Sunday 20 May 2012

Gallifreyan Font (downloadable font)

 if you want to learn to write in gallifreyan here is where you can download the font. it can be used on a computer or laptops notepad.

http://www.ffonts.net/WS-Simple-Gallifreyan.font

Saturday 19 May 2012

The Bone Meadows (unfinished written for my river song page)

 do let me know what you all think of this unfinished story is leaving it unfinished until i see that episode when season 7 begins.

please do not steal i worte this and it is copywrited ladyrav©1012


hello i'm the child of the tardis but you can call me either melody pond or river song. i am the only daughter of the doctor's best friend and former companion's amelia pond and the last centurion rory williams. and this is the story of....

                                THE BONE MEADOWS.


Having been through this already i am able to cope with what is to come though i have to say that i did not cope as well as i thought i would. i also knew how the doctor would react during this fixed point in time and what he would most want to do when the time came but i would do now as i did then and make sure that he would not do what he most wanted. to wipe out of existence the lonely assassins better known to you or i or anyone that had or will have the misfortune of meeting  THE WEEPING ANGELS.

the doctor's visits to my parents were sporadic at best since they had left the tardis for a life back on earth though when he did visit with them it was always an exciting and special time. on this occasion his arrival heraled a visit to new york city and its surrounding area while i was to be in two places at once, there with the doctor and my parents and yet at the saome time back in the past during the 1030's and known to those that would meet me as melody malone.  for most of the time we all had fun playing tourist or having a picnic but i was morose during this time as i knew what was to come later that same day. my father rory was the first to disappear by the touch of an angel and he was to find himself in the past, the 1930's to be prpecise where he was to eventually come across me and i would be there to comfort him as he realized what had happened to him and how this time he would have to live out his life and die  without mother there at his side. rory took that rather hard i'm afraid and he often looked out of the window when he came to saty along side me at my lodgings at that time and wish he was there in the future with amy me and the doctor where he belonged. eventually he would come to accet this and yet i know he never really recovered.

meanwhile in the future the doctor angry that i had known what was coming was really rather upset and cross with me though that was putting it lightly to say the least. i had wanted to comfor mother at that time but i couldn't and she would try her best to comfort me while the doctor went about things in his usual way. mother took it hard as she allways did about the loss of father and how the time would come when they would stand there in the bone meadows where father was to be buried though i know that when the time came they would exhume father and  take him home to be buried in ledworth where he was born and grew up. mother's anger at the angels was unparalled and yet paled in comparrison to sweetie. the rage of sweetie is unklie anything you will ever know or ever see again in you survive it an di know that those that had taken from him would never survive his rage. i did what i could but i knew that when i returned to the storm cage containment facility there would be no one to stop sweetie. And when mummy decided that she couldn't live without father and had decided to sacrifce herself to prevent the weeping angels from going after either the doctor or the tardis i almost failed to contain sweetie. i literally had to drag him backwards along the bone meadows pathways pack to the tardis while mother stood there in front of one of the lonely assassins keeping it at bay.  we.. sweetie and i tried our best to make her come with us but she refused saying without rory she had nothing to stay around for. i was all grown up and didn't really need her anymore, and she knew i would do everything i could to keep sweetie safe when she was gone as dad now was. she told me not to forget either of them as she cried along with me and sweetie. of yes sweetie cried which he didn't do often but when he did it was full of pain and loss and such rage tha twas barely containable. sweetie being sweetie refused to leave amy he'd lost father and had stood there at his grave and watched as he was buried along with me and mother and now he would have to do the same for her.

as much as neither of us wanted to leave her behind i did as she asked and pulled sweetie into the tardis and closed the door with a last painful look at her. amy never once turned around to look at us her attention was on the angel in front of her.

"look after him melody, and remember i love you both with all my heart"

these words were the last words we, the doctor and me would ever hear from her as i closed the tardis door and knew that mother had closed her eyes and let the angel touch her sending her into the past. sweetie sat there in a chair across from the console i as in pain as i was set the controls for ledworth and mother's home. then i left the tardis to find her way and sat there with sweetie holding him in my arms as he shook in silent rage.

"i will wipe them out of creation for amy and rory!"

he said in a soft barely heard voice, and i knew no matter how much i would try there would be no preventing him from doing what he wanted.........


TO BE CONTINUED.....

Tuesday 15 May 2012

the council of eight

The Council of Eight
Also known as: Employers, Allies
Affiliated with: Sabbath
Place of origin: Time Vortex
Notable individuals: Kalicum
Soul
Duvar
Trilon
Feear
Penter
Hexx
Sept
Octan
Appearances: EDA: Timeless
EDA: Sometime Never...
The Council of Eight were an organisation created to fill the gap when the Time Lords were wiped out.
Biology: The Council of Eight physically resembled eight crystalline entities that bore similarities to the first eight incarnations of the Doctor

Technology:The Council had the technology to engineer deaths for people. Their victims included Sarah Jane Smith, Ace and Samantha Jones. Their Time Station, anchored in the Time Vortex, had a treasure trove of technology in the Schrodinger Cells, specialised facilities for holding prisoners that removed them from time and drew tremendous amounts of energy out of the unfulfilled potential futures of the people within. This, however, had a key flaw: opening a Schrodinger Cell had dire consequences; all potential futures collapsed as the prisoner shifted back to normal time, therefore shutting off the energy siphoned off by the Cell.

History:The Council of Eight were created when Jamais released them from their crystaline state and allowed them to be born alongside the Big Bang. After the destruction of Gallifrey, the Council of Eight created their fortress in the heart of the Time Vortex so that they could become the new Lords of Time. As the Council gained power by successfully prophesying future events, they were naturally inclined to remove all free will in the universe and create one where all actions could be accurately predicted by the Council, therefore making them invincible. To this end, they convinced Sabbath that parallel timelines were causing damage to the "prime" reality and that by destroying them he would be able to steer humanity to the path of the masters of the Universe. The Council went to war with the Clock People for control of the time vortex. They manipulated the Eighth Doctor into destroying their opponents, leaving them in complete control of the vortex.

They considered the Doctor to be an unpredictable factor and thus feared and wished for his destruction. To weaken him, they began taking some of his old companions out of history and locking them into Schrodinger Cells in their Time Station or outright killing them.
Leading the Doctor to a trap in the Time Station, they began preparing a massive ontological paradox, intending for Sabbath to kill Octan, the leader of the Council, so the rest could ascend to omnipotence. However, the Doctor discovered their plans and tricked Octan into revealing his plans and their manipulation of Sabbath. Sabbath, realising his horrific mistake, shot himself rather than fulfil the destiny laid by the Council, thwarting their plans, but not before Miranda Dawkins, the Doctor's adopted daughter, had died in the Station.
Furious and terrified that the chain of causality they had engineered had failed, they tried to kill the Doctor, only to fail when Octan, mad with horror and confusion, began opening the eight Schrodinger Cells fueling their Station; upon being tricked by the Doctor, history began to change so as each Cell opened, the remaining ones were increasingly likely to be empty, therefore shutting down the Station.

Desperate for a solution, Soul, the youngest of the Council, opened Schrodinger Cell Eight, releasing the possibility of parallel universes so the Council had a possibility to survive in an alternate world. Soul escaped in the Jonah, Sabbath's timetravelling vessel, with Zezanne, Miranda's daughter, in hopes of finding a better world to live in. He adopted the shape of an old man, and as they escaped, the hourglasses used to keep their time in the Station were damaged, resulting in Soul believing he was the Doctor, with Zezanne thus regarding her as her grandfather. The Jonah then materialised in a London junkyard, assuming the shape of a Metropolitan police box.

The High Council of Gallifrey

The High Council during the Last Great Time War.
The High Council, sometimes called the Supreme Council or High Council of Time Lords, was the governing body of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. The Council was composed of Cardinals representing the colleges of Gallifrey, the most prominent being the Prydonians. The Inner Council consisted of the Lord or Lady President, the Lord or Lady Chancellor, and the Castellan. Other offices associated with the Council included the Gold Usher, the Surgeon General and the Inquisitor.

Other members of the High Council:
Chapters:

Chancellery Guard

The Chancellery Guard was the organisation responsible for security and law enforcement on Gallifrey. They reported to the Castellan and were normally equipped with staser pistols.  

It is unclear whether the Chancellery Guard belong to the Time Lord or one of the common Gallifreyan classes.
Known members: The Chancellery Guards were the police service of Gallifrey, the only beings allowed to carry arms inside of the Citadel. The Chancellery Guards were not Time Lords. Their numbers were drawn from the ordinary citizens of Gallifrey.
Criminal investigations, interrogations, dignitary protection, court bailiffs and patrolling were among the many duties of this force.
Rank structure: The Chancellery Guards had a rank structure similar to other police or military forces around the universe.

Castellan: In overall charge of the Chancellery Guard was the Castellan. The Castellan acted as police chief and held a seat on the High Council of Gallifrey. The Castellan advised the Council and the President on matters of security and Rassilon law. The Castellan advised and oversaw the execution of the Fifth Doctor when his body was possessed by Omega. The Castellan sat on the High Council due to his important position. The Fourth Doctor once referred to the Castellan as a "jumped up guard." Castellans have been depicted as both capable (Castellan Spandrell) and corrupt (Castellan Kelner). In the TV series there is only ever one Castellan seen at a time, but in the Gallifrey Audio series each Chapter House appears to have at least one Castellan. It is possible that there is one Castellan in overall charge. The ones in the Audio series are referred to as "chapter Castellans" whilst in The Arc of Infinity, the Castellan is referred to as "the duty Castellan".
 
Commanders:Reporting directly to the Castellan were the Chancellery Guard Commanders. These high ranking guards were in charge of an unknown number of Chancellery Guards, perhaps acting as watch commanders or shift supervisors. The commanders rank was denoted by ornate breast plates, gold coloured or adorned helmets and uniform braiding. Gaining rank within the Chancellery Guard was never explored, but ability may have not been a factor. Commander Hilred showed very little competence in his duties.

Lesser members:Directly below the Commanders were the Captains.  There were also Lieutenants. The Chancellery Guard may have been organised into squads, perhaps under the direction of a sergeant. Commander Andred, impressed by K9's ability, noted that if K9 was a member of the Chancellery Guard, he would make him a sergeant . Rank and File guards wore red uniforms and helmets, with a white cape. The uniform was accented in white striping. The guards communicated through wristbands and carried the staser as their sidearm. The boots and elbow pads that the Chancellery Guard wore changed from a copper colour to silver at different points in the Time Lord's regime.

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Gallifreyan (the lost language of the time lords)

Gallifreyan (language)

There were several forms of written Gallifreyan. By the time of the Doctor, the archaic Old High Gallifreyan language used in the days of Rassilon had changed considerably. (DW: The Five Doctors) The later "vulgate" was presumably the Doctor's native language.

Examples: Old High Gallifreyan
The phrase "Hello, Sweetie" in Old High Gallifreyan.
Old High Gallifreyan was the ancient language of the Time Lords. It was not known by many; by the Doctor's era, it was virtually extinct, superseded by modern Gallifreyan. The Eleventh Doctor claimed that Old High Gallifreyan once possessed immense power when correctly harnessed, such as raising empires or destroying gods. The written form of Old High Gallifreyan resembled, to human eyes, a mixture of Greek letters and mathematical symbols.
A page of The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey.
This text included the letters δ³Î£x², which was given as the Doctor's name in the 1972 behind-the-scenes book The Making of Doctor Who by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke.
  • Within the Doctor's rooms on Gallifrey there was a painting of a woman holding a scroll with the words "Death is but a door" written in High Gallifreyan.
  • The First Doctor wrote his Five Hundred Year Diary in High Gallifreyan to make sure no one else could read it.
  • River Song could write in Old High Gallifreyan.
  • The word "valeyard" is said to mean "learned court prosecutor."
  • "Mi’en Kalarash" translated as "Blue Fire."
In The Time of Angels, Amy asked what some writing in Old High Gallifreyan meant, implying that the TARDIS did not translate it. River Song, in A Good Man Goes to War, confirmed that the TARDIS did not translate Gallifreyan.
Modern Gallifreyan
An example of Gallifreyan script written by the Fourth Doctor.
While Old High Gallifreyan was the original language of the Time Lords, it had evolved into a different form by the time of the Doctor
  • Two Time Lords looked at an archive of information on the Third Doctor, which displayed a photo and writing in modern Gallifreyan.

  • A vaguely Arabic-looking script, in a letter written by the Fourth Doctor to warn the High Council of an assassination, was in modern Gallifreyan.

  • The Seventh Doctor left a note for the Supreme Dalek in a script other than English. This included the Doctor's "name" (Theta Sigma) in Greek.
Circular Gallifreyan 
An example of the interlocking/overlapping circles.
  • A complex system of interlocking circles was used by the Doctor's TARDIS output screens in "coral desktop theme" mode and was seen in the notes that the Doctor scattered around the console room. (DW: Rose onwards) Earlier, the TARDIS' displays had appeared in English. 
  •  
  • Simpler handwritten circles appeared on the Betamax tape used by the Tenth Doctor to trap the Wire. The circular text, since scribbled over, presumably stated the tape's contents.
  •  
  • The Visionary wrote interlocking circles, which Rassilon and the other Time Lords could understand. One of the words was "Earth."

  • Text in circular Gallifreyan was seen carved into the Doctor's cot. It was implied that this writing was his name.

Saturday 5 May 2012

About Torchwood

The Torchwood Institute (or "Torchwood" for short) was an organisation founded in 1879  to protect the British Empire (later Great Britain) from extraterrestrial threat and to capture the Doctor (whom Queen Victoria regarded as such) in his tenth incarnation and to secure alien technology for Britain. It had branches across the Empire.  Before 2007, the leading branch was Torchwood One in London.  After the Battle of Canary Wharf, leadership moved to Torchwood Three in Cardiff, which already had a more ecumenical agenda of protecting the world since Captain Jack Harkness had taken over in 2000. he Torchwood Institute ceased to exist between 2010 and 2011, when a new Torchwood team was formed in the wake of Miracle Day by surviving members of Torchwood Three.

Overview : Queen Victoria was grateful for the Tenth Doctor and Rose's assistance in defeating the werewolf. The incident made her aware of otherworldly threats to the British Empire, and she chartered Torchwood to defend against them -- specifically the Doctor. Seeing his power and knowledge, the Queen was wary of his potential threat to the Empire. The name of the Institute was drawn from the Torchwood Estate, where most of the adventure took place. Over time, the Institute accumulated much alien technology, reverse-engineering it and applying it to secret military projects within Britiain. Within Torchwood an unofficial slogan evolved: "If it's alien, it's ours." Under Yvonne Hartman, one of the objectives of Torchwood was to at some point re-establish the British Empire.Hiding out in the open in Canary Wharf was Torchwood Tower, built to better access a weak point in spacetime. The Torchwood Tower was only part of a much larger plan involving free energy  that backfired horribly and resulted in the deaths of many.  This cell of the Institute was abandoned afterwards. Torchwood operated in cells. London was Torchwood One, and Cardiff was home to Torchwood Three, the maverick group led by Capt. Jack Harkness. At least two other Torchwood cells were known: Torchwood Two, based in Glasgow, Scotland, and a Torchwood Four, the nature of which was unknown except that it had some how gotten "lost" . Torchwood India was based in India and led by the Duchess of Melrose. It was disbanded in 1924, but later continued until 2009. Captain Jack declared the organisation "outside the government and beyond the police".  It was different from most British institutions, being created by royal decree and funded directly by the Crown.  The royal hold over Torchwood was later demonstrated when HM Queen Elizabeth II closed down Torchwood One after the Battle of Canary Wharf. However, it was explicitly not "above" the government. HM Queen Victoria ordered:
Torchwood is also to administer to the Government thereof in our name, and generally to act in our name and on our behalf, subject to such orders and regulations as Torchwood shall, from time to time, receive from us through one of our Principal Secretaries of state. 
The Torchwood Charter, 31 December 1879
Despite Jack's tendency to stress Torchwood's independence, Torchwood Three, at least, often complied with the spirit of the Charter. He often spoke to the British cabinet and to UNIT in both an advisory and operational capacity.  On at least one occasion an active member of UNIT, Martha Jones, was assigned to Torchwood Three for a time,  though this may have been due to the friendly relations between Martha Jones and the head of Torchwood Three, Captain Jack Harkness. Public knowledge regarding Torchwood seemed to vary depending upon the situation. By the 1950s, it was known by London police;  by the late 2000s, the name was known by the general public, and it could be cited with authority in much the way terms like FBI or Homeland Security (or UNIT) were used.  People were aware of the general location of Torchwood Three headquarters by Cardiff Bay.  By the early 2010s, it was known sufficiently to have the Battle of Canary Wharf called the Battle of Torchwood.  However, as late as 2011 it remained unknown to aspects of the United States government and the Central Intelligence Agency. By the year 200,000, the Torchwood Institute had become the stuff of trivia questions.

History: 19th century: Torchwood's origins dated back to an incident involving the Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler and Queen Victoria in the mid-19th century. At Torchwood House in Scotland, a monastic group called the brethren stored a Werewolf, which menanced the countryside and the Queen. With the monarch's assistance, the Doctor and Rose killed the werewolf. Victoria knighted them for their service, then banished them from the kingdom, declaring the Doctor in particular a threat to the Empire. Now aware of the reality of alien/supernatural life forms, Victoria ordered an organisation be created to protect the British Empire from the Doctor and threats such as the werewolf. She named the organisation the Torchwood Institute, after the location of the werewolf encounter. She issued a royal decree establishing the Institute on 31 December 1879. In 1889, agents Eliza Cooper and Robert Lewis attempted to capture the the Tenth Doctor when they realised he had been stranded in London. They came across H. G. Wells, and interrogated him about the Doctor. Wells led them to the TARDIS, which disappeared, apparently leaving the Doctor behind for them to arrest. The man was found not to be the Doctor when he was dissected. After discovering a spacetime Rift in Cardiff, Queen Victoria founded a third branch of Torchwood (after the first and second in London and Scotland), Torchwood Three.  In 1899 Cardiff, Jack Harkness was recruited by two of this branch's operatives, Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd as a freelance agent of the Institute. His first mission was to apprehend an intelligent blowfish alien; he succeeded, but was greatly disturbed when Guppy summarily executed the creature before his eyes. He continued to work for Torchwood largely against his will, having been told by a fortune-telling tarot card reader that he would have to wait more than a century before seeing the Doctor again. Meanwhile, he needed money to live. He continued to work for the organisation over the decades that followed, although he remained disturbed by the Institute's callous disregard for alien life formsAt some point, Victoria also established Torchwood India to collect all things alien in the British Raj.

20th century: In 1901, Alice Guppy and Charles Gaskell dug up a future version of Jack Harkness that had been taken from the 21st century and buried in 27 AD Cardiff. He told them to freeze him in the cryo-chambers so he could defeat his brother Gray. Subsequently, Jack's future self resided in the cryo-chambers even as his younger self continued to work nearby. Guppy reportedly died sometime thereafter. In 1906 Eliza Cooper and Robert Lewis used a machine they commissioned Professor Alexander Hugh to build to travel to another planet thousands of years into the future. Neither Cooper nor Lewis returned; the former remained on the planet while the latter was killed. Professor Hugh was returned home by the Tenth Doctor.Torchwood was planning to use alien weaponry during World War I, but eventually decided against it. In 1918, Torchwood Three investigated ghost sightings in a hospital in Cardiff. As present and future blended, they caught glimpses of 2009. At this time they had a team of five, the leader being a man called Gerald Carter and, based on a photo, were very possibly already based out of the Hub. They already had equipment capable of detecting disturbances in time. Circa 1919, Harriet Derbyshire, one of the investigators of the hospital sightings and in only her mid-twenties, died in action. Harkness continued to work as an operative throughout the 20th century, For reasons unknown, he was put in charge of a group of soldiers in 1909  and in the 1920s worked undercover with a travelling circus in pursuit of the Night Travellers , though it would appear the latter mission was unsuccessful as he failed to find them for eighty years.In 1923, thanks to a Professor Livesy-Smythe, Torchwood found evidence that an alien race called the Pyroviles invaded Earth at Pompeii in 79 AD.

(WC: Captain Jack's Monster Files, referencing In 1924, Torchwood sent Jack Harkness to India to close down the branch there before the fall of the Raj .In 1927, Jack Harkness was sent on a mission to New York City in order to thwart a plot by the Trickster's Brigade to infect Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a Brain parasite and change the course of history. With assistance from his lover Angelo Colasanto, Harkness succeeded in eliminating the parasite.)"The Boss" ran the overall Torchwood in the mid-20th century. (WEB: Torchwood website)By 1953 the London branch was influential enough that London Police feared its involvement when investigating the strange occurrences provoked by the activities of an alien entity known as The Wire In 1965 the government asked five highly ranked officers, including Jack Harkness, to give twelve children to the 456 as a gift. It was decided that the children would be taken from a Scottish orphanage as they wouldn't be missed. Despite eleven children being taken, Clem McDonald managed to escape. Circa 1984, Torchwood bought the London-based security firm H.C. Clements. Circa 1996, Torchwood recovered a Jathaa sunglider and reverse-engineered weaponry from it. At the end of 1999, Harkness became the leader of Torchwood Three when one of its members, Alex Hopkins, killed the rest of the team and himself after being driven insane by an alien artefact that revealed the events of the coming years.
 
21st century: Over the next few years, Harkness rebuilt the Torchwood Three team, recruiting Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper. Disapproving the ethics of Torchwood One, Harkness told Sato of his plans to reform the organisation to greater benevolence. Sato was sent to London to investigate the alien lifeform recovered from a crashed spacecraft. On Christmas 2006, the alien Sycorax invaded Earth, using blood control and a ship built from an asteroid which hovered over London. Torchwood had developed a weapon for just such a contingency, based on alien technology scavenged from a Jathaa sun glider. At the same time, in Torchwood Tower, the Institute examined the Void Ship (though they did not call it by that name), an obviously alien artefact they struggled to understand; it was discovered that tapping into the resonance around it produced massive amounts of what seemed to be free energy. A side-effect of these experiments was the appearance of millions of "ghosts" all over the world: humanoid figures that glowed with an unearthly light. The Tenth Doctor became involved. He explained to the then-administrator Yvonne Hartman that their experiments were weakening the barrier between dimensions, which would eventually lead to drastic problems in their own world, perhaps resulting in the collapse of their dimension. His warnings were not heeded, and the experiments continued. As a result, a massive invasion force from another dimension came through the 'hole', allowing the Earth to be conquered by the Cybermen for approximately an hour.

 At the same time, the Void Ship opened, revealing a hidden cadre of four Daleks, members of the secret Cult of Skaro, come to Earth to help restore the Dalek race with a stolen piece of Time Lord technology called the Genesis Ark. They promptly killed a Torchwood technician while stealing his knowledge of current events. They saw the Cybermen as an impediment to their own return and began a war against them, despite an offer from the Cyber-Leader to form an alliance.The 'hole' in space time created by the Void Ship also allowed a resistance army from another dimension to cross over, initially with the intention of stopping the Cybermen. With the advance of the Cybermen and Daleks, a rather sudden and uneasy truce began, with Torchwood militia and the Preachers fighting together against the Daleks and Cybermen. This turned Torchwood Tower into a battleground,. The fighting did not end until the Doctor found a way to reverse Torchwood's power machinery and send the Daleks and Cybermen into the Void. Rose Tyler was recruited by the version of Torchwood that existed on the parallel Earth nicknamed Pete's World, having been trapped there after the reversal sealed the gap between Normal Space and Pete's World. With the vast majority of the Torchwood administration in London killed or 'upgraded' by the Cybermen, the organisation was crippled. Jack Harkness worked to reform the remainder of Torchwood into a more humane organisation, recruiting Canary Wharf survivor Ianto Jones and other members (including, ultimately, Gwen Cooper).

In 2008 a major event occurred with the opening of the Cardiff rift, resulting in massive temporal displacements and the release of the demon Abaddon. Shortly after team leader Captain Jack Harkness mysteriously disappeared.  Subsequently, The Master under the guise of Harold Saxon, sent the crew of Torchwood Three on a wild goose chase in the Himalayas to look for him. Actually, the Master just wanted them out of the way. After a few months had passed for Torchwood Three (and about a year for Jack, who had lived through the Year That Never Was) Jack returned to Torchwood Three. Although Gwen Cooper had taken charge during his absence, Jack resumed command.  Some months later, the Torchwood Three team was depleted by the deaths of two members and the survivors became involved in helping the Tenth Doctor restore the Earth to its original location after it was moved by the Daleks to the Medusa Cascade. Perhaps due to their influence during alien invasion, by the late 2000s, Torchwood was beginning to be known by the public at large, although more by name and reputation than by actual purpose. In 2009, the Institute was left in disarray due to an intentional effort by the British Prime Minister Brian Green to destroy Torchwood to prevent the revelation of previous dealings between the UK and the alien race known as The 456, in which Harkness had been involved. The Cardiff Hub was destroyed by a paramilitary unit headed by Agent Johnson, and attempts were made on the lives of the surviving members of Torchwood Three. The fate of Torchwood Two is unclear, but files held by the British government indicated it had been disbanded.

After the defeat of The 456, Torchwood was left with only two surviving operatives: Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper, the latter pregnant. Torchwood's activities immediately following the incident are unknown, but six months later Harkness, having spent an unknown amount of time travelling the world and beyond on his own, made the decision to leave Earth, leaving Cooper -- now heavily pregnant -- as the last known Torchwood operative.  It was at this point that the Institute disbanded. In 2011, during the events of Miracle Day, Jack returned to Earth, and while the Institute was no more, he and Gwen, along with several new members, formed a new team that continued to use the name "Torchwood". At one point during the crisis the team established a relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency (for whom newly recruited members Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond were agents) though Harkness resisted CIA efforts take control. Following the resolution of the crisis (which resulted in the death of two team members, including Drummond, and the apparent transformation of Matheson into an immortal like Jack) it is unclear whether Torchwood continued as a team.By 2012, the name (if not necessarily the function) of Torchwood was widely known to the public, to the extent that the Battle of Canary Wharf had come to be known as the "Battle of Torchwood".It would appear that Torchwood Institute reformed or was reestablished at some point, because by the 2060s, Torchwood Three was capable of controlling the Rift.

Post-21st century: The Institute still existed, as the Torchwood Archive, in the 42nd century. (DW: The Satan Pit)
The Great Cobalt Pyramid was built on the ruins of Torchwood (although it's unclear which branch this refers to). (DW: Bad Wolf) In the same period (the year 200,100), Big Brother contestant Strood lists his home as "Torchwood", implying it to have grown into a sovereign state.

Unknown Date :By the early 21st century, when Gwen Cooper joined, Torchwood Four had disappeared.

Torchwood Branches : The Torchwood Institute was known to have four offices across Britain and an international branch. In 2007, Torchwood One was lost. By 2009, Two and Three and had also ceased operations. Torchwood Four ceased operations, by virtue of disappearance, at an earlier time. From 2011, the Institute's two surviving Torchwood agents simply represented "Torchwood". As fugitives, or self-styled "freedom fighters", the name Torchwood was simply a word which connected its team members.
  • Torchwood One, headquartered Canary Wharf, destroyed during the battle with the Cybermen, and consequently abandoned. Last director was Yvonne Hartman. Had properties and bases across London.
  • Torchwood Four, lost, but in the words of Captain Jack Harkness, "We'll find it someday".
  • Torchwood India, operating in Delhi to collect all artefacts in the Raj. Closed in 1924 by Captain Jack Harkness, though the facility, and some of its members, continued to survive, unageing due to an alien artefact, until 2009.
Torchwood One also had a base under the Thames Flood Barrier and owned the security firm "H.C. Clements" used to recreate Huon particles. The parallel Earth, Pete's World, also had a version of Torchwood.

Known staff :
Yvonne Hartman
Torchwood One
Torchwood Two
Torchwood Three

Surviving staff of Torchwood Three later represented just "Torchwood", no numerical designation.
Torchwood India 
Parallel Torchwood on Pete's World :
  • Stevie (worked at Torchwood during the creation of the Cybermen, circa 2007)
  • Rose Tyler (hired due to experience with aliens, circa 2010)
Other individuals are known to have used the parallel Torchwood's facilities, including Pete Tyler and Mickey Smith, but Rose and Stevie are the only confirmed Torchwood members.
 
Behind the scenes
  • 'Torchwood' was a code name for the new series of Doctor Who when it was in production, partly to keep it secret, partly to keep people from absconding with videotapes before it was produced. The word 'Torchwood' itself is an anagram of 'Doctor Who'.
  • Torchwood is also the name of a spin-off series from the BBC set in the Doctor Who universe.