Thread: So Where Were Torchwood?
Results 1 to 19 of 19
-
28th Sep 2010, 12:37 PM #1
So Where Were Torchwood?
Modern Doctor Who has recently informed us that the thrill-lovin' alien-hunting organisation Torchwood was set up in Queen Vic's time with the Prime Directive of tracking down... the Doctor!
A thousand thoughtful fans scratched their heads. Hang on. The Doctor was ON Earth throughout most of the early 1970's. In fact he was in the EMPLOYMENT of the British Government, spending most of it pottering around a lab in the South of England. Torchwood must have been a bit rubbish not to track him down mustn't they? It's not like his highly identifable bright blue police box shaped time machine couldn't be seen being dragged through the countryside on the back of a UNIT convoy most weeks!
And anyway, where were Torchwood when the World was being invaded every week anyway? Surely the arrival of Axos or the incident with all the people being mysteriously killed by Daffodils is exactly the sort of thing Torchwood should have been investigating?
Two possibilities present themselves - either Torchwood were REALLY rubbish, and arrived every week JUST AFTER the Master had legged it in his hovercraft, UNIT had mopped up at Devils End etc. etc....
Or they were REALLY good and were actually infilitrating or behind UNIT itself? I wondered if perhaps, rather than being obvious and capturing the Doctor (they knew he'd only escape) they adopted a "better off where we can see him" strategy and kept tabs on him from within UNIT? Perhaps Torchwood had its own agents working for UNIT, and perhaps there was someone from Torchwood secretely switching things around in the Doctors TARDIS when he wasn't looking and causing his ship to remain incapacitated?
What do you think? Where were Torchwood in the 1970's?
Si.
-
28th Sep 2010, 12:44 PM #2
Simple: erased from time by the cracks in the Universe.
-
28th Sep 2010, 12:52 PM #3
What was? The whole of Torchwood? If so Captain Jack's role in the New Series isn't going to take John Barrowman long to record. Or just Torchwood in the 1970's? Bit unlikely isn't it? Did they vanish in 1969 and re-appear in 2005?
Si.
-
28th Sep 2010, 12:59 PM #4
I gather the About Time books theorised that some of the petty bureaucrats obstructing UNIT's work in the Pertwee era might have been Torchwood agents. I suppose they meant people like Chinn in Claws of Axos.
-
28th Sep 2010, 1:05 PM #5
Chinn was far more competent than Torchwood.
-
28th Sep 2010, 1:07 PM #6
Well, not to take this down too fanwanky a route, I would point out that we saw the Cyberking smashing up Victorian london, but the Doctor theorised it was erased, and we saw the Daleks steal the Earth but Amy doesn't remember it. Bits of Torchwood's history may have been erased. Maybe all their London based agents in the 70s fell into a crack and for that period Torchwood never had a London hub. The whole cracked Universe business has effectively given Steven Moffatt free reign to decide what did and din't happen in the series continuity, since some events have been unwritten, some new ones may have popped up, and some may be as they were.
-
28th Sep 2010, 1:25 PM #7
-
28th Sep 2010, 1:30 PM #8
When the Doctor was on exile Torchwood weren't there because they hadn't been invented until his Tenth self went to Scotland and invented that time line.
No that doesn't work, does it?
Si xx
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
-
28th Sep 2010, 9:15 PM #9
Nope.
I reckon it went a little something like this:
Jack was working for Torchwood in the 1970s, and I imagine he investigated some of the Doctor's earlier actions, such as the first Nestene incursion and the Wenley Moor incident, but concluded that this Doctor was far too early for him to approach with regards to rejoining the crew. He may have also communicated something similar to his superiors, so they agreed to leave him be until the correct Doctor appeared.For every fail, there is an equal and opposite win.
...Oh, who am I kidding?
-
28th Sep 2010, 9:18 PM #10
Sgt. Benton was a Torchwood agent. He was pretty good at hiding it, but forgot himself once and got nekkid in front of his UNIT chums!
-
28th Sep 2010, 9:19 PM #11
Maybe it was a Torchwood agent that saw off Cyril Shaps in The Ambassadors OF DEATH.
That's that little mystery solved at last.
Si xx
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
-
28th Sep 2010, 9:59 PM #12
I love Si's suggestion that Torchwood turned up just too late every time. What fun to see them arriving at Project Inferno after Stahlman's saved the day; or at Wenley Moor after the Brig's blown it up; or at Auderly House just as the delegates have agreed peace. Perhaps every final episode of each UNIT story could be enhanced by the RT, to add in a Torchwood agent going "D'oh!" at the end of every story.
-
28th Sep 2010, 10:22 PM #13
I always presumed that was Carrington or one of his men.
As for Torchwood in the 70s/80s: Torchwood One appears to be more interested in acquiring alien technology in 2007 than in catching the Doctor. Let us presume then that, after Victoria's death, and in light of Elizabeth II's regard for the Doctor (implied in Robot and Silver Nemesis), the capture of the Doctor became less of an imperative.
However, here he is on their patch, fighting monsters, which is the hard part of their job. We never do find out who performs the clean up operations, though, with the exception of Mike Yates and the first Auton invasion.
Yes: my theory is that Torchwood spend the UNIT era scavenging off the Doctor. Yvonne's first interest in him is how he can deal with alien technology, and what further technology she can gain from him. This is a far cry from locking him up or kicking him out of the country, which us meant to be Torchwood's remit!
Oooh, coconut macaroons!
-
1st Oct 2010, 12:59 PM #14
Perhaps this was before Jack realised the doctor could regenerate. He was looking for Eccleston, saw Pertwee and thought it was another hoax?
No worse than anything Russell T came up with.
-
1st Oct 2010, 2:39 PM #15
My opinion is, as the Ninth Doctor said, "time is in flux".
Simply, we've only seen the pre-Time War/pre-Tenth Doctor UNIT timeline on screen. The Tenth Doctor changed all that through his shenanigans in Tooth & Claw, so we, as viewers, haven't seen the new timeline.
Wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey.
Ant x
Watchers in the Fourth Dimension: A Doctor Who Podcast
Three Americans and a Brit attempt to watch their way through the entirety of Doctor Who
----
Latest Episode: The WOTAN Clan, discussing The War Machines
Available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Podbean
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @watchers4d
-
1st Oct 2010, 5:05 PM #16
That's enough out of you.
Si.
-
1st Oct 2010, 5:30 PM #17
It's all right Ant, no-one liked that theory when I put it up either! Personally I think you're spot on.
Si xx
I've just got my handcuffs and my truncheon and that's enough.
-
1st Oct 2010, 10:55 PM #18
Watchers in the Fourth Dimension: A Doctor Who Podcast
Three Americans and a Brit attempt to watch their way through the entirety of Doctor Who
----
Latest Episode: The WOTAN Clan, discussing The War Machines
Available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Podbean
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @watchers4d
-
3rd Oct 2010, 11:54 AM #19
In bed, shagging.
Bazinga !
Similar Threads
-
Will Torchwood return?
By Anthony Williams in forum Spin-offsReplies: 35Last Post: 10th Feb 2012, 11:27 AM -
More Torchwood Books
By Andrew Curnow in forum Spin-offsReplies: 20Last Post: 22nd Jun 2011, 8:35 PM -
Some thoughts about Torchwood
By SiHart in forum Spin-offsReplies: 3Last Post: 14th Jul 2009, 7:19 PM -
Torchwood on DVD
By Pip Madeley in forum Spin-offsReplies: 63Last Post: 16th Jun 2009, 1:28 AM -
Torchwood S3 trailer
By stuartdg in forum Spin-offsReplies: 32Last Post: 17th Feb 2009, 2:15 PM
PSAudios 6.1. Bless You Doctor Who
[/URL] (Click for large version) Doctor Who A thrilling two-part adventure starring Brendan Jones & Paul Monk & Paul Monk Bless You,...
23rd Nov 2020, 3:02 PM