[Campaign Seed] Torchwood - Renegades, Remnants and Retirees
May 22, 2024 11:00:06 GMT
tampahawke and lupercal like this
Post by Catsmate on May 22, 2024 11:00:06 GMT
An idea that's been percolating in my brain for some time, what did happen to Torchwood?
Torchwood - Renegades, Remnants and Retirees
With the formation of UNIT in 19660 and the signing of the UK’s Enabling Acts, creating the legal basis for the empowerment of UNIT within Britain1, based on the UN Resolution2, the power of the Torchwood Institute was greatly diminished. Unsurprisingly after the organisation's meddling in politics, and the Institute’s disastrous errors in the previous decade, it was unpopular with the Wilson government, specially given it was perceived (and perhaps correctly) to be aligned with conservatism, of both the 'big C' and 'small c' varieties.
The Institute's fortunes, power and funding, prestige and influence, would wax and wane over the following decades, reaching a new zenith under the middle Thatcher government before declining again, and becoming a tool of the Clarke2 and Saxon administrations.
After the events that led up to the Battle of Canary Wharf became known to both the UK and international governments pressure to eliminate the Institute became overwhelming, with the effectively independent Cardiff team left alone, until its effective dissolution a few years later. Royal writs and instructions were quietly annulled by Orders in Council and other measures.
But what of the surviving Torchwood staff? What happened to them?
Already used to acting independently of the British government, with their own, frequently dubious, if not actually illegal, sources of funding and resources, and intertwined with the Anglian Aerospace group3, many of they quietly 'went private'4 or retired. A few went into UNIT
But old spooks don't quietly retire, they disappear into shallow graves or consultancy jobs. And these people had skills, knowledge and a mission. Some of them continued, fighting perceived threats to Britain and the Empire, be they aliens, foreigners, immigrants or the government5. Some of them became consultants to industrialists who had their own ideas about the proper use of advanced technology.
Some of them merely retained a few 'gadgets' and misused them for their own amusement. But they had a network of sorts6, and money, a few hidden bases and safehouses, and odd items of technology.
Game Use.
The purpose of this piece is to suggest a source of, mainly, NPCs. They can be antagonists, lieutenants for adversaries, Mad Scientists or people meddling with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know. They can be responsible for attempted mimetic mind control to influence elections, constructing a Cyber-army or just pulling strings.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
0. At least in my version of the Whoniverse, where I've tried to build a skeleton to hold the history together.
1. UN Resolution S231 of 1966, 'A General Resolution on Global Policy Regarding Vehicles, Life Forms and Technology of Extra-terrestrial Origin'. The legal basis for UNIT, it’s operations, jurisdiction, organisation, funding and related matters. Adopted unanimously by the Security Council and later confirmed, less than unanimously, by the General Assembly.
Negotiated by an international team who managed to play the fears of the Great Powers off against each other to establish a legal monopoly for the UN. Did not absolutely forbid national “Investigatory Organisations” but rendered them subordinate to UNIT. Theoretically.
Nothing at all to do with the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus
2. That's be Ken Clarke, PM between Blair and Green, and before Jones.
3. A large industrial conglomerate, created in 1970 to reverse-engineer, and monetise, alien and other unusual technology. The UK's Military Industrial Complex, absorber of various other companies over the years.
Who do you thing did the work for the British Mars missions? And Crayford's Jupiter mission?
Mostly based in East Anglia, with operations at Devesham and RAF Weatherton and launch facilities. Designed, built, maintained and ran the UK shuttle fleet.
4. In the 1990s spook sense rather than in the defecting to 'the other side' sense of earlier years.
5. Perhaps a tinge of Jimmy's Secret Army?
6. Shades of ODESSA and Kameradenwerk.
Bottom.
Torchwood - Renegades, Remnants and Retirees
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
With the formation of UNIT in 19660 and the signing of the UK’s Enabling Acts, creating the legal basis for the empowerment of UNIT within Britain1, based on the UN Resolution2, the power of the Torchwood Institute was greatly diminished. Unsurprisingly after the organisation's meddling in politics, and the Institute’s disastrous errors in the previous decade, it was unpopular with the Wilson government, specially given it was perceived (and perhaps correctly) to be aligned with conservatism, of both the 'big C' and 'small c' varieties.
The Institute's fortunes, power and funding, prestige and influence, would wax and wane over the following decades, reaching a new zenith under the middle Thatcher government before declining again, and becoming a tool of the Clarke2 and Saxon administrations.
After the events that led up to the Battle of Canary Wharf became known to both the UK and international governments pressure to eliminate the Institute became overwhelming, with the effectively independent Cardiff team left alone, until its effective dissolution a few years later. Royal writs and instructions were quietly annulled by Orders in Council and other measures.
But what of the surviving Torchwood staff? What happened to them?
Already used to acting independently of the British government, with their own, frequently dubious, if not actually illegal, sources of funding and resources, and intertwined with the Anglian Aerospace group3, many of they quietly 'went private'4 or retired. A few went into UNIT
But old spooks don't quietly retire, they disappear into shallow graves or consultancy jobs. And these people had skills, knowledge and a mission. Some of them continued, fighting perceived threats to Britain and the Empire, be they aliens, foreigners, immigrants or the government5. Some of them became consultants to industrialists who had their own ideas about the proper use of advanced technology.
Some of them merely retained a few 'gadgets' and misused them for their own amusement. But they had a network of sorts6, and money, a few hidden bases and safehouses, and odd items of technology.
Game Use.
The purpose of this piece is to suggest a source of, mainly, NPCs. They can be antagonists, lieutenants for adversaries, Mad Scientists or people meddling with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know. They can be responsible for attempted mimetic mind control to influence elections, constructing a Cyber-army or just pulling strings.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
0. At least in my version of the Whoniverse, where I've tried to build a skeleton to hold the history together.
1. UN Resolution S231 of 1966, 'A General Resolution on Global Policy Regarding Vehicles, Life Forms and Technology of Extra-terrestrial Origin'. The legal basis for UNIT, it’s operations, jurisdiction, organisation, funding and related matters. Adopted unanimously by the Security Council and later confirmed, less than unanimously, by the General Assembly.
Negotiated by an international team who managed to play the fears of the Great Powers off against each other to establish a legal monopoly for the UN. Did not absolutely forbid national “Investigatory Organisations” but rendered them subordinate to UNIT. Theoretically.
Nothing at all to do with the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus
2. That's be Ken Clarke, PM between Blair and Green, and before Jones.
3. A large industrial conglomerate, created in 1970 to reverse-engineer, and monetise, alien and other unusual technology. The UK's Military Industrial Complex, absorber of various other companies over the years.
Who do you thing did the work for the British Mars missions? And Crayford's Jupiter mission?
Mostly based in East Anglia, with operations at Devesham and RAF Weatherton and launch facilities. Designed, built, maintained and ran the UK shuttle fleet.
4. In the 1990s spook sense rather than in the defecting to 'the other side' sense of earlier years.
5. Perhaps a tinge of Jimmy's Secret Army?
6. Shades of ODESSA and Kameradenwerk.
Bottom.
