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Captain Jack Harkness
A charming rogue from the 51st Century, who
seems to flirt with everyone he meets, Jack had many adventures through time and space on his own before he began to travel
with the Doctor. He is a former soldier of several time periods, both past and future. With the Doctor and Rose, he helped
to form a smoothly functioning TARDIS crew, and followed the Doctor's
orders easily and willingly. His departure from the Doctor's company, however, was in traumatic
circumstances; this, and his unseen return to modern-day Earth, appears to have changed him once more. Less gregarious and
with a darker tone to his life, in his leadership role at the Torchwood Institute
he has, however, begun to soften after meeting Gwen Cooper and taking
her under his wing. It became apparent in the The Doctor Dances that Jack was bisexual,
an orientation which the Doctor pointed out was more common in the 51st century, when mankind would deal with multiple alien
species and sexuality would become more flexible. In Boom Town he flirted with the Doctor in front of Mickey, and the Doctor played along. He is the first companion to be anything other
than openly heterosexual; Steven Moffat suggests in the Doctor Who
Confidential episode "Welcome to Torchwood" that questions of sexual orientation do not even enter into Jack's mind. Some
suggest that Jack is "pansexual", although Jack himself has only displayed
attraction to people (and, arguably, robots) who fit into the gender binary of male/female. John Barrowman describes Jack
as bisexual, and went on to discuss bisexuality in an interview. Jack himself refers to categories of sexual
orientation as "quaint", noticing the reactions of his teammates to Gwen's kiss with Carys in Day One, implying a disbelief in total monosexuality. Harkness always gives his rank as Captain, even though he was initially seen posing as an officer in the Royal Air Force, which does not use the rank (the equivalent of army Captain
is Flight Lieutenant). In The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances
the rank insignia on his coat is of a Squadron Leader, the RAF equivalent
of a Major. In later episodes it is explained that Jack Harkness commanded
a squadron — this may suggest a misunderstanding of the RAF rank
system on the writers' part, since a squadron is far too junior a command for a Group Captain. In a flashback to 1909 Lahore in Small Worlds he is seen wearing the three
"pips" of a British Army Captain.
Gwen Cooper
Gwen is introduced in Everything Changes as a police constable in Cardiff. Much like the character of Rose Tyler in Rose,
she serves to introduce the audience to the concepts of the show as her character discovers them. In the first scene of the
pilot, Gwen is called in on a murder scene, only to encounter a mysterious team of individuals known only as "Torchwood".
To satisfy her own curiosity (especially after witnessing the killing of a hospital porter by a Weevil), she tracks down the team and discovers the truth behind the organisation. Despite
having her memory wiped by the team leader, Jack Harkness, Gwen manages
to leave a reminder to herself, linking a trace memory to the reconstructed murder weapon, and ends up exposing the murderer,
Suzie Costello, Jack's second-in-command. When Suzie commits suicide,
Jack offers Gwen a position with Torchwood and she accepts. Gwen believes that the team has been working with aliens and alien
technology for so long that they have become hardened and have lost touch with humanity. She acts as the moral centre of the
team, reminding them that they are in a position to help people, not just to scavenge technology. Unlike
her colleagues who have let their professional lives consume them, Gwen maintains a life outside the Institute. She lives
with her boyfriend, Rhys Williams, who is a transport manager. He believes
any alleged alien interference with Earth over the past two years are actually mass hallucinations caused by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the
water supply, a theory that when put to Jack by Gwen makes him deride her boyfriend as stupid. Before she dated Rhys, she
was going out with a Bruce, and Owen speculates she simply settled for
Rhys. In Ghost Machine she is taught to use guns by Jack, and there appeared to be
some sexual tension, but any developing feelings were apparently negated when she returned home and the "ghost
machine" showed her memories of her relationship with Rhys. However, in Cyberwoman she and
Owen kissed passionately whilst hiding from Kisa the Cyberwoman, followed by further
sexual tension with him in the episode Countrycide, and the eventual revelation that she has embarked upon an affair
with Owen, largely because she cannot share her supernatural and extraterrestrial experiences with her boyfriend, Rhys, even
though she does care for him. On the Torchwood website, Gwen has a conversation with Ianto
which suggests that she might have feelings for Jack. In Random Shoes, she is the only one to hear Eugene (although she didn't know that it was him at the time), this could be the first signs
of advanced mental ability that was seen in Gwyneth in The Unquiet Dead, although it could just be the case that Gwen
was the only one Eugene attempted to talk to, with the Torchwood Declassified accompaniment stating that he became
more audible and corporeal as time passed. At the beginning of End of Days, Gwen jokingly
tells Rhys she is using telepathy on him. Throughout the episode, her emotions are played with as Rhys' life is threatened
then taking, eventually leading a coup with Owen to overthrow Jack and
open the Rift, believing it will resurrect Rhys. While ecstatic when
eventually Rhys is returned at the price of Jack, who battled with Abaddon
and remained dead for days. Gwen stayed by his side for the entire team, unwavering in her belief in him, before he finally
resurrected and thanked her after she kissed his dead lips.
Owen Harper (Deceased)
Despite his apparently skewed moral sense in Everything Changes, in Ghost Machine,
a different side of him emerges when an alien artefact forces Owen to witness the rape and murder of a young woman named Lizzie Lewis in 1963.
Unable to do anything but watch, Owen comes out of his vision with a
strong sense of responsibility toward Lizzie. Though he's denied backup from Torchwood, Owen tracks down the killer (Ed Morgan), now an old man, and confronts him with the knowledge of his crime.
Initially, Owen's intention was just to scare the man, but as Morgan's growing paranoia fuels him into a confrontation, Owen loses his temper, threatening Morgan with his own confiscated knife and
coming within an inch of killing him. He is talked down from the brink just in time, thanks to Gwen's intervention. In Cyberwoman, he and Gwen share a passionate kiss
which he dismisses as the last act of a man about to die. He denies he "fancied her" but she counters that she could "feel
his hard-on". However, in Countrycide, the group discusses their
last kisses in which Owen admits that his was Gwen. When she confronts him about it later on he confronts her right back in
a rather sexually explicit fashion about how good the two of them would be together. At the end of the episode an apparently
naked Owen is seen approaching Gwen from behind and kissing her passionately. The episode then ends abruptly. In Greeks
Bearing Gifts, Tosh's telepathic pendant reveals they have since had sex twice in the Torchwood SUV. They Keep Killing Suzie reveals that as
with Gwen, Owen pursued a sexual relationship with Suzie before she
killed herself. In Out of Time, Owen enters a sexual relationship with Diane Holmes, a temporal refugee, and develops an emotional connection to her. He
explains he has never felt as strongly for any of his other partners, which would include Gwen. The accompanying website features
also suggest that Gwen has feelings towards Owen, which he does not return. Diane leaves at the end of the episode,
flying into the Rift. In Combat Owen is still despondent over
Diane's leaving and breaks off the affair with Gwen. In Captain Jack Harkness, Ianto
and Owen scrap for leadership of Torchwood Three with Jack gone, but Owen clearly states that he is next in command after
Jack (and the deceased Suzie). Owen attempts to open the Rift with the pretense of rescuing Jack, but really wishing to find
Diane. He is shot by Ianto as he tries, but succeeds anyway. Eventually, Owen opens the Rift, saving Jack and Tosh but ultimately
causing apocalyptic results. In End of Days, Owen's actions have caused a worldwide
disaster as time fractures. Owen is fired by Jack after little provocation, despite protest from Gwen and others. An apparition
of Diane Holmes later appears, convincing him to return to the Hub and open the Rift completely, believing he will be able
to save her. Supported by Ianto, Tosh and Gwen (each similarly coerced through loss of love ones) Owen overthrows Jack's leadership
and shoots him several times in the head. After releasing the demon Abaddon,
it is defeated by Jack who had resurrected himself. Jack eventually resurrects a second time, only to forgive Owen for what
he had done. In the spin-off novel Another Life, it is stated that Owen was in a serious
relationship with a fellow medical student, Megan Tegg, when he used to live in London six years ago. During the events of
Another Life, he meets up with her again and tries to recruit her into Torchwood but, through her involvement in an
operation, she dies, leaving Owen with further animosity towards women.
Toshiko Sato (Deceased)
Sato first appeared in the Doctor Who episode Aliens of London, where she was called
in to examine a supposed alien corpse at Albion Hospital. On Torchwood,
Sato is the Cardiff branch's technical expert (described as a "computer genius"). She does however operate as a medical doctor
still - in Small Worlds she arrives at a police station to determine a man's cause of death. It
is revealed in Greeks Bearing Gifts that Sato's parents were both in the Royal Air Force, and her grandfather worked at Bletchley Park, the World War II code-breaking facility. Sato joined a government scientific think-tank
after graduating from university, and was recruited by the Torchwood Institute
to work with Jack Harkness three years before the series begins, suggesting
she was infiltrating Albion Hospital on its behalf. Teammate Gwen Cooper
believes she is of Japanese descent, describing her as a "Japanese woman"
although it is established in Greeks Bearing Gifts that she herself was born in the UK in July 1975 and her family returned to Osaka when she was two, before returning to the UK in 1986. A letter on the Torchwood Institute website implies that she has some family members who cannot read English. This may be backed up by a conversation in End of Days where
she sees an apparition of her mother, speaking to her in Japanese, however she may have simply chosen it over English. Similarly, Captain
Jack Harkness revealed that her grandparents were racially abused after the attack on Pearl
Harbor. Sato has a close relationship with colleague Owen Harper. He confides in her during drinks outside of work in Ghost Machine
and the two can be seen together in photographs on the Torchwood website. Mori suggested in an interview that Sato has
a crush on Harper. Mori also indicated that Toshiko has good working relationships with the rest of the team and in
particular with Jack Harkness, although she is not afraid of expressing her opinions to him. In
Countrycide it would appear Tosh's genius is not limited to all things technological. She is able to quickly deduce
the framework of a door and identify where its structural weaknesses would be, and whether or not it is reinforced.
The Sun newspaper had claimed all the members of Torchwood are bisexual. In the Greeks Bearing Gifts, she enters her first sexual relationship
with a woman named Mary from whom Toshiko received a telepathy-granting necklace. As a telepath, Toshiko was very distressed. She was upset
by Gwen and Owen's thoughts (as well as those of most people passing her on the street) and found Captain Jack's mind a blank.
She felt despair and hopelessness, comparing human beings to Weevils
- also noting that across space, all cultures were essentially similar, leading to utter disappointment with existence.
In Captain Jack Harkness she faced racial abuse from British people while trapped in the
1940s. Jack convinced them that she was a codebreaker working for the Brits, as her grandfather did. In possession of the
equations necessary for her to teammates to return her to the present, Toshiko cut her own hand to write a note to her future
colleagues in blood. In End of Days, Toshiko sided with Owen and Gwen against Jack after seeing an apparition of her
mother, but in the concluding scenes she displayed remorse for her actions and Jack forgave his team.
Ianto Jones
Before joining Torchwood Three in Cardiff,
he worked in Torchwood One, based in Canary Wharf, London. During the events of Doomsday, his girlfriend, Lisa Hallett, was partially converted into a Cyberman. He took Lisa
to Torchwood Three, hiding her in the basement until a "cure" for the cyber-conversion could be found. However, Lisa's Cyberman
personality asserted itself over her human emotions and she tried to take over the Hub, intending to use it as a staging area
for a new Cyberman army. Lisa transplanted her own brain into that of a pizza delivery girl so she and Ianto could be together,
but her new body was shot and killed by the rest of the team (Cyberwoman). In Everything
Changes he hacks into Gwen Cooper's computer and erases a document
containing information about Torchwood. Aside from his quiet efficiency, little is initially revealed of Ianto's personality.
He is the only Torchwood agent not shown as having taken something home in Everything Changes, and his personal page
on the Torchwood website was originally empty except for an apology for not updating. After Cyberwoman aired, the page
now contains instant messenger and online counselling session transcripts (the latter dated incorrectly as 2006), as well
as pictures of him and Lisa prior to the events of Doomsday. The others appear to
take the quietly efficient Ianto for granted; during the events of Cyberwoman, they pay little attention to him before
the mayhem starts. When interrogated on what else he is hiding from the team, Ianto bitterly replies that he just "cleans
up [their] shit... no questions asked" and that they never ask him about his life. At one point he calls Jack a monster and
threatens to leave him to die if given the opportunity to save him. Although the Cyberwoman incident places strain on his
relationship with the rest of the team, he returns to work the next day with Jack's tacit approval. In an attempt to show
he has put the incident behind him, Jack tries to be friendly and even pats Ianto on the back in Small Worlds, although
the conversation about the teams' last kisses in Countrycide reveals that there is still some lingering tension between
the two over the incident. In Countrycide, Ianto starts to take a more active role.
He describes to Toshiko Sato his inability to comprehend the adrenaline rush she and the other Torchwood members share in the face of danger.
Like Gwen, his humanity is highlighted, but he makes attempts to actively
fight alongside his colleagues. In Out of Time, he is able to calculate the amount
of money for food that Emma has left, quickly in his head, even when she grabs multiple chocolate products after finding out
that she has some money left over. In the closing scenes of They Keep Killing Suzie,
it is hinted that Ianto may be having a sexual relationship with Jack.
This is supported by an instant messenger conversation between him and
Jack on the Torchwood Institute website that suggests that like teammates Jack and Toshiko, Ianto is bisexual; Ianto also explains he would not resurrect Lisa with a second resurrection gauntlet. This is confirmed in the first part of the season finale, Captain Jack Harkness, when Owen makes remarks about the sexual nature of Ianto and Jack's relationship and the
conclusion, End of Days when Jack kisses Ianto after returning to life. In Captain
Jack Harkness, Ianto and Owen spar for leadership of the team with both Jack and Toshiko trapped in the 1940s, although
Owen asserts he is second-in-command, replacing Suzie Costello who previously held the title. However, Ianto displays authority
in Jack's absence that Owen was not aware he had. Ianto goes as far as to shoot Owen in the shoulder to prevent him using
the Rift Manipulator. In End of Days, an apparition of Lisa convinces
Ianto to side with Owen against boyfriend Jack. After believing Jack was dead, a distraught Ianto breathes in the scent of
his coat, in a scene reminiscent of Brokeback Mountain, and seeing Jack alive at the end of the episode, the two kiss
upon reunion.
Suzie Costello (Deceased)
The second-in-command of Torchwood Three, the Cardiff-based
wing of the Torchwood Institute, she has been researching a piece of
alien technology, a glove which has the ability to resurrect creatures
that have recently died, but only for a short period of time. It is revealed later in the episode that she has been murdering
people in order to create test subjects for the Glove, having become obsessed with trying to make it work permanently.
While confessing her crimes to Gwen Cooper,
Suzie expresses how much she loves her job, how nothing could ever measure up to what she has been doing, and her regret at
having to run. She is about to shoot Gwen in order to cover up her crimes when Jack Harkness, the team leader, arrives. Suzie shoots Jack in the head, but he rises again due to his inability to die, and
she commits suicide by placing the muzzle beneath her chin and shooting herself instead. Jack places Suzie's body in the cold
storage facility in the Torchwood Hub, in a drawer labelled "006". In They Keep Killing
Suzie, the Torchwood team brings her back to life using the Resurrection Gauntlet (wielded by Gwen) and the "Life Knife". Unknown to the
team, this was part of a plan that Suzie set up months before her death. She appears to be resurrected permanently and unable
to be killed. However, this is because the gauntlet is continuing to transfer life energy between her and Gwen. Suzie feels
inferior to and resents Gwen for "replacing" her in all areas, including having a relationship with Owen
Harper. Suzie manipulates Gwen into freeing her from the base
and subsequently murders her own father. Expressing regret over Gwen's impending death but still willing to sacrifice her
to remain alive, Suzie continues draining Gwen's life energy until Toshiko Sato
destroys the gauntlet, breaking the energy transfer and finally killing Suzie once more. Jack tells Ianto
Jones to record the multiple causes of death as "Death by Torchwood". While
her death at the end of They Keep Killing Suzie seems fairly permanent, Ianto notes that gloves "come in pairs", suggesting
that there may be another such gauntlet somewhere in the universe.
Rhys Williams
He is a transport manager and unaware of the true nature of Gwen's job at the Torchwood
Institute, believing she is working in "Special Ops" and that any alleged alien interference with
Earth over the past two years were actually mass hallucinations induced
by terrorists putting psychotropic drugs in the water supply. When Gwen
puts this theory to Jack he derides Rhys as stupid. Before she dated Rhys, Gwen was going out with someone named Bruce, and
Owen speculates that she simply settled for Rhys. Over the course of the first series Rhys shows increasing irritation with Gwen's evasiveness and long hours.
In Ghost Machine he and Gwen have a slight argument when she misses dinner due to her work at Torchwood, and in Out
of Time he becomes angry with Gwen when he discovers that she has been lying to him about the nature of a girl who she
took in and was actually related to her job at the Institute. He states displeasure at Gwen's ease and readiness to lie to
him. Unknown to Rhys, Gwen establishes a sexual relationship with Owen at the end of Countrycide
to help herself deal with her two lives at home and at work. She confesses the affair after it ends in Combat but also
slips Rhys an amnesia pill so he will not remember her confession. In
End of Days Rhys is stabbed by Bilis Manger and dies, however
when the Torchwood Team open the Rift this event is erased from history, bringing Rhys back to life again.
Martha Jones
First appearing in the episode "Reset" as part
of a three-episode story arc, Martha has been temporarily drafted to
the Torchwood organisation of alien-hunters by Captain Jack, requiring
a medical expert on alien life. Through exposition, it is revealed that Martha has become a "medical officer" for international
paranormal investigations agency UNIT since qualifying as a Doctor of Medicine. Martha briefly joins the Cardiff-based Torchwood Three as its medical officer following the death of Owen Harper (Burn Gorman), but later leaves the organisation in the
episode "A Day in the Death" once she is satisfied that Owen is fit
to return to duty following his resurrection.
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