In another version of events, the Doctor and Nyssa awoke in Stockbridge to find that he was regarded as the town doctor and she was its postmistress. The Lord and Lady threatened to expand the bubble so they could feed upon humanity, but the Doctor collapsed it, erasing the Lord and Lady’s timeline.
Only Maxwell Edison remembered these events. The bubble’s collapse hurled the Doctor and Nyssa into the future, to Stockbridge’s last days.
2009 (August) - TW: Consequences: “The Wrong Hands” / “Virus” [1295]
Jack, Gwen and Ianto recovered an alien weapon - a Torrosett 51 binary heat-cannon - that was an offering from an alien mother who had abandoned her child. Half of the cannon self-destructed, destroying the child and a Happy Price supermarket. The next day, the child’s vengeful father infected Jack and Gwen with a Kagawa Virus that paralysed them with a mental feedback loop. Ianto acquired an antidote from a black market operation selling alien tech, and destroyed the group’s base of operations with a Tregennan demolition bomb.
2009 (August) - The Three Companions [1296]
Garry Lendler was still working as a merchantman and purveyor of quality goods for extra-terrestrial clients. He found the Doctor’s TARDIS adrift in space with Thomas Brewster inside, and gave Brewster a job overseeing his warehouse. Brewster’s negligence caused a coffin-loader - the ultimate space-scavenger, swarms of which would appear in the last few days of a doomed world - to hatch.
The coffin-loader hid under London, and started generating a mould that triggered an environmental crisis. The Amazon basin went without precipitation for four months, but London had six straight days of rainfall. Flooding was reported halfway up to Farringdon, and Westminster was only approachable by boat. Parts of the Underground were closed, and the government relocated to Birmingham. Cliff Jones, now attached to the Institute of Mycology in Brazil, attended an emergency summit in New York concerning the crisis. The profit-minded Lendler coordinated with Jones to seed Earth’s clouds with a substance that would eliminate the mould.
On Lendler’s orders, Brewster searched for the Doctor’s former associates, and tracked down Polly Wright and the Brigadier. Polly now worked in a governmental office in Westminster. On Tuesday the 18th, Brewster had Polly and the Brigadier meet at the Hope Springs Café on Beagle Street. They aided him as an alien hunter died while exterminating the coffin-loader, in a struggle that ravaged half of Trafalgar Square with fire. Lendler’s cloud-treatment eliminated the coffin-loader’s mould, and Polly and the Brigadier coerced Lendler into providing further clean-up services at reduced charges. Brewster left in the TARDIS.
2009 - TW: Ghost Train [1297]
The computer directing space traffic for legions of Powell clones sought to leave its dying homeworld. It opened up a wormhole to Earth, and used its trains to send its components through for reassembly. An escapade with one such train resulted in Rhys being thrown back in time two weeks. With help from Ianto, Rhys’ future self set about creating the very events that had led to his involvement in the incident - including a disruption to Cardiff’s satellite navigation and the theft of at least three dozen fridges.
2009 - TW: Consequences: “Consequences”
Nina Melanie Rogers, a history student at Cardiff University, happened upon the sentient book that had an interest in Torchwood. The book compelled Nina to observe Torchwood, but Jack, Gwen and Ianto fulfilled history by sending the book through the Rift to 1899, then Retconned Nina to eliminate the book’s influence on her.
2009 - TW: “Fated to Pretend”
Dozens of people transformed by Monsieur Jechiel into undead beings had felt compelled to congregate beneath Cardiff. One of the undead went rogue and killed sixteen people, whereupon Jack - to prevent more such incidents - told the undead that he could either take them to live as workers on the Heretical Moons... or they could end their lives simply by walking into the rain. They opted for the latter.
2009 - TW: “Somebody Else’s Problem”
Gwen traced production of R’Ochni - a street drug that killed any human who used it - to Mister Quatnja’s operation at the run-down Huffern Estate. She convinced Jack to put Quatnja out of business.
2009 - TW: “Hell House”
The shadowy horror that Jack defeated in 1902 sought revenge, but Torchwood drained its essence into an improved version of Lionel Barrett’s spectral containment unit. [1298]
2009 - TW: Department X
The economic downturn motivated Firestone Finance to return to the practice of finding and selling alien technology. One of Firestone’s customers - a bullion facility in the Ural Mountains - wanted the alien within Gareth Robert Owen as a defence system. The formerly tiny alien was now mature and ravenous, and had killed thirty-four people. Torchwood destroyed the creature, and Owen resumed ownership of his family’s department store.
2009 - TW: Ghost Train [1299]
The inter-dimensional link formed by the alien traffic computer caused some maladies afflicting its homeworld to bleed through to Cardiff. Torchwood variously dealt with a rain of fire (officially cited as the result of climate change) on Cardiff’s west side, dragons, shapeshifting assassins, a “yellow, blotchy” plague in Ryder that Ianto cured, a few outbreaks of mass hysteria and an increase in the Rift’s “field of despair”. Jack and Rhys commandeered one of the computer’s inter-dimensional trains and attempted to out-race a fireball headed down the link - causing Rhys to be thrown back in time while Jack crashed the train into the defunct Queen Street Station, killing three hundred Powell replicants. The inter-dimensional link was severed, and Jack put the alien computer to work managing Cardiff’s traffic lights.
2009 – TW: The Devil and Miss Carew [1300]
“Fitzroy”, a single entity who wandered the stars, and had been born of nothing, desired a home. It struck bargains with pensioners, rejuvenating their vigor in exchange for their aid. Rhys Williams’ great uncle, Bryn Williams, refused to bargain with Fitzroy and was given a fatal heart attack.
Joanna Carew, the octogenarian head of First Valley Computings - a developer of operating systems for utilities companies, and so had unique access to the Western World’s power supplies - accepted Fitzroy’s bargain. She began dampening electrical systems first in the UK, then Europe, so Fitzroy could arrive on Earth without facing electrical interference. Torchwood intervened - Carew fell to her death, and Fitzroy was kept at bay in deep space.
2009 – TW: Submission
Torchwood dealt with an alien casino, and blew up some aliens as they fled in a minivan down the M4 - at the cost of also damaging the Severn Bridge.
The alien aboard the Guernica in the Mariana Trench had exhausted Captain Doyle’s memories, and sent out a cry for help - between 23:42 to 23:46, GMT, anyone in the world who had their head under water heard a distorted form of it. Ianto asked Carlie Roberts - a marine biologist, old flame and former Torchwood coworker - for help. Jack pulled rank at UNIT using the Doctor’s name. Torchwood was transported in the USS Calvin, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, to the Octopus Rock: the first in a new class of submarine, equipped with diving suits made from dwarf star alloy. Jack, Gwen, Ianto and Carlie visited the Trench and encountered the alien, which died as they returned to the surface.
Martin Trueman was an astrologer... and a fraud. Just as he confessed this to one of his clients, he was hit by a shooting star charged with the power of the Ancient Lights, and turned into a genuine psychic. [1301] A partner in a law firm, Peter Anthony Dalton, died after falling down a stairwell in his home. [1302]
(=) Dalton accepted the Trickster’s offer to live again, and became a pawn in one of the Trickster’s gambits against Sarah Jane Smith. Peter later cancelled out the deal, which restored his death.
Torchwood Series 3: Children of Earth
2009 (a Tuesday to Saturday in September) - TW: Children of Earth [1303]
The 456 heralded its return to Earth with a transmission that caused all of humanity’s children to stand frozen in silence for o
ne minute at 8:40 GMT. Hours later, the 456 made the children stop and chant, in English, in unison, “We... we... we... are... we are... coming.”
John Frobisher, the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, ordered the deaths of anyone connected to the 1965 incident with the 456 - Captain Jack Harkness included - to prevent the government’s previous dealings with the aliens becoming known. Government operatives wrongly believed that Jack’s immortality stemmed from the Torchwood Hub, and so destroyed it with a bomb planted in Jack’s stomach. Simultaneous to the Hub’s obliteration, Earth’s children chanted, “We are coming... back.”
On Day Two of the crisis, the 456 sent the UK government instructions for the construction of an environmental chamber suitable for the 456’s representative. This was built in the M15 headquarters, Thames House. The children of Earth stopped and chanted: “We are coming tomorrow.”
On Day Three, the children of Earth pointed toward London as the 456’s representative descended from the skies in a column of fire, and occupied the chamber in Thames House. Humanity’s children declared: “We are here.” Prime Minister Brian Green withdrew from dialogue with the 456 per objections raised by General Austin Pierce of the US and Colonel Oduya of UNIT. It was agreed that the UK civil service, as a nonelected branch with no authority of state, would conduct the talks; Frobisher was chosen as Earth’s ambassador. The 456 told Frobisher that it wanted a “gift”: 10% of the children of the entire human race.
On Day Four, the 456 said humanity had one day to deliver 10% of their children; refusal would trigger the destruction of the entire human race. The 456 refused a counter-offer of one child for every million people (6,700 in total), and made Earth’s children chant a number equal to 10% of the children of each country. Green’s Cabinet privately decided that children would be taken from the lowest-rated schools, and exempted their own children and grandchildren from the selection. Torchwood forced a confrontation with the 456 - who, as a demonstration of their power, released a virus that killed nearly everyone within Thames House, including Ianto Jones of Torchwood. The 456 sent a pulse that killed Clement McDonald, who had been tethered to the 456 following the 1965 incident.
On Day Five, the 456 told Earth’s negotiators that the surrendered children would be biologically grafted to the 456, and not age while producing chemicals that made the 456 “feel good”. The world governments mobilised to secure the children by force, under a cover story that they were to be inoculated against further alien communication. The UK army started collecting children from schools and their households at 12:00 hours. Green informed Frobisher that the government must be seen to have suffered loss against the 456, and ordered that Frobisher surrender his two daughters to the aliens. To prevent this, Frobisher killed his daughters, his wife and then himself.
Jack Harkness transmitted the wavelength used to murder Clement through humanity’s children, turning it into a constructive wave. The 456 representative exploded in a shower of blood, and its remains were withdrawn on a column of fire. Humanity’s children suffered no harm, save for the single child Jack had used at the centre of the resonance: his grandson Steven, who died. Frobisher’s executive assistant, Bridget Spears, used Torchwood’s surveillance equipment to record Green making incriminating statements, allowing Home Secretary Denise Riley to gain political leverage over him.
Gwen Cooper learned that she had been pregnant for three weeks. The Home Office believed that Torchwood Two had been disbanded.
The Hub’s destruction created enough kinetic energy to activate the alien viewer in Suzie Costello’s belly, and would facilitate her revival in weeks to come. [1304]
Martha Jones and Mickey Smith married [1305] and were on their honeymoon during the 456 crisis. [1306] The tenth Doctor sent them a wedding gift - without warning that nobody should spill champagne on it. Martha later chastised the Doctor for this, claiming it took four hours to get her mum off the ceiling. [1307]
John Hart was present at Ianto’s funeral. Also in attendance were alternate-history versions of Mairwyn and an Ianto who had accepted her offer. [1308]
Angelo Colasanto’s agents recovered a Proper Null Field - an alien device that could generate a cancellation wave - from the Hub’s remains. [1309]
2009 - “Don’t Step on the Grass” [1310]
Martha, now a freelance agent who sometimes continued to work for UNIT, summoned the tenth Doctor, Emily Winter and Matthew Finnegan to Greenwich. They and UNIT forces led by Erisa Magambo became embroiled in a pitched battle between the Enochians (who had freed themselves from imprisonment, and whose essence was variously turning trees into ravenous monsters or animating clockwork bodies) and the Knights of the Arboretum. The Advocate had engineered the conflict as part of her crusade against the Doctor, but the Enochians were contained aboard their spaceship and blown up. Matthew left the Doctor and Emily’s company, preferring to travel with the Advocate.
The Department’s salvage team retrieved a Ytraxorian Reality Gun from the Hub’s remains. [1311]
2009 (11th-13th October) - SJA: The Day of the Clown [1312]
Haresh and Gita Chandra moved into 36 Bannerman Road. Sarah Jane, Luke and Clyde quickly made friends with their daughter, Rani, a budding journalist... and Clyde was horrified to discover that Haresh was their new headmaster.
Meanwhile, three children had gone missing in two weeks. Rani, Luke, Clyde and Sarah Jane all worked out that every missing child had visited the clown exhibit at a local circus museum: Spellman’s Magical Museum of the Circus. The owner, Elijah Spellman, was the legendary Pied Piper. He caused balloons that mesmerised on contact to rain from the sky, and thereby attempted to steal all the children at Park Vale. He psychically attacked Sarah Jane, but Clyde broke the spell by telling jokes. Spellman weakened, and was confined to a fragment of the meteorite he’d fallen to Earth in centuries before. Sarah sealed the meteorite fragment away in a box of Halkonite steel, though which not even thoughts could penetrate.
By now, Sarah Jane, Luke and their friends had saved the world twelve times. [1313]
2009 - SJA: The Nightmare Man [1314]
Luke told Sarah Jane he planned to take his A Levels early, allowing him to go to university a year ahead of his class - and made this announcement while the two of them were handcuffed to a bomb by a group of Slitheen. K9, Rani and Clyde saved them.
2009 (30th-31st October) - Forever Autumn [1315]
The tenth Doctor and Martha arrived in Blackwood Falls, New England, to investigate an anomalous energy pulse. The buried Hervoken spaceship had repaired itself, but required an injection of negative emotional energy to power its escape. The Hervoken planned an atrocity in the town using possessed animals and Halloween costumes, but Doctor disrupted their ceremony and destroyed them.
2009 - SJA: The Time Capsule / SJA: The Ghost House [1316]
The Persopolisian named Janxia revived from stasis, and sought out the components of the lost construction device. One of these was the black diamond of Ernfield - an enigmatic 82-CD gem that was on exhibit at the Natural History Museum, where Luke Smith had a work placement. Janxia’s attempts to claim the diamond triggered chaos, causing a dinosaur exhibit to explode. Sarah Jane and her friends accidentally caused Janxia and the diamond to meet their fate in a car compactor. Sarah gave the museum a copy of the diamond and, to avoid awkward questions about Luke’s role in the fracas, also donated an alien jewel she’d obtained from a Kissarni.
Sarah Jane and her friends discovered that the plain-looking house at 39 Bannerman Road had mysteriously been replaced by the Victorian villa that had stood there from 1865 to 1969. A temporal bridge formed between their era and 1884, and they journeyed back there to stop a pair of alien war criminals from destroying the world.
2009 (early November) - TW: Long Time Dead [1317]
The Department, as led by Mr Black, had dispatched retrieval teams to sift through the Hub’s remains. Suzie Costello awoke in a fully healed body wi
thin the heavily damaged Torchwood morgue - but found that the alien viewer in her belly had linked her to an extra-terrestrial blackness, a space between dimensions that was hungry. Its energies surged through Suzie and killed various individuals - their brains were pulped, and their consciousnesses were consigned to the darkness’ void. As the darkness grew stronger, at least fifteen Cardiff residents were pulled into seemingly ordinary shadows. The proximity of the darkness caused at least seven people who had been treated with Retcon to regain their memories, and they committed suicide after scrawling “I Remember”.
Suzie became lovers with Detective Inspector Tom Cutler. He deduced her involvement in both the mysterious deaths and the spatial disturbances, which were now large enough for NASA to detect. Cutler lured Suzie to the ruined Hub, where his associates detonated charges that brought rubble down atop them. Jack Harkness was nearby as the darkness within Suzie claimed Cutler, instants before their bodies were pulverised.
2009 (5th-7th November) - SJA: Secrets of the Stars [1318]
Every star in the universe aligned in a perfect conjunction for the first time since the universe’s creation thirteen billion years ago, and so the Ancient Lights made a bid to enthrall Earth - the first stepping stone to controlling every living being in creation. Martin Trueman, as empowered by the Ancient Lights, had gained fame as a psychic and star of the stage show Secrets of the Stars. Broadcasting from the East Acton New Theatre, he hijacked every TV station in the world and began systematically bringing the human race, one star sign at a time, under the control of the Ancient Lights. News services all around the globe reported that mass droves of people had fallen prey to a television hypnosis stunt. The President of the United States, also enthralled, walked out of the White House holding hands with the wife of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan. Having no star sign, Luke Smith was immune to the Lights’ power and defeated them. Trueman vanished into space, either destroyed or having journeyed away with the Ancient Lights.
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