'Combat' by Noel Clarke

An awkward dinner between Gwen and Rhys is interrupted when Jack rushes past the restaurant in pursuit of a Weevil, one of the feral alien creatures that infest Cardiff’s sewers. Much to her boyfriend’s annoyance, Gwen ditches him to help Jack, and together the two Torchwood colleagues set off after the monster. However, just as they corner the Weevil in a car park, a white van pulls up – two black-clad men bundle the creature inside and speed off… Back at Torchwood, Ianto reports on a surge in unusual injuries at the city’s hospital, while Toshiko traces the white van to a warehouse on the docks. Gwen tries calling Rhys, unaware that he is screening and deleting her messages; also ignoring Gwen’s calls is Owen, currently drowning his sorrows in a local nightclub, and getting into a fight with the barmaid’s boyfriend. Gwen’s concern over Owen’s whereabouts increases when she learns from Tosh of his involvement with Diane. Down in Torchwood’s cells, Jack and Ianto find their captive Weevil – nicknamed Janet – weeping, as it telepathically feels the pain of another of its kind. Concerned that someone is hunting and torturing Weevils, Jack sets off with Tosh to the warehouse, only to find the place deserted apart from the badly-mauled body of a young man; when the mobile phone on the corpse rings, Jack answers it and hears a distorted voice warning him to stay out of things. Owen’s autopsy on the body confirms that the victim died from Weevil bites, as well as an attack by human hands, leading Jack to consider the possibility that someone is using the savage beasts to carry out the perfect murder. Posing as the wealthy owner of a jellied eel empire looking to relocate his business, Owen visits the estate agents that leased the warehouse; he strikes up a rapport with charismatic manager Mark Lynch, and agrees to meet him for a drink after work. Jack and Ianto question another newly admitted patient suffering from Weevil bites, but the man refuses to talk, clearly terrified of the repercussions of informing. In desperation, Jack decides to place a tracker on Janet and release the creature onto the streets of Cardiff in the hope that it too will be taken – a dangerous plan vehemently opposed by Tosh and Ianto. When Owen meets Mark for a drink, they are interrupted by the arrival of the barmaid’s boyfriend and two of his mates; a fight breaks out Owen and Mark easily deal with their attackers – although Owen loses control and viciously beats his assailant. Impressed by how Owen handled himself, Mark invites him back to his house for a drink, and offers him the opportunity to vent his anger further by taking part in something very dangerous… As Jack, Tosh and Ianto track Janet the Weevil through Cardiff, it isn’t long before the men in the white van appear and kidnap the monster. When Rhys returns home early from a heavy night on the town with his mates, Gwen confesses to him about her affair with Owen; Rhys is shocked and hurt, but before he can respond to Gwen’s pleas for forgiveness, he passes out from the amnesia drug that she spiked his drink with. Snooping around Mark’s house, Owen finds a padlocked door; picking the lock, he finds a room filled with martial arts equipment – and a Weevil secured by heavy chains. Mark appears and reveals that he knows Owen is an impostor; after using the Weevil as a living punch-bag, he offers to show Owen what is really going on… Jack, Tosh and Ianto follow Janet’s signal, only to find the tracking device tied to a wire fence – they have lost the trail. A distraught Gwen seeks comfort from her colleagues, only to find the Hub empty; as she breaks down in tears she hears a text arriving on the corpse’s mobile phone; checking the device, she finds a message containing a postcode, and, having traced it to a disused building, she contacts Jack to give him the location. Meanwhile, Mark takes Owen to the meeting place and shows him the ultimate extreme sport that he has created for his clients: a ‘Fight Club’ in which combatants stake £1000 to enter a secure cage containing a Weevil; whoever manages to stay in the longest with the vicious creature wins all the money in the pot. Owen vows to stop the barbaric proceedings, but Mark pulls a gun on him and orders him to enter the cage; however, Owen willingly steps inside the arena, closing his eyes and welcoming death as the ferocious creature attacks him. At that moment Jack and the others burst in and stop the slaughter, ordering everyone off the premises and declaring the Fight Club over. Seeing the end of his little empire, Mark deliberately steps into the cage and allows the Weevil to kill him. Some time later, Jack visits Owen in hospital and learns that his colleague didn’t want saving, he was at peace until Jack blundered in. The next day Owen returns to Torchwood and visits the two Weevils in the cells – sending the creature scurrying in fear with a bestial snarl of his own…

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Alex Hassel (Mark Lynch), Paul Kasey (Weevil), Alexandra Dunn (Barmaid), Matthew Raymond (Boyfriend [Tommy]), David Gyasi (Will Harris), Angharad Williams (Woman)

Directed by Andy Goddard
Produced by Richard Stokes
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC3):
Sunday 24th December 2006 @ 9.30 pm
(BBC2 TX: Wednesday 27th December @ 10.00 pm)

Notes:
*Featuring Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Ianto Jones

*Writer Noel Clarke played semi-regular character Mickey Smith in 'Doctor Who'