Torchwood Institute

The Torchwood Institute (or "Torchwood" for short) was an organisation founded in 1879 (TV: Tooth and Claw) to protect the British Empire (later Great Britain) from extraterrestrial threat, to capture the Doctor (whom Queen Victoria regarded as one such threat) and to secure alien technology for Britain. (TV: Tooth and Claw, Army of Ghosts)

Torchwood had branches across the Empire. (TV: Everything Changes, AUDIO: Golden Age) The leading branch was Torchwood One in London. (TV: Army of Ghosts) After the Battle of Canary Wharf, leadership moved to Torchwood Three in Cardiff, which already had a more ecumenical agenda of protecting the world since Captain Jack Harkness had taken over in 2000. (TV: Doomsday, The Sound of Drums, Everything Changes, Fragments)

Owing to a series of crises in the late 2000s, Torchwood lost several bases (TV: Everything Changes, Children of Earth: Day Five) and by 2010 the Institute was defunct. (TV: The End of Time, The New World) A small successor team which formed in the wake of Miracle Day was briefly active in 2011 (TV: Dead of Night, et al.) but its operations were short-lived. (AUDIO: Red Skies, Army of One) However, Torchwood eventually returned in Cardiff by 2017, at which point it was seeking a new permanent facility in the city. (AUDIO: More Than This) Torchwood continued to be active in Cardiff up to at least the year 2069. (AUDIO: Asylum)

Overview
After an encounter with the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, Queen Victoria was grateful for their assistance in defeating a werewolf. However, she was unsettled by their cavalier attitude to the death and destruction surrounding them. She knighted the pair, as a reward for their bravery, and then promptly banished them from the British Empire, never to return. The incident had also made her aware of otherworldly threats to the British Empire, prompting her to charter Torchwood to defend against them - specifically, the Doctor. Seeing his power and knowledge, the Queen was wary of his potential danger. The name of the Institute was drawn from the Torchwood Estate, where most of the adventure took place. (TV: Tooth and Claw)

It was relatively common for the head of a Torchwood branch to kill all of their operatives, earning them a place on the Red List. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

Over time, the Institute accumulated much alien technology, reverse-engineering it and applying it to secret military projects within Britain. Within Torchwood an unofficial motto evolved: "If it's alien, it's ours." Under Yvonne Hartman, one of the objectives of Torchwood was to at some point re-establish the British Empire, for example, finding an alternate power source aside from oil, imported from the Middle East.

Hiding out in the open in Canary Wharf was Torchwood Tower, built to better access a weak point in spacetime that existed above London. The Torchwood Tower was only part of a much larger plan involving free energy (TV: Army of Ghosts) that backfired horribly and resulted in the deaths of many. (TV: Doomsday) This battle marked the end of Torchwood One. (TV: Everything Changes)

As London was home to Torchwood One, Cardiff was home to Torchwood Three, the maverick group led by Captain Jack Harkness. By the time of Gwen Cooper's recruitment into Torchwood Three, at least two other Torchwood branches were known to have existed as well: Torchwood Two and Torchwood Four. Torchwood Two was based in Glasgow, Scotland, and was comprised of one man whom Jack Harkness regarded as "very strange". Torchwood Four had been "lost". (TV: Everything Changes) Torchwood India was based in India and led by the Duchess of Melrose. It was disbanded in 1924, but continued in secret until 2009. (AUDIO: Golden Age)

Captain Jack declared the organisation "outside the government and beyond the police". (TV: Everything Changes) It was indeed different from most British institutions, having been created by royal decree and funded directly by the Crown. However, it was explicitly not "above" the government. HM Queen Victoria ordered: "Torchwood is also to administer to the Government thereof in our name, and generally to act in our name and on our behalf, subject to such orders and regulations as Torchwood shall, from time to time, receive from us through one of our Principal Secretaries of state."

- The Torchwood Charter, 31 December 1879

Despite Jack's tendency to stress Torchwood's independence, Torchwood Three, at least, often complied with the spirit of the Charter. He often spoke to the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and to UNIT in both an advisory and operational capacity. (TV: Everything Changes, Children of Earth: Day One, and others) On at least one occasion, an active member of UNIT, Martha Jones, was assigned to Torchwood Three for a time. (TV: Reset, Dead Man Walking, A Day in the Death)

Public knowledge regarding Torchwood seemed to vary depending upon the situation. By the 1950s, it was known by London police; (TV: The Idiot's Lantern) by the late 2000s, the name was known by the general public, at least in Cardiff, (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) and it could be cited with authority in much the way terms like FBI or Homeland Security (or UNIT) were used. (TV: Dead Man Walking) People were aware of the general location of Torchwood Three headquarters by Cardiff Bay. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) By the early 2010s, it was known sufficiently to have the Battle of Canary Wharf called the Battle of Torchwood. (TV: Fear Her) However, as late as 2011 it was unknown to aspects of the United States government and the Central Intelligence Agency. (TV: The New World)

By the year 200,100, the Torchwood Institute had become the stuff of trivia questions. (TV: Bad Wolf)

19th century
Torchwood's origins dated back to an incident involving the Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Queen Victoria in the mid-19th century. At Torchwood House in Scotland, a monastic group called the Brethren stored a werewolf, which menaced the countryside and the Queen. With the monarch's assistance, the Doctor and Rose killed the werewolf. Victoria knighted them for their service, then banished them from the kingdom, declaring the Doctor in particular a potential threat to the Empire. Now aware of the reality of alien and supernatural life forms, Victoria ordered an organisation be created to protect the British Empire from the Doctor and threats such as the werewolf. She named the organisation the Torchwood Institute, after the location of the werewolf encounter. (TV: Tooth and Claw) She issued a royal decree establishing the Institute on 31 December 1879. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)

In 1889, agents Eliza Cooper and Robert Lewis attempted to capture the Tenth Doctor when they realised he had been stranded in London. They came across H. G. Wells, and interrogated him about the Doctor. Wells led them to the TARDIS, which disappeared, apparently leaving the Doctor behind for them to arrest. (COMIC: The Time Machination) The man was found not to be the Doctor when he was dissected. (COMIC: Final Sacrifice)

In the 1890s, the Eighth Doctor discovered cryptic references to Torchwood in files at the Edinburgh Herald. (AUDIO: The Scent of Blood)

H. G. Wells helped Torchwood cover up an alien invasion in the 1890s. (AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly)

In 1897, Archie began the Torchwood Archive at Torchwood House. Object 1, a gift from the Committee to Tsar Alexander and then passed onto Victoria, was the first entry to the Archive. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) By 1899, a branch of Torchwood had been founded in Cardiff, which was based around a rift in space and time. In 1899, Jack Harkness was recruited by two of this branch's operatives, Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd as a freelance agent of the Institute. His first mission was to apprehend a Blowfish; he succeeded, but was greatly disturbed when Guppy summarily executed the creature before his eyes. He continued to work for Torchwood largely against his will, having been told by a young girl who could see the future using tarot cards that he would have to wait more than a century before seeing the Doctor again. Meanwhile, he needed money to live. He continued to work for the organisation over the decades that followed, although he remained disturbed by the Institute's callous disregard for alien life forms. (TV: Fragments) Later that year Jack was seconded to Torchwood London. (AUDIO: The Victorian Age)

On 17 May 1899, the Life-stealer escaped from Torchwood London's base at the National History Museum and proceeded to feed on the youth of Londoners starting with Torchwood London director, Archie, who was left permanently incapacitated as he was rapidly aged, at the same time Torchwood was visited by Queen Victoria for her annual inspection of the Institute, resulting her sharing an adventure with Jack Harkness as she took to pursuing the creature. After Victoria killed the creature by exploiting its weakness against the elderly, both she and Jack declined their offers to each other to take command of Torchwood London, with the Queen retiring from public life while Jack returned to Torchwood in Cardiff. (AUDIO: The Victorian Age) Archie would recover from the attack, but never got his looks back and appeared not to age any further. He later left Torchwood London to found Torchwood Two in Glasgow. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

At some point, Victoria also established Torchwood India to collect all things alien in the British Raj. (AUDIO: Golden Age)

After years of study, Torchwood concluded that Object 1 was a bad luck device which had caused significant strife in Russia whilst Alexander owned it, negatively affecting infantry mortality, crop yields and political dissatisfaction. Upon being presented this evidence by Jack, Victoria ordered him to dispose of it in the Cardiff Rift. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

20th century
In 1901, Alice Guppy and Charles Gaskell dug up a future version of Jack Harkness that had been taken from the 21st century and buried in 27 AD Cardiff. He told them to freeze him in the cryo-chambers so he could defeat his brother Gray. Subsequently, Jack's future self resided in the cryo-chambers even as his younger self continued to work nearby. (TV: Exit Wounds)

In 1906, Eliza Cooper and Robert Lewis used a machine they commissioned Professor Alexander Hugh to build to travel to another planet thousands of years into the future. Neither Cooper nor Lewis returned; the former remained on the planet while the latter was killed. Professor Hugh was returned home by the Tenth Doctor. (COMIC: Final Sacrifice)

Jack continued to work as an operative throughout the 20th century. In 1909, he was put in charge of a group of soldiers who were all killed by Fairies. (TV: Small Worlds)

Torchwood was planning to use alien weaponry during World War I, but eventually decided against it. (PROSE: Risk Assessment)

In 1918, Torchwood Three investigated ghost sightings in a hospital in Cardiff. As present and future blended, they caught glimpses of the 21st century, receiving instructions from future Torchwood to take shellshocked soldier Tommy Brockless from the hospital and keep him in cryogenic suspension. At this time they had a team of five, the leader being a man called Gerald Carter. They already had equipment capable of detecting disturbances in time. (TV: To the Last Man)

Circa 1919, Harriet Derbyshire, one of the investigators of the hospital sightings and only in her mid-twenties, died in action. (TV: To the Last Man) Gerald stood down as leader of Torchwood Three as a result. (COMIC: Rift War!)

In the 1920s, Jack worked undercover with a travelling circus in pursuit of the Night Travellers, though he was unsuccessful. (TV: From Out of the Rain)

In 1923, thanks to a Professor Livesy-Smythe, Torchwood found evidence that an alien race called the Pyroviles invaded Earth at Pompeii in 79 AD. (WC: )

In 1924, Torchwood sent Jack Harkness to India to close down the branch there, led by the Duchess, before the fall of the Raj. He arranged the transportation of all their alien artefacts back to Britain (AUDIO: Golden Age) except Object 1, which the Duchess had sent to him anyway. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) Torchwood India would secretly persist for decades by using a time store to prevent the passage of time in their former headquarters. (AUDIO: Golden Age)

In 1927, Jack Harkness was sent on a mission to New York City in order to thwart a plot by the Trickster's Brigade to infect Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a Brainspawn and change the course of history. With assistance from his lover Angelo Colasanto, Jack succeeded in eliminating the parasite. (TV: Immortal Sins)

In the early 1940s, Torchwood operative LeDuc travelled to occupied Paris with his lover Gabriel to locate Torchwood's German counterpart, by then renamed Project Hermod. He had himself captured and interrogated by Oppenführer Hans Grau in order to get the information, a mission in which he was successful. He invited Berber to join Torchwood, which she agreed to. (AUDIO: The Dying Room)

According to Norton Folgate, in the 1950s Torchwood had to deal with a large amount of black market trading in alien artefacts as a result of the number of spacecraft shot down during World War II. However, they were mostly called out to the sites of unexploded bombs. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission) Torchwood helped the development of the Good Thinking virus, however it began to spread out of control after being tested on death row inmates in the United States. Norton and Jack sought to remove all trace of the virus and devised contingencies should it resurface. (AUDIO: Outbreak)

By 1953, the London branch was influential enough that London police feared its involvement when investigating the strange occurrences provoked by the activities of an alien entity known as the Wire. (TV: The Idiot's Lantern) Torchwood One agent Lizbeth Hayhoe had ordered for the Wire’s victims to be kept in cages. (AUDIO: Parasite)

At one point on the 1950s, Norton came under suspicion by Torchwood One’s leader, the Vicar, for dealings with gangsters and was allowed to summon an assessor to clear his name, choosing to bring Andy Davidson back in time. Norton manipulated events to trick gangster Fat Kim into taking control of an alien war machine whilst the Vicar led Torchwood against her. In the ensuing confrontation Andy killed Kim by passing on the key to the machine to her mind and the Vicar was killed when the disabled war machine fell on him. This eliminated the only two people aware of Norton’s criminal dealings and left a vacancy at the head of Torchwood One. (AUDIO: Goodbye Piccadilly) Reginald Rigsby became the new director of Torchwood One. (AUDIO: Parasite)

During the 1950s, Adam Smith took over Torchwood One using his memory manipulation abilities and rallied the organisation for war against the approaching Kernaz fleet, which was actually seeking him. Norton, who had been tricked into allowing Adam into Torchwood in the first place, and Lizbeth eventually worked out what had happened, despite numerous setbacks as Adam kept altering their memories. They disabled Torchwood’s weapons on the day the Kernaz arrived, preventing war and allowing the Kernaz to send Adam into the Void. (AUDIO: Madam, I’m)

In 1965, the government asked five highly ranked officers, including Jack, to give twelve children to the 456 as a gift in return for an anti-virus for a mutated form of Indonesian influenza. It was decided that the children would be taken from a Scottish orphanage as they wouldn't be missed. Despite eleven children being taken, Clem McDonald managed to escape. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three)

In the 1970s several known cases were solved by Torchwood Los Angeles with a trio of agents, Marlow Sweet, Gabriella Martinez and Charlotte Du Bujeau. After Charley's death, Valerie Fox joined the trio. (AUDIO: The Dollhouse)

Circa 1984, Torchwood bought the London-based security firm H.C. Clements. (TV: The Runaway Bride)

In 1987, Torchwood sent Doctor James Greco to investigate Gabriel Tyler and his psychic powers, hoping to find a breakthrough in understanding the human mind. His experiments were discovered by the Seventh Doctor, who claimed he’d never heard of Torchwood when Greco revealed his employers’ name. (AUDIO: Damaged Goods) In 1991, (AUDIO: Locker 15) the Torchwood Tower, known publicly as Canary Wharf, was built to reach a radar blackspot, which Torchwood began experimenting on, and became the headquarters of Torchwood One. The Institute examined the Void Ship (though they did not call it by that name), an obviously alien artefact they struggled to understand which had come through the anomaly. It was discovered that tapping into the resonance around the anomaly produced massive amounts of what seemed to be free energy, however in doing so Torchwood were weakening the barriers between their universe and another. (TV: Army of Ghosts)

Circa 1997, Torchwood shot down a Jathaa sunglider. It was taken by Torchwood One who reverse-engineered it for weaponry. (TV: Army of Ghosts) On New Year’s Eve 1999, Jack became the leader of Torchwood Three when its current leader, Alex Hopkins, killed the rest of the team and himself after being driven insane by an alien artefact that revealed the events of the coming years. During his rampage, he phoned Torchwood One, with Yvonne Hartman answering. Yvonne listened to his murders and rambling about Torchwood not being ready, and the experience inspired her to rise through the ranks to make Torchwood ready. (TV: Fragments, AUDIO: One Rule, The Torchwood Archive)

21st century
Over the next few years, Jack rebuilt the Torchwood Three team, recruiting Suzie Costello, Toshiko Sato, Sebastian Vaughan (AUDIO: The Vigil) and Owen Harper. Disapproving the ethics of Torchwood One, Jack told Tosh of his plans to reform the organisation to greater benevolence. (TV: Fragments)

Yvonne Hartman’s leadership
Sometime between 2003 and March 2005, Yvonne became Director of Torchwood One (AUDIO: Locker 15) and rebuilt the Institute. (AUDIO: Poker Face) Investigations of the anomaly and sphere continued under Doctor Singh, (TV: Army of Ghosts) with Yvonne personally travelling to Torchwood Three to obtain a Drahvin scanner for use on the sphere. It was lost when Barry Jackson burnt down her hotel to embroil her in his scheme to kill his rivals for Cardiff mayor on behalf of the Committee. (AUDIO: One Rule) Under Yvonne’s directorship, Torchwood One investigated Blind Summit, (AUDIO: Blind Summit) was briefly taken over by Rachel Allan who wanted a war against Planet XXX, (AUDIO: New Girl, Through the Ruins, Uprising) created the Law Machines for the Mayor of London, (AUDIO: The Law Machines) and shutdown Temporary Solutions. (AUDIO: 9 to 5)

In March 2006, Tosh was sent to London to investigate the alien lifeform recovered from a crashed spacecraft. Unknown to her, she met the Ninth Doctor during this time. (TV: Aliens of London) On Christmas 2006, the alien Sycorax invaded Earth, using blood control and a ship built from an asteroid which hovered over London. (TV: The Christmas Invasion) Torchwood had developed a weapon for just such a contingency, based on alien technology scavenged from a Jathaa sun glider. (TV: Army of Ghosts) Prime Minister Harriet Jones ordered them to shoot the Sycorax down, despite the Doctor having convinced them to retreat. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)

After the Zaross invasion, Torchwood was part of the clean-up operation in Norwich. (AUDIO: Infamy of the Zaross)

In 2007, a side-effect of Torchwood’s continued experiments with the anomaly was the appearance of millions of "ghosts" all over the world: humanoid figures that glowed with an unearthly light. These events became known as “ghosts shifts”. (TV: Army of Ghosts) During this time Atif, a journalist for The Examiner, began looking into Torchwood. The Institute arranged for his story to be abandoned and took Atif away. (WC: Tardisode 12)

Fall of Canary Wharf
The Tenth Doctor investigated the ghost shifts and traced them to Torchwood. He explained to the then-administrator Yvonne that their experiments were weakening the barrier between dimensions, which would eventually lead to drastic problems in their own world, perhaps resulting in the collapse of their dimension. His warnings were too late however, as the experiments had already allowed an advance guard of Cybermen from a parallel world through, who had infiltrated Torchwood. They opened the breach in full, allowing a massive invasion force from another dimension to come through the "hole" and materialise around the world. At the same time, the Void Ship opened, revealing a hidden cadre of four Daleks, (TV: Army of Ghosts) who sought restore the Dalek race with a stolen piece of Time Lord technology called the Genesis Ark. They promptly killed a Torchwood technician while stealing his knowledge of current events. They saw the Cybermen as an impediment to their own return and began hostilities against them, despite an offer from the Cyber-Leader to form an alliance. This began the Battle of Canary Wharf, with Torchwood militia caught in the middle. This turned Torchwood Tower into a battleground. Many of Torchwood One’s staff were either killed or cyber-converted, including Yvonne herself.

The "hole" in space time created by the Void Ship also allowed a resistance army from the Cybermen’s dimension to cross over, initially with the intention of stopping the Cybermen, who joined forces with the Doctor to stop both invaders and close the breach. The fighting did not end until the Doctor found a way to reverse Torchwood's power machinery and open the breach to pull the Daleks and Cybermen into the Void. The reversal sealed the gap between N-Space and the parallel world. (TV: Doomsday)

Torchwood Three independent
Torchwood One was considered fallen after the Battle. (TV: Everything Changes) With the old regime gone, Jack decided to rebuild Torchwood better in the Doctor’s honour. (TV: The Sound of Drums) He later recruited Canary Wharf survivor Ianto Jones after Ianto kept seeking his attention and proved himself by helping capture a pterodactyl. (TV: Fragments) Some time later, Sebastian was killed by a cortex leech. (AUDIO: The Vigil) Suzie shot herself after being exposed as a serial killer, after which Jack hired Gwen Cooper. By the time of Gwen's recruitment, Torchwood Four had disappeared. (TV: Everything Changes) In Gwen’s first months at Torchwood Three they encountered a sex gas, (TV: Day One) Fairies, (TV: Small Worlds) Scorchies, (AUDIO: Broken) cannibals, (TV: Countrycide) an Arcateenian, (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts) and the Saviour. (AUDIO: Broken) They also investigated the Committee. (AUDIO: The Conspiracy, The Torchwood Archive, Fall to Earth, Uncanny Valley) Later in the year they were tricked into briefly resurrecting Suzie. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie) tried to helped three temporally-displaced people adjust to the 21st century (TV: Out of Time) and shutdown a Weevil fighting club. (TV: Combat)

Torchwood Three was manipulated by Bilis Manger to open the Cardiff rift, resulting in massive temporal displacements and the release of the demon Abaddon. Jack stopped the demon by overloading him with his infinite lifespan. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness, End of Days) Shortly after, team leader Captain Jack Harkness mysteriously disappeared. (TV: Utopia) Subsequently, Prime Minister Harold Saxon sent Torchwood Three on a "wild goose chase" mission away from Great Britain to the Himalayas. (TV: The Sound of Drums)

After a few months had passed for Torchwood Three (and about a year for Jack, who had lived through the Year That Never Was) Jack returned to Torchwood Three. Although Gwen had taken charge during his absence, Jack resumed command. Perhaps due to their influence during alien invasion, by this point the late 2000s, Torchwood was beginning to be known by the public in Cardiff at large, although more by name and reputation than by actual purpose. An old Time Agent colleague of Jack’s, Captain John Hart, came to Cardiff at the same time and embroiled Torchwood in a scheme. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) Under Jack’s renewed leadership, Torchwood Three encountered an alien sleeper cell, (TV: Sleeper, AUDIO: Serenity) helped Tommy Brockless fulfill his purpose and travel back in time to 1918, (TV: To The Last Man) shutdown Harries & Harries, (TV: Meat) were briefly infiltrated by Adam, (TV: Adam) and investigated the Pharm with the aid of UNIT medical officer Martha Jones. After they shut down the Pharm, it’s director Aaron Copley shot Owen dead (TV: Reset) however he was resurrected using the second Resurrection Gauntlet. After battling a manifestation of Death, Owen became permanently undead (TV: Dead Man Walking) and returned to duty at Torchwood. (TV: A Day in the Death) During his undeath, Torchwood killed a pair of Nostrovites, (TV: Something Borrowed) investigated the Church of the Outsiders, (AUDIO: Believe) and stopped the Night Travellers’ rampage. (TV: From Out of the Rain) After they collaborated on Corpse Day, Owen worked with PC Andy Davidson on a series of investigations (AUDIO: Corpse Day, The Hope, The Three Monkeys) until they fell out when Owen used Torchwood’s resources to cover up a death accidentally caused by him and the alien Caite. (AUDIO: Gooseberry) Torchwood Three was depleted by the final death of Owen and Tosh who were killed during Jack’s brother’s vengeful scheme in Cardiff. The three survivors resolved to keep Torchwood going. (TV: Fragments, Exit Wounds) Not long after Owen and Tosh’s deaths, Jack served as surrogate parent for the next Ruler of the Yalnix (AUDIO: Expectant) and the trio were invited to CERN by Martha, who suspected at conspiracy at work there and couldn’t trust UNIT personnel at the site. (AUDIO: Lost Souls) During the Dalek invasion of Earth, Torchwood Three were contacted by Harriet Jones through the Sub-Wave Network and helped send a signal to the Doctor, with Jack rushing to his side to help fight the Daleks whilst Gwen and Ianto defended the Hub. After the Daleks’ defeat, Torchwood helped the Doctor restore the Earth to its original location. (TV: The Stolen Earth, Journey's End)

In the following months, the trio helped Freda, a half alien asylum seeker sent back in time from 2069, (AUDIO: Asylum) discovered the continued existence of Torchwood India in Delhi and foiled their plan to reset the world to 1926 using their time store (AUDIO: Golden Age) and investigated a series of phone calls leaving people in comas. (AUDIO: The Dead Line) After helping a Keranium repair its spaceship, they faced the outbreak of the Good Thinking virus in Cardiff and stopped Heights Pharmaceuticals inoculating people with Provictus. (AUDIO: Outbreak) Torchwood Three responded to a spaceship crash at the same time as UNIT and found a body that UNIT had missed. Gwen brought it to Martha at a UNIT victim-retrieval station and they discovered it was actually a chameleon, and destroyed the base to kill it. (AUDIO: Dissected) The trio investigated Joanna Carew’s miraculous recovery and discovered she was working with an alien entity, Fitzroy, (AUDIO: The Devil and Miss Carew) and worked with UNIT to investigate an underwater call originating from the Mariana Trench. (AUDIO: Submission)

Fall of Torchwood Three
During the 456 Incident in 2009, the Institute was left in disarray due to an intentional effort by the British Prime Minister Brian Green to destroy Torchwood to prevent the revelation of previous dealings between the UK and the 456 in 1965, which Jack had been involved, after the 456 returned to Earth. The Cardiff Hub was destroyed by a paramilitary unit headed by Agent Johnson. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) Files held by the British government indicated that by this point, Torchwood Two had been disbanded. After the destruction of the Hub, Johnson’s team pursued Gwen and Ianto and attempted to imprison Jack by entombing him in concrete. Ianto and Gwen rescued him and the team made their way to London. (TV: Day Two) With the aid of Lois Habiba, the trio used their few resources to infiltrate the British government’s discussions on how to respond to the 456’s demands for 10% of each country’s children and blackmailed them into allowing them to confront the 456 ambassador in Thames House. The ambassador rejected Torchwood’s threats and unleashed a deadly virus, killing everyone in the building including Ianto. (TV: Day Three, Day Four) When Jack revived he surrendered to the government and let them take Gwen back to Cardiff, telling her to protect Ianto’s family. Johnson rescued him and worked with him to defeat the 456 to prevent the Earth’s governments complying with their demands, at the cost of Jack’s grandson. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)

Fallen Institute
After the defeat of the 456, Torchwood was left with only two surviving operatives: Jack and Gwen, the latter pregnant. Jack spent six months travelling the world on his own, (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) eventually returning to Cardiff to seal the Rift by destroying The House of the Dead. (AUDIO: The House of the Dead) Afterwards he decided to leave Earth, using his vortex manipulator which Gwen had retrieved from the ruins of the Hub. Gwen — now heavily pregnant — was the last known Torchwood operative. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) It was at this point that the Institute was considered disbanded. (TV: The New World) Technology from the ruins of the Torchwood Three Hub was recovered by the British government (PROSE: Long Time Dead) who sold it on. (PROSE: The Men Who Sold the World) Billionaires Joshua Naismith (TV: The End of Time) and Angelo Colasanto acquired technology salvaged from Torchwood. (TV: End of the Road) In 2011, during the events of Miracle Day, Jack returned to Earth, and while the Institute was no more, he and Gwen, along with several new members, formed a new team that continued to use the name "Torchwood". During the crisis the team established a relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency (for whom newly recruited members Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond were agents) though Jack resisted the CIA's efforts take control. Shortly after the resolution of the crisis, which resulted in Esther's death, (TV: Miracle Day) Jack left Earth and Rex returned to work as CIA agent, (AUDIO: Red Skies, Army of One) and Torchwood once again ceased to exist.

By 2012, the name (if not necessarily the function) of Torchwood was widely known to the public, to the extent that the Battle of Canary Wharf had come to be known as the "Battle of Torchwood". (TV: Fear Her)

Revival
In 2015, Gwen and Rhys decided to restart Torchwood after helping Jack stop the Evolved experiment at Bryn Offa Nursing Home. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives) To raise money for Torchwood, Gwen took a job as an independent witness at a fracking site in Glynteg, discovering an alien infection had accidentally been released there. (AUDIO: Smashed)

Gwen’s new Torchwood had to deal with temporary holes in space time which brought through new alien phenomena in Cardiff despite the apparent closing of the Rift years prior, which they weren't sure was a sign of the Rift reopening or simply the position in Cardiff being vulnerable. At this point, Gwen, who dealt with most of these incursions with assistance from PC Andy Davidson while Rhys looked after their daughter Anwen, approached Roger Pugh, Planning Officer for Cardiff City Council, in order to establish a new Torchwood facility in Cardiff which would replace the long-gone Hub. After Gwen showed Roger a day of her work first hand, he gave her his support. (AUDIO: More Than This) Gwen later investigated the Darkness in Talmouth (AUDIO: Made You Look) and she and Rhys encountered an entity. (AUDIO: We Always Get Out Alive)

During the 2010s, Torchwood recruited Tania Bell, a tenant in 107 Baker Street, to keep an eye out for the Doctor as he was known to visit that address. (AUDIO: Must-See TV)

By 2017, Jack Harkness had returned to his old role as leader, and a civil servant, St John Colchester had been assigned to the team to assist with Torchwood's reestablishment. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)

After the government funding for Torchwood's reestablishment was cut following a report that stated the Rift was no longer a threat, the team moved back into the ruins of the Hub and owned a Smart Car. They were often assisted by disgraced journalist Tyler Steele, a rejected potential recruit. (AUDIO: Changes Everything) An alien, Orr, also joined Torchwood. (AUDIO: Orr, Superiority Complex) An Yvonne Hartman from a parallel universe arrived and took over Torchwood, framing Jack as a terrorist. (AUDIO: Poker Face) After being split from Ng, who had been in control of Gwen’s body, Gwen left Torchwood to start a new life. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)

Following the flight of the Sorvix, (AUDIO: Future Pain) Torchwood covered up the invasion using Brent Hayden. (AUDIO: The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood) Norton Folgate joined the team (AUDIO: Flight 405) after Yvonne attempted to make a hard-light projection of Ianto. (AUDIO: Night Watch) The two both worked for the Committee but later attempted to stop their plan, (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm) resulting in severe damage to Cardiff. (AUDIO: A Mother's Son) As a result of this, Torchwood was discredited and Jack, Ng, Orr, Tyler and Colchester fled the city whilst Yvonne was arrested. (AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers) Torchwood was shut down again following this incident. (AUDIO: Dead Time)

At the beginning of the 2020s, the Thirteenth Doctor believed Torchwood to be gone alongside UNIT. (TV: Spyfall) In 2020, Tania Bell was unaware of the shutdown of Torchwood, (AUDIO: Dead Time) and continued reporting to them when the Eighth Doctor began living at 107 Baker Street. (AUDIO: Lost Property) Andy Davidson later went to visit her, claiming Torchwood had become concerned about her lack of reports and became embroiled in events at Baker Street. He and Tania concealed Torchwood’s true name from the Doctor, aware this was too early for him to know about the organisation. (AUDIO: Must-See TV, Divine Intervention) After he and Tania accompanied the Doctor, Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair on a test flight to the future, Andy finally confessed to Tania that Torchwood had been shutdown. (AUDIO: Dead Time)

By the 2060s, Torchwood Three was capable of controlling the Rift. (AUDIO: Asylum)

Post-21st century
The Institute still existed, as the Torchwood Archive, in the 42nd century. The Walker Expedition to Krop Tor was sent by the Archive. (TV: The Satan Pit) The Archive eventually came to be on a space station which drifted outside of human space. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Archive, by then long forgotten, was visited by Jeremiah Bash Henderson. He used it to learn about Object 1 and gave the Archive a fake copy of it. When the computer core attempted to open the fake, the Archive was destroyed. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Great Cobalt Pyramid was built on the ruins of the Torchwood Institute. (TV: Bad Wolf)

Britain
The Torchwood Institute was known to have four offices across Britain and an international branch. In 2007, Torchwood One was destroyed. (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday) By 2009, Two, Three and India had also ceased operations. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four, AUDIO: Golden Age) Torchwood Four ceased operations, by virtue of disappearance, prior to 2007. (TV: Everything Changes) From 2011, the Institute's two surviving Torchwood agents simply represented "Torchwood". As fugitives, or self-styled "freedom fighters", the name Torchwood was simply a word which connected its team members. (TV: The Categories of Life)

Torchwood One, headquartered Canary Wharf, was destroyed during the battle with the Cybermen, and consequently abandoned. Last director was Yvonne Hartman. (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday) Had properties and bases across London. (TV: The Runaway Bride, Children of Earth: Day Three, et al.)

Torchwood One also had a base under the Thames Flood Barrier and owned the security firm "H.C. Clements" used to recreate Huon particles. (TV: The Runaway Bride)

Torchwood Two was run from above a bank (PROSE: The Twilight Streets) in Glasgow by a "very strange man" (TV: Everything Changes) called Archie. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets) Closed down prior to summer 2009. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two)

Torchwood Three operated in Cardiff, primarily to monitor the Cardiff rift, and was run from the Hub beneath Roald Dahl Plass. (TV: Everything Changes, et al.) Led by Captain Jack Harkness since 2000. (TV: Fragments) Headquarters destroyed on orders of the UK government circa 2009. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) After the defeat of the 456, (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) Torchwood Three ceased to exist, though its two surviving members later resumed operations in an unofficial capacity during Miracle Day in 2011. (TV: The New World) One of those survivors, Gwen Cooper, later re-established Torchwood Three (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives, More Than This) and by 2017 it had resumed operations in its old headquarters. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)

Torchwood Four, lost, but in the words of Captain Jack Harkness, "We'll find it someday". (TV: Everything Changes)

International
Torchwood India, operating in Delhi to collect all artefacts in the Raj. Closed in 1924 by Captain Jack Harkness, though the facility, and some of its members, continued to survive, unageing due to an alien artefact, until 2009. (AUDIO: Golden Age)

Torchwood Los Angeles, operating at least during the 1970s, saw to the protection of the United States' west coast from alien intrusion. (AUDIO: The Dollhouse)

The Archive
Initially the Torchwood Archive was housed in the Torchwood House. Centuries in the future it was a space station. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

Parallel universe
Pete's World, a parallel universe's version of Earth, also had a version of Torchwood. It’s experiments were used by the Cybermen of that universe to crossover to N-Space. Afterwards the People’s Republic of Great Britain discovered what Torchwood had been doing and took full control of the Institute. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen, Doomsday) President Harriet Jones eventually merged Torchwood with the Preachers to create UNIT. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben)

Torchwood website
On the series 1 version of the Torchwood website, a case file outlined the fall of Torchwood One. It suggested after a massive loss in life and technology, that it was recommended to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for "the immediate closure of Torchwood One, together with the formation of a steering committee to fully examine future options."

On the series 2 version of the Torchwood website, Owen Harper did a report on the "wild goose chase" Torchwood Three went on that was mentioned by during TV: The Sound of Drums. At 5am, Ianto Jones picked up a phone call telling Torchwood about "[s]omething funny going on in the Himalayas", which Ianto specified was in Pakistan. Ianto claimed to Owen that the call came from UNIT, who were "already there", calling for "all four of us" — Owen, Ianto, Toshiko Sato and Gwen Cooper, and that according to them it was connected to Abaddon.

Torchwood were briefed that there was apparently another space-time rift, halfway up K2. While Tosh was setting up rift-detecting equipment at the location on K2 that was given, a humanoid doll resembling their missing leader, Captain Jack Harkness — described by Owen as "quite a good likeness" — was rigged to jump out of the snow from a spring at the moment the equipment was activated. Owen dubbed it a "Jack-in-the-box", adding, "How bleeding hilarious." The team realised it was a set-up. After two days waiting for transport, Torchwood Three headed back home.

On the trip back, they learnt Saxon had won the election, murdered the American President and was himself murdered by his wife. Owen noted from this that "a week really is a long time in politics".

Other websites
To promote the broadcast of Bad Wolf in 2005, the BBC Doctor Who website was redesigned, resembling what websites of United Kingdom reality shows like Big Brother looked like at the time. It ostensibly showed the profiles of surviving housemates of the Big Brother house, including Strood. Strood stated his "home" in the year 200,100 as "Torchwood". In Bad Wolf, "Torchwood" was briefly mentioned as the answer to a question on The Weakest Link. "Torchwood" was also what the Doctor Who production team labelled tapes as "as a security measure" while they went from Cardiff to London, but the name had yet to be properly established as an Earth-defending institute or as the TV series starring John Barrowman the following year.

Other matters

 * "Torchwood" was a code name for series 1 of Doctor Who when it was in production, partly to keep it secret, partly to keep people from absconding with videotapes before it was produced. The word "Torchwood" itself is an anagram of "Doctor Who".
 * Torchwood is also the name of a spin-off series from the BBC set in the Doctor Who universe.