Torchwood s02e10 Episode Script

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.
Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, have we got a show for you tonight! A once in a lifetime show.
Amaze your ears, astonish your eyes, then run along home and tell your friends and neighbours.
A once in a lifetime show, never to be forgotten for the rest of your lives.
So, why not step inside? We're waiting for you.
Great! What is that? I don't know where you came from, mate, but I know where you're going.
Tosh? I heard this sound.
An old sound, like a pipe organ.
A what? Did you hear anything? No.
Is there a circus in town, or a travelling fair, something like that? On a night like this? They'd be wasting their time.
Where's Ianto? He'd know.
He's gone to the cinema with Gwen and Owen, some kind of opening night he wanted to check out.
The building's got a record of rift activity but it's been quiet for years so A nice trip to the cinema, you said.
Yeah, that's right.
Ianto, nothing down here, mate.
- Oh, come on, Owen.
- It's more than just a cinema.
- It's the Electro! - Oh, wow! Excuse me.
Thank you.
Where's that stupid bloody son of ours? - He said he'd be here on time.
- He'd better be.
He's got the film.
And what good is a cinema without a film? Good evening, gentlemen.
Evening, madam.
Welcome to the Electro.
I love this place.
Used to come here with my dad.
They'd show kids' films on Saturday morning.
So where's the popcorn and the ice cream? I think you've missed out.
- It's educational.
- Okay.
Come on.
- What time do you call this? - Sorry, dad.
People are waiting.
You won't believe this, but when I was splicing the film-- Look, just get up to that projection room, will you? Now! As proud owners of the Electro museum, it is our privilege to be able to show you how the cinema and Hope Street looked in days gone by.
If you watch carefully, who knows? You may even see long-dead members of your family waiting in the cinema queue.
Bernard! Do you recognise any of your long-lost relatives, Gwen? There's Aunty Peggy.
She's been on the gin, again.
Can you be quiet? He's showing the wrong bloody film! Where's Hope Street gone? Oh, shit! Where the hell did that film come from? I've no idea.
I swear I didn't edit those clips.
- Don't be so stupid! - It's true! Look, just bloody well change it, will you?! - I can't, the machine won't switch off! - Oh, get out of the way.
This is crazy! It's the same pictures over and over again.
Yeah.
Right.
Come on, let's go.
Wait! - I just saw Jack.
- Where? In the film.
- What are you talking about? - What? I swear I saw him.
- Ianto.
.
? - Wait.
Just wait.
Come on.
- Let's go.
- Yes, come on.
Are you coming? When the film stopped, these shadows went past me.
What kind of shadows? I don't know.
It wasn't clear.
There was something else.
You were up there on the screen.
As large as life.
What was I doing? You were on some sort of stage.
Outside a big tent.
You seemed to be part of a travelling show.
I heard it.
Heard its music.
Just a snatch of it.
That film was beautiful.
All those acts performing for us.
Part of history, trapped on film forever.
Their days were numbered.
Cinema may have saved their images, but it finished off the travelling shows.
Killed them.
I'm at the bus stop, mum.
By Hope Street.
No.
Gemma's brother couldn't bring me home.
His car don't work.
Well, what about dad? Can't you wake him? Mum? Would you like a ticket for the travelling show, my dear? - No, thanks.
- Every young person's dream.
Perhaps she'd like to join the show instead.
Why not? You could travel with us.
- Forever.
- Look, just go away, will you? Did you hear what I said? So you say the projector went haywire? Yeah, even with the mains switched off it still kept running.
Playing those film clips.
It's like it had a mind of its own.
- Working now.
- I know.
So where did you get these? From the basement here.
There were stacks of cans.
See, I've been compiling old footage of Hope Street and the Electro for the opening night.
But the circus clips weren't on it.
I swear.
So the film that was shown wasn't meant to be here? No, and that's what's so scary.
I mean, it kind of played itself.
It's like it wanted to be seen.
Like something was trying to get through? Yeah.
And there was a sound, like old fashioned music.
Played on an organ or something.
And there was a face looking out at me.
And there was a smell, like like bromine.
Or iodine.
- Like film itself.
- That's right.
- And this is the film? - Yeah.
Jack, the systems here are behaving very oddly.
And I heard the sound you mentioned.
That fairground sound.
Can you trace the source? No.
But there was a peak in rift activity at the Electro.
Then nothing.
Plus I'm recording unusual rift traces nearby.
- Where? - Chain Lane.
Runs parallel to Hope Street.
Sending the co-ordinates now.
Tosh, we're on our way.
Tell the police we're dealing with it.
Epileptic maybe? Could be wearing a tag.
- She isn't.
- She got ID? - I'll check.
- What's wrong? She's got a heartbeat, but she isn't breathing.
Shouldn't really be alive.
And look at her mouth.
She's got no saliva.
Look, her lips are cracked.
Dry as a bone.
We need to get her to a hospital.
Sorry.
We're closed.
Do you hear me? We're closed.
- Make her cry.
- You what? I want to drink her tears.
The name's Nettie Williams.
Her parents are outside.
Apparently she was visiting a friend.
- Have any witnesses come forward? - No.
Has anyone been able to communicate with her? No.
No change in her condition.
- Motor response? - Non-existent, and they're treating it as a coma.
- And they're wrong? - Totally.
There's no signs of cerebral dysfunctions, no symptoms of hypoxia.
And her body's dehydrated.
You know when a spider sucks the liquid out of its victims? Well, this is a bit like that, except they've left her partly alive.
She couldn't cry about it even if she wanted to, the poor kid.
She's got no tears.
There's been another one.
- Who's she? - We don't know.
The paramedics found her.
It freaked them.
She was lying in an open doorway.
Looking like this.
- Where was this? - The corner of Hope Street.
The same.
Heartbeat but no breath.
Her mouth's been drained of moisture.
This makes no sense, they're almost dehydrated and possibly brain dead yet somehow they're still with us.
So, some part of them has been taken elsewhere? Well, that's impossible.
For the body to be alive there must be a life force somewhere.
- Yet they've separated it, stolen it.
- Who has the power to do that? I don't know.
But we need to find out fast.
Two people chosen at random.
Who's next? Whatever's doing it has the whole city to choose from.
Or the world.
I knew those two.
They argued day and night.
That is you.
- Right, now I've seen everything! - I told you so.
You did stand-up? - I never did stand-up.
- Okay, then.
A song and dance.
I was sensational! I don't believe this, Jack.
What were you doing there? - He's part of this freak show.
- Yeah.
Some things never change.
Are you being rude about me? Look at the state of them.
I do love his leotard.
- The night travellers.
- The what? Tosh, play that back.
- So, they did exist.
- Did you work with these people? I didn't work with them, I never knew anyone who did.
They only performed in the dead of night.
Anyway, it was just a tale that was around at that time.
A ghost story.
They came from out of the rain.
That's how people described them.
Jack, what did these night travellers do? Left a trail of damage and sorrow wherever they performed.
Tosh, can you run this frame by frame? Er, sure.
- What are you looking for? - I'm not sure.
But something's wrong.
Something's missing.
- This must be years back, now, yeah? - 80 odd years.
Then the travelling shows faded away.
No-one came to watch them and without an audience they died out.
Forgotten.
Until all we have to remember them by were these film clips.
Jack! This film.
It's not the same one we saw at the cinema.
- Of course it's the same one.
- No, things are different.
Tosh Easy to miss at first, but after watching it a few times I realised.
Just there.
There was a woman in front of that water tank.
Yeah there was, Ianto, you're right.
That's right, I remember her.
Wearing almost nothing.
And there was a man in like a top hat, a sort of MC.
- Yeah.
- That's right.
He was reaching down to the audience.
Are you sure you brought the right can of film back? - Positive.
- So what are we saying? That two people from a piece of film have decided to go AWOL? Yeah.
Like you said, trapped in film forever.
When they opened the cinema, it gave them a chance.
When that kid ran the film, he let them loose.
So they've become physical? They've escaped the film? We need to find out more about the havoc they caused in the past.
We need evidence.
Possible witnesses.
After all that time it'll be tricky.
What, town and parish records? Sure, we can do that.
How far back do you want us to go? As far as you can.
We don't sleep till we find them.
Toshiko, keep checking for sightings.
There's got to be a way of tracing them.
Ianto, with me, I need your local knowledge.
Oh, is that what you're calling it these days? So, two people who should have been dead for years.
What kind of creatures are they? No-one ever knew the night travellers were coming.
They'd just appear from nowhere.
Not like the team I was with.
We'd send out flyers, bang drums, blow whistles.
Ours was a small company.
Working the UK.
Trying to find paying customers.
I was sent to investigate rumours of the night travellers.
- By who? - Long story.
So I joined a travelling show.
I was billed as the man who couldn't die.
The night travellers always found an audience.
They knew where to look.
Step along now, ladies and gentlemen, come and see the show of a lifetime! Fill your eyes with the spectacle of the tattooed man! Witness for yourself the superhuman strength of the Mighty Stromboli! He can take on Samson, Goliath and Hercules with one arm tied behind his back, and still have strength to dig their graves.
Come along now, ladies and gentlemen, the night won't wait forever.
Come and see the amazing Pearl! She lives in water.
She sleeps among the waves.
She can reach the bottom of the oceans.
She has swum the seven seas.
She is the nearest thing that you will ever see to a living mermaid.
She will take your breath away.
How many other old cinemas are there in Cardiff? Most of them have been pulled down.
And the ones that are left? Converted.
This one is a pub.
Four-pint jugs for a fiver and girls in free before 11.
I'm registering the sea.
The sea? Inland? Running through the centre of town? What is it? I thought I thought I saw something.
Saw what? Ghosts.
Don't be stupid.
So the Electro is the only one left.
Could the night travellers have performed there? Possibly.
If cinema killed the travelling show, maybe this is their way of fighting back.
Their only chance to escape before every old movie theatre and piece of film has gone.
What better way to get revenge? They were left forgotten, on pieces of film.
And now they're looking for a new audience.
- What is it, Tosh? - She was picking up the sea.
In the middle of town.
It's gone now.
I was getting the sound of waves.
Seagulls.
I could almost smell the ozone.
- No other sightings? - No.
What the hell are they up to? I like the lights.
They make the rain glisten.
And they're part of us.
Smell the water.
Taste it.
Careful.
- How many now? - Six.
I wish I could see the air they once breathed.
You know you can never see it.
We could never see it.
We have their ghosts here.
I can see them whenever I want.
Our audience.
They'll never leave us.
We can't see.
But we can hear.
Listen.
I can! I can hear them.
Little last breaths, still sighing their sighs.
Can we bring the others? Make ghosts forever? The others shouldn't be in some old dark cupboard.
They should be here with us.
And I want to travel again, perform.
All right.
But first we need the rest of that film.
Found in a car with their parents, near Hope Street.
Oh, no.
What happened to the parents? They're in the same cataleptic state.
They came from out of the rain.
What did you say? Nothing.
Why? Those words, "From out of the rain".
I'm sure I've heard them before.
Oh, I remember, it was Christina.
She was a patient.
Here? No, at Providence Park, it's a psychiatric hospital.
- I know it.
- I used to work there.
She was a full-time patient, been there since she was a child.
Yeah, she was a strange one.
Whenever anything, any kind of entertainment show was laid on, she became scared.
She'd run away and hide.
Did she say why? Yes.
She said they were coming to steal her last breath.
Poor love.
I think we've just found ourselves our first witness.
They came from out of the rain.
At night.
Came to the village.
How old were you at the time? Oh, just a child.
Five, I think, or six.
Are you visiting someone? Christina, we've come to see you.
No one comes to see me.
Your eyes are older than your face.
- Is that a bad thing? - Yes.
It means you don't belong.
It means you're from nowhere.
Christina, tell us about them.
The people who came out of the rain.
There was music.
Hurdy-gurdy music.
Acrobats.
And a man with fire in his hands.
Who else was there? A man in dark clothes, and a woman.
A beautiful young woman in a silvery costume.
She seemed to glisten.
They touched you, I can sense it.
They touched you as they passed you by.
Tell us about the man, Christina.
Oh.
He spoke to me.
He asked if I would like to join the travelling show.
He took a kind of flask out of his pocket.
It was polished like silver.
I asked him his name.
Oh, I shall never forget it.
I never shall.
He said he was the ghost maker.
He wanted to take my breath and put it in his flask.
He said I could travel with his circus, I would be in his audience forever.
I turned and ran away as fast as I could.
People went missing from the village that night.
My mother, my father Here we go.
Church Stretton, 1901.
People went missing when a travelling show visited the town, and there was one earlier on.
These disappearances, there's a lot of old wives' tales attached to them through the years.
People still alive but been deprived of breath, children being told to hold their breath while the travelling show passes by.
Yeah, this local paper, didn't take it seriously.
Hunstanton Chronicle, March 1911.
"Police and doctors were left quite amused and baffled when Mr.
Alfred Mace insisted that his dead wife could be brought back to life providing a certain flask could be found.
" He reckoned his wife's last breath had been taken and put in a flask.
A silver flask.
And the last breath of each victim.
- So that's how he makes his ghosts.
- So if we find the flask? We can save them.
Now we have the film.
Time to bring the others.
Jack, this is Jonathan, they're here, they're at my flat, you've got to get over here now! Who was in there? A woman, lying under water.
I thought she'd drowned.
- Anyone else? - No.
Be careful.
Did Bernard say he was coming here today? No.
David This way, please.
- So they haven't left the area.
- They probably can't.
Probably need to be near the Electro.
- All my old film cans have been opened.
- What was on them? - Clips from circus sideshows.
- They're bringing more through.
Then we need to stop them.
Gwen, Owen.
Meet us at the Electro.
Look, what's going on? I've got to find my mum and dad.
If anything's happened to them Hey, there's that smell again.
Like chemicals.
Yeah, I can smell it.
- Like when you develop a film.
- That woman.
She grabbed me.
But her hand, it was different.
It wasn't like a hand.
It wasn't like flesh.
It was it was like touching a piece of plastic, a piece of celluloid.
They were on this film for 80 years.
Became part of it.
- What if we filmed them? - A film of a film? Yeah.
Then they'd be trapped.
Is this thing loaded? If they were trapped on film before They can be got rid of in the same way.
Okay.
Let's suppose they're made of camphor and nitrate, made of shadows, made of light.
- Just enough light.
- We film them.
Capture them in that Then expose the film to as much light as possible.
Of course.
We'd blank them out, we'd lose them.
Let's hope so.
- Jack? - Yeah? We're at the Electro.
Something's happening inside.
Let's go.
Do you hear that? - Maybe it's my mam and dad.
- Would they lock themselves in? No.
Please let them be okay.
Please.
- Mum? Dad? - Whoa, take it easy.
What's going on? Mum? - No, Jonathan.
- Mum! Dad! What's happened? Please! Don't die, please! Speak to me! No! Leave me alone! They've been frozen in place, the circus needs an audience.
Get him out of here.
- Jonathan, come on.
- Leave me alone.
Owen, find out who's upstairs.
The same pictures as before.
Jack.
They're coming through Open up! We've done it.
We're together again.
This place is ours.
It belongs to us.
This whole city belongs to us! What are you? There's not a breath in your poor, sad body.
You're no use to me.
The flask! He's got it! I've got it! - Gwen, are you all right? - Oh! - Are you okay? - Yeah.
Yes! Owen, look after the family.
Come on.
Argh! No! Please! If their breaths escape the flask all the victims will die.
Quick! We could lose them forever! They're flat-lining, call the crash team.
One.
I think we saved just one.
I hear it, Jack.
I heard it, something inside calling out to me.
Okay.
So we managed to save one.
But which one? There was nothing we could do.
They all died so suddenly.
Except this poor little soul.
I suppose he'll be next to go.
What are you doing? I need your help.
- What is that thing? - Please.
Just trust me.
Give me a hand.
Careful.
Hold his head.
What's in there? Something that belongs to him.
His last breath his life.
What have you done to him? It worked.
Welcome back.
Those reels of film in Jonathan's workroom I took them out, and destroyed them.
Let's hope that's an end to it.
What worries me are all those long lost pieces of film, tucked away in dusty cellars, hidden in lofts.
The night travellers could still be there, somewhere.
Just waiting.
How much is this? Jonah Bevan.
Disappeared walking home from football practice.
Why is this one so special? Something's glowing, just out of the camera's line of sight.
Cardiff has an epidemic of missing persons.
Oh, my God.
I'll make it my own special project.
- No, leave it alone - I can't.
- He's got to be out there somewhere.
- Tosh, can we keep this to ourselves? You're covering it up, then.
In the middle of the Bristol Channel? What if the rift doesn't just leave stuff behind? What if it also takes? What's your mate Mulder doing there? Any reason you'd be on the barrage that night? Close this down!