Asylum (audio story)

Asylum was an original BBC Radio 4 audio play aired on 1 July 2009. It was the first of three audio dramas to be played on the BBC Radio 4 slot afternoon play as a prelude to the show's third series.

Publisher summary
When PC Andy Davidson arrests a young girl for shoplifting, he thinks it's going to be a routine case. That is, until he sees that she is carrying a gun. The girl is soaking wet, covered in mud, and the weapon is like nothing he's ever seen before. He knows that this is a case for Torchwood... The team discovers that the girl is called Freda, but can find out nothing else. Yet when she speaks, it's a strange mix of English and Icelandic, but with a Cardiff accent. While Jack and Ianto check out the girl's weapon and her blood sample at the Hub, Gwen and PC Andy take Freda to a safe house. But when Jack calls with the results—and Freda goes on the run—PC Andy finds his world turning upside down.

Plot
Gwen gets a call from Andy inviting her, Jack and Ianto to the police station where he has taken Freda, a teenager who appeared out of nowhere and robbed a shop whilst in possession of a futuristic device. Gwen takes her and Andy to a safe house and learns that Freda has very little memory of her past beyond a burning house, the name Moira Evans and the address 51 Lundy Street. Although Freda believes that visiting the address could help trigger her memory, Gwen refuses to let her leave until her blood has been tested.

Jack and Ianto head back to the Hub with the device, which Jack tests in the SUV and finds is a Universal Remote Control capable of disrupting transport, communications and security. He steals a motorcycle for the rest of the journey due to the traffic he unwittingly causes with the device and detects a small and almost unnoticeable amount of Rift activity above the river at Maendy, indicating that Freda deliberately travelled there through the Rift.

Freda remembers that she has come from 2069 and Gwen decides to take her to the Hub upon being informed by Ianto that her blood test indicates that she is not human, but Freda runs away to 51 Lundy Street as Gwen argues with Andy about taking her away and finally tells him that Torchwood deals with aliens. She remembers that Moira Evans was her grandmother and, when Gwen and Andy catch up with her and ask about her species, that she is half-Ghosty, which led to her house being set on fire and her family dying. She takes Jack's bike when he arrives and Jack, Gwen and Andy go after her.

Before Freda can jump into the river where she arrived, Andy approaches her and persuades her that her mother would not want her to commit suicide. She declines Gwen's offer of retcon to help her start a new life in the 21st century and, before falling asleep, says that she was saved and sent through the Rift by a man from Torchwood. Ianto deduces that future Torchwood sent her back so that he, Jack and Gwen would adopt an asylum policy for aliens and they discuss how best to give her a new life. Andy assures her that she will be fine.

Cast

 * Jack - John Barrowman
 * Gwen - Eve Myles
 * Ianto - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * PC Andy - Tom Price
 * Freda - Erin Richards
 * The Security Guard - Matthew Gravelle
 * The Policewoman - Sara McGaughey
 * The Dog Walker - Dick Bradnum
 * The Girl - Isabel Lewis

Worldbuilding

 * Barry Beat FM is a radio station.
 * Gwen does not take milk or sugar in her coffee.
 * Freda was born on 30 May 2053. She is Citizen UK818945/CF209B.
 * By the year 2069, Earth's food is being rationed.
 * Andy has a cousin from Machynlleth who claims to have been abducted by aliens.
 * Freda's alien heritage comes from her grandmother, who was one alien refugee of 13 from a planet that was being destroyed by solar flares.
 * Jack threatens to Retcon Andy when he annoys him during a ride in his police car.
 * Jack agrees to create an asylum policy in Torchwood Three.
 * Torchwood Three was still active in 2069, as Freda claimed that they had originally sent her through the Rift.

Download and CD release

 * The story was released on CD on 22 September 2009, and was also made available to download from the AudioGo website.
 * Lost Souls, Asylum, Golden Age and The Dead Line were released, individually and together as a four-disc collected box set, entitled The Radio Adventures.

Continuity

 * Gwen mentions to Andy an aircraft from 1953 once came through the Rift. (TV: Out of Time)
 * The Girl asks if Gwen has kids, and then suggests she should one day. Gwen and Rhys conceive a child shortly before the incident with the 456 ambassador. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)