[dw canon_fodder] Torchwood, UNIT, the Forge, and ICIS

[khaosworks]

So for people like me, who consider that it's all canon, let's see about fitting together all the super-seekrit stuff from the television series, the novels and the Big Finish audios.

Here's what we know:

Television: The Torchwood Foundation was originally chartered in 1879 in the wake of Queen Victoria's encounter with the Doctor and a werewolf (Tooth and Claw). The Doctor was written in as an enemy of the Crown and the Institute was founded to keep Britain great and protect it against the alien horde.

Big Finish: The Forge was founded at the turn of the 20th century to study and experiment with extraterrestrial material and technology and apply it to the security interests of the United Kingdom (Project: Twilight), in their own code words, "For King and Country." Its activities date as far back as 1901 (Cryptobiosis). It is designated Department C-4 in the British government.

Television: In 1953, Torchwood's presence in strange matters is public enough that a police inspector knows about them (The Idiot's Lantern).

Big Finish: In the early 1950s, the Forge try to open a spacetime rift with Project: Dionysus, which almost allows a race known as the Divergents to break through (Zagreus).

Novels: Following the Yeti incident, Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart approached the British government to set up a paranormal investigations unit similar to the now-disbanded Intrusion Counter-Measures Group (from Remembrance of the Daleks). The government refused, so Lethbridge-Stewart went to the United Nations instead, who formed UNIT (Who Killed Kennedy), promoting Lethbridge-Stewart to Brigadier and placing him in charge of the UK branch of UNIT. UNIT's forerunner had been LONGBOW (League Of Nations Global Bizarre Occurences Watch), which had been disbanded following its failure to prevent World War II (Just War).

Televison: Administratively, UNIT UK reports both to Geneva and the Ministry of Defence/Cabinet (various, from Spearhead from Space on). The government department that oversees UNIT is called Department C-19 (Time-Flight).

Novels: Department C-19 operates the Glasshouse, which secrets away alien technology retrieved from UNIT operations for later study. This is not known, even to the Brigadier. However, the Master and other rogue elements are also using the C-19 for their own ends (Who Killed Kennedy and some of the Missing Adventures, including The Scales of Injustice). The British Rocket Group operates under the leadership of Bernard Trainor (The Scales of Injustice).

Comic strips: In the 1980s, SAG-3, a unit operated by British Army Intelligence uses psychic soldiers to investigate paranormal events (The Stockbridge Horror, Four-Dimensional Vistas).

Big Finish: In the late 1990s, some personnel from the Forge join ICIS. The Deputy Director of the Forge at one point is Colonel Crichton, late of UNIT (Project: Valhalla).

Big Finish: Some 30 years after Doctor Who and Silurians, publicly, the Internal Counter Intelligence Service (ICIS) takes over British security operations from UNIT. Unfortunately, they turn out to have a fascist agenda — they steal alien technology from UNIT in the name of British nationalism, blow up 10 Downing Street to mount a coup and create a hybrid alien virus to infect the world (UNIT audio series). They even infiltrate UNIT and plant their own man as UNIT's commander before they are found out.

Television: Torchwood continues to operate, keeping files on the Doctor and the TARDIS, although some of the data, particularly on his companion, is corrupted by the Bad Wolf virus (Love & Monsters). It is operating now deep undercover, even out of the knowledge of the Cabinet. However, its secrets are not really that secret as even PM Harriet Jones figures out Torchwood is still around and uses it to destroy the invading Sycorax ship (The Christmas Invasion).

So, how does this all fit together? Scarily enough, very nicely. Here's the fanwank.

Torchwood is founded in 1879, and spends years researching, cataloguing, and trying to reverse engineer alien science and technology. 21 years later, they have their first success, and, having stolen Promethean fire from heaven and figured it out, pass the fire — or torch — to a newly formed department that will forge super-weapons to keep Britain great. The Institute's existence is known to other government departments, and pokes its nose into anything odd. The Forge is its acquisitions and applications department, and keeps its operations more secret.

After 1953, the Dionysus debacle, the disastrous attempt to open the spacetime rift by the Forge, leads the government to take direct control of the Forge's operations, designating it Department C-4. The government gives Torchwood the designation of Department C-19, but to preserve its independence, Torchwood distances itself from its sister organisation and goes low profile. From this point on, the Forge and Torchwood operate more or less independently.

In 1963, in the absence of Torchwood or a similar organisation (or rather it just didn't know they were still around), the RAF briefly creates its own small unit designed to combat extraordinary crises with scientific expertise. The ICMG is rapidly disbanded after the Shoreditch Dalek incident, probably because the government felt nervous about the military getting too close to what was essentially an area overseen by a civilian-run department. Besides, the ICMG is redundant since Torchwood and the Forge are still operating.

In the same vein when in 1967 or thereabouts (depending on UNIT dating) Lethbridge-Stewart approaches the government with the same idea, they turn him down. However, Lethbridge-Stewart does not give up so easily and goes to the UN, who create UNIT. With the existence of UNIT shoved down their throat, the British government decides to use UNIT UK to its own advantage. They administratively put UNIT under C-19. This way, Torchwood can secretly pull UNIT UK's strings. This also allows them to steal away technology from UNIT operations into the Glasshouse, where Torchwood can study them without the need to endanger its own secrecy.

This also explains why Torchwood did nothing about the Doctor when he was working for UNIT: they could easily keep an eye on him, and use his knowledge without tipping their hand. The British Rocket Group continues to operate under Bernard Trainor, and uses Torchwood-acquired technology to propel Britain to the front of the space race.

However, the Master infiltrates C-19, using the Glasshouse for his own ends. That, and similar events in The Scales of Injustice trigger a government purge, driving Torchwood even deeper underground, to the point where the Cabinet is not even supposed to know it is still operating. Torchwood builds One Canada Square to reach the spatial rift, and continues its mission, confident that one day it will still play a part in restoring the British Empire.

British Army Intelligence forms SAG-3, and this time the Cabinet lets it go, not knowing that Torchwood continues to operate. Torchwood, to keep its cover, doesn't interfere, and in any case, SAG-3 does not last long, either. Meanwhile, ICIS and the Forge form links, and even personnel are exchanged between the two organisations.

In the early 21st century, ICIS goes fascist. Impatient, it goes about the Forge and Torchwood's objective in a thuggish, ham-handed way, hijacking UNIT tech instead and trying to overthrow the government. However, ICIS is defeated by UNIT and is dissolved.

After the Christmas Invasion of 2006, either the Jones government brings Torchwood out of the shadows enough (they leveraging the brownie points it gained by blowing up the Sycorax ship) to be able to restrict access to UFO files (School Reunion). Alternatively, Torchwood is simply the government codeword for restricted paranormal access, a quaint historical holdover while the real Torchwood continues to operate (TARDISODE for Army of Ghosts).

Which brings us to today. Like I said, it's scary how well it all hangs together. This is brilliant fodder for fiction. For example, consider Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Where exactly did Finch and his scientists get such advanced time travel knowledge? Was "Golden Age" a Torchwood scenario to restore Britain twisted by Finch's own ambitions? Was Mike Yates working for an even bigger conspiracy he was not aware of?

I merely present the material, and the possibilities. The rest is up to you.