Bilis Manger

Bilis Manger
Main aliases:	The Caretaker, the Undertaker
Species:	Human
Job:	Manager, Horologist
Affiliated with:	Abaddon, the Light, Pwccm
Place of origin:	Earth
First appearance:	Captain Jack Harkness
Appearances:	see list
Main actor:	Murray Melvin
Memorable moment
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss

Bilis Manger was a servant of Abaddon and an ally of the Light. He had the power to effortlessly time travel, apparently without technical aid, and saw himself as an enemy of the Committee.

Biography

Early life

In 1876, the Rift opened up in Tretarri, releasing Abaddon and Pwccm. Bilis Manger and his opposite, Cafard Manger, were both present to help their lords. Abaddon faked defeat, allowing Pwccm to take control. He gave Gideon ap Tarri, who was watching the proceedings, a diary to write down the events and had him bury the diary in Cardiff. He intended to use the diary in the future to help Abbadon take back power. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)

The Rift ploy

Manger's ability to travel through time makes it difficult to put together a linear chronology, from his point of view, so the following presents his encounters with Torchwood from their perspective.

He appeared as a greeter in the Ritz dance hall in January 1941, immediately taking a sinister interest in Jack Harkness and Toshiko. Manger's possession of a file with the hand-lettered label "Torchwood" indicated he had some connection with the Torchwood Institute of that era.

Simultaneously, he seemed to exist in the early 21st century, managing the now-abandoned dance hall. In possession of a missing component of the Rift manipulator found at the Hub, it seems possible that he deliberately allowed Owen Harper to find it in a grandfather clock and to take it. At the same time, he deliberately scratched out numbers in Toshiko's rift equations so that the manipulator would not function properly and so cause the rift to widen after Owen used the manipulator to bring Jack and Toshiko back to the 21st century. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness)

Shortly after, Manger's appearances took an even more ominous tone. Jack and Gwen Cooper discovered that Manger owned a store named A Stitch in Time and met him there. He demonstrated to Gwen his power to time travel and showed her a vision of Rhys lying dead. Later, he proceeded to stab Rhys to death himself.

The visions of loved ones who appeared to the members of the team (except for Jack), inducing them to open the rift almost certainly have something to do with Manger.

Bilis disappeared claiming that his "work was done" after Abaddon rose over Cardiff. (TV: End of Days)

Return

Manger later returned and orchestrated the rapid renovation of the abandoned streets of Tretarri, the site of Abaddon and Pwccm's battle. Abducting all of Jack Harkness's teammates, he passed the sentient particles called the Light into them in order to show them the future he foresaw when Torchwood killed Abaddon. Without the check on its power, Pwccm would send the Dark through the Rift to possess Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato. With Jack's power of resurrection, they would hold open the Rift and use it to power a world-spanning Torchwood Empire.

The Light passed into the people attending the opening of Tretarri and grew in strength but the Dark took over Owen and Tosh until Bilis transferred the particles to Idris Hopper. Once Torchwood Three agreed to aid Bilis, they were able to open the Rift, draw out the Dark and imprison them in a box, and send the Light through the Rift to hold Pwccm back for all eternity.

Bilis left on a plane with a wooden box that contained Abaddon's ashes. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)

Messenger of the Rift

In the 1860s, he was the manager of the Amser Hotel in Roath, Cardiff. When the Rift opened in 1869, he was trapped by the Rift and forced to do the bidding of a creature who lived there. The creature fed on life energy, and had Bilis lure people to the hotel to feed it. It had Bilis lure Jack Harkness to the hotel, believing that it would give it enough energy to anchor it to Earth. Instead Bilis fed Jack enough clues to work out how to defeat the creature. After Bilis was freed, he acknowledged to Yolande Scott how grateful he was to Jack and his team, intending to one day personally thank them. (COMIC: Broken)

Feud with the Committee

Bilis was trapped inside Traveller's Halt by the Committee. During a torrential downpour Hywel Roberts arrived at the hotel rather than driving on further to Cardiff. He was delighted at this. Billis accused Hywel of stealing when he found him in Grace's room in the middle of the night. He later told Hywel that he didn't work there and that he only came to mend a clock. He worked out that time was broken in the hotel. He told Hywel that they were trapped. He managed to escape thanks to Hywel. (AUDIO: Deadbeat Escape)

Bilis became aware of the Committee's plan to replace Zoe Blake, Piers Meadows and Rowena Protheroe with doubles and planned to thwart them. He met each in turn and snatched them away to a train in a time loop, but let Zoe go as she was the only one that had manners. Bilis told her that he was going to see some old friends. (AUDIO: Dead Man's Switch)

The Ritz Dance Hall was knocked down and Ritz Tower built in its place, of which Bilis was caretaker. He had the tower built to harness human aggression, which he planned to use to open the rift to send a message to whomever the Sorvix fled from. Torchwood became aware of him after Jack realised where Ritz Towers had been built and St John Colchester was able to identify him through a photograph from the dance hall. After Mr Colchester killed Sandra, who was about to kill Colin Colchester-Price, Bilis was able to send his message and declared his mission complete. (AUDIO: A Kill to a View)

Personality

Manger had a quiet, guarded, sardonic demeanour. He did not display overt emotions. Manger seemed to worship Abaddon as a god and worked to free him. (TV: End of Days) He had a fascination with clocks: at some point, he claimed that clocks are all the furniture one needs. (AUDIO: A Kill to a View)

Abilities

Manger claimed to be cursed with his powers, likely due to his deal with Abaddon. He could see all of time; the past, the present and all the potential futures, though he could not see his own future or that of Jack Harkness (Possibly because of Jack being a "Fixed point in time"). He could also travel into the past and into the future, but not far in the future. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets) Bilis claimed he was "untethered" from time and travelled through cracks in existence. (AUDIO: Curios)

He could also read minds, create illusions (TV: End of Days) move objects and make them disappear. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)

Manger could also create illusions with a perception filter, allowing his store to look like whatever was expected. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)

Behind the scenes

Torchwood website

The series 1 version of the Torchwood website had an unsent email from Owen Harper that was recovered from the computer archive, hastily being written down due to Owen being afflicted by retcon. He said that he met "a quiet old man of the old school" that was a bit like "a bent teacher, but nice to talk to", and started talking to him about Diane and his work at Torchwood. He also mentioned the man ran "one of those pointless antique parlours in one of the arcades". Owen eventually realised that the man knew all about Torchwood and was pumping him for information "just to check what he already knew". The man mentioned that Owen must have realised by then he had been drugged, the concoction mixed together with retcon. He said, "This has all been most useful" and left; Owen not noticing him leave. Owen continues typing, saying he knows the man is "coming to get us".

Other matters

• The letters of Bilis' first name, re-arranged spells, "Iblis", an Islamic name for the devil.
• In an interview on Torchwood Declassified, John Barrowman referred to him as "An evil gay!"