Cardiff
Cardiff (Welsh: Caerdydd (TV: Boom Town)), originally known as St James, (TV: Dead Man Walking) was the capital and largest city of Wales. The Tenth Doctor once reffered to Cardiff as "a Mecca for absent-minded aliens." (COMIC: The Continuity Cap)
A spacetime rift was located near Roald Dahl Plass, where Torchwood Three were based. As a result of the Rift, Torchwood dealt with frequent incursions and anomalies, most often involving aliens. The city was also noted for its unexplained disappearances. (TV: Everything Changes, Adrift, etc.)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Founding of the city[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 27 AD, the city of Cardiff was founded. Jack Harkness, the leader of Torchwood Three, had travelled back to that time period at the insistence of his brother Gray. Gray and his unwilling accomplice John Hart buried him. The immortal Jack remained underground until 1901. (TV: Exit Wounds)
St James[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the 15th century, Cardiff was a small parish called St James. Some of the earliest depictions of the Grim Reaper originated from this small community, especially from wood carvings dating back to 1479, when Death walked the Earth.
When the townspeople heard about the Black Death, they built a large wall around their land. Sadly, this did not save the life of a little girl named Faith. According to legend, the town's priest brought her back to life using a gauntlet, but Faith brought Death with her. The entity needed to kill 13 people in order to gain a permanent hold on the Earth, but Faith managed to stop it at 12. (TV: Dead Man Walking)
19th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
Over the 19th century, St James expanded into a city. At some point, it was renamed Cardiff. (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts, Dead Man Walking)
On Christmas Eve, 1869, Charles Dickens' reading of A Christmas Carol in the Taliesin Lodge was interrupted by a Gelth possessing the deceased Mrs Peace. Later that evening, Gwyneth made a bridge through the Rift to allow the Gelth to come through and take over human corpses. Rather than inhabiting a few bodies, the Gelth, numbering in the billions, wished to wipe out all of humanity. Gwyneth lit the gas-filled crypt with a match, trapping the Gelth. (TV: The Unquiet Dead) According to a couple of accounts, Dickens was photographed with the Doctor and Rose in the background (PROSE: The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre, Rose sighting confirmed) but according to another, just the Doctor and Rose were photographed. (PROSE: Mickey's Blog)
When escaping from Satellite Five in 200100 to search for the Doctor, Captain Jack Harkness landed in 1869 using his Vortex Manipulator, which subsequently broke. (TV: Utopia) Torchwood Cardiff, a branch of the Torchwood Institute later called Torchwood Three, was established here, with Jack joining around the turn of the 20th century. (TV: Fragments)
In the Victorian era, the Marquess of Bute built Cardiff Castle as it stood in the 21st century. (AUDIO: Outbreak)
20th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
Torchwood Cardiff continued to exist. In 1901, the Jack Harkness that was buried in 27 A.D. was discovered by his associates. As a past version of Jack was already working for Torchwood, he demanded to be put inside a cryo-chamber for the next century to avoid crossing his own timestream. (TV: Exit Wounds)
In 1904, the Palisades Theatre was opened. (TV: From Out of the Rain)
During World War II, refugees from the Blitz in London travelled through here, changing trains at Cardiff Station. Like London, Cardiff was bombed during the war. (TV: Ghost Machine) Dr. Charles Quinn was killed in one such air raid. (TV: To the Last Man)
On 16 October 1978, the Eleventh Doctor and Vastra arrived in Cardiff to find Sontarans changing history by invading Earth. The Doctor and Vastra defeated the Sontarans, but realised that they had only witnessed the beginning of a Sontaran plot to alter all of time. (GAME: Legacy)
On 31 December 1999, Cardiff participated in the worldwide millennium celebrations which were covered on British television. While Jack dealt with a "Millennium Bug", Torchwood Cardiff leader, Alex Hopkins, killed his teammates out of mercy, having seen the 21st century, and gave command of the Hub to Jack before killing himself as the year 2000 arrived. (TV: Fragments)
21st century[[edit] | [edit source]]
2000s[[edit] | [edit source]]
On 5 March 2005, Cardiff city centre was briefly "brought to its knees" during the Auton invasion of Earth (AUDIO: One Rule) which was brought about by the Nestene Consciousness animating plastic using the London Eye as a transmitter before it was defeated by the Ninth Doctor. (TV: Rose) The Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Roy Llewellyn, was murdered by a local councillor named Barry Jackson at about this time. Jackson, who desired the position of Mayor for himself, both for personal gain and acting on the orders of the Committee, used the invasion, announced to the public as a 'terrorist attack', to cover his act up among the casualties. (AUDIO: One Rule)
Jackson proceeded to use an alien device that controlled an unidentified blue, monstrous creature to murder his rivals for the position of Mayor. Over the three weeks until 26 March 2005, the creature murdered five local councillors in a spate of beheadings on Jackson's orders. Despite the intervention of Yvonne Hartman on that night in attempting to stop the creature, it proceeded to murder Ross Bevan, Julie Jones and finally Helen Evans, leaving Jackson unopposed for the position of Mayor. Hartman had worked out Jackson's plot and confronted him at his apartment, threatening to kill him for murdering innocent people and using alien technology to create scenarios that endangered the country. However, as she needed a spy in an official position to keep an eye on Torchwood Three and the Committee, she decided to let Jackson remain alive on the condition that he work for her. As a result, Jackson became Mayor of Cardiff. (AUDIO: One Rule)
Mickey Smith, after the attack, obtained a photograph from 1869 Cardiff, although details varied between accounts. (PROSE: The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre, Rose sighting confirmed, Mickey's Blog) According to two, the photograph was of Charles Dickens, with the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler, and he received the photograph in early 2006 from Dorothy Stokes of Llandaff House; (PROSE: The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre, Rose sighting confirmed) according to another, the photograph was of just the Doctor and Rose, and Mickey received it at some point prior to 9 April 2005. (PROSE: Mickey's Blog)
Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen, under her guise of Margaret Blaine, was elected as Lord Mayor of Cardiff following her escape from the destruction of 10 Downing Street. She planned to demolish Cardiff Castle and to construct the Blaidd Drwg (English: Bad Wolf) nuclear power station. She planned on using a tribophysical waveform macrokinetic extrapolator as a pan-dimensional surfboard to escape the solar system after Earth's destruction. (TV: Boom Town)
Circa September 2006, the Ninth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness (who from his timeline had not yet joined Torchwood), travelled to Cardiff to refuel the Doctor's TARDIS and to meet up with Mickey Smith. The group discovered Blon's plot and held her in the TARDIS, however she tricked them into connecting her extrapolator to the ship causing it to open the Rift. This triggered a devastating earthquake until the Doctor closed down the TARDIS. (TV: Boom Town) Jack once said to Trine-E and Zu-Zana that he'd bought a pair of jeans from a Top Shop store in Cardiff. (TV: Bad Wolf)
During the ghost shift craze of 2007, ghosts, actually Cybermen from Pete's World, were forecast as appearing in Cardiff. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
By the 2000s,[nb 1] humans living in Cardiff had started to notice and take advantage of the alien presence on their world. Illicit merchants for alien artefacts traded in the city and profited off them. These included the "Ghost Machine", which had fallen through the Rift. (TV: Ghost Machine)
In the 2000s,[nb 2] an underground "fight club" where the alien Weevils fought humans briefly existed. (TV: Combat)
Not knowing exactly how to use it, part of Torchwood Three team used the Rift Manipulator in order to rescue two of their number out of the past. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness) The resulting disturbance caused disruptions in time to occur all over Earth, especially in Cardiff. Then, persuaded by Bilis Manger, Torchwood Three used the Rift Manipulator to repair the damage, but also released Abaddon, a demonic being which killed countless of people throughout the city. (TV: End of Days)
Days later, the Tenth Doctor and Martha stopped in Cardiff to refuel, whereupon Jack Harkness, having just left Torchwood Three, hitched a ride on the outside of the TARDIS. (TV: Utopia) Jack returned to Torchwood some time later[nb 3] having changed his mind about leaving. (TV: Last of the Time Lords, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)
St Teilo's Hospital started being demolished. As a result of this, time shifts between 1918 and the 21st century started occurring. Tommy Brockless, with the help of Torchwood Three travelled back in time to "stitch" the shifts and stop 1918 and the 21st century from colliding with one another. (TV: To the Last Man) When Owen Harper was brought back to a state of undeath with the resurrection gauntlet, he brought about the return of Death at St Helen's Hospital. Death was thwarted once again before he could reach 13 victims. (TV: Dead Man Walking)
Later, John Hart, under control from Gray set off explosions in key locations across Cardiff and released an army of Weevils into the open causing maximum panic and terror. Torchwood Three cleaned this up, preventing the nuclear power station from going into meltdown, but losing Owen and Toshiko Sato in the process. Jack Harkness went back in time to be buried beneath Cardiff before its construction, but was later discovered inside the Torchwood cryo-chamber vaults. (TV: Exit Wounds)
Donna Noble, who grew eager to reunite with the Tenth Doctor following the Racnoss invasion of Earth, looked up stories on "a series of bizarre events in Cardiff" amongst others. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac)
Cardiff was infected with the Good Thinking virus by Heights Pharmaceuticals, resulting in the city being quarantined per a minister's plans to have the British public "inoculated" with Provictus. The situation was resolved by Torchwood. (AUDIO: Outbreak)
In September 2009, the Torchwood Hub was destroyed by a bomb planted by Agent Johnson's team, as part of the British Government's efforts to cover up their past dealings with the 456. The explosion reduced Roald Dahl Plass to a crater. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One, Day Two)
In 2009, the Abzorbaloff met the Tenth Doctor in Cardiff, wanting to revenge his son. (WC: The Genuine Article)
2010s[[edit] | [edit source]]
By 2011, Roald Dahl Plass had been rebuilt, with no sign of the old Torchwood Hub. (TV: The New World)
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In 2013, the Eleventh Doctor visited Cardiff with Rory Williams to refuel the TARDIS using the Rift. They were captured by invading Cybermen. (COMIC: The Doctor and the Nurse)
During the 2010s, Gwen Cooper's revived Torchwood had to deal with temporary holes in space time opening in the city, which they were initially unsure meant if the Rift was still active or if Cardiff was just a vulnerable location. She sought planning permission from the city council to reopen the Torchwood Hub. (AUDIO: More Than This) By 2017, Torchwood had returned to the Hub and was using the Rift Manipulator to prevent Rift breaches in Cardiff. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)
The Sorvix fled to Cardiff via the Rift, (AUDIO: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy) and took control of the city via 3Sol. Under the guise of terrorist attacks, they arranged the disruption of Cardiff's transport connections to the rest of the country and bombings of tne Refugee Centre, (AUDIO: Changes Everything) so luxury flats for Sorvix could be built in its place. (AUDIO: Orr) Their leader, Ro-Jedda, killed the Mayor of Cardiff and took his place. (AUDIO: Superiority Complex)
Red Doors began carrying out terrorist attacks in the city to oppose the Sorvix. (AUDIO: The Empty Hand) They bombed the airport and, despite a series of successful raids against them by 3Sol, Cardiff City Hall. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)
The Sorvix fled Cardiff, (AUDIO: Future Pain) following the arrival of their God in the city via the Rift. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)
When the city's population went blind due to the presence of the predator, the police gathered people at Bute Park, which was Yvonne Hartman's plan. (AUDIO: See No Evil) Shortly after, the whole city was put to sleep by the Night Sun, which fed harmlessly on the citizens' dreams. (AUDIO: Night Watch)
Oblation was contracted to deal with the city's homeless population, pledging to having eradicated homelessness by 2020. Tyler Steele forced Torchwood to help him shut them down, as they were actually using leftover Sorvix technology to carry out medical trials on the homeless on threat of death. (AUDIO: Hostile Environment)
The Committee arranged for a tsunami to hit Cardiff by manipulating the Sorvix God and Norton Folgate. Yvonne Hartman alerted the emergency services quite some time after learning of the oncoming tsunami, (AUDIO: Eye of the Storm) resulting in a substandard response which led to the deaths of many people. The Disaster Recovery Committee was formed to deal with the crisis, through which the Committee took control of Cardiff. A camp for those left homeless was setup at Ritz Tower. (AUDIO: A Mother's Son) With Torchwood locked out the Hub after being blamed for the disaster, (AUDIO: ScrapeJane) the Committee set up a new Rift Manipulator to bring their final form to Cardiff. They were stopped by Yvonne and Orr using God's powers and the Lens, causing the Hub to explode. (AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers)
Geography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Grangetown was a location in Cardiff. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three)
Roath[[edit] | [edit source]]
Roath was a district of Cardiff that was damaged by the opening of the Rift in the 1860s. (COMIC: Broken)
Splott[[edit] | [edit source]]
Splott was the suburb of Cardiff in which Sean "Bernie" Harris lived. (TV: Ghost Machine)
Gary used Splott as an example of where Eugene Jones could have potentially met the bidder for his Dogon's sixth eye. (TV: Random Shoes)
Skypoint[[edit] | [edit source]]
SkyPoint was a skyscraper being constructed during the 2000s. It was intended to become the tallest building in the city. (PROSE: SkyPoint, AUDIO: The Conspiracy)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Brian Badcoe and Terry Nation were born in Cardiff.
- Doctor Who is largely filmed in Cardiff. All five series of The Sarah Jane Adventures were also filmed there, as well as much of Torchwood.
In non-valid sources[[edit] | [edit source]]
Two of "Doctor Who's Daleks" were once stolen from the BBC Television Centre shortly after being brought back from Cardiff by lorry. (TV: The Dalek Appeal [+]Loading...["The Dalek Appeal (TV story)"])
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Episodes 1-10 of the first series of Torchwood are set anywhere from 2006-2009 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ The second series of Torchwood is 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 well as Meat placing the series about a year after the start of series 1.
