Combat (Torchwood)

11 – "Combat"
Torchwood episode
Cast
Starring John Barrowman – Captain Jack Harkness Eve Myles – Gwen Cooper Burn Gorman – Owen Harper Naoko Mori – Toshiko Sato Gareth David-Lloyd – Ianto Jones
Guest Kai Owen – Rhys Williams Alex Hassell – Mark Lynch Paul Kasey – Weevil Alexandra Dunn – Barmaid Matthew Raymond – Boyfriend David Gyasi – Hospital Patient
Production
Directed by	Andy Goddard
Written by	Noel Clarke
Script editor	Brian Minchin
Produced by	Richard Stokes Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	1.11
Series	Series 1
Running time	50 mins
First broadcast	24 December 2006
Chronology
← Preceded by "Out of Time" Followed by → "Captain Jack Harkness"

"Combat" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast on 24 December 2006. It is the eleventh episode of the first series.

Synopsis

Weevils are being abducted by humans. As Owen goes undercover to find out who is committing these crimes, he meets Mark Lynch. Facing demons of his own, Owen becomes embroiled in the fightclub-like subculture of which Lynch is a part.

Plot

Gwen is interrupted at dinner with her boyfriend Rhys by Jack, who needs help chasing down a Weevil. Although Rhys furiously demands that she stay, she and Jack follow the Weevil into a carpark. Before they can subdue it, however, it is suddenly and efficiently captured by masked men in a white van, which drives off.

Several hours later, Toshiko tracks the van to a deserted warehouse by the docks. When she and Jack go to investigate, they find the body of Dan Hodges, who has been mauled by a Weevil; the dead man's phone rings, and a distorted voice warns Jack to drop the case. Owen, who is still recovering from Diane Holmes's departure and has been ignoring his own phone, is reluctantly enlisted to look into the estate agent overseeing the warehouse. While pretending to be a jellied eel exporter interested in relocating to Cardiff, he is invited by Mark Lynch, one of the estate agents, to go for a drink and discuss his options. At the bar, the boyfriend of a barmaid who had flirted with Owen the night before brings some friends to beat him up, and he and Mark viciously subdue them. The two retire to Mark's place, where Mark confesses that his material success is not enough and "out there, in the darkness, something is coming." Owen soon discovers a Weevil chained up as a punching bag, and Mark reveals that he knows Owen is a fake. He offers to show him why they have been capturing the Weevils.

Meanwhile, Jack and Ianto follow reports of suspicious Weevil-like injuries and interrogate one of the victims at the hospital. The man refuses to talk, first claiming he was mugged and then insisting that if he talks, "They'll kill me." Jack decides to release Torchwood's captive Weevil, which he has nicknamed Janet, and track whoever kidnaps her. Unfortunately, Janet is caught (and viciously beaten) according to plan, but the team later finds her tracker dangling on a fence. Gwen, who had been ordered home to repair her relationship with Rhys, drugs him so that she can safely reveal her affair with Owen, then returns to the Hub to cry over pizza when he reacts with anger rather than sympathy. With Tosh, Jack, and Ianto out tracking Janet, she is the only one at the Hub to hear Dan Hodge's phone ring again. A text with the post code of an abandoned building has come in, and she contacts the team to send them there.

Owen is already at the building with Mark, and has discovered that it is the latest location of a fight club for rich unfulfilled men. Whoever stays in the cage with a Weevil for the longest time walks away with the prize pot. Just as Mark tells him Dan Hodges did, Owen walks into the cage and closes his eyes, allowing the Weevil to maul him. Before he is killed, however, the proceedings are interrupted by the Torchwood team. While Jack is informing the club that no more Weevils are to be kidnapped, Mark enters the cage and dies. In the hospital later, Owen tells Jack that he didn't want to be saved.

Continuity

• When Mark Lynch searches the Internet for information on Owen, he uses a search engine called search-wise.net. While the site actually exists, it was created specifically for use in television programmes and films. Search-wise.net was also seen in "Rose" where Rose Tyler uses it to search for the Doctor.
• Mark tells Owen that "Something's coming. Out there in the darkness, something is coming." Suzie Costello says something similar in "They Keep Killing Suzie", mentioning something moving in the darkness beyond death and that it is coming for Jack. This presence is revealed when the second glove is used in "Dead Man Walking".
• After drugging Rhys and confessing her affair with Owen, Gwen begs for forgiveness in much the same manner as she jokingly did in "Everything Changes".

Outside references

• This episode has elements in common with the novel and the movie Fight Club, particularly in the dissatisfaction Mark feels about modern, success-driven society and the creation of an underground group where comparatively affluent young men can work off aggression.
• As Janet is captured, Jack says to Tosh, "The Weevil has landed", a reference to "The Eagle has landed", a phrase used by astronaut Neil Armstrong to announce the touchdown of Apollo 11's Lunar Module, the Eagle, on the Moon's surface on July 20, 1969. The phrase was subsequently appropriated by author Jack Higgins for his 1975 World War II-era novel The Eagle Has Landed.
• Mark Lynch's company, Lynch Frost, shares its names with David Lynch and Mark Frost, creators of the series Twin Peaks.

Production

• Noel Clarke, who wrote this episode, is better known for playing Mickey Smith in the 2005 and 2006 series of the revived Doctor Who. He is the first actor with an ongoing role in Doctor Who to write a televised episode of a Doctor Who-universe production (although a previous Doctor Who actor, Ian Marter, wrote novels based upon the series after his tenure on the show).

Music

• The song "Over and Over" by Hot Chip plays in the background during a scene in the bar.
• The deceased man, Hodges, has a Crazy Frog ring tone on his mobile phone.
• The song "Assassin" by Muse plays in the background when Owen first enters the warehouse.

External links

• Combat on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• "Combat" episode guide entry on the BBC website
• Template:Brief
• Template:Doctor Who RG