Cyberwoman (TV story)

Cyberwoman was the fourth episode in the first series of Torchwood. It was written by Chris Chibnall, and directed by James Strong.

This episode marked the first time that Ianto Jones played a major part in the series. It also marked the first appearance of a villain from Doctor Who in Torchwood with the appearance of a Cyberman, though they were not fully converted. Additionally, Gwen Cooper discovered that Owen Harper had developed a sexual attraction to her in a not-so-subtle way, and this powerful lust for her would soon become a temptation that put a wedge in her relationship with Rhys Williams.

Synopsis
Ianto has a dark secret, tied to the basement of the Hub — a secret he will protect at any cost: a semi-converted Cyberwoman! Will Torchwood Three fix things in time before the Cybermen, ripe from battle with their greatest enemy, the Doctor, convert the world?

Plot
During a mundane day at Torchwood Three, the team decide to go get a drink, but Ianto politely stays behind. Once alone, he brings a Japanese doctor named Tanizaki into the Torchwood Hub and takes him to a holding cell deep below the surface. There, a partially Cyber-converted woman is strapped to a conversion unit surrounded by instruments keeping her alive. Ianto introduces her to Tanizaki as Lisa Hallett, his lover. They both worked at Torchwood One in London before its fall in the Battle of Canary Wharf. Lisa was only partially converted during the battle, and Ianto managed to get her to safety afterwards. He rigged the equipment in secret to keep her alive, hiding her in the Hub's basement in hopes of curing her. He hopes Dr Tanizaki, a cybernetics expert, can undo the conversion and make her human again.

They take her to the autopsy lab and let her breathe on her own, but soon the rest of the team return to deal with a rogue UFO. Ianto leaves Dr Tanizaki to take Lisa back to the cell while he prepares for the team's arrival. After he leaves, Lisa's Cyberman influence takes over. She attempts to "upgrade" Dr Tanizaki to repay him for his favour, killing him.

As the rest of Torchwood deal with the Arcan leisure crawler that has entered their atmosphere, there is a brief power flicker; Ianto covers it up by claiming that the generators have been acting up all day and offers to look into it. Returning to Lisa's cell, he finds Dr Tanizaki's body bloodied and mutilated after a failed cyber-conversion, with Lisa standing over him. Ianto tells Lisa to stay in the cell as he drags off the corpse to hide it from the team. Lisa re-enters the cybernetic unit and begins to drain more power from Torchwood, soon noticed by the others.

Arming themselves, Gwen and Owen head for the holding cell where the power drain is occurring, believing themselves under attack. Once there, they find the cyber-conversion unit, which Owen recognises, but are attacked by Lisa. Owen is knocked out. Gwen points her gun, and tries to reason with Lisa, who knocks the gun out of her hand and pushes her over. Gwen lands on her back on the conversion unit. Before she can sit up, Lisa straps her down. Jack tries to shoot Lisa before she can start the unit up, but Ianto tackles him, allowing Lisa to escape after starting up the machine, leaving Gwen powerless as the machine's saws and knives get closer to her head.

Gwen is terrified and yells for help. Jack tries to shut off the conversion unit but Lisa had altered the machine. He calls Tosh and tells her to shut power off to the base. Tosh does this, which unfortunately also means entering total lock-down. The team regroup in the Hub as the power is drained further by Lisa to recreate a new army of Cybermen. Jack demands that Ianto tell them everything. Ianto pleads that since he cleans up after Torchwood but is never asked about his life, they should help him restore Lisa, but Jack maintains that there is no cure. Ianto asks that he be permitted to reason with Lisa before the team attempts to attack her again.

Lisa appears in the Hub and Ianto tries to remind Lisa she is still human, but she is disgusted by her partially-human appearance. She offers to implant her brain into Ianto, believing that sharing the same life is true love, but Ianto refuses. Lisa therefore declares the two incompatible and throws him aside, knocking him unconscious and sending the rest of the team into action. Jack orders Toshiko to go to the surface with emergency power cells so they can open the weapons lockers while Gwen and Owen are to search for any weapons. He will try to delay Lisa's advance. Lisa electrocutes Jack twice, to Gwen's and Owen's shock.

Gwen and Owen are momentarily trapped by Lisa in the autopsy lab, and hide in a locker. As Lisa searches for them, Gwen and Owen kiss. Gwen's phone rings, alerting Lisa to their hiding place and Gwen and Owen to try to escape. As Lisa corners Gwen, Owen grabs a scalpel and stabs Lisa in the chest seemingly killing her. When Lisa starts to revive, they escape to the main Hub where they find Jack, very much alive. Jack sprays Lisa with a special "barbecue sauce" that helps Myfanwy identify its prey. As it attacks Lisa, the rest of the team, along with the recovered and protesting Ianto, escape through the invisible lift. Upon exiting the lift, Ianto punches Jack. Tosh runs up to them and tells Jack that she rigged the doors to open after a few minutes and Ianto runs to go back inside. At the entrance to Torchwood, Jack and the rest of the Torchwood group catch up to Ianto who pulls a gun on them and threatens to shoot them if they try to stop him. Jack knocks the gun away, pulls out his own and threatens to shoot Ianto, warning that if he fails to kill Lisa within ten minutes, he will come down and kill them both. Ianto returns to Torchwood by himself.

Unbeknownst to the team, a pizza delivery girl, using Torchwood's other entrance to bring some pizzas ordered earlier by Ianto, finds the pterodactyl on the floor. Then Lisa is suddenly behind her. As Ianto makes his way to the holding cell, he finds Lisa's body has died. The delivery girl appears, calling for Ianto. She has a large cut across her forehead, and claims that she is Lisa; she took the girl's body so they could be together. She begs Ianto to hold her. Crying, Ianto hugs her, then pushes her away and holds her at gunpoint. Lisa tries to explain she did this for Ianto. He cries and fails to shoot. She promises they can be upgraded together. The rest of the Torchwood team arrive just in time to hear that, and open fire on the girl, killing her and leaving Ianto to mourn over Lisa's body.

The next day, Ianto enters the Hub. Jack and Gwen watch him cleaning up and they discuss how Ianto couldn't bear to live without Lisa. Gwen asks Jack if he would have shot her if she had stood by Ianto. Jack simply states that she didn't. When she asks, he refuses to tell Gwen that he'd ever loved anyone to the extent that Ianto loved Lisa. They continue to watch in silence.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Owen Harper - Burn Gorman
 * Toshiko Sato - Naoko Mori
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Lisa - Caroline Chikezie
 * Dr Tanizaki - Togo Igawa
 * Annie - Bethan Walker

Individuals

 * Lisa is a partially converted Cybus Cyberman.
 * Ianto and Lisa once went camping in Brittany.
 * Jack references the Cybermen of the prime universe when he confronts Ianto.

Species

 * The Torchwood pteranodon attacks Lisa.
 * Torchwood sends a request to Arkan leisure crawlers, asking them to stop flying over Cardigan Bay.

Story notes

 * This is the first Cyberman episode where a Cyberman uses both the electrocution ability and the wrist-mounted blaster.
 * Lisa mentions that the Torchwood Hub would make a good Cyberman factory. The Hub set was redressed as a Cyberman factory in The Next Doctor.
 * This story had the working title "The Trouble With Lisa".

Ratings

 * 1.39 million viewers

Myths and rumours

 * Ianto was reportedly supposed to die in this episode, but fan reaction to the character in early episodes resulted in his death being postponed to the show's third series. (This is a myth that was put about on Tumblr following the character's death in Children of Earth, supposedly to suggest that fans had "saved" the character before and could do so again. However, as with almost all televised Doctor Who productions, Torchwood's first season was written and shot long before it was broadcast, meaning fans would not have had any influence over the direction of the show.)

Filming locations

 * Harbour Drive, Cardiff Bay
 * Tredegar House (basement), Newport
 * Ba Orient (restaurant and bar), Mermaid Quay

Production errors

 * In the scene where Dr Tanizaki fondles Lisa's armature and "bare flesh", the metal bends in a way that shows it to be made of rubber. This happens when she speaks, as well.
 * In all shots where the CG Cyberconversion machinery descends from the ceiling, the joints are visibly seen to clip through the center of the machinery.

Continuity

 * Owen tells Gwen that the Cybermen brought down Torchwood One, while Ianto was present at the Battle of Canary Wharf. (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday)
 * Jack notes that the form of Cyberman faced by Torchwood originated in a parallel world. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)
 * Lisa describes herself as "Human.2", the same designation the Cybermen give themselves on Pete's World. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)
 * The "New mayor, new Cardiff" newspaper article appears again. (TV: Boom Town, Reset)
 * Ianto and Lisa started dating in late 2005. (AUDIO: Uprising)
 * Toshiko previously found Ianto acting strangely around a chamber in the Torchwood Archive. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
 * The night following Lisa's death, Ianto enters the Ferret for the first time. (AUDIO: Broken)
 * In light of this incident, Ianto later feels that he has lost his colleagues' trust. (AUDIO: The Last Beacon)

DVD releases

 * This episode, with four others, was first released on a DVD entitled Torchwood: Series 1, part 1 on 26 December 2006.
 * It was later released in Torchwood: The Complete First Series on 19 November 2007.
 * It was also released in the Series 1-4 boxset (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011.)

Blu-ray releases

 * Released in the US with the rest of Series 1 as a Complete First Season set on 16 September 2008.


 * It was released in the Series 1-3 Blu-ray boxset on 26 October 2009 in the UK. The US release was on 19 July 2011.
 * It was also released in the Series 1-4 Blu-ray boxset. (Region 2 release: 14 November 2011)