Sgt Andy Davidson is to Torchwood what
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is to Doctor Who
PC Andy Davidson and WPC
Gwen Cooper had worked together for four years before Gwen discovered
Torchwood. In all the time that Andy had
worked with Gwen, not a single criticism about her work was uttered, not until the
tussle in the pub where Gwen received stitches to a cut to her head did Andy
begin to doubt her.
It wasn’t possible that four people could
vanish from sight on the Plass, there one minute, gone the next. The fact that Gwen had followed a hunch by
tearing after the SUV from the incident in the hospital, in the squad car, leaving poor old Andy to walk to her location
in the sodding rain didn’t go down well.
“I’ve walked, I have bloody
walked!”
Or that strange creature in the blue
boiler suit with the sharp teeth that had attacked the hospital porter, that
she’d seen with her own eyes, that couldn’t have been real, because details in
the hospital records disproved her story about the porter.
And the American in the RAF greatcoat, who
by all accounts couldn’t be the real Captain Jack Harkness as he had
disappeared in 1941, and couldn’t possibly be the same person.
When Gwen followed her hunch and uncovered
the truth and was taken on by Torchwood, it left Andy without a partner, but by
‘Day One’ he was with another WPC, standing outside in the cold, same as usual,
while investigations into the death of young lad Matt Stevens, continued inside
the Night Spot nightclub. Upon seeing Gwen,
out of uniform, in her new role as Special Ops, was a sight for sore eyes for
Andy, but it bothered him a lot that she was now the one issuing orders.
“Boss
of me now are you?”
If
there was one thing Andy could not accept it was the existence of aliens, this
was something that never happened, least of all in Cardiff, so when an
exuberant Roman soldier found his way into the police cells spouting Latin and
mentioning a fort in Gelligaer it was worth phoning Gwen, who might shed some
light on it. Because when the past
starts entering the present, the only ones likely to have any answers are the
secret organisation that your best friend works for!
Yet there was still an element of doubt
about how real the situation was with
the events in ‘End of Days’ as far as Andy was concerned. The world was going crazy he couldn’t deny
that, and the prophecies of End of the World didn’t sit too well with him
but...
“Alright, Mulder and Scully say I do believe
you, which I don't, because it's bollocks. But say I do. How exactly are we
meant to handle a prisoner from two thousand years ago? I mean has he got the
same rights as everyone else? How is this going to work with the CPS?”
Once
again, Gwen remained tight lipped about Torchwood. About whom they were and what they did and
when Andy questioned Gwen about the possibility of the end of the world, she
did that all too familiar smile that she used for when deep down, she knew
everything was going to shit. At this
point, Andy knew that as much as he loved Gwen, that whatever was happening,
he’d never get a straight answer, not now, probably not ever.
When 15 year old Jonah Bevan vanished from
the barrage, several months prior, Andy called on Gwen for help, although it
wasn’t so much her help, but clarification as to why her boss, Captain Jack
Harkness was on the barrage a few moments after Jonah vanished. Andy smelt a cover up, and with Gwen’s
evasive answers, he was certain she knew more than she was letting on. The truth was however, that Gwen was as much
in the dark as Andy. Investigating
further, Gwen did discover the truth, but again it was something Andy was not
going to be privy to, and heading to Flat Holm on her own just proved it,
leaving Andy holding the teas on the jetty.
Although Jonah was
found, he would never return home to his Mum, as would none of the other people
who had been spat back from the negative rift spikes, all residing at Flat Holm
Island, run by Torchwood. Again, Andy may
have been told that Jonah had been found, but he was as much in the dark as to
where the boy had been, and just how much he’d changed on his return.
Yet the friendship between Gwen and Andy
was still just as strong as it had been when they were partnered together in
the early days. Although it was all one
sided and Gwen only considered Andy as a friend, Andy’s friendship with Gwen
was a little stronger, he loved her, and may have only made one pass at her, at
a party perhaps, but he found it hard to switch his feelings on and off like a
tap, and he despised her choice in boyfriend, positively loathed Rhys, but had
never until Jonah’s disappearance said anything to Gwen about how he felt. “How's
Rhys, other than hungry?” And the
only reason any of it had surfaced, was because of his absence at Gwen’s
wedding.
As the years progressed, the knowledge of
Torchwood increased and the acceptance of aliens finally sunk in, ‘Asylum’,
with the discovery of an alien child from the future, falling into theirs, and
connected with Torchwood. Even though
when he realised who the girl was, his reactions were less than calm and
relaxed.
Andy became the link with which Torchwood
used, through locating prisoners to be released into their custody – Clem
McDonald ‘Children of Earth’ to name but one, or for any other information that
deemed important to their investigations.
When the station was under attack by weevils
and hoix towards the end of Series 2, it was Andy’s turn to call Gwen.
Andy also provided the service of driving
Gwen and Rhys to Rhiannon Davies’ house to break the sad news of her brother’s
death, in COE, and to hopefully take her children somewhere safe before the
Army came to take them. But when they entered
the house and saw more than just two, it was down to Andy to act as decoy while
Gwen and Rhys with Rhiannon smuggled the children to safety when the Army
stormed the estate.
This tested Andy’s loyalty for his
job. A defender of the Law, but to serve
the people, he couldn’t simply stand by and watch as innocent children were
ripped from the heart of their families, he had to act. Tearing off his fluorescent jacket and
ripping off his stab vest, Andy stormed into action and took a valiant stand
against the oppressors.
It’s hard to say whether
his actions on this day earned him the promotion to Sgt, but it would be nice
to think that it was.
On the day that nobody died, Gwen received
a cryptic phone call while she’s holed up in a safe house by the beach.
“This
is Sergeant Davidson confirming reports of one suspect, male, in the vicinity
of St. Helen's Hospital, Cardiff City. Suggest rendezvous 0200 hours in the
agreed position.”
It brings Gwen back to
Cardiff, and back to Andy, who now as Sergeant has a lot more clout. But he’s as much in the dark again as to what
the Miracle is all about and why people are now suddenly not dying, and why the
Americans are interested in Gwen and Torchwood?
Sergeant Davidson proved to be an asset to
Gwen during the time of the Miracle. He
safely moved Rhys and Anwen to a safe house but despite his efforts, those
desperate to seek Jack Harkness, managed to kidnap Gwen’s family and hold them
hostage. This was the first time in
Andy’s life as a police officer that he had ever had to fire a weapon. It shook him up and it took him a little while
to recover. He’d never killed anyone
before and probably hoped he wouldn’t make a habit of it.
The link with Torchwood increased again
when instead of Gwen calling for assistance, it came from the dashing
Captain. In ‘Mr Invincible’ Jack contacted
Andy to inform him that Gwen Cooper had been killed and he’d seen it, although things
weren’t quite as simple as all of that.
It would be interesting if when Torchwood
returns for a 5th series if Andy receives a further promotion to
perhaps a title more fitting – Captain Andy!
I think we’ll just have to wait and see.
©BBC Torchwood 2006
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