After the old 'Electro' cinema reopens as a museum of local history that was captured on celluloid, the old scenes of a black-and-white film of street scenes are interrupted by mysterious sequences which show a travelling company in the early 20th Century, just before the age of cinema. The film resists all attempts to stop it running, reloading itself, and the projector continues to operate even without power. The Ghostmaker (the leader of the company) and Pearl ('The Mermaid Woman'), once captured on film, manage to escape it and out into Cardiff. Ianto, attending this nostalgic evening with others of the team, is convinced he has seen Jack in the footage. He then witnesses the escape, noticing that two characters have suddenly disappeared from the film.
The escaped characters start roaming the streets of the city, taking an obscene delight in gathering an 'audience' to 'join their company – forever'. They steal the last breaths of innocent people, keeping their breath in a silver flask and leaving the victims severely dehydrated and only half alive – with a heartbeat, but no breath. Torchwood starts investigating the mounting casualties and begins research on these old travelling companies. Jack used to be a member of one of the companies, under cover performing the act of 'the man who couldn't die'. He tells of the mysterious 'Night Travellers', who perform only during 'the dead of the night', coming 'out of the rain' and disappearing, taking people with them. The mythology surrounding them suggests that 'young children were told to hold their breath while the travelling show passed by' – an old lady, hospitalised since her family all disappeared in her childhood, warns them of the danger.
The ghosts aim to bring all their other travelling carnival fellows back into reality at the old cinema but, finally after various victims have been hospitalised and others kept frozen at a deserted former lido by Pearl, the solution occurs to Jack. Being filmed again, the loosened entities may thus be recaptured onto celluloid. Effectively, he manages to achieve this with a home movie camera, filming all the phantasmagoric creatures as they emerge from the screen and catching up with their fleeing leader. He exposes his reel to the sun, vanishing the carnival ghosts for ever. However, for its last act before disappearing, the Ghostmaker throws the open silver flask and, despite Ianto's quick catch, most of the human souls are lost in the air. The frozen victims hidden at the lido simply disappear – Torchwood never even knowing of them – and the cataleptic victims in the Cardiff hospital all die, except for one child from an entire family affected. At his bedside, Ianto and Jack return his breath and bring him back to life. The silver flask ends up being stored by Jack in his safe at Torchwood.
Though the threat of the Night Travellers has been stopped now, Jack speculates that there could be more films with their ghosts trapped inside, confirmed by a scene at a car-boot sale where a man and his son purchase an old film reel. The metal case of the film is briefly opened and, back at the Hub, Jack hears a sliver of the Night Traveller's carnival music...
Cast
John Barrowman – Captain Jack Harkness
Eve Myles – Gwen Cooper
Burn Gorman – Owen Harper
Naoko Mori – Toshiko Sato
Gareth David-Lloyd – Ianto Jones
Guest stars
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
Caroline Sheen – A&E Nurse
Alastair Sill – Young Dad
Catherine Olding – Young Mum
Production
Writer Peter J. Hammond
Director Jonathan Fox Bassett
Script editor Brian Minchin
Producer Richard Stokes
Chris Chibnall (co-producer)
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Production code 2.10
Series Series 2
Length 50 mins
Originally broadcast 12 March 2008
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