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Torchwood Overview
"Torchwood. Outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, and arming the human race against the future. The 21st Century is when everything changes, and you've gotta be ready."
We're going to saveGreat Britain the world from aliens so bring lube. Also condoms.
Yes, you will need them.
Show Overview:
Okay, so like most good stories? This one starts with a guy. Now, this guy is not your ordinary guy. He's a bit of an asshole, bit of a mad genius, kinda foxy if you don't mind the ears and...
Well, he has a penchant for strays (no fleas, mind) and one of the strays that he picked up happened to be another guy and this guy? Jack doesn't really do labels though he does find them terribly quaint so he'll humor us here.
He's Jack Harkness, 51st century man, former Time Agent, pansexual (no really), con artist, sometimes hero, snappy dresser and did we mention the bum?
It's worth noting.
So's the hole in his memory where two years of his life used to be before the Time Agency took it out. Jack was not particularly fond of that so he ran away, ended up in WWII, and there was Rose hanging from a balloon. There was an air strike, a Union Jack on her chest, and she too has a nice bum.
Jack spent a bit of time with the Doctor and Rose, nipping about time and "dancing" with whoever he set his eye to but then the Daleks showed up. They are major buzz kills and they don't even have bums.
We hope.
The gist of it goes, big fight, lots of dead people but at least Jack went heroically. Yes, our dear Cap'n Jack up and died on us, the jerk.
But Rose brought him back, bum and all, and we were happy. Then she nearly blew up, the Doctor took her away and Jack? Jack got left on a space station a few thousand years in the future with nothing but a few thousand bodies to keep him company. Alas, not particularly living bodies.
And that's the last time we see him on Doctor Who. Much mourning was had because Jack was so very pretty and so very fun and he apparently helped the Doctor realize that, oh yes, he does indeed have a sex drive.
Helpful that boy.
So, fast forward a bit of time and what do we find? Jack's hanging out in the 21st century and worse than that, Jack has landed himself with an organization of alien fighters. The Doctor may not be pleased if he ever discovers this because the organization is one that he inadvertently inspired.
That's also a long story but Queen Victoria was not amused (we don't know about her royal bum and we don't want to know) and so Torchwood was born.
Torchwood is a bit like UNIT of Who fame but without the international ties and not a whole lot of *rules*. Which is good since the ones they have? They don't always follow.
They exist outside the government (though apparently regularly report to them) and spend their time catching aliens, helping themselves to alien technology, and also they have a pterodactyl.
Oh, see, you think I'm kidding...yeah, no. Not.
Officially they are working toward returning England to her glorious days as an empire but we think they might actually have to put their pants on first.
Jack's team works out of Cardiff where there is a funny little transdimensional rift which spits out aliens. The other Torchwood offices have not fared well. London got destroyed (in the Doctor's defense, he did manage to save the building) and, well, Torchwood 4? Uh, well, that we really can't find right now but it'll turn up. Bit like Qudditch, it turns up sooner or later.
Jack's team? Well, they think he's just a little strange and possibly gay which leads us all to think he hasn't told them the fun story about him groping a robot's breasts...
Pity.
If they only knew, but it's more fun to laugh at them because they don't.
And that would be Torchwood in a a nutshell, I'm leaving the Hand for later. For further information on the series you can check out their wikipedia entry here
The Characters:
Captain Jack Harkness
- As I said, the man is a time agent, a con artist, and what he's captain of we don't really know. What we do know is the man has very few sexual boundaries (actually we're fairly certain he hasn't any at all) and finds the idea of being gay/straight/bi to be quaint. He's groped everything from a Time Lord to an android and we really don't want to know about some of the rest.
During his days with the Doctor, Jack happily played the Space Slut role to a t. For the first time in what seems a while, he had a place to belong and people who gave a damn in the morning. He has not taken well to the being left behind on the station and has no idea what happened to the Doctor and why he left in such a hurry. One reason we assume he is in Cardiff is the Doctor's habit of ending up there because, well, Jack has a little problem he needs a Doctor for.
See, when Rose brought him back? She went a little overboard and now our dear boy can't die.
I don't see a bad with this but Jack apparently does.
Oh, and one more thing: Captain Jack's kiss can make you glow. If you're an alien, but that's another story.
Gwen Cooper
Gwen Cooper is the Rose Tyler of Torchwood. She is our gateway character and also the only one that Jack seems to be confiding things to. Gwen stumbled across Torchwood, found everything out (for a super secret organization they're not terribly big on security) had her memory erased and blundered right back into it again.
Nearly getting her head blown off by a Torchwood agent gone rogue (Jack got shot instead) didn't deter Gwen from signing on so this former police officer has gone spec ops. More 'normal' than her teammates with a life outside of Torchwood which includes a boyfriend named Rhys, Gwen's quickly becoming a bit of a conscience for them as well as a voice of reason.
Well, for now anyway...
Owen Harper
Owen...how do I explain Owen? Owen Harper was presented to the world as a bit of a British Rodney McKay but not. Owen raised a ruckus of controversy in fandom after the premiere episode by using an alien aphrodisiac spray to lower a woman's inhibitions (as well as her boyfriend's when he got caught) in order for her to sleep with him.
Owen's paid up a bit through karma with that one since then as another piece of alien technology forced him to experience the emotions of a young woman during her violent rape and murder. Owen is a genius, a doctor, an ass, but is not without his redeeming points.
Whether or not his pursuit of Gwen is one of them, we're not entirely sure yet.
Ianto Jones
If Jack is Bond, then Ianto is Moneypenny, complete with sexually suggestive exchanges. Ianto cleans up after the team, brings them coffee, is always perfectly pressed and never, ever caught unprepared. Except for the part where he was hiding his bionic girlfriend in the basement and that? Well...
Ianto transferred to Cardiff after the battle of Canary Wharf when the Cybermen and the Daleks both attacked Torchwood One, the London location. Ianto escaped unharmed, his girlfriend Lisa was not so lucky. Ianto apparently smuggled her into Torchwood Three (Cardiff) and attempted to find a cure for her.
This did not go well as you can imagine and, well, after Jack and the team had to kill Lisa...things are a little strained.
Toshiko Sato
Tosh is the only other crossover character from Doctor Who, having appeared with The Ninth Doctor in the episode "Aliens of London" where she examined a bionic pig (yeah I'm still not kidding) and got to hang out with the Doctor a smidge.
Scary smart she’s also a military brat, daughter of two RAF officers, and has spent a part of her life in Osaka, Japan. Hiding a bit of a crush on Owen, she’s the soft-hearted sort but, as Ianto has pointed out, gets the same adrenaline rush from the work that the others do.
Our Tosh has an adventurous streak and lousy taste in lovers.
Suzie Costello
Suzie was a bit of a bait and switch pulled on us all by Torchwood. In the majority of the initial promotional shots released, Suzie was featured in them all and had her own solo one to boot. We were lead to believe she would be a lead cast member just like the others.
Except not.
Suzie had been experimenting with an alien glove that seemed to bring people back from the dead briefly in order to be questioned. She hadn't quite got the hang of it yet but with a serial killer seemingly on the loose in Cardiff, there were plenty of bodies to work from (the crime scene of one being how one PC Cooper stumbled into Torchwood) but, as it turned out, there were plenty of bodies because Suzie had been killing them all. With the need for more bodies to experiment with the device, Suzie had quite gone a little nutters and well...Very nearly blew Gwen's head off except she shot Jack (and we know that didn't stick) before turning the weapon on herself.
Suzie is now in cold storage in the Torchwood Three facility. Of course, that's not to say she'll stay that way.
The Ships, Fandom, and the Communities...
First thing to understand about pairings in Torchwood is, this ain’t Doctor Who kiddies. Jack Harkness will jump anything with a pulse and while the others aren’t that indiscriminate, they’re pretty freewheeling.
Preferred pairings are one thing but really, it’s one big orgy.
In fact that’s probably what Jack has planned for New Year's this year.
It has been said in publicity that the characters of Torchwood are all bi-sexual to prove it Gwen, Owen, and Tosh have all had same-sex moments on the show though Tosh is the only one to have a full on relationship (don’t think Ianto’s counts on account of the fact he wasn’t conscious at the time.)
On screen we have seen Tosh/Owen unrequited, Gwen snogging a woman senseless because of an alien's sex pheremones (yes, we have had the sex pollen. And on the *second* episode no less!), Owen/Gwen self-destructive glee, Jack kissing an unconscious Ianto (possibly to save his life sharing energy but, this is Jack), Tosh romancing an alien hiding in a woman’s body, and Ianto’s girlfriend was a Cyberman who tried to kill us all.
Bit complicated that one.
Speaking of complicated, Jack belongs in a category all his own because, like I said, anything that moves. He, she, it…doesn’t matter our boy will keep time with them all.
Also, while this is Torchwood and we’re not likely to see any on screen Doctor Who appearances, Jack’s ‘Who’ pairings cannot be ignored. No matter what he does in Torchwood, Jack will always carry the Doctor & Rose with him and this is where it gets fun kids.
In the Doctor’s case? That’d be literal.
For Doctor Who fans who saw “The Christmas Invasion” you already know what I mean. In a pitched battle with the leader of the Sycorax, the freshly-regenerated Doctor lost a hand (don’t worry, he grew another one back) which fell off the ship and vanished from sight.
But apparently not from Jack’s reach.
You see, the good Captain Harkness is hoarding the Doctor’s severed hand. It’s sweet, creepy but sweet.
See?
So yes, Torchwood when it comes to ‘shipping is really open-minded.
Fandom:
Though Torchwood is new it has managed to put together an impressive array of sites and communities.
This is only a partial list, I doubt I’ll get them all so if you all know of any, please let me know.
Off livejournal we have:
The BBC’s Site
The Torchwood Institue - the official Torchwood site.
The Torchwood Institute the site for the American Torchwood fan
The Torchwood House (Visit the estate from which Queen Victoria took the Torchwood name – a very cool promotional site)
The Institute - a Torchwood fansite
On Livejournal:
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
torch_wood - the community for all things Torchwood
torchwood_files for Torchwood vids
torchwood_three - the Torchwood Newsletter
galactic_conman - the Jack Harkness community
toshiko_sato the Toshiko Sato Community
torchwoodcoffee - The Ianto Jones livejournal community
pcgwencooper - the Gwen Cooper Community
outside_bf - Special Ops Widow - a community for Rhys, Gwen's boyfriend
drowenharper - the Owen Harper Community
owenharper_fans - a comm for Owen Harper Fans
torchwoodslash - Torchwood Slash Community
gwentoshiko - a Gwen/Tosh Community
jackxianto - a Jack/Ianto Community
jack_and_gwen - a Jack/Gwen Community
absolutly_brill - another Jack/Gwen community
ratjamandpizza - the Gwen/Owen Community
torchwood_fic - for all your Torchwood fiction needs
jack_in_cuffs - a dark!fic community
tw100 - the Torchwood 100 community
tw_archives - a hub for Torchwood fanfiction
And, well, I did not link these okay? These are not the comms you’re looking for. /jedi mindtrick
3handedjack - a comm for a boy and his Hand.
gimme_the_jar - the ultimate in bad!wrong! shippery
This is by no means a completely comprehensive view of the show but I've included links to wikipedia's entries on the show as I said and each character's wiki page is linked from their name just beware spoilers for they are there.
And enjoy!
We're going to save
Yes, you will need them.
Show Overview:
Okay, so like most good stories? This one starts with a guy. Now, this guy is not your ordinary guy. He's a bit of an asshole, bit of a mad genius, kinda foxy if you don't mind the ears and...
Well, he has a penchant for strays (no fleas, mind) and one of the strays that he picked up happened to be another guy and this guy? Jack doesn't really do labels though he does find them terribly quaint so he'll humor us here.
He's Jack Harkness, 51st century man, former Time Agent, pansexual (no really), con artist, sometimes hero, snappy dresser and did we mention the bum?
It's worth noting.
So's the hole in his memory where two years of his life used to be before the Time Agency took it out. Jack was not particularly fond of that so he ran away, ended up in WWII, and there was Rose hanging from a balloon. There was an air strike, a Union Jack on her chest, and she too has a nice bum.
Jack spent a bit of time with the Doctor and Rose, nipping about time and "dancing" with whoever he set his eye to but then the Daleks showed up. They are major buzz kills and they don't even have bums.
We hope.
The gist of it goes, big fight, lots of dead people but at least Jack went heroically. Yes, our dear Cap'n Jack up and died on us, the jerk.
But Rose brought him back, bum and all, and we were happy. Then she nearly blew up, the Doctor took her away and Jack? Jack got left on a space station a few thousand years in the future with nothing but a few thousand bodies to keep him company. Alas, not particularly living bodies.
And that's the last time we see him on Doctor Who. Much mourning was had because Jack was so very pretty and so very fun and he apparently helped the Doctor realize that, oh yes, he does indeed have a sex drive.
Helpful that boy.
So, fast forward a bit of time and what do we find? Jack's hanging out in the 21st century and worse than that, Jack has landed himself with an organization of alien fighters. The Doctor may not be pleased if he ever discovers this because the organization is one that he inadvertently inspired.
That's also a long story but Queen Victoria was not amused (we don't know about her royal bum and we don't want to know) and so Torchwood was born.
Torchwood is a bit like UNIT of Who fame but without the international ties and not a whole lot of *rules*. Which is good since the ones they have? They don't always follow.
They exist outside the government (though apparently regularly report to them) and spend their time catching aliens, helping themselves to alien technology, and also they have a pterodactyl.
Oh, see, you think I'm kidding...yeah, no. Not.
Officially they are working toward returning England to her glorious days as an empire but we think they might actually have to put their pants on first.
Jack's team works out of Cardiff where there is a funny little transdimensional rift which spits out aliens. The other Torchwood offices have not fared well. London got destroyed (in the Doctor's defense, he did manage to save the building) and, well, Torchwood 4? Uh, well, that we really can't find right now but it'll turn up. Bit like Qudditch, it turns up sooner or later.
Jack's team? Well, they think he's just a little strange and possibly gay which leads us all to think he hasn't told them the fun story about him groping a robot's breasts...
Pity.
If they only knew, but it's more fun to laugh at them because they don't.
And that would be Torchwood in a a nutshell, I'm leaving the Hand for later. For further information on the series you can check out their wikipedia entry here
The Characters:
Captain Jack Harkness
- As I said, the man is a time agent, a con artist, and what he's captain of we don't really know. What we do know is the man has very few sexual boundaries (actually we're fairly certain he hasn't any at all) and finds the idea of being gay/straight/bi to be quaint. He's groped everything from a Time Lord to an android and we really don't want to know about some of the rest.
During his days with the Doctor, Jack happily played the Space Slut role to a t. For the first time in what seems a while, he had a place to belong and people who gave a damn in the morning. He has not taken well to the being left behind on the station and has no idea what happened to the Doctor and why he left in such a hurry. One reason we assume he is in Cardiff is the Doctor's habit of ending up there because, well, Jack has a little problem he needs a Doctor for.
See, when Rose brought him back? She went a little overboard and now our dear boy can't die.
I don't see a bad with this but Jack apparently does.
Oh, and one more thing: Captain Jack's kiss can make you glow. If you're an alien, but that's another story.
Gwen Cooper
Gwen Cooper is the Rose Tyler of Torchwood. She is our gateway character and also the only one that Jack seems to be confiding things to. Gwen stumbled across Torchwood, found everything out (for a super secret organization they're not terribly big on security) had her memory erased and blundered right back into it again.
Nearly getting her head blown off by a Torchwood agent gone rogue (Jack got shot instead) didn't deter Gwen from signing on so this former police officer has gone spec ops. More 'normal' than her teammates with a life outside of Torchwood which includes a boyfriend named Rhys, Gwen's quickly becoming a bit of a conscience for them as well as a voice of reason.
Well, for now anyway...
Owen Harper
Owen...how do I explain Owen? Owen Harper was presented to the world as a bit of a British Rodney McKay but not. Owen raised a ruckus of controversy in fandom after the premiere episode by using an alien aphrodisiac spray to lower a woman's inhibitions (as well as her boyfriend's when he got caught) in order for her to sleep with him.
Owen's paid up a bit through karma with that one since then as another piece of alien technology forced him to experience the emotions of a young woman during her violent rape and murder. Owen is a genius, a doctor, an ass, but is not without his redeeming points.
Whether or not his pursuit of Gwen is one of them, we're not entirely sure yet.
Ianto Jones
If Jack is Bond, then Ianto is Moneypenny, complete with sexually suggestive exchanges. Ianto cleans up after the team, brings them coffee, is always perfectly pressed and never, ever caught unprepared. Except for the part where he was hiding his bionic girlfriend in the basement and that? Well...
Ianto transferred to Cardiff after the battle of Canary Wharf when the Cybermen and the Daleks both attacked Torchwood One, the London location. Ianto escaped unharmed, his girlfriend Lisa was not so lucky. Ianto apparently smuggled her into Torchwood Three (Cardiff) and attempted to find a cure for her.
This did not go well as you can imagine and, well, after Jack and the team had to kill Lisa...things are a little strained.
Toshiko Sato
Tosh is the only other crossover character from Doctor Who, having appeared with The Ninth Doctor in the episode "Aliens of London" where she examined a bionic pig (yeah I'm still not kidding) and got to hang out with the Doctor a smidge.
Scary smart she’s also a military brat, daughter of two RAF officers, and has spent a part of her life in Osaka, Japan. Hiding a bit of a crush on Owen, she’s the soft-hearted sort but, as Ianto has pointed out, gets the same adrenaline rush from the work that the others do.
Our Tosh has an adventurous streak and lousy taste in lovers.
Suzie Costello
Suzie was a bit of a bait and switch pulled on us all by Torchwood. In the majority of the initial promotional shots released, Suzie was featured in them all and had her own solo one to boot. We were lead to believe she would be a lead cast member just like the others.
Except not.
Suzie had been experimenting with an alien glove that seemed to bring people back from the dead briefly in order to be questioned. She hadn't quite got the hang of it yet but with a serial killer seemingly on the loose in Cardiff, there were plenty of bodies to work from (the crime scene of one being how one PC Cooper stumbled into Torchwood) but, as it turned out, there were plenty of bodies because Suzie had been killing them all. With the need for more bodies to experiment with the device, Suzie had quite gone a little nutters and well...Very nearly blew Gwen's head off except she shot Jack (and we know that didn't stick) before turning the weapon on herself.
Suzie is now in cold storage in the Torchwood Three facility. Of course, that's not to say she'll stay that way.
The Ships, Fandom, and the Communities...
First thing to understand about pairings in Torchwood is, this ain’t Doctor Who kiddies. Jack Harkness will jump anything with a pulse and while the others aren’t that indiscriminate, they’re pretty freewheeling.
Preferred pairings are one thing but really, it’s one big orgy.
In fact that’s probably what Jack has planned for New Year's this year.
It has been said in publicity that the characters of Torchwood are all bi-sexual to prove it Gwen, Owen, and Tosh have all had same-sex moments on the show though Tosh is the only one to have a full on relationship (don’t think Ianto’s counts on account of the fact he wasn’t conscious at the time.)
On screen we have seen Tosh/Owen unrequited, Gwen snogging a woman senseless because of an alien's sex pheremones (yes, we have had the sex pollen. And on the *second* episode no less!), Owen/Gwen self-destructive glee, Jack kissing an unconscious Ianto (possibly to save his life sharing energy but, this is Jack), Tosh romancing an alien hiding in a woman’s body, and Ianto’s girlfriend was a Cyberman who tried to kill us all.
Bit complicated that one.
Speaking of complicated, Jack belongs in a category all his own because, like I said, anything that moves. He, she, it…doesn’t matter our boy will keep time with them all.
Also, while this is Torchwood and we’re not likely to see any on screen Doctor Who appearances, Jack’s ‘Who’ pairings cannot be ignored. No matter what he does in Torchwood, Jack will always carry the Doctor & Rose with him and this is where it gets fun kids.
In the Doctor’s case? That’d be literal.
For Doctor Who fans who saw “The Christmas Invasion” you already know what I mean. In a pitched battle with the leader of the Sycorax, the freshly-regenerated Doctor lost a hand (don’t worry, he grew another one back) which fell off the ship and vanished from sight.
But apparently not from Jack’s reach.
You see, the good Captain Harkness is hoarding the Doctor’s severed hand. It’s sweet, creepy but sweet.
See?
So yes, Torchwood when it comes to ‘shipping is really open-minded.
Fandom:
Though Torchwood is new it has managed to put together an impressive array of sites and communities.
This is only a partial list, I doubt I’ll get them all so if you all know of any, please let me know.
Off livejournal we have:
The BBC’s Site
The Torchwood Institue - the official Torchwood site.
The Torchwood Institute the site for the American Torchwood fan
The Torchwood House (Visit the estate from which Queen Victoria took the Torchwood name – a very cool promotional site)
The Institute - a Torchwood fansite
On Livejournal:
torch_wood - the community for all things Torchwoodtorchwood_files for Torchwood vidstorchwood_three - the Torchwood Newslettergalactic_conman - the Jack Harkness communitytoshiko_sato the Toshiko Sato Communitytorchwoodcoffee - The Ianto Jones livejournal communitypcgwencooper - the Gwen Cooper Communityoutside_bf - Special Ops Widow - a community for Rhys, Gwen's boyfrienddrowenharper - the Owen Harper Communityowenharper_fans - a comm for Owen Harper Fanstorchwoodslash - Torchwood Slash Communitygwentoshiko - a Gwen/Tosh Communityjackxianto - a Jack/Ianto Communityjack_and_gwen - a Jack/Gwen Communityabsolutly_brill - another Jack/Gwen communityratjamandpizza - the Gwen/Owen Communitytorchwood_fic - for all your Torchwood fiction needsjack_in_cuffs - a dark!fic communitytw100 - the Torchwood 100 communitytw_archives - a hub for Torchwood fanfictionAnd, well, I did not link these okay? These are not the comms you’re looking for. /jedi mindtrick
3handedjack - a comm for a boy and his Hand.gimme_the_jar - the ultimate in bad!wrong! shipperyThis is by no means a completely comprehensive view of the show but I've included links to wikipedia's entries on the show as I said and each character's wiki page is linked from their name just beware spoilers for they are there.
And enjoy!