Doctor Who: Why did it take Torchwood so long to meet the Doctor?

We know from Series 2 of Doctor Who that Torchwood was around for over a century. What took them so long to actually meet the Doctor?

For my earlier article of when the Seventh Doctor met Torchwood, an interesting question came up in one of the comments. Namely: Why did Torchwood leave the Doctor alone during so much of his time on Earth? After all, we know from Classic Doctor Who that the Doctor was on Earth throughout the twentieth century. In fact, he was in exile on Earth for several years. So why didn’t Torchwood encounter the Doctor, at least directly, until his Tenth self?

There are perhaps a few reasons for this. The first is that Torchwood were aware of the Doctor’s time-travelling nature. They may even have eventually learned of the exact order that his or her incarnations occur in. At the very least, they probably learned that it was best to avoid any Doctor unless it was the Tenth. Otherwise, they’d risk endangering their own existence.

Still, I can’t imagine Torchwood in its early days being quite as lenient. We know from Torchwood episode Fragments that they had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to aliens, and Queen Victoria had labelled the Doctor as an enemy. So what could have stopped them then? Well, perhaps it was one of their own agents…

By the time the Doctor met Torchwood, it was the final days of the original institute. What did take them so long to meet?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

A failure to communicate?

We know from Torchwood that Captain Jack Harkness worked for the organization for over a century while waiting for the Doctor. It’s not hard to imagine him keeping the Doctor and Torchwood separate for as much as possible. If he wasn’t able to make them understand how important it was to avoid “the enemy” for as much as possible, then perhaps he was able to help in other ways e.g. through distraction or disinformation.

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It may also have been a question of communication. In the case of the early days of Torchwood, it would have taken much longer for them to communicate with each other or find out about the Doctor compared to now. It’s also not hard to imagine UNIT keeping them at bay while the Doctor worked for them. Torchwood might be above the police and beyond the United Nations, but it still has to play politics if it wants to remain as a secret organization.

Of course, their high need for secrecy is a key reason why the Doctor didn’t look into them sooner. Once upon a time, Torchwood were very effective as a secretive organization. But of course, pride comes before the fall, and once Yvonne Hartman (brilliant though she is) became arrogant enough to conduct an experiment on a worldwide scale, it was only a matter of time before the Doctor would investigate the appearances of “ghosts”. Before Army of Ghosts, they were sensible enough to stick to the shadows, being mentioned only during Series 2 episodes when the Doctor wasn’t in earshot.

Looking back, I suppose it does make sense why the Doctor didn’t encounter Torchwood sooner. I love that he only dealt with the original organization during their final days – and that it became so radically different when Captain Jack took over. Will the Doctor meet Torchwood ever again? Only time will tell…

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Do you think the explanations as to why the Doctor and Torchwood didn’t meet each other sooner are satisfying ones? Do you have an explanation of your own? Or do you still have questions? Let us know in the comments below.

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