Search results
Doctor Who spin-off series
- Torchwood was a multi-media Doctor Who spin-off series about the adventures of Jack Harkness and the Torchwood Institute. Originally created as a television show by Russell T Davies in 2005, Torchwood was the first TV spin-off of Doctor Who to be commissioned for a full 13-part series.
tardis.wiki/wiki/Torchwood_(series)
People also ask
Is Torchwood based on doctor who?
What is the Torchwood Institute?
Is Torchwood a science fiction show?
Is Torchwood a doctor who spin-off?
Torchwood is aimed at adults and older teenagers, in contrast to Doctor Who ' s target audience of both adults and children. As well as science fiction, the show explores a number of themes, including existentialism, LGBTQ+ sexuality, and human corruptibility.
- Overview
- History
- Torchwood branches
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 [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
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 [+]James Goss, Torchwood - Special Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
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 [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) that backfired horribly and resulted in the deaths of many. (TV: Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) This battle marked the end of Torchwood One. (TV: Everything Changes [+]Russell T Davies, Torchwood series 1 (BBC Three, 2006).)
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 [+]Russell T Davies, Torchwood series 1 (BBC Three, 2006).) 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 [+]James Goss, BBC Torchwood Audio Drama (2009).)
Captain Jack declared the organisation "outside the government and beyond the police". (TV: Everything Changes [+]Russell T Davies, Torchwood series 1 (BBC Three, 2006).) 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:
19th century
'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 [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) She issued a royal decree establishing the Institute on 31 December 1879. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One [+]Russell T Davies, Torchwood series 3 (BBC One, 2009).) 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) By the 1890s, Torchwood had technology to detect inter-dimensional disturbances. Queen Victoria used this technology to investigate disturbances killing academics in Cambridge ahead of a vote on whether to award women degrees. (AUDIO: Infidel Places) 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 [+]James Goss, Torchwood - Special Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2016).) 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 [+]Chris Chibnall, Torchwood series 2 (BBC Three, 2008).) 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 Natural 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 [+]James Goss, Torchwood - Special Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2016).) At some point, Victoria also established Torchwood India to collect all things alien in the British Raj. (AUDIO: Golden Age [+]James Goss, BBC Torchwood Audio Drama (2009).) 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 [+]James Goss, Torchwood - Special Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
Post-21st century
The Institute still existed, as the Torchwood Archive, in the 42nd century. (TV: The Satan Pit [+]Matt Jones, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) It was consulted by the rulers of the Earth Empire, though came to be sidelined. The Archive warned the empress of a coup against her, however she ignored their advice and ultimately fell victim to the coup. (AUDIO: Empire of Shadows) The Walker Expedition to Krop Tor was sent by the Archive with Zachary Cross Flane as its representative. (TV: The Satan Pit [+]Matt Jones, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) Not long afterwards expedition survivor Ida Scott borrowed a spaceship from Torchwood to reach the Spire. (AUDIO: Odyssey) Zachary and Chloe were sent by the Archive to Emperor Merdiven, who had reclaimed the throne after the coup that killed his mother had fallen, for the opening of his mother's library. Zachary and Chloe discovered Merdiven was an imposter, in actuality being the soldier who had killed the empress and her children, and had arranged the event to kill those in the court who might realise the truth. Citing that Torchwood's loyalty was to the empire, not the emperor, Zachary left Merdiven trapped in late empress' library. (AUDIO: Empire of Shadows) Zachary and Chloe were later dispatched to investigate the death of an Ood on Paraglas IV. (AUDIO: Oodunnit) Another survivor of the Walker Expedition, Danny Bartock, was assigned by the Archive as an ethicist to an expedition to a crashed spaceship from the future. (AUDIO: Oracle) The Archive eventually came to be on a space station which drifted outside of human space. 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 [+]James Goss, Torchwood - Special Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2016).) The Great Cobalt Pyramid was built on the ruins of the Torchwood Institute. (TV: Bad Wolf [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)
N-Space Parallel universe
Pete's World, a parallel universe's version of Earth, also had a version of Torchwood. (TV: Rise of the Cybermen) Its 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: Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).) President Harriet Jones eventually merged Torchwood with the Preachers to create UNIT. (AUDIO: The Siege of Big Ben [+]Joseph Lidster, Short Trips (Big Finish Productions, 2018).)
The Torchwood Institute, or simply Torchwood, is a fictional secret organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood. It was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria after the events of " Tooth and Claw ".
Torchwood was a multi-media Doctor Who spin-off series about the adventures of Jack Harkness and the Torchwood Institute. Originally created as a television show by Russell T Davies in 2005, Torchwood was the first TV spin-off of Doctor Who to be commissioned for a full 13-part series.
Sep 21, 2023 · The show has innumerable fans, but it could never replace Doctor Who. As a standalone series, there's plenty to love about Torchwood, but it ran its natural course.
- Senior Contributor
Because of that, the Doctor is always referenced as "Doctor Who" and Cybermen are called Cyborgs. No dubbing actors repeated their roles in both series. Some other modifications were also made when Doctor Who (1963) was first broadcast in Castilian Spanish.
Dec 4, 2016 · It follows the adventures of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), a former companion of the Doctor, as he leads a group called Torchwood against alien threats. The organization Torchwood first appeared in Series 2 of the new Doctor Who.
