Gwen Cooper
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| Torchwood character | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Gwen Cooper | |
| Affiliated with | Cardiff Police Torchwood Institute |
| Race | Human |
| Home planet | Earth |
| Home era | Early 21st century |
| First appearance | Everything Changes |
| Last appearance | Ongoing |
| Portrayed by | Eve Myles |
Gwen Cooper is a fictional character in the BBC television series Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. Gwen Cooper is a former police officer recruited into the Torchwood Institute. She is played by Eve Myles, who previously appeared as Gwyneth in the Doctor Who episode The Unquiet Dead.[1] It remains to be seen if Myles's two similarly named characters are linked in any way.
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[edit] Character history
Gwen Cooper 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 curiousity (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 to remember 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.[2]
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 aforementioned 'Ghost Machine' showed her touching memories of her relationship with Rhys. However, in Cyberwoman she and Owen kissed passionately whilst hiding from a female Cyberman, 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 Extranet, Gwen has a conversation with Ianto:
GWEN: Ianto?
IANTO: Gwen
GWEN: You still here then?
IANTO: Obviously :-) Busy rearranging postcards. Glam old life this.
GWEN: Everyone else gone home?
IANTO: Yeah, they've got lives. You want coffee?
GWEN: Ok
IANTO: Coming up. Something wrong?
GWEN: No. Am looking up stuff about Eugene.
IANTO: And?
GWEN: It's nothing. Thought I heard something here. Or felt something. Or something.
IANTO: Need a big strong man down there with you?
GWEN: Yeah but Jack's gone home so you'll do :-)
IANTO: Am shocked and offended! Coffee coming up.
GWEN: You're a sweetheart.
[ conversation ends ]
This is hinting at the fact she might have feelings for Jack.
[edit] Personality
Commenting in The Western Mail, Myles describes her character:
- "Gwen starts off as a police officer in Cardiff and then gets involved in the Torchwood team. She's a very down-to-earth girl, kind and generous, but extremely ambitious, feisty, intelligent and witty. But she's also very human — she's really the girl next door. Because I'm playing her, I put a lot of me into it and I take a lot of my own characteristics."[3]
Russell T. Davies wrote part of Gwen in Torchwood specially for Eve Myles "So it's a good thing she said yes! Eve and John Barrowman have already met up, and the combination is going to be electrifying." [4]
On the interactive Torchwood website, she is described by Owen Harper in a psych evaluation as "socially responsible and empathetic" and possessing a lot of "unfulfilled potential". [5]
Gwen's compassion plays an integral part throughout the series. In Day One, she is the only one, initially, to see the infected Carys as a person, and not just another case. Her research into Carys' background wins the approval of Jack and perhaps ultimately contributes to Carys' salvation. Ghost Machine showed Gwen becoming over-involved in her determination to prevent the future, which ultimately led to her failure to do so, and the involuntary manslaughter of another, which deeply affected her. In subsequent episodes she refused to believe that Jack would have killed Ianto or that he was able to sacrifice a young girl to save the world and in the episode Countrycide her inherent humanity was once again highlighted - her violent physical reaction to one of the corpses, and her intense need to understand how, and why, the villagers could commit such atrocities, acting as examples of this.
She is determined to understand the motivation of a cannibal in Countrycide, and the revelation that he does it because it "makes [him] happy" leads her to pursue an affair with Owen, which she laments. She blames her experiences at Torchwood for "changing her", and it is apparent that it saddens her.
In Greeks Bearing Gifts, she is quick to forgive Toshiko for her telepathic intrusion, noting it is not her place to judge as she has been having an affair with Owen and admits she has no intention of stopping.
In They Keep Killing Suzie, it became apparent that Suzie Costello is a parallel, a foil to Gwen. Like Gwen, she was in a relationship with Owen, was the only one who held the empathy required to use the resurrection gauntlet but unlike Suzie, she has the strength to retain her sanity. Her early mastery of the glove is an apparent testimony to the incredible degree of compassion required to operate it.
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 Gwenyth in The Unquiet Dead, although it could just be the case that Eugene was close enough for Gwen to hear him.
[edit] Episodes
See List of Torchwood episodes
[edit] References
- ^ Team Torchwood. BBC Doctor Who website. Retrieved on 2006-03-22.
- ^ Torchwood External Hub Interface - Gwen-Owen Instant Messenger Transcript
- ^ Rowland, Paul. "Welsh star in Doctor Who spin-off", The Western Mail, 2006-02-24. Retrieved on 2006-03-22.
- ^ "Eve Myles", BBC Wales, unknown. Retrieved on 2006-09-06.
- ^ Gwen Cooper psychological evaluation
[edit] External links
- Eve Myles at the Internet Movie Database
