The new mayor of London has unveiled her scheme to make London safer than ever before - the Law Machines, robotic tanks designed to handle everything from jaywalking to parking tickets to severe crimes, all helpfully provided by the good folks of Torchwood.
And really, what are the chances of basing robotic policemen on the minions of an AI that tried to take over the world back in the 60s going hideously wrong, when you get down to it?
Pretty good with Torchwood, actually.
Tropes:
- Big Brother Is Watching: The Law Machines are also programmed with Yvonne's Vision Program, designed to keep a watchful eye on the citizens on London, whether they like it or not. Whether they know it or not.
- Black Comedy: As the mayor wonders if the Law Machines have killed her driver, Ianto spots him and says he's alright. Then there's a loud scream, and Ianto's forced to recant his statement.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Lots of Torchwood get brainwashed by WOTAN.
- Broken Record: "WOTAN... WOTAN... WOTAN... WOTAN..."
- Bullying a Dragon: McAndrew goes on a rant about how she'll nail Yvonne for the Law Machines going haywire. Yvonne responds with a blistering "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how she's a small fry.
- Call-Back: To "The War Machines".
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Mayor McAndrew is shot by a Law Machine, then run over.
- Did Not Think This Through: Torchwood decided to make machines based on WOTAN's War Machines. In fairness, they did do thorough checking to make sure there were no surprises. They just didn't check hard enough.
- EmPHAsis On The Wrong SylLAble: WOTAN speaks... slo-ly and with... odd emp-hasis. Especially when it says con-troll.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: WOTAN is a good forty years behind the times, technologically speaking. It's not quite got this "Internet" thingy that's going around, and still thinks everything should be done by phone.
- Groin Attack: Yvonne tries one on WOTAN's puppet, but WOTAN has turned off the pain receptors, and it doesn't work.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Yvonne comes out of a disaster that is kind of her fault unscathed and manages to sell her Orwellian program to the government... but as anyone knows, she'll get hers eventually.
- Killed Off for Real: WOTAN. ... assuming, that is, Torchwood One actually did dispose of the hard drive properly this time.
- Kill It with Fire: Apparently someone decided it was a good idea to fit out robotic armoured tanks with flamethrowers.
- Mundane Solution: How Yvonne deals with WOTAN. No dramatics with smashing anything, just turn off the wifi and hit delete. Then she has her tech people dispose of the laptop WOTAN was saved onto.
- Tempting Fate: The cold open has the mayor and Yvonne wondering whether the Law Machines are safe. After the opening title, we've already skipped to the part where it's gone utterly wrong.
