Gideon Lyme

Gideon Lyme was a journalist.

Early life
Gideon Lyme was born in Tobago and was given his name by his mother, who chose it from the Bible and whom he would later remark got most of her best ideas from the book. Their house had rats living under the floorboard, resulting in him having no fear of them later in life. He had an aunt who had a London biscuit tin and an uncle who gave him a gold tooth as a present.

Lyme was gay but never invited any men back to his home. He found the British Empire embarrassing and once saw the man who ran the island, who was wearing a three-piece suit in a heatwave, faint in the middle of a speech and require his guards to prop him up. The crowd politely applauded after an awkward pause. (AUDIO: Parasite)

Move to London
Lyme worked as a journalist for the Tobago Times and attached clippings of his work to a job application for a newspaper in London, choosing it due to its liberal stance on equality and race relations. He received a job offer which he chose to accept, making arrangements to travel to England by boat and stay with Mrs Fortescue at 14 Lancaster Gardens.

The boat was full of rats, which did not bother Lyme. He spoke with a nun in steerage who had woken up with one on her pillow. Upon arriving in England, he was told that his luggage had gone missing, had his job offer retracted once the editor saw that he was black and was turned away by Mrs Fortescue for the same reason. In despair, he chose to remain in the path of a taxi in the smog. (AUDIO: Parasite)

Original timeline
Lyme suicide attempt was successful; he was hit by the taxi and died.

In the 21st century, the Torchwood Three computer told Andy Davidson that the way to save Norton Folgate from his collapsing timeline was to save Lyme from being killed, after which he would bring Torchwood One down. (AUDIO: Parasite)

Association with Torchwood
Lyme was saved by Andy from being hit by the taxi. Someone left behind a briefcase containing documents on Torchwood behind for Lyme to pick up.

Lyme presented the documents to the editor, who chose to give him the job and told him to investigate, keeping him on as his salary was paid by the George Ezra Fund. In addition, his luggage turned up and Mrs Fortescue called him to let him know that she had changed her mind about letting him stay. (AUDIO: Parasite)

Fate
Lyme believed that he would be dead by Andy's time, his happily-ever-after long gone in Andy's point of view. (AUDIO: Parasite)

Personality
Lyme hated sitting on the sidelines, particularly as he was a reporter. He liked tea and ham sandwiches, but did not like scrambled eggs.

He was unafraid to address and confront others' racist attitudes. He was gay and, unlike Norton, was not comfortable with having sex behind a bush in a park. He was unafraid of rats due to growing up with them under the floorboards and was thus unaffected by them on the ship to England. (AUDIO: Parasite)

Appearance
Lyme was black and called "pretty boy" by Belle Epoch. He had a gold tooth, which Norton thought suited him and which was given to him as a present by his uncle. (AUDIO: Parasite)