Lost Souls (audio story)

"Lost Souls" is an original BBC Radio 4 audio play written by Joseph Lidster. It aired on 10th September 2008 in the Afternoon Play slot as part of Radio 4's Big Bang Day which celebrated the switching on of CERN's Large Hadron Collider that same day. An mp3 version of the audio play will be made available for seven days after broadcast and it is due for release on CD and as a download on 18th September 2008. Andrew Marr introduced the audio play live from CERN.

Synopsis
When scientists start to disappear after the Large Hadron Collider was switched on at CERN, Torchwood investigates.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * Ianto Jones - Gareth David-Lloyd
 * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
 * Professor Johnson - Lucy Montgomery
 * Dr Harrington - Stephen Critchlow
 * Leon Foiret - Mark Meadows

Continuity

 * The Torchwood team are still grieving the deaths of their colleagues Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato.
 * They have not seen Martha Jones, who is working for UNIT, since the funeral. Upon greeting Martha, Jack welcomes her with the words "voice of a nightingale", the phrase he greeted her with upon her arrival in the Torchwood episode "Reset".
 * The team are heard in pursuit of recurring Torchwood monsters Weevils and reference is made to Martha's fiancé, Thomas Milligan, a character seen in Doctor Who episode "Last of the Time Lords" and her friend Julia Swales, a character seen in Doctor Who episode "Smith and Jones".
 * An alien creature poses as the ghosts of Owen, Toshiko and Ianto's deceased girlfriend, Lisa Hallett, a character seen in Torchwood episode "Cyberwoman".
 * Jack uses the phrase "reverse the polarity", a phrase associated with the Third Doctor in Doctor Who.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * Torchwood is no longer a covert organisation? At the nightclub, Gwen introduces herself as "... Gwen Cooper, we kill aliens". This story takes place after numerous world-wide events had made the knowledge of alien life widespread (for example, DW: The Runaway Bride). Several Torchwood episodes, such as Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Dead Man Walking establish that Torchwood is, to a degree, widely known by the public.
 * The story is intended to coincide with the real-life activation of the collider. However it has been established that "current" Torchwood storylines take place a year ahead of real time, so this story takes place in 2009 - a year after the real-life activation of the collider. Not everything in the Doctor Who Universe coincides exactly with real-life history. Perhaps in the DWU the Collider wasn't activated until 2009 -- possibly due to some of the other-worldly events that had occurred recently?