The Department

The Department was a brutal, totalitarian government agency that dominated Great Britain in the mid-21st century, turning at least part of the world into one giant dystopia.

Overview
When the British government was secretly hijacked by Korven from the year 50,000 for their planned invasion of Earth in the past, MI5 and MI6 were replaced with the Department. The British government itself was led by the secret Korven Lomax, who hid his form by conversing with his subordinates via viewscreen, seen only as a shadowy silhouette. (TV: The Eclipse of the Korven) The British government was in control of at least the United Kingdom, the Americas, the Pacific Union and other lesser countries, so the Department had jurisdiction in all those countries. (TV: Lost Library of Ukko) Lomax needed an ally on Earth and found one in the form of Inspector Thorne who made it a policy to be on the winning side. Thorne was the governor of Dauntless Prison, and was implanted with Meron DNA by the Korven, effectively turning him into one. The Korven had aided the Merons in the war against the Jixen by destroying the Jixen homeworld. (TV: Hound of the Korven) There were at least two other Merons in the Department. (TV: Liberation)

The Department kept the population under control with its robotic forces. The CCPCs were notorious for police brutality, robot surveillance cameras and hovering orange spheres with lasers. The Department also created androids. They would go to any lengths to gain the public's obedience, using publicity stunts and propaganda messages. (TV: Liberation, The Bounty Hunter, Sirens of Ceres) Although the Department generally assumed extremely broad powers, in some situations Department members sought warrants from the Public Safety Council before making an arrest. (TV: Jaws of Orthrus)

The Department maintained a harsh policy on aliens, capturing any that came to Earth. They were referred to as fallen angels and imprisoned in Dauntless Prison.

It was later revealed that Lomax was actually a Korven, and Thorne was a spy, implanted with both Korven and Meron DNA. Both were killed shortly afterwards. (TV: The Eclipse of the Korven) What this meant for the future of the Department is not known.

Early history
In 2048, Inspector June Turner replaced human law enforcement officers with the CCPCs. Some cops, like Harry Pike were defiant when forced out of one of the final operating police stations in London. The station became the workplace of Professor Alistair Gryffen, who was assigned by the Department to work on alien technology. He was aided by Harry's son Darius. (TV: The Last Precinct)

A Korven spacecraft carrying a Space-Time Manipulator crashed in the frozen wastes of Canada. The crashsite was investigated by Department officers and CCPCs to salvage the technology. The STM was brought piece by piece to Gryffen Manor for Gryffen to study. (TV: Regeneration, Angel of the North)

2050
The Department pursued dissidents such as Stark Reality, also known by his real name, Starkey. Starkey commonly hacked outdoor public display board terminals, posting his dissident message against the Department: Nobody thinks and Nobody gets hurt. One time while doing this, he was met by June Turner's daughter Jorjie who wished to help him. They were discovered by CCPCs and ran to Gryffen Manor. Gryffen was working on the STM with a new component given to him by the two secret Merons, Starkey accidentally interfered and the STM brought in four Jixen from 50'000 and the hound of the Korven, K9 Mark I. He self-destructed and regenerated into K9 Mark 2. As he completed his orientation protocol, the CCPCs arrived and arrested Starkey. K9 stayed at the house, where Gryffen worked on him. The surviving Jixen tracked Starkey to a virtual reality detention facility. Starkey was able to escape when the Jixen attacked a CCPC. As June Turner was Gryffen's primary contact with the Department, she came to talk to him and gave Gryffen, who was secretly hiding Starkey and K9, the directive to catch and turn him over to the Department. If he failed or refused, his funding would be ended and the STM would be dismantled and given to a more cooperative researcher. (TV: Regeneration)

The Jixen found out the two Merons were in the Department's Dauntless Prison and decided to head there. K9 and the team discovered this and decided to act. Starkey and Darius were to sneak in the prison while K9 flew there monitored by Gryffen in the house. However, K9 entered the Department exclusion zone and was shot down by Department Defence Robots, and Starkey and Darius were caught by CCPCs and imprisoned. K9 managed to repair himself and went to the prison while Jorjie arrived and freed Starkey and Darius, along with the other prisoners. After the Jixen scared off a Meron, it was killed by Starkey. As part of a deal with Darius, Starkey left Gryffen Manor and evaded the Department, with K9 by his side. (TV: Liberation) Though after K9 saved Gryffen from a Korven, he accessed the Department mainframe, and edited it so that Starkey was no longer a wanted dissident, possibly even erasing his existence in the Department's records. (TV: The Korven)

As a publicity stunt to boost public order. Drake had a fake bomb attached to the speed clutch in the control centre of a Ferris wheel. making it go faster. Starkey and K9 watched as Drake and several patrols of CCPCs arrived. He told the public if his forces tried to stop the wheel, the bomb would detonate. K9 destroyed the bomb, stopping the wheel. Drake asked why June didn't tell him of K9, whom he thought dangerous. When she disagreed, Drake went to Lomax, who said he would consider whose jurisdiction K9 fell under.

Drake was contacted by Ahab, a bounty hunter trying to capture K9. Drake used the Department's CCTV devices across London to find K9 for him. However when they found K9, Ahab betrayed Drake, neutralised his CCPC guards and took K9 to Gryffen's house. K9 managed to regain some of his memories and defeated Ahab, by which time Lomax decided that K9 was under the Department's control, specifically June's alien activity section. June then made K9 and his friends the official K9 Unit, giving Gryffen full responsibility over him. (TV: The Bounty Hunter)

Drake came up with a plan for full control over the population of London using cerulium that had fallen to Earth. He tested this on several schoolgirls attending Magdalene Academy. Cerulium bracelets, which could control the students, were offered to them by an android posing as a schoolgirl, Melaina. He also had an experimental device called the inhibitor created. When a lone activist protested against CCPC violence, two CCPCs apprehended her. This angered Jorjie who decided to take action and threw a stone at a CCPC. Drake decided they needed discipline and ordered the CCPCs to use the inhibitor, on them. but it misfired, destroying the CCPC and send K9 flying. Later, Drake suggested sending Jorjie to Magdalene Academy to deal with her rebellious behaviour. While Jorjie was there, she and Vibecka fell victim to the cerulium bracelet. K9 managed to blast the bracelet off without harming her, restoring her to normal, then destroyed all the other bracelets, freeing the students. When Drake realised his plan had failed, he deactivated Melaina. (TV: Sirens of Ceres)

When an alien entity caused fear and panic throughout London from its hiding place inside an old wardrobe in a junkyard. Drake secured the junkyard with his own private army of CCPCs, interrupting a news interview with two vagrants who trapped Darius in the wardrobe but claimed to save him from the "Huge, black creeping shadow of the dead". When Starkey, Darius, Jorjie and K9 got past the CCPCs and decided to investigate, Drake arrived. They then went to hide in the wardrobe but Darius was terrified and refused to enter. When he did, he found himself hanging on to a bar for his life due to the bottomless pit below just as he did earlier. When they managed to get him out, Drake came and asked them if they saw the alien. As she left, Drake shouted at the wardrobe saying he was not afraid of it. An alien hand then popped at the door and then back in again.

The operation was disbanded by June when she was unable to find proof of the entity's existence. When Starkey was arrested by CCPCs when he investigated the wardrobe and found out it was a person's fear which made them see the hole, Drake went to him in his cell. Drake failed to make Starkey fear him. Drake started to show signs of paranoia and suggested that Starkey was working with the alien. Starkey insisted that it was Drake's fear but Drake refused to acknowledge it and ordered the CCPCs to "toss him in the gutter where he belongs". Drake decided to destroy the creature, dropping a bomb into the bottomless pit and destroying the wardrobe with his cybernetic hand. Despite this, the entity seemed to survive the attacks, but vanished soon after. (TV: Fear Itself)

Drake later devised yet another scheme, this time targeting K9. He had a duplicate of K9, who he called Orthrus created to frame him. When June addressed protesters outraged at the Department's introduction of microchips, they started to throw fruit. Drake then angrily ordered the CCPCs to arrest them. Orthrus then arrived and started shooting the balloons and banners. He then shot Drake. As June tended to Drake, he told her K9 had gone mad and that he would be happy to find out why. June then informed Jorjie of what happened, and they then went to Gryffen's house. June showed them the recording of K9 shooting Drake and suggested K9 hand himself in to make it better for himself. Starkey refused. When K9 accessed his memory he revealed he erased his alarm, conveniently taking out half an hour of memory. June told Drake (who had made a "speedy" recovery) of how she tried to negotiate a peaceful solution which would stop a potential "bloodbath" should Drake have decided to "go in all guns blazing". As the team debated about K9, Drake had the CCPCs bring Darius (who had doubts that K9 was telling the truth) to him. Drake then asked Darius to be his operative on the inside. While watching the recording of the attack, Jorjie noticed Drake's smug smile before he was shot.

As June looked at Drake's warrant for K9's arrest she noticed an "Operation: Orthrus" noted. When she decided to take a look, she found out it was classified. Drake then arrived and June questioned him about how he smiled before he was shot. He replied it was due to many reasons such as courage.

In order to provoke Darius, Orthrus came in the middle of the night and severely damaged Mariah, Professor Gryffen's sentient car who Darius had a strong bond with. In the morning, Darius was shocked and furious to find what had happened to Mariah. K9 decided that he should surrender while Starkey suggested he fight off the Department. Gryffen insisted that wasn't the right way. Drake then arrived with two CCPC's with a warrant to arrest K9. When Gryffen requested to see the warrant, Drake ordered them to move on. When Jorjie demanded to see the warrant one CCPC grabbed her arm, causing Darius to put a bucket on its head in her defence. Gryffen then wired the other one to his antique radio causing it to dance. As the kids and K9 ran, Drake pulled off the bucket and blamed Gryffen. He said they were just being themselves and taunted Drake, who angrily pulled the wire off the dancing CCPC. In the cellar Darius split up with the rest to trick the CCPCS lead away, he was then met by Orthrus who shot at him. He then ran to Starkey and Jorjie saying K9 had gone mad, but they didn't believe him. Orthrus then came and aimed at Jorjie, but Starkey stood in front of her. As Orthrus prepared to fire, K9 realised he was being framed and shot Orthrus. Orthrus prepared to fire again but K9 easily disabled him. Drake and his CCPCs then walked in. Drake was furious at the "15'000 manhours, up in smoke" and said it would give him pleasure to disassemble K9 and make him his lapdog. June then interrupted and informed him that Operation: Orthrus was not approved by the Department and was therefore terminated. Drake refused to accept this and angrily left. (TV: Jaws of Orthrus)

While June was supervising a new project, the Bodach attempted to make everyone in the world sleep. Several Department inspectors were part of the Bodach's army of sleepers. K9 foiled the Bodach's plan and destroyed their obelisk, returning everyone to normal. (TV: Dream-Eaters)

When a UFO entered Earth's orbit, Drake ordered it to be destroyed with Orbital missiles. June told him to stop as it hadn't been fully analysed. The ship suddenly disappeared, which shocked Drake was shocked as the computer was telling him that it had burnt up in the atmosphere. Later, June detected an alien presence in Gryffen's house and called for back up. The Anubians took action against the Department and started materialising hypnotic headbands to all Department officers. Drake initiated Code Red Alert and called for all agents, but fell victim to the Anubians control as well. When the crisis was resolved and the Anubians were arrested by the Department, June cheerfully said there was "no hurry" in taking the headband off Drake. (TV: Curse of Anubis)

Drake then hatched a plan. He had a Mede starship along with its two pilots captured. The ship's molecular refractor gave the ship the ability to dematerialise and with that he could use it to spy anywhere and not be seen by anyone, even Lomax. The attempted replication of the technology caused chenium pollution which leaked into the River Thames. In June's office, Drake talked to a CCPC through a Department computer, who told him the Medes were withholding information they needed. Drake ordered them to be more persuasive. June arrived and asked why he was there and spoke to him about his special security unit. She told him how she sent her squad to investigate possible alien activity but were turned back by Drake's unit. She warned that alien threats were above all other Department operations, and if her squad is blocked again she would inform Lomax. Drake was then contacted by the CCPC who told him the aliens wouldn't stop talking. Drake then told June he wouldn't "upset" her squad again. He then told her he had business to attend to and she then left.

In Drake's office, June found the missing schematics for a fallen angel on his computer. When Drake arrived she asked him his interest in the ship. He replied that the entire Department wanted to know where it was located. When she asked him about the featured detail on the top, he said he had no idea and told her to leave as he had business to attend to. Before she did so she warned him he best not be revealed to be in possession of the ship. Drake then contacted the CCPC who told him the aliens weren't cooperating. Drake then authorised the use of torture. The Medes attempted to communicate with K9 and the gang by using their Avatar forms to direct him to the source of the pollution through the sewers while Darius and Jorjie went to the processing factory, where they were captured. June then found and went to the factory. She then used her higher authorisation to shut down the project. She and the gang then went to the Department Prison and released the Medes, returning their technology and apologising for Drake's actions. They then removed the pollution from the River Thames and returned home with their spaceship. (TV: Alien Avatar)

When the Aeolian's mating call caused storms across the United Kingdom, Drake suspected Gryffen as he almost single-handedly caused the Great Cataclysm. June argued that he was part of a group of scientists who all agreed with the experiment. Drake managed to find the Aeolian in the Holy Cross Cathedral and went there along with four CCPCs. Starkey and K9 told him the Aeolian was merely looking for her mate, but Drake ordered the CCPCs to stun her regardless. K9 told Drake that as the feedback loop hooked up with gravity, the Earth would shatter like a wine glass. Drake, however, refused to listen to a "robot dog and a juvenile delinquent". Starkey tried to contact the Aeolian's mate using the church organ. Drake ordered the CCPCs to take the Aeolian out, but when K9 threatened to "liquidate" him and his "gangsters" he ordered them to stand down. (TV: Aeolian)

After the Centuripede stole the Major Oak from a museum, Drake was sent with orders from Lomax as the thief was classed as an A-Level threat. June, who was looking at the alien substance, argued that this wasn't his jurisdiction even as Drake picked up a piece of the alien substance. Drake later went to kill the aliens in the sewers, but June warned Gryffen, who alerted K9 and the team. Drake put a gas bomb into the sewers, setting it to detonate in four minutes, but everyone, including the aliens, escaped before it went off. (TV: The Last Oak Tree)

Drake then had the Hunger created to revolutionise cleaning. However his true intentions were to use the hijacked fallen angel technology to control society, stating that future generations would thank him. Gryffen suggested the vicious omnivores from Pluto, the most voracious bacteria in the known universe. Several tests were made all successful, however in one test one of the workers was devoured by the swarm. The survivor suspected it was alien. June suggested it could have been a malfunction but he said that the microbes were harmless as yeast and had turned into "bloodthirsty flesh-eaters". The Black Hunger device was then stolen by Darius.

At the scene of the accident, June scanned the empty hazard suit and detected a possible alien trace. Drake arrived and demanded the worker told him where the device was. Drake asked what June was doing there, to which June replied with the same question as this was merely a city sanitation issue. He told her that disappearance of state property was a very serious problem. June then asked him how he heard about it so quickly. He replied that he was "eternally vigilant".

When K9 and the others found the device, he advised to remove the object from the house. Gryffen was shocked at the analysis, he had never seen anything like it. On the sample of Starkey's shirt, the smaller microbes were attacked by the bigger ones, hunted and consumed. The altered microbe's dormancy gene had been turned off so they were always hungry, which meant they could literally eat the whole world.

June told Drake she received an analysis from the microbes in the imploder. She knew of his project with the microbes that was closed down because it was too unstable. Drake told her he'd solved it with the use of the imploder, an electromagnetic containment device used to store and transport the Hunger. She revealed that her analysis told her that he genetically altered the swarm to remove its self-limiting and dormancy characteristics. Drake claimed this was done to make it more efficient and refused to believe it could get out of control. June told him they don't know who had it, but Drake told her not to panic. She warned him that if the swarm got out, it would be the end of his career. She argued with his opinion that the people were the problem, saying that the planet was surrounded by alien menaces which need to be defeated. Drake agreed but said that first they needed to find the alien technology to take control of the human problem first, revealing the true purpose of the Black Hunger. June argued that they'd curse him for taking away their freedom to be themselves. She told Drake that the reason she stayed in the Department was to make sure he didn't succeed and that she didn't want her daughter growing up in his world. When the CCPCs then reported to Drake at Department HQ that intruders had been sighted, two juveniles and a robotic dog in Sector NW12, Drake ordered a Department officer to set the imploder to self-destruct. The imploder was set to self-destruct in five minutes. June arrived and asked who gave the order to secure the tunnels. Drake told her he found the imploder and he needed to make sure it was neutralised. The explosion would sterilise the area and take the people who stole the imploder with it.

K9 managed to detect that the imploder would detonate and Jorjie managed to deactivate it by bashing it with a piece of rubbish. The Department technician reported the swarm was still at large and the tunnel led into the River Thames. K9, Starkey and Jorjie made their way out of the tunnels cautiously as the swarm multiplied. K9 had an idea to let the swarm attack him, he then fired out a beam which swallowed the swarm into his mouth. When June reprimanded Drake about killing everyone, he countered that calculated risks must be taken to protect society. June argued he almost destroyed society, which she made sure to point out in her report. Drake had gone too far and June vowed to take him down.

Lomax decided that, although Drake served with the Department for many years, as this was not his first breach of orders but his most serious to date, Drake would be moved on to other duties. He then gave his job as head of security to Inspector Thorne, the former governor of Dauntless Prison. (TV: Black Hunger)

Thorne set his sights on an Ukkan library card held by the Department. Prisoners were rising in numbers and he wanted to use Ukkan technology to dump them on Urlic, a prison which required "no upkeep, no wardens, no exercise yard, no ping-pong tables, no parole," forever. He decided the first inmate would be Starkey who was at the Department HQ's first careers day. When Starkey saw the card's screen in Thorne's office, he was sucked into it. An Ukkan Librarian, Yssaringintinka, arrived to assist him. June reported to Lomax and warned Thorne that he wanted a good explanation as to why Thorne interfered with alien technology, which she thought insane. K9 and the team tricked Thorne into the card and after he and Starkey groused at each other, they were rescued. (TV: Lost Library of Ukko)

Thorne had several CCPC's implanted with human genetics. (TV: Mutant Copper)

With the help of John, a former Department custodian and Vice-President of Greenroom Entertainment, the Department used the last Etydion in a plot to telepathically control children. The plot which backfired. (TV: The Custodians)

Thorne was on station at the Department Mobile HQ when Taphony escaped from her prison. (TV: Taphony and the Time Loop)

Lomax ordered Thorne to acquire K9's regeneration unit. Thorne teamed up with Freddie Maxwell. (TV: Robot Gladiators)

Gryffen told June that he needed to get to the site of the crashed fallen angel in Canada as he could get the Space-Time Manipulator working properly if he acquired the temporal stabiliser. Thorne informed Lomax of this, and interfered with attempts to retrieve components from northern Canada. (TV: Angel of the North) He was at the Department Mobile HQ when the Last Precinct took over Gryffen Manor and was arrested, though K9 warned him to treat Pike with the respect he deserved or there would be consequences. (TV: The Last Precinct)

Thorne succeeded in acquiring K9's regeneration unit. (TV: Hound of the Korven) K9 determined that Thorne was working with the invaders when he found that he was being used to create a larger portal. When Jorjie branded Thorne a traitor to his entire planet, he revealed that he was implanted with Meron DNA by the Korven. He ordered Trojan to kill them all, starting with K9. K9 called the Jixen to do battle against the Meron. This caused Trojan's Jixen and Meron DNA to conflict. With its final breath, Trojan collapsed on Thorne, crushing him to death. (TV: The Eclipse of the Korven)

By 2059, at the time of Adelaide Brooke's Mars mission, no references were made to the Department, and many space projects were in operation which would seem to clash with the Department's attitude toward aliens, suggesting that the Department was either shut down, or had a lot of it's power and jurisdiction removed by this time. (TV: The Waters of Mars)

Department facilities

 * Department HQ, located in London.
 * Department Mobile HQ, normally located in London, the location of Lomax.
 * Dauntless Prison, formerly the Tower of London, held all aliens who came to Earth. Governed by Thorne, closed down in 2050 after the Department's treatment of the aliens was leaked to the media.
 * Virtual reality detention facility, used for dissidents. (TV: Regeneration)
 * Various other prisons. (TV: Alien Avatar)
 * Crashed Korven ship, in the frozen wastes of Canada, patrolled by Department officers to salvage the technology. (TV: Angel of the North)
 * Gryffen Manor in London, one of the city's last police stations until the introduction of the CCPC. (TV: The Last Precinct) Converted in 2048, home and workplace of Alistair Gryffen and base of the K9 Unit.
 * Department Dispatch, used to contain alien threats. (TV: Curse of Anubis)

Known staff

 * Lomax (Leader of British government and secret Korven plot, deceased circa 2050)
 * Thorne (Converted Meron affiliated with Lomax's plot, governor of Dauntless Prison later head of security, deceased circa 2050)
 * Drake (head of security, demoted circa 2050)
 * First Meron scientist
 * Second Meron scientist
 * Unnamed Department Technician
 * Unnamed Department Technician

K9 unit

 * June Turner (head of alien activity section and the K9 Unit, demoted to constable circa 2050)
 * Alistair Gryffen (scientist part of the K9 Unit)
 * Darius Pike (assistant to Gryffen)
 * K9 Mark 2
 * Starkey
 * Jorjie Turner

Robotic servants

 * UNIT 18FEB6 (defected circa 2050)
 * Pain-Maker (destroyed circa 2050)
 * Green Hand
 * Melaina (Android) (deactivated circa 2050)

Department projects
Through its existence, the Department had a number of projects. The first of these was Orthrus, a duplication of K9 that was created to tarnish the reputation of the real K9. Drake hoped that Orthrus' malicious behaviour would give him an excuse to arrest the real K9 and have him dismantled. (TV: Jaws of Orthrus)

They also experimented with nanotechnology and bacteria to create The Hunger, which could destroy anything it came into contact with. (TV: Black Hunger)

Other Department projects were:
 * Taphony (defected circa 2050)
 * Space-Time project (gateway for Korven invasion, terminated circa 2050)
 * Trojan (weapon for Korven invasion, terminated circa 2050)

Laws and regulations
Regulation 29d forbade the use of unapproved sandwiches at a picnic. (TV: Fear Itself)

Modifying a Department Cyborg, such as a CCPC, was punishable by an unknown amount of time in a virtual reality detention facility. (TV: Mutant Copper)

Anyone found abducting aliens, sheltering or harvesting secrets about technology from an extra-terrestrial could be secretly tried and convicted by the Department. (TV: The Custodians)

Behind the scenes

 * The Department's purpose and attitudes towards aliens is similar to the Torchwood Institute.