To The Last Man

Navigation

Previous Next

Square 130x126Square 130x126

PRODUCTION INFO

Name

To The Last Man

Serial Code

C

First Transmitted

30 January 2008

Final Ratings

3.51m

BLU-RAY RELEASE

DVD RELEASE

GALLERY

To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
To the Last Man
previous arrow
next arrow

CAST

Regular Cast

John Barrowman (Captain Jack), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen), Naoko Mori (Toshiko), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto)

Guest Cast

Anthony Lewis (Tommy), Roderic Culver (Gerald), Siobahn Hewlett (Harriet), Lizzie Rogan (Nurse), Ricky Fearon (Foreman)

CREW

Written by Helen Raynor
Directed by Andy Goddard
Produced by Richard Stokes

SYPNOSIS

Tommy Brockless is a young World War I soldier, shell-shocked from his experiences in the trenches. In 1918, Torchwood agents Gerald Carter and Harriet Derbyshire take Tommy from St Teilo’s Military Hospital in Cardiff to be kept in cryogenic storage. They leave instructions for future Torchwood members that Tommy will one day be key to saving the world. In the present day it is revealed that Torchwood have kept Tommy in storage for 90 years, releasing him one day a year for a medical check-up.

Whilst Tommy is under day-release, Toshiko elects to keep him company. Whilst Toshiko spends time with Tommy, Jack and Gwen discover that the abandoned Cardiff hospital is showing signs of time distortion, with elements of the 1918 hospital appearing in the present. Meanwhile, Toshiko and Tommy grow closer; after an afternoon in the pub, he kisses her romantically. Upon their return, Jack realises that the present year is when Tommy will be needed: he will have to travel back to 1918 and activate “basically a key” called a Rift Manipulator to close the connection between 1918 and the present and prevent disaster. As Tommy is due to be executed for cowardice three weeks after his return to 1918, Toshiko initially refuses to let him go back. Jack persuades her of the necessity of Tommy’s return.

After spending the night together, Toshiko and Tommy return to the hospital as the disruptions intensify, accompanied by Jack. During one disruption, the three witness the 1918 Torchwood team; Jack relays instructions through Tommy for them to take the 1918 version of Tommy into their custody before the older Tommy arrives. Tommy and Toshiko share a goodbye, and Jack briefs Tommy on using the key before he steps back to 1918 during the next disruption. However, when back in the past, Tommy becomes shell-shocked, and is led back to his bed by nurses; he is unable to operate the key in his state. At Torchwood’s Hub, Jack and Toshiko use the Cardiff Rift to project an image of Toshiko into Tommy’s mind. Tommy senses some familiarity with Toshiko but otherwise does not recognise her. Despite this, Toshiko is able to instruct Tommy to activate the key, and the distortions at the hospital soon dissipate.

NOTES

  • A family friendly pre-watershed edit of this episode aired at 7:00pm, the following day, Thursday 31 January 2008 on BBC Two.
  • A Torchwood team from another era is seen for the first time. Others would appear in Fragments and Exit Wounds.
  • The episode establishes that some form of military conflict in Iraq took place in The Doctor Who universe, as it did in the real world between 2003 and 2011.
  • This story states that Tommy was born on 7 February 1894 and is chronologically 114 years old, placing the story between 7 February 2008 and 6 February 2009. A calendar indicates that the first day of the story takes place on the Friday the 20th, but the month is not indicated. The only day after Tommy’s 114th birthday and before his 115th that matches this date is 20 June 2008. Either of these placements clash with and contradict dates given in several other stories.
  • This is the known second time that Torchwood Three has investigated a time shift. (Captain Jack Harkness)
  • Tommy remarks how silly it would be to save the world in pyjamas. Unknown to him, the Tenth Doctor had saved the world from the Sycorax in borrowed pyjamas following a recovery from his regeneration. (The Christmas Invasion)
  • MEDIA CLIP

    Leave a comment

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    error: Content is protected
    Skip to content