I have a couple of friends who complain about how torchwood has been around so long but we never heard of it until the new series. Though its a good point, I took some time to try and fit it in as best I could. Please drop some comments or add to the this post if you would like. Here we go:
When Torchwood was created in 1879 by Queen Victoria (Tooth and Claw) the idea of alien visitors from different worlds were little more than fantasies. Many thought the Queen was suffering from delusions and her formation of Torchwood became little more than a joke. Though a small office was allocated to seven people in Canary Wharf, the project went little further. Their first effort in 1883 the small Torchwood group investigated a home called Gabriel Chase, (Ghostlight) but nothing was found, though there were several reports to the contrary.
In the 1880’s the Torchwood team investigated reports of strange happenings in the pier district of London where they uncovered their first piece of alien technology, an alien cabinet of unknown origin and several other pieces. (The Talons of Weng-Chiang) They were never fully investigated and placed in a storage area where they remain today.
For 26 years the Torchwood project lay partially dormant, after Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 money allocated to the organization was scaled back and the group was downsized to two men.
In 1911 the two Torchwood men, who were on a fishing holiday, came across strange goings on near the home of professor Scarman. Though they arrived minutes after the old priory house was burnt to the ground (Pyramids of Mars). They did recover some android casings that the men returned to London for study. But without further financing and backing from the government they were unable to learn much about them.
The same two men investigated the strange deaths at a lighthouse on Fang Rock where many pieces of an alien craft were discovered. (Horror of fang Rock) But because of Torchwoods limited resources they were unable to recover very much.
From 1911 to 1922 the Torchwood Institute becomes dormant once again, until at the home of Lord Charles Cranleigh, during the annual cricket and costume event, a member of Torchwood became aware of a man called the Doctor, (Black Orchid) the man that Queen Victoria dubbed as a threat to England. After extensive questioning of the Cranleigh family, who were uncooperative, the Torchwood project was once again found itself at a financial roadblock.
In 1940, at the height of the battle of Britain, the Torchwood team had been disbanded completely. It wasn’t until reports of gasmask wearing zombies (The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances) that the Torchwood files were released to the military and the project became reactivated. Though the files remained in the hands of the British army. Torchwood became nothing more than a branch of the military gathering strange information and passing it on.
Near the end of the Second World War, Torchwood investigated reports concerning a series of strange deaths at Northumberland and reports once again of the Doctor. (Curse of Fenric) but they learned little and all reports of the Doctor were suppressed by the military.
In 1959 at the Welsh holiday camp of Shangri-Li a young Major Lethbridge-Stewart led a military contingent after Torchwood reported, two U.S. secret agents, helped thwart an alien invasion of the Earth. (Delta and the Bannermen) This led Lethbridge-Stewart down a personal path of looking to the stars and thinking “what if”.
1963 brought another report to Torchwood of the Doctor, but the military refused to release any details of their encounter with him or his involvement with an unnamed alien race. What Torchwood could learn was the alien race had been stopped with the destruction of their mother ship in orbit of Earth. (Remembrance of the Daleks)
In 1967, a then Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart found himself facing a real invasion of London by the Great Intelligence and it’s robotic army of Yeti. During this encounter, he found himself being aided by a strange man known only as the Doctor. (The Web of Fear) After the incident, Lethbridge-Stewart brought a proposal to the British Government and the United Nations to form a world security organization called UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) to combat alien threats. Understanding the otherworldly threats UNIT is formed and Lethbridge-Stewart is placed in charge of the British branch since he proved affective during the London invasion.
Some years later UNIT found itself face to face again with the Doctor and a Cybermen invasion of London. With the Doctor’s help a then Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart stopped the invasion and during the praise Torchwood became forgotten when UNIT proved itself successful.
The Doctor rejoined UNIT a few years later and became their scientific advisor. With the Doctor’s help, UNIT was able to stop a number of alien hostiles form conquering the Earth. Some threats included, but not limited to: the Master, The Nestene and their deadly Autons, the Daleks, the Silurians, the Daemons, Kronos and the Sontarans.
In 1977 Lethbridge-Stewart retired from Unit and was replaced by Colonel Charles Crichton, it was during this time that UNIT became stagnate and its usefulness was in question.
Though there were little threats to the Earth, UNIT investigated many happenings that included the disappearance of two concords that traveled back in time, but were helped in recovery by the strange Doctor.
While working as a mathematic professor and during a time of mental breakdown, (Mawdryn Undead) Lethbridge-Stewart was interrogated by Doctor Runciman a medical doctor at Brendon School for boys. He was in fact a member of Torchwood, assigned to keep a watchful eye on Lethbridge-Stewart for his involvement with the Doctor. But Runciman was quickly recalled when Brigadier Crichton learned of Torchwood’s illegal activities. Torchwood underwent a management change after the investigation.
Colonel Crichton was killed in 1985 when UNIT investigated the appearance of Cybermen in the sewers of London. The circumstances were withheld from any other military branch and Torchwood because of the sensitive matter pertaining to the forthcoming invasion by Mondas the tenth planet in 1986. Only UNIT, who had been given prior warning by the Doctor, understood the importance that they or any other military branch act before the proper time.
In 1989 UNIT had seemed to run its course. Many of its enlisted men were reassigned to the Regular army; most of its scientific personal had been given jobs in the private sector. Only an elite branch under the command of Brigadier Winifred Bambera had remained activate.
Under Bambera’s command, UNIT stopped a war/invasion from Morgaine, the sister of King Arthur from an alternate universe. By the end of the decade UNIT found itself with out a leader when Bambera was killed on a secret assignment.
The remaining UNIT personal became part of the regular army by the mid 1990’s, still keeping the name UNIT they now had to clear all activities through the office of military affairs. This gave way for Torchwood to begin cataloguing UNIT’s past assignments and confiscating many of the alien technology, taking the phrase “If it’s alien it’s ours.”
In 1996 Torchwood scored big when an alien craft from a race known as Jathal. With its technology they were able to begin the creation of weapons for their exclusive use.
Many of the assignments that involved the Doctor became known to the Torchwood staff, excluding the Daleks and Cybermen, which were considered too top secret for even Torchwood.
In 2005 an alien threat from the sliveene family from the planet raxacoursflaptorius, brought the UNIT team back into the spotlight when they and the 9th Doctor began to work together. But sadly they were killed and in many respects UNIT died with them.
After the sliveene encounter, Prime Minster Harriet Jones gave Torchwood complete control over protecting the boarders of England from alien threats. Torchwood’s director Yvonne Hartman (Who thought it an honor) looked forward to meeting the legend known as the Doctor since she had read all documents concerning him.
During an invasion on Christmas Day 2005, from a race known as the Sycorax Torchwood unveiled its first weapon to the world destroying the warship as it was leaving Earth peacefully.
Oh, you guys know the rest
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