Was Torchwood in the original DW?
- Thread starter RoJoHen
- Start date
No.
Wow short and to the point 
Checkmate
Commodore
Yes, it has existed for a long time (since around 1879 A.D.) compared to when most of the stories take place, but the events that created Torchwood didn't occur until the Tenth Doctor put them in motion in Tooth and Claw as previously mentioned.
So the answer isn't "no" it's "yes and no."
So the answer isn't "no" it's "yes and no."
If you wanted, you could say that they were there, but laying low as to not corrupt their own timeline.
I believe there's also one story where the Third Doctor encounters some shadowy earthbound organization that's never explained or followed up on, you could retcon that into being Torchwood if you liked.
I believe there's also one story where the Third Doctor encounters some shadowy earthbound organization that's never explained or followed up on, you could retcon that into being Torchwood if you liked.
For that matter, I think there was a reference in one of the very early episodes----"Aliens of London", maybe?----to the fact that Queen Victoria knew about aliens.
The "Old Earth Torchwood Institute" was mentioned in dialogue in the game show that Rose took part in in "Bad Wolf".
Well...were there any secret alien-fighting organizations that we could pretend were Torchwood?
In the old show there was only ever one "secret alien-fighting organization", the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.
Except they weren't exactly secret!
Not really, the Torchwood arc in series 2 had nothing to do with Jack, and also they didn't really know until The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances that the character would be popular enough to justify a spinoff.
The Torchwood arc in series 2 was there to set up the background for Torchwood, Torchwood season 1 was in pre-production at that point, and went into production during DW series 2's air period.
I don't remember where exactly I read it, but I remember RTD and Julie Gardner saying something to the effect of knowing what they were doing with jack at the beginning... unless that was about the whole Face of Boe thing...
Edit: On second thought, it must have been about Torchwood. Jack was only in 5 episodes of series 1. When they ended that series they had Jack revived, they clearly knew they weren't done with him, and then there's also the fact that Torchwood was mentioned before series 1 even came to an end.
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Torchwood can hardly be called secret either. I think Dead Ringers said it best when they described Torchwood as "the most famous secret organisation in the world"
Im not so sure it was that deliberate. From the sounds of it RTD did always plan on a spin-off based on a organisation defending Earth, but not necessarily on which character would star in said spin-off. I remember talk about Rose being the lead in the months leading up to Torchwood's development.
Torchwood can hardly be called secret either. I think Dead Ringers said it best when they described Torchwood as "the most famous secret organisation in the world"
I just figure that after "Doomsday", Torchwood got downgraded on the secrecy scale. Not much point in hiding it after TW1 draws attention to itself that way.
Thus the name and existence may thereafter be more generally known, while the specifics of its operations remain classified.
much like the Secret Intelligence Service and the Security Service in real life. everyone knew they existed post WW2, but teh government denied it until the 1980s or 90s and no one knew exactly what they did/do.
hell, it was the same with the NSA in the US, for a long time the US government denied it existed, hence the gag it was No Such Agency.
hell, it was the same with the NSA in the US, for a long time the US government denied it existed, hence the gag it was No Such Agency.
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