20 years ago, Doctor Who revealed the origins of the infamous Torchwood

Little did anyone know it would lead to a raunchy Doctor Who spin-off

The second season of the revived Doctor Who, which began in 2005 after a 16-year hiatus from Classic Who in 1989, featured David Tennant and Billie Piper in a 13-episode season of epic time-traveling adventures. From its very first season, showrunner Russell T. Davies set up several threads that unraveled all the way through the show’s tragic finale. One of its biggest, however, was the origin of Doctor Who’s most infamous organization: Torchwood.

Doctor Who has never shied away from introducing a mystery, and it did so with Torchwood during episode 12 of season 1, “Bad Wolf”, where the organization is referenced as an answer in a game of The Weakest Link. It would go on to be mentioned again in “The Christmas Invasion”, which sees Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) call on Torchwood to shoot down the retreating Sycorax’s spaceship. Considering the organization’s military might, the question of who Torchwood was and what role they would serve was one of the sci-fi family show’s earliest mysteries. The “who” was finally answered in season 2’s second episode, “Tooth and Claw.”

The Doctor doesn’t always take his companions to new planets; sometimes the time-hopping alien is content to visit the past. In “Tooth and Claw,” Tennant’s Time Lord and Piper’s Rose Tyler do so by traveling to Scotland in 1879, where they encounter Queen Victoria (Pauline Collins). The duo learns that the Queen plans to stop at the estate of an old friend, Sir Robert MacLeish (Derek Riddell), as it’s unlikely the Queen will make it to Balmoral Castle before dark. Posing as the Queen’s protector, the Doctor and Rose join her — unaware that they are being led into a trap involving a group of monks who plan to infect the Queen with lycanthropy by using an extraterrestrial werewolf.

In typical Doctor Who fashion, Davies blends history and campy sci-fi shenanigans into a truly phenomenal episode that takes advantage of the epic ‘everything goes’ playground that Doctor Who is known for. The Doctor and Rose ensnare and kill the werewolf using the Queen’s Koh-i-Noor diamond, cut by Prince Albert, and a telescope in the estate’s observatory. The Queen is grateful to the Doctor and Rose for saving her life, but is thoroughly unamused by the level of glee the two showed amid the carnage and chaos that led to several people dying, including Sir Robert. She banishes them from the British Empire and declares that, after the events she’s experienced, she refuses to be caught unaware by aliens (friendly or otherwise) again. In memory of Sir Robert’s sacrifice, she names the organization after the name of his estate: Torchwood.

The origins of Torchwood are significant for three reasons. The first is that we know that it started as an organization that regarded the Doctor and other extraterrestrial lifeforms as potential threats to humanity, which would explain why there were seemingly no qualms with shooting down an alien ship in “The Christmas Invasion.” Secondly, the revelation that Torchwood’s origins lie with the British Empire would later help explain its nationalist attitude when the operatives revealed themselves to the Doctor in episode 12, “Army of Ghosts.” Its unofficial slogan at the time is revealed to be “If it’s alien, it’s ours.” A real, not-so-subtle nudge on what sort of shady organization Torchwood is, and why they have the technological know-how that will eventually help lead to the tragic season finale, “Doomsday.”

However, the greatest significance of Torchwood's origins is it would ultimately set up and lead to a beloved adult-oriented Doctor Who spin-off. Torchwood follows Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), a former companion of the Doctor. After the destruction of Torchwood One in “Doomsday”, Jack has rebuilt the organization in Cardiff. Torchwood Three signified a new era for Torchwood, one that would be far less antagonistic and more open to cooperation with alien lifeforms, including the Doctor.

One of the greatest things about Doctor Who is that, much like Star Wars, there’s plenty of space to expand on stories long after they are first introduced. Torchwood continues to be the subject of stories, through books, radio plays, and more, about its existence and history within the world of Doctor Who. The mystery of Torchwood was planted in late season 1, but it’s only with “Tooth and Claw” that the set-up of one of the sci-fi series' most questionable organizations is able to flourish.