I'm Convinced This Torchwood Season 1 Episode Had A Secret Connection To Doctor Who's Time Lords

By Daniel Bibby

Published Feb 27, 2025

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Set within the main David Tennant's reign as the Tenth Doctor, but also a little into Matt Smith's era as Eleven.

Of Doctor's companions who wasn't from present-day Earth. Although the show's first two seasons had a specific feel, the final two runs each kept things fresh by adopting new formats. No run of Torchwood episodes ever directly addressed the Time Lords or much of the larger Doctor Who universe, but it came close.

Torchwood's Resurrection Gauntlet Looks Very Similar To Rassilon's Glove In Doctor Who's "The End Of Time"

The Gauntlet debuted in Torchwood in 2006, and Rassilon's glove appeared over 3 years later

Torchwood season 1, episode 1, "Everything Changes," introduces a mysterious piece of alien tech called the Resurrection Gauntlet. The metal glove, which can raise the dead to varying degrees of success, goes on to plague Jack and his team for the show's first two seasons, and a second one even comes along eventually. It looks like it has been taken from a medieval suit of armor, making it even more difficult to guess where it could have come from. However, Doctor Who provided a cryptic clue in Tennant's final regular episode, 2010's "The End of Time - Part Two."

Custom Doctor Who image of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, and Eve Myles as Gwen Cooper in Torchwood

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Timothy Dalton's Rassilon enters the fray in "The End of Time" two-parter, trapped in the Time War with the other Time Lords, but armed with a metal glove that looks staggeringly similar to the Resurrection Gauntlet - if not identical. It could be that the BBC simply repurposed the prop, but with Davies overseeing both projects at that time, I seriously doubt it's just an aesthetic coincidence. Doctor Who canon is an intricate beast, and by design, Torchwood's lore also gets caught up in that complex web of canon. What's more likely is that the Gauntlet is secretly Time Lord technology.

The Gauntlet Being Time Lord Technology Explains Why Torchwood Struggles To Use It Properly

Torchwood Three has an improvisational approach to using the Gauntlet

As well as their physical similarities, both gloves do roughly the same thing. Whereas Torchwood uses the Gauntlet to restore life to the recently departed, Rassilon uses it to take lives in a way that seems like its Torchwood counterpart could do, if used correctly. So, it could be that the Gauntlet can do everything Rassilon's glove can, but Torchwood lacks the knowledge to be able to use it in the same way. Rassilon's glove is likely tricky to use, even for other Time Lords, and he's one of the rare few able to wield it to its full potential.

Rassilon is able to use his glove without physical with his victims, whereas Torchwood's Gauntlet needs to be touching the skin of a cadaver to bring them back.

They do pretty much the same thing, but Torchwood can only harness a fraction of its power, and only briefly. This would make sense if it was designed for Time Lord use, and only very powerful ones like Rassilon. "The End of Time" doesn't give Rassilon a chance to prove if he even knows if his Gauntlet is capable of what Torchwood can pull off with theirs. It could be that Jack and his team are so clueless about the Gauntlet's true function that they've just happened upon an alternate use for which it was not designed.

How Time Lord Technology Could Have Come Into Torchwood Three's Possession

The space-time rift in Cardiff opens up the possibility of Torchwood Three finding Time Lord tech

The entire premise of Torchwood was that Jack and the other Torchwood Three employees had originally set themselves up in Cardiff to monitor and contain anything that came through the space-time rift that existed in the Welsh capital. As such, they were constantly gathering and analyzing the various items that made their way to Earth. So, it would make perfect sense for something of Time Lord origin to end up in Torchwood's possession. The right-hand Gauntlet is canonically confirmed to have come through the rift in Cardiff, but the left is located elsewhere on Earth.

Both Gauntlets that appear in Torchwood function slightly differently from each other when utilized by of the team, which raises the possibility of them being from different sets.

It's possible that the glove worn by Rassilon in "The End of Time" is one of the exact Gauntlets that also appeared in Torchwood. However, if this were the case, it would be the left Gauntlet, as Rassilon is shown to wear his on his left hand rather than his right. Both Gauntlets that appear in Torchwood function slightly differently from each other when utilized by of the team, which raises the possibility of them being from different sets. On the other hand, this could have been an intentional design choice by the Time Lords.

The Resurrection Gauntlet Being From Gallifrey Is One Of The Best Explanations For Why The Doctor Never Appeared In Torchwood Seasons 1 & 2

The Doctor could show up at any time, but never does

One of the biggest criticisms of Torchwood is the fact that the Doctor never shows up - beyond Ten's severed hand in season 1. The Doctor has had several canonical appearances outside Doctor Who, but Torchwood lacked any episodes featuring the famous Time Lord. I've never really had a problem with this, as I'd always just assumed the TARDIS hadn't deemed Cardiff worthy of a visit in the first two seasons, as it knew Torchwood Three was there handling things. The Doctor's absence gets a little harder to explain in later seasons, but not impossible.

Thankfully, the Doctor never did appear, and Torchwood was free to explore what was a brilliant storyline.

If the Resurrection Gauntlet is indeed from Gallifrey, there is no way the Doctor showing up in Torchwood would have ended in any other way than him taking the device with him. Time Lords are understandably very protective of their technology, as things can go very wrong when it falls into the wrong hands - as proven by Torchwood accidentally resurrecting Owen Harper (Burn Gorman) for good, but not quite properly. Thankfully, the Doctor never did appear, and Torchwood was free to explore what was a brilliant storyline.

Torchwood's Highest-Rated Episodes On IMDb
Season	Episode	Title	IMDb Score
3	4	"Children of Earth: Day Four"	9.1/10
3	5	"Children of Earth: Day Five"	9.1/10
3	1	"Children of Earth: Day One"	8.8/10
2	13	"Exit Wounds"	8.7/10
3	2	"Children of Earth: Day Two"	8.7/10

Torchwood's darker themes of death and the concept of an afterlife were a huge part of what gave the show its identity. To tell these stories, the Doctor couldn't really be a part of them, as he would have always tried to step in and stop Jack's questionable methods - such as the use of the Resurrection Gauntlet(s). Alternatively, the Doctor would have probably come up with a more moral solution as he often did in Doctor Who, which sadly would have sidestepped what made Torchwood so great.

Source: IMDb