The retconning of Torchwood (no spoilers please)

Cafe Society
21

[QUOTE=levdrakon]
It’s a common theme in US TV shows the FBI & CIA & local cops don’t really like each other that much and they like to play jurisdictional authority games. I figure everyone knows about Torchwood but what they mostly know is they can walk in, flash their badges and take over, but don’t know exactly what it is they do.

It also seems to have been established the most ridiculous things can happen to Cardiff and the local populace is easily convinced it’s swamp gas or something.
[/QUOTE]

What’s never established is that if Torchwood is “beyond the government”, what weight exactly do their badges hold?

Jack “Step aside officer, this is Torchwood territory”

PC Plod “Torchwood? Never heard of it”

Jack “We have jurisdiction over this kind of thing, I can’t go into any details though so move aside”

PC Plod “I’ll have to check with my superiors”

Jack “We above the police, beyond the government, your superiors won’t know who we are”

PC Plod “Well in that case neither do I, and you can stay on that side of the do not cross barrier”

Jack “Bum”

22

[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus]
Well they went to all these lengths in the first episode to make out how clandestine they are (with the amnesia pill and everything) but in “They keep killing Suzy” it was clear that the local police know and dislike Torchwood. They’re not very consistent on this point.
[/QUOTE]
I think this is a point where the show is unintentionally self-consistent - a lot of the local police do know about Torchwood; however, in episode one, it’s all news to Gwen.

The explanation for this is simple: Gwen is phenomenally stupid and obtuse. And this is entirely consistent with her characterization throughout the series …

23

[QUOTE=Steve Wright]
…a lot of the local police do know about Torchwood; however, in episode one, it’s all news to Gwen.
[/QUOTE]

But I think the conceit is that the more we, as an audience, learn about Torchwood, the more the locals do too. Especially as the things they investigate get larger in scale with how many people they affect.

24

[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
But I think the conceit is that the more we, as an audience, learn about Torchwood, the more the locals do too. Especially as the things they investigate get larger in scale with how many people they affect.
[/QUOTE]

By the start of the second season, they’re so well known that a random woman waiting for a bus says “Bloody Torchwood!” after they roar past in their SUV.

25

Torchwood used to be secret and subtle. Captain Jack is now running things. You can say a lot about Captain Jack but subtle ain’t one of them.

26

[QUOTE=Loach]
Torchwood used to be secret and subtle. Captain Jack is now running things. You can say a lot about Captain Jack but subtle ain’t one of them.
[/QUOTE]

Well, that, and a 200-foot-tall demon rampaging through the city might make people more open to the possibility of supernatural stuff running around. Makes the weevils seem almost normal, eh?

-JOe

27

[QUOTE=Steve Wright]
Well, UNIT was/is a United Nations organization, not a British one …

Also, one of the conceits about Torchwood was (seems to have been dropped in season 2) that it was so ultra-top-super-duper-hush-hush-secret that nobody was supposed to know about it. Which, if you think about it, makes it bloody hard for an organization to operate. So, you could envisage a situation, back in about 1970, something like this:

The Brigadier: Right. I’ll sort out the security clearances. Good to have the Doctor on board.

Torchwood operative: (crashes into the Brigadier’s office, strikes impressive pose in war surplus overcoat) Not so fast, Lethbridge Stewart! You cannot employ the Doctor! We forbid it!

The Brigadier: Err … yes … quite. And who are you, exactly?

Torchwood operative: (strikes impressive pose in war surplus overcoat) WE … are … Torchwood!

The Brigadier: Jolly good. And what are you doing in my office without proper authorization?

Torchwood operative: (strikes impressive pose in war surplus overcoat) We have all the authorization we need! WE … are … Torchwood!

The Brigadier: (surreptitiously presses button marked “Call Sergeant Benton to get loony out of office”) That must be very nice for you. But what authorization do you have, exactly?

Torchwood operative: (strikes impressive pose in war surplus overcoat) You’re not cleared to know that.

The Brigadier: I mean, are you Home Office? Ministry of Defence? Foreign Office?

Torchwood operative: (strikes impressive pose in war surplus overcoat) WE … are … Torchwood! We’re ABOVE the Government! BEYOND the law!

The Brigadier: Well, quite. That must be jolly nice for you, and I’m sure we’ll take everything you say very, very seriously. Now, why don’t you go off with Sergeant Benton, there, and he’ll make you a nice cup of tea? (The extra-calming kind, please, Benton. If you catch my drift.)

Torchwood operative: (strikes impressive pose in war surplus overcoat) Don’t forget, Lethbridge Stewart! You are to have nothing to do with the Doctor! We forbid it … and WE … are … Torchwood!

The Brigadier: Jolly good. *(Watches Sergeant Benton escort the Torchwood operative out of the office.) * Strange man. Oh, well, never mind. (Carries on filling out the Doctor’s security clearance.)
[/QUOTE]

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

28

[QUOTE=Otto]
Oops. Turns out Cardiff is Torchwood 3. Canary Wharf is Torchwood 1, Torchwood 2 is in Glasgow and Torchwood 4 is “missing.”
[/QUOTE]
Babylon 5 joke there, actually.

29

[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach]
Babylon 5 joke there, actually.
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I thought that as soon as I originally heard it. However I doubt the reappearance of Torchwood 4 would be as elaborate as that of Babylon 4.

30

[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus]
I thought that as soon as I originally heard it. However I doubt the reappearance of Torchwood 4 would be as elaborate as that of Babylon 4.
[/QUOTE]

Well, no, see, obviously!..what will happen is that Captain Jack will find the “lost” Torchwood and, after sneakily offloading all the current/past employees, will guide it back in time to the point where the 10th Doctor met Queen Vicki and prevent that meeting, thus ensuring that HIS Torchwood is the ONLY Torchwood (and coincidentally causing the Cybermen/Dalek invasion to not happen at all, since the Canary Wharf Torchwood didn’t ever exist and therefore could not have been giving them all openings into the world).

Okay, I’m done…I want royalties from Russell Davies when this airs, btw…

31

I wouldn’t want the Battle of Canary Wharf not to have happened, but if all this hopping about in time and space results in retconning out residue that originates from nothingness, I’ll be happy. How many years later and that still bugs the piss out of me.

32

[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin]
You seem to have missed out the seminal line

The Brigadier: Benton! Chap in the big coat - five rounds rapid!

:smiley:
[/QUOTE]

i had such a crush on sgt. benton… :smiley: