Torchwood One – Machines

#2.03. 9 to 5 ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

Working in an office sounds like a soul crushing existence, especially if you work in customer service: that’s what my mam used to do when she worked for Npower, a couple of years before I was born. I remember her telling me about someone who refused to pay their energy bills and had no heating for Christmas Day, and she just cut them off because they started swearing down the phone. It just sounds like such a horrible job.

Anyway, we’ve arrived at the finale of this box set. It’s Monday morning and the temps are going to work… but for many, this will be their last day alive!

◆ Publisher’s Summary

It's Monday morning. Stacey loves Mondays. Stacey loves every day. Stacey lives to work. She's a temp and she loves it. Only there's a man in the coffee queue who has a terrible warning for her. Stacey is going to die today.

◆ DISCLAIMER

It was only after pre-ordering ‘I Hate Mondays’ that I was made aware of the Islamophobic and transphobic rhetoric that Tracy-Ann Oberman continues to share on social media.

For this reason, I will not be purchasing any further releases featuring Oberman. I refuse to support someone with such despicable views.

I previously covered the first four sets for TimeScales, so will be porting those reviews over to this site: each of them will carry this disclaimer. They were all written prior to May 2023. Please remember not to take any of my comments in this review about Oberman’s performance – positive or negative – as condoning her frankly awful views.

◆ Yvonne Hartman

Tim Foley finally joins Torchwood One, and he’s given Yvonne some truly excellent material.

Tracy-Ann Oberman gives her A-Game in ‘9 to 5’.

Yvonne claims to be head of HR, as of ten minutes ago, and that she’s a bit of a workaholic herself. Stacey thinks that she’s really nice, and that she’s got great hair (something which we can all agree on). She’s very assured and gives off more of a management vibe than that of a temp. For Queen and Country, Yvonne Hartman will don a scrunchie!

◆ Ianto Jones

Ianto has been given some amazing material in this episode, some of it being quite brutal towards the end. Really well written stuff.

Gareth David-Lloyd puts on an immaculate performance in ‘9 to 5’.

Ianto claims they’ve investigated a load of these Whitehall seized offices; Office XXX wasn’t nearly as interesting as it sounded. He tries really hard to be sensitive and tactful with Stacey – unlike his boss, whose brutal honestly wont work on this occasion. It’s clear that he really cares and that he really wants to help this innocent lass. When Ianto first joined Torchwood, he couldn’t tell if he’d scream with rage or excitement. I found it absolutely hilarious that he defeats WOTAN by essentially deleting System32! The ending to this episode is rather brutal, especially for Ianto: he promised to save Stacey from her fate, but failed to do so. This whole experience has clearly taken its toll on him.

◆ Story Recap

On floors 15 – 22 of a nondescript office block in Central London, the temporary workers hired by Temporary Solutions are hard at work digitising all the old government information, all at the behest of Whitehall.

Many unremarkable office units have been tasked with similar, right across the capital, and all given a codename to work under. Torchwood One have taken a particular interest in the office codenamed “HQP”, and have a lot of questions that need answering.

Why is the head of Temporary Solutions so familiar to Yvonne? And what does the operation have to do with Blind Summit and the Brett Archive?

◆ Workin’ 9 to 5! What a way to make a livin’!

This episode reveals that WOTAN managed to survive its apparent deletion, and proceeded to establish Temporary Solutions based on other technology that had been salvaged from the Brett Archive by one Blind Summit: the same people responsible for the Excellium Incident in the previous episode.

This is no ordinary temping agency, but calling its workers “temps” is more accurate than you might think. These temporary people are named that because they have a limited life span: they only last a single week, implanted with false memories to keep them motivated and productive. If the temps ceased being productive, they’d be taken upstairs and wired directly into WOTAN; a process most comparable with upgrading the processors in your home computer.

The omnicidal AI also constructed a temporary human with a bit more knowledge to act as his mouth piece, named Elaine Hartwell. That name is remarkably similar to the director of Torchwood One, because she’s actually an imperfect clone of her! I really adore the ideas in this episode: Tim Foley has done a marvellous job.

◆ Sound Design

Iain Meadows brings the office landscape to life beautifully. Though it becomes rather horrific once we enter the server room and see what WOTAN has turned into.

The sound of coffee being brewed in the lobby’s café. Ianto’s scanner bleeping like mad, attracting unwanted attention from security. Phones ringing in the offices, answered by loyal workers and temporary people. Guns being fired in the cubicles by an armed temp, firing at Ianto. Tanya explodes after having her brain pumped with excess information. The chiming of Big Ben in the distance accompanied by London traffic, as Stacey attempts to flee. The sever room is horrific; temporary people are wired directly into WOTAN. Alarms begin blaring in the HQP offices as WOTAN suffers a fatal error and starts having a total meltdown!

◆ Conclusion

“A temp can only know so much.”

Torchwood One have taken a particular interest in an office codenamed “HQP”, and have a lot of questions that need answering. Stacey is a temporary person – in more ways than one – and is scheduled to die at the end of the day. Can Ianto save her before then?

Tim Foley named this episode after a jolly country and western song, which is rather misleading when you realise quite how brutal the ending is. ‘9 to 5’ sees WOTAN making one last power grab, and failing spectacularly! An excellent conclusion to one of the best sets in this range.