Torchwood #3: Ghost Machine

Torchwood Team; 

• Captain Jack

• Gwen

• Owen

• Tosh

• Ianto

Notable Characters; 

• Ed Morgan- Elderly man, raped a girl in his youth 

• Rhys- Gwen's boyfriend 

• Bernie- Holder of the 'ghost machine'

Detailed Plot;

Wow! This was absolutely sublime. A wonderful story by Helen Raynor, a writer I'm a big fan of anyway but she delivered a masterpiece here. It was a pleasure to watch and I was enthralled from the get go. 

It was a thrilling and action packed start with an immediate chase. Gwen and Owen were running in directions given by Tosh back from the hub. Jack was following in the Torchwood SUV and there was something alien in Cardiff Centre. Tosh was tracking on the CCTV and the target was identified, a male. Owen had slowly fallen behind in the chase but Gwen was showing absolutely no signs of giving in. She was determined and had the target in her grasp, but he quickly shifted out and escaped. But victory wasn't denied, as whatever the team had tracked and were after, Gwen had it in her hands. There was a device, alien, and Gwen pressed it. 

From one second being in the middle of a relatively busy town centre, Gwen was alone. The contrast was different, it seemed ghostly and grey. Was it an alternate dimension? Or an alternate time? A war child was seen alone, but Gwen couldn't be heard. She could see the past, but wasn't present there. It was all very intriguing. Gwen returns to normality and Owen and Jack catch up after being thwarted by a closing gate. Gwen was stunned. She couldn't believe she'd seen a lost war child, she thought she had seen a ghost. 

Back at the hub and Gwen was extremely shocked at the CCTV footage, it didn't show anything of Gwen being taken out of time or leaving the centre. She took the device out and Jack and Owen turned up. It seemed as though time stopped while she went wherever it was she had seen the war child, just what was this device? It was extremely intriguing and unique. Gwen talked of how she saw the label on the child evacuee, Tom Irasmas Flanagan, and they were going to track him down and try and pay him a visit. 

There was no need to use any scientifically advanced tools, Owen found his address immediately in the phone book. Genius. Gwen and Owen pay Tom a visit, an elderly man who seemed happy with presumably his wife. The two Torchwood members acted as police, not too difficult for Gwen, and it was discovered that the man they'd visited was indeed the same war child that Gwen had seen when pressing the device. So she'd seen the past. I was very intrigued and eager to find out about this tool. It was sad to hear Tom's war story, the time he was evacuated was the last he ever saw of both his Mother and Sister, he was only eight- that must have been difficult! He had the flashbacks, he thought he was forgotten. All he wanted was parents to love him. A young boy looking for motherly love. It was very sad and like myself, Gwen was touched by the story. 

Back to Gwen's personal life and Rhys had rang her. He was getting annoyed that Gwen didn't know whether she'd be home or not all the time. He wanted to see his girlfriend. By now, the Torchwood team discovered who the male was that originally had the device. Shaun Harris, a 19 year old criminal. Everybody seemed to hate him in the neighbourhood. Even his mother. The team were looking for Shaun, nicknamed Bernie, but they couldn't find him. Jack was annoyed at his crew for giving up on the task. 

After the team retreat from failing to find Bernie, Owen is thrown the device had unintentionally is taken to the ghost plane. He was under a bridge and there was a young girl crying. Her name was Lizzy, and Owen could perfectly see her, but he wasn't present in reality at the time. A man was approaching Lizzy and Owen was helpless to do anything. He drew her in with lies, kissed her and then disgracefully slapped her. She was forcefully led away and it was discovered that she was raped and murdered by Ed Morgan. The man she'd described as 'a bad one.' Owen returned to normality and was outraged and traumatised. He felt her emotions, she was petrified. Tosh ran up research on Lizzy and what Owen had saw was confirmed. She died under the bridge in 1963. Just like Gwen, Owen had seen the past. 

After the Torchwood software continued their tests on the alien device, it was discovered that it was a transducer. An energy converter, but on an extremely advanced and wider scale than we're used to on Earth with the likes of headphones. It converted quantum energy into ghosts. Human emotion is energy! A wonderful concept of a device. It was labelled the ghost machine. 

On a different subject, Jack was going to teach Gwen a lesson. A lesson with guns. She needed to be ready to use one, and just like everything else she's come across in her short time at Torchwood- she succeeded with ease. She was excited at the prospect and Jack taught her well, although it did seem a little sexual. The weevils were seen on the aim target boards which was good. Good, just like Gwen. She was again though questioning Jack and stuff about him. It seemed that Jack lived at the Torchwood hub, it was established he need not sleep no longer since his resurrection in The Parting of the Ways, and it seemed Jack often got lonely. 

Gwen arrived home and nobody was there. Rhys had gone out to enjoy himself in Gwen's constant absence. But Gwen wasn't all alone, she'd brought the ghost machine with her. Attentions turned to Owen who was still disgusted with Ed Morgan and he was tracking him down using his ever reliable phone book. Owen was hearing echoes of Lizzy, but attentions quickly returned to Gwen and she was hearing more than echoes. She'd pressed the ghost machine button and she was seeing the past within her home. It seemed Gwen had just become a police officer and she was seeing the joyous parts of her life with Rhys. He arrived home and he was understanding of Gwen's longer hours, but he wanted her to want to return. He didn't want to lose her. 

Owen had tracked down Ed Morgan eventually, and paid him a visit. Ed was elderly and seemed very protective and secretive. Owen, immediately, was disgusted. He was talking to Ed of the incident, bringing back more and more memories to Ed, who was annoyed, anxious and angry. Owen knew the horrific atrocity that Ed had committed, Ed was outraged and demanded Owen leave. Was he ashamed? He should be. By chance, Owen had found Bernie and another chase was on! More thrill to what had already been a fantastic episode. There was a great comedic aspect to the chase, as the two ran through many back gardens and encountered chickens and a swimming pool. Bernie was trapped, Owen had caught him. 

The two were having a drink in a pub while waiting for the Torchwood team to arrive and question him. Bernie thought of the ghost machine as an antique. He'd stumbled upon it in an empty house in a biscuit jar containing other alien objects such as money. Bernie had pressed it before and seen a horrific incident with a women disposing of her dead baby in the Cardiff docks. Just as the team were leaving, Bernie revealed that there was another half. 

Bernie revealed he'd only used the other half once- and saw himself die. It seemed this half takes the user to the future. Tosh immediately engaged the two as one and Gwen was holding it, and was into use. She visited the future, she saw something, was disgusted at Owen and her hands were covered in blood.

Ed was seen once more and he seemed very anxious. He was scared. Gwen however was visiting Bernie, showing her human compassion, but he seemed anxious also. Was there a connection between Bernie and Ed? It was revealed that Bernie had tried blackmailing Ed previously over what he had seen him do to Lizzy just like Owen had. Tosh was watching on the CCTV and Ed was on his way to Bernie's. Bernie exited, and Gwen remembered the preminition he'd had from the ghost machine, he was going to die on the road outside. Was his death imminent? 

Ed had a knife. He was going to threat or attack the pair? But Jack and Owen were slowly approaching from behind and stopped him in his tracks. Owen retrieved the knife, was he going to kill Ed? He held the knife at his face and could have killed him in an instant. Just like Gwen's future envision. Owen wanted to kill him, but he pulled the knife away and Gwen took it from him. But a shocking moment occurred, Ed seemingly jumped into the knife. Gwen was holding the knife as Ed committed suicide. Her hands were covered in blood. Her vision on the ghost machine came true, and Gwen was devastated. Owen held back from killing him and Jack was consoling Gwen telling her it wasn't her fault in the slightest that Ed was dead. Jack determined that the human race weren't ready for the ghost machine, and that you can't change the future- you can only make it happen differently. Ianto took the ghost machine away. It was a good ending as Jack explained that there are ghosts all around, and we've just gotta live with them. 

My analysis;

Overall, this was spectacular. Gwen was yet again the shining light but the device was great. I thought there was a lot of advancement on the character of Owen which was excellent and we saw Tosh use her technological skills well. We also saw Jack as more of a leader. The story was sublime and of a high standard, I look forward to the next one. Ed was an interesting character and the device causing trouble was excellent, as Jack said, it shouldn't be used- we aren't ready for anything like that. 

Rating; 10/10 no doubt!