Transmat:Torchwood
Eve Myles plays Gwen Cooper, the female lead in the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. A native of Wales, she has appeared in all four series of the show, spanning from 2006 to 2011.
Myles described her character to The Western Mail thus: "Gwen starts off as a police officer in Cardiff and then gets involved in the Torchwood team. She's a very down-to-earth girl, kind and generous, but extremely ambitious, feisty, intelligent and witty. But she's also very human - she's really the girl next door. Because I'm playing her, I put a lot of me into it and I take a lot of my own characteristics."
Owing to their similar names and the fact that both characters lived near the Cardiff rift, fan speculation arose following the premiere of Torchwood that Gwen Cooper and the character of Gwyneth were related in some way. Russell T Davies once addressed the matter in Doctor Who Magazine #378, stating that they weren't connected, and that "Those are completely different names to me...just two names beginning with 'G'." In 2008, Myles appeared as Gwen in two episodes of Doctor Who, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End; in the latter, there is a short conversation between the Tenth Doctor and Rose. Russell T Davies has said, "It's not familial as we understand it. There's no blood tie. Spatial genetic multiplicity means an echo and repetition of physical traits across a Time Rift."
Categorisation of our Torchwood material is done in two categories, because Torchwood is both the name of the series and the name of the central organisation within the series. If you're looking for information about the Torchwood Institute, go to Torchwood. If you want behind-the-scenes information, the top-level category is category:Torchwood (TV series).
From the time when it became apparent that aliens on Torchwood would be trying to take over the world using sex gas, it was apparent that Torchwood was a little different from Doctor Who. But did you know that Torchwood is about more than just Captain Jack's little gang in Cardiff? That's just Torchwood Three. It's got multiple branches around Britain, and even an Indian subsidiary.
Just like its parent programme, Torchwood has spawned a range of novels and short stories. Writers known for their work with the classic version of Doctor Who have even written some of these prose stories, including former script editor Andrew Cartmel and prolific 1990s author Kate Orman.
People who work for the fictional Torchwood Institute are called Torchwood personnel. People who work on Torchwood are called Torchwood crew.
Torchwood has a unique record in DWU history: all of its series (or, if you like, seasons) have had strong continuing story lines. While there have been occasional standalone episodes, each series is narratively continuous, and leads to a payoff of some kind. Whether those payoffs are actually satisfying is, of course, nobody's business but your own.
Want to check out all the killer tech Torchwood gets to play with? Head on over to Torchwood Three's items and look inside the toybox!
If you've been around any kind of fandom, you know that people who are really into a programme love to make lists. It's not everybody's bag, of course — but if it's yours, we can provide a few. A common type of list you'll find on this site is the "list of appearances". These pages provide a quick reference sheet for the stories that featured a particular character. Torchwood's is at Category:lists of appearances by Torchwood regular characters.
It may surprise you to know that the more "adult" Torchwood did have some comic adventures. Most of them were in the pages of Torchwood Magazine, a short-lived companion of Doctor Who Magazine. The longest of these stories even made it into a trade paperback, Rift War. And some of the show's stars, like John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd even wrote a few comic stories.
