The Conspiracy

The Conspiracy was story number 01 in the Torchwood Monthly Range.

=Synopsis= Captain Jack Harkness has always had his suspicions about the Committee. And now Wilson is also talking about the Committee. Apparently the world really is under the control of alien lizards. That’s what Wilson says. People have died, disasters have been staged, the suspicious have disappeared.

It’s outrageous.

Only Jack knows that Wilson is right. The Committee has arrived.

=Plot= Jack Harkness details George Wilson's backstory, his journey from a journalist to a conspiracy theorist. George Wilson tells of tales about the Committee, a group of aliens from the planet Erebus who controls Earth's governments. Jack Harkness is going after George Wilson because what George Wilson says is the truth.

George Wilson had come to Cardiff to promote his new book and Jack Harkness attended the event undercover as a reporter from Plexus Magazine. He was sat next to Sam Hallett, who recognised Jack Harkness. George Wilson then came on stage and began his talk. He tells tales of the Committee being responsible for all significant events in human history and has controlled them for thousands of years.

After the talk, Jack Harkness approached Kate Wilson and asked for an interview with her father and he managed to charm her into securing one. As he left, he knew Sam Hallett had followed him. As he was about to turn around to confront him, he received a call from Gwen Cooper of a Weevil attack and ran off to deal with it. The next day, Jack met with Kate who led him to her father. She outlined two topics to avoid, his alcoholism and his divorce, to which Jack agreed. Entering the room, Jack greets George Wilson and Kate left the two alone. Jack turned on a device disguised as a dictaphone to scan for alien life, only for there to be no trace of any. The interview began and Jack immediately asked him about the Committee. George claimed it was told to him by a CIA contact, and that several friends and acquaintances know of the Committee and their plans.

Jack continued his questions on the Committee, asking George about their names and their motivations. He then asked George about his time as a journalist. It was then Kate walked in before he could answer. She looked at Jack and wondered why he asked about that and Jack replied that they never agreed that it was off-limits. Kate moved to stop him but George decided to go ahead and answer him anyway. An Eye of Providence vlog by Sam Hallett has him telling that he was set next to someone familiar. He told the audience how he followed Jack out into the parking lot and took some photos of him. He then posted them online on his Instagram and asked anyone who recognised him to contact him.

As Jack left, he ran into Sam Hallett again and he showed him various photos he took of Jack Harkness over the years. Sam Hallett then revealed he knew about Torchwood which prompted Jack to threaten him into silence. Jack Harkness then drove off, leaving Sam Hallett all alone in the parking lot.

Returning back to Cardiff Bay, Jack Harkness spent the entire night watching recordings of George Wilson's talks and interviews. Going through the material, he noted some of the things were completely accurate, while others were completely wrong. As Jack Harkness was about to turn in the night, he received a call from Sam Hallett. Sam said people broke into his flat and wanted to speak to Jack. He said that Jack had to come to the Skypoint construction site at Cardiff Bay and Jack headed off to find Sam.

Arriving at the construction site, he found Sam up on a platform with a noose around his neck. As he talked, Sam was either pushed or fell, and he hung until he was dead. Jack later found out about a video that had been shown online of Sam Hallett, who denounced himself. After that, Torchwood's phone lines lit up with dozens of calls from various agencies, Jack let them ring as he went to confront George Wilson again.

Breaking into George Wilson's bedroom, he pointed a gun at George demanding answers. After some intimidation, George relented and admitted it was all made up. Jack Harkness didn't believe him, but George insisted that he was speaking the actual truth. He then calmly walked to the bar and grabbed himself a drink. Jack then pressed him for the whole truth.

George explained his story, he got bored of the same kinds of stories being reported all the time. After he left, he turned to alcoholism and for a time did believe in conspiracy theories. But he then sobered up and wrote a book of his experience, but no one wanted to publish it. He then realised that he could write stories on wild conspiracies and it would sell well. He spent all night thinking up ideas with the help of his daughter Kate, who gave the name "the Committee".

Jack Harkness states that the Committee was real. George was indifferent about the claim, he did not care if it was real or not. Jack then shifted the conversation back about Sam Hallett and how he watched him die. George Wilson still insisted he didn't know who the kid was and expressed regret that his talks may have indirectly caused his death. Jack Harkness then drove off.

The day after, George Wilson met with his daughter Kate. Kate was worried about George who had relapsed into his alcoholism. George told her of what happened and that he saw the news of Sam's death that morning. Kate then beckoned her father upstairs to discuss what to do next. Jack Harkness hacked into the hotel's CCTV and watched George and Kate's activities. Jack noticed Kate's expression change, and then the phone rang. Kate Wilson had called Jack and asked him to come to the hotel alone.

Jack Harkness burst into the hotel room with his gun drawn but was shot instantly. He laid on the ground paralysed as Kate Wilson explained everything. She was an agent of the Committee and that they remembered Jack Harkness from Kepri 5. A long time ago, the planet was plunged into civil war with the population wiped out overnight. The moons were shortly mined by prospectors from Erebus. As the Committee surveyed for more planets to take over, he turned their attention away from Earth to another planet.

Kate Wilson confronted Jack Harkness about his lie. Jack questioned why they targeted George and she replied George was perfect for their plans. She fed him details so that when he told the world about them, anyone who believed about the Committee would be discredited as insane conspiracy theorists. Jack Harkness then questioned why she killed Sam and she simply replied that it was to draw attention to Torchwood and frame them. She then shot George Wilson, killing him. She then shoots Jack in the head before escaping.

Jack Harkness woke up in the hotel room with George's corpse, there wasn't enough time to cover his tracks. He slipped out. It was revealed that everything was a recording by Jack Harkness on what happened. He reassured his team that they will do fine without him and that he was presently hunting the Committee on his own.

=Cast=
 * John Barrowman - Jack Harkness
 * John Sessions - George Wilson
 * Guy Adams - Presenter
 * Dan Bottomley - Sam Hallett
 * Sarah Ovens - Kate Wilson

=Notes=
 * This set was recorded on 30 April 2015 at Moat Studios.
 * This was the first story to feature characters from Doctor Who New Series.

Continuity

 * This story takes place during Series 2 of Torchwood.

=Links=
 * The Conspiracy