'Cyberwoman' by Chris Chibnall

At the end of a busy day, the Torchwood team enjoys a game of basketball before heading off to a bar for the evening – all except Ianto, who orders pizza and then meets in secret with a cybernetics specialist named Doctor Tanizaki. Accompanying Ianto to a little-used storeroom deep beneath Torchwood, Tanizaki is astonished to find a Cyber-conversion unit containing a partially-Cybernised woman – all that remains of Ianto’s girlfriend, Lisa. Ianto explains that his girlfriend was captured by Cybermen during the incident at Torchwood One in Canary Wharf [see ‘Doctor Who’ – ‘Army of Ghosts’ and ‘Doomsday’]; however, during the ensuing battle he managed to get her to safety, and with Lisa’s help they converted parts from a conversion unit into a life support system. Tanizaki agrees to help make Lisa human again, and begins work on augmenting her systems to allow her to survive independently. Meanwhile, Jack and the others receive a report of a UFO sighted over Cardigan Bay; their return to the Hub sends Ianto into a panic, forcing him and Tanizaki to conceal Lisa. While Ianto puts on a brave face and rejoins his colleagues, Lisa decides to show her appreciation to Tanizaki by improving his body’s functionality; she straps the protesting doctor into the conversion unit and begins ‘upgrading’ him. Offering to investigate the resulting power drain on the Hub’s systems, Ianto is horrified to find Lisa standing over Tanizaki’s bloody corpse, which now has Cyber components embedded in it; appalled at Lisa’s actions, Ianto hides the corpse in the cells. Determining that the owners of the UFO are Arkans, a group of extraterrestrial sightseeing bores, Jack and his team send them packing. When Lisa’s attempt to re-energise herself triggers another power drain, Toshiko discovers an unknown life trace in the Hub, and finds that the CCTV logs have been tampered with; suspecting a security breach, Jack sends Owen and Gwen to investigate, while Tosh manages to retrieve footage of Doctor Tanizaki’s arrival. Owen and Gwen find the Cyber-conversion unit, but are then attacked by Lisa; Owen is knocked out, while Gwen is forced into the machine for upgrading. Jack arrives, but is stopped from shooting the Cyberwoman by Ianto; as Lisa escapes, Toshiko shuts off Torchwood’s power just before the conversion unit slices up Gwen. Furious at the presence of a Cyberwoman in his base, Jack holds Ianto at gunpoint and demands an explanation; Ianto reveals that Torchwood’s remit to act against alien threats forced him to keep his girlfriend’s existence a secret. Tosh announces that the power will take six hours to come back online – Torchwood Three is now in Lockdown. Lisa reappears and proclaims herself as “Human.2”; she plans to use the Hub’s resources to build a Cyber-army. Still wresting with the remains of her humanity, Lisa tells Ianto that she will transplant her brain into his body so that they can be together forever; however, on seeing her boyfriend’s horrified reaction, Lisa declares him to be incompatible and strikes him down. Jack confronts Lisa, buying Tosh time to head upstairs to use the emergency activation circuit in Reception. Lisa kills Jack with her electrified touch, but he promptly comes back to life; the Cyberwoman kills him again and then leaves, allowing a resurrected Jack the opportunity to breathe life back into Ianto. With the armoury locked down, Owen and Gwen check the mortuary for medical instruments to use as weapons, but are forced to hide in a cadaver cabinet when Lisa follows them; inside the confined space, the two enjoy a terror-filled kiss; when a phone call from Rhys alerts the Cyberwoman to Gwen’s location, Owen stabs Lisa with a scalpel, but the Cyberwoman refuses to die. Holding Lisa back with a blowtorch, Jack then sets Torchwood’s pterodactyl on her; as the fearsome creature rakes the Cyberwoman with its razor sharp beak and talons, Tosh restores the power to the pavement lift, allowing Jack, Own, Gwen and Ianto to escape to street level. Jack and Ianto clash, unaware that the pizza delivery girl, Annie, has just arrived at Torchwood’s reception; finding it empty, the girl ventures down to the Hub – where she is overpowered by Lisa, now mortally wounded but still clinging desperately to life… Ordered by Jack at gunpoint to take responsibility for his actions and kill his girlfriend, Ianto returns to the Hub, where he is devastated to find Lisa’s dead body lying on the floor; however, his distress quickly turns to horror when he learns that Lisa has transplanted her brain into Annie’s body. Although sickened by this turn of events, Ianto still cannot bring himself to kill the woman he loves – but the decision is made for him, as Jack, Tosh, Owen and Gwen open fire on Annie’s reanimated corpse, finally ending the threat. Some time later, Jack allows Ianto to return to work; as he watches the receptionist clear up after the battle, Jack ponders on what means to be able to die…

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), Caroline Chikezie (Lisa Hallett), Togo Igawa (Doctor Tanizaki), Bethan Walker (Annie)

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

TX (BBC3):
Sunday 5th November 2006 @ 10.00 pm
(BBC2 TX: Wednesday 8th November @ 9.00 pm)

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

*Working title: 'The Trouble With Lisa'