Wales

Wales is a British nation whose capital and largest city, Cardiff, sits on a time rift (DW: The Unquiet Dead, etc.) and is the home of Torchwood Three (TW: Everything Changes, etc.).

For more on these topics, see Torchwood Three, Cardiff and Cardiff Rift.

Torchwood Three's Gwen Cooper (whose family came from Swansea) and Ianto Jones were both of Welsh nationality, as was Gwen's husband, Rhys Williams. Wales was also the location of Aberystwyth University (TW: Random Shoes).

History

19th century

Torchwood Three was founded in 1885. (TWN: Slow Decay)

20th century

Throughout the century (if not before), the inhabitants of Brynblaidd in the Brecon Beacons mountain range secretly indulged in murder and cannibalism. (TW: Countrycide)

In 1959, a Navarino group together with the Doctor and Melanie Bush crashed at Shangri-La holiday camp in Wales. The Bannermen attacked the camp but were defeated by the Chimeron Princess. (DW: Delta and the Bannermen)

During the 1970s, the Third Doctor and Jo Grant, both of whom worked for UNIT at the time, visited the small Welsh mining town of Llanfairfach as well as Wholeweal, a small countercultural commune nearby. (DW: The Green Death)

In 1992, The Seventh Doctor and Ace found a portal from a Stone Circle in rural Wales linking it to an alien world called Tír na n-Óg this was near Llanfer Ceiriog (NA: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark)

21st century

Torchwood Three's hub was destroyed in September 2009. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)

In 2010, the Eleventh Doctor had his apparent funeral at UNIT Base 5 inside Mount Snowdon, although this was a ruse by Tia Karim and the Claw Shansheeth of the 15th Funeral Fleet to steal the Doctor's TARDIS. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)

In 2020, a tribe of Silurians was awakened from a drilling operation in Cwmtaff, sealing its residents behind a forcefield. (DW: The Hungry Earth)

Notable people from Wales

• Gwen Cooper
• Clifford Jones
• Ianto Jones
• Malcolm Taylor
• Rhys Williams
• Andy Davidson
• Nasreen Chaudhry
• Tony Mack
• Ambrose Northover
• Mo Northover
• Elliot Northover

Other information

• Ianto Jones posed as the Welsh ambassador to Switzerland (with Gwen as his wife) to gain entrance to the Large Hadron Collider's gala opening and investigate alien activity there. (BBCR: Lost Souls)

Behind the scenes

• Location filming for DW: The Abominable Snowmen and DW: The Five Doctors were filmed in desolate-looking areas of North Wales while outside shooting filming DW: The Masque of Mandragora was done in Portmeirion, also in North Wales.
• Since its revival in 2005, production of Doctor Who has been based in Wales, specifically the Cardiff region, with all but a handful of episodes filmed exclusively in the region. Several episodes such as The Unquiet Dead and Boom Town have been explicitly set in Cardiff.
• The two BBC spinoffs, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures are completely produced in Wales as well, with the former actually taking place in and around Cardiff.
• Production of the franchise is currently headquartered out of Upper Boat Studios, a production facility located in a bedroom community of Cardiff.