'Countrycide' by Chris Chibnall

Torchwood is called in to investigate the mysterious disappearance of seventeen people in five months in a remote area of the Brecon Becons. Suspecting that the Rift may be expanding and that something dangerous has slipped through, Jack and his team set up camp on the moors near where the last victim, motorist Ellie Johnston, was abducted from her car. However, not everyone shares Jack’s enthusiasm at the prospect of sleeping rough, and tempers quickly begin to flare. As Gwen and Owen search a wooded area, the sexual tension between them sparks once more; however, their clinch is interrupted when they glimpse someone following them, and although they cannot find their pursuer, they do find a dead body, skinned, with its internal organs removed. As Jack, Ianto and Toshiko join Gwen and Owen, they hear the sound of their van being driven away; too late, they rush back to their camp to find their tents destroyed and their only means of travel now missing. Ianto uses the SUV’s tracking device to pinpoint its location: a nearby village, apparently deserted. Suspecting a trap, Jack and his team split up: while Ianto and Tosh search for the missing vehicle, Jack, Owen and Gwen investigate the village pub, where they find another eviscerated corpse. Tosh disappears while searching a remote farmhouse, and when Ianto goes to look for her, a half-glimpsed attacker knocks him out. Having found a half-eviscerated body in the house next door, Jack and Gwen enter the next house along, but a terrified man hiding there immediately shoots Gwen with a shotgun. Owen comes to the aid of his colleague, and while he treats her wound, Jack questions their assailant, Kieran, and learns that he is under siege from something inhuman. Tosh and Ianto awake to find themselves held prisoner in a cellar; searching their surroundings, they discover a trophy store of shoes taken from dozens of victims – and a refrigerator containing human body parts. Jack, Owen and a recovered Gwen take Kieran and barricade themselves inside the pub; as something attempts to break in from outside, Jack realises they failed to secure the cellar door; distracted by something trying to get in from below stairs, the team fail to stop the barricade on the front door from being breached – and Kieran is dragged screaming outside before they can reach him. While Gwen and Owen leave to get help, Jack ventures down into the cellar to see what he shot; in the darkness below the stairs, he finds more harvested body parts, and a badly wounded man named Martin; determined to learn just what is going on in the village, Jack promises to torture the man unless he reveals all... Reaching the road, Gwen and Owen encounter a policeman, who returns with them back to the village. Toshiko and Ianto meet Helen, a seemingly terrified woman who takes them upstairs at gunpoint to meet their captors; inside the woman’s living room, the two Torchwood team members find a makeshift larder full of butchered human body parts – and then learn that Helen and her husband, Evan Sherman, are those responsible for the murders. With Kieran also now his prisoner, Evan prepares to tenderise his new “meat”, Toshiko, with a baseball bat; however, Ianto intervenes, giving his friend the chance to escape. A deadly game of cat and mouse begins, as Evan chases Tosh through the woods; eventually cornering his quarry, Evan is about to kill Tosh when he is interrupted by the arrival of Gwen, Owen and the policeman; a stand off at gunpoint ensues – until the policeman reveals that he is Evan’s nephew, Huw. Forced to drop her weapon lest Owen is shot point blank, Gwen and her colleagues are dragged to the Shermans’ home, where the rest of the cannibalistic villagers are waiting for them. But as Evan makes to cut Ianto’s throat, a tractor crashes through their garage doors – Jack has arrived, and he’s not happy. Jack immediately opens fire on the villagers, incapacitating rather than killing them; he then seizes Evan, and in his rage is about to kill him when he is stopped by Gwen: she wants to question the butcher, to learn the reason behind his unspeakable actions. Evan explains that it is tradition: every decade, the villagers prey on lonely travellers, harvesting their bodies for food. Gwen is horrified, even more so when Evan admits that his taste for human flesh makes him happy. Having contacted the authorities, the Torchwood team leave as the villagers are taken away to pay for their crimes. Some time later, Gwen finds herself questioning her association with Torchwood, and the effect it is having on her; unable to bring herself to confide in Rhys, Gwen turns to Owen, and spends the night in his arms…

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), Owen Teale (Evan Sherman), Maxine Evans (Helen Sherman), Caulm Callaghan (Kieran), Rhys ap Trefor (Huw), Emily Bowker (Ellie Johnston), Robert Barton (Martin)

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

TX (BBC3):
Sunday 19th November 2006 @ 10.00 pm
(BBC2 TX: Wednesday 22nd November @ 9.00 pm)

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