Roald Dahl Plass
Roald Dahl Plass, sometimes referred to as the Oval Basin (PROSE: The Visual Dictionary [+]Loading...["The Visual Dictionary (2007 reference book)"]) or the Basin, (PROSE: Slow Decay) was a large public square, part of the Cardiff Bay district of Cardiff, Wales. It was a poorly-kept secret among many Cardiff residents that somewhere near the Plass was the site of Torchwood Three's headquarters. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
The oval area of the Plass housed the Wales Millennium Centre, the Senedd building of the Welsh Assembly and a 21-meter water tower sculpture. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac) Located beneath the water tower was the Torchwood Hub. (TV: Everything Changes)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Yvonne Hartman met Barry Jackson ate an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet near Roald Dahl Plass on 26 March 2005. (AUDIO: One Rule)
The Ninth Doctor parked the TARDIS on Roald Dahl Plass in September 2006 to refuel it using the Cardiff Rift. (TV: Boom Town) This caused one of the slabs near the Water Tower to develop a perception filter which rendered anyone standing on it unnoticeable. Torchwood Three utilised the slab for the invisible lift into the Hub. (TV: Everything Changes)
The Tenth Doctor came to Roald Dahl Plass in the 2000s[nb 1] to refuel his TARDIS again, using the Cardiff Rift. Jack Harkness ran out on his Torchwood Three team to grab hold of the TARDIS before it departed. (TV: Utopia, End of Days)
The Plass, and the Torchwood Hub, was destroyed in September 2009 by an explosion caused by a bomb in Jack Harkness's body. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One) The blast was reported on BBC News as a possible terrorist attack. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two) The Plass and Water Tower had been completely rebuilt by the time of Miracle Day in 2011 (TV: The New World) and was the location where Rex Matheson used a rendition to force the Torchwood team to accompany him to the United States of America. (TV: Rendition)
The Eleventh Doctor once refuelled at Roald Dahl Plass in 2013. He and Rory Williams found themselves surrounded by Cybermen. The Doctor explained that they couldn't leave without tearing the Rift open. (COMIC: The Doctor and the Nurse)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the real world, the fact that Doctor Who and Torchwood have so prominently featured the Plass has made it a popular destination for fans visiting Cardiff. It is also one of the more public filming locations, so whenever the Doctor Who and Torchwood crews film there, it often attracts media attention (such as on 6 January 2010 when filming for Vincent and the Doctor had the Plass double for the outside of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris).[1][2]
Roald Dahl Plass is of course named for Roald Dahl.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Episodes 11-13 of the first series of Torchwood are set anywhere from 2007-2010 as a result of conflicting evidence shown in the episodes Ghost Machine, Greeks Bearing Gifts, Random Shoes, To the Last Man, Reset, Adrift, Fragments, Exit Wounds, and The New World. As episode 10, Out of Time, is set at the end of December, this means that episodes 11-13 are almost certainly set the year after episodes 1-10.
Citations[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ TCH 65
- ↑ New Doctor braves the cold to film show’s latest episodes. Wales Online (7 January 2010). Retrieved on 5 November 2023.
