Doctor Who: A beginner's guide for Torchwood fans

If you've only ever seen Torchwood, you might not even realise just how many links there are to the show that inspired it - Doctor Who. There's Captain Jack, of course, but there's so much more. Read on to find out which episodes of Doctor Who are essential viewing for Torchwood fans…

The Unquiet Dead

A rift in time appeared in Cardiff on Christmas Eve, 1869. Though the rift was sealed, residual energy still leaked through. This was the main reason why Torchwood set up their Cardiff branch on the exact spot where the rift had been.

Tooth and Claw

In 1879, while staying in the Scottish Highlands at Torchwood House, Queen Victoria was targeted by a cult of monks who worshipped a werewolf. The Doctor and Rose helped to defeat the werewolf, revealing to the Queen that the creature had in fact originated on another planet. Queen Victoria founded the Torchwood institute soon after, with the mission to protect the British Empire from alien threats.

The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances

The Doctor and Rose first met Captain Jack during the blitz of London in around 1941. Posing as an officer with the American air force, Captain Jack was really a former Time Agent from the far future who had planned an intricate con involving an alien object that Jack had hoped to sell for massive profit. When the Doctor revealed that Jack's scam was responsible for the terrifying mutation of hundreds of people into gasmask-faced zombies, Jack saw the error of his ways and helped the Doctor put things right. In return, the Doctor allowed Jack to join him and Rose on their adventures in time and space.

Aliens of London

In 2006, an alien spacecraft crash-landed in the river Thames, right in the heart of London. The craft's only inhabitant, a genetically augmented pig, was taken to a nearby hospital, where an inexperienced Doctor by the name of Sato was left in charge. The pig was later shot by the military by mistake, and Dr Sato manage d to leave the scene without anyone discovering that she was in fact a Torchwood agent working on her first undercover case for the organisation.

Boomtown

Returning to Cardiff, this time in 2006, the Doctor's time ship, the Tardis, landed in Roald Dahl Plas on the exact spot of the time rift they'd sealed off in 1869. Neither the Doctor or his friends knew it at the time, but when the Tardis landed on that spot, it left a curious imprint on the paving slab beneath it that meant that anyone who subsequently stepped on it would become invisible. They also didn't know that right beneath them was the hub of Torchwood Three - run by Captain Jack, who had come back there from his own future.

Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel

When the Doctor and his friends found themselves on a parallel Earth, they discovered that Torchwood existed there too. As the Great Britain on that world was a republic, not a monarchy, might that Torchwood have been the legendary 'lost' Torchwood Four?

Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

In 2007, the Doctor discovered that Canary Wharf in London was home to Torchwood's main base. When Torchwood Tower was invaded by Daleks and Cybermen intent on pitching a war, the Doctor managed to defeat the aliens, but the battle resulted in heavy casualties for Torchwood. Among the few survivors was Ianto Jones, who escaped the devastation along with his girlfriend Lisa, victim of the Cybermen's conversion process.

The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End

When the entire planet was dragged across the universe to be used by the Daleks in an insane scheme, Captain Jack used his vortex manipulator to join the Doctor, leaving Gwen and Ianto behind to defend the Torchwood Hub. Later, they played a vital part in defending Earth from the Daleks and sending it back to its proper place in the solar system.

The Impossible Planet

Way into the 42nd century, a group of explorers from the Torchwood Archives investigate a mysterious power source keeping a planet in orbit around a black hole. The power source is in fact a powerful demon known as The Beast (possibly linked in some way to Abaddon, the behemoth seen in the Torchwood episode 'End of Days'?).

Bad Wolf

By the 2002nd Century, however, Torchwood is consigned to the history books. A future version of the gameshow 'The Weakest Link' reveals that 'The Great Cobalt Pyramid' was built on the ruins of the Torchwood Institute.

Other links

The Torchwood hub is full of artefacts that keen-eyed Doctor Who viewers might recognise. Some of the weapons in the Torchwood armoury were salvaged from the Empire State Building in 1929 where the Doctor's enemies the Daleks briefly set up a base [Daleks in Manhattan]. When Gwen Cooper first joined Torchwood, she noticed a hand preserved in a jar. This is actually the Doctor's hand, cut from his newly-regenerated arm by the leader of the Sycorax [The Christmas Invasion]. Fortunately, the Doctor grew a new hand. The hand in the jar disappeared along with Jack after the team's encounter with Abaddon. Jack took this with him when he travelled to the year 5 billion [Utopia] and left it with the Doctor [Last of the Time Lords]. The hand later played a vital part in the defeat of the Daleks [Journey's End]. And on Jack's desk is a lump of coral - the Doctor's Tardis appears to have been grown from coral, so perhaps Jack is trying to grow his own Tardis?