Ghost Machine (Torchwood)

Last updated

03 "Ghost Machine"
Torchwood episode
Cast
Starring
Others
  • Kai OwenRhys Williams
  • Gareth Thomas – Ed Morgan
  • Ben McKay – Bernie
  • Llinos Daniel – Eleri
  • John Normington – Tom Flanagan
  • Emily Evans – Lizzie Lewis
  • Christopher Elson – Young Ed Morgan
  • Christopher Greene – Young Tom Flanagan
  • Julie Gibbs – Bernie's Mum
  • Ian Kay – Snooker Player
  • Ryan Conway – Kid in arcade
  • Kathryn Howard – Woman in shop
Production
Directed by Colin Teague
Written by Helen Raynor
Script editor Brian Minchin
Produced by Richard Stokes
Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s) Russell T Davies
Julie Gardner
Music by Murray Gold
Ben Foster
Production code1.3
Series Series 1
Running time48 mins
First broadcast29 October 2006 (2006-10-29)
Chronology
 Preceded by
"Day One"
Followed by 
"Cyberwoman"
List of Torchwood episodes

"Ghost Machine" is the third episode of the first series of the British science fiction television series Torchwood , which was broadcast on the digital television channel BBC Three on 29 October 2006.

Contents

Set in Cardiff, the episode involves a group of alien hunters called Torchwood discovering an alien machine that shows visions of strong emotional events from the past and future.

Plot

Jack, Owen, and Gwen, pursue Bernie Harris, a petty thief carrying something emitting an alien signal in his jacket, through the Cardiff streets. Gwen chases Bernie into a train station, and is able to grab his jacket but he gets out of it and runs away. Gwen discovers an alien device in the jacket pocket, and when she activates it, she sees a vision of a lost boy called Tom Flanagan wandering the train station in 1941.

Torchwood try to find Bernie in Splott. Unsuccessful, they return to the train station to try the device again when Owen activates it while under a bridge. He witnesses Ed Morgan rape and murder Lizzie Lewis in 1963. In the Hub, Toshiko investigates the crime to confirm what Owen saw, and finds that no one was charged for Lizzie's murder. The Hub's computer analyses that the nanotechnology of the "quantum transducer" allows people to see moments of the past spurred by strong human emotions.

Owen confronts the elderly Ed on his own but gets no information out of him; however, upon leaving his house, he spots Bernie and takes Bernie to a pub to learn more about the device while the rest of Torchwood is en route. Bernie explains he found the device in a tin of random objects from an old lady, and that he too saw the murder of Lizzie, and wonders if the team wants the "other half". Torchwood follows Bernie back to Bernie's home to retrieve the other half as well as the other alien objects. Bernie explains that he only used the other half once, as it showed him bleeding to death outside his home at his current age. As they leave, Gwen accidentally triggers the second half, and has a vision of herself holding a bloody knife, calling out to Owen.

Torchwood realise that Ed is being blackmailed by Bernie; Jack becomes concerned that Owen may have triggered Ed to take action. Learning that Ed has left his home and is heading towards Bernie's, Owen disarms Ed and takes his knife. Determined not to let Ed get away with his crime, he decides to avenge Lizzie's death. He is stopped by Gwen, who takes his knife. Ed runs and impales himself on his own knife. Gwen sees that this is the future she saw. Jack locks the device away.

Continuity

Production

Cast notes

Music

Outside references

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References

  1. "TORCHWOOD EXTERNAL HUB INTERFACE – Investigation – Bernie". 3 December 2007. Archived from the original on 3 December 2007.