'Small Worlds' by Peter J. Hammond

An elderly woman named Estelle Cole goes looking for fairies in her local woods, and comes across a group of pretty, twinkling forms flitting around a stone circle. After taking some photographs, Estelle turns to leave – failing to see the gentle-looking creatures transform into dark, menacing demons… At Torchwood, Jack awakes from a strange nightmare of his soldier comrades and rose petals, only to find a red rose petal on his desk. Elsewhere, young Jasmine Pierce leaves school expecting to find her mother’s boyfriend waiting to collect her; however, Roy has lost track of time, and so Jasmine decides to give up waiting and walk home. On the way, she is menaced by a strange man, who tries to coerce her into getting in his car; when Jasmine refuses, the man gets rough – only to be frightened off as something terrifying swoops down and attacks him. Jack and Gwen pay a visit to Estelle, an old friend of Jack’s family, who is currently giving a lecture on fairies; although Gwen is sceptical that such things exist, Jack is more open-minded, and asks to see more of Estelle’s photos of the creatures back at her house. While Jasmine returns home to her concerned family, the man who attacked her, Mark Goodson, flees is terror from an unseen assailant; coughing up red rose petals as he stumbles through Cardiff Market, the frightened man turns himself in to the police for protection. At Estelle’s, Gwen is struck by the similarity to Jack in a photo of his father, who was the woman’s lover before the Second World War. Heading back to Torchwood, Jack tells Gwen that fairies really do exist: they are a dangerous, primal race that date back to the dawn of time; they can control the elements, and move back and forwards in time – if Estelle has seen them, then the creatures must be found. Jasmine climbs through the wire fence at the bottom of her garden and goes into the woods to play with her special friends. Having researched the various sightings of fairies through the years, including some infamous hoaxes, the Torchwood team decide to investigate Roundstone Wood; that night, Jack, Owen and Gwen examine the stone circle, they get the feeling they are being watched… In his police cell, Goodson is killed by a vicious, winged demon; learning of the mysterious death of a known paedophile, Jack and his team arrive at the police station, and discover red rose petals stuffed inside the man’s mouth. Jack looks shaken, and comments that the creatures are protecting “the Chosen Ones”. Estelle attempts to contact the fairies using a magical invocation, but becomes frightened on seeing evil eyes watching her from the garden; she calls Jack for help, but before he and the others can get to her in time, the creatures trap Estelle outside her house and drown her in a freak rainstorm. Seeing Jack’s reaction at finding Estelle’s body, Gwen realises that it was he who was her lover all those years ago. Jack reveals that in 1909, he saw fifteen of his comrades meet a similar fate while on a troop train in Lahore; a week earlier his drunken comrades had hit a young girl with their van; the girl was a Chosen One, and the fairies retaliated by killing all fifteen men, suffocating them with rose petals. Gwen and Rhys return home to find their flat ransacked, red rose petals scattered throughout; this violation of her private life leaves Gwen badly shaken. The next morning, two girls bully Jasmine at school; when the fairies retaliate by creating a freak windstorm, only the quick thinking of a schoolteacher saves them. When the Torchwood team investigates the event, Gwen catches sight of one of the fairies in the trees above. Roy and Lynn Pierce hold a barbeque for their friends; Jasmine tries to sneak off into the woods, only to find that Roy has blocked the way with a wooden fence; upset, the girl attacks her mother’s boyfriend, but he just hits her back. A high wind whips up, and winged creatures fly down to menace the partygoers. Responding to the freak localised weather, Jack, Gwen, Toshiko and Owen team arrive too late, and fail to stop the demonic fairies suffocate Roy by thrusting rose petals down his throat. Jasmine escapes through a hole in the fence and runs into the woods; Jack and Gwen follow, but the evil creatures close in on them. Jasmine tells them that as a Chosen One, she must go with the fairies and become one of their number, or else they will use their elemental powers to destroy the world. Realising he has no choice, Jack allows Jasmine to be taken – a decision that alienates him from his team, and leaves the girl’s mother distraught. Some time later, Gwen examines the fairy photo that was deemed a hoax – only to see that one of the creatures has Jasmin’s face…

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), Eve Pierce (Estelle Cole), Sara Phillipart (Jasmine Pearce), Adrienne O’Sullivan (Lynn Pearce), William Travis (Roy), Roger Barclay (Mark Goodson), Heledo Baskerville (Kate), Ffion Wilkins (WPC), Nathan Sussex (Custody Sergeant), Paul Jones (Man in Street), Sophie Davies, Victoria Gourley (Bullies)

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

TX (BBC3):
Sunday 12th November 2006 @ 10.00 pm
(BBC2 TX: Wednesday 15th November @ 9.00 pm)

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