Cardiff Rift
Encyclopedia
The Cardiff Rift is a fictional wormhole
in the science fiction
television series Doctor Who
and Torchwood
, one end of which is located in Cardiff Bay
, Wales
. The other end is apparently floating freely through spacetime
, and matter and radiation can pass through the Rift, allowing extraterrestrial
and extratemporal
artifacts, and occasionally life-forms, to "wash up" in Cardiff
. It is described as "Unpredictable and elusive, it’s a gateway for alien creatures, alien weapons, all manner of alien technology and time anomalies to enter our world" and the "flotsam and jetsam
of the universe since the dawn of time."
The Rift has been featured in episodes of Doctor Who
and is central to the spin-off series Torchwood
, which is based around a branch of the Torchwood Institute
created to monitor activity around the Rift. The Rift acts as a plot generator
, providing a wide and potentially unlimited array of possible plots for the series, much like the Hellmouth
in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Bajoran wormhole in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
.
". This episode takes place in 1869, when the Gelth, gas
eous humanoid
organisms, pass through the Rift into a funeral parlour
, where they are able to 'possess' the corpses. It is established that the Rift releases radiation, prolonged exposure to which can grant psychic powers to people, including Gwyneth, a servant in the parlour. The Doctor
speaks with the Gelth via Gwyneth in a séance
, where they claim to be few in number following the Time War
, and ask for the Rift to be widened, allowing the remaining Gelth to live in the corpses. However, after the Doctor discovers that the Gelth are in fact far more populous than first claimed, and intend to slaughter the human race to provide themselves with inhabitable corpses, Gwyneth sacrifices herself by causing a gas explosion
, which seals the Rift and apparently kills the Gelth.
The episode "Boom Town
", set in modern-day Cardiff, revisits the Rift. The Rift now runs run through Roald Dahl Plass
, and emits a radiation which the TARDIS
can use as fuel. However, a member of the Slitheen
crime family, Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen, disguised as a woman named Margaret Blaine, becomes elected to Mayor of Cardiff and plans to build a defective nuclear power station on the Rift, which would then cause a nuclear meltdown
. The resulting energy shockwave would destroy the planet, but allow Blaine to escape on a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator, described as a "pandimensional surfboard
". The Doctor, Rose
, Mickey Smith
and Jack Harkness
manage to foil her plan, but the extrapolator latches onto the TARDIS and causes the Rift to split open, which causes earth tremors across Roald Dahl Plass
. The Rift is finally sealed by the TARDIS
.
The Tenth Doctor
and Martha Jones
briefly revisit the Rift in "Utopia
" to refuel, treating it as a "pitstop". The Doctor revisits Cardiff to drop off Jack in "Last of the Time Lords
". In "Journey's End
", Torchwood Three team and supercomputer
"Mr Smith
" use the energy of the rift to send a signal to the Doctor through the Medusa Cascade. Later the Doctor uses the Rift- after Mr Smith has interfaced with the TARDIS to allow it to lock on properly- as a towrope to literally 'tow' the Earth back to its proper location in time after it was stolen by the Daleks.
became aware of the Rift's presence. Torchwood Three has also been described as merely a "monitoring station" for the rift.
The website lists among the items found in the Rift "3 new Weevil
clusters... [7] items of unknown provenance... 2 weapons... 2 EBEs
". However, the Rift appears to be one-way; craft sent through the Rift have been unable to either return or to send back a signal.
In "Out of Time
", the Rift facilitates the misplacement of people on board a plane from 1953 to the show's present day. In the episode's conclusion, a temporal immigrant, feeling it will take her home or somewhere new, ventures back into the sky, with her ultimate fate left unclear.
In "Captain Jack Harkness", the Rift is responsible for sending Jack
and Tosh
back to 1941. In the present day, Owen
uses a " Rift machine" designed by Toshiko to open the rift and bring them back (this episode shows the Rift's event horizon properly for this first time).
The consequences of Owen's actions resonate in the next episode, the first series finale "End of Days
". By opening the Rift, he has allowed more "flotsam and jetsam" to come through, including a Roman
soldier
, a group of mediaeval
plague
sufferers, and even a large UFO. As Jack puts it, opening the Rift has caused the cracks in time to widen on a global scale. The time travelling Bilis Manger shows Gwen
a vision of the death of her boyfriend
Rhys, convincing her to open the Rift even wider to reverse the damage that has already been done. When this happens, the entity known as Abaddon rises from "beneath the Rift". Jack sacrifices himself to destroy Abaddon, and the Rift immediately closes. The team (including Jack, who has come back from the dead again thanks to his past experiences
) still retains the memory of what happened, but some of the actual events have been reverted (such as Rhys returning to life), and Owen spearheads a minor clean-up mission. A year later in "Exit Wounds
", Jack's brother Gray has Captain John Hart widen the rift again to unleash chaos across Cardiff, unleashing monsters such as Hoix, Weevils and cowled ghouls from distant times and places. As a Time Agent, Captain John can use his wrist-strap vortex manipulator to travel to Cardiff through the Rift.
In "Adrift
", it is revealed that as well as depositing creatures and items in Cardiff, the Rift also takes people, depositing them anywhere in space or time. Gwen discovers that this is the cause of a drastic increase in the amount of missing people in the Cardiff area. The Rift, in an effort to right itself, often returns people again. However, they have often seen such graphic images that they develop mental illnesses.
At the start of Torchwood: Children of Earth (2009), the Hub is destroyed and Torchwood relocate to London as fugitives. Torchwood itself is later destroyed by the end of the serial. Fans were left asking the fate of, among other things, the Rift. The subsequent 2011 series of Torchwood relocates primarily to the United States. When asked in an interview with SFX magazine, Davies stated "I like to think that when [subsequent Doctor Who executive producer] Steven Moffat
so thoughtfully closed all those cracks in the universe, the Rift in Cardiff closed up at the same time. I used to wonder what the hell happened to that Rift and now it's all solved. When I watched those cracks seal up I was like, 'Oh, thank you.'" This refers to the events of the 2010 Doctor Who episode "The Big Bang
", which was written by Steven Moffat. However, Torchwood media in 2011 since provided a direct explanation for the Rift. In the radio drama "The House of the Dead", Jack visits a haunted location where the Rift allows ghosts, including the deceased Ianto Jones
, to enter into the living world. To close the Rift forever and seal an ancient evil on the other side of it, Jack creates a device designed to seal the Rift. The device will also provide Jack an end to his cycle of resurrections. However, Ianto's spirit tricks Jack into leaving, and detonates the device himself, closing the Rift "forever" and with it the barrier between the living and the dead.
by Dan Abnett
, it is revealed that several other planets border permanent points where the Rift has anchored. One such planet has a similar organization to Torchwood entitled The First Senior, whose title for the Rift translates as The Stumble, The Misstep or The Border. When The First Senior heard of Torchwood, they inserted a Principal, a spy who could observe how they handle the Rift, purely for research into how other "Rift guardians" operate. Like all Doctor Who and Torchwood spin-off media, its place in canon is unclear.
. Creatures have been known to pass presumably through time because of the Rift, including a pterodactyl. It can be used as a source of power for the TARDIS, perhaps replacing the Eye of Harmony
. The landing of the TARDIS near the fountain in Roald Dahl Plass resulted in the ship's "perception properties" being welded to the Rift, creating a "perception filter" that prevents anyone outside that spot from noticing anything inside. In 19th century Cardiff, Gwyneth developed telepathic
powers as a result of life-long exposure to the Rift. "Out of Time" suggests that the Rift can act as an unpredictable window through time in certain weather conditions. Much as the Rift deposits all things alien in Cardiff, it also takes; as a result of this Cardiff has an unusually high missing persons rate owing to humans scattered throughout space and time by the Rift. The destruction of a hospital in Cardiff caused the psychic energy of all the lives spent and lost there, in conjunction with the Rift, to cause 1918 and 2008 to begin to overlap in "To the Last Man
".
On April 1913, "preshocks" of the Rift's opening in "End of Days" manifested as ground tremors. Before the dawn of time, as with the Beast, Biblical demon Abaddon had been sealed away in Earth, using the Rift as a means for his imprisonment. This suggests that it happened "before the universe's creation" as with the Beast, and that the Beast's captors, the "Disciples of Light" may have had a hand in the formation of the Rift as they did with the gravity field in "The Impossible Planet
". The Rift is not dependent on Abaddon, however, in fact Jack warns that it will be more violent than ever following his release.
refers to the Rift in the plural, indicating that there are others elsewhere. In series 3
episode "The Sound of Drums
" (2007), the Master
(John Simm
) also refers to the Doctor sealing the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade, deep in space. The Dalek
s later planned to make use of this rift in spreading their Reality Bomb ("Journey's End
", 2008). When explaining the prevalence of foresight abilities in Pompeii
, the Doctor explains Mount Vesuvius
temporarily opened a Rift in time and space, which accounts for this, in the episode "The Fires of Pompeii
" (2008). In the series 6
episode "The Doctor's Wife
" (2011), the Eleventh Doctor
(Matt Smith) travels through a time rift to a location "outside" the universe. He comments that his TARDIS should refuel by virtue of being exposed, as with the Cardiff rift, to temporary energies.
Similar phenomenon are encountered in other stories. For example, in Image of the Fendahl
(1977), the Fourth Doctor
(Tom Baker
) encounters a "time fissure" in Fetch Borough in the West Country
of England
. Another "time fissure" located in the village of Foxgrove, Hertfordshire
appears in The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
(2008), a The Sarah Jane Adventures
serial in which Sarah Jane Smith
(Elisabeth Sladen
) returns a time displaced boy from 1951 through this fissure, and is tempted to use it meet her parents who died in her infancy. A "scar in time and space" in San Francisco featured in the 1999 Eighth Doctor
novel Unnatural History
by Jonathan Blum
and Kate Orman
. It was also created by the TARDIS malfunctioning (this time as seen at the end of the eighth Doctor's only television adventure) and also had the consequence of creating a hole in time which was a magnet to strange phenomena, including timeslips and creatures which appeared magical.
In the Torchwood comic story "Shrouded" by Gareth David-Lloyd
, John Hart reveals that he moved to Mexico to buy and sell alien artefacts because a "small rift" is located near the Gulf, which he uses as his "tube to work".
(a dialogue in the style of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas
' radio play Under Milk Wood
), columnist Verity Stob
derides the device as lazy writing on the part of Davies and his writing team, and comments on its large indebtedness to the Hellmouth from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gwen asks "What is the Rift?"; the narrative voice describes it as "a kind of hellmouth that is sucking on a transcendental, transdimensional gobstopper. It is a double-egg MacGuffin
served with large flies. It is... an easy way for lazy writers to generate indulgence-straining plots, without ever troubling to think up anything new, or plausible, or to know or look up any science."
Wormholes in fiction
A wormhole is a postulated method, within the general theory of relativity, of moving from one point in space to another without crossing the space between. Wormholes are a popular feature of science fiction as they allow interstellar travel within human timescales...
in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
, one end of which is located in Cardiff Bay
Cardiff Bay
Cardiff Bay is the area created by the Cardiff Barrage in South Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The regeneration of Cardiff Bay is now widely regarded as one of the most successful regeneration projects in the United Kingdom. The Bay is supplied by two rivers to form a freshwater lake round the...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. The other end is apparently floating freely through spacetime
Spacetime
In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single continuum. Spacetime is usually interpreted with space as being three-dimensional and time playing the role of a fourth dimension that is of a different sort from the spatial dimensions...
, and matter and radiation can pass through the Rift, allowing extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life in popular culture
In popular cultures, "extraterrestrials" are life forms — especially intelligent life forms— that are of extraterrestrial origin .-Historical ideas:-Pre-modern:...
and extratemporal
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
artifacts, and occasionally life-forms, to "wash up" in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
. It is described as "Unpredictable and elusive, it’s a gateway for alien creatures, alien weapons, all manner of alien technology and time anomalies to enter our world" and the "flotsam and jetsam
Flotsam and jetsam
In maritime law, flotsam, jetsam, lagan and derelict describe specific kinds of wreck.The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage....
of the universe since the dawn of time."
The Rift has been featured in episodes of Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
and is central to the spin-off series Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
, which is based around a branch of the Torchwood Institute
Torchwood Institute
The Torchwood Institute is a fictional secret organization from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood. It was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria after the events of "Tooth and Claw". Its prime directive, is to defend the earth against...
created to monitor activity around the Rift. The Rift acts as a plot generator
Plot generator
A plot generator is either:# a fictional plot device which permits the generation of plots for an extended serial without requiring a great deal of logical connection between the episodes, or...
, providing a wide and potentially unlimited array of possible plots for the series, much like the Hellmouth
Hellmouth (Buffyverse)
In the fictional universe established by the television shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, the Buffyverse, a Hellmouth is an area fraught with massive supernatural activity.-Definition:"From beneath you, it devours."...
in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Bajoran wormhole in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
.
Doctor Who
The Rift first appears in the Doctor Who episode "The Unquiet DeadThe Unquiet Dead
"The Unquiet Dead" is an episode in the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 9 April 2005 and is the first episode of the revival to be set in the past. In Victorian Cardiff, the dead are walking, and creatures made of gas are on the loose...
". This episode takes place in 1869, when the Gelth, gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
eous humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...
organisms, pass through the Rift into a funeral parlour
Funeral home
A funeral home, funeral parlor or mortuary, is a business that provides burial and funeral services for the deceased and their families. These services may include aprepared wake and funeral, and the provision of a chapel for the funeral....
, where they are able to 'possess' the corpses. It is established that the Rift releases radiation, prolonged exposure to which can grant psychic powers to people, including Gwyneth, a servant in the parlour. The Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
speaks with the Gelth via Gwyneth in a séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
, where they claim to be few in number following the Time War
Time War (Doctor Who)
The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, and ask for the Rift to be widened, allowing the remaining Gelth to live in the corpses. However, after the Doctor discovers that the Gelth are in fact far more populous than first claimed, and intend to slaughter the human race to provide themselves with inhabitable corpses, Gwyneth sacrifices herself by causing a gas explosion
Gas explosion
A gas explosion is an explosion resulting from a gas leak in the presence of an ignition source. The principal explosive gases are natural gas, methane, propane and butane, because they are widely used for heating purposes. However, many other gases like hydrogen, are combustible and have caused...
, which seals the Rift and apparently kills the Gelth.
The episode "Boom Town
Boom Town (Doctor Who)
"Boom Town" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 4 June 2005. The Doctor, Rose and Jack travel to modern-day Cardiff and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, Mickey...
", set in modern-day Cardiff, revisits the Rift. The Rift now runs run through Roald Dahl Plass
Roald Dahl Plass
Roald Dahl Plass is a public plaza in Cardiff Bay, part of Cardiff, Wales. It is named after Cardiff-born author Roald Dahl, and is located on the coast along the south of the city centre. The square is home to the Senedd and the Wales Millennium Centre, a performing arts centre...
, and emits a radiation which the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
can use as fuel. However, a member of the Slitheen
Slitheen
The Slitheen are a family of massive, bipedal extraterrestrials from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and they are adversaries of the Doctor. They first appeared in the 2005 series episodes "Aliens of London" and "World War Three", and subsequently recur in later episodes of...
crime family, Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen, disguised as a woman named Margaret Blaine, becomes elected to Mayor of Cardiff and plans to build a defective nuclear power station on the Rift, which would then cause a nuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown
Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency or by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission...
. The resulting energy shockwave would destroy the planet, but allow Blaine to escape on a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator, described as a "pandimensional surfboard
Surfboard
A surfboard is an elongated platform used in the sport of surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding a breaking wave...
". The Doctor, Rose
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
, Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Noel Clarke.Mickey is introduced as the boyfriend of the Ninth and Tenth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler, and a recurring character on the programme...
and Jack Harkness
Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. He first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappeared in the remaining episodes of the 2005 series as a companion of the ninth incarnation of the...
manage to foil her plan, but the extrapolator latches onto the TARDIS and causes the Rift to split open, which causes earth tremors across Roald Dahl Plass
Roald Dahl Plass
Roald Dahl Plass is a public plaza in Cardiff Bay, part of Cardiff, Wales. It is named after Cardiff-born author Roald Dahl, and is located on the coast along the south of the city centre. The square is home to the Senedd and the Wales Millennium Centre, a performing arts centre...
. The Rift is finally sealed by the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
.
The Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
and Martha Jones
Martha Jones
Martha Jones is a fictional character played by Freema Agyeman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. She is a companion of the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who, replacing Rose Tyler...
briefly revisit the Rift in "Utopia
Utopia (Doctor Who)
"Utopia" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 16 June 2007 and is the eleventh episode of series three of the revived Doctor Who series...
" to refuel, treating it as a "pitstop". The Doctor revisits Cardiff to drop off Jack in "Last of the Time Lords
Last of the Time Lords
"Last of the Time Lords" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2007, and is the thirteenth and final episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
". In "Journey's End
Journey's End (Doctor Who)
"Journey's End" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who first broadcast on BBC One on 5 July 2008. It is the second episode of a two-part crossover story featuring the characters of spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane...
", Torchwood Three team and supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
"Mr Smith
Mr Smith (The Sarah Jane Adventures)
Mr Smith is a fictional extraterrestrial computer voiced by Alexander Armstrong which appears in the British children's science fiction television series, The Sarah Jane Adventures, with further minor appearances in the final two episodes of the fourth series of Doctor Who...
" use the energy of the rift to send a signal to the Doctor through the Medusa Cascade. Later the Doctor uses the Rift- after Mr Smith has interfaced with the TARDIS to allow it to lock on properly- as a towrope to literally 'tow' the Earth back to its proper location in time after it was stolen by the Daleks.
Torchwood
The Rift features regularly in Torchwood, with almost every episode being based around material or life-forms which have passed through the Rift. The Torchwood Institute website suggests that Torchwood Three was formed in Cardiff as soon as the Torchwood InstituteTorchwood Institute
The Torchwood Institute is a fictional secret organization from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood. It was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria after the events of "Tooth and Claw". Its prime directive, is to defend the earth against...
became aware of the Rift's presence. Torchwood Three has also been described as merely a "monitoring station" for the rift.
The website lists among the items found in the Rift "3 new Weevil
Weevil (Torchwood)
Weevils are a fictional extraterrestrial species from the British science fiction television series Torchwood, first appearing in the episode "Everything Changes". As Jack Harkness explains in that episode, the name "Weevil" is applied to them by Torchwood, but as communication with them is...
clusters... [7] items of unknown provenance... 2 weapons... 2 EBEs
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
". However, the Rift appears to be one-way; craft sent through the Rift have been unable to either return or to send back a signal.
In "Out of Time
Out of Time (Torchwood)
"Out of Time" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast on 17 December 2006. It is the tenth episode of the first series.- Synopsis :...
", the Rift facilitates the misplacement of people on board a plane from 1953 to the show's present day. In the episode's conclusion, a temporal immigrant, feeling it will take her home or somewhere new, ventures back into the sky, with her ultimate fate left unclear.
In "Captain Jack Harkness", the Rift is responsible for sending Jack
Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. He first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappeared in the remaining episodes of the 2005 series as a companion of the ninth incarnation of the...
and Tosh
Toshiko Sato
is a fictional character from the television series Doctor Who and its spin-off Torchwood, played by Naoko Mori. After a one-off appearance in the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London" , Toshiko is re-introduced as a series regular in the Torchwood 2006 premiere episode "Everything Changes"...
back to 1941. In the present day, Owen
Owen Harper
Owen Harper is a fictional character played by Burn Gorman, and a regular in the BBC television series Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. The character last appeared onscreen in the Series 2 finale, "Exit Wounds"....
uses a " Rift machine" designed by Toshiko to open the rift and bring them back (this episode shows the Rift's event horizon properly for this first time).
The consequences of Owen's actions resonate in the next episode, the first series finale "End of Days
End of Days (Torchwood)
"End of Days" is the thirteenth episode and the first series finale of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It originally aired on BBC Three on 1 January 2007, alongside the previous episode, "Captain Jack Harkness". The episode was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by...
". By opening the Rift, he has allowed more "flotsam and jetsam" to come through, including a Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
soldier
Roman army
The Roman army is the generic term for the terrestrial armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome , the Roman Republic , the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine empire...
, a group of mediaeval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
plague
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
sufferers, and even a large UFO. As Jack puts it, opening the Rift has caused the cracks in time to widen on a global scale. The time travelling Bilis Manger shows Gwen
Gwen Cooper
Gwen Cooper is a fictional character in the BBC television programme Torchwood, a spin-off to the long-running show Doctor Who, portrayed by Welsh actress Eve Myles. The series' lead female character, Gwen has featured in every episode of the sci-fi programme to date as well as two crossover...
a vision of the death of her boyfriend
Boyfriend
A boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship, although normally not in long-term committed relationships, where other titles A boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship, although normally not in long-term committed...
Rhys, convincing her to open the Rift even wider to reverse the damage that has already been done. When this happens, the entity known as Abaddon rises from "beneath the Rift". Jack sacrifices himself to destroy Abaddon, and the Rift immediately closes. The team (including Jack, who has come back from the dead again thanks to his past experiences
The Parting of the Ways
"The Parting of the Ways" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 18 June 2005. It was the second episode of the two-part story that featured Christopher Eccleston making his last appearance as the Ninth Doctor...
) still retains the memory of what happened, but some of the actual events have been reverted (such as Rhys returning to life), and Owen spearheads a minor clean-up mission. A year later in "Exit Wounds
Exit Wounds (Torchwood)
"Exit Wounds" is the thirteenth and final episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, and was broadcast on BBC Two on 4 April 2008.-Synopsis:...
", Jack's brother Gray has Captain John Hart widen the rift again to unleash chaos across Cardiff, unleashing monsters such as Hoix, Weevils and cowled ghouls from distant times and places. As a Time Agent, Captain John can use his wrist-strap vortex manipulator to travel to Cardiff through the Rift.
In "Adrift
Adrift (Torchwood)
"Adrift" is the eleventh episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast by BBC Three on 19 March 2008, and by BBC Two on 21 March 2008.-Plot:...
", it is revealed that as well as depositing creatures and items in Cardiff, the Rift also takes people, depositing them anywhere in space or time. Gwen discovers that this is the cause of a drastic increase in the amount of missing people in the Cardiff area. The Rift, in an effort to right itself, often returns people again. However, they have often seen such graphic images that they develop mental illnesses.
At the start of Torchwood: Children of Earth (2009), the Hub is destroyed and Torchwood relocate to London as fugitives. Torchwood itself is later destroyed by the end of the serial. Fans were left asking the fate of, among other things, the Rift. The subsequent 2011 series of Torchwood relocates primarily to the United States. When asked in an interview with SFX magazine, Davies stated "I like to think that when [subsequent Doctor Who executive producer] Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
so thoughtfully closed all those cracks in the universe, the Rift in Cardiff closed up at the same time. I used to wonder what the hell happened to that Rift and now it's all solved. When I watched those cracks seal up I was like, 'Oh, thank you.'" This refers to the events of the 2010 Doctor Who episode "The Big Bang
The Big Bang (Doctor Who)
"The Big Bang" is the 13th and final episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the second part of a two-part season finale started with "The Pandorica Opens", at the end of which The Doctor is trapped, the TARDIS destroyed, and Amy Pond has been shot...
", which was written by Steven Moffat. However, Torchwood media in 2011 since provided a direct explanation for the Rift. In the radio drama "The House of the Dead", Jack visits a haunted location where the Rift allows ghosts, including the deceased Ianto Jones
Ianto Jones
Ianto Jones is a fictional character in the BBC television series Torchwood, played by Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd. A series regular, Ianto appears in every episode of the programme's first three series, as well as two crossover episodes of Torchwoods parent show, Doctor Who...
, to enter into the living world. To close the Rift forever and seal an ancient evil on the other side of it, Jack creates a device designed to seal the Rift. The device will also provide Jack an end to his cycle of resurrections. However, Ianto's spirit tricks Jack into leaving, and detonates the device himself, closing the Rift "forever" and with it the barrier between the living and the dead.
Other media
In the Torchwood novel Border PrincesBorder Princes
Border Princes is a BBC Books original novel written by Dan Abnett and based on the British science fiction television, Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood. It features all the regular cast of the show.-Plot summary:October, 8:00 pm...
by Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett is a British comic book writer and novelist. He is a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since the 1990s, including 2000 AD...
, it is revealed that several other planets border permanent points where the Rift has anchored. One such planet has a similar organization to Torchwood entitled The First Senior, whose title for the Rift translates as The Stumble, The Misstep or The Border. When The First Senior heard of Torchwood, they inserted a Principal, a spy who could observe how they handle the Rift, purely for research into how other "Rift guardians" operate. Like all Doctor Who and Torchwood spin-off media, its place in canon is unclear.
Attributes and effects
The Rift has facilitated an underground Weevil infestation and allows for alien technology to wash up in Cardiff, which are sometimes acquired by Torchwood ThreeTorchwood Institute
The Torchwood Institute is a fictional secret organization from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood. It was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria after the events of "Tooth and Claw". Its prime directive, is to defend the earth against...
. Creatures have been known to pass presumably through time because of the Rift, including a pterodactyl. It can be used as a source of power for the TARDIS, perhaps replacing the Eye of Harmony
Eye of Harmony
The Eye of Harmony is an artificial black hole created by the Time Lords to provide energy for their home world of Gallifrey and their time travel technology in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-First appearances:...
. The landing of the TARDIS near the fountain in Roald Dahl Plass resulted in the ship's "perception properties" being welded to the Rift, creating a "perception filter" that prevents anyone outside that spot from noticing anything inside. In 19th century Cardiff, Gwyneth developed telepathic
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
powers as a result of life-long exposure to the Rift. "Out of Time" suggests that the Rift can act as an unpredictable window through time in certain weather conditions. Much as the Rift deposits all things alien in Cardiff, it also takes; as a result of this Cardiff has an unusually high missing persons rate owing to humans scattered throughout space and time by the Rift. The destruction of a hospital in Cardiff caused the psychic energy of all the lives spent and lost there, in conjunction with the Rift, to cause 1918 and 2008 to begin to overlap in "To the Last Man
To the Last Man (Torchwood)
"To the Last Man" is the third episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast by BBC Two on 30 January 2008.-Synopsis:...
".
On April 1913, "preshocks" of the Rift's opening in "End of Days" manifested as ground tremors. Before the dawn of time, as with the Beast, Biblical demon Abaddon had been sealed away in Earth, using the Rift as a means for his imprisonment. This suggests that it happened "before the universe's creation" as with the Beast, and that the Beast's captors, the "Disciples of Light" may have had a hand in the formation of the Rift as they did with the gravity field in "The Impossible Planet
The Impossible Planet
"The Impossible Planet" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the first part of a two-part story, followed by "The Satan Pit". The TARDIS lands in a base on a planet orbiting a black hole, an allegedly impossible situation that stumps even the Doctor...
". The Rift is not dependent on Abaddon, however, in fact Jack warns that it will be more violent than ever following his release.
Similar anomalies
In "Boom Town", the Ninth DoctorNinth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
refers to the Rift in the plural, indicating that there are others elsewhere. In series 3
Doctor Who (series 3)
The third series of British science fiction series Doctor Who was preceded by the 2006 Christmas special "The Runaway Bride". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes was broadcast, starting with "Smith and Jones" on 31 March 2007...
episode "The Sound of Drums
The Sound of Drums
"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007, and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series...
" (2007), the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
(John Simm
John Simm
John Simm is an English stage and screen actor. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler in the detective drama Life on Mars and as The Master in the revival of the science fiction series Doctor Who, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television...
) also refers to the Doctor sealing the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade, deep in space. The Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s later planned to make use of this rift in spreading their Reality Bomb ("Journey's End
Journey's End (Doctor Who)
"Journey's End" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who first broadcast on BBC One on 5 July 2008. It is the second episode of a two-part crossover story featuring the characters of spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane...
", 2008). When explaining the prevalence of foresight abilities in Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
, the Doctor explains Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius
Mount Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, about east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting...
temporarily opened a Rift in time and space, which accounts for this, in the episode "The Fires of Pompeii
The Fires of Pompeii
"The Fires of Pompeii" is the second episode of the fourth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 12 April 2008....
" (2008). In the series 6
Doctor Who (series 6)
The sixth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who was shown in two parts. The first seven episodes were broadcast from April to June 2011 and the final six episodes from August to October. Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill continued their roles as The Doctor, Amy...
episode "The Doctor's Wife
The Doctor's Wife (Doctor Who)
"The Doctor's Wife" is the fourth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 14 May 2011 in the United Kingdom, as well as in the United States...
" (2011), the Eleventh Doctor
Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
(Matt Smith) travels through a time rift to a location "outside" the universe. He comments that his TARDIS should refuel by virtue of being exposed, as with the Cardiff rift, to temporary energies.
Similar phenomenon are encountered in other stories. For example, in Image of the Fendahl
Image of the Fendahl
Image of the Fendahl is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 29 October to 19 November 1977.-Plot:...
(1977), the Fourth Doctor
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
(Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
) encounters a "time fissure" in Fetch Borough in the West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Another "time fissure" located in the village of Foxgrove, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
appears in The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith is a story of The Sarah Jane Adventures which was broadcast on CBBC on 17 and 24 November 2008. It is the fifth serial of the second series.-Part 1:...
(2008), a The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television series, produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen...
serial in which Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running British BBC Television science-fiction series Doctor Who and its spin-offs K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures....
(Elisabeth Sladen
Elisabeth Sladen
Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen was an English actress best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series Doctor Who. She was a regular cast member from 1973 to 1976, alongside both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and reprised the role many times in subsequent decades, both on...
) returns a time displaced boy from 1951 through this fissure, and is tempted to use it meet her parents who died in her infancy. A "scar in time and space" in San Francisco featured in the 1999 Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
novel Unnatural History
Unnatural History (Doctor Who)
Unnatural History is an original novel written by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
by Jonathan Blum
Jonathan Blum
Jonathan Blum is an American writer most known for his work for various Doctor Who spin-offs, usually with his wife Kate Orman although he has also been published on his own...
and Kate Orman
Kate Orman
Kate Orman is an Australian author, best known for her books connected to the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who.-Biography:...
. It was also created by the TARDIS malfunctioning (this time as seen at the end of the eighth Doctor's only television adventure) and also had the consequence of creating a hole in time which was a magnet to strange phenomena, including timeslips and creatures which appeared magical.
In the Torchwood comic story "Shrouded" by Gareth David-Lloyd
Gareth David-Lloyd
Gareth David-Lloyd is a Welsh actor best known for his role as Ianto Jones in the British science fiction television programme Torchwood.- Early life :...
, John Hart reveals that he moved to Mexico to buy and sell alien artefacts because a "small rift" is located near the Gulf, which he uses as his "tube to work".
Reception
The Rift plot device has attracted some critical commentary. In Under Torch Wood, a one-off Torchwood parody for The RegisterThe Register
The Register is a British technology news and opinion website. It was founded by John Lettice, Mike Magee and Ross Alderson in 1994 as a newsletter called "Chip Connection", initially as an email service...
(a dialogue in the style of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
' radio play Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood is a 1954 radio drama by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, adapted later as a stage play. A movie version, Under Milk Wood directed by Andrew Sinclair, was released during 1972....
), columnist Verity Stob
Verity Stob
Verity Stob is the pseudonym of a British satirical columnist. Stob is an anonymous software developer, the author of humorous and satirical articles about information technology, particularly software development. Since 1988, she has written her "Verity Stob" column for .EXE magazine, Dr. Dobb's...
derides the device as lazy writing on the part of Davies and his writing team, and comments on its large indebtedness to the Hellmouth from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Gwen asks "What is the Rift?"; the narrative voice describes it as "a kind of hellmouth that is sucking on a transcendental, transdimensional gobstopper. It is a double-egg MacGuffin
MacGuffin
A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...
served with large flies. It is... an easy way for lazy writers to generate indulgence-straining plots, without ever troubling to think up anything new, or plausible, or to know or look up any science."
See also
- Nexus (Charmed)Nexus (Charmed)A Nexus is a place equidistant from the five elements as explained in the TV series Charmed. Using this as a point of reference, it is quite possible that there could be several Nexus points of power scattered throughout the Charmed world, though rare. The one used by the Halliwell family in the...
- Hellmouth (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
- Bajoran wormhole (Star Trek)
- Stargate (Stargate)Stargate (device)A Stargate is a portal device within the Stargate fictional universe that allows practical, rapid travel between two distant locations. The devices first appear in the 1994 Roland Emmerich film Stargate, and thereafter in the television series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-offs...
- Anomaly (Primeval)Anomaly (Primeval)Anomalies are fictional phenomena which occur in the science fiction television series Primeval and are a type of time portal. The anomaly is shown as an orb of fractured reflective or refractive triangles in the air, much like shards of broken glass. One character stated that he could see a...