Cyberwoman (TV story)


 * This is about the Torchwood episode. For the race see Cyberman. For specific known Cyberwomen, see Lisa Hallett, Yvonne Hartman or Jackie Tyler (the latter only upgraded in a parallel universe).

"Lisa, it's Lisa isn't it. You've been hiding in my basement, that's OK. Draining my power, I can live with that! But you are starting to hurt my friends. This is gonna stop!"

- Jack

Synopsis
Ianto has a dark secret, tied to the basement of the Hub — a secret he will protect at any cost: a half converted Cyberwoman!

Plot
During a mundane day at Torchwood Three, the team decides to go get a drink, though Ianto politely stays behind. Once the team is gone, he brings a Japanese doctor named Tanizaki into the Hub and takes him to a holding cell deep below the surface. There, a partially cyber-converted woman is strapped to a conversion unit surrounded by instruments keeping her alive. Ianto introduces her to Tanizaki as Lisa, his former lover when they both worked at Torchwood One in London. She was only partially converted during the Cyberman invasion, and Ianto rigged the equipment to keep her alive in secret. Ianto hopes that Dr. Tanizaki, a cybernetics expert, can undo the conversion and make her human again. They take her to the autopsy lab and are able to let her breathe on her own, when Ianto learns that the rest of the team is on the way back to Torchwood to deal with a rogue UFO. Ianto leaves Dr. Tanizaki to take Lisa back to the cell while he prepares for the team's arrival. However, after he leaves, Lisa's Cyberman influence takes over, and she attempts to "upgrade" Dr. Tanizaki as way of repaying him for his favor, killing him.

As the rest of Torchwood deal with the UFO, there is a brief power flicker; Ianto quickly covers up by claiming that the generators have been acting up all day and offers to look into it. Returning to Lisa's cell, he finds Dr. Tanizaki's body with Lisa standing over him. Ianto tells Lisa to stay in the cell as he drags Dr. Tanizaki's body off to hide it from the team. Lisa reenters the cybernetic unit and begins to drain more power from Torchwood, which is quickly noticed by the others. Arming themselves, they head for the holding cell where the power drain is occurring, believing Torchwood to be under attack. They find and recognize the cyber-conversion unit, but are attacked by Lisa, resulting in Owen being knocked out. Gwen points her gun tries to reason with Lisa, who knocks the gun out of Gwen's hand and pushes her over. Gwen lands on her back on the conversion unit. Before she can sit up Lisa straps her down in place. Jack attempts to shoot Lisa before she can start the unit up, but Ianto tackles him, allowing Lisa to escape after starting up the machine. The restrained Gwen is terrified and yells for help. Tosh manages to shut the unit down by entering lockdown, and eventually Jack manages to free Gwen, alowing her to get up. The team regroups in the Hub as the power is drained further by Lisa in preparation to recreate a Cyberman army. Jack demands that Ianto tell everything that's happened. Ianto pleads that since he cleans up after Torchwood but is never asked about his life, they should help him restore Lisa, but Jack maintains that there is no cure. Ianto asks that he try to reason with Lisa before the team attempts to attack her again.

Approaching Lisa, Ianto tries to remind her that she is still human, but she is disgusted by her partially-human appearance. She offers to implant her brain into Ianto, believing that sharing the same life is true love, but Ianto refuses. Lisa declares him incompatible and throws him aside, knocking Ianto unconscious, and sending the rest of the team into action. Jack orders Toshiko to go to the surface to recharge emergency power cells while Gwen and Owen are to search for any weapons they can find, while he tries to delay Lisa's advance. Lisa electrocutes Jack twice, to the shock of Gwen and Owen. Gwen and Owen are momentarily trapped by Lisa in the autopsy lab but manage to escape back to the main Hub, where they find Jack, very much alive despite the previous attack. Jack sprays Lisa with a special "barbecue sauce" that helps their pet pterodactyl identify its prey, and as it attacks Lisa, the rest of the team, along with the recovered Ianto, are able to escape through the invisible lift. Upon exiting the lift, Ianto immediately punches Jack and tries to go back inside, but Jack threatens him, saying that if he fails to kill Lisa in ten minutes, he will come down and kill them both. Ianto returns to Torchwood by himself.

Unbeknownst to the team, a pizza delivery girl, using Torchwood's other entrance to bring some pizzas ordered earlier by Ianto, finds the pterodactyl barely on the floor, and then Lisa is suddenly behind her. Later, as Ianto makes his way to the holding cell, he finds that Lisa's body has died, but the delivery girl, with a large cut across her forehead, claims she is Lisa, and that she took the girl's body so they could be together. Ianto hugs her, then pushes her away and holds her at gunpoint. Lisa tries to explain she did this for Ianto, but then promises that they can be upgraded together. The rest of the Torchwood team, arriving in time to hear that, fire several times on the girl and kill her, leaving Ianto to mourn over Lisa's body.

The next day, Ianto recovered from sadness enters the Hub. Jack & Gwen watch Ianto cleaning up and they discuss about how Ianto couldn't bear to live without Lisa and Gwen asks Jack if he'd shot her if she went to stand by Ianto but says she didn't. He refuses to tell Gwen that he loved anyone. They continue to watch.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Owen Harper - Burn Gorman
 * Toshiko Sato - Naoko Mori
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Lisa Hallett - Caroline Chikezie
 * Dr Tanizaki - Togo Igawa
 * Annie - Bethan Walker

Music

 * Chocolate - Snow Patrol

Story Notes

 * This story had a working title of; The Trouble With Lisa.
 * The Torchwood S.U.V doesn't appear in this episode.
 * This is the only Cybus Cybermen episode where the Cyberman uses both the electrocution ability and the Wrist-Mounted Blaster.

Ratings

 * BBC3 - 1.4 million viewers
 * BBC2 - 2.2 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Filming Locations
to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * The device to open the doors was the device used to extract the information from books. (TW: Everything Changes) It is presumably intended to be a different device which simply looks similar.
 * Why did Tosh not know what the device, to open the doors, was when she used it to extract information from books in TW: Everything Changes? It is presumably intended to be a different device which simply looks similar.
 * Dr Tanizaki's conversion makes no sense, parts of the Cyberman helmet were placed under his skin, if he were to be upgraded, the Cyber-Skin would be placed over his skin, like Lisa. The conversion went wrong.
 * How is it, that when Jack gets shocked twice by Lisa, he dies, yet he was able to survive many other things, like stet radiation which would usually kill people. so how could he survive that, but not survive the electricity? His immortality presumably exists at a cellular level, and so the stet radiation (which would destroy the cells) doesn't disable him, as the cells are regrowing as they are destroyed. This process causes him obvious pain. The electrocution, however, works on a higher level and damages body functions.

Continuity

 * The invasion of Earth by the Cybus Cybermen occured in DW: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday.
 * The 'New mayor, new Cardiff' newspaper article from Boom Town can be seen on the door as in Reset (Torchwood story).

DVD Releases

 * Included in the Series 1 DVD box set.