Gwen, Owen and Ianto go to the movies. It's a classic cinema where old silent film reels are shown.
Instead of the film that was supposed to play, they instead see clips of old freak show acts. One of the performers is Jack, who once made a living by shooting himself in the head over and over.
The projectionist is appropriately freaked out by this new film suddenly appearing. Torchwood takes the reels back to the Hub. Jack recognizes some of the performers from the old days, but notices that some others were never in his own freak show gang. Also, Ianto realizes that some people have disappeared from the reels: the hammy MC and a woman called "Pearl", who performed as a human mermaid. Jack realizes what's happening: the Night Travelers, an old hushed legend, were trapped on that film and are now freed.
The MC, known as the Ghostmaker, and Pearl traipse about town, stealing people's breath and rendering them comatose. The reason: by trapping these people's souls, they can have an eternal loyal audience.
Owen realizes he's immune to the MC (he has no breath to steal) and tries to capture him. Ianto secures the vial containing the victims' souls, but he only manages to save one of them. All of the villains escape from the reel, but Jack films them and exposes the film to sunlight, killing them again.
The moral: don't neglect the old film reels in your attic, because they could contain murderous clowns.
If you're wondering how we got an episode that's just so plain weird, it's because Russell T Davies convinced PJ Hammond, creator of Sapphire and Steel to contribute to the series, bringing his own brand of strange horrors from out of Time to the series.
Examples
- Bittersweet Ending: The Night Travellers are destroyed when Torchwood expose the film they came out of to sunlight, but all of the captured last breaths of their victims spill out of the Ghostmaker's flask when he tosses it into the air, killing them, except that of one little boy Jack manages to save (whose parents and sister are now dead). And the last scene indicates there are more copies of the Night Travellers on more reels in someone else's attic, waiting to be discovered.
- Circus of Fear: The Night Travellers. More accurately Carnival of Fear, but close enough.
- The End... Or Is It?: While Jack manages to defeat the Nightmakers, the final scene implies that there are more copies of their reel out there and they could still come back again.
- Monster Clown: The Night Travellers as seen on film include a couple of these (in addition to the Ghostmaker, Pearl, the strongman, the tattooed man and the fire jugglers).
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "The Night Travellers" don't necessarily sound like the safest carnies you could meet. Also their leader, "the Ghostmaker".
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The Ghostmaker claims that Pearl (who has legs) is the closest thing his audience will ever see to a living mermaid, and she can live on the bottom of the ocean. She also likes to drink people's tears.
- Same Story, Different Names: The story is similar to Hammond's Sapphire and Steel story "Assignment 4", which Time Screen and the American DVD set called "The Man Without a Face", but with old movies instead of still photos.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: What the Ghostmaker appears to do by capturing people's "last breaths", making them his eternal spectators inside the flask.
