So Where Were Torchwood?

[Si Hunt]

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.

[Jason Thompson]

Simple: erased from time by the cracks in the Universe.

[Si Hunt]

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.

[Logo Polish]

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.

[Martin Penny]

Chinn was far more competent than Torchwood.

[Jason Thompson]

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.

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.

[Antony Cox]

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?

Si.

Ah, but you're forgetting that Torchwood only investigate aliens who swear and/or have sex with everything...

The Doctor never went near aliens like that!

[SiHart]

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

[shada pavlova]

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.

[Jonno]

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!

[SiHart]

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

[Andrew Curnow]

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.

[brandynigma]

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 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!

[Mike Saville]

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.

[Anthony Williams]

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

[Si Hunt]

That's enough out of you.

Si.

[SiHart]

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

[Anthony Williams]

Personally I think you're spot on.

Thanks, Si! It's always nice to have someone agree, isn't it?

Ant x

[Jon Masters]

In bed, shagging.