Project: Torchwood: Issue 74

It’s been a busy, if not hectic month, and one where we overshot the deadline a bit. It couldn’t be helped. I was literally ‘up to me elbows’ in baking ingredients, recipes and costings. I discovered that although I’m quite capable of multi-tasking at some things, juggling the website Issue and creating a few boxes of baked goods, clearly wasn’t going to work. Something had to give and sadly it was Issue 74 on the actual due date.

However, now that the baking extravaganza is out of the way, I can refocus on the website. Every single article due in is ready to read, and I’ve been sat on my butt since I brought the SUV back from the garage after it failed its MOT. There were bits of alien stuck in between the seat and the boot and one of the seat belts had buckled and well you don’t really want to know what they found under the wheel arches??? Or the glove box for that matter. Ahem!

Anyhoo, Issue 74 signifies the end of Series 2 and the beginning of Series 3, and in so much that I know some of you won’t be happy that we’re covering Children of Earth – we do hope you will enjoy the content of the magazine, as it’s well worth a read, and the story by Sharon Robertson, regarding the Torchwood/Stargate Crossover is absolutely brilliant.

Andrew has been busy catching up with Sarah Jane Adventures, while Tony has been revisiting Classic Who, as well as taking us on a tour of the Cybers.

Recently, a new Channel 4 drama series in four parts, trailered on the telly the other evening, and after discovering a host of TW and indeed Who cast feature heavily in it, felt it was worth digging further for our Connections Page. Do please check it out.

Thanks as ever to the team, including Shaz for the wonderful front cover.

So, without further ado, and in much need of a stretch and walk about.

Welcome to Issue 74 COE: Day One

Djak

The Whoniverse Round-Up October 2019

October 2019

Nathan Sussex

It feels like Old News now but back in September (15th to be exact), Nathan’s gorgeous partner got down on bended knee and proposed, and Nathan said ‘YES!’ So once again, we send our congratulations to them both. Looking forward to the wedding date.

Christopher Eccleston

There are many people who suffer from mental health issues, and this week Christopher Eccleston spoke candidly about his battles with Anorexia and Depression with Lorraine Kelly on 8^th October, 2019. His book I Love the Bones of You is well worth a read.

Russell T Davies

A new drama series coming to Channel 4 and written by Davies in much the same way as ‘Years and Years’ is to hit our screens in the late summer of 2020, and tells the story of a group of young gay men who are infected by the HIV virus during the 1980s. It tracks their lives, episode by episode, and in some cases, some of the stories may end tragically.

It stars a host of well-known faces, with lead role played by Olly Alexander from the band Years and Years. Also, in the series are Omari Douglas and Callum Scott Howells, with Nathan Sussex, Keeley Hawes, Shaun Dooley, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathaniel Curtis, Stephen Fry and Tracy Ann-Oberman.

No trailer available as of yet. But when one does, you can be sure we’ll be posting it to our Facebook Page as soon as we can.

If Years and Years is anything to go by, we’re going to have to stock up on hankies, because I think we’re going to be emotionally drained come the end of the series.

Profiles Echelons of the Cybermen by Tony J Fyler

You will be like uzzzz, says Tony.

Ahhh, the Cybermen.

Remember when the Cybermen were simple? When they came from Mondas, escaped to Telos, and from there went stomping metallically all over the galaxy?

These days, the Cybermen have more origin stories than you can shake a Cyber-stick at – to slightly misquote the Twelfth Doctor and the Master in World Enough And Time, the Cybermen are easy, they’re inevitable, and they happen almost everywhere. That’s an interesting take on Doctor Who’s silver medal monsters – the Daleks are always the Daleks, even when, in the likes of Tranquil Repose in Revelation of the Daleks, they can have started out as something else. But the Cybermen begin everywhere.

There’s something in this notion that speaks to why the Cybermen are actually more scary than the Daleks. The Daleks depend on a sense of superiority, of supremacy, of racial gubbins – in essence, they depend on believing a lie. Whereas the Cybermen depend, ultimately, on an inescapable truth – the truth of decay and death, and the fear that inevitability instils. Cybermen are what you get when the fear of pain and ageing and death meets the technological ability to render them irrelevant.

The Cybermen will be along directly.

Throughout the history of Doctor Who of course, it’s not just the origins of the Cybermen that have changed and expanded. The range of Cyber-types there have been have expanded as necessary too, to tell different types of story.

The Cyberman

Your common-or-garden Cybermen is the essential unit of every Cyber-army. Throughout the history of the show, even quite what is inside a Cyberman has evolved. Initially, in the Mondasian version, they were meant to be mostly organic, but with more and more spare parts added and more and more meat removed, giving them an ability to withstand enormous cold, deliver enormous strength and pressure, as essentially outlast any organic life – unless, for some reason, their planet was destroyed, as they drew their energy directly from it. Over the years, the process of Cyberization too has evolved – while for decades, they seemed to grow and evolve in tubes (from The Invasion all the way through to Earthshock), and while in their ice-tombs on Telos they appeared to automatically evolve and upgrade themselves (from Tomb of the Cybermen to Attack of the Cybermen), the business of becoming a Cybermen seemed to remain a fairly straightforward one, along the lines described in The Tenth Planet – bits removed, bits added. It seemed like a longish, surgical process, with an element of mind-control (as in The Moonbase, where humans are put under Cyber-control, without undergoing the physical mutilation necessary to properly upgrade). Attack of the Cybermen, as was perhaps fitting for the Sixth Doctor’s era of questionable violence, took the whole process of Cyberization to a newly gruesome level, showing humans mid-upgrade, and what happened when the conditioning necessary to accept Cyber-conversion didn’t work – Stratton and Bates being partial Cybermen who’d retained their own minds. The gruesomeness was retained when the Cybermen returned in New Who, with images of saws and rotating cutters and the sounds of screams turning human beings into Cybermen in industrial quantities. Where the lack of emotion had always been assumed to be a part of the conversion process, the time of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors went down the route of emotional inhibitors, rather than brain surgery – making the Cybermen as vulnerable to emotion as they’d once been to gold or solvents. That whole business has been tinkered with in the years since the Tenth Doctor, with whole people being encased in Cyber-bodies in Closing Time and Death in Heaven, but also in Death In Heaven, Cybermen being created from corpses in graves – so, little more than skeletons, certainly with no organic, squishy brains as part of the process. Along the way, there’s also been probably the most forward-looking approach to conversion in Nightmare In Silver – the Cyber-Mites (about which, more in a minute), which appear, like the nanobots of Dark Water and Death In Heaven, to eat the organic tissues of their victims away, seeding Cyber-technology, programming and interfaces as they go. These microscopic upgraders are very much a 21^st century, forward-looking approach to Cyber-conversion – as mentioned in Death In Heaven, this is technology that allows the Cybermen to build their armies from the dead as well as the living, that requires no giant processing plants or factories, and which gives them the numerical supremacy that can genuinely evolve them from the sick, agonised, ever-living zombies of World Enough And Time (and, the imputation is, therefore of The Tenth Planet) to the hordes of the occasionally-mentioned Cyber-Wars, so implacable, so unstoppable that the standing order of armies by the time of Nightmare In Silver is that if you’re standing on a planet with the Cybermen, you blow up the planet.

Cyber Leaders
If we approach the idea of the Cybermen logically – and let’s, it’s what they’d want – the notion of a necessary command structure should be irrelevant. If there is a supreme authority, every Cyberman’s orders should come from that authority, and teams and squadrons and research divisions and so on should simply carry out those orders, indefatigably.

But of course, that would put enormous strain on the processing power of the likes of Cyber Planners and CyberControllers. Particular groups or task forces are therefore put under the sub-command of a Cyber Leader. There have historically been visual signs of ‘command’ in Cyber Leaders, usually extending to a differently modulated vocal unit and a darkened set of head-handles for instant recognition in a race which thrives entirely on the basis of uniformity.

Cyber Leaders are very much ‘first among equals’ in their group of Cybermen – tasked with group-specific orders, and identified as the commander of the group, so as to get specific tasks accomplished for the advancement of the Cyber-race.

It has also, historically, been useful for the Doctor to have a point of contact or debate with the Cybermen, and Cyber Leaders have often been the highest delegated Cyber-authority with whom the Time Lord has been able to discuss the possession or not of emotion, the skulking defeat of the Cyber-race by glitterguns, the pleasures of a well-prepared meal, the life or death of the CyberController, or the pleasure of jazz.

Interestingly, there’s less logic to the idea that any Cyber Leader needs a designated Cyber Lieutenant, particularly when there are only relatively small numbers of Cybermen in their troop – but certainly, Cybermen went through a phase where any activated Cyber Leader had a ‘faithful’ (or indeed, relatively frequently, a ‘right gobby’) Cyber Lieutenant to argue with them, put counter-logic or, if necessary, lead patrols into catastrophic Cyber-killing massacres. The only real sense to the notion of the Cyber Lieutenant would seem to be that as they are a species governed by logic, for every Leader you need a Lieutenant precisely to be a gobby little git, to regularly test the logic of the commands and decisions made by the commander of a group.

Or perhaps – just perhaps – Cybermen are perpetually trapped in their metal bodies and have no emotional context to their lives, so they just really need someone to talk to.

The CyberController

As the Daleks have Davros, the Supreme Dalek and the Emperor Dalek at the top of their command structure, confusing the bejesus out of the cosmos - and frequently themselves – about where their ultimate loyalty lies (Let us never again speak of the absurdity that is the Parliament of the Daleks), so the Cybermen too, as a species, have had various points of control and command at the top of their organisational pyramid. One of the most persuasive of those ‘rulers’ was the CyberController – the biggest brain in CyberTown, with a fairly chunked-out body to boot, so as to fit in more processing power and system resilience. First introduced as the leader of the Telosian Cybermen in Tomb of the Cybermen, the fact that it emerged from the deep freeze with its warriors suggests that the CyberController had been in charge of previous CyberOperations – perhaps, though this is pure speculation, the CyberController was a Telos-specific Controller, charged to ensure the success of the cryogenic operations there. Certainly, when it emerged again in Attack of the Cybermen, the inference is that it’s been ‘merely damaged’ on Telos from the time of the Tombs episode until the Cybermen returned to Telos, captured a time vessel and tried to prevent the destruction of Mondas – nobody’s entirely clear as to why they would do such a thing for what must have been their Mondasian predecessors, but then nobody’s entirely clear of a whole heck of a lot about Attack Of The Cybermen.

What’s certainly true is that when the Cybermen evolved on an alternative dimension with an entirely different origin story, their creator, John Lumic, was hailed as the CyberController despite, it seems, keeping more of his emotional intelligence intact than is usual for the CyberController units. Lumic was even given a kind of Steel Throne, to maintain his inputs and outputs to his growing Cyber-Army, only rising to the legs he hadn’t used in years when absolutely necessary to capture escaping fugitives. Depressingly, the extra-chunky CyberController body-form was unable to master the physics of climbing a rope ladder at speed, suggesting – as the previous versions of the CyberController also had – that if you’re going to build an extra-brainy Cyberman, it’s best to keep them safely computing, rather than joining the action in any especially meaningful way.

The CyberKing And Miss Hartigan

Talking of steel thrones, it’s worth noting how the Cybermen survive in extreme circumstances. Spat out of a never-ending nullity in the Void, the Cybermen who terrorised Victorian London were on the steampunk side – physical order-updates via info-stamp, rather than wifi connection to the Cyberiad for order-updating, the use of children as a captive labour force to build a mobile Cyber-processing plant (we can only assume this would have involved an old-style physical, flesh and steel-melding upgrade). And as these Cybermen were from a reality in which they had a CyberController, they intended to put a human into their Controller’s role, cunningly renamed the CyberKing as the controlling intelligence behind their mobile upgrade-plant of the same name. Mercy Hartigan was…a less than ideal choice for the role, perhaps, as she brought a scarred and victimised and vengeful personality to the equation, but on the one hand, she’s the poster girl for everything the Cybermen think they bring to the party of the universe – freedom from the messiness of emotion, the powerlessness of pain – and on the other, when it turns out her emotional mind can subdue the cold logic of the Cybermen, she’s an example of what the Cybermen would be without their famous logic. They’d be an army in service to a central, emotional intelligence. In Miss Hartigan’s case, that emotion was vengeance. In Craig Owens’ case, when they tried the same trick in other extreme circumstances in Closing Time, the emotion was love, and in both cases, the Cybermen fared badly, the incompatibility between the reason they exist and an emotional Controller enough to cause them severe logic-issues. But whereas the random stab of love Craig felt for his human life and his son was enough to destroy them (famously to ‘blow them up with love’), Mercy Hartigan’s vengeance-filled mind actually seemed able to bend the Cyber-force to its will. Revenge of the Cybermen, indeed…

Cyber Planners And The Cyberiad

As the Cybermen evolved and advanced, they appear to have moved away from the strictly linear command structure of their supposed humanoid origins, and to have taken on more of a colony-model. With more Cybermen spread across greater and greater portions of space, the need for Cyber Planners became more evident, as a strategic interface between Cyber-bodies on the ground of particular operations and the rest of the Cyberiad (or hive). The Cybermen used a local Cyber-Planner in their invasion of Earth involving Tobias Vaughan, and in their operation against the Wheel In Space – both of which appeared to be mostly machine components. By the time the Eleventh Doctor encountered the Cybermen on Hedgewick’s World, they had advanced enough to appreciate the flexibility of wetware once more, and planned to use the brain of an organic creature – first, some children, then the Doctor himself, with his knowledge of time travel (executive class) and regeneration to add to the Cyberiad’s knowledge-base. It’s implied in that story that in his case, they would be prepared to make him the overall Cyber-Planner, rather than any local mesh-level Planner overseeing operations in a given territory, showing that while the Cybermen had out-evolved their linear hierarchies, they were by no means averse to making use of a centralizing authority, presuming it brought enough to the species as a whole and its ability to advance and conquer.

Cyber-Pets

If you’re going to conquer the universe, you’re going to need underlings. Sub-creatures to do your dirty work for you. Daleks have Robomen, Ogrons, pig-slaves and, depending on the work, any random humanoids they happen to find.

The Cybermen, as in many areas, have always been rather more elegant in their approach to underlings. Almost as long as we’ve known of them, the Cybermen have come with ratlike creatures called Cybermats, which were their version of the Sonic Screwdriver – multi-purpose tools, but sneaky and able to hide from sight. They could chew through cables, gnaw through base walls, and even discretely infect organic creatures with poisons, diseases or other useful toxins, to minimise the likelihood of Cyber-casualties. While mostly seen in the Classic series, the Cybermats made one appearance in New Who (Closing Time), where their original organic form was revealed. It’s possible of course that given the variety in shape, size and design of the Cybermats to which we’ve been exposed on TV that the Cybermats – like the Cybermen – are not all from a single species, but are creatures local to the time and place of any given Cyber-operation, upgraded and set to work as needed.

That would certainly seem to be the way of things with the CyberShades – doglike creatures used by the Victorian Cybermen, with a particular ability to run up walls, and a faceplate more steampunk, brass and angular than those of the Cybermen who evolved elsewhere. It was never made entirely clear in The Next Doctor why the CyberShades had been created, except perhaps for the necessity of doing the hard, fast sheepdog work of keeping the locals in line, given that there were limited number of ‘Void’ Cybermen in Victorian London and the existence of wolfhound-like creatures to convert was likely to make for an easy, logical and resource-light solution to the crowd control problem.

If we’re taking the Cybermen in new directions though, Neil Gaiman must be credited for one of the biggest leaps forward in terms of Cyber-pets, creating as he did the Cyber-Mites – mostly, it seems, machine creatures, that can infect organics with Cyber-technology and begin their conversion process. The Cyber-Mites were a very 21^st century approach, a halfway stage between the Cybermats of old and the next, logical evolution of Cyber-conversion, the nano-cloud, as seen in Death in Heaven.

The Nanocybes (they’re not called that, not anywhere, but hell, that means the word’s mine now) are perhaps the ultimate Cyber-pets – somewhere between Cyber-fleas and Cyber-leucocytes – which can, individually or in numbers, convert any viable organic creatures into Cybermen, CyberShades, Cybermats etc, depending on body-type.

Once you’ve reached this point in Cyber-evolution of course, the question becomes – as Gaiman mentioned in Nightmare In Silver, and Stephen Moffatt in Death In Heaven – how you win against an army that can turn the rain against you and weaponize the dead.

Perhaps unsurprisingly then, after reaching this pinnacle-point, we went back very significantly to basics at the end of the Twelfth Doctor’s time, to the almost-Mondasian Cybermen, focusing on their pain, their need to escape from that pain, and the extremes to which they could be driven in a monstrous quest to live forever.

When the Cybermen return to meet the Thirteenth Doctor (as is at least rumoured for Series 12), it’ll be interesting to see whether the show takes the Cybermen forward from the point of their practical invulnerability (oh, and did we mention, they can fly now?!), or backward, artificially engineering a new weakness into the Cyber-design or mentality (to go along with solvents, gravity, radiation, gold, emotion, more gold, love, specifically, etc) to make them defeatable again. Or will the writers – dare the writers – add something new to the echelons of the Cybermen, that helps explain the way in which these walking avatars of ageing, death and fear go about the business of conquering the universe?

Who Reviews The Scent of Blood by Tony J Fyler

What’s that smell, asks Tony.

Dan ‘The Strax-Man’ Starkey!

Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor!

Properly gothic villainy!

Class warfare!

Downton Abbey with demonic forces at play!

In Victorian Edinburgh!

Buckle up, kiddies, the BBC has a stonking new audio story for you from writer Andrew Lane. It’s got everything you could possibly want, and a twist in the tail besides.

Victorian Edinburgh of course has lots to recommend it as the setting for a Doctor Who story – architecture, authoritarianism, a rising working class and potential strife between the old guard and the new. That gives the place and time all the essence of gothic horror it needs to thrill us, and Andrew Lane builds his story on that basis – there appears to be a monster stalking the streets of Edinburgh, and journalist James MacFarlane intends to get to the bottom of it, come what may. When he runs into a flamboyant man known only as the Doctor, and in the morgue at that, he gains a companion on his quest to find out exactly what’s going on.

It’s rather more complicated than even he suspects.

In The Scent of Blood, Andrew Lane delivers on both the initial gothic premise of Victorian horror, drenches the listener in Doctor Who history – this is very much a sequel story in some respects, so you’ll need your Doctor Who Reference-Spotter’s Guide - and takes us into a new way of thinking about a classic villain, and the classic response to them, all while on a darkly-tinged romp round the streets of a Victorian city with an increasingly febrile atmosphere of class warfare boiling away. There are lords and ladies in Edinburgh, to be sure, and there are frightened urban peasants – but that’s not the whole story either.

Everything we know about the particular villain features here suggests a symbiotic relationship between at least two creatures, but if that relationship is broken, can either survive alone, and if so, how would that be possible? Lane tackles what we think we know and adds new dimensions to it, which makes The Scent of Blood rather more satisfying than it would have been had he been determined to simply re-tread familiar ground in a different time and place. Here, he also takes aim at rigid notions of good, evil, and what people will be prepared to do to save their own from dark and dangerous fates. It’s like a Scottish Downton Abbey, but with secrets, important portraits, and a raving mob in the town square.

Dan Starkey, TV and audio Sontaran Supreme, has lent his voice to a solid handful of different Doctors now, and his Eighth Doctor is pretty convincing – it’s by no means an impersonation, but it has enough of a tinge of Paul McGann’s tone and manner to be an active help in convincing you you’re listening to an Eighth Doctor story, while Lane’s writing conjures a bouncier, earlier Eighth Doctor than his later, Time War-troubled version. This is a Doctor looking for interesting things and answers to mysteries, and finding them – and then having to decide where his lines are drawn. After all, there are rules about what he should do in the circumstances in which he finds himself in The Scent Of Blood.

But then, the Doctor and rules have rarely gone together with any particular comfort. When he uncovers the truth about what’s happening on the streets of Victorian Edinburgh, the lines he has to draw are rather less clear-cut than they were when he met this villain before, because the lines of harm, of damage are more blurred now too.

The Scent of Blood is a vivid replaying of a particular scenario, with more complication, more complexity and more of a sense of moral ambiguity than before. In its tone and location, it channels traditional gothic horror very effectively – but as the Doctor and MacFarlane discover here, sometimes you have to look beyond the tone of a thing to find out what’s really going on.

What’s really going on in The Scent Of Blood will surprise you, make you give a little cheer at its references to Classic Who mythos, and sweep you briskly through its newer elements to a satisfied smile at the end.

It’s an audio story that feels fundamental to the Eighth Doctor, to what he’s learned and how he approaches the universe. Give it a listen and revel in Lane and Starkey channelling the McGann Doctor’s enthusiasm, open-heartedness and sudden seriousness as he deals with a most unusual problem.

Articles COE: Day One Cast - Where Are They Now?

Broadcast 6 July 2009

Peter Capaldi

‘John Frobisher’

“Just tell me it's something small. Tell me it's a, it's a meteorite, or a shadow on the moon. Just for once, tell me it's easy.”

Frobisher was the man in charge of dealing with the 456, and putting a halt to any involvement by Torchwood by any means possible. When the alien threat wanted 10% of the children, the Prime Minister put forward that John Frobisher should give up his children to the inoculation, as an act that the government were leading the way. Naturally, Frobisher couldn't allow this, and took the only other option on the table. Requisition 31!

Now, what can we tell you about Peter Capaldi that you may not already know?

Before he appeared as Frobisher, he played Caecilius in Doctor Who episode The Fires of Pompeii in 2008, before returning to Doctor Who to play the 12th Doctor from 2013 - 2017. One of the things that tickled me pink was the role he played in World War Z, as a W.H.O. Doctor!!!

He provided the voice of the Doctor for The Doctor and the Dalek video game in 2014. Played Mr Curry in Paddington in the same year and returning in the sequel in 2017. Provided his voice again for Lego Dimensions video game as yes, you've guessed it - The Twelfth Doctor in 2015. Popped up briefly in the first episode of Class in 2016. Appeared in two episodes of Children in Need in the same year as The Doctor. Lends his voice to Watership Down miniseries as Kehaar in 4 episodes in 2018. Played David Simon in the music video Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi this year, and that song never grows old. Love it!

Capaldi plays Dolben in Martin's Close which is in post-production, and although no mention of a role title, is currently in pre-production of The Suicide Squad, which is released in 2021. So, a wee while to wait on that one.

Paul Copley

‘Clement McDonald’

“They took us out. In the night, in the dark. Isn't it, isn't it? They told us, they said we were going to a new home. The staff. They drove us away for miles and miles. They were there in the sky. The light took them. I ran. There was something, there was people, there was. Isn't it, isn't it, isn't it, isn't it?”

Clem was the only child not to be taken by the 456 back in the mid-60s. As the eleven children walked towards the light, Clem took to his heels and ran in the opposite direction, away from Captain Jack Harkness and the military on the moors. But the 456 never forgot about him. Tying up loose ends, the alien claimed McDonald.

Since Torchwood, Paul Copley has played Arthur Dixon and Mick McCarthur for 6 episodes of Casualty from 1995 - 2010, Douggie Price, Dave Walton and Douglas Frampton for 7 episodes of The Bill from 1990 - 2010. Was in one episode of The Royal as Nesbitt in 2011. Was Alan in (Present Day) in the miniseries White Heat in 2012. Played single episode characters in Midsomer Murders and Vera in 2014. Played Mr Mason in Downton Abbey from 2011 - 2015. Played Ronnie in the Moving On episode Passengers, alongside Eve Myles, whose character he was teaching to drive. Great series if you fancy watching it on iPlayer. Played Joseph Kramer in Suspects episodes The Enemy Within Parts 5 & 6 in 2016. Played one episode characters for Mount Pleasant and The Coroner in 2016. From 2012 - 2016 played Harry for 12 episodes of Last Tango in Halifax.

In 2017, played Joe Kerrigan in Broken, Arthur Hardacre in Trust Me, and Walter O'Donnell in Doc Martin. Has played three different characters in Doctors from 2007 - 2018. Played Obadiah Dingle in Emmerdale episode #1.8269 in 2018 and three different characters in Holby City from 1999 - 2019.

Copley has just completed filming for Thousand Yesterdays, playing Charlie Rainbird and plays Geoffrey for The Infectious Imagination of Henry Bramble currently in post-production. Both of these are short films. Has also joined the cast of The Archers.

Nicholas Farrell

‘Brian Green’

“When I was a kid, it was the bomb. Iron Curtain. Reds under the bed. It was all so bloody simple. Now it comes raining down from the skies, made of metal, stinking green and God knows what. I find myself running a country under siege from above.

I'm not having my name on this. You never told me. I was never a part of it. I never knew. Is that understood?”

Brian Green was the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and I wouldn't trust him with my Grandmother. However, after the death of Frobisher in Day Five, things took a turn for the worst for Brian Green, thanks to Lois Habiba, Bridget Spears, Torchwood and a pair of alien contact lenses.

Since Torchwood, Nicholas Farrell's acting credits date back as far as 1975 and a Play for Today episode Leaping ahead and after Torchwood, he played Sydney Holland for 6 episodes of Casualty 1909 series, a Traumatised Man called Buckley in Heartbeat episode Sweet Sorrow, and Guy Pearson in three episodes of Collision in 2009. Played Charles Milner in detective series Lewis in the episode Your Sudden Death Question, was the voice of Mr Pump in two episodes of Going Postal, and three episodes of Bouquet of Barbed Wire as Giles Harcourt in 2010. Played Francis in Late Bloomers, James Winslow in New Tricks episode Old Fossils, Nicholas Dunham in Death in Paradise and Airey Neave in The Iron Lady in 2011.

Added his voice to the video game: Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments in 2014. Played Crispin Rose in The Village and played Eyre Crowe in 37 Days in 2014.

Played Sir Raleigh Beresford in Father Brown in 2015, along with an Auctioneer in Mortdecai, and Charles Newgarden in Call the Midwife in the same year. Leaping ahead to 2016 played Henry Stone in Thirteen for 4 episodes. Sir Robert Benson for SS-GB, Sir Francis Walsingham for five episodes of Will in 2017.

Played John Merrill and Isaac Starling for two episodes of Midsomer Murders from 1999 - 2018. Played David Fossery for 2 episodes of The Cry in the same year.

Skipping ahead, currently in post-production are Dream Horse, no title role mentioned but out in 2020, and Christmas in the Highlands as Duke of Glenmorrie, no release date as of yet.

Susan Brown

‘Bridget Spears’

"How I met John Frobisher. It was thirty years ago. You weren't even born. I was on attachment to the Civil Service, only for six months. And just down the corridor, there he was. You wouldn't think it to look at him now, but he was a clumsy thing. Always losing his key. Mister Swales never thought he'd amount to much, but I thought, well, keep an eye on that one. And all the others came and went. The high flyers, they burnt out or went on to something better. And do you know what John Frobisher did? He kept working. Head down, worked hard, all his life. It was another ten years before we actually worked in the same office. He asked for me. I didn't think he even knew my name. And we made quite the team. I'm not saying he was perfect. You know that better than me. But he worked hard. He always worked hard. I don't think that's valued enough these days, hard work. And he was a good man. I want you to know that. John Frobisher was a good man. Because when the history of this is written, they'll talk about the ministers, and the soldiers, and the things with numbers for names, and I think people will forget how very good he was. I want you to remember him like that. If ever you think of John Frobisher, just remember that it wasn't his fault." (taken from Day Five)

Bridget Spears was a close friend and acquaintance of John Frobisher. So it was a huge shock when he demanded Requisition 31. After his death, Bridget took matters into her own hands to remove Green from office.

Since Torchwood, Susan Brown has been in many familiar television dramas including medical drama series, Doctors as Brenda Napier for episode Ghost in 2010. Sue Myers in Waking the Dead for two parter episode Harbinger in 2011. Probably better known for her role of Septa Mordane for 6 episodes of Game of Thrones in 2011. Leticia Clifford in 1 episode of Midsomer Murders in the same year. Played June, the Housekeeper in The Iron Lady again in 2011. Played the Senior Magistrate for Stella in 2012, and Judge Royston for Silent Witness in the same year.

As many people seemed to be heading into video games, Brown is no different, lending her voice to:

The Secret World as Dame Julia Beatrix Tyburn, Cucuvea and Olga Dimir, in 2012.

Voicing Queenie, The Mole and Lady Alvane for Dreamfall Chapters in 2014

And Nana Pud in LittleBigPlanet3 in the same year.

Wendy Boyles in Everybody's Gone to the Rapture in 2015.

Wojna Krwi: Wiedzminskie opowiesc as Isbel of Hagge in 2018.

In 2013 played Mrs Peacock in Call the Midwife. Liz Roper for 7 episodes of Broadchurch. Ethel Fernsley in Father Brown in 2014. Pauline Heggarty, Joan Hawley and Julie for three episodes of Casualty from 1992 - 2014. Played Mrs Birdie Thompson, Rachel Jacoby, Nora Simpson, and Avril Welbeck for 5 episodes of Holby City from 2001 - 2017.

Played Hannah Pitt for National Theatre Live productions - Angels in America Parts 1 and 2 in 2017, and played Mother Superior for Good Omens series on Amazon (not Netflix), in 2019. Has voiced many characters for Doctor Who audios and Big Finish range.

Lucy Cohu

‘Alice Carter’

“Oh, you bastard. Something happens to kids, and you want to spend time with him on the same day. You are not experimenting on that boy, Dad. Not ever. That's why I want you to stay away. Because you're dangerous.”

Alice Carter was Jack Harkness' daughter. She was fiercely protective over her son Steven, and never forgave Jack for his actions against the 456.

Since Torchwood, and perhaps since 2013, Lucy popped up in a lot of television dramas and films. Such as Atlantis as Circe in 2013. Inspector George Gently as Margaret Turner a year later, including playing Nikki in The Inbetweeners 2 movie. (loved that film). Lucy played Tess Henchard in Broadchurch for four episodes in 2015.

In 2016 played Caroline Bamber in Death in Paradise episode One for the Road. Deborah Goren for 9 episodes of Ripper Street from 2013 - 2016. Played Madame Maigret for 4 films in 2016 - 2017. And this year (2019) played Miriam Petrukhin for 6 episodes of Summer of Rockets.

Ian Gelder

‘Mr Dekker’

“Four five six. I warned you. We converted the readings onto digital years ago, but I kept the original equipment. Call it nostalgia. Then this morning it woke up. Eight forty, and again at ten thirty, transmitting on the 456. Just five seconds in duration, but that's enough. Well, I think it's a burst of compressed information. I'm running it through the translators. It might take a while. But the point is, the 456 was open.”

Mr Dekker was one of those civil servants who wore long brown over coats and hid in cupboard sized offices and kept himself to himself. He knew the workings of government. He wasn't a Yes Man. He would still be in a job, long after those in government had been overthrown.

Since Torchwood, Ian Gelder has played single character roles for Silent Witness as Dr Stanley Jacobs in 2010, Butler in Psychoville in 2011, Stan Tremlett in Endeavour in 2012, Marcus Andronicus in Shakespeare's Globe: Titus Andronicus in 2015. Joseph Chamberlain for Ripper Street in 2015.

He played Waring for 2 episodes of Mr Selfridge in 2013. Dr Adam Gorman for 2 episodes of Eastenders in 2016.

Perhaps since Torchwood, he's better known as Kevan Lannister for 12 episodes of Game of Thrones from 2011 - 2016. Almost matching that series by playing Norman Gordon for 9 episodes of Snatch in 2017.

How many recognised his voice as Remnants in the Doctor Who episode The Ghost Monument in 2018?

In 2018, he played Aleister Crowley for the Lore documentary episode Jack Parsons: The Devil and the Divine.

In Casualty he played 3 characters from 1993 - 2019.

Currently Gelder has finished filming His Dark Materials as Librarian Scholar Charles in the episode Roger in 2019. Dark Ditties Presents 'The Witching Hour' as Selwyn Parsons with no release date.

Is filming The Invisible Collection (short) as Berkovic, and in pre-production playing Terry Vaughan in Dark Ditties Presents 'Dad'.

Cush Jumbo

‘Lois Habiba’

“Sorry. My name's Lois. Lois Habiba. Just started today. I'm helping out Miss Spears while they introduce the new computer system?”

Lois Habiba picked one hell of a day to start work as a civil servant. With her help, Torchwood were able to access much more intel on the government's handling of the 456, and were able to gain access to Thames House, although the outcome went a little awry to begin with. :(

Since Torchwood, Cush Jumbo has played Zara Finchley in Casualty episode Every Breath You Take in 2009, Becky in Lip Service in 2010 for 6 episodes. Was the Check in Woman in The Inbetweener Movie in 2011.

Was Miss Neville in National Theatre Live: She Stoops to Conquer in 2012. Played Damaris Clarke for 5 episodes of Getting On from 2010 - 2012. Played DC Bethany Whelan for 7 episodes of Vera from 2012 - 2016.

Played Lucca Quinn for 33 episodes of The Good Fight from 2017 - 2019. Has been announced as playing Jess for 4 episodes of Deadwater Fell in 2019, and currently in post-production of The Postcard Killings as Dessie Leonard.

Liz May Brice

‘Johnson’

“Theory would suggest it's connected to the Torchwood Hub, that Rift thing, which makes the whole place a target.”

Johnson was in charge of the UNIT task force, on instruction from Colonel Oduya responsible for capturing Captain Jack Harkness and placing a bomb in his stomach. Aware of his Lazarus qualities, knew it would take more than a bomb to stop him in his tracks. Perhaps incarcerating him in a cell full of concrete might just do the trick. Towards the end of the 'week', Johnson soon realised that she was working for the wrong team.

Since Torchwood, Brice has played not only physical characters, but also voiced several others. Including as a voice over for How TV Ruined Your Life, as a News Reporter, and Karen Itis, in 2011. Between 2005 - 2013 Brice played Lyn Marshall and Rachel Farley in 7 episodes of Casualty. In 2013, as Tara in another long running soap, Eastenders and Tina in one episode of Misfits in the same year.

In 2014 played Gainsborough in Black Mirror episode White Christmas. Played Claire Jackson in the Moving On series episode Two Brothers in the same year. Played Tracey in Drifters episode Funeral in 2016. Played Angelica Botham-Hart in Doctors for two episodes in 2017. In Bad Move played a news reader for the episode Country Pile i n 2018. In 2019 played Jennifer in Amaryllis and Mrs Harries for Sanditon.

Has voiced Licia of Lindeldt and Milibeth for Dark Souls II video game in 2014. Been additional voices for Lego the Hobbit: The Video Game in the same year. Voiced characters in World of Warcraft: Battle of Azeroth in 2018.

Charles Abomeli

‘Colonel Oduya’

“Might be nothing, sir. But it's my job to inform the Government, even if it turns out to be a false alarm. [Then what is it?] Children, sir. It’s the children. But the accidents are just one part of a picture. Because every other child stopped at the same time. And not just in Britain.

At eight forty GMT, most of America was asleep, but even there, we're beginning to get reports. I think we can assume it's all of them, sir. As far as we can tell, at eight forth this morning, every single child in the world stopped.”

Colonel Oduya was the first to break the news to Frobisher regarding the children and the 456.

Since Torchwood, Abomeli has played Mr. Swanson for Why Life Sucks When You're in Your 20s, in 2016. Played Joe Jackson in Michael Jackson documentary Man in the Mirror in 2017. Played Ian in The 12 in the same year and currently in post-production, due for release in 2020, plays David Onyilogwu in The Jack in the Box.

Rik Makarem

‘Rupesh Patanjali’

“Alien life. Even though half the world's still denying it. For me, okay, it's the suicides. The past few years suicide rates have doubled, and that's ever since the first alien. My first case, my first death, was a suicide. Do you know why she did it? Because she'd written all these letters. She'd been a Christian all her life, and then alien life appears. She wrote this bit. She said, it's like science has won.”

Rupesh Patanjali was the NHS doctor brought in by the government agency to pull Torchwood off the trail of the 456. Luring Captain Jack Harkness to the morgue to inspect 'suspicious' cases of missing patients, is shot in the back by the 'doctor', who in turn is shot in the back while fleeing from Johnson.

Since Torchwood Makarem has played Simon Rothstein in Foyle's War episode The Hide in 2010. Probably better known for his role in Emmerdale as Nikhil Sharma for 607 episodes from 2009 - 2016, and played Sebastian Grayling in BBC hospital drama Casualty for 8 episodes from 2016 - 2017.

Katy Wix

‘Rhiannon Davies’

“Oh, that's it, is it? You're just gonna go now? Oh, sit down, you daft sod. I've got some of that spinach dip. And you and me, well, we've got things to talk about.”

Rhiannon Davies is Ianto Jones' sister. She revealed a lot more about Ianto than the team who worked with him, were aware of. She was ferociously protective of her brother and family.

Katy Wix is a comedy actress and since Torchwood she has been extremely busy with her Horrible Histories character roles including her role as the Watling Street Presenter in the latest Horrible Histories movie: Rotten Romans.

Taking it right back to 2010 however and playing Fiona in the Outnumbered episode The Pigeon. From Miranda as Fanny for 2 episodes a year earlier. To Trinny & Susannah: From Boom to Bust for 8 episodes in 2010. Dick and Dom's Funny Business playing various characters in 2011. Comic Relief: Upstairs Downstairs Abbey as Youngest Daughter in the same year.

Comedy Lab as various characters and Laura MacDougal from 2010 - 2011. Absolutely Fabulous as Annabelle in 2011. Comedy Showcase as Fanny, Toni and Sarah in 2011. The voice of Chikidee in the kids tv show Tickety Toc in 2012. Various characters for 7 episodes of Anna & Katy from 2011 - 2013. The Harry Hill Movie as Sat Nav Sheila and Shell Girl in 2013.

Played Mary for 7 episodes of Fried from 2014 - 2015. Played Maeve for Together for 6 episodes in 2015. Played Daisy for 41 episodes of Not Going Out from 2007 - 2015. Played Hatti Jacques in Hancock's Half Hour: The New Neighbour movie in 2016.

Played Nurse Cornish in Sherlock episode The Lying Detective in 2017. Played Fergie in The Windsors for 13 episodes from 2016 - 2018. In Agatha Raisin, played Gemma Simpson for 11 episodes from 2014 - 2018. Played Mary for 6 episodes of Ghosts in 2018. Played Carole for 8 episodes of Stath Lets Flats from 2018 - 2019, and has currently completed filming for Hamsbury Book Club playing Harriet.

Rhodri Lewis

‘Johnny Davies’

“Aye aye, gay boy. She says you're taking it up the arse. How've you been then, you smart bastard?”

Johnny is married to Rhiannon. He has a lot to say for himself and whenever possible will try and make his brother in law blush. Johnny waved off the Torchwood SUV with a brick or two after thieves on the estate where he lives, made off with it, even after Ianto assured him it was triple deadlocked.

Since Torchwood, Lewis has played single character roles from Gavin & Stacey as Nev the bouncer in 2009, Young Tom in Being Human in 2011, Man 8 in The Somnambulists in the same ear and a Witness for Line of Duty episode In the Shadow of the Truth in 2017.

Hilary Maclean

‘Anna Frobisher’

“This isn't a hula hoop craze. It happened to Brian and Wendy's kids, and they live in Canada. You don't think this is over any more than I do.” [from Day Two]

Anna was Frobisher's wife. They had two young daughters. She was very concerned for the amount of pressure John's job was putting him under, but even she was not prepared for what was to happen before the end of the series.

Since Torchwood, Maclean has played Alma and Frankie's Mum in Lip Service from 2010 - 2012, Susan Napier in Casualty episode A Life Less Lived in 2014. Edina in Outlander episode The Wedding in the same year.

Played Connie in Arthur & George in 2015. Played Heather Macnee for 1 episode of Coronation Street in the same year and played Cara Kellen and Henrietta Ridgard for 5 episodes of Doctors from 2005 - 2016.

Anna Lee Lawson

‘Nurse’

“Timothy White, fifty-two years old. He’s been with us three months, but he’s got a history of being in and out of care all his life. If he’s got a different name, he’s never said. He spent forty years living in Leeds. That’s where he first came on record. Found homeless, living on the streets at the age of eleven. Nobody ever reported him missing. Apparently, though, he did have a Scottish accent back then. Gone now, but he was a long way lost.”

Lawson is the nurse Gwen speaks to with regards to meeting Clem at the Duke of York Hospital.

Since Torchwood, Lawson has played many single character roles, from a Prostitute in Funny or Die Presents in 2010, to Frankie's Gal in Metro, a television movie a year later. Played Tanya Starlet in The Jesse Miller Show in 2012. An Audience Member in the Pound House episode Open Mic in 2013. Played Sandra Billingsley in NCIS episode Return to Sender but was uncredited for the role, in 2016. Plays Susan in Y0142, a film short currently in post-production.

Rachel Ferjani

‘Parliamentary Secretary’ [To Frobisher]

“The Home Secretary's demanding information, sir, and if you're liaising with UNIT”

Since Torchwood, Ferjani voiced Experimentia for The Moonbird, a film short in 2010, and played Sophie Summers for Holby City episode Sirens in 2011.

Christopher James

‘Press Officer’

Played a Press Officer for 2 episodes of Torchwood COE Day One.

Since Torchwood, played White's Bodyguard for Devil's Playground in 2010. Nothing listed after this.

Phylip Harries

‘Water Taxi Man’

“I've been watching the bay. No sea monsters.”

Had a brief conversation with Gwen Cooper as she walked to the Tourist Information building on the Quay.

Since Torchwood has played a series of single character roles. Prior to Torchwood, played Alan in Y Pris for 5 episodes in 2007. Since then played Jenko Powers in A Bit of Tom Jones? in 2009. Bryn in 2 episodes of Zanzibar in 2011. Denzil in 1 episode of Hinterland in 2013. Onwylln Jones in The Kennedy's episode Camping in 2015. A Disgruntled Customer in Trollied in 2016 and Bran for King Arthur: Excalibur Rising in 2017.

Ben Loyd-Holmes

‘Operative’

“I've got a red flag on a Torchwood intercept. The name Clement MacDonald. Can you trace it?”

Played the Special Ops soldier who listened in and tracked phone conversations of various people they were interested in.

Since Torchwood Loyd-Holmes has been immensely busy, not just playing single character roles for other people but playing some for his own productions. From playing John Cain in the television film Black Book in 2010. Andy in Red Heart a year later. Spooks as Marcus Collison in 2011. Ethan in The Hike (Ben was one of the very first people we interviewed in the early days of our little 'Project', do please check it out).

Played the Vauxhall Bridge Police Guard in the Bond film Skyfall in 2012. Played Condietere Battista in 2 episodes of Da Vinci's Demons in 2013. MI5 Jogger in Closed Circuit in 2013, Steve in He Who Dares in 2014.

Played Professor John Howson for Extinction in 2014. Played George in Knights of the Damned in 2017, returning as George in Dragon Kingdom in 2018. Played Dave in Carnivore: Werewolf of London in the same year. Petit in Knightfall in the episode Find Us the Grail in 2017. Playing West in Wreck currently in post-production.

Luke Perry

‘David Davies’

“We are coming. We are coming. We are coming. We are coming.”

David is Ianto Jones' nephew, and son to Rhiannon and Johnny Davies. He along with his sister Mica were controlled by the 456 during its stay on Earth.

Since Torchwood, Perry has only been in a few productions, including Grandpa in My Pocket for 9 episodes from 2010 - 2011, Gwaith/Cartref as Steffan for 1 episode in 2011 and as Sam in An Act of Kindness in 2017.

Aimee Davies

‘Mica Davies’

Young Mica is Ianto's niece. She was controlled by the 456 along with her brother.

There are only 2 credits for Aimee. Playing Rayne Hart in Casualty for 2 episodes in 2007, and as Mica in Torchwood. Nothing since.

Bear McCausland

‘Steven Carter’

“Uncle Jack! I was talking like an alien. Everyone was. It was brilliant.”

Jack's grandson Steven would witness a darker side to his grandfather at the end of the series. One that would destroy the relationship and trust between father and daughter. It was a difficult call to make for Jack although a necessary one for the safety of the millions of children called to become the hits for the alien known as the 456.

Since Torchwood, there are no further additions to Bear's credits.

Julia Joyce

‘Holly Frobisher’

“We're going. Look.”

Youngest sister to Lilly Frobisher, and daughter to John and Anna Frobisher, she along with her sister were controlled by the 456. However, at the end of the series she would die at the hands of someone she knew, along with her sister and mother.

Since Torchwood, Joyce played Alice Rose in Doctors in 2009 for one episode. And Imogen for part 2 of The Day of the Triffids in the same year.

Madeleine Rakic-Platt

‘Lilly Frobisher’

“I'm going round to Polly's later. See you, bye.”

Older sister of Holly Frobisher. She tried to manipulate her parents into buying her a pony, while pretending to be controlled by the 456. It went down like a lead balloon.

Since Torchwood, Rakic-Platt has played Kate Rose in 4 episodes of Criminal Justice in 2009. Silent Witness for episode Shadows: Part 1 in 2010, Dawn Kent in Doctors episode Rebecca's Dream in the same year and Nina Sanders for Holby City episode After the Party in 2012.

Gregory Ferguson

‘Young Clem’

"What's in there? What is it? It's safe though, isn't it?"

[from Day Four]

Young Clem climbed onto the bus that would take him out of the children's home and onto the moors, where an alien spacecraft would transport his friends to another world. But not for Clem. He ran and ran and ran. Away from the man in the uniform who beckoned him towards the craft. He ran from the space ship, and his friends. He hid and he stayed off the grid. He slept rough until he was once again put into a home but all the while aware of the different smells, that eventually, the 456 would return for him. And eventually, it did.

Since Torchwood, Ferguson played the Principal in One Chance, a film short in 2011.

Crisian Emanuel

‘Mother’

“Come on, Tyler. Tyler, just stop it. I haven't got time to muck around. Tyler. All right, I'll just leave you there. Is that what you want? If I just leave you in the middle of town?”

Walking to school and your child is frozen to the spot. Unblinking. Unmoving. What can you do? Curse. Swear. Threaten. It has little to no effect, until after a few moments, the child either screams, or begins to chant, or snaps out of it altogether and walks along as if nothing happened.

Since Torchwood Emanuel has played Rhiannon in Y Syrcas in 2013, Rosie Probert in Under Milk Wood in 2015. Played 8 episodes of Parch as Llinor in 2016. Was Mrs Fleming in The Watcher in the Woods film in 2017 and played Alice Crawshay-Williams in Morfydd in 2018.

Melanie Barker

‘Mother 2’

“Sasha, love, I haven't got time. I've got to be in work. Now come on, sweetheart. People are staring at you. Sasha, stop it. Sasha, stop it. Sasha. Please help her.”

Again, unsure which mother she is, but same applies as above.

Since Torchwood, there are no further credits for Barker. Prior to Torchwood however, Barker played Clare Machin for 7 episodes of Coronation Street in 2000 and Lisa Hammond for 11 episodes of London's Burning from 1998 - 1999.

When not involved in acting or singing, Melanie Barker runs Esme Dancewear that specialises in dance costumes and ballet tutus, based in Powys.

https://www.esmedancewear.com/

Scott Bailey

‘Father’

“We're going to be late. Suzette, stop it. You're just looking silly. Do you want other people to see you looking silly?”

Was the father of a child who stood stock still on the way to school and wouldn't move for love nor money.

Since Torchwood, played a Diligent Copper for The Big I Am in 2010. Since then, nothing credited.

Some of the images and the quotes have been taken from other episodes due to having better images and better quotes in other 'days'. In case you were wondering!

Pages

Wednesday, 9 October 2019

Articles Welcome to Issue 74: WATNOW Children of Earth: Day One

The Whoniverse Round-Up October 2019

Profiles Echelons of the Cybermen by Tony J Fyler

Who Reviews The Scent of Blood by Tony J Fyler

Articles COE: Day One Cast - Where Are They Now?

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