Monday, 28 July 2014

Connections Doctor Who & Torchwood Connections - The Sound of Drums by Mickie Newton


It’s now issue 16 and the second of our Doctor Who sidesteps where we follow Jack on a new adventure with the 10th Doctor and his present companion, Martha Jones. Here in this addition of Doctor Who and Torchwood Connections we are going to have connections between the Doctor Who episode The Sound of Drums and the Torchwood series. So in this issue we go spotting the ‘Vote Saxon’ posters, Captain Jack’s Vortex Manipulator being used for its main purpose and another face seen in Doctor Who and Torchwood, Trinity Wells, anchor woman for AMNN TV.

Vote Saxon Poster   

Torchwood

Though neither Harold Saxon, or his true self the Master, actually appeared in Torchwood, throughout season one of Torchwood we saw posters for ‘Vote Saxon’ plastered around Cardiff, most notably it was seen on the door of the Dance Hall featured in the episode ‘Captain Jack Harkness.’
             
Doctor Who

The Master is a very old enemy, and sometimes (though rare) adversary, of the Doctors, throughout the past 50 odd years of the sci-fi series. In the first part of the three linked stories, ‘Utopia’, we meet Professor Yana who later becomes The Master, and as you remember, he regenerated from Derek Jacobi into John Simms. The Master (Simms) stole the TARDIS, though not before the Doctor locked the co-ordinates and 18 months later found his way back to Earth in the 21st century where he created a name for himself (Harold Saxon) and became Prime Minister (busy man the Master).

But there had been bread crumbs left throughout the early seasons starting with ‘love and Monsters’ (2006), much like Torchwood, where you see ‘Vote Saxon’ posters posted around the cities. And also the Archangel Network working its business on the unsuspecting public.

Here’s a little bit of trivia, you never know, it may be useful in a pub quiz.  The Master, as we know, created the alias of ‘Harold Saxon’, but did you also know that Mister Saxon is an anagram of “Master no. Six.” The ‘No’ part standing for number.

Jack’s Vortex Manipulator (VM)

Torchwood

This won’t be the last time we look at Jack’s VM as it has been featured on more than one occasion in Doctor Who, as well as Torchwood. As we all know Jack used it to find the Doctor (after he was stranded on the Game Station). He aimed for Cardiff as he knew the Doctor re-fuelled the TARDIS there, but ended up in Cardiff 1869 where upon it burnt out and stopped working as a time travelling and teleport device. But in Torchwood he continued to use it for various other things whilst working for Torchwood Institute, such as scanning anomalies, alien tech, communications, activating the invisible lift and so forth.

Doctor Who

So how is it used in this second story? At the start of ‘The Sound of Drums’ season 31/3 we discover the Doctor has fixed Jack’s VM in order for the Doctor, Martha and Jack to time travel and so escape future Earth in 100 trillion and return to 2007, allowing them to find the Master. Not only has the Doctor fixed the time travel aspect, but they can also use the VM to teleport from one point to another, so therefore the VM can once again travel in both time and space and so Jack is able to place in the co-ordinates and use it to teleport himself, the Doctor and Martha onto the Valiant where the Master and his wife Lucy are now located, along with Martha’s family. Towards the end of the story Jack gives it to Martha so she can escape the Valiant and hopefully save the world from the Masters and Toclafane tyranny and into the final part of the trilogy ‘The Last of the Time Lords’.

Trinity Wells, AMNN TV
Played by Lachelle Carl

Torchwood

Trinity Wells has only appeared for one season of Torchwood, in the five part story called ‘The Children of Earth’ (2009). Trinity was the anchor woman for AMNN, an American news channel, who reported on the events of the 456 alien’s. She appeared in only two episodes; day three and four.

Doctor Who

Trinity appeared in a number of Doctor Who stories reporting on various worldwide events involving aliens, including the second of a three part story ‘The Sound of Drums’ (2007). She first appeared in the story ‘The Aliens of London’ back in 2005.

The following is a list of all the Doctor Who episodes Trinity has appeared in since 2005.

Aliens of London (2005) ... Reporter
World War Three (2005) ... Reporter
The Christmas Invasion (2005) ... Newsreader 3
The Sound of Drums (2007) ... US Newsreader
The Poison Sky (2008) ... US Newsreader
Turn Left (2008) ... Trinity Wells
The Stolen Earth (2008) ... Trinity Wells
The End of Time: Part One (2009) ... Trinity Wells
The End of Time: Part Two (2010) ... Trinity Wells

Bibliography

Books:

Torchwood: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell

Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia A Definitive Guide to Time and Space
by Gary Russell

Web Sites:

Lachelle Carl’s IMDB entry

Harold Saxon

Doctor Who Items

TARDIS Data Core



No comments:

Post a Comment