Sargasso (audio story)

 was the twenty-eighth story in the Torchwood - Monthly Range by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Christopher Cooper and featured Kai Owen as Rhys Williams.

Publisher's summary
Torchwood vs Monsters!

The seas of planet Earth are choked by plastic. Plastic that no-one has a use for and no-one can get rid of.

Rhys Williams finds himself stranded on a container ship in a sea of debris. People on board are dying. Because, luckily, someone's found a solution to Earth's polluted waters. The Nestene Consciousness can never have too much plastic.

Plot
Rhys is travelling from Milford Haven to the Port of Wilmington aboard the Corinthian Tide when, in the North Atlantic garbage patch, the engines stop. Whilst looking for Captain Banaczik, he and Kaitlin find the ship covered in rubbish and come across the corpse of a man apparently crushed by plastic. Many of the surviving crewmen attempt to escape the ship, but their lifeboat is attacked and sunk by sentient rubber ducks which Rhys believes could be alien. Kaitlin, however, is sceptical about aliens and Torchwood until Rhys saves her and Banaczik from attacking shopping bags.

Power is restored to the ship and Rhys leaves Kaitlin and Banaczik barricaded in a room whilst he tries to save a member of the crew, but the crewmember is torn apart by the ducks. The trio hide in one of Rhys's shipping containers and Kaitlin confides in him that she has been doing research for an environmentalist group in opposition to the interests of her father, who owns Bakin Petrochemicals. In the hopes of sending out a message, Rhys and Kaitlin have Banaczik lead them to the server room, but Rhys notices that she barely seems to know her way around the ship. They eventually arrive and Banaczik reveals that she is an Auton.

Rhys and Kaitlin, whom the Nestene Consciousness has made a telepathic link with in the hopes of gaining information, are herded into engineering where Auton facsimiles of the dead crew are being stored, apparently ready to take their place when they arrive in Wilmington. Although Banaczik claims that the Autons are not their enemy, Rhys and Kaitlin set fire to the ship to destroy the plastics and escape in fire-retardant evac suits in which they float for several hours before they are picked up.

Rhys gives Gwen a call and Kaitlin tells him about the dangers of plastics, including how they can be inside people. She leaves to make use of her father's company, telling the Nestene that they have work to do.

Cast

 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Kaitlin - Sydney Feder
 * Captain Anika Banaczik - Chloe Ewart
 * Yonich - Robert Jezek
 * Sailor - Wilf Scolding

Businesses

 * Kaitlin's family owns Bakin Petrochemicals.

Culture

 * Rhys is listening to James Brown.
 * Rhys remembers David Attenborough talking about the North Atlantic garbage patch on television.
 * Kaitlin refers to the real possibility of "some asshole with bad hair" blowing the world to hell.
 * Rhys refers to Kaitlin as a millennial.
 * The Nestene attack with rubber ducks.

Locations

 * The Corinthian Tide travels from Milford Haven to the Port of Wilmington.

Science

 * Still conditions in the ocean are called dead calm.

Technology

 * The Nestene Consciousness takes control of a plastic computer keyboard.

Continuity

 * Rhys says he is just a lorry driver. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang et al)
 * Rhys refers to Gwen leaving Torchwood behind, (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn) and bringing up their daughter away from it all. (TV: The New World, AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers)
 * When the Praxeus pathogen would later begin to seize control of Earth through its plastic waste, the Thirteenth Doctor would briefly suspect the Autons while visiting the Indian Ocean garbage patch. (TV: Praxeus)