Something Borrowed - Torchwood 2.9

In which Gwen Cooper goes hunting for an alien creature through the streets of Cardiff. It is the night of her Hen Party, but she is going to be late. She corners the alien - which appears to be a human male - but his blood is black, leading her colleagues to surmise it may be a shape-shifter. Gwen is bitten on the wrist but Jack then appears and shoots the man dead. Jack recommends that she have her wound checked by Owen, but Gwen hurries off to meet her friends.
On waking up the following morning - the day of her wedding to Rhys - she discovers that she appears to be heavily pregnant...
Gwen contacts Jack and Owen, who inform her that some alien creatures reproduce by transmitting their eggs to a host for incubation. In this case she was impregnated through the bite. Jack recommends she postpone the wedding, but Gwen refuses. She will deal with the foetus after the ceremony. She notifies Rhys, and he is furious that Jack and her job have spoiled their big day. As neither of them has seen their parents for a while, they will inform them that they were planning to keep the pregnancy a surprise - though this will mean having to break the news later that their "grandchild" was lost. Jack sends Ianto off to buy a new wedding dress that will fit Gwen.

At the Hub, Owen carries out an autopsy on the dead man, and discovers that he was a Nostrovite. These savage creatures can take on the appearance of anyone they have seen. The male of this species plants an egg in a host body, and the female then births it by tearing the child from the host. She will do anything to get her child, and they realise that the mother will be hunting for Gwen. Tosh arrives at the wedding venue - a country house hotel. She meets Rhys' best man - Banana Boat. The Nostrovite mother - posing as a young woman named Carrie - kills and partially devours the DJ and captures Tosh and Banana Boat, tying them up in one of the bedrooms.
Rhys and Gwen are about to be married when Jack rushes in and stops the ceremony. He and Ianto rescue Tosh and Banana Boat. Ianto is forced to cut off the phones when a bridesmaid sees the DJ's corpse and alerts the other guests. The hunt is then on to identify the shape-shifting alien and protect Gwen.

The creature takes on the form of Jack and also of Rhys' mother Brenda. Bullets have no effect on it. Owen arrives with the laser scalpel he had previously used to destroy the Mayfly larva within Martha Jones. The Nostrovite may call off its attack if the foetus is destroyed. However, Owen had earlier broken his hand, and he no longer heals, so he tells Rhys that he will have to operate it. The alien corners Gwen and Rhys in an outbuilding, disguised as Brenda, and is about to attack when Jack appears with a powerful laser weapon. He destroys her. Rhys then uses the scalpel to remove the foetus.
The wedding then goes ahead, but Ianto has doped all the drinks with Retcon, so no-one but Gwen and Rhys will remember the events of the day. Later, back at the Hub, Jack digs out an old photograph. It is of him and his bride on their wedding day...

Something Borrowed was written by Phil Ford, and was first broadcast on 5th March, 2008. Ford had previously written two episodes for the first season of The Sarah Jane Adventures - Eye of the Gorgon and The Lost Boy - and he would be made script editor for the show's second series. Executive Producer Russell T Davies had wanted this episode to be lighter in tone, and also to have some soap opera elements as well. As Ford had written for Coronation Street, he was felt to be the right person for the commission.
Following the trio of episodes revolving around Owen's death and resurrection, it was time to have a little fun. Though it deals with a vicious monster, who tears its victims apart, there is a lot of humour to be found in this episode - from Ianto's shopping for a wedding dress (being assumed by the shop assistant to be buying it for himself), to Rhys' exasperated reactions to events, as well as those of the respective in-laws. It is a very good episode for Kai Owen.
I have previously commented on the fact that, due to changes in format towards season-long storylines, many of the mysteries set up around Jack were left hanging. We get another one here, as we see that he was once married (in the early 20th Century, judging by the costumes).

We are introduced to Gwen's parents - Geraint and Mary. Geraint is played by William Thomas, who had previously appeared twice in Doctor Who - as the assistant funeral director in Remembrance of the Daleks, and then as the hapless surveyor in the pre-credit sequence for Boom Town. He was the first actor to bridge the gap between the "classic" and "new" eras of the series. Mary is Sharon Morgan. Both will return in future seasons. Rhys' mother, Brenda, is another returnee from the classic era of Doctor Who. Nerys Hughes had previously played the scientist Todd in Kinda. Rhys' dad, Barry, is played by Robin Griffith. This is their only appearance in the series.
The Nostrovite mother - Carrie - is played by Collette Brown, whilst Best Man Banana Boat is Jonathan Lewis Owen.

Overall, fast paced and fun. Shame there weren't more episodes like this one.
Things you might like to know:

• Gwen foreshadows future events when she tells Rhys that nothing will stop them getting married - not if Weevils crawl out of the sewers (which will happen in Exit Wounds), or the sky is full of spaceships (as occurs in The Stolen Earth), though spaceships had previously appeared in the skies above the Taj Mahal, in End of Days, and Weevils had massed in the streets in Dead Man Walking.
• The Sam Raimi film The Evil Dead is referenced when Rhys picks up a chainsaw to attack the Nostrovite when it poses as his mother.
• The draft title for the story was simply "The Wedding". "Something Borrowed" comes from the old tradition of the bride wearing something borrowed, and something blue; something old, and something new for luck. This saying will be revisited by Steven Moffat for his first series finale - where the TARDIS is old, borrowed and blue.
• Gwen is seen eating a jar of pickled gherkins on the morning of her wedding - alluding to the odd food cravings some people experience during pregnancy. This was added by Eve Myles herself. The script simply had her drinking a glass of water.
• The first draft had Gwen and Rhys also being given Retcon, but this was changed to her declining the drug, to show that Gwen did not want there to be any secrets between her and her new husband.

E is for... Eknodine

A parasitical alien species, the Eknodine were serpentine, monocular creatures which inhabited a human host. They took over the bodies of a number of elderly residents of an old people's home in the village of Upper Leadworth, giving them unnatural strength. They attacked by emitting a green gas, which caused their victims to be reduced to piles of dust. They claimed that their home planet had been destroyed, and so they were now attacking other worlds. The Doctor, Amy and Rory encountered them when the TARDIS was infiltrated by a being known as the Dream Lord. He gave them two scenarios and challenged them to guess which was real and which was fake - one being the village, which was taking place a number of years after Amy and Rory had stopped travelling with the Doctor, and the other being within the TARDIS in the present, as the ship became disabled next to a freezing cold star.
In the village scenario, Rory was killed by one of the creatures. This prompted Amy to decide that the other scenario was the real one, as she could not live without him. It transpired that both scenarios were fake, as the Dream Lord did not have power over the waking world. As the events in the village were only a dream, it means that the Eknodine might not have really existed.

Appearances: Amy's Choice (2010).

E is for... Einstein, Albert

The Doctor met physicist Albert Einstein on a number of occasions. The Fourth Doctor claimed to have already met him when he was searching for the third segment of the Key to Time. A later encounter occurred when the newly regenerated Seventh Doctor was captured by the Rani on the planet Lakertya. She was attempting to create a Time Manipulator - a huge brain that would allow her to change the history of the universe. To create it, she needed to harness the minds of many scientists. Amongst those whom she abducted was Einstein. Once the Rani had been defeated, the Doctor took the genii home in the TARDIS, and found he had to drag Einstein away from the ship's controls so that he did not learn too much about time travel.

Einstein was also a guest at Frank Sinatra's hunting lodge one Christmas, when the Doctor met and got married to Marilyn Monroe.
In 1945, Einstein experimented with a time machine of his own, which caused him to suddenly appear in the Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor's new fez had originally been Einstein's. He had with him a flask of special liquid which he thought was a bionic fusion liquid. However, when he drank it he was temporarily transformed into an Ood. The Doctor helped him change back, though the scientist's hair now stood on end. The Doctor recommended he keep it that way as it looked more "sciencey".
When the Truth Monks took over the Earth, one of the false histories they created was having helped Einstein with his famous equation of E=MC squared.

Played by: Tom O'Leary, Nickolas Grace. Appearances: Time and the Rani (1987), Death is the Only Answer (mini-episode, 2011).

• Death is the Only Answer was the first of two mini episodes devised for school children, where they had to write a brief scene featuring only the Doctor and Amy, plus one character from history and one monster, to be filmed on the TARDIS set. The winners were the children of Oakley Junior School. It was broadcast on BBC 3 as part of the Doctor Who Confidential accompanying the Series 6 finale - The Wedding of River Song.

E is for... Ehrlich, Steffi

German crew member of the first manned base on the planet Mars. The Doctor met her when he visited Bowie Base One on 21st November, 2059. He realised that on this date she and all her colleagues were fated to die, when the base would blow up. Whilst he knew of this as a fixed point in history, he did not know the reason for the catastrophe. Instead of leaving, he stayed on and witnessed the crew come under attack by a waterborne contagion known as the Flood. This had lain dormant in the Martian icecaps for centuries, but a faulty water filter had allowed it to begin infecting the crew.
Steffi became cut off from her colleagues as water began to flow through the ceiling of the command centre. She tried to lock herself in the communications room, where she replayed a video of her two children before the water breached the area. She then became infected. She was killed when the base commander, Adelaide Brooke, detonated a self-destruct mechanism to stop the Flood from ever reaching the Earth.

Played by: Cosima Shaw. Appearances: The Waters of Mars (2009).

E is for... Editor

An unnamed human who was based on Floor 500 of Satellite 5, which broadcast news and current affairs to Earth's empire. He edited the news on behalf of his employer - the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. This was a massive bloated creature which hung from the ceiling of Floor 500. Its metabolism was such that all heat had to be pumped away from the area and distributed to the lower floors, making them uncomfortably hot. Presumably the Editor's own metabolism had been altered in some way in order that he could survive the Floor's freezing temperatures. Under the Jagrafess' influence, he manipulated the news to alter history - preventing Earth's Fourth Great and Bountiful Empire and leading to the planet becoming inward looking. Anyone posing a threat was lured to Floor 500 where they were killed, but their bodies continued to work for him due to a computer chip installed in their brain. A reporter named Cathica destroyed the Jagrafess at the Doctor's instigation, channeling the heat back up to the Floor. The Editor attempted to flee but was caught by one of his victims - an anarchist freedom fighter named Eva Saint Julienne. He was killed when the creature exploded.

Played by: Simon Pegg. Appearances: The Long Game (2005).

• Pegg is one of only two actors to have appeared in Doctor Who, Star Wars and Star Trek. (The other plays his sidekick in the latter franchise).
• Pegg was originally offered the role of Pete Tyler in Father's Day, but had to turn it down as he was unavailable for the filming dates.

E is for... Edith

Edith was the wife of Wulnoth, headman of a small village on the north east coast of England in the year 1066. She befriended the Doctor when he wandered into her home. He claimed to be a lost traveller, and she invited him to stay for food and some mead. From her he discovered where and when the TARDIS had landed, and realised a Viking invasion of the area was imminent. She also gave him information about the nearby monastery when he heard the anachronistic sounds of a gramophone record slowing down. Edith and some of the other village women gave food to the Monks - or at least the only one whom they had ever met. When a Viking raiding party arrived soon after, they assaulted Edith. She survived the attack, and was able to warn Wulnoth of the Viking presence. Trusting the Doctor, she also led her husband to distrust the Monk - who was actually a member of the Doctor's own race, out to interfere with history. Edith joined the other villagers in a raid on the monastery, upsetting the Monk's schemes.

Played by: Alethea Charlton. Appearances: The Time Meddler (1965).

• Charlton had previously played cave woman Hur, in the very first Doctor Who story. Sadly, she died at the relatively young age of 44, from cancer, in 1976.

E is for... Eddison, Lady

In 1926 Lady Clemency Eddison invited some friends to her country home to spend the weekend in the company of the celebrated crime writer Agatha Christie. As well as her husband, Colonel Hugh Curbishley, and her son Roger, the attendees included the Rev. Arnold Golightly, Professor Peach and Miss Robina Redmond. When the TARDIS materialised in the grounds, the Doctor and Donna gatecrashed the party. Prof. Peach was found murdered in the library, and the Doctor claimed to be a police detective, allowing him to investigate the crime with Mrs Christie. More killings occurred, and it was discovered that the culprit was an alien Vespiform - a huge wasp-like creature. Vespiforms could assume the appearance of other beings, so it became clear that one of the family members or their guests was an impostor. The Doctor soon discovered that Lady Eddison had returned from India some 40 years ago pregnant. Her housekeeper, Miss Chandrakala, had helped keep this secret. The child - a boy - was placed in an orphanage. Lady Eddison revealed that she had met a charming young man whilst in India, but he was really a disguised Vespiform. She had fallen pregnant by him but he later drowned in a flood. He had gifted her a fabulous jewel - the Firestone - which was really a Vespiform psychic device.
A huge fan of Mrs Christie's works, the Firestone had channeled her thoughts into her abandoned son just as his true identity asserted itself during a moment of great stress. This was the Rev. Golightly, who discovered his true nature when confronted by thieves in his church. His mind filled with details of Agatha Christie plots, he killed Professor Peach as he had worked out his real parentage, and Miss Chandrakala as she knew of the pregnancy. He then murdered Roger out of fraternal jealousy.
As well as losing both her sons, Lady Eddison also discovered that her husband was not an invalid as he claimed. He had been feigning illness as he was worried she might leave him.

Played by: Felicity Kendal. Appearances: The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008).