Suckers (audio story)

 was the sixty-fourth story in the Torchwood - Monthly Range by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Alexander Stewart.

Publisher's summary
Shireen's not exactly enjoying being sectioned, but she's been in worse places. That psychiatric unit in Brecon was a right dump. This one's alright, though. There's table tennis, art therapy and they even get to do a bit of gardening.

There's only one problem. Shireen's roommate. Toshiko - she's a total space cadet, convinced the unit is overrun by aliens. Yeah, right.

Plot
Detained for six months under section 3 of the Mental Health Act, Shireen is moved to Chelmsley Grove Psychiatric Unit near Abergavenny for her final month and given a room with a medicated Tosh, who warns her that the hospital is infested with aliens. Tosh has been unable to contact Jack or Suzie at Torchwood as all calls are logged by Felicia, but Shireen lends her her mobile phone and she accidentally calls Jubilee Pizza instead. Already sceptical of her claims, Shireen concludes that Tosh is indeed insane and stops listening to her to avoid being put in solitary confinement in the Seg.

Tosh herself doubts her sanity, but student nurse Steffan tells her that people who go to the Seg never come back and she remembers a roommate who disappeared. By pointing out that her medication should be stopping her from believing in aliens, Tosh gets Shireen to help her explore the facility and they witness Flis and Ivan moving a corpse in a body bag. The body has what Shireen believes are sucker marks and she breaks into Flis's office in search of paperwork despite Tosh being sure that the marks are a normal part of death. They find a list of more than seventy missing patients, all of whom were non-white and heavily medicated.

Steffan catches Tosh and Shireen and agrees to take them to the Seg and keep what he has seen secret in return for them returning the key card that they stole from him. There, Shireen is attacked by octopus-like creatures and Tosh, believing that it is a shared delusion, fetches help, later being told by Flis that Shireen was a delusion of hers. She doubts this after realising that her hand is undamaged despite Shireen cutting hers when she broke into Flis's office and gets Steffan, who admits to helping her by swapping out her medication for a lower dosage, to give her his key card to get her back into the Seg. When he joins her, he explains that the creatures are real and feed on brainwaves. Shireen, he tells her, is dead.

Tosh digs up Shireen's body in the allotment and learns that the creatures are driven into a frenzy by high doses of medication, hence why they have been completely draining patients of colour whom the staff have been giving more medication to sedate them. Steffan provides her with medication which she puts into the coffee machine, causing the creatures to attack the caffeine-drinking Flis and Ivan and leading to an evacuation of the patients. Tosh calls Suzie and tells her about the bodies buried at Chelmsley Grove. Flis survives the attack and is approached by a government official who appreciates the way that she dealt with the bed crisis and invites her to continue her programme with the surviving creatures.

Cast

 * Toshiko Sato - Naoko Mori
 * Felicia Haynes - Linda Armstrong
 * Shireen Afzal - Emma Kaler
 * Steffan Blayney - Dylan Jones
 * Ivan - Nick Asbury
 * Ms Jubilee Pizza - Sara McGaughey

Worldbuilding

 * Flis claims that Shireen is above playing the race card.
 * Mandy was Shireen's best friend in Brecon.
 * Shireen pushed her boyfriend down some stairs.
 * Tosh accidentally calls Jubilee Pizza instead of Torchwood.
 * Tosh speculates the ward is on a fault line of the Rift.
 * Razib Afzal is Shireen's brother.
 * Tosh speaks to Suzie on the phone.

Continuity

 * Tosh mentions that Torchwood was founded by Queen Victoria. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
 * Tosh recalls being put in solitary confinement after stealing a sonic modulator and being rescued by Jack Harkness. (TV: Fragments)
 * Tosh has recently joined Torchwood. (TV: Fragments)