The Dead Line
| "The Dead Line" | |||||
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| Torchwood audioplay | |||||
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| Directed by | Kate McAll | ||||
| Written by | Phil Ford | ||||
| Originally broadcast | 3 July 2009 | ||||
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"The Dead Line" is the last of four radio dramas released prior to the third series of Torchwood, a British science fiction television series which airs on the BBC. "The Dead Line aired as BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play on 3 July 2009, and features the series' regular cast.
In the early hours of the morning, Professor Stella Courtney receives a phone call from Ianto Jones. Confused as to why she is being called, Ianto reveals that Captain Jack Harkness needs Professor Courtney's help as he is dying.
At St. Helen's hospital, Gwen Cooper leads Stella to where Jack's body lay. She remarks that Jack cannot die, to which Gwen remarks that what Jack is suffering through is worse than death itself. Upon seeing the body and meeting Ianto, Stella comes to the conclusion that Jack is more entranced than comatose; as his monitor is still relaying faint signs of activity. Stella is told that there are twenty other people in the hospital in the same condition as Jack, and it all started two nights ago when a man named Bob Roberts received a phone call in the middle of the night.
Two nights prior, Bob Roberts and his wife Jan are awoken by a phone call. Bob answers the phone at the urging of his wife, only to find a strange ticking sound on the other end. Assuming it is a prank call, Bob chastises the caller; only to collapse on the floor. By the time the Torchwood team are alerted, seven more cases across Cardiff have been recorded.
Gwen and Jack go to the Roberts' household to investigate and are met by a distraught Jan. While she attends to a phone call, Gwen and Jack examine the telephone used by Bob the previous night. Jack notes the vintage appearance of the phone while Gwen's scans reveal that there are faint signs of residual Rift energy. She concludes that if something alien is in the phone network, the whole of the city could be endangered. After promising Jan they'd do their best to return Bob to health, Gwen and Jack take the phone back to the Hub.
Gwen phones Rhys at work, warning him against using phones and rejoins Ianto and Jack inside the Hub, where Jack has accumulated all the phones involved in the cases across Cardiff. Gwen notices that all the phones are the same and Jack remarks that they're from the seventies, recalling his life back then. He mentions a junior doctor he dated back in 1975, Stella Courtney, and that he still checks in to see if she's okay. Jack remarks that the phone number which called all the victims was the same and that the number is '2059'. Intrigued as to why a phone number from thirty years previous is ringing people in 2009, Jack phones the number but gets no reply. Suddenly, the retro phones all ring simultaneously; and ignoring the pleas of Ianto and Gwen, Jack answers. He collapses upon hearing the strange ticking noise on the other end.
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Wikipedia