Yvonne Hartman

Yvonne Hartman was the administrator of the Torchwood Institute. It was a phone-call from Alex Hopkins before he killed himself that led her to rise through the ranks of Torchwood London and to get the organisation ready for the 21st century. She combated a number of extraterrestrial threats and presided over the long-awaited capture of the Tenth Doctor before she became a Cyberman in the Battle of Canary Wharf, maintaining her will and killing a number of her fellow Cybermen.

Early life
Yvonne's father served in the British Army (AUDIO: Through the Ruins) and from him she acquired files on the Fendahl. (AUDIO: Night of the Fendahl) She had little love for her relatives and bemoaned that one could not choose their family. (AUDIO: New Girl)

Early days at Torchwood
Yvonne joined Torchwood One, where she uploaded the Fendahl files. (AUDIO: Night of the Fendahl) Early in her career, on New Year's Eve 1999, she received a phone call from Alex Hopkins, the leader of Torchwood Three, who spoke to her of his epiphany that Torchwood was not ready for the 21st century as he killed his team by shooting them. This incident made Yvonne realise that the Torchwood Institute needed a strong leader to face the 21st century. She rose through the ranks and became the head of the institute. (AUDIO: One Rule)

As she was lonely, Yvonne repeatedly retconned Ianto Jones, an employee at a local coffee shop, in order to have somebody to talk to. She sympathised with him and his having to deal with his father. She employed his help to investigate Blind Summit, after which he asked her to retcon him and get his job back at a museum. She did so, but visited him sometime later to make use of his expertise and later recruited him at Torchwood (AUDIO: Blind Summit) as a junior researcher (TV: Cyberwoman, Fragments) and later as her personal assistant. (AUDIO: One Rule)

Beginning in 2005, Yvonne investigated the Void Ship with Ianto and Rajesh Singh as her personal assistants. (AUDIO: One Rule)

One of her attempts to open the ship led her to Torchwood Three. Shortly after 26 March 2005, Rajesh activated the Torchwood Three time bubble, which enabled her to inveigle her way into its base and procure their Drahvin scanner without the involvement of Jack Harkness and his staff. She hoped it would finally solve the mystery of the sealed ship's content.

Upon exiting the base via the invisible lift, she was spotted by a local councillor and mayoral candidate Barry Jackson, who was fully aware of Torchwood. She learnt from him about the murder of the local mayor and numerous mayoral candidates. Hartman refused to investigate as she deemed it "local politics".

After being rescued from a burning hotel by Jackson, she obliged to investigate. This lead her to finding the other candidates and protecting them from the creature that was hunting them, which she soon learnt was in fact alien. The only remaining survivor, Helen Evans, joined them on their investigations but also met her demise when the alien feasted upon her.

Hartman learned that Barry had been summoning the creature using alien technology that had fallen through the rift. He wished to kill all other candidates and rise to Lord Mayor of Cardiff and do the bidding of the Committee. Barry was surprised to hear that Yvonne was fully aware of them, and made him a deal. She made a cover story, which protected Barry from being arrested for the murders and in return, he would watch over Torchwood and notify as soon as a certain alien would return. He agreed and she left him with a reminder of his atrocities by severely injuring him.

Yvonne returned to London without the Drahvin scanner, due it having perished in the fire, and resumed her investigation of the Sphere. (AUDIO: One Rule)

In 2005, Yvonne hired Rachel Allan. (AUDIO: New Girl) Rachel framed her for the murder of Dean and manipulated his boyfriend Kieran Frost into assassinating her under Protocol 4, in which he was unsuccessful. (AUDIO: Through the Ruins) Yvonne managed to stop Rachel's plans for an interstellar war and retconned her into forgetting about Torchwood. (AUDIO: Uprising)

In 2006, Yvonne had the Law Machines commissioned, which immediately went rogue and killed Fiona McAndrew, whose identity Yvonne briefly assumed to thwart WOTAN. (AUDIO: The Law Machines) She came face-to-face with WOTAN once more whilst investigating Temporary Solutions. (AUDIO: 9 to 5)

Yvonne received a phone-call from Suzie Costello, who offered her Object One. Yvonne sent a helicopter to pick her up and promised to talk to her about advancing her career in Torchwood. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

Meeting with the Doctor
Hartman oversaw the projects that included the investigation of the Void Ship, as well as the ghost shift experiments that resulted in the invasion by the Cybermen from an alternate universe. She was not personally hostile to the Doctor, yet she was confident in the righteousness of Torchwood's actions to the point of fault, ignoring his recommendations and warnings. Hartman was fiercely patriotic, and believed that Torchwood's work was vital to the survival of the "British Empire" and was certain that their work would in fact lead to the restoration of the United Kingdom to the status of world power. Only when the end was near did she attempt to stop the experiments, only to find that the Cybermen had already taken control over key members of her staff. The controlled staff proceeded to override her orders and allow the Cybermen to continue their invasion. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

Yvonne, along with Jackie Tyler, was taken to be upgraded. Yvonne stated that she did her duty for queen and country, and walked into the Cyber-conversion unit, where she was then painfully upgraded.

However, Yvonne somehow managed to gain control over her new metallic body and performed one last known service, fending off the Cybermen approaching the top offices long enough for the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler to seal the breach between worlds. While fighting against the Cybermen she continued to utter the phrase — "I did my duty for queen and country." while weeping oily tears out her left eye socket. Her actions bought the Doctor and Rose the time they needed to banish the Daleks and Cybermen to the Void. (TV: Doomsday)

Yvonne had told an employee to throw Object One into the void. Whilst dying as a result of the battle, he gave it to Ianto Jones to take to Torchwood Cardiff. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline in which John Hart took control of the British Empire and the Torchwood Institute, Yvonne called to inform him of the discovery of the Sphere. Despite the reservations of Rajesh Singh, the King ordered that the Sphere be opened, resulting in the massacre of Torchwood One. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)

Alternate self
After being presumed dead, (AUDIO: Broken), Yvonne joined the reformed Torchwood Three in 2017, with the intention of becoming the new leader. (AUDIO: The Empty Hand) She was, in fact, from a parallel universe. (AUDIO: Poker Face)

Personality
Yvonne Hartman was an arrogant woman who was always convinced that everything Torchwood did was for the good of the country, even if others begged to differ. One example of her arrogance was when she stated that anything that was alien belonged to Torchwood. This included the Doctor's TARDIS, despite the Doctor's protests. Yvonne was also reckless, and meddled with the Void, which was something far beyond her understanding. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

Jackie Tyler said it was all her fault that the Cybermen and Daleks had invaded Earth, because Hartman was too reckless to try to put a stop to the experiments on the Void until it was too late. (TV: Doomsday)

Another example of both qualities was her ordering a Jathaa sunglider shot down over the Shetland Islands merely because it had "violated their airspace"; this risked igniting a major conflict between Earth and the Jathaa due to the ship's presumably non-hostile intentions. However, Yvonne did show uncertainty when the Doctor suddenly changed his demeanour; one moment the Time Lord was warning her not to open the void and the next he was cheerfully encouraging her. Hartman was so confused and uncertain by the Doctor's sudden change from foreboding to cheerful that she finally agreed not to open the void, although by then it was too late. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

Despite her arrogance and foolishness, Yvonne genuinely cared about her country, even managing to overcome the programming of the Cybermen due to her devotion to Britain. In her metal body she appeared to be crying as she stated that she'd done her duty for queen and country. She also showed a willingness to sacrifice herself as she fought the Cybermen by herself to give the Doctor and Rose time to open the void and most likely died in the process. (TV: Doomsday)

Although she admitted that the Doctor was a prisoner, Yvonne did try to make the Time Lord comfortable and treated him like a guest rather than a prisoner. She also liked to call her employees by their first names, saying that she was a "people person". Despite this she did display a more ruthless streak since she stated, rather cheerfully, that she could have Rose Tyler shot if the Doctor didn't know her. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

Hartman was ambitious and driven, believing she was the sort of leadership Torchwood needed and believing she could make the organisation better. She was also capable of being highly manipulative, telling Jackson she had figured out his plans long before he revealed them, and had been a step ahead of him the whole time - playing events to her advantage. Hartman seemed aggravated when men made heavy reference to her gender, telling Jackson not to refer to her as "love" and threatening to break someone's arm who groped her. (AUDIO: One Rule)

She liked Scotch. (AUDIO: One Rule)

Behind the scenes

 * Yvonne Hartman's name is similar to that of Yvonne Hartley from Spare Parts, the Big Finish story which inspired Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel.

Yvonne Hartman