Theory:Timeline - Gwen Cooper

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This page lists appearances of Gwen Cooper in the order in which she experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed that for each novel, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.

Timeline[[edit source]]

Working for the police force[[edit source]]

Gwen is working as a police officer alongside Andy Davidson.

Joining Torchwood Three[[edit source]]

Gwen is recruited in to Torchwood Three by Captain Jack Harkness after Suzie Costello kills herself to prevent her arrest for killing three people in her experiments with the Resurrection gauntlet and the Life Knife. Gwen learns of Jack's immortality, and is currently the only team member to know.
During Gwen's first day on the job, she accidentally releases Sex Gas from a fallen meteorite.
Set sixty-six years after 1941. Gwen is still inexperienced with weapons, with Jack giving her her first lesson on handling a gun. Rhys becomes annoyed at Gwen's absences for the first time.
Set between Ghost Machine and Cyberwoman, as Gwen has been trained by Jack to use firearms and Ianto is being duplicitous about his business in the Hub's basement. Gwen goes aboard an alien ship for the first time, and has already been working in Torchwood for a few weeks.
Set circa October 2007.
The Torchwood team learn that Ianto Jones has been keeping his cyber-converted girlfriend, Lisa Hallett, in the basement of the Hub, and they kill her once she leaves herself vulnerable enough after her Cyberman personality takes hold of her. Gwen is kissed by Owen Harper for the first time.
After Estelle Cole rings Jack to view her new photos of fairies, she is killed by them. The fairies also attack Gwen's flat, which is the first time her "work life" has intruded on her "normal life".

After Brynblaidd[[edit source]]

Owen and Ianto recall the recent events of Cyberwoman, specifically that their last kisses were with Gwen and Lisa, respectively, while Toshiko Sato has not been kissed since "last Christmas". After their traumatic experience with the Brynblaidd villagers in the Brecon Beacons, Gwen and Owen start having an affair.
(SEGMENT)
Jack takes Ianto for a joyride in the SUV and they eat fish and chips. Gwen calls to inform them of another missing person. (AUDIO: Broken)
(REFERENCE)
Gwen and the rest of Torchwood Three, sans Tosh, investigate activity in Brecon. (AUDIO: Drive)
Set three months after Everything Changes. Suzie is temporarily resurrected with the Resurrection gauntlet, but is killed again when Tosh destroys the gauntlet.
Torchwood Three don't know that Jack is immortal yet, setting this before End of Days, and Owen recalls the events of Ghost Machine.
Apparently set 14 years after 1992, but this can be attributed to Eugene rounding out the years.
Set in 2007. When Jack is kidnapped by an agent of the Three Families, Gwen chases Jack's kidnapper to Chernobyl, where she find Jack's blood being harvested, but she and Jack both lose their memories of the kidnapping due to a variation of Retcon.
(SEGMENT)
A week after Jack left to investigating the Committee, Gwen visits a conspiracy theorist possessed by the Committee. (AUDIO: The Torchwood Archive)

Torchwood Three in crisis[[edit source]]

Set between 18 December and 26 December 2007. Three people from 1953 emerge from the Rift in a plane, and Owen develops a deep romance with the pilot, Diane Holmes. After her two passengers leave and die, Diane flies her plane into the Rift in an attempt to return to 1953, leaving Owen distraught. Rhys continues to grow annoyed by Gwen's distancing from him.
Still upset by the events of Out of Time, Owen calls off his affair with Gwen. Rhys meets Jack for the first time.
Due to the machinations of Bilis Manger, Jack and Tosh end up in 1941. In order to retrieve them, Owen, who is still emotional over the events of Out of Time, opens the Rift, setting up the events of End of Days.
Bilis Manger prays on the vulnerabilities of Torchwood Three to get them to open the Rift further to free his master, Abaddon. During their coupe against him, Jack's immortality is revealed to Tosh, Owen and Ianto. Jack and Andy meet for the first time, and Jack informs him of Torchwood. After defeating Abaddon, Jack disappears from Torchwood.

Jack's disappearance[[edit source]]

Set shortly after End of Days, with Torchwood Three arguing over who will take charge in Jack's absence. As the most senior Torchwood operative, Tosh is placed in charge, but she defers command to Gwen following exposure to an alien artifact.
(SEGMENT)
Circa April 2008, Gwen dreams about Jack and Ianto, but no longer knows who they are, while Simon brings Elwyn back through the Rift, though she dies shortly after. (PROSE: We All Go Through)
(SEGMENT)
Circa May 2008, Gwen witnesses Simon Peters preaching in the streets, though no one listens to him. (PROSE: We All Go Through)
(SEGMENT)
Prime Minister Harold Saxon sends Torchwood Three on a wild goose chase to Tibet shortly before 8 June 2008. (TV: The Sound of Drums)

Jack returns[[edit source]]

Gwen and Rhys are now engaged. Jack returns to Torchwood Three, with the implication that he has only been gone a short time, and explains his disappearance as him having found "[his] Doctor". While confronting John Hart, a figure from Jack's past, Torchwood Three learn about the Time Agency.
Gwen is still planning her wedding, having not set a date yet.
Set on 20 June 2008, one-hundred-and-fourteen years after 1894 and ninety years after 1918. Gwen has her first and only encounter with Tommy Brockless, who has been annually defrosted from a cryogenic coma since 1894, setting this less than a year after Everything Changes. Tommy successfully closes the time shift he was destined to close, returning him back to 1918.
Gwen and Tosh recall the recent time shift with 1918, setting this shortly after To the Last Man.
Gwen recalls the events of Slow Decay, while Owen recalls the events of Out of Time. Rhys does not appear to be aware of Torchwood, which would set this before Meat.

Torchwood Three grows closer[[edit source]]

Rhys uncovers the truth about Torchwood, and joins them on a mission, during which he is shot, though he quickly begins to recover. On Gwen's urging, Jack allows Rhys to keep his memories. All stories where Rhys knows about Torchwood take place after this one. Rhys implies that a year has passed since Everything Changes.
Set on 4 July 2008. Also set between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive.
Rhys recalls the events of Slow Decay, and Jack gives him and Gwen two tickets for a trip to Paris for the weekend, setting this shortly before Adam.
Gwen has just returned from a trip to Paris with Rhys, who has fully recovered from the wounds he received in Meat. Torchwood Three use retcon to erase two days of their memory to banish a memory-changing entity back into the Void.
The Pharm is in operation, setting this before Reset.
Set between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive.
Set between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive.
Owen appears to be alive, setting this before Reset.
Set circa August 2008, between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive, though Bilis Manger frequently implies he will die soon.
Set between "Meat" and "Reset", with Rhys aware of Torchwood and Owen still alive. Rhys and Gwen's wedding is due to happen in only a few weeks' time, setting this before Something Borrowed.

After Owen's death[[edit source]]

Martha Jones visits Torchwood on loan from UNIT, and Jack introduces her to the rest of Torchwood Three. After Martha helps bring down the Pharm, Aaron Copley attempts to kill her, but Owen is shot protecting her, leading Jack to kill Copley. Despite Martha's efforts, Owen dies, leading directly into Dead Man Walking.
Owen is resurrected by a second resurrection gauntlet, but with no life signs, effectively becoming a reanimated corpse.
Set three days after Reset. Martha returns to UNIT.
(SEGMENT)
Circa July 2008, Gwen, Jack, Tosh and an undead Owen attempt to talk a man called Bryn out of suicide. (PROSE: We All Go Through)
Gwen has not yet married Rhys, setting this before Something Borrowed.
Set between "A Day in the Death" and Something Borrowed, with Gwen unmarried and Owen a reanimated corpse.
(SEGMENT)
Circa October 2008, Gwen and Jack recover Elwyn's body from Simon's house. (PROSE: We All Go Through)
Set on 31 October 2008.
Begins on 31 October and continues into early November. Gwen and Rhys are finalising the plans for their wedding, setting this shortly before Something Borrowed.

A new normal[[edit source]]

Gwen and Rhys get married, despite a Nostrovite interrupting the ceremony.
Set two months after Reset and roughly two weeks after Something Borrowed. Gwen and Rhys return from their honeymoon in Cuba. Gwen has been with Torchwood for roughly a year.
Set concurrently with SkyPoint.
15-year-old Jonah Bevan was born in 1993, which would set this during 2008. Gwen and Tosh discover that the Cardiff Space-Time Rift is capable of stealing people, and that Jack was aware of it upon finding the hospital on Flat Holm Island, leading to Torchwood Three to begin questioning their trust in Jack. Andy has become interested in joining Torchwood.
Torchwood Three have not been able to trust Jack recently, setting this shortly after Adrift.
Torchwood Three know that people can be taken away by the Rift, setting this after Adrift.
Set 21 months after the Battle of Canary Wharf, according to Ianto's flashback. Jack, Owen, Tosh and Ianto are caught in a trap set by John Hart, who reveals he has Jack's brother, Gray, as a hostage after Gwen and Rhys save them, leading directly into Exit Wounds. Rhys learns about Jack's immortality, or at least that he can return from death.
Upon confronting John, Jack leans that Gray is actually holding John hostage in a plan for revenge on his brother for losing him. Eventually, Jack is able to knock Gray out to be placed in suspended animation, but not before Gray kills Tosh, and Owen is atomized in a nuclear meltdown, effectively killing him.

Coping without Tosh and Owen[[edit source]]

(REFERENCE)
Shortly after the deaths of Tosh and Owen, Gwen goes to Tenerife for a holiday. (AUDIO: Expectant)
Torchwood Three are still grieving the deaths of Owen and Tosh, setting this shortly after Exit Wounds.
Torchwood Three are still grieving the deaths of Owen and Tosh, setting this shortly after Exit Wounds. They meet Nina Rogers for the first time.
Torchwood Three are still grieving the deaths of Owen and Tosh, setting this shortly after Exit Wounds. Jack decides to pay Alexander Martin a visit, leading into The House that Jack Built.
1909 was "nearly one hundred years ago", setting this around 2008.
Torchwood Three celebrate their first New Year's Eve without Owen and Tosh.
It is still early in the New Year.
(SEGMENT)
Circa March 2009, Simon preaches the coming of the Glory to his followers while Gwen dreams of herself, Jack and Ianto discovering a spike in Rift activity in Cardiff. (PROSE: We All Go Through)
Set in 2009, between May and June. Jack, Gwen and Ianto join with Martha, Sarah Jane Smith and Harriet Jones on the Sub-Wave Network to summon the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble to Earth after it is moved to the Medusa Cascade by the New Dalek Empire. After Harriet is killed by the Daleks, Jack uses his vortex manipulator to join the Doctor for battle, while the Daleks begin an attack on the Hub with Gwen and Ianto still inside, leading directly into Journey's End.
The Dalek attack on the Hub is prevented by a time lock Tosh had installed before her death, but also leaves Gwen and Ianto trapped inside. The time lock is destroyed with the Daleks when the Metacrisis Tenth Doctor destroys the Crucible. Torchwood Three then assist in returning the Earth to its proper location, and Jack returns with Martha and Mickey Smith.

After the Dalek invasion[[edit source]]

(SEGMENT)
Shortly after the 21st century Dalek invasion, Gwen attempts to send a message to Owen and Tosh in the afterlife. (AUDIO: In the Shadows)
The Hub is still being rebuilt after the events of The Stolen Earth. Jack indicates the year is 2009.
Andy learns about the true nature of Torchwood.
Nina Rogers is 21-years-old, setting this at some point between July and September 2009.
Ianto has done Opera, setting this after Into the Silence.

Torchwood Three's final missions[[edit source]]

Rhys and Gwen discuss buying a new home, setting this shortly before Children of Earth: Day One, where Rhys was in the process of house-hunting.
Authorial intent places this prior to Risk Assessment.
The events of The Sin Eaters are mentioned. Martha is about to get married, setting this shortly before Children of Earth: Day One, where she was on her honeymoon.
The events of The House That Jack Built and Risk Assessment are mentioned.
Set between Journey's End and Children of Earth, and also after a recent Christmas party that Martha could not attend due to the fallout from her break-up with Tom Milligan. After reconnecting with Gwen while hunting a Chameleon, Martha uses the explosion used to kill the Chameleon to fake her death to leave UNIT and become a freelance alien hunter, setting this after Risk Assessment.
Rhys is becoming interested in joining Torchwood as a fulltime member.
Set circa September 2009. Simon Peters feeds Jack and Ianto to the Rift, erasing them from history and creating an alternate timeline where Gwen has been running Torchwood alone for years. With the help of Andy and Rhys, she investigates recent disappearances in Cardiff, leading her to Simon's gathering at the Millennium Stadium. As Simon feeds his followers to the Rift, Gwen remembers Jack and Ianto. Three days later, Gwen lures Simon to Flat Holm and kills him, before taking retcon to forget. She returns to Cardiff, where Jack and Ianto appear in the Hub, having escaped the pocket dimension using Jack's vortex manipulator.
Norton comments that Ianto will die soon, setting this shortly before Children of Earth.
(SEGMENT)
An alien ambassador wanders into Baps, but is swiftly collected by Torchwood Three. (AUDIO: Coffee)

The 456 return[[edit source]]

Set in September 2009. The 456 announce their return by controlling the children of the Earth, as well as Clement McDonald. Jack makes contact with Lois Habiba shortly before the Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, John Frobisher, and Prime Minister Brian Green order Torchwood to be destroyed to keep the 1965 incident hidden. Gwen learns she is pregnant, and the Hub is destroyed by a bomb planted in Jack by Agent Johnson almost immediately afterwards.
Jack is captured by Johnson as he regrows himself, while Gwen and Ianto, having both managed to escape the Hub before the explosion, go into hiding. Gwen collects Rhys, and informs him of her pregnancy while they travel to London to meet Lois. Lois tells Gwen and Rhys that Jack is at Ashton Down, and they join Ianto in freeing him. The 456 use to children to announce they shall return the next day.
Torchwood Three sets up a base in an empty Torchwood One warehouse. Gwen convinces Lois to use the Eye-5 contact lenses to spy on the government for Torchwood, and brings Clem back to the warehouse after she finds him in hiding. With Lois acting as their eyes, Torchwood Three spy on John Frobisher's meeting with the 456 ambassador, and hear it demand 10% of the Earth's children. Clem reveals to Gwen and Ianto that Jack was involved in the 1965 incident.
Through Lois, Torchwood Three see the government plan to give away underachieving children to the 456, and try to use the information to gain control of the situation, only to end up angering the 456's ambassador, who floods Thames House with a virus that kills nearly everyone inside the building, including Jack and Ianto. Clem is also killed by the ambassador using a signal. Jack revives the following morning, just as Gwen arrives to grieve for Ianto.
While Gwen and Rhys return to Wales to inform Rhiannon of Ianto's passing, Jack is able to kill the 456 ambassador by sending the signal that killed Clem back at the ambassador.

Torchwood disbanded[[edit source]]

(SEGMENT)
Jack and Gwen attend Ianto's funeral, and are watched from afar by John Hart and alternate universe versions of Ianto and Mairwyn. (COMIC: Shrouded)
(EPILOGUE)
In March 2010, six months after the 456 incident, Jack leaves Earth after Gwen retrieves his vortex manipulator for him, hitching a ride onto a cold fusion cruiser at the edge of the solar system when they open their transport dock, despite Gwen's protests against his "running away". (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)
Set in 2010, with Gwen and Rhys trying to find a place of solitude to raise their daughter, Anwen Williams.

The "Miracle Day" crisis[[edit source]]

Everyone on Earth is rendered unable to die, in an event dubbed Miracle Day. When Gwen's father is hospitalised, she and Rhys return to Cardiff, and meet with Andy, for the first time since Children of Earth. After he realises a connection between Torchwood and the Miracle, CIA agent Rex Matheson travels to Wales just in time to see Gwen and Rhys be saved from an assassination attempt by Jack. Rex forces Jack and Gwen to accompany him back to America in a rendition, leading directly into Rendition.
Rex allows Rhys to stay in Wales with Anwen while he takes Jack and Gwen on a flight to America, but he and Esther Drummond are framed as traitors to the CIA by Brian Friedkin and forced on the run with Jack and Gwen after the CIA tries to kill Jack, who has lost his immortality due to the Miracle.
Following on from Rendition, Rex gains Friedkin's phone so the Torchwood team can track down his superiors, leading them to discover that PhiCorp had been preparing for the Miracle. When Friedkin's superiors use his phone to trace them, the Torchwood team are forced to flee, leading into Escape to LA.
Before they flee Washington DC, Esther visits her sister, allowing |an assassin to follow the Torchwood team to Los Angeles, where he interferes with their plan to steal the PhiCorp database hard drive, only to be put down by Rex. From the PhiCorp database, the Torchwood team learn about PhiCorp's Overflow camps, just as Gwen learns that her father has been placed in one.
Following on from Escape to LA, Gwen returns to Wales to save her father from the South Wales Overflow camp. However, Gwen's father falls into a coma in the escape and is returned to the camp.
Following directly on from The Categories of Life, Gwen and Rhys successfully rescue Gwen's father from the South Wales camp, and Gwen destroys the camp's modules. She plans to return to the Torchwood team in the USA, but is contacted by an unknown party demanding she hand over Jack in return for her captured family, leading directly into Immortal Sins.
Gwen delivers Jack to Olivia Colasanto, who plans to take Jack to see Angelo Colasanto, leading directly into End of the Road.
Rex lures Friedkin to the Colasanto estate, along with high ranking CIA member Allen Shapiro, who arrests Friedkin and Olivia, resulting in their demises when Friedkin denotes an explosive, and Angelo dies of natural causes due to being on a null field generator. Gwen is deported back to Wales by Shapiro.
Set two months after End of the Road. Gwen meets up with Jack and Esther, and meets Oswald Danes, a convicted pedophile who worked for PhiCorp. With information provided by Oswald, the Torchwood team learn that the Blessing is linked to Shanghai and Buenos Aires. After Gwen's father is seized by the overflow camp, Ester meets up with Rex in Buenos Aires while Jack, Gwen and Oswald travel to Shanghai, leading directly into The Blood Line.
Jack and Rex, who has had Jack's blood placed inside him, release the mortal blood back into the Blessing, ending the Miracle, but Esther is fatally wounded by the Three Families in an attempt the stop them. Jack is rendered immortal again, and Oswald dies destroying the Shanghai stronghold. All the Category 1s die peacefully, including Gwen's father, and Esther eventually dies from her wounds.

After the Miracle[[edit source]]

(EPILOGUE)
After the Miracle is ended in September 2011, (PROSE: Acceptance, and then Understanding) a funeral is held for Esther, where Rex is gunned down by a CIA traitor, but is revealed to also be immortal. (TV: The Blood Line)
Set after The Blood Line, with Gwen and Rhys still in the United States.
Set after The Blood Line, with Gwen and Rhys still in the United States.
Set "months" after the end of The Blood Line, and also after Fallout. Gwen and Rhys have returned to Wales, and Rex has been appointed Deputy Director of the CIA. Jack joins the crew of the Ice Maiden.

Rebuilding Torchwood[[edit source]]

Gwen hasn't seen Jack for five years, setting this as early as early as 2017, assuming she isn't rounding up the numbers. She decides to set up Torchwood operations in Cardiff again.
Roughly ten years have passed since Day One, but Torchwood has been forgotten in the space of four years. Andy attempts to approach Gwen about the prospect of him joining her new Torchwood.
Set during the winter. Gwen and Rhys have a place to store aliens, suggesting that they now have use of the Hub, setting this after More Than This.
Gwen is the acting head of Torchwood, while Jack has been serving with the crew of the Ice Maiden since Exodus Code. Ending leads directly into Station Zero.
Ending leads directly into The Culling.
Jack and Gwen part ways once again after defeating the Vervoids.
Mary is still alive, setting this before Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy, and Rhys recalls the events of More Than This.
(REFERENCE)
After he is "dumped" by the crew of the Ice Maiden, Jack returns to Torchwood. (AUDIO: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy) Civil Service St John Colchester is assigned to work with Torchwood shortly after they are put back in operation. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)

Possessed by the Herald[[edit source]]

(REFERENCE)
Gwen becomes possessed by the Herald when a number of Sorvix flee to Cardiff from Sorva through the Rift, (AUDIO: Future Pain) overtaking her personality and living her life. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)
The Herald lets Gwen have a moment at her mother's funeral.
Gwen is freed from the Herald when a bomb causes the Rift to reopen. Gwen decides to leave Torchwood.

After leaving Torchwood[[edit source]]

Gwen and Rhys attend St John Colchester's funeral before they leave Cardiff.
Gwen and Rhys have been living in Iceland for the last few months and Anwen is their only child, setting this before Revolution of the Daleks. They encounter Ng for the first time since Herald of the Dawn and Gwen decides to start working for an Icelandic alien hunting organisation.
(REFERENCE)
During the 2021 Dalek revolution between the Defence Drone Daleks and the Death Squad Daleks, Gwen fights off a Dalek using a moped and her son's boxing gloves. She is later visited by Jack after the Thirteenth Doctor defeats the Daleks. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)
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