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 severed ties with the rest of the organisation and is now 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, (Joined 1897; current leader)
- Toshiko Sato, (Computer specialist, reverse engineering of alien artifacts)
- Owen Harper (Doctor, deceased but still an operative)
- Ianto Jones, (General support)
- Gwen Williams, (Field operative; temporary leader)
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 (Committed suicide on New Year's Eve 1999)
- Suzie Costello (Committed suicide)
History
The Cardiff branch of torchwood existed as early as 1897, when it's apparently just two members were joined by Jack Garkness. They had a self-described mission to combat the Doctor and other phantasmagoria, for the good of the empire. According to Jack Harkness at this time torchwood already had access to technology that was ahead of their time. It was unknown to Torchwood at the time that the rift could also take things, and they had a policy of executing hostile aliens immediately, as they had no way of returning them home. (TW: Fragments)
In 1918 Torchwood 3 was under the command of Gerald Carter, and had access to cryogenic technology. (TW:To the Last Man).
2000 was a traumatic year for Torchwood 3, as on 31st December 1999 the entire team, bar Jack Harkness, was killed by one of their own members (to protect them from the 21st century) who later commited suicide. Jack Harkness was left with the job of recruiting a new team and leading it. (TW: Fragments). Shortly thereafter, Harkness discovered two humans whom the rift had returned and locked away in the hub's cells, since Torchwood had deemed them unable to reintegrate into society. He founded a facility on the island of Flat Holm to care for them and others who were later returned, but chose not to inform his staff of this. In the 2000s he recruited civilians Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper in an attempt to reform Torchwood into a more humane organisation.
After the Battle of Canary Wharf, Torchwood 3 had severed ties with the Torchwood institute, but still recruited Ianto Jones, a former employee of the London branch now out of a job.
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 transferred to the Flat Holm facility. Another trend in recent years is an increase in Weevil activity.