Wales was a British nation whose capital and largest city, Cardiff in South Wales, sat on a time rift (TV: The Unquiet Dead, et al.) and was the home of Torchwood Three. (TV: Everything Changes, et al.) Rex Matheson called the country "the British equivalent of New Jersey". (TV: The New World) Wrexham was a town in North Wales. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives)
Torchwood Three's Gwen Cooper (whose family came from Swansea) and Ianto Jones were both of Welsh nationality, as was Gwen's husband, Rhys Williams. Wales was also the location of Aberystwyth University. (TV: Random Shoes)
Government
The parliament of Wales was known as the Welsh Assembly. (AUDIO: Changes Everything) The UK government in London had responsibilities for Wales, but Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen noted that they paid no notice to goings-on in the country. (TV: Boom Town)
History
14th century
In 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer went into hiding in Wales under an assumed name. (AUDIO: The Doctor's Tale)
19th century
Torchwood Three was founded in 1885. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
20th century
Throughout the century (if not before), the inhabitants of Brynblaidd in the Brecon Beacons mountain range secretly indulged in murder and cannibalism. (TV: Countrycide)
In 1959, a Navarino group, together with the Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush crashed at Shangri-La holiday camp in Wales. The Bannermen attacked the camp but were defeated by the Chimeron princess. (TV: Delta and the Bannermen)
In the 1970s, the Third Doctor worked on his TARDIS in a barn on a Welsh mountainside. (COMIC: Gemini Plan)
A few years later, the Third Doctor and Jo Grant, both of whom worked for UNIT at the time, visited the small Welsh mining town of Llanfairfach as well as Wholeweal, a small countercultural commune nearby. (TV: The Green Death)
In 1992, the Seventh Doctor and Ace found a portal from a stone circle near Llanfer Ceiriog linking it to an alien world called Tír na n-Óg. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark)
21st century
Torchwood Three's hub was destroyed in September 2009. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
By the time of the Miracle Day phenomenon, Welsh people greatly disliked being mistaken for or called English; when a CIA agent insulted Gwen Cooper in this way, Gwen furiously told her that she was Welsh and punched her in the face. (TV: Rendition)
In 2010, a fake funeral for the Doctor was held at UNIT Base 5 inside Mount Snowdon. It was actually a ruse by Tia Karim and the Claw Shansheeth of the 15th Funeral Fleet to steal the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
In 2020, a tribe of Silurians was awakened from a drilling operation in Cwmtaff, sealing its residents behind a force field. (TV: The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood)
Other information
Wales was well known for being made up of numerous valleys. In 2005, Ianto Jones had earned the nickname "Valley Boy" simply for being Welsh. (AUDIO: Uprising)
In 2009, Ianto Jones posed as the Welsh ambassador to Switzerland (with Gwen Cooper as his wife) to gain entrance to the Large Hadron Collider's gala opening and investigate alien activity there. (AUDIO: Lost Souls)
When the Miracle Day phenomenon required the presence of Torchwood in several missions in the United States, on several occasions Americans who met Gwen mistakenly believed that she was English, much to her annoyance. (TV: Rendition, End of the Road)
Commander Paul Keele, Dr. Eleanor Harcourt and Professor Ivor Fassbinder of Dark Space 8 were once sent back in time to medieval Wales. (AUDIO: Bang-Bang-a-Boom!)
Behind the scenes
- Location filming for The Abominable Snowmen and The Five Doctors were filmed in desolate-looking areas of North Wales. Outside shooting for The Masque of Mandragora was done in Portmeirion, also in North Wales.
- Since its revival in 2005, production of Doctor Who has been based in Wales, specifically the Cardiff region, with all but a handful of episodes filmed exclusively in the region. Several episodes such as The Unquiet Dead and Boom Town have been explicitly set in Cardiff.
- The first three series of the spinoff Torchwood and the entirety of The Sarah Jane Adventures was completely produced in Wales as well, with the former actually taking place in and around Cardiff and the latter having an episode set inside Mount Snowdon.
- Production of the franchise is currently headquartered out of Roath Lock studios in the Porth Teigr area of Cardiff Bay. It moved there in 2012. Previously, it was also located in Cardiff, in Upper Boat Studios.
