Torchwood Three
Torchwood 3 is the base of Torchwood in Cardiff, Wales. The location was chosen because of the presence of the Cardiff Rift. Torchwood 3 is significantly smaller than the London branch, with only a handful of employees. Since the destruction of Torchwood 1 in the Battle of Canary Wharf, Torchwood 3 is largely autonomous, with little outside interference.
- Torchwood 3 is the main setting of the Torchwood series.
The Hub
The Hub is the main base of affairs for Torchwood 3, as opposed to Torchwood 1's Torchwood Tower and Torchwood 2's office in Glasgow. The Hub is located directly under Roald Dahl Plass in central Cardiff, also the location of the temporal rift.
The Hub is connected to the rest of the Torchwood Institute via organic computer.
Judging by some of the architecture, the main structure of the Hub was built or renovated some time between 1900 and 1950.
Incomplete list of features
- Invisible lift. This lift leads directly from the hub to Roald Dahl Plass above. Torchwood personnel can enter or leave without arousing suspicion, since the exit is still suffering the effects of the chameleon circuit of a TARDIS that once stood above it.
- An exit disguised as a tourist office.
- Jack Harkness's office.
- Workstations
- Cryo-chambers. Bodies of deceased Torchwood employees as well as aliens & anomalous humans can be stored here.
- Conference room
- Safe containing various alien artefacts
- Autopsy room
- Interrogation room
- Holding cells. Mainly used to hold captured Weevils.
- Firing range
Crew
Current
- Jack Harkness (leader)
- Toshiko Sato, (computer specialist, reverse engeneering of alien artifacts)
- Ianto Jones, (general support)
- Gwen Cooper, (police liaison)
- Owen Harper (doctor, deceased but still an operative)
Former
- Emily Holroyd (Active circa 1899)
- Alice Guppy (Active circa 1899)
- Gerald Carter (Leader circa 1918)
- Harriet Derbyshire (Physicist; died circa 1919)
- Douglas Caldwell (Active circa 1918)
- Lydia Childs (Active circa 1918)
- Charles Quinn (Active circa 1918)
- Alex Hopkins (Died on New Year's Eve 1999)
- Suzie Costello (Died circa 2007)
History
Little is known about Torchwood 3 before the Battle of Canary Wharf, though it existed in the victorian era, and the Hub has existed since 1918. (TW:To the Last Man). In it's early days it had a policy of executing hostile aliens, as there was no way of returning them home.
The entire team of Torchwood 3, bar Jack Harkness, was killed by one of their own members on 31st December 1999 (to protect them from the 21st century) who later commited suicide, leaving Torchwood three (and the job of recruiting a new team) to Jack. (TW: Fragments). Shortly thereafter, Harkness discovered two humans returned by the rift and unable to be reintegrated into society, locked away in the hub's cells. He created a facility on the island of Flat Holm where such people could be tended to. He did not inform the main staff of this.
At least some of the current personel worked in London previously, including Ianto Jones and Toshiko Sato.
2008 was an eventful year for Torchwood 3, with the defection and death of Suzie Costello, an attack by a cyberwoman that survived their defeat at Torchwood 1, and last but not least a full scale opening of the Rift, resulting in massive worldwide temporal distortions and the release of the ancient demon Abaddon, who briefly caused havoc in central Cardiff before being defeated.
Roughly at the same time, though it is unsure if a connection exists, the rift started returning more and more humans who had previously been taken away in negative rift spikes. In the words of Jack Harkness, "it is almost as if the rift is trying to correct it's mistakes". Victims continued to be transfered to the Flat Holm facility. Another trend in recent years is an increase in Weevil activity.
