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Gwen Elizabeth Cooper is a fictional characterin the BBCtelevision programmeTorchwood, a spin-offfrom the long-running series Doctor Who. Gwen Cooper is a former police officerrecruited into the Torchwood Institute. She is portrayed by Eve Myles, who previously appeared in the Doctor Who episode "The Unquiet Dead".

Within the series, Gwen is a South Wales Policeofficer who discovers the mysterious Torchwood Instituteinto which she is recruited by Captain Jack Harkness. Gwen's character is used as an audience surrogatein the introduction to the show's mythos, much like the typical "companion" character in Doctor Who.
 

Gwen is introduced in the first episodeof Torchwood in 2006, where she - a Cardiffpolice officer- is witness to Captain Jack Harkness(John Barrowman) and his team's interrogation of a dead man. Acting as an audience surrogate, she notices Jack is following her and she is led to investigate him and his team, eventually discovering by following him to his base that they are Torchwood, a team of alien hunters. Jack wipes the memories of her discovery, but they are later triggered by reports of murders committed with exotic weaponry; Torchwood's own Suzie Costello(Indira Varma) is the serial killer. Present at Suzie's attempt to kill Jack, and her ensuing suicide, Jack (who reveals that he cannot die) rewards Gwen by offering her a job in Torchwood.[1] Jack and Gwen's relationship becomes tinged with romantic implications,[2] despite her long-standing relationship with boyfriend Rhys(Kai Owen) and Jack's developing sexual relationship with teammate Ianto Jones(Gareth David-Lloyd). Unable to share her experiences at Torchwood with Rhys, Gwen falls into a short-lived destructive sexual affair with teammate Owen(Burn Gorman) for which she is racked with guilt.[3] In the series one finale, it is for her desire at any cost to resurrect a murdered Rhys that she is willing to mutiny against Jack. After Jack is killed by a supernatural demon, it is Gwen's kiss of life which resurrects him, not long before he abandons the team to reunite with the mysterious Doctorfrom his past.[4]

Series two, airing in 2008 begins with Gwen having quickly risen to replace Jack as the team's leader. Upon his return, he promises Gwen that she was the reason he returned to Cardiff, only to discover she has become engaged to Rhys.[5] Early the series, she is forced to confess to Rhys the nature of her job at Torchwood when he assumes she is having an affair with Jack, and she defies Jack by refusing to wipe his memory.[6] She also confesses to Jack before taking an amnesia pillthat she loves him in ways she could never love Rhys,[7] although she still marries Rhys, in the "Something Borrowed" episode. Her marriage causes Jack to contemplate his own past marriage.[8] In the series finale, it is Gwen's leadership skills which allow her to co-ordinate Cardiff in the chaos caused by Captain John Hart(James Marsters) and Jack's younger brother Gray(Lachlan Nieboer). When Gray kills teammates Toshiko(Naoko Mori) and Owen, Gwen is desolate.[9] Following from this, Gwen makes her first crossover appearance in Doctor Who alongside Jack and Ianto in its 2008 series' two-part finale, where Torchwood is called on to help contact series protagonist the Doctor (David Tennant) during a Dalekinvasion.[10] A familial connection between Gwen and the character of Gwyneth, played by Eve Myles in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Unquiet Dead" is alluded to by the Doctor, after he and Rose Tyler(Billie Piper) recognize the physical similarity between the two.[11]
 
 Literature

Gwen appears in the first six of the Torchwood novels, published by BBC Books. The first wave, Another Life,[12] Border Princes,[13] and Slow Decay,[14] were published in January 2007. Published in March 2008, and tying in with the concurrently airing second series of Torchwood, Gwen appears in the novels Trace Memory,[15] The Twilight Streets,[16] and Something in the Water.[17] Three more Torchwood books were released in October 2008: Pack Animals,[18] SkyPoint,[19] and Almost Perfect, the last of which is set after the series two finale "Exit Wounds".[20] The May 2009 wave of books will be Into the Silence,[21] Bay of the Dead,[22] and The House that Jack Built.[23] First published in January 2008, the monthly Torchwood Magazine began occasionally including Torchwood comic strips, in which Gwen also appears.

In the novel Border Princes, Gwen had an affair with James Mayerduring a difficult time with Rhys. Gwen's first day with PC Andy Davidson(played in the TV series by Tom Price) as her partner is portrayed in a flashback in the novel Trace Memory. As with all Doctor Who and Torchwood spin-off media, the canonicityin relation to the television series is unclear.[24]Audio drama

Gwen also appears in Torchwood audio books, the first two being Hidden written by Steven Savileand narrated by Naoko Mori,[25] Everyone Says Hello written by Dan Abnett and narrated by Burn Gorman,[26] released February 2008, and forthcoming In the Shadows by Joseph Lidster, due for release in September 2008.[27] Joseph Lidster also wrote a Radio 4Torchwood drama, "Lost Souls" which aired in Summer 2008 as an Afternoon Playfeaturing the voices of John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and Freema Agyeman(Martha). Set after the events of the 2008 series, Gwen and the team make their first international adventure to CERNin Geneva, as part of Radio 4's special celebration of the Large Hadron Colliderbeing switched on.[28][29] The special radio episode's plot focuses on the Large Hadron Collider's activation and the doomsday scenariosome predicted it might incite, as well as the team's mourning of Toshiko and Owen's recent deaths.[30]