Gadgets & Gizmos The Doctor Who Sidestep #2 - The Sound of Drums by Mickie Newton

Introduction

At the end of “Utopia” Professor Yana/The Master Regenerated, stole the TARDIS and left the Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack to the mercy of The Futurekind, but not before the good Doctor had performed some mysterious wizzy wiggy stuff with his Sonic Screwdriver.

When we open up in the next instalment of the trilogy, we find the Doctor, Martha and Jack zapping into the 21st century and dealing with ‘Time-Travellers-Head’. And all thanks to Jack’s Vortex Manipulator that has been repaired (all be it temporarily) by the Doctor.

So naturally one thing we MUST look at in this issues edition of Gadgets and Gizmos is Jack’s Vortex Manipulator or VM to his friends and yes we have before, but sometimes a re-visit is needed for add on’s. We shall also be look at the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdrivers evil cousin and friend to the Master, his Laser Screwdriver and finally, probably the Masters most terrible creations, the last humans, the Toclafane.

For this addition of G&G I have taken away our ‘What on Earth?’ segment as for the most part it really doesn’t apply. But if you wish to remind yourself what I babbled on about Jack’s VM then just take a hop skip and a jump back to issue 12’s G&G and have a read.

Vortex Manipulator

Now I know what you are thinking...Haven’t we been here before. Yes, back in issue 12 we looked at Jack’s VM in the “Combat” issue, but in “The Sound of Drums” it has been used the way it was originally intended and also, not just by Jack. And it’s always good to take another look, from a different angle, at things. Much as we have with the Resurrection Gauntlet.

If you remember I did mention this trilogy of stories with regards to how the VM is used. As we all know Jack’s VM burnt out, due to being zapped by a couple of Daleks, and because it wasn’t working properly due to said zapping Jack found himself transported to Cardiff, but not the 21st century - it was instead 1869 and so it’s ability to transport Jack through time and space was no longer possible.

When “Sound of Drums” starts we see Jack and co teleporting back to the 21st century, 2008 to be precise and this was due to the Doctor fixing it with his trusty Sonic Screwdriver.

So what’s new I hear you say. Well in the past, mostly via Torchwood, we have only seen it do such things as scan for alien tech, lifeforms, communication etc. But Jack started off as a Time Agent and Time Agents had to be able to move through both time and space. So they were all issued with a VM. It’s much like the TARDIS, only more crudely, ‘Time-Travellers-Head’ and all that. How was it the Doctor described it?

Jack: “I used to be a Time Agent, it’s called a Vortex Manipulator. He’s not the only one who can time travel”

The Doctor: “Excuse me, that’s not time travel. It’s like, I’ve got a sports car, you’ve got a space hopper”

Martha: “Oh boys and their toys!”

So now they are able to travel through time and space via the VM. Their next hop, skip and a jump is to UNIT’s ship, the Valiant. More ‘Time-Travellers-Head’ or in this case ‘Teleportation Head’, I don’t think there’s much of a difference, they both seem to hurt equally. And then later Martha uses it again to escape the Valiant, the Master and the lovely Toclafane and go on a great journey to ‘The Last of the Time Lords.’ Though it’s not used again from what I remember and the Doctor reverts it back to its previous damaged self (shame).

Jack also seems to use it on this story to link Martha’s laptop to Torchwood’s Organic computer system, as if it’s some kind of coding, but it’s never explained, Jack just fiddles with it and they’re in.

Of course the other thing that’s never made clear, much like the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver, is exactly HOW it works. Like the Sonic there really isn’t any clear indication how the user reads information. When you look at the VM pad it consists simply of 3 buttons, a circular pad that’s not unlike that of the directional pad on a games controller, two blue lights and what seems to be a very, very, VERY small screen squashed in the bottom right corner. I’d assumed that the Sonic worked much like the TARDIS can and sent information psychically to the Doctor. So maybe a Time Agent is somehow linked to it, as I find it hard to believe you could read anything off a screen that small. When it was designed, it was done simply, but it seems, without much thought as to how, realistically, the user would input information when it has so few input modes. Is it like some ridiculously complicated watch that take someone with a brain like Einstein to figure out how to put in the date, let alone adjust the time!

And of course Jack does get at least the teleportation aspect back in ‘Stolen Earth’ when he gets the base code from Martha. She’d used an untested teleport harness called Project Indigo. This had alien technology scavenged from some Sontaran teleport equipment. It also had a code that UNIT, who’d created the Project Indigo device, had yet to decipher. But Jack recognised it as the code used for teleportation which was an oscillating 4 and 9. This he put into his VM and was able to get his own back on a Dalek and Martha gained greater control of the Project Indigo device (we’ll look closer to this when we have another Doctor Who sidestep into the two stories in the future).

 The Laser Screwdriver

Trust the Master to create something both flash and deadly. It’s definitely at least one thing the Sonic isn’t, the deadly part I mean, as it can be VERY flash with all it’s pretty lights, extending doo dads and woo woo noises of varying kinds.

So what is different about the Master’s Laser Screwdriver

Firstly instead of shooting sonic sound waves from the tip, it shoots a deadly laser beam that can kill, as Jack sadly discovered. But it can also disable if he so wishes

Below the tip is a segment that contains the technology from Professor Lazarus’s Genetic Manipulation Device (that the Master, as Saxon, invested in

The grip section houses the technology that can age an individual if you have their biological coding - the Master gained the Doctors biological coding from his severed hand. With this the Master suspended the Doctor’s ability to regenerate and aged him by 100 years and then again later by 900

Also in the grip section is an Isomorphic control that allows the Master to use it (me thinks the TARDIS should upgrade herself and have Isomorphic controls that allows the Doctor and other trusted people to fly her and use her instruments

This incident, of being stolen and messed about with (two words - Paradox Machine), should be a lesson to her.

I did wonder if the Master in Classic Who had ever used anything like the Doctors Sonic Screwdriver, but my long search proved utterly fruitless. Nothing. Nada. Not a Sonic Sausage. But by all means let of us know if you have any further information on this.

The Toclafane

So named by the Master and something the Doctor saw through instantly as the Toclafane was a childhood fairy tale monster from Gallifrey. Apparently it was much like Earths childhood stories of a ‘bogeyman’.

A quick history of their being is that after ‘Utopia’ they were propelled to the end of time where only the cold and dark ‘nothingness’ existed and this drove the humans to regress and become the Toclafane, primitive beings housed in a shell and rescued by the Master who takes them to Earth to cause nothing but trouble. So moving swiftly on...

When we first meet them the Toclafane seem incredibly alien, possibly not too dissimilar to say the Daleks or Cybermen in the fact that it may be some kind of creature that has a mechanical outer body. In other words, a cyborg. And it seems it is from another world. And like the Daleks, it is both insane and deadly. But unlike the Daleks it will kill indiscriminately because “it is fun”. And this shows it to be very childlike. But like the Cybermen it/they work as a hive rather than as individuals. In other words, each of the six billion Toclafane shares the same thought process and memories. This really should have been a clue.

Another difference is it has very human characteristics. As I said before they’re very childish and vain and have their own desires to be pretty in their metallic shells.

Their tough metallic outer shell is spherical in shape and allows them to both hover and fly at ease, not only through our own atmosphere, but through space without damage. When you look at the shell you can see it is in segments. These segments are held together with magnetic clamps which are incredibly strong and difficult to open. The only way is through a high electrical discharge at exactly 510 megajoules, which is the same as a bolt of lightning. It also has, what looks like simple mechanical fingers protruding from the base. When it goes into attack mode, long blades pop out from the sides and base for close attacks and it is also armed with lasers that can kill at long range and turn its victim into nothing more than ash.

One of the more noticeably differences between them and the Daleks and Cybermen is vocal. Not all Toclafane sound the same. Another clue me thinks. And, as we discover later, this shell is also a life support system that keeps the shrivelled head , the remnants of its human form, alive and quite possibly linked to the other Toclafane.

And on another note...

As I was looking for information about the Toclafane I discovered something about their original origins in the world of Who.

Firstly they were voiced by the same team who voiced the Gelth in ‘The unquiet Dead’ (except by a celebrity Guest). And I shall be writing more about this for Issue 17s Doctor Who and Torchwood Connections. Also Russell T. Davies came up with the original design. His intention was to use them as an alternate creature IF they’d not been able to obtain the rights to use a Dalek in the 2005 episode ‘Dalek’. This early version of the Toclafane was originally called ‘Future Human’. Apparently there is an illustration by Davies in his book ‘Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter’.

Jikai made, sayōnara (Japanese for “Until next time, goodbye”)

Mickie

Bibliography

Books

Torchwood: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell

http://tinyurl.com/TorchwoodEncyclopedia

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

by Gary Russell

http://tinyurl.com/DWEncyclopedia

The Time Traveller’s Almanac: The Ultimate Intergalactic Fact Finder by Steve Tribe

http://tinyurl.com/TimeTravellersAlmanac

The TARDIS Handbook: The Official Guide To The Best Ship In the Universe by Steve Tribe

http://tinyurl.com/TARDIS-Handbook

Doctor Who - A History of the Universe in 100 Objects

by James Goss and Steve Tribe

http://tinyurl.com/DW100Objects

Wikipedia

Torchwood Items: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Torchwood_items

Torchwood Three

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Torchwood_Three

TARDIS Data Core

http://tardis.wikia.com

Doctor Who Items

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_items

Gadgets & Gizmos The Doctor Who Sidestep #1: Utopia

 Introduction

Well at the end of ‘End of Days’ we saw the good Captain distracted by the sound of the TARDIS engines and the bubbling of the canister containing the Doctors severed-hand and then the rest of the team coming back to the Hub to find him gone!

In the opening of ‘Utopia’ we see him running towards the TARDIS and then taking a mighty leap when the Doctor decides to take off in the hopes of leaving Jack behind.

This is the first of three ‘Doctor Who Sidesteps’ where we follow Jack and his further adventures with his old friend the Doctor and new friend, Martha Jones. These three stories will be taking us gently into the second season of Torchwood.

So naturally I also must take a step to the side and look at the technologies of the three stories. Or at least, that is the plan. As you will know from past issues, this isn’t always possible. As I have said in the past, for a Sci-Fi series they really can lack the high tech gadgets we expect to see. I shall also warn you that we will probably be revisiting some past gadgets as they may well crossover, in a different way, with the three Doctor Who stories.

So what shall we be looking at in issue 15s Gadgets & Gizmos? We shall have a look at The Masters Fob Watch and we shall touch upon (as the subject is vast...50 years vast)  the Doctors Sonic Screwdriver and his longest serving companion, the TARDIS.

The Masters Fob Watch

The first time we see one of these special watches is in the season 29/3 episodes ‘Human Nature’ and ‘The Family of Blood’ when the Doctor uses it, in conjunction with the Chameleon Arc, to become human in order to hide from  the Family of Blood, when they seek out the Doctor to take his body so the Son of Mine can live for eternity.

This beautiful instrument is engraved with Gallifreyan symbols and a Time lord uses it to store his Time Lord conscience, memories and biological make-up of a Time lord. In order to stop the Time Lord from opening it and releasing his true self from inside the watch, the watch uses a perception filter and so stops him from noticing it. To the altered Time Lord it is just a broken and old watch that has little use, but possibly sentimental value. This watch, with the exception of the Gallifreyan symbols, looks just like an everyday pocket watch and so would raise no eyebrows.

In ‘Utopia’ Martha recognises Professor Yana’s watch as being the same as the Doctor’s and due to her excitement, especially after the Face of Boe’s final message of “You Are Not Alone”, encourages the Professor to notice it, just as she had with the Doctor. A short time later the Professor opens the watch releasing the Master back into his body.

It is worth noting that our good Captain also carries a fob/pocket watch. Though it is just that. A fob watch. A time piece. Nothing more. But I do believe, and please don’t quote me on this, that the watch is actually John’s and was originally his grandfathers.

What Do We Have On Earth?

The only thing we have is a very ordinary fob watch. They can look beautiful and half chimes that can wake you when you set the alarm.  And then we have the open faced or Lépine watch. This has no protective metal cover and is open faced

Pocket watches originally came from around 16th century and came before the wrist watch. These are carried in the pocket. The Doctor’s and the Master’s watches are in the style of a hunters watch. These are a case with a hinged metal lid that covers the watch face and crystal. This protects your watch from dust and damage.

A demi-hunter or half-hunter style also has a cover, but the centre of this is a glass panel and not a solid cover.

But for all my searching, I was unable to find one where you could hide your true self. Unless it has a section for putting in a picture and you placed a picture of yourself without make up.

The Sonic Screwdriver

Firstly, as the subject of the Sonic Screwdriver is almost 50 years old, and so vast, I shall only be touching on this in this issue. And we shall look at the Master’s Laser Screwdriver in a future issue, about issue 16 or 17.

It’s very hard to think that the good old Sonic Screwdriver  has been on our screen as long as the Doctor himself, but shocking as it maybe, it hasn’t. The Sonic Screwdriver first made its first TV appearance in 1968 in season 6, episode 3 ‘War Games’. But in writing it appeared in a serial called ‘Fury from the Deep’ by Victor Pemberton and was used by the 2nd Doctor from that point on as a kind of multi-tool

As its sonic this implies that it works on sound waves that can physically dislodge objects and open locks. And this was pretty much what it was used for - though there was an occasion when the 2nd Doctor used it as a blow torch in the story ‘The Dominators’.

The Sonic Screwdriver has changed greatly from its first incarnations such as making a noise and added pretty blue or green lights. Even its fictionality has changed and increased functionality. Now I could sit here and list every single change through each of the 11 Doctors, but I’d be here until the sun explodes before I finish writing it AND I’d have our good editor, Jack, after me! And we really don’t want that.

But what I shall do is this. With the 2nd Doctor its Sonic Waves were used to undo screws, he also fed Victoria Waterfields’ screams through it to amplify them in order to destroy some weed like creatures in the story ‘Fury from the Deep’. He used it to drill a hole in a wall in ‘the Dominators’ and removed screws from a pistol, from a wall panel and also a control panel in ‘The War Games’.

By the time we get to the 11th Doctor its uses have increased more than tenfold. So many I can’t sit typing them all out. But here’s a few; he scanned the crack in the wall in Amelia Ponds bedroom wall, scanned the monastery ruins and the Flesh in ‘the Rebel flesh’, Boosted River Song’s communicator ‘The Time of Angels’, scanned human remains and possessed humans as well as opening and locking doors and blowing out a light in ‘Amy’s Choice’, scanned for heat signature anomalies and exploded guns as well as scanning Rory in ‘Cold Blood’.

If you wish to know how much more there is to the Sonic Screwdriver and its functions look for a book called ‘Doctor Who - A History of the Universe in 100 Objects’ by James Goss and Steve Tribe, then turn to page 175. It lists all functions from the 2nd Doctor through to the 11th Doctor. I wonder what new things we shall get from the 12th Doctors Sonic Screwdriver.

What Do We Have On Earth?

Sadly there is no such thing as a Sonic Screwdriver. If there was, our lives would be so much easier. But we do have things that do similar things. Only they’re not so compact. Obviously we have screwdrivers. Some are simple hand tools, where as other are power driven. We can pick locks with wire picks, but there is such a tool that will open digital locks too. We can scan people for illness, but only those that can be seen via an MRI scanner, such as lumps and other physical anomalies, but not say a problem with your blood. For that we have to do blood tests. In fact there are still many illnesses that either needs tests or exploratory operations. We can rejoin barbed wire with a soldering iron and so on. But we don’t have one single tool that does these and all the other wonderful things the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver can do.

The TARDIS

The subject of the TARDIS is huge. I mean it is so huge, it’s impossible to see where the subject ends, let alone where it starts. So much like the Sonic Screwdriver, I shall be only touching on it and at some point in the future, will write more about her. I know this because I own a TARDIS and I’ve seen the future.

So where do we start.

The TARDIS is a Time Lord creation for the purpose of travelling anywhere through both time and space, unless that is, that point in time is ‘time locked’ such as the Time Wars.

The name TARDIS is an acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space and was named by the granddaughter of the Doctor, Susan, as stated by Susan in the very first episode ‘An Unearthly Child’ back in 1963. She is also a type 40 (yes she is a she...read on) and was already old technology when the Doctor and Susan ran off with her back in the day.

We also now know that the TARDIS’ are not built, but grown; though this is now not possible due to the seeds being destroyed on Gallifrey during the Time Wars. Although towards the end of ‘Journey’s End’ in season 30/4, the Doctor gave his new self and Rose a piece of TARDIS so they could grow their own. Captain Jack also had some TARDIS coral growing on his office desk in Torchwood 3’s Hub. Of course due to the destruction of the HUB in the third season of Torchwood, this will now no longer exist.

What Do We Have On Earth?

As all the seeds for growing a TARDIS were destroyed during the Time Wars it is impossible to have anything like this on earth! No...it really is!

Sorry...only kidding.  But really in ourselves we time travel all the time; we call it memories.  We store memories via photographs, film recordings, audio recordings and the written word.

The science fiction writer HG Wells once wrote - “We all have our own time machine, don’t we.  Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward are dreams.”

Whenever we hold a fossil, read old books and so forth it is like taking a step back in time. And as we have experienced with science fiction writing, we have seen ideas become a reality, hand-held communicators, and medical equipment that can see into the human body. It’s as if those writers could see into the future.

As my father has often said, if time travel is possible, it’s already happened. Would someone really stand there and say “Hi my name is Dave and I have travelled from the future, from the year 2596!”  Those in the future know what a numpty 21st century man is and how unwelcoming we would probably be and know full well they’d either A: be furnishing a new room with matching padded furniture or B: End up flat on their back on a dissection table.

So if time travel is possible in the future, we won’t know until the time comes.

Jikai made, sayōnara (Japanese for “Until next time, goodbye”)

Mickie

Bibliography

Books

Torchwood: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell

http://tinyurl.com/TorchwoodEncyclopedia

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

by Gary Russell

http://tinyurl.com/DWEncyclopedia

The Time Traveller’s Almanac: The Ultimate Intergalactic Fact Finder by Steve Tribe

http://tinyurl.com/TimeTravellersAlmanac

The TARDIS Handbook: The Official Guide To The Best Ship In the Universe by Steve Tribe

http://tinyurl.com/TARDIS-Handbook

Doctor Who - A History of the Universe in 100 Objects

by James Goss and Steve Tribe

Wikipedia

Torchwood Items: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Torchwood_items

Torchwood Three

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Torchwood_Three

TARDIS Data Core

http://tardis.wikia.com

Doctor Who Items

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_items

The Sonic Screwdriver

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_screwdriver

Other Sites Used

Pocket/Fob watch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_watch

Gadgets & Gizmos Episode 12 & 13 by Mickie 'Toshiko' Newton

Introduction

Remember the bumper birthday issue last month? You remember just how much was in it? Yes?!  Well it was because it was so huge that issue 13s Gadgets & Gizmos was left out. I was super busy making pretty covers for all that immense work we had. So, now we have reached the end of season one  with the two end of season stories ‘Captain Jack Harkness’ and  the final earth moving episode ‘End of Days’ and I have written a bumper addition of Gadgets & Gizmos. So what shall we be looking at in Issue 14?

In this issue we shall be once again looking at a gadget in a back-to-front and upside-down kind of way. We will be having a look at the Rift Manipulator. We shall be looking at the ‘out-of-time’ Polaroid camera used by both Bilis Manger and Toshiko, along with its modern counterpart. Ever wondered why the Torchwood computers make such strange sounds with blue wiggly things skittering across the monitors? Read on and find out here.  Things to scan your baby blues and cause untold havoc across Cardiff and the world and blimey! I never thought there’d be a day I’d be researching about the storage of body parts! And all thanks to a Sycorax with a big sword.

So let’s take a small step back in time into the 1940’s and 2007.

The Rift Manipulator

There is very little written about the Rift Manipulator, so the best I can do is give a brief description of what it does and then describe some of the repercussions when things go wrong

Right from the very first episode, sitting at the very heart of the Hub, has been the Rift Manipulator. On observation the main part of the machinery looks not unlike the time-rotator/central column that sits in the centre of the TARDIS console.  And not unlike the TARDIS, the Rift Manipulator, when under full control, the Rift can be manipulated and, though very minor, can achieve time travel. In order to open the Rift and time-travel you must have the correct time co-ordinates, longitude and the equation that allows you to control the Rift Manipulator. It was this very equation that Tosh was working on and, for whatever reason, had only left part of it on her computer back at the Hub in 2007. The rest of the equation needed by Owen and Ianto to open the rift and bring back Jack and Tosh from 1941 Cardiff safely, is on her Laptop, and that is with Tosh in 1941.

When Gwen finds the equation, that Tosh, in 1941, left for them to find, it is discovered that it is still not complete, thanks to Bilis sabotaging it. It is then Owen who finally succeeds in opening the Rift after he finds, in Bilis’ office, the Pendulum Key Disc. An artifact that was missing from the Rift Manipulator that allows it to operate and that had somehow found its way into the Grandfather Clock in Bilis’ Office. How and why this happened is anyone’s guess and is something that is never explained, other than it was all some kind of plan by Bilis.  When Owen, after being shot by Ianto, succeeds in opening the Rift it creates a doorway between 1941 and 2007 and so allowing Jack and Tosh to return.

As you may have gathered by my explanation on how it works, you may have deduced that, due to the lack of equations and therefore proper control, the Rift manipulator has been used incorrectly and so the Rift has been opened in a very uncontrolled manner. And so there will be dire consequences. 

What we see happen in ‘End of Days’ is that splinters/cracks are emanating from the Hub, outwards across the UK and the world, and terrible things are now leaking through from various points in time. As Jack quite rightly says to Owen “The first rule of Torchwood is don’t mess with the Rift” and as we see, it’s very much the rule to stick by.

It is really only by sheer luck that completely opening the Rift actually corrects the damage. But what it does do is make it more volatile in the future.

What Do We Have On Earth?

Well much like the Resurrection Gauntlet, there is no such thing. If you do know of one, do, by all means, email us and I shall amend this gladly :)

Bilis’ ‘out of time’ Polaroid Camera

In the episode ‘Captain Jack Harkness’ we see Bilis use a strange camera. Well strange for 1941. Though maybe not to the untrained eye. The camera he uses is an instant camera, ie. A Polaroid camera which did not exist back in 1941. The Polaroid camera was not introduced for consumers until 1947 and this was the Land Camera Model 95, which we see Bilis use. This camera and all other Land Camera models that followed this one involved a rather complex system for taking good photographs. The photographer would have to manually take out the photographic paper from the camera, peel off the paper after 60 seconds. It took a while to dry after exposure and you’d often find chemicals left on your hands afterwards.

The Polaroid Land Camera was produced between 1947 and 1983 and was named after the inventor, and founder of Polaroid, Edwin Land. The Land part was dropped in 1982 after Edwin Land retired, though they did continue to produce Polaroid cameras after 1983. The Model 95 was the first commercially available model and could produce an image in 1 minute and the first to use instant film and so for the first time the consumer was able to produce instant pictures without the aid of a photographic laboratory.

The Model 95A was a similar camera to the 95, with a few differences. This camera was better known as ‘Speedliner’ and had a 130mm/f8.8 lens which was mated with a rotary shutter. This allowed the user with speeds anywhere from 1/12 to 1/100.

What Do We Have On Earth?

You may be as surprised as I was to discover that the Polaroid camera is still very much around. The last report I found was that Polaroid was set to release a camera called the ‘Socialmatic Camera’. This camera has been in the running since 2012 and it takes both digital images and produces instant prints with the help of a built-in Zero ink printer. It also has built in wi-fi allowing you to upload images instantly to the Social Media. Something that may even impress Bilis Manger me thinks. Abaddon, maybe not. I think he’d just squash it. Or destroy it with his scary shadow.

Organic Computer

An organic and living computer or one that is able to think for itself has been used on numerous occasions throughout the history of science fiction. And so Torchwood is by no means an exception to this.

Although it has never been stated in the series or novels, but referred to on the Torchwood website, the computer system used at Torchwood 3 is in fact, much like the TARDIS, living, ergo Organic. And much like the TARDIS, is alien technology. According to the details on the website, this computer "is as old as Torchwood itself — a piece of organic, living, intuitive technology light years ahead of anything on Earth. It salvaged what it could, and continues at the heart of our work today."  And it seems as if the whole thing sits on the Torchwood server as it is accessibly from any computer, via some kind of password system I would imagine. We have seen it accessed whilst the team have been in the SUV and in the Doctor Who episode “The Sound of Drums” when Jack is showing the Doctor and Martha things linked to Harold Saxon. In the 5 part story ‘Children of Earth’ the team access the Torchwood software even after the Hub has been destroyed.  So rather than saying the computers themselves are organic, I would suggest that’s it’s the software that is the original alien organic from all that time ago and that via this the computers were augmented.

In the past we have seen that the computer was able to access and salvage information after the fall of Torchwood One. It is an incredibly intuitive system that is able to perform individual tracking, detect anything extraterrestrial,  monitor the weather as well as GPS Navigation and it can perform all of these at the same time if needs be. Something a normal computer would find very difficult.

Of course when you see any Torchwood monitor you can see the organic system running behind anything on the screen. It is a blue pulsating mass with long tendrils, with almost a luminance about them, that wave across the screen, networking various pieces of information, with an unexpectedly soft guttural alien sound in the background.

In various episodes over the years we have seen many of this systems capabilities, such as in ‘They keep killing Suzie’ in season one, even though the whole of the Hub is on lock down and there’s no power, the computer is still able to recognise commands. Owen is completely sure, in ‘Captain Jack Harkness’ that the computer is smart enough to not need the full equation from Toshiko and still operate and bring back Jack and Toshiko. And when Gwen, Tosh, Owen and Ianto want to fully open the Rift via the Rift Manipulator in ‘End of Days’ the system requests retina scans before it will proceed.

What Do We Have On Earth?

Definition:

Organic computing is a form of biologically-inspired computing with organic properties. It has emerged recently as a vision for future information processing systems. Organic Computing is based on the insight that we will soon be surrounded by large collections of autonomous systems, which are equipped with sensors and actuators, aware of their environment, communicate freely, and organise themselves in order to perform the actions and services that seem to be required.

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_computing

Though nothing like the computer seen in Torchwood, computer scientists have for many years been working on an intelligent organic computer system that can work and function on its own initiative. Perform self examinations and so on. And so making a much more efficient and faster working system. Or that’s the idea. Where the problem can be is controlling such a system. We all remember HAL in ‘2001: A Space Odyssey? When creating such a system protections must be implemented or we could find ourselves being jettisoned from the space craft just because the computer doesn’t like our face. Not good.

It must be safe and we must be able to trust them. Maybe we need to go in the direction of Asimov’s I-Robot with the three laws:

A Robot may not injure a human being or, though inaction, allow a human being to come to harm

A Robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the first law

A Robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law

There was a fourth or zeroth law later added by Asimov which precedes the others. And it says that - law 0 says A Robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

Maybe that way we’d be more trusting. But as we well know, laws can be broken and if you have an organic computer that is intelligent and so is able to think for itself it may choose to ignore such laws.

If you want to learn some more about this massive subject, take a look at these few links below:

Retinal Scanner

In ‘End of Days’ the team, with the exception of Jack who is completely against it, decide to completely open the Rift via the Rift Manipulator. Jack confronts them and for this Owen shoots Jack dead...again! When Gwen puts in the password ‘Rhea Silver’ to activate Emergency Protocol One to open the rift the organic system requests the retinal scans of all active Torchwood agents. To do this Gwen used a hand-held retinal scanner on each of the team, thus being able to scan Jack’s retina also. Once the organic computer had all the retinal scans it opened the Rift fully, setting everything back again but also it set Abaddon free from beneath the Rift under Cardiff.

This is the only time we see this used in all four seasons.

What Do We Have On Earth?

For some time now the military have been using such hand-held scanners to scan the iris’ of Iraqi people to keep track of them as most have no form of identification. A company called AOptix have created another, more sophisticated system that not only scans the iris, but can also scan fingerprints, has built in facial recognition software, plus the iris scanner.

Another company in New York created a much smaller, looks a little like the Torchwood Retinal Scanner, and is said to be the first and only iris scanner created for consumers. The actual device is the size of a business card and fits into the USB port. Once the software is installed you can decide which of your applications you wish to Eyelock, then all you need to do is scan the iris using the wand like scanning device. The iris scan is then logged into any password protected area on your computer. So this means you don’t need to remember any passwords, just simply scan your iris and you will log into where you wish to go. Much like the Torchwood system.

The Transparent Case for Severed Hand 

Throughout the first season of Torchwood, sat on a table with a couple of similar containers, sits a canister that contains the severed hand of the Doctor. This hand was cut off when the Doctor fought a Sycorax leader in the 10th Doctors first story “The Christmas Invasion”.

Jack later found the hand somewhere in London and took it back to Cardiff where he placed it in a special storage case. This canister is transparent and is filled with a special preservative liquid. We also must assume that this canister is no ordinary canister and like much of the equipment in Torchwood has been augmented in some way with alien technology. It must be noted that it has blue lighting and bubbles ever so slightly. So maybe this is some kind of life support system maybe. Especially as this isn’t the only thing contained in one of these canisters. There is also the alien artefact the Head of Vexor Eleven, so admired by Eugene in ‘Random Shoes’, though he wasn’t quite so sure what the hand was.

Jack keeps the hand as a kind of warning system to let him know when the Doctor’s around. At the end of the season one episode ‘End of Days’ we see the hand glow and the liquid starts to bubble frantically. At which point Jack grabs the canister and leaves the Hub. When we next see him he’s running across the Roald Dahl Plass where the TARDIS is parked in front of the water tower in the Doctor Who episode ‘Utopia’ the first part of a three part story. The hand is later stolen by the Master, along with the TARDIS later on in the episode.

 What Do We Have On Earth?

Today body parts, when stored, are kept in cold storage. There are many rules and regulations with regards to how human tissue is stored such as how it is stored, how long for, how it is used, permissions that must be obtained and so forth. The following is a few extracts from a document anyone can read on the internet. The funniest thing about this is that this particular document is from the University of Cardiff!

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR THE USE OR STORAGE OF HUMAN TISSUE FOR THE PURPOSES OF RESEARCH OR EDUCATION

MAINTENANCE AND UPKEEP OF CONSTANT TEMPERATURE STORAGE EQUIPMENT

Temperature Controlled Storage – Any storage facility designed to maintain a fixed temperature for the purposes of storage (usually -80°C, -20°C or +4°C).

5.2       Methods of Storage

Tissue should be stored in line with current good practice on: security of storage areas and containers [ie rooms and buildings, freezers, fridges and other storage containers]; traceability, including information about risk.

Records should detail the location of the materials; health and safety, including appropriate containment levels for the storage, transportation and handling of materials that may pose a risk to others.

Cleaning and maintenance of storage is also included in this category.

You can read more from the following link. Be aware that this link is to a document that will ask to be downloaded. It’s the only way to read it.

Coming up in issue 15...

As we have now reached the end of season one and Jack has now run off with “the right Doctor”, we shall be taking a ’Doctor Who Side-Step’ and be following Jack, along with the Doctor and Martha in all three episodes in Issues 15, 16 and 17 of Project: Torchwood!

Jikai made, sayōnara (Japanese for “Until next time, goodbye”)

Mickie

Bibliography

Books

Torchwood: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell

http://tinyurl.com/TorchwoodEncyclopedia

The Torchwood Archives by Warren Martyn (aka Gary Russell)

http://tinyurl.com/TheTorchwoodArchives

Wikipedia

Torchwood Items: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Torchwood_items

Torchwood Three

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Torchwood_Three

TARDIS Data Core

http://tardis.wikia.com

Doctor Who Items

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_items

Other Sites Used

Bilis’ Polaroid Camera

To read more about Bilis’ camera the Model 95 visit here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Camera

To read more about the Model 95A visit the link below.

http://www.vintagecameralab.com/polaroid-land-model-95a/

Socialmatic Camera

http://www.steves-digicams.com/news/polaroid_finalizes_agreement_to_produce_socialmatic_camera.html#b

Organic Computer Article

BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m8ln

Asimov Slasims

http://asimov.slasims.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Torchwood_Computer

Organic Computers in the real world -

http://www.aware-project.eu/organic-computing/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_computing

http://www.gizmag.com/organic-molecular-computer/15041/

Retinal Hand Held Scanner

AOptix

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/2/4270352/theyre-already-watching-the-scary-new-technology-of-iris-scanners  

Eyelock

http://garysreflections.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/new-furturistic-toy-for-our-computers.html

The Transparent Case for Severed Hand Article

http://tinyurl.com/SOPStorageMaintenance

Gadgets & Gizmos Combat by Mickie Newton

Introduction

Well we have reached issue 12 and the world of fight club, sorry I mean “Combat” and we’re not allowed to talk about it. Nobody talks about “Combat” or is that Fight Club? Anywhoo, in this issue we will be looking at the Hacking Device, Jacks Vortex Manipulator/Wrist-strap and also Anti-weevil Spray.

I have used the term ‘Hacking Device’ simply because there is no information anywhere about this. Not in Gary Russell’s encyclopedia or the wiki site that looks at the various things found in Torchwood. So this part is completely through observation and personal knowledge gained over more years than I care to mention, hence the ‘Tosh’ nickname at Project: Torchwood.

Oh and remember, we don’t talk about Fight Club!

Hacking Device

Jack needed to find out what  Lynch Frost Cardiff Estate Agents were all about and their connection to the Weevil kidnappings and the death of a man called Dan Hodges. In order to do this Jack sends Owen undercover, claiming to be a business man who sells Jellied Eels (yummy, my mouth is watering as I speak.....not!).

One of the ways to find out as much as they can is to hack into Mark Lynch’s office computer. And how do they do this? They use a device, that looks a little like a mini version of the Lockbreaker/Reader (could they be from the same alien planet?). Owen applies this to the rear of the monitor (sounds familiar?) and Tosh is then able to access his computer by establishing a routing protocol.

Routing protocols are used to establish how the routers communicate with each other, distributes the information that enables them to select the routes between two nodes on a computer. (if you wish to learn more about Routing Protocols and Nodes etc, just google it and you will find yourself inundated with a tsunami of information.) SO basically using routing protocols allowed the Hub computer to communicate with Mark Lynch’s computer. Tosh was able to access his drive and see what was there, files, address books and so forth.

What Do We Have On Earth?

Well what we have is much like what I mentioned above, only there’s no little gizmo to attach to monitors. Hacking peoples computers really is a big fat no no, but is something that is done every second of the day, hence the precaution of such things as fire-walls and anti-virus software. People hack computers for various reasons. Some are simply malicious, but most are purely to gain money or information that can be sold.

Where Torchwood uses a gizmo, hackers on our world use various means to get into computer systems like back doors (which are created when a programme is written). Or specially written viruses/mal-ware that once activated will ‘create’ that back door and allow the hack in and so allowing them to gain the information they seek. Some viruses/mal-ware once activated do all the hackers work for them by sending everything they seek, such as address books.

But there are also legal programs that allow the user to remotely access another computer from a distance. Both parties must have the same software and agree on a password that allows both computers to connect. So if ‘A’ wishes to connect to ‘Bs’ computer, then ‘B’ needs to pass a specially set up password to ‘A’ who then uses that to access, via the software, to ‘Bs’ computer. Once there ‘A’ can see everything on ‘Bs’ computer and thus allowing ‘A’ to see any problems with regards to the operation of ‘Bs’ computer. Many computer companies, such as Curry’s, use such a system so they can remotely repair a customers computer, as long as it’s a software based problem that is.

Anti Weevil Spray

We first saw this spray used in the episode “Everything Changes”. This spray causes short term pain to the Weevil which subdues them when used, along with Anti-Weevil Handclamps (I shall be looking at these in a future issue) and allows the Torchwood operative to capture them.

By the time we get to “Combat” the Weevils have started to develope an immunity to the spray, though it seems that has been known for a while or at least, this has happened before, as noted by  A.Hopwood (I assume a past team leader). This was discovered in a document by Warren Martyn (see “The Torchwood Archives). It was reported that a Dr Lawson was working on a new version of this spray. What is unclear is if the spray the present team is using is the new spray version and the Weevils have once again started to become immune to it.

What Do We Have On Earth?

The closest we have to this would be pepper spray, which is also known as OC Spray, OC Gas and Capsicum Spray.  This spray irritates the eyes causing tears, is also painful and will cause temporary blindness and so, much like Ant-Weevil Spray will subdue those that it is used on. It has been used by the police and armies in riot control, capturing criminals and crowd control. Can also be used for personal defence against attackers, dogs and in the USA, bears.

It causes the eyes to close and so taking away the vision. This allows officers to restrain criminals more easily, and  for those who use it in self-defence, it gives them a chance to escape.

Though it has been deemed a safer way of stopping people/animals, there have been some concerns that it may have been a contributor in a number of deaths and so in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, it’s use has been banned. In the USA it depends on the State you are in on whether or not it is used or how it is used.

The Vortex Manipulator/Wrist-Strap (VM)

The Vortex Manipulator or VM, is a time traveling device (though it was damaged when he left the Game Station in the Doctor Who episode “Parting of Ways” and arrived in Cardiff in 1869) with numerous extra’s and was issued to Time Agents in the 51st century. Between Torchwood and Doctor Who we have seen three such devices. The one owned by Captain Jack Harkness of course, Jack’s former Time agency partner, Captain John Hart and one obtained by the Doctor’s wife, Melody Pond aka River Song. Most recently we saw Jack’s VM in the 50th Anniversary Doctor Who story, “The Day of the Doctor” used by Clara Oswald to locate the two, no three Doctors.

So what is a VM? With the exception of being able to use it for time travel (when it works), it is not unlike the Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver.

It can be used to Teleport in time and space (Though it broke in 1869 after Jack arrived in Cardiff) The Sonic Screwdriver doesn’t do that. In the Doctor Who episode, “Utopia” the Doctor fixed the VM and so allowing himself, Jack and Martha to Time Travel from the year 200,100 on the planet Malcassairo to 21st century London and in  “The Sound of Drums” it was used to teleport the Doctor, Jack and Martha onto the Valliant craft that was 700 miles away in the sky. Before Jack left the Doctor and Martha, the Doctor undid the repair work, once again stopping Jack from travelling in time and space.

He can also use to communicate via the coms and also send and receive holographic messages. He can access computers and override electrical locks (does it do wood?). It can track objects be they living or inanimate, such as cars and as we saw in the Doctor Who episode “The Empty Child” it can perform medical diagnostics. Jack can also use it as a remote control device, such as operating the Invisible Lift.

And much like it’s owner, it cannot be destroyed as we discovered in the Torchwood 5 part serial “The Children of Earth”, as it survived the explosion of the Torchwood three base.

What Do We Have On Earth?

Sadly there is no one single device that does all these wonderful things. There is also no device that allows us to travel in time, at THIS moment in time. But if you break its individual functions down, there are numerous objects on this earth that can do what the VM does.

Travelling in space - well we have cars, buses, planes, trains, boats, roller skates, space rockets...need I say more

Communication - Walkie talkies. Blue-tooth coms, mobile/cell phones

Medical Diagnostics - Doctors, medical equipment such as MRI scanners

Remote Control - TV Remotes, DVD Remotes, PVR Remotes, Hi-fi Stereo Remotes, radio remotes for model cars etc

Tracking Device - Sat Nav, Satellites, remote tracking devices attached to objects such as peoples and cars

There’s probably a lot more than what I have listed, but ‘we’d be here until the sun explodes’ (Day One) if I typed them all up.

Jikai made, sayōnara (Japanese for “Until next time, goodbye”)

Mickie

Bibliography

Books

Torchwood: The Encyclopedia by Gary Russell

http://tinyurl.com/TorchwoodEncyclopedia

The Torchwood Archives by Warren Martyn aka Gary Russell

http://tinyurl.com/TheTorchwoodArchives

Wikipedia

Routing Protocols

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routing_protocol

Pepper Spray

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_spray