The Twilight Streets

Torchwood book
The Twilight Streets
Release number	6
Featuring	Jack Harkness Gwen Cooper Owen Harper Toshiko Sato Ianto Jones
Writer	Gary Russell
Publisher	BBC Books
Set between	"Meat" and "Reset"; After "Something Borrowed" (parallel reality)
Release date	6 March 2008
Preceded by	Trace Memory
Followed by	Pack Animals

The Twilight Streets is a BBC Books original novel written by Gary Russell and based on the British science fiction television, Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. It features all the regular cast of the show. It was published on 6 March 2008.

Plot introduction

Jack Harkness receives a message in 1941 which simply reads "Revenge for the Future". There's a part of the modern city that no one much goes to, a collection of rundown old houses and gloomy streets. No one stays there long, and no one can explain why - something's not quite right there. Even Jack himself seems unable to enter the area, feeling physically ill when he tries. Now the district of Cardiff is being renovated and opened with street parties and entertainers out in force to advertise the new area. All seems well until Toshiko recognises the sponsor of the event: Bilis Manger.

Continuity

• Bilis Manger last featured in the episodes "Captain Jack Harkness" and "End of Days".
• Idris Hopper, a character from the Doctor Who episode, "Boom Town", appears in this novel. The events of the episode are referenced heavily in a flashback sequence, explaining how Jack stopped the team from getting involved to prevent them from unintentionally interacting with his past self.
• The cream sofa Rhys and Gwen were considering buying in Something in the Water is referenced.
• Rhys saving Gwen's life with the Singularity Scalpel in "Something Borrowed" is referenced in Gwen's vision of a possible future.
• The way in which Torchwood staff applaud Rhys and Gwen is reminiscent of their applause for The Doctor in the Doctor Who episode "Army of Ghosts".
• Owen and Tosh have both "moved recently to new apartments" explaining their differing appearance between series.
• Jack remembers a time he was stalked by a Hoix, a monster seen in the Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters" and later in the Torchwood episode "Exit Wounds".
• Gwen references the Torchwood procedure of storing the bodies of ex-employees and storing all of their personal belongings in a garage, a practice last shown with Suzie Costello's death in "They Keep Killing Suzie".
• In a possible future Owen makes reference to his condition and how it will not allow him to have a child with Toshiko, whom he plans to marry. Later on, he references his permanently broken hand. In this possible future, Owen has a robotic left hand which Jack apparently gave him as the "best birthday present ever".
• When Owen holds Jack at gunpoint, Jack references the coup Owen last held against Jack in "End of Days".
• As Toshiko and Owen are both dead as of "Exit Wounds", it is unlikely this future will come to pass.
• Jack attempts to contact "Archie", the "strange man" he mentions in "Everything Changes" as the only member of Torchwood Two in Glasgow.
• The character of Ianto Jones was originally going to be called Idris Hopper but was changed when Gareth David-Lloyd got the part.
• When Owen and Toshiko trap Jack in amber, Owen says "Every few hours you'll suffocate. And then come back to life". Jack then thinks "Wasn't the first time that trick had been tried".

Outside references

• When the forces of Light and Dark are advancing on 6 Coburg Street, Idris Hopper is forcibly reminded of the video to Michael Jackson's "Thriller".
• When Ianto is telling Jack that he "had a dream," Idris is reminded of Martin Luther King's famous speech.
• When Idris is infected by The Dark, Ianto hopes "his head doesn't swivel and start talking about [Ianto's] mother", a reference to The Exorcist.
• Idris is hoping to have a choice between The Simpsons and Frasier as the in-flight entertainment whilst flying to Berlin. Gary Russell, under the pseudonym Warren Martyn, wrote unofficial guidebooks for both of these series.