'Dead Man Walking' by Matt Jones

After the tragic events at the Pharm, the Torchwood team take Owen’s dead body back to the Hub. But as Martha prepares to begin her autopsy on their fallen comrade, Jack stops the procedure and then immediately races off in the SUV. Jack pays a visit to an exclusive basement club, where a mysterious young girl reads a set of Tarot cards and advises him that what he seeks is beneath St. Mary’s Church. Jack heads for the dilapidated building, and, carefully stepping over a pack of sleeping Weevils, manages to retrieve an old wooden box from a gap in a wall… Returning to Torchwood, Jack reveals the object of his search: a second Resurrection Gauntlet, similar to the one that corrupted his former teammate, Susie Costello. Against his team’s objections Jack dons the glove and revives Owen, giving the dead man two and a half minutes of life. Realising what is happening to him, Owen is distraught, especially when Jack asks him to reveal the code to the alien morgue. As time runs out Owen collapses once more – only to find that he is still ‘alive’, despite having no pulse or heartbeat. Unseen by all, the alien glove moves of its own accord… Having checked that the glove is not draining energy from anyone, Toshiko begins analysing the artefact; meanwhile, Martha determines that the glove is altering Owen’s physical makeup, and straps a sensor device to his wrist to keep track of his condition. Owen begins experiencing blackouts, finding himself transported to a black void, inhabited by an alien presence; when this incident repeats itself, Owen hears a strange voice – and when he snaps back to reality, his eyes are black discs, and he speaks in a ancient language… Martha is concerned that Owen’s transformation is continuing to increase – he is now only 50% human. Trying to come to terms with his situation, Owen goes off for a night on the town, but his attempt to pull a girl in a bar only highlights the limitations of his dead body; Jack’s arrival doesn’t help, as Owen’s anger at being brought back from the dead results in a fight. When the police arrive on the scene, Jack deliberately allows himself and Owen to be taken away, knowing their time in a cell together will enable them to talk; after an unpleasant incident involving Owen’s lack of digestive ability, Jack gives his friend some advice on living forever; having resolved their issues, Jack then pulls rank on the police to expedite their release. As the two men return to the SUV, they suddenly find themselves surrounded by dozens of Weevils; Jack and Owen run for their lives, but the creatures give pursuit, eventually cornering them both atop a multi-story car park. However, instead of ripping their victims to shreds, the Weevils kneel in supplication to Owen – who to Jack’s horror is manifesting black eyes and speaking in an alien tongue. Back at the Hub, Tosh finds the CCTV recording of Owen’s earlier transformation; she runs it through an alien translator, which decodes the strange words as “I shall walk the Earth and my hunger shall know no bounds”. Jack and a restored Owen return to the Hub, where their captive Weevil also displays a similar reaction to its fellows. Gwen shares some information she has found regarding the translation: it relates to a legend dating back to the days of the Black Death, in the area of St. Mary’s Church: it seems a young girl named Faith was brought back to life by a deal with the Grim Reaper himself; Death used the opportunity to gain ultimate power, but before it could complete its ritual of killing thirteen victims, it was somehow stopped. Realising that Death is using him as a conduit to live again, Owen instructs his colleagues to cryogenically freeze him. Approaching a 95% change, Owen injects himself with formaldehyde, but as Martha prepares to begin the procedure, the Resurrection Glove attacks her – the hand latches onto her face and drains her life energy, leaving Martha a wizened crone; Owen blasts the glove to pieces with Jack’s handgun, but he is too late: his body completes its transformation, and a thick, black smoke pours out of his throat and eyes, coalescing into a skeletal figure wrapped in a writhing black cloud. The creature immediately kills Jack and then disappears… When Jack comes back to life he finds himself in the SUV, while the rest of his team rushes Martha’s injured form into a nearby hospital, St. Helens. Back to his ‘normal’, undead self, Owen tells his colleagues that the ‘Death’ creature is in fact Durok, a demonic embodiment of hunger. Realising that the hospital is the perfect place for the creature to find its next thirteen victims, Jack gives the order to evacuate the building while he and his team mount a search. Outside, more Weevils begin to congregate... While Jack and Gwen locate a number of Durok’s victims, Owen and Tosh rescue a young leukaemia victim named Jamie from the skeletal demon’s deadly embrace. Suddenly understanding that Faith stopped Durok because she was already dead, Owen encourages Jamie to have faith in himself, promising to show the boy how he will beat Death. Calling the creature out into the open, Owen engages the demon in combat; a ferocious battle ensues, but in the struggle Owen manages to draw the demon’s energy into himself, destroying Durok and restoring Martha back to her youthful self. Some time later, back at the Hub, Martha tells Owen that it may take many years for his body to recover from the evil energy it has absorbed. Meanwhile, Jack faces another problem: what to do with Owen…

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), Kai Owen (Rhys Williams), Skye Bennet (Little Girl), Paul Kasey (Weevil), Joanna Griffiths (Nurse), Ben Walker (Jamie Burton), Lauren Phillips (Hen Night Girl), Golda Rosheuvel (Doctor), Jamie Booth (Hospital Patient), Rhys Ap Williams (Police Officer)

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

TX (BBC3):
20th February 2008 @ 10.00 pm

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

*This story premiered on BBC 3, immediately after the transmission of the previous episode, 'Reset', on BBC2; it was then repeated in the usual timeslot on BBC2 on 27th February 2008 at 9.00 pm, and as a specially-edited pre-watershed version the next day, on BBC2 at 7.00 pm