UNIT and Torchwood

[Mr.Clark]

So... The Doctor is exiled to Earth and joins UNIT as their unofficial scientific adviser...

Yet the Torchwood Institute was created back in the day by Queen Victoria, with the purpose of defending the Earth from strange stuff including specifically the Doctor.

How was such a specific threat allowed into one of the most secret military units in the United Nations?

[burn out]

time is constantly changing, its not as cut and dry as that.

[mentalmichael]

And besides, Torchwood has no power in the UN - it's a British organisation dedicated to preserving the British Empire! I don't think UNIT would even have heard of them.

[Flyboy]

Plus Torchwood was *very* secret.

[Metarock Sam]

take it in this way. in UNIT the Doctor was registerd under Doctor John Smith and also he looked completley different to the 10th Doctor.
Also both UNIT and TORCHWOOD are secret organisations like the FBI and CIA keeping secrets from each other in that way.

[Flyboy]

Yuh Huh!

But I AM annoyed that Torchwood has soldiers. It just seems... TOO unity.

[President Borusa]

It is hard to believe that Torchwood would have been unaware of the Doctor's rather significant involvement in UNIT. It is actually more likely that much of Torchwood's files on the Doctor are probably from UNIT, though likely with "less than purely legitimate" means. If Torchwood is worth anything, I'm sure that they infiltrated UNIT years ago...

Aside from the obvious that the new series is not 100% consistent with the old series (I know, blasphemy), my take is that Torchwood was relatively weak in the 1970's when the Doctor was active in UNIT, preferring to work behind the scenes and not take an active role.

[Easter Lily]

And besides, Torchwood has no power in the UN - it's a British organisation dedicated to preserving the British Empire! I don't think UNIT would even have heard of them.

Didn't the UNIT major in The Christmas Invasion say that he did?

[silverdamascus]

Have to say I'm more excited about their future than their pasts. I'm hoping to see some real antagonism between the two with the Doctor slap bang in the middle of it.

[Willow'sCat]

Didn't the UNIT major in The Christmas Invasion say that he did?

Harriet said she knew she wasn't suppose to know about them, that even the UN didn't know they existed, so I think the UN is in the dark, well maybe not now.

[Mr.Clark]

Didn't the UNIT major in The Christmas Invasion say that he did?

Yes.

And more than one person in UNIT knew him as "The Doctor"


And as for the Torchwood Institute having soldiers... most likely they've been borrowed from UNIT on a special secret assignment.

And if the UN didn't know about Torchwood, it would make sense for Torchwood to have infiltrated UNIT, to keep themselves secret, informed, and get access to troops and other resources.

[White Knight]

The fact that the Prime Minister of Great Britain was not supposed to know about Torchwood but a British Major in UNIT was supposed to know speaks volumes about Torchwood's secrecy, but it also comes across as kinda stupid. Torchwood is supposed to be all about the good of the British Empire, but they let the United Nations know and not the British PM? It doesn't make sense.

[Flyboy]

The fact that the Prime Minister of Great Britain was not supposed to know about Torchwood but a British Major in UNIT was supposed to know speaks volumes about Torchwood's secrecy, but it also comes across as kinda stupid. Torchwood is supposed to be all about the good of the British Empire, but they let the United Nations know and not the British PM? It doesn't make sense.

No, they DON'T let the UN know. Nor do they let the PM know. I expect that the British Major didn't know about Torchwood because he was UNIT, but for some other reason... maybe British UNIT knows but not UNIT itself... maybe only certain bods in the Army know because of the fact Torchwood gets its soldiers from SOMEWHERE... Either way.... UNIT doesn't know. The Major did... *shrugs*

[Darkseid]

time is constantly changing, its not as cut and dry as that.

That's the perfect excuse. This way, we can get rid of the stories we don't like. They never happened!! The Doctor's Granddaughter didn't go off on Earth after defeating the Dalek Invasion force. She just disapeared like the older brother on Happy Days.....

[cohnee]

The way I figured it was that torchwood at been a small scale, very muvh in the background orgainisation, uptill the doctor leaves UNIT, and then (because of a policy change, whatever) they move further into the front. They might have even been using UNIT as a cover for themselves and their activites.