Project: Torchwood: Alice Diggle

Launching at a time of Election Fever, but in this crazy world we live in, will it make much difference as to who wins? We’ve all voted on Joshua Weevil winning – so he can learn to clean up his own mess – however…. likely one of us will draw the short straw.

We’ve some brilliant reviews again this month, from the pen, or keyboard of Tony J Fyler. Alice Diggle has some interesting Profiles, and S Florence delights us with more Lady C Adventures. I love those stories.

We caught up with Nathan Wyburn recently for an interview. Owen has been trying to replicate a Marmite version of Captain Jack but its had dire consequences – the Weevil ate it – and I’m really not cleaning that up!!!

Special thanks to Nathan for the Interview and sharing his wonderful photos.

We say a sad farewell to Faith Howells too, be sure to check out Djak’s review of the series, the highs and lows and the ‘reach for the hankies’ moments.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this month’s Issue, and we look forward as ever to more next month. We are still on the lookout for Location writers to complete our Miracle Day section if you fancy having a go? Possibly someone from the US of A, with knowledge of the area, and how to write directions on how to reach them.

Without any further ado, welcome to Issue 91.

Profiles Steven Carter by Alice Diggle

Torchwood Archive Character Profile: Steven Carter

Name: Steven Carter, born on 4 October 1999, was the son of Joe and Alice Carter. He was also the grandson of Torchwood’s Jack Harkness and Italian Torchwood operative Lucia Moretti.

Species: Human

Status: Deceased aged 10 years old

Significance: See file 456

Bio: The 456 incident

Steven Carter was among the children who were manipulated by the aliens known as the 456 in 2009.

The 456 used their unique abilities to communicate through the children to announce their arrival on Earth. Torchwood operative Jack Harkness is Steven Carter’s grandfather as Steven’s mother Alice Carter is Jack’s daughter.

Jack has had dealings with the 456 in the past but the current government dealing with them during 2009 did not want his help nor his knowledge of them made public and so Steven and Alice were taken as hostages by Agent Johnson and her team who were working for the current prime minister in order to blackmail Jack Harkness to keep him quiet. This included several attempts on his life.

Once the intentions of the 456 became known and knowing that they were capable of carrying out their threat of the human race’s destruction, having already killed the occupants of Thames House where a representative for the 456 was being contained, with a deadly poisonous gas, Jack was left no choice but to use Steven as a conduit to reverse the 456 signal that was controlling the children and ricochet it back to kill the visiting representative on Earth, as a warning to the species that he had figured out a way to destroy them.

Steven’s small body could not take the intensified signal and he died within minutes of it being transmitted, leaving his mother completely distraught as she had no idea that Jack would sacrifice his grandson in that way.

IMPORTANT! Whilst Jack Harkness’s actions were completely abhorrent and led to Steven’s death, we cannot deny that it was a totally selfless action and one that was required to save all of the earth’s children considering the 456’s intentions for them which would have been more horrific than the way Steven died. Steven Carter died saving the world and although he will never forget and never forgive himself, we as parents will be forever in Jack’s debt.

Other Information: It is important to note that The Doctor was nowhere to be seen during the 456 invasion and it was left up to Jack Harkness and the Torchwood team to step up to the mark and save the world.

R.I.P Steven – Brave to the last.

Profiles Luke Smith by Alice Diggle

Torchwood Archive Character Profile: Luke Smith

Name: Luke Smith

Species: An artificial human

Occupation: Defender of Earth

Abilities: Exceptional intelligence and an eidetic memory

Crimes: None to date.

Location: 13 Bannerman Road: London

Bio: Luke is an artificial human known as the Archetype and was created by the Bane in order for them to experiment on. He had the physical form of a teenager upon his creation, despite his actual mental age being much younger, yet he has shown a very high level of intelligence which far outweighs that of any human child of the same age. He was named "Luke Smith" after being adopted by Sarah-Jane Smith, the onetime companion of The Doctor, when she rescued him from execution by the Bane.

As far as we know, because of the way Luke was created and because of his mother’s influence, Luke is not a threat to us in any way and has in fact helped his mother save the earth many times over.

We are unaware of his true age at this point as there is no way to calculate it but he seems more naïve than any human child of the same age which is a blessing and a curse for him as he has no way of knowing who his enemies are and with his intelligence and innocence as it is, he can be susceptible to other species taking full advantage of his vulnerability in a bid to help them invade earth. However, we know that Sarah-Jane Smith with the help of “Mr Smith” and The Doctor, will endeavour to teach him all he needs to know meaning he will mature and become an ally of earths.

IMPORTANT! We do not know if Luke Smith can age. He may stay as he outwardly represents at the moment which is as a 14-year-old. This may cause confusion for those who know him and could alert other people to the existence of non-human life forms. If this is the case, we will need to decide what happens to him after his mother passes away.

Other Information: Are there others like Luke Smith on Earth? Did the Bane make more specimens for experimentation? At this present time, we do not know!

Profiles George by Alice Diggle

Torchwood Archive Character Profile: “George”

Name: George Thompson

Species: Tenza

Occupation: Alien Symbiotic

Abilities: A psychic field and a perception filter which was used to convince his human parents that he himself is human. George's psychic abilities caused his thoughts to manifest and alter reality.

Crimes: Although it cannot be documented as a crime as all victims involved were returned to normal, George was responsible for kidnapping 2 adults from his housing estate, locking them in a dolls house in his bedroom wardrobe and turning them into dolls. This was done though fear of rejection and neglect from his human parent’s and so the actions undoubtably come from the mind of a frightened child.

Location: Bath, in Somerset.

Bio: Tenza are by species, children and are born in space, where they drift until they find a habitable world and a family that they could live with and infiltrate. The Tenza infant would adapt itself to suit its environment which would mean altering the memories of the parents it chose to “adopt” so that they assumed the child was biologically theirs. In the case of George, the Tenza child disguised itself as human and as the only child of Claire and Alex Thompson.

We do not know a lot about this species or why the Tenza forget who they really are after assimilating with their adoptive families but it seems this way especially in the case of George where he thought himself to be human and had no idea, he was in fact alien.

If the Tenza felt threatened, its telepathic abilities played havoc with its environment to keep it safe casing reality to change either physically or part mentally so that only the child would experience it. Some professionals would claim this to be part of the autistic spectrum which would lead us to enquire just how many children on the spectrum are actually Tenza as we have no way of knowing or documenting this and so far, George is the only one, we have encountered.

As the Tenza had advanced, though subconscious, psychic powers, allowing them to live among other species then it could be said that maybe they have no corporeal body until they find a surrogate family, that they are just mass or light until they find a planet and species in which to give them form. Were they a race before they advanced? Did they have their own planet, did they live peacefully for years until their resources ran out? Is this why they decided to spread their young across the stars, in the hope to save their species? We have no way of knowing this!

It is clear though that the Tenza child in any species form would display different characteristics to what is considered normal for that race. Again, as far as human children are concerned, this could mean that the child has a medical condition which is why its hard to document the existence of Tenza on Earth, but in the case of other alien races who clone children rather than birth them to all look and behave the same way, if one of their offspring were to act differently especially in times of trouble, fear and panic then we could document the amount of Tenza across the stars, but this is yet to become practice.

IMPORTANT! Whilst we think the Tenza are for the majority a pretty benign race, we can’t help but wonder why they seek to infiltrate other species rather than live among themselves and why they forget their origins on assimilation. Could this be another sleeper agent scenario? We just don’t know.

Other Information: The Doctor in his 11^th regeneration first encountered George in 2011 when he was 8 years old. He had somehow managed to make contact with the Doctor’s psychic paper asking for help, although that we can assume was the underlying Tenza and not George himself. The family Gorge had adopted were having trouble with him as a human child because he seemed to be behaving in odd ways. At this point they assumed George was their own son but their memories started to unravel with a visit from the Doctor who made them remember that they in fact could not biologically have children of their own and so it is assumed that the Tenza felt their need to have a child and that child became George. The couple have since accepted him for who he is and decided to keep him as their own. Does this make the Tenza a peaceful race or does it make the human race an easy target? Unless we can find more of them, we might never know the truth.

The Doctor had promised to revisit the family at the time of puberty as he stated it would be a difficult time. This must mean he knows much more about the species than we do and we hoped that he might share this information with us.

Pages

Thursday, 6 May 2021

Articles Welcome to Issue 91 - The Nathan Wyburn Interview May Edition

Profiles Steven Carter by Alice Diggle

Profiles Luke Smith by Alice Diggle

Profiles George by Alice Diggle

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