Believe (audio story)

Believe was the third of the Torchwood - Special Releases. It featured Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato.

Publisher's summary
The Church of the Outsiders believe that mankind is about to evolve, to reach out into the stars. Owen Harper believes that Torchwood has to do whatever it takes to stop them.

Part one
Davey Russell sets up his video camera and records a message for the world, saying that humanity must let go of the Earth and ascend into the stars. He says to praise the Outsiders and Captain Jack Harkness before dousing himself in petrol and setting himself alight.

In the Hub, Owen tells Jack, Gwen, Ianto and Tosh about Steve Ross and the Church of the Outsiders, identifying Val Ross and Frank Layton as the Church's current leaders and Andromeda Ross as a good way in. When Jack asks how this is relevant to Torchwood, Owen tells them that the Greys have stolen from a UNIT storage facility and shows him Davey Russell's video.

Although Jack refuses to be a part of it, Owen sends Gwen to find Andromeda, who is on the run from the Church, Ianto to sign up for the Church and Tosh to London to extract information from Layton, guided by Owen. Tosh joins Layton at a restaurant and flirts with him whilst Gwen forces her way into Andromeda's hotel room, running with her from the Greys. Ianto is accepted into the Church and is made Erin Lewis's co-pilot.

Tosh goes home with Layton, planning to sedate him. However, when he declines to drink, Owen encourages her to pretend that he is someone else and have sex with him, searching his house once he is asleep. She does so, taking control of the situation and forcing Owen to listen, taunting him about his inability to have an erection. Layton catches her searching through his things and points a gun at her.

Gwen and Andromeda are on their way to the Hub when the Greys ram Gwen's car. The Greys go to have a look and one says that they think that they might have killed them.

Part two
Erin Lewis has a consultation with Val Ross and tells her that she is hopeful that aliens will be better than humans and that she is sick of being lied to. She meets her co-pilot Ianto, going by the name John Davies, and introduces him to the commune, doing his first consultation. They bond at dinner, where she tells him about the Greys. He updates Owen. At night, Ianto is caught spying on the Greys in the West Wing and pretends that he wants to join. They taze him.

Tosh is saved from Layton by Owen, who breaks in and shoots him dead, not knowing that Layton had been bluffing and had told her to leave. Owen tells her to collect some of his papers and his laptop whilst he makes it look like a burglary, but she refuses and leaves.

A Grey ties Ianto down and threatens to replace his body parts if he does not tell him who sent him. The Grey sedates him. Meanwhile, Gwen regains consciousness in Andromeda's house, escaping with her to the Hub, and Tosh saves Owen as he is chased and shot at by Layton's security. She berates him for what he has put her through.

Ianto awakens in his own bed, unsure of how he got there, and tells Owen that the Church are going to be doing a live broadcast on Outsiders TV. Ianto and Erin go to the assembly, where Jack is welcomed onto the stage and gives a speech telling the Outsiders that, as a traveller in space and time, they are right. In the Hub, Andromeda pulls a gun on Gwen and makes her let the Greys in. Jack hangs himself as a display of his immortality and declares himself the new leader of the Church.

Part three
Flashing back, Jack approaches Val and demonstrates his immortality by making her stab him, saying that he is Home stellar. He briefly meets Davey Russell, who recognises him from the Internet, at a lecture. As Ianto is meeting Erin for the first time, Jack meets Val in her office to talk about Davey Russell's suicide and agrees to go public.

Gwen enables the Hub's emergency lockdown and switches off the lights, allowing her to escape from Andromeda and the Greys. Owen and Tosh go to help her.

Val has her assistant send tapes of Jack's resurrection to all major news networks whilst Jack and Ianto are reunited. Jack tells him that he was the one who saved him and goes with him to the West Wing, telling him to spread the footage of his resurrection. Andromeda learns of the Rift and Torchwood's Rift Manipulator, deciding that she will rip it open and broadcast an extract from The Outsiders' Manifesto to Centaurus. Jack and Ianto open a file called "Torchwood" which gases them.

The Greys find a Weevil and release it from its cell, only for it to eat one of them. Jack, Ianto and the Grey that tortured Ianto (named Chris) are saved by Erin. Andromeda opens the Rift and makes her broadcast, threatening the safety of the Hub and Cardiff. Gwen, Owen, Tosh and a Grey try to convince her to stop when Jack and Ianto arrive. Jack tells her that nobody is listening to her broadcast and that nobody cares. Tosh closes the Rift.

Gwen arranges for Andromeda to be consigned to Whitecliff and Jack tells her to take her there with all her memories. He goes to Val, who is dealing with the Church being ridiculed for what the news believed was a staged video, and tells her that he has taken down the Church because of her disregard for the lives of Davey Russell and the other members. Ianto approaches Erin, who remains loyal to the Church despite what has happened as it is all that she has.

Owen makes repairs to the Hub and apologises to Tosh for what happened with Layton, a situation that she said was worsened by the fact that she found nothing that they did not already know from him. Gwen takes Andromeda to Whitecliff and tells her that people do not really care about space or aliens.

On a recording of Steve Ross, he gives a lecture and tells his audience that, as long as one believes, it does not matter what anyone says about them.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Owen Harper - Burn Gorman
 * Toshiko Sato - Naoko Mori
 * Steve Ross - Mac McDonald
 * Andromeda - Lois Meleri Jones
 * Val Ross - Mali Harries
 * Frank Layton - Arthur Darvill
 * Erin - Rhian Blundell
 * Val's Assistant - Chris Rankin
 * Davey Russell - Lloyd Meredith
 * The Greys - Jennifer Sims / Aled ap Steffan

Crew

 * Cover Art - Lee Binding
 * Director - Scott Handcock
 * Executive Producers - Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs
 * Music - Blair Mowat
 * Producer - James Goss
 * Script Editor - Steve Tribe
 * Sound Design - David Nagel
 * Written - Guy Adams
 * Theme Music - Murray Gold

Worldbuilding

 * Davey has a dog called Isaac and says that his mother will look after him.
 * The Outsiders believe that humans must become Homo stellar.
 * The Rosses' comics include The Heaven Out There, Tomorrow's Planet Today, The Celestis Index and Universal Passions.
 * Layton asks for filet mignon (light on the oil) with green vegetables and oven-baked potatoes.
 * Layton is gluten intolerant.
 * Thanks to Layton, the Church was declared to be a non-profit organisation in the UK in 2003, giving them a number of tax breaks.
 * Outsiders TV is a free television programme that acts as an advert for their products and courses.
 * The biggest of the Church's communal centres was formerly Gilman Hall, a private school.
 * Corporal Gates, Laura and a man work for UNIT.
 * Ianto mentions The X-Files.
 * Grinders are a new subculture inspired by cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick of Reading University, who inserted an RFID transmitter into his arm, allowing him to control his lights and doors. He used an interface which allowed him to move a robotic arm thousands of miles away, in New York.
 * Jack mentions the Houses of Parliament.
 * Ianto mentions the Doctor.
 * Tosh claims to work for an insurance company.
 * Andromeda likens her father to a black hole.
 * Layton sarcastically asks if the Tax Office have begun using undercover agents.
 * Pictor is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, between Canopus and the Large Magellanic Cloud.
 * The 1992 StarCon is not ready available in its entirety to those who are not rich, having been deleted.
 * Erin's father does not "get" her involvement with the Church.
 * The Church give consultations with senior members. They involve using a stellarometer.
 * Erin believed that her former boss was a hider because of how weird she was.
 * Erin says that the naan bread is great.
 * Gwen says that she could do with a hot bath and paracetamol.
 * Owen blows up Layton's house with incendiary bombs.
 * The Greys include Chris, a former veterinary nurse, and Paula, who is eaten by a Weevil.
 * Jack likes his coffee black.
 * Val mentions Tom Cruise.
 * Bandrils have cloacae.
 * Andromeda likens the Hub to the Holy Grail.
 * Chris calls Jack an Uncle Tom.
 * The Greys mistakenly believe that Ianto's trouser press is an alien artefact.
 * Gwen uses a Belitrusca stun wand on the Greys.
 * Andromeda thinks that NASA are covering up the existence of life in Centaurus.
 * The Hub has a greenhouse.

Continuity

 * The team mention the last time that the Rift was opened. (TV: End of Days)
 * Owen mentions being undead, as well as 'King of the Weevils.' (TV: Dead Man Walking, A Day in the Death)
 * Jack says he has been out among the stars and agrees that humanity's future is out among them; he later tells Val that he's travelled in time and space. (TV: The Empty Child, etc.)
 * Jack and Ianto discuss Jack's recent time with the Doctor. (TV: Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords)
 * Once again, citizens of both Cardiff and London display knowledge of the existence of Torchwood, something Gwen bemoans as they are meant to be a secret organisation. (TV: Everything Changes, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
 * Toshiko has been hacking UNIT, which Jack says is "naughty." (TV: Fragments)
 * Owen notes that Jack has left Torchwood Three several times now. (TV: End of Days; AUDIO: The Conspiracy, Serenity)
 * Gwen mentions the last time that the Rift was open and the number of casualties there were. (TV: End of Days)
 * Gwen lists Cell 114, (TV: Sleeper; AUDIO: Serenity) the Nostrovites, (TV: Something Borrowed) and the Cybermen (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday, Cyberwoman) to Andromeda as reasons why Torchwood does what they do.
 * Owen can't get an erection. (TV: Dead Man Walking)
 * Steve Ross says that humans might live forever some day. (TV: The New World, etc.)