Torchwood Three



Torchwood 3 was the base of Torchwood in Cardiff, Wales. It was created mainly to monitor the Cardiff Rift. Over more than a hundred years, Captain Jack Harkness had a close association with Torchwood 3 and eventually took over as leader. Torchwood 3 was significantly smaller than the London branch, with only a handful of employees. Following the destruction of Torchwood 1 in the Battle of Canary Wharf, Torchwood 3 severed ties with the rest of the organisation and was then largely autonomous, with little outside interference. Captain Jack had by that time vowed to continue Torchwood 1 as the kind of organisation which would have made the Doctor proud.

19th century
Torchwood operated in Cardiff from 1885 onwards. (TW: Slow Decay) Following the death of a male operative (torchwood.org.uk), Emily Holroyd recruited Alice Guppy in 1897. The Torchwood HQ in Cardiff at that right consisted of little more than a few rooms and a holding cell. They had a policy of executing hostile aliens immediately, as they had no way of returning them home. Over a period of more than a year, the pair monitored Jack Harkness, who made mention of 'the Doctor'. As the Torchwood Institute had gotten founded largely to combat the Doctor, the two women captured Jack, evaluated his ability to return from the dead and then recruited him. Not soon after, Torchwood would begin to physically expand into the underground and to build the Hub. (TW: Fragments)

20th century
By 1913 work on a Rift Manipulator had started, in the hopes of minimising the constant danger the rift posed. During 1913, the Institute noticed increased Rift activity, which and considered this more justification to commence work on the Manipulator. The increased activity came from "foreshocks" of the use of the Manipulator itself, travelling backwards in time from the widening of the Rift. causing the fracture of the Rift in the early 21st century. Ironically, the Manipulator itself (in the future), had caused the widening of the Rift.

In 1918 Torchwood 3 was under the command of Gerald Carter, and already had access to cryogenic suspension technology. Gerald Carter and another operative, Harriet Derbyshire investigated supposed hauntings (in fact time shifts from the future) at St Teilo's Military Hospital. Derbyshire shortly afterwards died in action in an un-related case. (TW: To the Last Man)


 * For unknown reasons, Jack Harkness did pose for the group portrait taken of the team at this time.

Though this may or may not relate to Torchwood 3, in 1941, the sinister Bilis Manger, who could teleport through time and space, had connections with Cardiff, managing a dance hall, the Ritz, and having access to Torchwood files. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

21st century
On New Year's Eve, 1999, Torchwood operative (and possibly the team leader) Alex Hopkins shot to death his entire team, bar the immortal Jack Harkness. He claimed that he was killing them to "protect" them from the 21st century. Alex made the grim joke that he had given Jack command and then committed suicide. Jack Harkness was left with the job of recruiting a new team and leading it. (TW: Fragments).

Shortly thereafter, Harkness discovered two Humans whom the rift had returned and had been locked away in the Hub's cells, since Torchwood had deemed them unable to reintegrate into society. He founded a facility on the island of Flat Holm to care for them and others who were later returned. Subsequently, he chose not to inform certain members of his staff. (TW: Adrift) In the 2000s he recruited civilians Toshiko Sato and then Owen Harper in an attempt to reform Torchwood into a more humane organisation, inspired by his admiration of the Doctor. He also employed Suzie Costello. He also, with much persuasion at first, took in Ianto Jones, a survivor of the Battle of Canary Wharf who had worked for Torchwood 1. (TW: Fragments)

During her first years at torchwood Hoshi Sato develloped Rift equations, which were to be used as guidelines to more safely operate the rift manipulator. Despite having a (relatively) high understanding of the working of the rift, during her study of the rift she did not grasp the connection between negative rift spikes and the taking away of objects though.

2007 was an eventful year for Torchwood 3. It emerged that Suzie Costello had committed a series of murders with an alien artefact, the Life Knife, in order to test out a Resurrection Gauntlet. She committed suicide. Jack took in Gwen Cooper, a Cardiff Police Constable who had helped him to solve the case. (TW: Everything Changes) As well as internal distrust, at times, of Jack himself, Torchwood 3 subsequently braved an attack by Lisa Hallett, a partially converted Cyberman who had survived their defeat at Torchwood 1. (TW: Cyberwoman)

Tosh had meanwhile 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. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) This would have wide-ranging consequences, as the use of the Manipulator caused the Rift to splinter and cause temporal shifts to occur all over Earth and Cardiff itself. 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. (TW: End of Days)

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

During his absence the team learned to work more independently, though they were unable to help with the takeover of the world by the Master, as he had sent them on a wild goose chase off to the Himalayas. (DW: The Sound of Drums). Jack returned some months later, finding that Gwen had taken over as team leader in the meantime. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

Also around 2008, 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 it's mistakes". Victims continued to be transferred to the Flat Holm facility. (TW: Adrift). Another trend in recent years is an increase in Weevil activity.
 * it is unknown if these two trendsare connected to each other, or to the opening of the rift by Billis.

Other notable events in 2008 were Torchwood 3 stopping a Weevil fighting ring, uncovering an alien sleeper cell, unilaterally closing down an official research facility, and stopping a powerfull being, a personification  of Death.

In late 2008 UNIT medical doctor Martha Jones came in briefly in order to provide support. (TW: Reset). Very shortly after her arival, Torchwood doctor Owen Harper died (TW: Reset) and came back to partial life via another Resurrection Gauntlet. (TW: Dead Man Walking). This lead to Doctor Jones staying with torchwood somewhat longer than anticipated.

The Hub
The Hub was the main base of affairs for Torchwood 3, analogous to Torchwood 1's Torchwood Tower and Torchwood 2's office in Glasgow. The Hub is located directly under Roald Dahl Plass in central Cardiff, also the location of the Cardiff rift. The Hub was connected to the rest of the Torchwood Institute via organic computer.

Incomplete list of features

 * Invisible lift. This lift leads directly from the hub to Roald Dahl Plass above. Torchwood personnel can enter or leave without arousing suspicion, since the exit is still suffering the effects of the chameleon circuit of a TARDIS that once stood above it.
 * An exit disguised as a tourist office.
 * Jack Harkness's office.
 * Workstations.
 * Cryo-chambers. Bodies of deceased Torchwood employees as well as aliens & anomalous humans can be stored here.
 * Conference room
 * Safe containing various alien artefacts
 * Autopsy room.
 * Interrogation room
 * Holding cells. (Mainly used to hold captured Weevils.)
 * A firing range.

Current

 * Jack Harkness, (Joined 1897; current leader)
 * Toshiko Sato, (Computer specialist, reverse engineering of alien artefacts)
 * Owen Harper (Doctor; deceased but still an operative)
 * Ianto Jones, (General support)
 * Gwen Williams, (Field operative; temporary leader)

Former

 * Emily Holroyd (Active circa 1899)
 * Alice Guppy (Active circa 1899)
 * Gerald Carter (Leader circa 1918)
 * Harriet Derbyshire (Physicist; died circa 1919)
 * Douglas Caldwell (Active circa 1918)
 * Lydia Childs (Active circa 1918)
 * Charles Quinn (Active circa 1918)
 * Alex Hopkins (Committed suicide on New Year's Eve 1999)
 * Suzie Costello (Committed suicide circa 2007)