The Committee
- 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 in, 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) On their orders, Norton retrieved Object 1 from 2016 via hard light hologram (AUDIO: Ghost Mission) and passed it on to Mandrake, a London gangster. The Committee hoped this would make Torchwood move against Mandrake’s organisation, giving them an opening in the London black market. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) On the Committee’s behalf, Norton later boarded Flight 405 to retrieve the Lens. He became trapped in a time loop aboard the plane. (AUDIO: 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 sent 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)
In the 1990s, Alex Hopkins, leader of Torchwood Three, was approached about becoming a Committee agent. He refused, however there was another agent amongst Torchwood Three. On New Year’s Eve 1999, Alex opened Object 1 to learn the agent’s identity, after being given it by the little girl. The Object instead showed him visions of future crises, driving him to kill his entire team out of mercy. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) This left Jack Harkness as the leader of Torchwood Three. (TV: Fragments)
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 Ovid 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)
A version of Yvonne Hartman from a parallel universe became an associate of the Committee (AUDIO: Flight 405) after crossing over to N-Space and going into hiding. (AUDIO: Poker Face)
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)
The Committee arranged the crash of the SkyPuncher to ruin billionaire Ephraim Salt. Ianto Jones was onboard, having been looking into Salt’s connection to the Committee as part of Torchwood Three’s ongoing investigation, and managed to avert the SkyPuncher striking a building owned by Salt in Izmir. (AUDIO: Fall to Earth)
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 beat the Committee 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)
Torchwood Three 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, Roy, 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)
According to Jack, the Committee was 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 Roy in Bide-a-Wee Care Home. Roy ordered Norton to take Object 1 back to 1953. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)
In 2017 the Committee 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 Roy at Bide-a-Wee Care Home but was unable to get any answers from him. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
Norton was rescued from Flight 405 by the parallel version of Yvonne, (AUDIO: Flight 405) who had joined Torchwood, (AUDIO: Poker Face) after he managed to intercept her attempt to contact Ianto by hard light projection. (AUDIO: Night Watch) They passed on the Lens to Roy. (AUDIO: Flight 405)
Roy ordered Yvonne to recover Evolved technology that God had stolen from the Committee, not realising that God had used the technology to swap Andy and Yvonne’s minds. (AUDIO: Another Man’s Shoes)
The Committee worked with Norton and Yvonne in what they claimed was an attempt to utilise the power of the Rift. In truth, they wished to "wash the Earth clean", causing a tsunami to wipe out most of South Wales. They also manipulated God to this end. Yvonne and Norton turned against the Committee when they realised their true plans and managed to prevent the tsunami wiping out South Wales, though Norton became trapped on Flight 405 again in the process. (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm)
The Committee set up the Disaster Recovery Committee to take control of Cardiff after the flooding, pinning the blame for the disaster on Torchwood and Yvonne in particular. (AUDIO: A Mother's Son) With the Hub now sealed off from Torchwood, (AUDIO: ScrapeJane) the Committee were able to set up a new Rift Manipulator in it to transport their final form to Earth. They planned to make further use of God's powers, unaware that she had transferred her powers to Orr. As they attempted to reach Earth, the Committee were seemingly destroyed by Yvonne and Orr. Having regained access to the Hub, Yvonne used the Lens to direct Orr’s power at Erebus through the Committee’s dimensional bridge. (AUDIO: Day Zero, Thoughts and Prayers)
The Future
The Committee were finally wiped out by the Enemy, a force that they themselves had created. In the far future, Norton and Jeremiah Bash Henderson planned to revive them using Object 1, which could access a pocket dimension where backups of the Committee’s disembodied consciousnesses existed. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)
