Toshiko Sato
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| Doctor Who universe character | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Toshiko Sato | |
| Affiliated with | Torchwood Institute |
| Race | Human |
| Home planet | Earth |
| Home era | Early 21st century (b. 1975) |
| First appearance | Aliens of London (Doctor Who) Everything Changes (Torchwood) |
| Last appearance | Ongoing |
| Portrayed by | Naoko Mori |
Dr. Toshiko "Tosh" Sato (佐藤俊子 Satō Toshiko?, IPA: [tɒʃiːkəʊ sɑːtəʊ])[1][2] is a fictional character from the television series Doctor Who and Torchwood, played by Naoko Mori. She is a regular in the latter series, and also holds the honour of being the only Torchwood member other than Jack Harkness to have actually met the Doctor.
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[edit] Character history
Sato first appeared in the Doctor Who episode Aliens of London (2005), when she was called in to examine a supposed alien corpse at Albion Hospital. On Torchwood, Sato is the Cardiff branch's technical expert (described as a "computer genius"). She does however still operate as a medical doctor - in Small Worlds she arrives at a police station to determine a man's cause of death.
It is revealed in Greeks Bearing Gifts that Sato's parents were both in the Royal Air Force, and her grandfather worked at Bletchley Park, the World War II code-breaking facility. Sato joined a government scientific think-tank after graduating from university, and was recruited by the Torchwood Institute to work with Jack Harkness three years before the series begins, suggesting she was infiltrating Albion Hospital on its behalf.[3] Teammate Gwen Cooper believes she is of Japanese descent, describing her as a "Japanese woman"[4], although it is established in Greeks Bearing Gifts that she herself was born in the UK in July 1975 and her family returned to Osaka when she was two, before returning to the UK in 1986. A letter on the Torchwood Institute website implies that she has some family members who cannot read English.[2] This may be backed up by a conversation in End of Days where she sees an apparition of her mother, speaking to her in Japanese, however she may have simply chosen it over English. Similarly, Captain Jack Harkness revealed that her grandparents were racially abused after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Sato has a close relationship with colleague Owen Harper. He confides in her during drinks outside of work in Ghost Machine and the two can be seen together in photographs on the Torchwood website.[5] Mori suggested in an interview that Sato has a crush on Harper.[6] Mori also indicated that Toshiko has good working relationships with the rest of the team and in particular with Jack Harkness, although she is not afraid of expressing her opinions to him.[6]
In Countrycide it appeared that Tosh's genius is not limited to technology. She was able to quickly assess the framework of a door, identify its structural weaknesses and whether or not it was reinforced.
The Sun newspaper had claimed all the members of Torchwood are bisexual.[7] In Greeks Bearing Gifts, she entered her first sexual relationship with a woman[2] named Mary from whom Toshiko received a telepathy-granting necklace. Reading the thoughts of passers-by in the street, discovering Gwen and Owen's relationship and finding Captain Jack's mind a blank distressed Toshiko. She expressed despair and hopelessness, comparing human beings to Weevils - also noting that across space, all cultures were essentially similar, leading to utter disappointment with existence.
In Captain Jack Harkness she faced racial abuse from British people while trapped in the 1940s. Jack convinced them that she was a codebreaker working for the Brits, as her grandfather did. In possession of the equations necessary for her to teammates to return her to the present, Toshiko cut her own hand to write a note to her future colleagues in blood. In End of Days, Toshiko sided with Owen and Gwen against Jack after seeing an apparition of her mother, but in the concluding scenes she displayed remorse for her actions and Jack forgave his team.
In the Torchwood episode Greeks Bearing Gifts, a replica of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver can be seen on Toshiko's desk.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Doctor Who
[edit] Torchwood
- Everything Changes — October 22, 2006
- Day One — October 22, 2006
- Ghost Machine — October 29, 2006
- Cyberwoman — November 5, 2006
- Small Worlds — November 12, 2006
- Countrycide — November 19, 2006
- Greeks Bearing Gifts — November 26, 2006
- They Keep Killing Suzie — December 3, 2006
- Random Shoes — December 10, 2006
- Out of Time — December 17, 2006
- Combat — December 24, 2006
- Captain Jack Harkness — January 1, 2007
- End of Days — January 1, 2007
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ IPA: [toɕiko satoː] in Japanese.
- ^ a b c Torchwood External Hub Interface - Correspondence from Toshiko
- ^ The existence of the Torchwood Institute prior to episode Bad Wolf is uncertain. While episode Tooth and Claw establishes it as having been founded in 1879, there had been no previous mentions of it in the previous 42 year run of the programme. It's possible that while Toshiko may have been working on behalf of Torchwood in Aliens of London, this could perhaps have occurred prior to a timeline alteration, setting it in an alternate universe where Torchwood does not exist and therefore Toshiko never joined. Whether or not Torchwood existed and simply stayed unmentioned throughout the Doctor Who series remains uncertain, so Toshiko's role in Aliens of London may remain open to interpretation until this is directly addressed by either Doctor Who, Torchwood or a spin-off medium.
- ^ Torchwood External Hub Interface - Gwen Cooper: Home Intercept
- ^ Torchwood External Hub Interface - Toshiko Sato - Pictures
- ^ Sarah Nathan (September 2006). Dr Ooh gets four gay pals. The Sun. Retrieved on October 6, 2006. “GAY Doctor Who star John Barrowman gets four BISEXUAL assistants in raunchy BBC3 spin-off Torchwood.”
