Director: Jonathan Fox Bassett
Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Julian Bleach (Ghostmaker), Camilla Power (Pearl), Craig Gallivan (Jonathan Penn), Stephen Marzella (David Penn), Hazel Wyn Williams (Faith Penn), Lowri Sian Jones (Nettie Williams), Eileen Essell (Christina), Anwen Carlisle (Restaurant Owner), Yasmin Wilde (Senior Nurse), Alastair Sill (Young Dad) & Catherine Olding (Young Mum)
After an old cinema re-opens, two sinister circus performers return from the past to exact revenge on the art-form that killed their act – but they need an audience...
That old chestnut of people being brought to life via celluloid is Peter J. Hammond's contribution to season 2; another of his spooky, supernatural tales that has moments of enchantment and poetry, but is too earnest and humdrum to make much impact...
From Out Of The Rain has a spine-tingling opening, with a little girl being taken to see a night-time travelling circus by her mum (never a good idea), before a ratty-moustached entertainer known as the "Ghostmaker" (Julian Bleach) offers her a ticket. With the exchange made -- the girl and the circus promptly vanish, leaving the girl's mother all alone in the empty field...
We jump forward 80 years to find a young projectionist called David Penn (Stephen Marzella) splicing together film for the grand opening of his parent's cinema-museum The Electro. The film features old footage of the local Hope Street's residents from the 1920s, but David is puzzled to find a creepy image of the Ghostmaker mixed into the reel, beckoning him closer. At the same time over at the Hub, Jack (John Barrowman) hears unearthly circus music floating on the air, confusing him.
Meanwhile, Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) is taking Owen (Burn Gorman) and Gwen (Eve Myles) to The Electro's grand re-opening, having been fascinated by the place since he was a kid. Inside, the 20s-style décor and period-dressed staff set the tone for the night's retro-entertainment, but manager Jonathan Penn (Craig Gallivan) is enraged to find images of circus entertainers mixed in with the Hope Street film being shown...
As he rushes to chastise his projectionist son upstairs, Ianto is convinced he glimpsed Jack in the weird circus footage, but the others are unconvinced and ,bored of the repeating film, all decide to leave...
Little do they realize that the Ghostmaker and his lithe accomplice Pearl (Camilla Power) have managed to escape from the film now it’s been played, to appear outside at a rain-soaked bus stop. The menacing pair approaches a young woman waiting for a bus, and the Ghostmaker catches her breath in a silver flask, rendering the girl "undead".
At the Hub, Tosh (Naoko Mori) directs Owen, Ianto and Gwen over to Hope Street after detecting a surge of energy in the area, and they find the bus stop girl sat alone with cracked lips, a heartbeat, but no breath. Lifeless. After taking the girl to hospital, it appears there could be a spreading epidemic – as the Ghostmaker and Pearl have also stolen the "life force" of a restaurant owner, whose stiff body arrives at the hospital minutes later.
Jack arranges for the Electro's film cans to be taken back to the Hub for review and, after the whole crew now notice Jack in the footage, he admits to once being part of a circus in the 1920s (billed as "The Man Who Can't Die"). Back then, he remembers hearing ghost stories of "The Night Travellers" – a ragtag group who only performed at night, and were thought to be responsible for the disappearances of local residents who went to see them. Ianto then notices the film footage has changed from its Electro screening; with a few characters now absent in the frame -- presumably having been released from the film and given physical form.
Taking refuge at a decrepit, empty swimming pool, it's confirmed the Ghostmaker and Pearl are collecting breaths to create "ghosts" of their victims (who will be their audience forever), and also intend to release the rest of their troupe by tracking down more of the film they escaped from.
More victims are arriving at the hospital, including a small boy, and the Senior Nurse (Yasmin Wilde) mentions how this reminds her of the ramblings of an old lady called Christina. Jack and Ianto go to see the elderly Christina (Eileen Essell) at the grounds of a nursing home, and she recounts her own encounter with the "Ghostmaker" when she was a little girl, and was shown a silver flash he used to capture peoples' breaths. Gwen's research shows that many villages and towns reported missing people soon after a travelling circus passed through, confirming Christina's spooky tale...
David the projectionist returns home, finding the Ghostmaker and Pearl are there and stealing another film can. He manages to get away and call Torchwood, prompting Jack's idea to stop the Night Travellers by capturing their celluloid bodies on camera film again -- but this time exposing the film to direct sunlight to destroy them.
At the Electro, the Night Traveller's "ghost audience" are seated in the auditorium, as the stolen circus film is played. Torchwood arrive to see travelling circus performers magically stepping out of the screen – such as a strongman and two jugglers. Owen races to the projection booth to stop the film and encounters the Ghostmaker – who has no choice but to leave him alone because undead Owen has no breath to be captured.
Jack has been filming all the activity with a handheld cine-camera and, after a chase outside the cinema into an alley, exposes his film strip to sunlight. The Night Travellers all burn out of existence, but not before the Ghostmaker throws his silver flask into the air. Ianto manages to catch it, but all but one of the captured breaths has escaped.
Unfortunately, this means most of the Ghostmaker's victims die immediately, with the small boy at the hospital the only survivor. Later, Jack arrives with the flask and tips the remaining breath into the boy's mouth, reviving him.
At the Hub, Ianto says he's destroyed all the remaining film cans, but Jack is worried that the Night Travellers could still return one day – as many people could have them on dusty film cans hidden in their attics, waiting to be played. The denouement finds a father and son buying an antique film can at a car boot sale, with the son accidentally dropping it onto the floor. As it the can cracks open slightly, Jack again hears the ethereal circus music, just as he locks away the Ghostmaker's flask...
There's the seed of a wonderful idea in From Out Of The Rain, but this episode's script was in desperate need of rewrites. The notion of malevolent circus entertainers escaping from an old film is juicy, and old-fashioned circus folk themselves have intrinsic creepiness. But this episode just didn't hang together well and never felt like an episode of Torchwood. It's a problem that affected Hammond's previous episode, Small Worlds, with the Sapphire & Steel writer clearly dusting off some ideas better suited to that classic show, and transplanting them into Torchwood as best he can.
There's certainly stuff to savour here, though: the rain-soaked Cardiff streets were atmospheric, the performance by Julian Bleach (next year's Davros on Doctor Who?) was good fun, Camilla Power made for a suitably sexy/creepy villain, it was nice to see Jack and Ianto as an investigative double-act, and Hammond has a good ear for elegiac dialogue, and a keen sense of whimsy.
But there were storytelling problems lurking in every corner; such as the pointlessness of the reveal that Jack worked in a circus – as it ultimately had no relevance! Wouldn't it have been better if Jack had actually encountered the Night Travellers once before, or his past somehow held the key to stopping them? I mean, why did he have the supernatural ability to hear their spectral circus music, anyway?
But no, he'd just heard stories about them – which limited his usefulness, and made a later visit to Christina quite pointless, because the old lady basically just confirmed what Jack already knew. I think writer Hammond just likes to include elderly women for Jack to interact with, as he wrote one before in Small Worlds.
The Night Travellers were kept frustratingly vague, too. In their human state back in the 20s, they still possessed supernatural abilities – but all that was never explained. And why did they bother snatching people in the 1920s, when there was a captive audience for their act anyway? The main antagonist was known as "The Ghostmaker", so I assume that’s always been his "professional skill" – but to what end? Oh, and why didn't the Ghostmaker's flask disappear when Jack exposed his film reel to sunlight?
Maybe I'm being too harsh and fastidious. Hammond's writing takes place in a dream-like state where natural law doesn't apply. This would have made a half-decent Sapphire & Steel episode, but Torchwood's primarily a science-fiction show – and, therefore, requires some semblance of plausibility behind it.
Anything supernatural on Torchwood and Doctor Who usually has a foundation in speculative technology or alien physiology, but Hammond deals strictly with the anything-goes world of the paranormal. So here, characters with scientific background just accept that two dead circus acts have come back to life purely because their images were shown in a cinema. Absolutely no explanation is given for how that might be possible, no matter how tenuous.
Overlooking all the silliness, I did enjoy the ambience of this episode (courtesy of director Jonathan Fox Bassett) although it's a shame the budget didn't provide a decent-sized circus, or manage to populate the re-opening of The Electro cinema with more than 10 people! I'm guessing The Electro re-opened and re-closed the same night based on that turnout! But the rainy Cardiff night was a superb backdrop for Ghostmaker and Pearl (both characters delivering a few nice scares and beautifully evil dialogue), and their empty swimming pool hideout was suitably haunting.
Like I said, From Out Of The Rain was a few rewrites below-par, and events reach an inevitable conclusion. It was definitely gutsy to end with the majority of the victims dying, and the old-school ending (threatening the Night Traveller's imminent return) was fun, if slightly oversold when Jack heard the ominous music again.
A flawed episode with a few effective moments. Easy to watch, but easier to forget.
12 March 2008
BBC Three, 9.50 pm
Cast: John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Burn Gorman (Owen Harper), Naoko Mori (Toshiko Sato), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones), Julian Bleach (Ghostmaker), Camilla Power (Pearl), Craig Gallivan (Jonathan Penn), Stephen Marzella (David Penn), Hazel Wyn Williams (Faith Penn), Lowri Sian Jones (Nettie Williams), Eileen Essell (Christina), Anwen Carlisle (Restaurant Owner), Yasmin Wilde (Senior Nurse), Alastair Sill (Young Dad) & Catherine Olding (Young Mum)
After an old cinema re-opens, two sinister circus performers return from the past to exact revenge on the art-form that killed their act – but they need an audience..."Make her cry. I want to drink her tears."
-- Pearl (Camilla Power)
That old chestnut of people being brought to life via celluloid is Peter J. Hammond's contribution to season 2; another of his spooky, supernatural tales that has moments of enchantment and poetry, but is too earnest and humdrum to make much impact...
From Out Of The Rain has a spine-tingling opening, with a little girl being taken to see a night-time travelling circus by her mum (never a good idea), before a ratty-moustached entertainer known as the "Ghostmaker" (Julian Bleach) offers her a ticket. With the exchange made -- the girl and the circus promptly vanish, leaving the girl's mother all alone in the empty field...
We jump forward 80 years to find a young projectionist called David Penn (Stephen Marzella) splicing together film for the grand opening of his parent's cinema-museum The Electro. The film features old footage of the local Hope Street's residents from the 1920s, but David is puzzled to find a creepy image of the Ghostmaker mixed into the reel, beckoning him closer. At the same time over at the Hub, Jack (John Barrowman) hears unearthly circus music floating on the air, confusing him.
Meanwhile, Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) is taking Owen (Burn Gorman) and Gwen (Eve Myles) to The Electro's grand re-opening, having been fascinated by the place since he was a kid. Inside, the 20s-style décor and period-dressed staff set the tone for the night's retro-entertainment, but manager Jonathan Penn (Craig Gallivan) is enraged to find images of circus entertainers mixed in with the Hope Street film being shown...
As he rushes to chastise his projectionist son upstairs, Ianto is convinced he glimpsed Jack in the weird circus footage, but the others are unconvinced and ,bored of the repeating film, all decide to leave...
Little do they realize that the Ghostmaker and his lithe accomplice Pearl (Camilla Power) have managed to escape from the film now it’s been played, to appear outside at a rain-soaked bus stop. The menacing pair approaches a young woman waiting for a bus, and the Ghostmaker catches her breath in a silver flask, rendering the girl "undead".
At the Hub, Tosh (Naoko Mori) directs Owen, Ianto and Gwen over to Hope Street after detecting a surge of energy in the area, and they find the bus stop girl sat alone with cracked lips, a heartbeat, but no breath. Lifeless. After taking the girl to hospital, it appears there could be a spreading epidemic – as the Ghostmaker and Pearl have also stolen the "life force" of a restaurant owner, whose stiff body arrives at the hospital minutes later.
Jack arranges for the Electro's film cans to be taken back to the Hub for review and, after the whole crew now notice Jack in the footage, he admits to once being part of a circus in the 1920s (billed as "The Man Who Can't Die"). Back then, he remembers hearing ghost stories of "The Night Travellers" – a ragtag group who only performed at night, and were thought to be responsible for the disappearances of local residents who went to see them. Ianto then notices the film footage has changed from its Electro screening; with a few characters now absent in the frame -- presumably having been released from the film and given physical form.
Taking refuge at a decrepit, empty swimming pool, it's confirmed the Ghostmaker and Pearl are collecting breaths to create "ghosts" of their victims (who will be their audience forever), and also intend to release the rest of their troupe by tracking down more of the film they escaped from.
More victims are arriving at the hospital, including a small boy, and the Senior Nurse (Yasmin Wilde) mentions how this reminds her of the ramblings of an old lady called Christina. Jack and Ianto go to see the elderly Christina (Eileen Essell) at the grounds of a nursing home, and she recounts her own encounter with the "Ghostmaker" when she was a little girl, and was shown a silver flash he used to capture peoples' breaths. Gwen's research shows that many villages and towns reported missing people soon after a travelling circus passed through, confirming Christina's spooky tale...
David the projectionist returns home, finding the Ghostmaker and Pearl are there and stealing another film can. He manages to get away and call Torchwood, prompting Jack's idea to stop the Night Travellers by capturing their celluloid bodies on camera film again -- but this time exposing the film to direct sunlight to destroy them.
At the Electro, the Night Traveller's "ghost audience" are seated in the auditorium, as the stolen circus film is played. Torchwood arrive to see travelling circus performers magically stepping out of the screen – such as a strongman and two jugglers. Owen races to the projection booth to stop the film and encounters the Ghostmaker – who has no choice but to leave him alone because undead Owen has no breath to be captured.
Jack has been filming all the activity with a handheld cine-camera and, after a chase outside the cinema into an alley, exposes his film strip to sunlight. The Night Travellers all burn out of existence, but not before the Ghostmaker throws his silver flask into the air. Ianto manages to catch it, but all but one of the captured breaths has escaped.
Unfortunately, this means most of the Ghostmaker's victims die immediately, with the small boy at the hospital the only survivor. Later, Jack arrives with the flask and tips the remaining breath into the boy's mouth, reviving him.
At the Hub, Ianto says he's destroyed all the remaining film cans, but Jack is worried that the Night Travellers could still return one day – as many people could have them on dusty film cans hidden in their attics, waiting to be played. The denouement finds a father and son buying an antique film can at a car boot sale, with the son accidentally dropping it onto the floor. As it the can cracks open slightly, Jack again hears the ethereal circus music, just as he locks away the Ghostmaker's flask...
There's the seed of a wonderful idea in From Out Of The Rain, but this episode's script was in desperate need of rewrites. The notion of malevolent circus entertainers escaping from an old film is juicy, and old-fashioned circus folk themselves have intrinsic creepiness. But this episode just didn't hang together well and never felt like an episode of Torchwood. It's a problem that affected Hammond's previous episode, Small Worlds, with the Sapphire & Steel writer clearly dusting off some ideas better suited to that classic show, and transplanting them into Torchwood as best he can.
There's certainly stuff to savour here, though: the rain-soaked Cardiff streets were atmospheric, the performance by Julian Bleach (next year's Davros on Doctor Who?) was good fun, Camilla Power made for a suitably sexy/creepy villain, it was nice to see Jack and Ianto as an investigative double-act, and Hammond has a good ear for elegiac dialogue, and a keen sense of whimsy.
But there were storytelling problems lurking in every corner; such as the pointlessness of the reveal that Jack worked in a circus – as it ultimately had no relevance! Wouldn't it have been better if Jack had actually encountered the Night Travellers once before, or his past somehow held the key to stopping them? I mean, why did he have the supernatural ability to hear their spectral circus music, anyway?
But no, he'd just heard stories about them – which limited his usefulness, and made a later visit to Christina quite pointless, because the old lady basically just confirmed what Jack already knew. I think writer Hammond just likes to include elderly women for Jack to interact with, as he wrote one before in Small Worlds.
The Night Travellers were kept frustratingly vague, too. In their human state back in the 20s, they still possessed supernatural abilities – but all that was never explained. And why did they bother snatching people in the 1920s, when there was a captive audience for their act anyway? The main antagonist was known as "The Ghostmaker", so I assume that’s always been his "professional skill" – but to what end? Oh, and why didn't the Ghostmaker's flask disappear when Jack exposed his film reel to sunlight?
Maybe I'm being too harsh and fastidious. Hammond's writing takes place in a dream-like state where natural law doesn't apply. This would have made a half-decent Sapphire & Steel episode, but Torchwood's primarily a science-fiction show – and, therefore, requires some semblance of plausibility behind it.
Anything supernatural on Torchwood and Doctor Who usually has a foundation in speculative technology or alien physiology, but Hammond deals strictly with the anything-goes world of the paranormal. So here, characters with scientific background just accept that two dead circus acts have come back to life purely because their images were shown in a cinema. Absolutely no explanation is given for how that might be possible, no matter how tenuous.
Overlooking all the silliness, I did enjoy the ambience of this episode (courtesy of director Jonathan Fox Bassett) although it's a shame the budget didn't provide a decent-sized circus, or manage to populate the re-opening of The Electro cinema with more than 10 people! I'm guessing The Electro re-opened and re-closed the same night based on that turnout! But the rainy Cardiff night was a superb backdrop for Ghostmaker and Pearl (both characters delivering a few nice scares and beautifully evil dialogue), and their empty swimming pool hideout was suitably haunting.
Like I said, From Out Of The Rain was a few rewrites below-par, and events reach an inevitable conclusion. It was definitely gutsy to end with the majority of the victims dying, and the old-school ending (threatening the Night Traveller's imminent return) was fun, if slightly oversold when Jack heard the ominous music again.
A flawed episode with a few effective moments. Easy to watch, but easier to forget.
12 March 2008
BBC Three, 9.50 pm
