Wales

Wales is a British nation whose capital and largest city Cardiff, sits on a time rift (DW: The Unquiet Dead, etc.) and is the home of Torchwood 3 (TW: Everything Changes, etc.).

For more on these topics, see Torchwood 3 and Cardiff Rift.

Torchwood 3's Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones were both of Welsh nationality. (Gwen's family came from Swansea.) Wales was also the location of Aberystwyth University (TW: Random Shoes).

History

20th century

Throughout the century (if not before), the inhabitants of Brynblaidd in the Brecon Beacons mountain range secretly indulged in murder and cannibalism. (TW: Countrycide)

In 1959, a Navarino group together with the Doctor and Melanie Bush crashed at Shangri-La holiday camp in Wales. (DW: Delta and the Bannermen)

During the 1970s, the Doctor and Jo Grant, both of whom worked for UNIT at the time, visited the small Welsh mining town of Llanfairfach as well as Wholeweal, a small countercultural commune nearby. (DW: The Green Death)

Notable people from Wales

Other information

Ianto Jones posed as the Welsh ambassador to Switzerland (with Gwen as his wife) to gain entrance to the Lord Hadron Collider's gala opening and investigate alien activity Lard Hadron Collider there. (BBCR: Lost Souls)

Behind the Scenes

Location filming for DW: The Abominable Snowmen and DW: The Five Doctors were filmed in desolate-looking areas of North Wales while outside shooting filming DW: The Masque of Mandragora was done in Portmeirion, also in North Wales.
Since its revival in 2005, production of Doctor Who has been based in Wales, specifically the Cardiff region, with all but a handful of episodes filmed exclusively in the region. Several episodes such as The Unquiet Dead and Boom Town have been explcitly set in Cardiff.
The two BBC spinoffs, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures are completely produced in Wales as well, with the former actually taking place in and around Cardiff.
Production of the franchise is currently headquartered out of Upper Boat Studios, a production facility located in a bedroom community of Cardiff.