Torchwood Three

On the early 21st century, Jack Harkness was the leader of the Torchwood Three team.

Conception
On New Year's Eve 1999 Alex Hopkins murdered his entire team, except for Jack who couldn't die. Jack discovered this just in time to hear Alex's warning; he knew what was coming in the 21st century. He told Jack that the 21st century is "where everything changes" before killing himself also, leaving Jack in charge. (TV: Fragments)

Shortly thereafter Jack discovered that two humans whom the rift had returned had been kept in the Hub's cells. He set up a facility on Flat Holm to care for them and others whom the rift later returned. He chose to keep the true nature of the facility a secret to the staff, passing the off as experiments gone wrong. (TV: Adrift)

In 2003 Jack recruited civilian Toshiko Sato who was being held in a UNIT prison. Tosh had stolen government secrets in an attempt to save her mother who was being held hostage. She made a sonic modulator which was especially impressive to Jack since the blueprints she had stolen were actually wrong. Jack agreed to use his influence to release her from prison in exchange for her working in Torchwood. Jack also recruited Doctor Owen Harper after his girlfriend had been killed by an alien lifeform that had attatched itself to her brain. After much persuasion and help with catching a stray pteranodon Jack also employed former Torchwood One researcher Ianto Jones. (TV: Fragments) Suzie Costello was also headhunted by Harkness. (AUDIO: Moving Target)

In 2006, in Owen's second week as a medic, he was supposed to conduct an examination of the Space Pig that had been found in the spaceship that crashed into Big Ben. He was hungover at the time so Tosh covered for him. She met the Ninth Doctor, but seemed unaware of his involvement with Jack. (TV: Aliens of London, Exit Wounds)

With Gwen
During her first years at Torchwood, Toshiko Sato developed Rift equations, which were to be used as guidelines to more safely operate the Rift Manipulator. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness)

Agent Suzie Costello committed a series of murders with an alien artefact, the Life knife, in order to test out the Resurrection gauntlet. She committed suicide when her activities were discovered. Jack took in Gwen Cooper, a Cardiff Police Constable who had helped him to solve the case. (TV: Everything Changes) As well as internal distrust, at times, of Jack himself, Torchwood Three subsequently braved an attack by Lisa Hallett, a partially converted Cyberman who had survived their defeat at Torchwood One. (TV: Cyberwoman)

Tosh had begun to experiment with using the Rift Manipulator. With Tosh and Jack transported to 1941 Cardiff, Owen and Ianto, out of desperation, used the manipulator and Tosh's Rift equations to return them. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness) This would have wide-ranging consequences, as the use of the Manipulator made the Rift splinter and caused temporal shifts to occur all over Cardiff and the Earth. The team revolted against Jack and shot and killed him and the ancient demon Abaddon was released from the Rift, briefly causing havoc in central Cardiff before Jack defeated him. (TV: End of Days)

Directly after this incident, Jack suddenly and without warning left Torchwood, when the Tenth Doctor came to refuel the TARDIS at the rift and Jack chased him off-world. (TV: End of Days, Utopia)

At or around this date, Saxon sent Torchwood Three on a "wild goose chase" mission away from Great Britain to the Himalayas. (TV: The Sound of Drums) Jack returned some months later, finding that Gwen had taken over as team leader. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

The Rift started returning more and more humans who had previously been taken away in negative rift spikes. In the words of Jack Harkness, "it is almost as if the rift is trying to correct its mistakes". Victims continued to be transferred to the Flat Holm facility. (TV: Adrift) Another trend in recent years was an increase in Weevil activity. (TV: Everything Changes)

Torchwood Three stopped a Weevil fighting ring, (TV: Combat) uncovered an alien sleeper cell, (TV: Sleeper), unilaterally closed down an official research facility (TV: Reset) and stopped a powerful being, a personification of Death. (TV: Dead Man Walking)

UNIT medical officer Dr Martha Jones came in briefly in order to provide support. Very shortly after her arrival, Torchwood doctor Owen Harper died (TV: Reset) and was resurrected but without signs of life via another Resurrection gauntlet. (TV: Dead Man Walking) This lead to Dr Jones staying with Torchwood somewhat longer than anticipated, but she left when Owen was deemed fit for duty. (TV: A Day in the Death)

After this, the team dealt with a Nostrovite threat at Gwen's wedding, (TV: Something Borrowed) defeated the Night Travellers (TV: From Out of the Rain) and learnt of Jack's inital activities as head of Torchwood Three regarding Flat Holm. (TV: Adrift)

The team was later led to a building that contained explosives planet there by John Hart (TV: Fragments) under duress from Jack's long lost and vengeful brother, Gray. The experience caused major damages to Cardiff and involved Jack repeatedly dying underground for hundreds of years. Also, the team lost two members of the team. Owen Harper was trapped in a nuclear meltdown that decomposed his already dead body and Toshiko Sato died of a shot to the stomach, inflicted by Gray. (TV: Exit Wounds)

After Owen and Tosh
In mid-2009, Torchwood Three was called upon by former Prime Minister Harriet Jones via subwave network along with Sarah Jane Smith and Martha Jones in an effort to contact the Tenth Doctor after Earth was transported into the Medusa Cascade by Davros, during the Dalek invasion of 2009. Jack, Gwen and Ianto used the Rift Manipulator in conjunction with Sarah Jane's supercomputer Mr Smith to amplify the signal of Martha's superphone to break the signal barrier and reach the Doctor. Jack left the team behind to assist the Doctor. (TV: The Stolen Earth) Gwen and Ianto were saved from Dalek extermination by the time-lock invented by Tosh before she died along with the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor blowing up the Dalek fleet's dalekanium casings on the Crucible. The two were later called upon by the Doctor himself to help assist his TARDIS via Rift Manipulator in its effort to carry the Earth back to its regular orbit. (TV: Journey's End)

Destruction
In September 2009, the entire Torchwood Three Hub was blown up by the government in a ploy to kill the Torchwood team in relation to the 456 crisis as it was believed that Jack's immortality was tied to Torchwood and the Rift. The bomb was inserted into Jack's abdomen. When it detonated, Jack was blown apart. Gwen and Ianto luckily escaped. The explosion was reported on the news and it left a gaping hole where the Hub was. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One, Children of Earth: Day Two)



Despite the destruction of the Hub, the surviving members of the team, aided by Lois Habiba and Rhys Williams, continued to operate throughout the 456 crisis, aided by the fact that some of Torchwood's software survived on the server which was not destroyed with the Hub. The crisis cost the life of Ianto Jones when the 456 ambassador released a deadly virus into Thames House. After defeating the 456 required the sacrifice of his grandson, Jack left Earth, leaving Gwen Cooper the last remaining member of Torchwood Three. With the death of Ianto and the departure of Jack, Torchwood Three effectively ceased to exist. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two, Children of Earth: Day Three, Children of Earth: Day Four, Children of Earth: Day Five)