Out of Time (Torchwood)

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10 – "Out of Time"
Torchwood episode

The passengers of the Sky Gypsy, fallen through time from 1953.
Cast
Guest stars
Production
Writer Catherine Tregenna
Director Alice Troughton
Script editor Brian Minchin
Producer Richard Stokes
Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code 1.10
Series Series 1
Length 50 mins
Originally broadcast 17 December 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"Random Shoes" "Combat"
IMDb profile

"Out of Time" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast on 17 December 2006.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

A plane from 1953 lands in modern Cardiff, courtesy of the Rift; the passengers are reoriented by the Torchwood team, who become drawn closely to their lives, only to leave again just as quickly as they arrived.

[edit] Plot

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A vintage twin-engined aircraft makes its final approach and lands on an airfield where Jack, Gwen and Owen are waiting. The three Torchwood Institute officers walk out to greet the passengers of the Sky Gypsy: Diane Holmes, the pilot, and her two passengers, Emma-Louise Cowell and John Ellis. Jack asks them when they left, and Diane answers that it was just a half hour before. Jack presses her for the date, and she answers, puzzled, that it should be December 18, 1953.

The three refugees in time are taken back to the Hub, where Jack introduces them to the rest of the team. Jack explains that the aircraft slipped through a "transcendental portal", a door in time and space, and Tosh provides documentary proof to the disbelieving trio that they have indeed travelled over fifty years into their future. According to history, their plane, bound for Dublin, never returned and was presumed lost at sea; they cannot go back.

Emma's parents are dead, but John wants to find his son, Alan, if he is still alive. Diane, on the other hand, has no one. Jack and Gwen house the three in a local hostel; Gwen begins to bond with Emma, for whom the reality of her situation is just beginning to sink in, while Jack begins a friendship with John.

The next morning, Jack offers the three new identities and backgrounds to start new lives, but John insists that his name is all he has left: he will not change it. Jack apologises for his insensitivity, and agrees that he should keep his name. Ianto brings the three to a supermarket, where they marvel at the goods and appliances available. Diane and Emma are fascinated at the variety of items on sale, but John is shocked by the sight of a magazine with a scantily clad female on the cover on open display, more so when Ianto points out she is a children's television presenter. Later, John goes to visit his old address to try and find his son, but finds the building boarded up. He and Jack have drinks at a pub, where John asks if Jack fell through time as well. Jack answers, "You could say that." John begs Jack to find his son.

Emma strikes up conversations with two other girls at the hostel. They offer her a beer, and she begins to enjoy herself, dancing and singing show tunes. John returns at that point, and scolds Emma for making a spectacle of herself, upsetting her. Emma calls Gwen, who takes Emma to stay at her flat instead. Gwen tells her boyfriend Rhys that Emma is a cousin who is visiting, after an embarassing scene in which Emma sees Rhys naked.

Owen follows Diane to see the Sky Gypsy. She wants to take the plane up, but Owen reminds her that her license has long expired. He takes her to lunch, telling her more about the new world she now lives in. The two later go back to his place, where they share a growing attraction. Diane asks Owen if he has a girlfriend, and he says no. The two make love, and begin a relationship.

Tosh tracks down John's son, who is now an old man in a home, stricken with Alzheimer's disease. John is devastated at the fact that Alan cannot remember anything but bits and pieces from his childhood, and cannot even recognise his father. Gwen and Rhys take Emma to a club, where she meets a boy. Gwen finds the two of them kissing in a corner and pulls Emma away. Gwen takes her home and has to explain to her how sexual morality has changed since 1953.

The days pass, and Diane finds herself frustrated by the fact that she is not allowed to fly. Emma finds a job as a shop-girl in London, but Gwen seems hesitant, and tells Emma they will try to find her a job in Cardiff instead. However, Rhys discovers that Emma is not Gwen's cousin, and Gwen is forced to admit that it has something to do with her work, which she cannot talk about. Rhys is more upset with the fact that it was so easy for Gwen to lie to him. Gwen confides in Emma that Torchwood and real life are like two separate worlds; Emma points out that is why Gwen has to let her go.

Ianto finds his car keys missing, and tells Jack that he suspects John has taken them. They track the car to John's old address, where Jack finds him, locked in the car, trying to kill himself with carbon monoxide fumes. Jack stops him, pleading with John to give life a chance, that he can still start a family, make friends and get a job. John replies that he did all that years ago, when he was meant to. He asks Jack to let him die with dignity rather than condemn him to live and Jack reluctantly agrees. Starting the engine again, Jack sits with John in the car until John passes out from the gas and expires peacefully.

Owen and Diane have grown even closer. Owen tells Diane that he is experiencing feelings about her that do not fit with his usual dealings with women. Diane responds by saying that she loves him too. As he sleeps, she watches him and says that the thing about love is that one is always at its mercy. The next morning, Owen finds her side of the bed empty, and a note on the pillow.

That same morning, Gwen takes Emma to the coach station so she can go to London. Gwen has bought her a return ticket just in case, warns Emma not to talk to strangers and asks her to call the moment she gets there. As the coach arrives, Gwen tells Emma she does not have to go, but Emma says that if she does not, she will always wonder what it would have been like. They hug and Emma gets on the coach.

Owen finds Diane at the airfield, where she is readying the Sky Gypsy for take-off. The weather conditions are the same as on the day they arrived, and Diane is confident that the Rift will open again. Owen begs her not to leave, telling her that the Rift will not take her back home, and there is no way to predict where she will end up. However, Diane is willing to take that chance, and will not let Owen go with her. She gives him her scarf and kisses him good-bye.

Jack, Gwen and Owen think back on how the three have touched their lives. Owen stands on the runway and watches the Sky Gypsy rise into sky, vanishing into the clouds.

[edit] Continuity

  • The Sky Gypsy is a 1946 de Havilland Dragon Rapide. It is identified as a de Havilland on the Torchwood Institute web site (where it is misnamed the Sea Gipsy).[1]
  • Conflicting information exists about the year in which the episode is set. December 29 is clearly stated as being on a Friday in the show (as it is in 2006); yet the entire series is set after the Doctor Who episode "Doomsday", which took place in 2007 in that series' continuity. However, other sources on the Torchwood Institute web site set this episode in late 2007.
  • Diane's fate is not shown in the episode. A vision of her appears to Owen in "End of Days", begging him to be "brought back".

[edit] Music

  • Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (when Jack tunes the radio for John; Gwen talks with Emma as she unpacks) is featured in this episode, along with "Trouble" by Ray LaMontagne (when Diane and Owen share drinks at his apartment), "I See You Baby" by Groove Armada (Gwen and Rhys take Emma to a club) and "The Good Life" by Tony Bennett (when Diane and Owen dance on the roof of the car-park then return to his apartment).
  • The song sung by Emma in the hostel is "I Just Blew in from the Windy City" from Calamity Jane.

[edit] Outside references

  • The visitors are taken to a branch of the supermarket ASDA for their initial orientation, although efforts are made by the production team to disguise this fact. Several recognisable brands and products are also shown on the screen, albeit quite briefly, including Maltesers, Mars Bars, Twix, Kit Kats, Milky Way bars, Cadbury Dairy Milk, and M&M's, among others.
  • Diane muses about the possibility that famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart may also have flown through a rift when she disappeared.
  • John talks about the 1953 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers, which Blackpool went on to win 4—3, and particularly praises the performance of Stanley Matthews during the match (known in football folklore as the "Matthews Final").
  • Rhys calls Emma "Pollyanna", a slang term which is derived from the main character of the 1913 novel Pollyanna.
  • Diane is delighted to see a Cessna at the air training school, remarking that they have "hardly changed at all". The plane appears to be a Cessna 170 or Cessna 172, both of which date back to the 1950s and are popular flight training aircraft.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "The Rift: 1953 Report", Torchwood Hub Interface. URL last accessed 2006-12-17[dead link]

[edit] External links

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Torchwood series 1 episodes