It looks like Torchwood will be this year's "Bad Wolf" after all!
So it's time to remind ourselves of all the Torchwood sightings so far:
- In the series one episode Bad Wolf, one of the quiz answers reveals that the Great Cobalt Pyramid was built on the remains of "the famous Old-Earth Torchwood Institute".
- The Torchwood spin-off series has been described as being about a group of maverick investigators, a kind of British X-Files.
- In The Christmas Invasion (TCI), Harriet Jones asks UNIT to contact Torchwood. They are a group so secret that she's not supposed to know about them, though they do seem willing to take orders from her.
- At the end of TCI, the Sycorax spaceship is destroyed by a powerful weapon built using retrieved alien technology. The weapon is controlled and presumably built by Torchwood.
- In Tooth and Claw (T&C), Queen Victoria's encounters with an alien werewolf and the Doctor lead her to realise that the Empire faces threats she'd never imagined. She decides to launch the Torchwood Institute to investigate mysterious phenomena, and protect the Empire from them. The Doctor is seen as one such potential threat, maybe not directly, but in his dangerous habits and casual attitude.
- The Torchwood Institute is named after Torchwood House, where T&C is set, in gratitude to the MacLeish family whose efforts saved the Queen and the Empire.
- In the commentary track for T&C, David Tennant confirms that there will be Torchwood references all through this series, and there will be a big payoff when they're all be pulled together in the two-part season finale.
Time to start keeping a lookout - and let the speculation begin!