Not The Man From Atlantis came from a vague idea about Jack having sex with an alien – other than the one he REALLY wants to have sex with. The thought of a naked green man with webbed hands and feet coming out of the bay and walking across Roald Dahl Plas just popped into being. The idea of Jack ‘catching’ the ability to grow webbed hands and feet like a sexually transmitted disease was a very adult idea. It occurred to me that Jack was almost certainly not daft enough to have sex with anyone without using a condom so the contagion was through Terry’s perspiration. It’s possibly NOT quite scientifically accurate. I don’t think perspiration CAN be absorbed by another person, no matter how close they are. But the idea seemed to fit nicely.

Again it is obvious that this predates the Countrycide episode of the TV series. Owen jealous of the two women going out to the pub together and Jack’s ‘rule’ about not having sex with the people he works with both go by the wayside by the end of the series when Gwen and Owen have had a fling and Ianto and Jack are casual lovers.

The end part of the story does get a little less hard-hitting Torchwood, as they take Terry on a tour of Cardiff before the tearful farewell. It is a tad self-indulgent, but it seems to have worked. Again, well received by readers who appreciated a nice alien for a change.