galactic_conman

This picture, taken in 1918, shows the Torchwood Cardiff team which tackled the Subterranean Menace (incident #1918/056) amongst other cases.

GERALD CARTER
Carter trained in military intelligence, but joined Torchwood at the age of 24. One of his earliest missions was the Centurian Incident of New Year’s Eve 1899, in Cardiff. During the months of clean-up that followed, he saw much of the city and became an early supporter of the Rift Theory. He began to lobby for a transfer to Torchwood Cardiff, but didn’t get his chance until the 1907 schism, after which he was controversially placed in command of the team. He presided over a very different Torchwood, and under his leadership the team made great strides. However, he held himself personally responsible for the death of Harriet Derbyshire and retired from active service soon afterwards, although he remained on-staff as a valued consultant until his death in 1942.

HARRIET DERBYSHIRE
The most renowned member of the team, Derbyshire was recruited directly from Oxford. At that time, although women could attend lectures and sit examinations, they could not take degrees. Derbyshire often sat in on Physics lectures: she had been educating herself in the subject for years. A professor recognised her extraordinary aptitude and recommended her to Torchwood. She was stationed in Cardiff to study the time dilations caused by Rift activity, and her early notes on the subject remain the basis for how we understand it today. Tragically she was killed on active duty in 1919 at the age of 24, with her potential barely glimpsed (before her death, she was making notes for a paper which would have beaten Heisenberg to the Uncertainty Principle). She was awarded a posthumous degree when Oxford changed its regulations in 1920.

DOUGLAS CALDWELL
Hill was a Draughtsman in the Royal Engineers when he met Carter in 1908. He was instrumental in the recovery of the Z127 airship after it became ensnared in the Rift, and when war broke out Carter argued that Hill’s experience made him essential to the safety of the nation at home. He was transferred to Torchwood and stationed in Cardiff. He remained with Torchwood Cardiff until 1930, at which point he transferred to London to work in a research and development capacity. He is best known for his work on cloaking shields. He died in 1957.

LYDIA CHILDS
The group’s secretary was chosen by Carter from staff at Torchwood London, in part due to having been born and raised in the area, but Carter also referred to her ‘outstanding organisational qualities’ – she is said to have possessed a remarkable memory and eclectic knowledge which made her an invaluable resource.

She died in 1941. Caldwell’s testimonials reveal that her contribution to the team was frequently under-estimated, often undertaking field work when other members were indisposed.

DR CHARLES QUINN
Quinn fell victim to an alien parasite at the age of 13 and was placed into quarantine by Torchwood. His life was saved by the work of the pioneering surgeon, Dr Jan Van Nellen, but it was necessary to keep him under observation for some years.

His education was provided by Institute staff including Van Nellen, whose protégé Quinn became. Upon attaining his doctorate he was recruited to Torchwood Cardiff: during his time there he made several significant studies of alien anatomy. He later moved into a teaching role at Torchwood, but was killed in an air raid during the Second World War.

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PARADOXES
One of the concerns most commonly raised by new recruits is to do with time travel. They hear tales of temporal anomalies spiriting people back a few decades and they naturally start to worry.

What if this happens to me? they ask. What if I accidentally kill my own grandfather?

Well, rest assured that this almost never happens. You are no more likely to kill your own grandfather whilst back in time than you are in the present day. Follow the advice contained within this booklet and you can help avoid paradoxes in the future – and the past!

AN EXERCISE
This is Peter. He is from the present day. Read the following and see if you think Peter has tackled his situation in the right way or the wrong way.

Peter falls through a hole in the space-time continuum into the past. His first action is to head for the nearest waste bin to look for a discarded newspaper. This informs him that the date is 17th August 1949.

Peter checks his watch, which is still set to the time of his origin, and writes down the time and date of his departure from the present and his arrival in the past. He asks a passer-by for the time, and resets his watch to local time. He stays close to the point of his arrival.

Peter writes a letter and sends it anonymously to his father, with instructions that the letter is not to be opened, but to be passed onto his son and opened the week before the incident that will send Peter back in time. In the letter, Peter tells himself how the incident can easily be avoided.

Peter minimises further disruption to the timeline by staying put and waiting for results.

Did you spot Peter’s mistake?

That’s right – if you are lost in time, DO NOT under any circumstances try to prevent the incident which caused you to be sent back in time in the first place.

This is a common mistake and can very easily cause a paradox. Often the tension between the two events will often result in the two time zones spilling into each other. The effect of this has never been fully explored, but we imagine it would be catastrophic.

A secondary error Peter made was to make contact with his own family. This should never be done, even anonymously. Leaving messages to be picked up by your colleagues AFTER your disappearance from the present is acceptable, but does carry some risks.

As well as the danger of tangentially altering the timeline in some way, it relies on your messages being undisturbed for decades and subsequently found at the correct time. This is harder than it might seem.

In most cases your colleagues will be equipped to investigate where you have gone and will make all efforts to retrieve you. However, if you haven’t drifted too far, the easiest solution may be to simply not worry about it – if there’s no easy way to get back to your own time, it’s not worth the effort.

PARADOX IN PROGRESS

If you do cause a paradox, or encounter a paradox already in progress, there may be something you can do. Assess the situation. Is something obviously wrong, and can you put it right? However, do take great care not to make the situation any worse.

Paradoxes love a bit of irony, and the very action you take in trying to resolve the situation may be precisely what causes it!

You may be able to work with your own predecessors or successors to resolve the paradox. If you encounter operatives from the future, you can help by observing the situation closely and afterwards compiling a comprehensive report, marking it for their attention. This will let them know what to expect. However, you should exercise your judgement in telling them anything that might alter their actions and cause a further paradox. A good idea is to seal any such information in a box triggered to open when the paradox occurs.

If you would like further training in Paradox Identification and Resolution, ask your immediate superior.

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No. 5 – Same old hole
17th November 1917

Dear Ellie,

Thank-you for your letter. I also had one from Jim & a parcel from Father in the same batch. Tell Father thank-you from me if you see him, I will be writing to him as well when I get some time, probably to-morrow, but the letter might get lost or take goodness knows how long to get there & he will worry that I haven’t had the parcel & make a fuss. Today we are back in the trenches after nine days away. I spent most of the time in the cafes looking for music & some better food. The postal order from your mother went towards some good meals which have helped to keep my spirits up. Tell her that and tell her thank-you from me. It was good to be away, there was little to do really but after these months I do not mind being bored as long as it is peaceful & I can get some rest.

The boredom of the trenches is the worst thing I have ever gone through & I am going through it again right now. All I want is to distract myself from the noise of the shelling but the work does not do it & there is nothing else to do, sometimes by the end of the day I am tired out but cannot sleep for the noise. Two of the boys told me they have seen shells packed with nails & I wish they had not told me that, I keep thinking of it & it makes me panic. The Germans seem to shell less when it rains so we pray for cloudbursts, us Manchester boys do not mind it.

It does help to write these letters though I almost feel you are not there any more, this has been going on so long I feel like I dreamed you & my life back there. Tell Charley he should not be in any hurry to get out here unless he wants to change places with me. We have all been saying that it is like Hell out here but I was amazed at what I saw on the way back to the Front, we passed a town that had been set on fire from end to end & nobody seemed to have a clue why. Just destruction for its own sake. I wonder what will be left by the time we have finished here.

Do not think I am downhearted though, it does no good so I am trying hard to keep smiling & I like to think you are not letting it get to you. Alf is here & he says hello.

Love to all

Tommy

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