Introduction
It’s deja-vu time peeps! Just as you thought it was safe to step back into the
HUB, Suzie Costello has popped up again in issue 9’s episode of focus ‘They
Keep Killing Suzie’ (damn right too you unpleasant lady!) But of course Suzie
isn’t the only revisit, as we also have the return of the Resurrection Glove
(Risen Mitten), which we shall skim over and then you can click on the provided
hyper link to go back to issue’s 2’s article and we shall look more at the
‘Life Knife’ (where does Ianto come up with these names?). And finally we look
at something a little off from the episode; the GPS used by Toshiko numerous
times!
The Resurrection
Gauntlet
(Segment from issue 2
article)
Also
known as the ‘Risen Mitten’, so named by Ianto Jones.
The
first thing we notice about the gauntlet is that it looks like a piece of a
knight’s armour with its jointed fingers, held together with rivets and made
for the right hand. The metal looks to be nothing more special than the aforementioned
knight’s armour, but that’s where the similarities between them end.
The
gauntlet was thought to have fallen through the rift around 1967 and into
Cardiff Bay where it lay at the bottom until it was dredged almost 40 years later
by Torchwood Three and at the time no one at Torchwood knew what it did. So Captain Jack Harkness had his weapons
expert and second in command, Suzie Costello (Indira Varma), do research and
experiments with the gauntlet to try and find out what exactly it did…..
Issue 2
– Gadgets & Gizmos Article link
What Do We Have On
Earth?
(Segment from issue 2
article)
When
I try to think of something that returns someone from the dead, the nearest I
can get is a defibrillator that is used by doctors and paramedics. Though in
reality, and unlike in TV and movies, it is not used to re-start the heart when
it ‘flat lines.’ When that happens CPR
has to be used in order to get the heart going again, along with other things
such as drugs and direct heart massage.
The
reality is that a defibrillator is used when a heart fibrillates, meaning it’s
out of its normal rhythm. The electrical jolt of the defibrillator knocks it
back into rhythm.
The Life Knife
This
ornately carved knife with winged blades along the edge was found along with
the original Resurrection Glove. This knife was used by Suzie to initially kill
her victims before she attempted to resurrect them with the glove.
In
‘They Keep Killing Suzie’ Jack and Gwen use the knife, in conjunction with the
glove, to resurrect Suzie, stabbing it through her chest and into her heart, as
the glove didn’t work on its own. This may be due to the fact that Suzie has
been dead some time and the glove only works on the newly dead. It’s as if the
knife enhances the power of the glove when they are used together.
What Do We Have On
Earth?
Gosh
let me think…is there ANYTHING like the Life Knife that brings people back to
life when used with a scary glove…Errrmmmmmmm….No! No there isn’t!
But
if we think about it in terms of killing people?! Yes…lots!
Global Positioning
System or GPS
Almost
always referred to as GPS, it is a very techy navigation system and that is
also very sci-fi as it is space-based due to its use of satellites that move
around earth. Now I could sit here reading through reams and reams of
information and trying to break down and relay what I have managed to digest,
but life is short and I know there’s so much going off in the world of Project
Torchwood and our mega monthly issues that you really don’t have the time to
sit here reading it all. You also may get VERY bored and leave me altogether
and that’s just not good! So lets see if I can possibly manage to keep this to
just a couple of paragraphs.
Ok
we are able to pinpoint locations and times, regardless of weather, on or near
the earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight between ourselves and
that of four or more GPS satellites. It
is a system that is used to its full capacity by military, civil and commercial
around the world and although owned and run by the United States, everyone has
full use of it. It was created back in 1973 to replace other navigation systems
that were very limited in their abilities. And integrated numerous predecessors;
this did include a number of engineering design studies, that were classified,
from the 1960s. It originally ran with 24 satellites and became fully
operational in 1994. It didn’t become available for civilian use until
President Ronald Reagan, after a Korean Boeing 747 strayed into USSR air space
and was shot down killing 269 people in 1983, issued a directive that would
make GPS available once it was sufficiently developed. The first satellite
wasn’t launched until 1989 and the final and 24th GPS satellite to
be launched was in 1994.
Today
GPS can not only be found in military equipment and vehicles, but also planes,
you can have GPS for your car and also hand-held units, we call these Sat Nav!
We can also have them inTablets and mobile/cell phones. In fact pretty much
anything you can fit with a ‘chip’ I would imagine.
We
have seen Tosh use a hand-held unit in Torchwood, most notably ‘Countrycide’
and she used it to track the missing SUV. In ‘real life’ the hand-held units
are used by hikers, mountain climbers and even canoeists & kayakers though
by many they are considered an expensive & unnecessary piece of kit –
however, they are often most valued by Mountain and other voluntary Rescue
teams. The police have also used GPS to
locate mobile phones and on occasions missing laptops, if it is fitted and
switched on.
Of
course like with all gadgets and gizmos that come through the cog-door, the
chances are they’ve been alien teched up (I think I have just created a new
word!). In what form this may have taken is anyone’s guess! It could be as
simple as increasing it’s range or what it will search for. As it’s hand-held,
Toshiko may well have made it much more than just a GPS system. It may scan for
life forms, or other alien tech. After all when you do see a scanner in
Toshiko’s hand’s it’s usually the same gadget.
I
am now hoping that all this babble about GPS makes some kind of sense. If not,
forgive me, it’s Christmas!
What Do We Have On
Earth?
Of
course, as this is an earth-based piece of technology there is nothing other
than this on earth. As I said before, it is very possible that it has been
modified in some way by Toshiko using alien technology.
End Note:
And
now I shall sign off. I wish all our readers a wonderful Christmas and hope you
all have a fabulous New Year. See you all again in 2014!!
Mickie
aka Tosh
Bibliography
Torchwood:
The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell
The
Torchwood Archives by Warren Martyn aka Gary Russell
Wikipedia
GPS
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