviving, she wasn't in a good state. She'd reached a stage where nobody had ever passed but a large mayfly creature was visibly beneath Martha's skin. Her perfect figure was being bombarded from underneath.
Jack found a Weevil and it was being horrifically mistreated as a test subject . Pharm was using aliens as tests and metabolising them. They were abusing the aliens, Jack was closing the place down. Tosh had control via the computer and in shutting down the company, put the miserable aliens out of their misery. She crashed the system and it was now wiped and destroyed. The plant was flooded with gas, the aliens were slaves no more.
Martha though was still in trouble and Owen was preparing the tool again that had killed Billy, he'd sighted the mayfly and destroyed it! After a brief scare, Martha was okay. Tosh finalised the shut down and the aliens were to die. But as Torchwood were leaving, Aaron was armed and approached them. He shot Owen in the chest, Jack killed him dead. But in a shocking climax, Owen was dead.
My analysis;
Overall, absolutely brilliant! Adding Martha to the already great Torchwood team was perfect and the six worked tremendously well together! The plot of Reset itself was very good, mysterious, clever and enjoyable! The banter between Martha and Owen was excellent and I really liked Tosh getting her date with the latter. Jack and Martha talking about the Doctor and The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords was brilliant with a lot of good references! I thought Aaron Copley was a great character and I loved the idea of a human anti-virus and resetting the body to factory settings! Gwen was rather quiet in this one which was unusual but Martha filled the void wonderfully. Outstanding plot, a mysterious Pharm and a fantastic dimension to the Torchwood team with Martha, Reset was absolutely fantastic!
Rating; 10/10
