The Committee

The Committee
Affiliation:	Three Families, Navigators, the Enemy
Bases:	Erebus
Notable members:	Roy, Mitford, Kate Wilson
First mentioned in:	The Conspiracy
First appearance:	Ghost Mission
Appearances:	AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive, AUDIO: Another Man's Shoes, AUDIO: Eye of the Storm, AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers

You may be looking for the Central Committee of Mondas.

The Committee of Erebus (better known as the Committee) was a group of aliens based on the planet Erebus.

History

Formation

The Committee was created on the initiative of Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander in the late 19th century. They gathered a group of aliens that were to appear as a threat to the two countries' respective institutions – Torchwood and KVI — and in this way test them and exercise Earth's defences in exchange for captured technology. However, the Committee got out of hand and started invading other worlds in its own right, becoming an actual threat. When he tried to rein them it, they gave Tsar Alexander Object 1. The Tsar believed he’d resolved a crisis in the stars, not realising the Object’s effects. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

Their motivation was profit. They gave up their physical forms and had to rely on facsimiles. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) They took over Kepri 5 and planets in Cygnus A, Omega Centauri, and Andromeda. They had a working relationship with Jack Harkness, who told them that Earth was a barren wasteland. Some time later, they learnt that he was on Earth as part of Torchwood and realised that he had lied. (AUDIO: The Conspiracy)

Biding their time

Over the centuries, Torchwood was heavily infiltrated by agents of the Committee. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) Norton Folgate was an agent of theirs in Torchwood One in the 1950s. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission, Flight 405)

Losing the alien weapons arms race, the KVI turned to the Committee for aid, realising too late they’d left themselves open to their infiltration and control. In 1965 the KVI rebelled, resulting in a 32-minute war which ended in a decisive victory for the Committee. During the war a time bomb was deployed, creating Zone 10. The KVI send cosmonaut Anna Volokova as a bargaining chip to end the war, with the Committee collecting her halfway between the Earth and Moon. They later returned her to Zone 10 to pass on a message and a gift, Object 1, to Torchwood. (AUDIO: Zone 10)

Return to Earth

The Committee eventually came back to Earth. One of them assumed the name "Kate" and became the adopted daughter of journalist George Wilson. She told him real things about the Committee to put in his conspiracy theory books, as a cover for the Committee so no-one would believe they were actually real. (AUDIO: The Conspiracy)

The Committee gave an infant Weevil to the childless Glynn and Diane Lewis to raise. Glynn successfully bred a Weevil-human hybrid. (AUDIO: Corpse Day)

The Committee used Ovid Industries to create bodies for them and duplicates to be their agents. Director of Torchwood One Yvonne Hartman was aware of this but did not stop them. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Committee planned to cause a global war that would wipe out humans. In 2003, they had hypnotherapist Dr Sophie Rousseau mind control a man to commit a shooting in Salzburg, leading to increased profits for Artemis and a G8 summit in Berlin. In April 2004, Dr Rousseau hypnotised Jacques Fournier into crashing his car and crippling Artemis's owner, Neil Redmond. The Committee sent Eve Trent to meet Neil, under the front of Ovid. She gave him NJ, a duplicate to continue Neil’s work for him. In truth NJ was loyal to the Committee and was tasked with selling Galatine and causing war. (AUDIO: Uncanny Valley) Several other duplicates were created who became girlfriends of people in power to influence them to buy Galatine. In 2004, Torchwood Three discovered an Ovid factory in Wales was producing duplicates of a Welsh village‘s population. They blew up the factory. Upon hearing of this, Yvonne had a discrete message sent to the Committee warning them that Torchwood Three was taking an interest. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) Eve later convinced Neil to buy and close down Ovid, ensuring his secret was safe. (AUDIO: Uncanny Valley)

In 2005, Cardiff mayoral candidate Barry Jackson became an enabler of the Committee. He was given alien technology to kill off his rivals to ensure his election victory. Yvonne discovered his actions and forced him to report to her instead. (AUDIO: One Rule)

By 2006, the Committee had deemed the human race as "pests", and that they were hunt-worthy to alien races. (AUDIO: Moving Target)

In 2007, (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) Jack Harkness began looking into George Wilson after hearing about his theories, knowing he was actually right about the Committee. To warn him off, Kate arranged the death of Sam Hallett, making it look like a suicide. Jack went to confront George about Sam's death, causing George to reveal he thought he’d made the Committee up. Learning of this, Kate set a trap where she killed George and left Jack to be discovered by the police. Jack fled, leaving a recording for the Torchwood team to explain the situation. (AUDIO: The Conspiracy) Gwen Cooper continued his investigation, interviewing conspiracy journalist Madeline. Madeline revealed a Committee member was in her mind and it forced her to overdose to stop her giving Gwen too much information. However Madeline’s brain tumour trapped the Commitee member’s mind, leading to it dying with her. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) After learning Kate had escaped Britain in one of Neil Redmond’s private jets, Jack discovered NJ and shut him down. He realised he couldn’t do this alone and rejoined Torchwood. (AUDIO: Uncanny Valley) In the aftermath of NJ’s exposure, the KVI discovered numerous oligarchs’ lovers were Ovid duplicates, having been influencing their partners to buy Galatine. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Torchwood team exposed further Committee plots, including the Lewis family (AUDIO: Corpse Day) and the Commmitee supplying brain augmentation technology to a business owner, Oliver Milne, in Splott. (AUDIO: The Office of Never Was) Eve Trent contacted Torchwood to confess her work for the Committee, after discovering the bunkers they’d promised their agents in the coming war were non-existent. Another Committee agent silenced her. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

A Committee member once observed Jack and Ianto playing with their dog, reflecting that the Committee had deemed human civilisations useless. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Committee once shipped refrigerator parts via Harwood‘s Haulage. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Three Families were among the many human agents of the Committee. (TV: Immortal Sins, AUDIO: Forgotten Lives)

According to Jack, the Committee was also behind the Three Families and the 2011 Miracle Day. After Miracle Day, Jack spent years investigating the Committee. (AUDIO: Forgotten Lives)

In 2016, Andy Davidson was manipulated by Norton, appearing from 1953 via hard light hologram, into retrieving Object 1. Norton took him to meet the Committee in Bide-a-Wee Care Home. They told him they were the power behind Torchwood and ordered Norton to take Object 1 back to 1953. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)

In 2017 they allied themselves with the Navigators to help them in their plan to absorb Earth's heliosphere. (COMIC: Station Zero)

The Committee trapped Bilis Manger at Traveller's Halt. (AUDIO: Deadbeat Escape) This began “beef” between them and Bilis, with each thwarting the other’s plots. (AUDIO: Dead Man’s Switch)

The Committee planned to replace Rowena Protheroe, Piers Meadows and Zoe Blake with doubles, but were thwarted by Bilis Manger, who transported them to a train in a time loop moments before their replacement. He left Rowena and Piers trapped in the loop and let Zoe go. (AUDIO: Dead Man's Switch)

St John Colchester looked into the Committee after discovering them among Torchwood’s unfinished investigations. He confronted their spokesman at Bide-a-Wee Care Home but was unable to get any answers or explanation from them. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

The Committee worked with Norton Folgate and Yvonne Hartman from Pete's World in an attempt to utilise the power of the rift. In truth, they also wished to "wash the Earth clean", causing a tsunami to wipe out most of South Wales. They manipulated God to this end. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)

The Committee planned to make further use of God's powers, unaware that she had transferred her powers to Orr. They set up the Disaster Recovery Committee to take control of Cardiff after the flooding crisis and sought to travel to Earth through the rift, but they were seemingly destroyed by Yvonne. (AUDIO: A Mother's Son, Day Zero, Thoughts and Prayers)

The Future

The Committee were wiped out by the Enemy, a force that they themselves had created. Norton and Jeremiah Bash Henderson planned to revive them using Object 1, which could access the pocket dimension where backups of their disembodied consciousnesses existed. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)