The Hub
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The Hub was the main base of operations for Torchwood Three.
Location and entrances
The Hub was located directly below Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff Bay, (TV: Everything Changes, etc.) built in and around the remains of a Victorian water pumping station. (PROSE: Another Life) It was accessible by a lift at the water tower which benefited from the effects of the Doctor's TARDIS perception filter, making whoever used it invisible. (TV: Everything Changes) The main entrance, however, was disguised as a Tourist Information Centre on Mermaid Quay. (PROSE: Another Life) There was also an entrance hidden in the basement of the Bute Place car park which was used for the Torchwood SUV. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
Ianto Jones once stated that the Hub was "the most secure place in Cardiff". (PROSE: Bay of the Dead)
Features
The main hall of the Hub included workstations, the Rift Manipulator and entrances to other rooms. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness, etc.) The lowest level of the central area was several inches deep in water and hosted a colony of mosquitoes in the summer. (PROSE: Slow Decay) The water rose and fell with the tide, sometimes trapping fish. It had a valve to prevent flooding. (PROSE: Another Life)
Upstairs was an office used by Jack Harkness, (TV: Everything Changes, etc.) where he kept his personal belongings including TARDIS coral.[source needed] Other rooms located off of the main room included the Autopsy Room, (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts, etc.) the interrogation room (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie) and the boardroom. (TV: Everything Changes, etc.)
Other rooms included the cryo-chamber room, (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie, etc.) the holding cells, the firing range, (TV: Day One, etc.) the kitchen, (PROSE: Another Life) the archive, the deep-sea aquarium, (PROSE: Slow Decay) the rest and recreation room, (PROSE: Another Life) the secret dock leading into the Bay (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters) and a pteranodon habitat for Myfanwy.[source needed]
History
The Hub was in the process of being built when Jack Harkness was taken there by Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd in 1899. (TV: Fragments)
In 1901, a later version of Jack was placed in deep freeze in the Hub’s cryo-chambers to avoid crossing his own timeline, as a younger version of him was currently working for Torchwood. (TV: Exit Wounds)
In 1918, Tommy Brockless was placed in deep freeze in the Hub on the instructions of future Torchwood. He was retrieved from the cryo-chambers once a year to check his health. (TV: To The Last Man)
In 1955, Norton Folgate placed documents about the Good Thinking virus in a timed safe in the Hub so Ianto Jones could find them in 2009 and also pre-programmed the Hub’s cell doors to open, as revenge for Ianto threatening to find his future self. (AUDIO: Outbreak)
On New Year’s Eve 1999, after being shown the future by the Red Key, (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive) Torchwood Three leader Alex Hopkins killed his team in the Hub. (TV: Fragments)
In March 2005, Director of Torchwood One Yvonne Hartman had the Hub frozen in a time bubble for a day so she could retrieve a Drahvin scanner without having to deal with the Torchwood Three team. (AUDIO: One Rule)
In September 2006, Jack kept the entire Torchwood team on lockdown in the Hub to prevent them from seeing his younger self currently travelling with the Ninth Doctor, and vice versa. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets)
In November 2006, Suzie Costello found the Hub had been sealed off during the alien hunt. (AUDIO: Moving Target)
By 2007, Jack actually lived in the Hub. (TV: Ghost Machine) Despite this, Ianto Jones managed to smuggle his partly Cyber-converted girlfriend Lisa Hallett into the Hub, (TV: Cyberwoman) keeping her in an chamber of the Archive set aside for the remnants of Operation Goldenrod. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
Just prior to recruiting Gwen Cooper, Torchwood captured a Weevil and imprisoned it in the cells, (TV: Everything Changes) with Jack eventually naming it Janet. (TV: Combat) On Gwen’s first mission the team captured Carys Fletcher, who had been possessed by a Sex Gas, and kept her in the cells, however she managed to escape the Hub. (TV: Day One)
Ianto invited Dr Tanizaki to the Hub to attempt to help remove Lisa’s Cyber-implants. His efforts instead caused the implants to become fully active, causing her to embark on the Cybermen's mission to upgrade humanity and rampage through the Hub until she was killed by the team. (TV: Cyberwoman)
Mary seduced Tosh so she would let her into the Hub to retrieve her transporter. (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts)
The team held Max Tresilian in the cells after he conducted a series of murders and retrieved Suzie’s body from the cryo-chamber tor resurrect her to ask about her connection to him. After the resurrected Suzie tricked Gwen into taking her out of the Hub, Max initiated the Hub’s lockdown by chanting "The Chariot"; which triggered a back door program Suzie had installed in the Torchwood computers. The team were forced to phone Cardiff police to find the necessary ISBN to escape their own base. (TV: They Keep Killing Suzie)
The Hub was seriously damaged when the team opened the Rift after being manipulated by Bilis Manger. (TV: End of Days) Afterwards, during Gwen Cooper’s temporary leadership, the main area of the Hub underwent some remodelling, but remained basically the same. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
When Captain John Hart was taken to the Hub by Jack, he derided the Hub’s interior as “sewer chic”. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
Sleeper agent Beth was brought to the Hub to be studied and was later placed in deep freeze, however escaped. After Cell 114’s attack had been foiled she was returned to the Hub and tricked Torchwood into shooting her there by feigning being under alien control again. (TV: Sleeper)
Pharm hitman Billy Davis was interrogated by Jack, Owen and Ianto in the Hub. (TV: Reset)
During Torchwood’s investigation into the Church of the Outsiders, Gwen was tricked into allowing Andromeda Ross and the Greys access to the Hub. They released a Weevil from the cells in an attempt to befriend it and almost opened the Rift until being talked down by Jack. (AUDIO: Believe)
Caite tricked Owen into allowing her to access the Hub, claiming she could use it to access the Rift to travel back in time and avert a death they’d caused, and used her “box” with the Rift Manipulator to open a portal so her people, the Threshold, could reach Earth. She was stopped by Andy Davidson, who had followed them into the Hub and used her box to send her away. (AUDIO: Gooseberry)
On Gray’s orders, John Hart lured Jack to the Hub whilst the rest of the team were busy with other disasters he’d caused. He used the Hub to open the Rift briefly to take Jack back to 27 AD. Gray later infiltrated the Hub himself, locking Gwen, Ianto and John in the cells and shooting Tosh. He was stopped by Jack who had finally been released from the cryo-chamber. Jack placed his brother in deep freeze in the cryo-chamber. (TV: Exit Wounds)
The Hub experienced more damage when the Earth was relocated to the Medusa Cascade. During the Dalek invasion, the Daleks traced the sub-wave network to the Hub and attempted to break-in, only to be stopped by the time lock. The time lock was broken when a Dalek trapped in it was detonated by the Meta-Crisis Doctor. (TV: The Stolen Earth, Journey’s End) The door to the Hub had sustained damage in the Dalek attack. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters)
When Jack was infected by Invictus he put the Hub into lockdown, however Ianto was trapped inside with him. Ianto contacted Norton in 1955 for information on the virus, retrieving the documents from the timed safe, however Norton had also programmed the cells to release the infected Jack. Jack pursued Ianto through the Hub until reaching Stage 4 and dying, which released the lockdown. A team from Heights Pharmaceuticals subsequently entered the Hub to retrieve Jack’s body. (AUDIO: Outbreak)
During the 456 incident in September 2009, Agent Johnson’s team implanted a bomb in Jack’s stomach and detonated it when he entered the Hub, believing his immortality was connected to the facility. The Hub, and the Plass above, was reduced to a crater. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One, Day Two) In October, the site was excavated, with the British Government retrieving alien technology from the ruins. (PROSE: Long Time Dead) Individuals also acquired artefacts from the wreckage; Gwen Cooper was able to retrieve Harkness' vortex manipulator, (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five) Angelo Colasanto's men salvaged a null field generator, (TV: End of the Road) and Joshua Naismith acquired the Immortality Gate. (TV: The End of Time)
By 2011, Roald Dahl Plass had been rebuilt. Gwen, Jack, and Rex Matheson visited the site prior to Jack and Gwen's rendition to the US, but all signs of the Torchwood Hub had disappeared. (TV: The New World)
When she restarted Torchwood, Gwen sought planning permission to rebuild the Hub. She was initially rebuffed by council planning officer Roger Pugh, but he eventually granted her permission after she showed him a day of her work. (AUDIO: More Than This) By 2017 the reestablished Torchwood team had moved back into the ruins of the Hub. The invisible lift moved much faster than it was supposed to, with St John Colchester describing it as a "death trap" and commenting that the team should be wearing hard hats at all times due to the Hub's damaged state. The Hub's power was being stolen from a local fusion restaurant called Thaixicana. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)
Whilst he was away for some weeks, Mr Colchester restored Jack's sauna to its original purpose as a conference room. (AUDIO: The Empty Hand) After taking over as Torchwood's leader, Yvonne Hartman restored the boardroom. (AUDIO: Tagged)
The Hub was invaded by a Sorvix assassin pursuing Tyler Steele after he sought refuge there. He hunted Colchester and Tyler through the facility, whilst Colchester was also attempting to use the Rift Manipulator to prevent the Rift opening, until Ng shot him. When the Rift opened again as the Sorvix God arrived through it, causing an explosion in the Hub. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)
Yvonne imprisoned Ro-Jedda, leader of the Sorvix, in the cells and kept Ng in the cell next door to extract information from her. (AUDIO: Future Pain)
During the Cardiff blackout, the predator infiltrated the Hub and stalked Orr and Ng. God visited the Hub and directed the creature elsewhere, asking Orr to come with her. (AUDIO: See No Evil)
After being convinced by Jack, Yvonne allowed the homeless Tyler Steele to live in a repurposed cell in the Hub. (AUDIO: Hostile Environment)
Torchwood were locked out of the Hub by the Disaster Recovery Committee after they were found responsible for the deaths caused by the tsunami. (AUDIO: ScrapeJane) The Committee used this opportunity to set up a new Rift Manipulator in the Hub, intending to arrive on Earth from Erebus through the Rift. The Hub was again destroyed when Yvonne Hartman and Orr stopped them using the Lens. (AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers)
