Something Borrowed

"Something Borrowed" is the ninth episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It was first broadcast on BBC Three on 5 March 2008 and repeated on BBC Two one week later. The episode was written by Phil Ford, directed by Ashley Way and produced by Richard Stokes. The episode featured the five initial series regulars John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David Lloyd plus recurring actor Kai Owen in a central role. The episode centres on the marriage of the alien hunter Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) to the transport manager Rhys Williams (Kai Owen). The wedding is complicated by Gwen's sudden impregnation by an alien, though she resolves to see the day through. When the nuptials are interrupted by an attack from the biological mother of the alien fetus (played successively by Collette Brown, Nerys Hughes and John Barrowman), Rhys, Gwen, and Gwen's teammates at Torchwood must neutralise the threat. Gwen and Rhys ultimately marry, and the wedding guests have their memories wiped. The episode was designed to be the most humorous of Torchwoods second series and incorporated elements of broad comedy and soap opera style storytelling to the monster of the week story. It was filmed largely on location in South Wales—prominent locations included the tourist attractions Margam Country Park and Dyffryn Gardens—and featured an ensemble of previously unseen Welsh characters. The episode was seen by an aggregated total of 4.76 million viewers across its three debut showings in the United Kingdom. Critical response was extremely mixed, with some reviewers praising the inclusion of a less serious episode and others expressing the view that the comedy was too overt. Plot The night before her wedding to Rhys, Gwen is impregnated through being bitten by a male shapeshifting alien called a Nostrovite, which carries the fertilised egg before planting them in Gwen as a host body. Jack shoots the Nostrovite dead. On the day of the wedding, Gwen is almost at full term with the Nostrovite foetus. Toshiko is sent to the wedding venue to keep an eye on Gwen and to deliver a new wedding dress to accommodate her alien pregnancy. The male Nostrovite's female partner arrives at the venue intending to kill the foetus' host, and birthing it.