List of Torchwood monsters and aliens
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This is a list of monsters and aliens from the television series Torchwood.
Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
[edit] C
[edit] Cannibal villagers
Evan, Helen and nephew Huw Sherman, portrayed by Owen Teale, Maxine Evans, and Rhys op Trefor respectively, are residents from a village with a very strange tradition in the episode, Countrycide. Once every ten years the villagers cannibalise any travellers passing by, through, or to their village. The Torchwood team traveled to the vicinity of the village in order to investigate disappearances in the area, thinking they could be connected to the Rift, when they were drawn into a trap orchestrated by the villagers they discovered their unsettling secret. When the apparent ringleader of the group, Evan, was eventually captured and questioned the only reason he gave for following this tradition was that "it made me happy."
[edit] Cyberwoman
- See also: Lisa Hallett
[edit] F
[edit] "Fairies"
| Torchwood races | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| "Fairies" | |
| Type | Supernatural entities |
| Affiliated with | Chosen Ones |
| Homeworld | Earth |
| First appearance | Small Worlds |
Called "fairies" by mankind, Jack Harkness notes that these creatures do not actually have a name. Fairies are not alien life-forms, but have lived alongside humanity since the dawn of time, and although mankind has ascribed positive, friendly aspects to them, Jack insists that they are dangerous. Their exact nature is unclear, although Jack vaguely describes them as part myth, part spirit world and part reality jumbled together, mixed with "old moments and emotions", all moving backwards and forwards through time and seen only out of the corner of one's eye.
Fairies and children are linked, and Jack says that fairies were once children, taken from various time periods stretching millennia into the past. These children are the Chosen Ones, who the fairies protect and avenge if harm comes to them, until the time that they claim the children for their own.
In Small Worlds, fairies are seen in two forms: one a small, glowing humanoid form with butterfly-like wings and the other a much larger, more monstrous form. They are also undetectable by technology, and can appear and disappear at will. They also have control of the elements, able to create sudden gales or rainstorms and direct them with pinpoint accuracy. It is also said that they can make "great storms, wild seas, [and] turn the world to ice."
A common method of killing their victims is to "steal their breath", asphyxiating them by clogging their throats with rose petals. Their ability to move back and forth in time is demonstrated by the appearance of Jasmine, a Chosen One taken in 2007, in fairy form in a 1917 photograph.
Jack speculates that fairies may be "part Mara". However, his noting of "Mara" as the origin of the word "nightmare" and their ability to steal the breath from their victims suggests that he is referring to the Mara of Germanic/Scandinavian mythology rather than the Mara of the Doctor Who stories Snakedance and Kinda. Christopher Bailey, writer of Snakedance and Kinda, was a practising Buddhist and named Doctor Who's Mara after the Buddhist demon Mara.[1]
Throughout Torchwood Declassified, they are referred to interchangeably as "maras", "shades" and "fairies".[2] In the Torchwood wesbite's Alien Autopsy featurette, they are described as "demonic fairies".[3]
[edit] M
[edit] "Mary"
| Torchwood races | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| "Mary" | |
| Type | Alien being possessing a human host |
| Affiliated with | Mary (host) Toshiko Sato |
| Homeworld | Unknown |
| First appearance | Greeks Bearing Gifts |
A translucent being who took the form of a woman named Mary was encountered in the episode Greeks Bearing Gifts. She was a member of a race which communicated exclusively via telepathic pendants, and claimed to be a political exile, sent to Earth by a teleporter now in Torchwood's possession. She gave her telepathic necklace to Toshiko, and seduced her into letting her into Torchwood to regain the teleporter.
It was eventually revealed that she had killed her guard, and possessed the human body she wore (apparently a nineteenth century prostitute). In this form she needed human hearts to survive, taking one a year.[4] She threatened Tosh in order to regain the teleporter, but Jack had reprogrammed it to send her into the Sun.
She possessed strength large enough to shatter human bones in a manner resembling a gunshot and could move at superhuman speeds, also possessing acute senses able to notice that there was something different about Jack. "Mary's" opinion of her human form seemed to be mixed, she disliked watching people talk using conventional speech; which was considered archaic on her home world, but she said she liked the body which she found "so soft, so wicked". She also expressed a dim view of human nature, considering humans to be a race who inherently desired to invade others.
An alien which also appears to be of "Mary's" species was seen in a preview for The Sarah Jane Adventures, broadcast on Blue Peter on 11 December 2006.[5][6]
[edit] P
[edit] Pterodactyl
| Torchwood races | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Pterodactyl | |
| Type | Pteranodon |
| Affiliated with | Torchwood Institute |
| Homeworld | Unknown; presumably prehistoric Earth |
| First appearance | Everything Changes |
The Torchwood Three team keeps a pterodactyl as a pet (specifically, a Pteranodon). It is first seen in Everything Changes, flying inside the Torchwood Hub as well as in the skies over Roald Dahl Plass at the end of the episode. According to the Torchwood website, the creature came through the Cardiff spacetime Rift and began eating sheep, only to be captured by Torchwood and subsequently domesticated. It is also nocturnal, and is content to "come and go at night", with a few sightings which thus far have not caused any concern, except for a few missing sheep in Barry which have been attributed to "black panthers on the loose",[7] a reference to phantom cat sightings especially common in South East England and South Wales.
In Cyberwoman it is revealed that the team use a special type of "barbecue sauce" (the website describes it as a special protein sauce) to help it identify what food is safe for it to eat. It also proved capable of fighting well against a Cyberman. The cast and crew have nicknamed the pterodactyl Myfanwy.[8]
[edit] S
[edit] Sex gas
| Torchwood races | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Sex gas | |
| Type | Gaseous parasite |
| Affiliated with | Carys (host) |
| Homeworld | Unknown |
| First appearance | Day One |
A unnamed gaseous alien parasite that comes to Earth to feed on orgasmic energy in Day One. Composed of vorax and ceranium gases, Earth's atmosphere is poisonous to the alien, so it needs to take a human host to survive for prolonged periods. It vies for control with its host, causing physiological changes that will eventually cause the host's internal organs to explode.
The alien also makes its host secrete a blend of ultra-powerful pheromones that cause tremendous sexual attraction in those around it for the purposes of feeding. Coupling with the host is fatal, causing the host's partner to disintegrate into a pile of dust at climax and allowing the alien to absorb the energy from the orgasm.
The BBC Torchwood website lists it as the "Sex gas". Producer Russell T. Davies[3], in the documentary series Torchwood Declassified, refers to it as a "sex monster".[9]
[edit] W
[edit] Weevil
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Shannon Patrick Sullivan. A Brief History Of Time (Travel): Kinda. Retrieved on 2006-11-13.
- ^ Torchwood cast and crew. (2006-11-13). Torchwood Declassified, Episode 5, Away with the Faries [Televison Series/Webcast]. United Kingdom: BBC.
- ^ a b BBC - Torchwood - Torchwood Declassified - Autopsy Room
- ^ Operation Lowry: Notes from Owen
- ^ "jackharkness" (December 11, 2006). SARAH-JANE.tv: Zombies, Lipsticks and Sarah!. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
- ^ "jackharkness" (December 11, 2006). Torchwood.tv: Greeks Bearing Sarah. Retrieved on 2006-12-11.
- ^ Torchwood External Hub Interface - Pterodactyl
- ^ Torchwood cast and crew. (2006-11-06). Torchwood Declassified, Episode 4, Girl Trouble [Televison Series/Webcast]. United Kingdom: BBC.
- ^ Russell T. Davies. (2006-10-23). Torchwood Declassified, Episode 2, Bad Day at the Office [Televison Series/Webcast]. United Kingdom: BBC.
| Torchwood | |
|---|---|
| Torchwood main pages | |
| Doctor Who • Whoniverse • Rift • Torchwood Institute • Weevils | |
| Related Doctor Who episodes | |
| "The Unquiet Dead" • "Boom Town" • "The Christmas Invasion" "Tooth and Claw" • "Army of Ghosts" • "Doomsday" |
|
| Main characters | |
| Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) • Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) • Owen Harper (Burn Gorman) Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori) • Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) |
|
| Torchwood lists | |
| Episodes • Monsters and aliens • Minor characters • Items | |
