To the Last Man (TV story)

To the Last Man was the third story in the second series of Torchwood. It was notable for featuring Toshiko Sato as the main character, as she was in the first series story Greeks Bearing Gifts.

Synopsis
Once a year, for a single day, Tommy Brockless is defrosted in the Torchwood hub to make sure he's still working. He is kept alive until the day he is needed, when ghosts appear at a hospital and it's clear that the time has come.

Plot
It is the year 1918, the climax of World War I, and two members of the Torchwood Institute, Gerald Kneale and Harriet Derbyshire have arrived at St Teilo's Military Hospital to investigate the rumors of ghostly apparitions appearing within its walls, spooking its populous. Harriet is using a device to track the activity of the Cardiff Rift that has suspiciously coincided with these sightings. The two Torchwood personnel unintentionally spook an unusually jumpy nurse as they come clamoring down the stairs of the hospital in search of what they suspect to be triggering the disturbances of the rift. Gerald apologizes for the intrusion and Harriet asks the nurse if she has caught sight of any ghosts today, to which she testifies three sightings in the hospital ward thus far. Gerald and Harriet take heed, heading into the ward on the double.

Inside the ward, the nurse laments that these reported sightings could be a result of delusions brought on by patients having nervous breakdowns- the wounded and shell-shocked soldiers being treated at St Teilo's aren't in the best mental state from their traumatic experiences at the war front. They have been ordered by Field Marshal Haig to "fight to the last man" and "fight on to the end," at which Gerald and Harriet express pity. However, it becomes evident they do not have time to have condolences for the victims when the hospital lurches violently. This is not the product of a bomb explosion; it is a fissure about to tear open in the Cardif Rift.

The Torchwood agents enter the storage room, where the rift activity is peaking on Harriet's detector. They are greeted with a ferocious burst of white light and turbulent wind. The rift has split open and a time shift is in full force. To Gerald and Harriet, it appears that two people have emerged from out of nowhere. They gaze at a woman dressed in clothes completely unlike their own, as though they were from another era entirely. This woman is a familiar face to some, but a complete stranger to Gerald and Harriet. She is Toshiko Sato from the year 2008, part of a Torchwood ninety years into the future, along with a soldier from the WWI era who somehow ended up in their time, Tommy Brockless. Tommy is dressed in hospital pajamas with an unmistakable leather jumper belonging to a man of the 1918 war front. They have somehow made contact with the Torchwood agents of the past across this breach in the Cardiff rift. Toshiko instructs Tommy to tell these people from another time something important, or else everything they know will end. Tommy quickly explains that he is also residing in this hospital at the same time he is speaking to the agents. The two must fetch him and find a way to get him to the future alive so that he can speak to them now from 2008.

Gerald and Harriet immediately return to the recovery ward to find another Tommy Brockless, the one native to 1918, propped in a hospital bed, recently scarred from battle. Gerald comfortingly tells Tommy to come with them, but he coils up with apprehension. Gerald introduces himself along with Harriet, reassuring Tommy that they will take care of him. He asks them, "Who are you?" Gerald gives a succinct reply: "We're Torchwood."

In the year 2008, it is time for Tommy Brockless to annually awaken from cryogenic storage. Once he is, he panics until Toshiko reminds him that it is that time of year for him to wake up. He asks for a cup of tea, which is provided by Ianto. Gwen doesn't understand why he's here, and Jack explains that one day, they are going to need him.

Later, Owen and Tosh take him in for blood samples, when he recites his name, rank, regiment and parents' death dates. During this, Jack explains to Gwen that there was once a time shift in St. Telio's Hospital in 1918, going on to say that eventually, chunks of 1918 will appear in the hospital until the rift is complete. Once this is complete, the rift will cause a chain reaction, creating time shifts all over the world. When Gwen asks how Tommy fits into the picture, Jack says Tommy stops it somehow, showing her "Eyes Only Document, FAO Torchwood, commander overseeing case 1918/TB, and the temporal lock (which can only be opened when the rift nears completion) that comes with it. Tosh and Tommy leave on a date shortly afterwards.

remainder to be added

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness — John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper — Eve Myles
 * Owen Harper — Burn Gorman
 * Toshiko Sato — Naoko Mori
 * Ianto Jones — Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Tommy — Anthony Lewis
 * Gerald — Roderic Culver
 * Harriet — Siobhân Hewlett
 * Nurse — Lizzie Rogan
 * Foreman — Ricky Fearon

Story notes
to be added

Ratings

 * Unofficial overnight rating: 3.2 million viewers

Filming locations

 * Toshiko and Tommy visit the Norwegian Church in Harbour Drive, Cardiff Bay.
 * Penarth Pier was where Toshiko Sato and Tommy first kissed.
 * The Eli Jenkins pub on Bute Crescent, Cardiff Bay.

Production errors

 * Tommy states that he is from Blackley in Lancashire but mispronounces the name of the town as "Black-ley". The correct local pronunciation is more like "Blake-ley".
 * Kai Owen is credited despite Rhys Williams not appearing in this episode.
 * When Tommy picks up Tosh, she throws her bag to the floor, only for it to be on her shoulder in the next shot.
 * When Tosh and Tommy are talking at the bay, in one shot her hair is being blown by the wind, but the next shot it isn't.

Continuity

 * Tommy remarks how silly it would be to save the world in pyjamas, a side reference to TV: The Christmas Invasion, where the Tenth Doctor previously confronted the Sycorax in borrowed pyjamas following a recovery from his recent regeneration, or possibly The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
 * A Torchwood team from another era is seen for the first time.
 * This is the second time Torchwood Three has investigated a time shift. TV: (Captain Jack Harkness) Coincidentally, it involves World War I, making this the second instance a time shift opened up access to a war era; the first time shift in Cardiff that Torchwood Three discovered brought Jack and Toshiko to the height of the London blitz in World War II.

DVD releases

 * To the Last Man, along with the rest of Torchwood Series 2, was released in a complete series box set in 2008.
 * The American DVD release of the episode was titled Last Man Standing.