Cell 114 Cell 114 was the official designation for a species of which Jack Harkness was aware . Very little was known about them , since they did not usually leave survivors , though he did know that they carried out stealth alien invasion s . Methods and technology . Cell 114 were ruthless killers . They tended to infiltrate planet s , first with an advance guard of sleeper agent s , sometimes watching for years , until they knew all they wanted to about the planet ' s dominant species and were ready to take over . Apparently , agents were modified to resemble the native species , with implants which could take information and transmit it to the main invasion fleet . Active spying was not necessary ; the implants constantly took in information from their surroundings . These implants even had built - in weaponry such as spikes and explosives . As well as visually resembling the natives , Cell agents could generate false sensor images as a personal force field less than a nanometre around their body ( mainly the arm where the implant was stored ) for protection . Their electromagnetic fields could disrupt nearby electrical devices such as light bulb s . Sleeper agents were given false memories and artificial personalities so that they believed themselves to be members of the infiltrated species . Their real memories stored in the implant until activation . The Cell ' s main resource seemed to be the aforementioned implant located in the right arm ( at least when mimicking human s ) , which contained collected data and transmitted it to the main invasion fleet . They also contained at least one small bomb with which an agent could carry out sabotage or a suicide bombing , or to self - destruct if capture was imminent . The arm could be transformed into a large spike for close combat . In the case of Beth Halloran , a threat to her life in the form of a burglar , caused her alien personality to awaken , take over and swiftly kill the intruders . ( TV : " Sleeper " ) History . Cell 114 was in the process of infiltrating the Cardiff area on Earth until Torchwood Three became aware of their presence in 2008 . Beth Halloran , who thought of herself as an ordinary human , made inexplicably fierce attacks on two burglars who had invaded her home . After Torchwood discovered the Cell presence , a paramedic , a man called David and a mother were activated and tried to set in motion a plan to explode nuclear missile s stored in an old mine near the city . Two of the Cell agents suicide - bombed a military oil pipeline and Cardiff ' s telecommunications station , and the remaining agent attempted to access the mine ' s nuclear missiles but was thwarted by Torchwood . However , the agent told the Torchwood team that there were more members of the Cell ' s invasion force already on Earth , before self - destructing . Beth Halloran , struggling to cope with the idea of losing her human personality , finally decided to take Gwen Cooper hostage inside the Torchwood Hub . This incited the rest of the team to aim their guns at Beth if she decided to lunge for a kill , and having previously disabled her electromagnetic force field , the bullets would penetrate her . Beth was actually staging a suicide - by - cop - like death , despite Gwen ' s pleading to stop . Beth lashed out with deadly force and was promptly shot dead by the rest of Torchwood before she could strike Gwen . ( TV : " Sleeper " ) Behind the scenes . Torchwood website . The series 2 version of the Torchwood website had a report from Alex Hopkins about Cell 114 . On the morning of 27 June 1998 , the police had called Torchwood to an incident , considering it " nothing they could deal with " . They found a grey , hard - skinned man , Iannamet , standing over what seemed to be a human body . Iannamet told Torchwood that the man he killed wasn ' t human , which the autopsies confirmed ; it was a member of Cell 114 . Iannamet had followed the individual through the rift to 21st century Cardiff , where Iannamet speculated that the Cell 114 agent was trying to contact his " fellows " on Earth , and killed him . Jack Harkness had said he had heard of them , but didn ' t specify where . Alex Hopkins said that no - one ever got close enough to members of Cell 114 " for a proper study " . He did know of their MO — send one agent as an advance guard ; disguise the agent as the dominant species with false memories so that even they don ' t know they ' re an alien ; collect data through their implant ; send similarly disguised agents ; activate " when the time is right " . What Iannamet knew about the species was that when they strike , they do with " comprehensive information " about the target planet . Iannamet once told of a story where a planet taken on by the cell had started by morning , ended by mid - afternoon , and was stripped bare in a couple of weeks . According to Alex , Iannamet went into such detail about this invasion , that Alex was forced to give his team the rest of the day off , saying , " It ' s hard to concentrate in the afternoon when you ' ve heard something like that in the morning . "