- « "They tried to take me over. But I fought them Con. I... I fought them... I'm a hero...!" »
- — Tom's last words, after overcoming the Parasite's influence.[src]
Tom was one of Connor Temple's friends along with Duncan, although Tom appeared be the leader of the trio. Tom was obsessed with conspiracy theories and later became determined to learn about Connor's secret life in the Anomaly operation.
Biography
Tom would also have Battlestar Galactica and pepperoni pizza nights with Duncan and Connor, (Episode 1.4) and at some point all three became students at the Central Metropolitan University. (Episode 1.2) Once, the trio went on a tour of some disused tunnels near Surrey. (Fire and Water)
Episode 1.2
After Connor became part of the Home Office's secret Anomaly-investigating operation, he told Tom and Duncan about the Anomalies, the cover-up, and the Gorgonopsid from the Forest of Dean incursion, but the two did not believe Connor; though Tom did note that Connor genuinely believed it, and seemed to find it odd.
The following night, while Connor was camping out in a restricted area of the New Forest with Abby Maitland, Tom and Duncan successfully pranked them through Connor's believe in the Anomalies and prehistoric creatures, by sending an animatronic dinosaur into their camp to spook them. Duncan and Tom revealed their prank, then fled the scene when they heard the police arrive.
Episode 1.3
Tom and Duncan discuss Connor's new secret life. (Episode 1.3)
When Tom and Duncan saw Connor in the University canteen on his laptop, they came over and looked at the Mosasaur article he was reading and tried to get him into a conversation, but Connor was annoyed and uninterested and wanted to leave. Tom reminded Connor that it was their DVD night, but Connor had become uninterested in it and left, leaving Tom and Duncan shocked and confused at what Connor's secret life was and why it had changed him. Tom and Duncan discussed what Connor's secret life could be, before they decided to hatch a plan to find out what it was.
Episode 1.4
When Connor decided to stay at Abby's flat, Tom and Duncan gave him a lift to the flat in their camper van, and gave Connor a Roswell keyring as a gift which was secretly a tracking device so Tom and Duncan could find what Connor's secret was. At the flat, Tom and Duncan were shocked to see Abby kiss Connor, though it was actually a fake, and they subsequently activated the Roswell tracker. While Tom and Duncan waited for the tracker to indicate something happening, when Stephen Hart turned up at the flat, Tom and Duncan suspected Stephen was Abby's real boyfriend and thus Connor was in deep trouble.
When Connor, Abby and Stephen went to a football stadium with the Home Office and the Special Forces, Tom and Duncan followed in their van, but were unable to enter the stadium due to the Special Forces guarding it. As Tom and Duncan spied from their van, Tom suspected that it was a government conspiracy which Connor was involved in and that they had a bunker hidden beneath the stadium. Later, when Roswell indicated Connor was coming out from the football stadium, a Dodo which had swallowed the Roswell transmitter emerged instead to Tom and Duncan's shock, and the two immediately captured it.
Tom, on the run from the team and the government, tracks the dead Dodo to Abby. (Episode 1.4)
Tom and Duncan believed that the supposed government conspiracy was cloning Dodos such as the one they'd found, and took the captured Dodo back to their flat, intending to use the Dodo as proof to expose the alleged conspiracy and become rich off it. At the flat, when the Dodo (which, unknown to Tom or Duncan, was infected with a Parasite) began exhibiting sickness symptoms and episodes of rage and aggression - ripping Duncan's MP3, vomiting on Tom's shoes and destroying the TV - Tom was mostly unconcerned as he believed he and Duncan would become wealthy enough off exposing the alleged conspiracy to buy new, better replacements, until the Dodo attacked Tom in one of its episodes and bit him, passing the Parasite onto him, unbeknownst to the duo.
The Dodo's attack in turn led Tom to believe that the Dodo had been genetically modified as a weapon and thus he and Duncan became more determined to expose and bring down the supposed conspiracy. Later, when the Parasite young passed onto Tom from the infected Dodo matured and infected Tom, the latter went into a severe headache as Duncan began to lose control over the infected Dodo, and when Duncan tried to flee the flat and the infected Dodo with Tom, Tom went into an episode of aggression from the Parasite and tried to attack Duncan; leaving Tom horrified as Duncan left, and causing Tom to realise something had happened to him with the alleged conspiracy.
Tom subsequently fled the flat and went on the run from the team and the government, and went to a hospital to seek treatment for the Parasite's influence on him. When sunlight touched Tom and caused him to cough and choke for a while, a horrified Tom saw the Parasite crawling under his skin and quickly had an X-ray scan of himself to find out what was inside him. The doctor warned Tom that they had to take him into emergency surgery to remove the Parasite, but when the doctor tried to check Tom's eyes, Tom went into another episode of the Parasite's aggression and bit the doctor, which in turn caused him to flee to the hospital toilets.
Tom infected with and under the influence of the Parasite. (Episode 1.4)
Tom tried to call Duncan to get the alleged conspiracy exposed at once, but when Connor revealed he was with Duncan, Tom stopped the call and got rid of his phone as he was aware Connor was part of the team. Tom then decided to get the supposed conspiracy exposed by himself, and used the Roswell tracker to track the infected Dodo to the Central Metropolitan University and intended to use it as proof to expose the conspiracy. At the University, Tom found Abby with the infected Dodo's corpse, and asked for her help and demanded to know what was happening to him, while trying to fight the Parasite's influence and keep himself under control. When Tom learned that Abby was part of the team and when she tried to coerce Tom into letting the team help him, Tom snapped and threatened to bite Abby to infect her with the Parasite as well; causing Abby to truthfully tell Tom about how the infected Dodo had come through an Anomaly in the football stadium from its home time, and offer to show Tom the Anomaly.
A hostage Abby subsequently drove Tom back to the stadium and slipped him past security with her to the Anomaly site, but when Tom and Abby found that the Anomaly had closed and thus there was no leftover proof it had existed, Tom believed Abby was lying and had tricked him into a trap to be killed. This in turn caused an enraged and betrayed Tom to give in to the Parasite's influence and attack Abby, pursuing her through the stadium until he managed to catch her out on the pitch and prepare to infect her. Before Tom could bite Abby to pass the Parasite onto her, the team and the Special Forces arrived and threatened to shoot Tom. In a desperate bid to stop Tom getting shot, Connor went up to Tom and talked to him reasonably, encouraging him to fight the Parasite's influence and let Abby go, which Tom did. Connor then told Tom what he'd wanted to hear, with it was indeed a government conspiracy, which made Tom happy. Tom then went into another episode of aggression from the Parasite, but instead of attacking Connor, Tom fought the Parasite's influence off and collapsed into Connor's arms. Connor told Tom that he'd fought the Parasite brilliantly, before Tom died from the Parasite in Connor's arms.
Other references
Episode 1.4
As Connor move into Abby's flat, he was carrying a landscape blue/yellow painting of himself, Tom and Duncan.
Episode 1.5
When playing on his Xbox 360, Connor came across Tom's saved file and looked longingly at the painting of himself, Tom and Duncan that was hung on the wall behind.
Fire and Water
Connor remembered the time he, Tom and Duncan had taken a tour of some disused tunnels.
Episode 4.2
Duncan accused Connor of being involved with a deadly conspiracy, stating that he'd overhead Connor's last conversation with Tom. Connor merely stated that he'd only said what Tom had wanted to hear as he was dying. During a Kaprosuchus incursion, Connor told Matt Anderson that Tom had been killed by a creature in the past. Later, after Connor and the ARC defeated the Kaprosuchus, Connor told Duncan that Tom would have been proud of Duncan for how the latter had helped the ARC find the creature.
Appearances
- Episode 1.2 (first appearance)
- Episode 1.3
- Episode 1.4 (death)
- Episode 1.5 (picture)
- Fire and Water (mentioned)
- Episode 4.2 (mentioned)
Nick Cutter • Stephen Hart • Connor Temple • Abby Maitland • Claudia Brown • Helen Cutter • James Lester • Tom Ryan • Tom • Duncan