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Located in the Hub, the Rift Manipulator, was designed to control the Cardiff rift. It could, to limited degree, stabilize the Rift or it could open the Rift wider. It had very hit-or-miss effects.
History
Motives for creation
The Torchwood Institute first discovered the Rift in 1879 at the earliest (the year of the Institute's formation) (DW: Tooth and Claw) and 1913. By April of the latter year, work on the Manipulator had started.
During 1913, the Institute noticed increased Rift activity, which and considered this more justification to commence work on the Manipulator. The increased activity came from "foreshocks" of the use of the Manipulator itself, travelling backwards in time from the widening of the Rift. causing the fracture of the Rift in the early 21st century. Ironically, the Manipulator itself (in the future), had caused the widening of the Rift.
The Rift presented a constant danger, and with the Manipulator, the Institute hoped to minimize that danger.(WEB: torchwood.org.uk)
The Rift was the Torchwood Institute's justification for locating Torchwood 3 in Cardiff. (TW: Everything Changes, Captain Jack Harkness). It was formed in Cardiff as soon as the Institute became aware of the Rift's presence. Torchwood 3 has even been described as merely a "monitoring station" for the rift. (WEB: torchwood.org.uk)
The Rift equations
At some point, Toshiko Sato developed equations which would serve as guidelines to use to operate the Manipulator. With the possible exception of Jack Harkness, who had come from a more technologically advanced future time period, out of all of the Torchwood 3 team in 2007, Tosh seemed to have the greatest understanding of how operate the machine. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)
- We have no knowledge, direct or indirect, as to whether Jack knows how to operate the Manipulator.
Missing components
Two parts of the Manipulator, both crucial to its activation, remained absent. One, kept in Jack's safe, the other in the possession of Bilis Manger, inside a grandfather clock. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)
- We do not know how Manger acquired the part or why he hid it. As Manger had special powers, however, he could have had much trouble stealing the component.
Use of the Manipulator
The only known use of the Manipulator was to rescue Jack Harkness and Toshiko, who had fallen through the rift into 1941. Owen, sick and tired of "living in its shadow" decided to use the Manipulator. Owen first had to find several missing components of the Manipulator, one in the possession of Bilis Manger and the other in the safe in Jack's office. He also had to use the Rift equations which Tosh had written in 1941 and left for her team-mates to find in the future, so that they could rescue herself and Jack.
Owen and Ianto Jones fought, Ianto certain that Owen should not use the Manipulator. In the resulting fight, Ianto shot Owen in the shoulder.
With the rift opened Jack and Tosh walked through the rift back to their time period, 2008. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)
Owen's use of the Manipulator had fractured the Rift, causing other time zones to bleed through to the present. More Weevils than ever appeared in Cardiff. With the exception of Jack and Gwen, the Torchwood 3 team saw visions of missing loved ones tempting them to use the Manipulator to close the Rift. Manger murdered Gwen's love Rhys and she believed that if the Rift closed that Rhys would return to life.
The team had to have retinal scans of every one of the team members in order to activate the Manipulator. Torchwood 3 mutinied against Jack, shot him to death and used a retinal scan off of his corpse. A blue-white column of light shot from the Manipulator, the Rift closed and in doing so, freed Abaddon, as Manger had planned all along. Jack, who had the power of immortality, had by then, returned to life. (TW: End of Days)
The Manipulator was later utilised by Jack, Ianto and Gwen in conjunction with Mr Smith to manipulate the Rift in order to boost the signal of Martha Jones' superphone in order to contact The Doctor who was outside of the Medusa Cascade as a result of the Earth being stolen. (DW: The Stolen Earth)
The Rift Manipulator was used to send the Rift's energy to the TARDIS to use as a tow rope for the Earth to be towed back to where it belonged. With the energy looped around the TARDIS by Mr. Smith, this plan worked. (DW: Journey's End)
Observations
- The column in the centre of the Rift Manipulator looks very like the central column of a TARDIS. Both pulse with light when activated.
- A TARDIS, or at least the Doctor's, could power itself from a temporal rift, meaning, perhaps that the very rift that the Manipulator could control, also gave it power.
- At the time of Owen's original use of the Manipulator, it could activate without a retinal scan. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness). Shortly after, the retinal scan device had gotten installed. (TW: End of Days) This could, however, be explained by the fact that in the former it was only partially opened, where as in the latter, it was fully so.