Theory:Timeline - Rhys Williams

This page lists appearances of Rhys Williams in the order in which he experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed that for each novel, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.

Supporting Gwen's promotion

 * TV: Everything Changes


 * TV: Day One


 * TV: Ghost Machine
 * Set sixty-six years after 1941. Rhys becomes annoyed at Gwen's absences for the first time.


 * PROSE: Border Princes
 * Set circa October 2007.


 * PROSE: Slow Decay


 * TV: Cyberwoman


 * TV: Small Worlds
 * Gwen and Rhys's flat is attacked by fairies, which is the first time Gwen's "work life" has intruded on their "normal life".


 * TV: Countrycide
 * Rhys tries to support Gwen after she has a traumatic mission in the Brecon Beacons.


 * TV: Out of Time
 * Set between 18 December and 26 December 2007.


 * TV: Combat
 * Rhys meets Gwen's boss, Captain Jack Harkness, for the first time when he interrupts a date between them. Gwen confesses that she has been having an affair since Countrycide, but uses retcon to make Rhys forget her confession.


 * TV: End of Days
 * Rhys is killed by Bilis Manger to motivate Gwen to open the Cardiff Space-Time Rift, which she helps to do. After time fixes itself with Abaddon's demise, Rhys reappears in his flat, his death having been undone.


 * ( REFERENCE )
 * Rhys proposes to Gwen, though an inconvenient back twinge presents him from traditionally getting on his knee. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)


 * TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
 * Rhys has become manager of Harwood's Haulage.

An ally of Torchwood

 * TV: Meat
 * Rhys uncovers the truth about Torchwood, and joins them on a mission, during which he is shot, though he quickly begins to recover. On Gwen's urging, Jack allows Rhys to keep his memories. All stories where Rhys knows about Torchwood take place after this one. Rhys implies that a year has passed since Everything Changes.


 * PROSE: Mend Me
 * Set on 4 July 2008. Also set between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive.


 * AUDIO: In the Shadows
 * Rhys recalls the events of Slow Decay, and Jack gives him and Gwen two tickets for a trip to Paris for the weekend, setting this shortly before Adam.


 * TV: Adam
 * Gwen has just returned from a trip to Paris with Rhys, who has fully recovered from the wounds he received in Meat.


 * PROSE: The Twilight Streets
 * Set circa August 2008, between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive, though Bilis Manger frequently implies he will die soon.


 * PROSE: Harm's Way
 * Set between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive. Rhys and Gwen's wedding is due to happen in only a few weeks' time, setting this before Something Borrowed.


 * TV: Dead Man Walking
 * Rhys receives a call from Gwen following the death and faulty resurrection of her college, Owen Harper.


 * PROSE: Requiem
 * Set on 31 October 2008.


 * PROSE: Pack Animals
 * Begins on 31 October and continues into early November. Gwen and Rhys are finalising the plans for their wedding, setting this shortly before Something Borrowed.

Marriage to Gwen

 * TV: Something Borrowed
 * Gwen and Rhys get married, despite a Nostrovite interrupting the ceremony.


 * PROSE: SkyPoint
 * Set roughly two weeks after Something Borrowed. Gwen and Rhys return from their honeymoon in Cuba. Gwen has been with Torchwood for roughly a year.


 * TV: Adrift
 * 15-year-old Jonah Bevan was born in 1993, which would set this during 2008. When Rhys asking about having children triggers Gwen, he convinces her to share more of the details about Torchwood with him, starting with what she learned about Jonah Bevan.


 * TV: Fragments
 * Jack, Owen, Tosh and Ianto are caught in a trap set by John Hart, and it falls to Gwen and Rhys to save them. Rhys learns about Jack's immortality, or at least that he can return from death.


 * TV: Exit Wounds
 * Following on from Fragments, Rhys works with Andy Davidson while Torchwood deal with an attack on Cardiff.


 * ( REFERENCE )
 * Shortly after she loses two of her colleges in the attack on Cardiff, Gwen goes to Tenerife for a holiday, and presumably takes Rhys with her. (AUDIO: Expectant)


 * PROSE: Bay of the Dead
 * Torchwood Three are still grieving the deaths of Owen and Tosh, setting this shortly after Exit Wounds.


 * PROSE: The House that Jack Built


 * PROSE: Almost Perfect


 * ( REFERENCE )
 * Rhys is called by Gwen during the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth to ensure he is staying safe. (TV: The Stolen Earth)


 * PROSE: Virus


 * PROSE: I May Be Some Time


 * PROSE: Reflections


 * PROSE: The Mind's Eye

Torchwood Three's final missions

 * AUDIO: The Dead Line
 * Rhys and Gwen discuss buying a new home, setting this shortly before Children of Earth: Day One, where Rhys was in the process of house-hunting.


 * PROSE: Risk Assessment


 * ( SEGMENT )
 * Rhys makes a delivery for the Committee. He keeps receiving deliveries of fridge parts. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)


 * AUDIO: Rhys & Ianto's Excellent Barbecue


 * AUDIO: Department X


 * AUDIO: Ghost Train


 * AUDIO: The Devil and Miss Carew
 * Rhys is becoming interested in joining Torchwood as a fulltime member.


 * PROSE: We All Go Through


 * AUDIO: Outbreak
 * Norton comments that Ianto will die soon, setting this shortly before Children of Earth.

The 456 crisis

 * TV: Children of Earth: Day One
 * Set in September 2009. The 456 announce their return by controlling the children of the Earth.


 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Two
 * After the Torchwood Hub is destroyed by the British government, Gwen collects Rhys, and informs him this she is pregnant while they travel to London to meet Lois Habiba, who guides them to Ashton Down to find Jack, and they join Ianto in freeing him. The 456 use to children to announce they shall return the next day.


 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Three
 * Torchwood Three sets up a base in an empty Torchwood One warehouse. Gwen convinces Lois to use the Eye-5 contact lenses to spy on the government for Torchwood. With Lois acting as their eyes, Torchwood Three spy on John Frobisher's meeting with the 456 ambassador at Thames House, and hear it demand 10% of the Earth's children.


 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Four
 * Through Lois, Torchwood Three see the government plan to give away underachieving children to the 456, and try to use the information to gain control of the situation, only to end up angering the 456's ambassador, who floods Thames House with a virus that kills nearly everyone inside the building, including Ianto.


 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Five
 * Gwen and Rhys return to Wales to inform Ianto's family of passing, and work to stop the army seizing the nearby children until Jack is able to kill the 456 ambassador.

No more Torchwood

 * COMIC: Shrouded


 * ( EPILOGUE )
 * In March 2010, six months after the 456 incident, Rhys watches as Jack leaves Earth after Gwen retrieves his vortex manipulator for him, hitching a ride onto a cold fusion cruiser at the edge of the solar system when they open their transport dock, despite Gwen's protests against his "running away". (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)


 * PROSE: First Born
 * Set in 2010, with Gwen and Rhys trying to find a place of solitude to raise their daughter, Anwen Williams.

The "Miracle Day" crisis

 * TV: The New World
 * Everyone on Earth is rendered unable to die, in an event dubbed Miracle Day. When Gwen's father is hospitalised, she and Rhys return to Cardiff, and meet with Andy, for the first time since Children of Earth. After he realises a connection between Torchwood and the Miracle, CIA agent Rex Matheson travels to Wales just in time to see Gwen and Rhys be saved from an assassination attempt by Jack. Rex forces Jack and Gwen to accompany him back to America in a rendition, leading directly into Rendition.


 * TV: Rendition
 * Rex allows Rhys to stay in Wales with Anwen while he takes Jack and Gwen on a flight to America.


 * TV: Dead of Night


 * TV: Escape to LA
 * Rhys begins working at PhiCorp's South Wales Overflow camp.


 * TV: The Categories of Life
 * Following on from Escape to LA, Gwen returns to Wales so she and Rhys can save her father from the Overflow camp. However, Gwen's father falls into a coma in the escape and is returned to the camp.


 * TV: The Middle Men
 * Following directly on from The Categories of Life, Gwen and Rhys successfully rescue Gwen's father from the South Wales camp, and Gwen destroys the camp's modules. She plans to return to the Torchwood team in the USA, but Rhys is captured to coerced her into handing over Jack to an unknown party, leading directly into Immortal Sins.


 * TV: Immortal Sins
 * Rhys, Anwen and Gwen's mother are recused from Olivia Colasanto's mercenaries by Andy.


 * TV: End of the Road


 * TV: The Gathering
 * Set two months after End of the Road. Gwen and Rhys meet up with Jack and Esther Drummond, and meet Oswald Danes, a convicted pedophile who worked for PhiCorp. With information provided by Oswald, the Torchwood team learn that the Blessing is linked to Shanghai and Buenos Aires. Gwen's father is seized by the overflow camp.


 * TV: The Blood Line
 * Rhys sits with Gwen's father as the Torchwood team end the Miracle, allowing the Category 1s to die peacefully.

After the Miracle

 * ( EPILOGUE )
 * After the Miracle is ended in September 2011, (PROSE: Acceptance, and then Understanding) Rhys attend Ester's funeral with Gwen, Jack and Rex. (TV: The Blood Line)


 * AUDIO: Army of One
 * Set after The Blood Line, with Gwen and Rhys still in the United States.


 * AUDIO: Fallout
 * Set after The Blood Line, with Gwen and Rhys still in the United States.


 * PROSE: Exodus Code
 * Set "months" after the end of The Blood Line, and also after Fallout. Gwen and Rhys have returned to Wales. Jack joins the crew of the Ice Maiden.

Torchwood rebuilt

 * AUDIO: Forgotten Lives
 * Gwen hasn't seen Jack for five years, setting this as early as early as 2017, assuming she isn't rounding up the numbers. She decides to set up Torchwood operations in Cardiff again.


 * AUDIO: Visiting Hours
 * Gwen is running Torchwood, and her mother is still alive, setting this before Orr. Rhys mentions recently visiting North Wales, likely setting this soon after Forgotten Lives.


 * AUDIO: Made You Look
 * Set during the winter. Gwen and Rhys have a place to store aliens, suggesting that they now have use of the Hub, setting this after More Than This.


 * COMIC: World Without End
 * Gwen is the acting head of Torchwood, while Jack has been serving with the crew of the Ice Maiden since Exodus Code.


 * AUDIO: We Always Get Out Alive
 * Gwen's mother is still alive, setting this before Orr, and Rhys recalls the events of More Than This.


 * AUDIO: Sonny
 * Rhys is helping Torchwood and Brenda seems familiar with the organisation setting this after Visiting Hours.


 * AUDIO: Orr
 * Rhys attends the funeral of Gwen's mother.


 * AUDIO: Love Rat
 * Rhys is beginning notice that "Gwen" has not been acting like herself for the past weeks.


 * AUDIO: A Kill to a View
 * Rhys encounters Bilis Manger at the Ritz Tower.


 * AUDIO: Zero Hour


 * AUDIO: The Empty Hand
 * Rhys and Andy are now close friends.


 * AUDIO: Tagged


 * AUDIO: Escape Room


 * AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn
 * Gwen is freed from the Herald when a bomb causes the Rift to reopen, and she decides to leave Torchwood.

Leaving Torchwood behind

 * AUDIO: Future Pain
 * Gwen and Rhys attend St John Colchester's funeral before they leave Cardiff.


 * AUDIO: Sargasso
 * Gwen has quit Torchwood, setting this after Herald of the Dawn. Rhys faces the Nestene Consciousness while traveling back to Wales on a cargo ship.


 * AUDIO: Misty Eyes
 * Gwen and Rhys have been living in Iceland for the last few months and Anwen is their only child, setting this before Revolution of the Daleks. They encounter Ng for the first time since Herald of the Dawn and Gwen decides to start working for an Icelandic alien hunting organisation.


 * AUDIO: Thirst Trap
 * Gwen and Rhys are living in Cardiff with two children, setting this after Misty Eyes.