Cardiff Space - Time Rift The Cardiff Space - Time Rift , known locally as the Rift , was a time rift situated in and above the city of Cardiff . Nature . Geographic location . One end of the Rift was located in the Cardiff area , said by Rose Tyler to run straight through the centre of Cardiff . ( TV : " Boom Town " ) When the Rift fractured , it temporarily spread out from Cardiff to cover parts of the entire Earth , including London and Tokyo . ( TV : " End of Days " ) The other end of the Rift varied , and encompassed various times ( TV : " Out of Time " , " End of Days " , " To the Last Man " , AUDIO : " Asylum " ) and places . ( TV : " The Unquiet Dead " , " End of Days " , " Meat " , " Adrift " ) According to Vox , the Rift had many openings , particularly in the Sanctified ' s area of their galaxy . ( COMIC : " Rift War ! " ) Travel through the Rift . When the Rift became active , beings and objects could be transported through Rift flares either from one end of the Rift to another , or to another point in time on the same end of the Rift . Rift storm s were also capable of transporting objects and beings caught up inside of them through the Rift . ( TV : " Kiss Kiss , Bang Bang " , COMIC : " Rift War ! " ) The Rift could cause time shifts , which could cause two different points in time to overlap and could transport beings from one of the two overlapping times to the other . ( TV : " Captain Jack Harkness " , " To the Last Man " ) Some extraterrestrials were also known to be able to manipulate travel through the Rift , as the Weevil s could use the Rift to cross into Cardiff , and the Sanctified were able to transport their Harrowkind troops through the Rift and could create and manipulate Rift storms to transport wanted objects through the Rift to them . ( COMIC : " Rift War ! " ) By 2069 , Torchwood were able to control the Rift to a certain extent , and could sent people through it to arrive in another time . ( AUDIO : " Asylum " ) Other nature . The Rift several times displayed traits similar to those of a living or sentient creature . For example , the Rift would sometimes after a length of time return those it abducted from Cardiff , which Jack Harkness believed was an attempt by the Rift to correct its mistakes and the damage it was doing . ( TV : " Adrift " ) Also , when Vox attempted to absorb the power of the Rift , the Rift sent antibodies to eliminate Vox . ( COMIC : " Rift War ! " ) Rose Tyler said that the Rift was " invisible , but like an earthquake fault between different dimensions " . ( TV : " Boom Town " ) History . Prison of Abaddon and Syriath . During Abaddon ' s and the Light ' s war against Pwccm and the Dark , both sides eventually became caught up in and trapped within the Rift , although they could escape the Rift and fight when it was opened wide enough . ( PROSE : " The Twilight Streets " ) Syriath , an entity born before the universe , was trapped underneath the rift . ( AUDIO : " The House of the Dead " ) The Gelth ' s use of the Rift . Following the Last Great Time War , the Gelth attempted to flee through the Rift to 1869 Cardiff , but initially , only a few of the Gelth were successful in travelling through to Cardiff . Using a psychic named Gwyneth as a bridge through the Rift , the Gelth successfully began to come through into Cardiff and tried to invade Earth and kill off the entire human race and use their corpses to become corporeal . During the Gelth ' s attempted invasion , Gwyneth was able to trap the Gelth already on Earth inside and close the Rift . ( TV : " The Unquiet Dead " ) The closing of the Rift left behind a " scar " which released energy . On his first visit to Cardiff , Jack Harkness considered this radiation " harmless " to humans , but viable as a power source that the Doctor ' s TARDIS could " soak up " . ( TV : " Boom Town " ) Torchwood Institute ' s interest in the Rift . Around the turn of the 20th century , the Torchwood Institute became aware of the Cardiff Rift . Agnes Havisham believed it was a threat and helped set up Torchwood Three to study it . ( PROSE : " Risk Assessment " ) Located in an underground base called the Hub and under the command of Captain Jack Harkness , Torchwood Three had the tasks of monitoring the Rift and phenomena associated with it and with securing for Torchwood any artefacts that came through . ( TV : " Everything Changes " et al ) The Hub also possessed a Rift Manipulator which allowed them to control the Rift to a limited extent . ( TV : " Captain Jack Harkness " , " End of Days " , COMIC : " Rift War ! " ) The widening of the Rift . The Rift was used in September 2006 by both the Ninth Doctor to power up the TARDIS from the energy released from Gwyneth closing the Rift , and by Blon Fel - Fotch . Blon Fel - Fotch , then mayor of Cardiff , plotted to cause a core meltdown with the Blaidd Drwg nuclear power plant . The meltdown would have destroyed the Earth , generating a shock wave that she could ride to escape off into space using a tribophysical waveform macro - kinetic extrapolator . The extrapolator , connected to the Doctor ' s TARDIS , accidentally widened the Rift and caused a powerful earthquake . ( TV : " Boom Town " ) The fracturing of the Rift . Warning signs . In late 2007 , increased numbers of Weevil s coming through the Rift caused Jack Harkness to feel some concern over increased Rift activity . ( TV : " Everything Changes " ) The event . In early 2008 , Bilis Manger contrived to trick Torchwood Three ' s Owen Harper into using the Rift Manipulator to widen the Rift on purpose . This caused the Rift to fracture , resulting in time slips worldwide . Many believed the end of the world had come . ( TV : " Captain Jack Harkness " , " End of Days " ) In Cardiff , more Weevils came through the Rift , as well as a Roman soldier and sufferers of bubonic plague . Finally , as Manger had planned , the Rift opened wide enough for Abaddon to escape . Jack stated that the area would become more active after the opening of the Rift and the death of Abaddon . ( TV : " End of Days " ) Later uses and discoveries . Not long after Abaddon ' s defeat , the Tenth Doctor used the Rift to " fuel up " the TARDIS , commenting that the Rift had recently been active . ( TV : " Utopia " ) Time shift . The Rift caused an overlap in time between 1918 and 2008 , creating the illusion of " ghost sightings " in both times . The time shift was initially confined to a Cardiff hospital , but as it worsened it quickly spread out throughout the city . Torchwood Three sent a cryogenically frozen soldier from 1918 , Tommy Brockless , back from 2008 through a time hole with a " Rift key " , and he was able to close the hole . ( TV : " To the Last Man " ) The same year , Gwen Cooper discovered an unknown property of the Rift , that it abducted people from Cardiff as well as depositing creatures and objects from the other sides . She found out that a number of missing people could be connected to the activity of the Rift . Jack Harkness suggested that this had been going on for a long time , but that more of the people who had been taken were being returned in the last couple years . Jack ' s theory was that the Rift may have been trying to set things right . However , at least one man was returned to his own time by the Rift aged forty years from when he left . Others were disfigured or suffered some form of permanent damage from their travel through the Rift . ( TV : " Adrift " ) The Rift war . The Sanctified used the Rift ' s energy to power their empire . In 2008 , when the Sanctified were led to believe that Torchwood Three would use their Rift Manipulator to destroy their empire , the Sanctified declared war on Torchwood and used the Rift to send their Harrowkind troopers to Cardiff to attack Torchwood . Vox hid from the Sanctified in the gaps and non - places inside the Rift , until Toshiko Sato unintentionally led the Harrowkind to Vox when she and the Torchwood Hub became one moment out of sync with time as a result of a Rift storm . Vox subsequently returned with Tosh and the Hub to Cardiff . Vox subsequently used the Rift Manipulator and alien technology to absorb the power of the Rift , which caused the Rift to produce antibodies and send them to Cardiff to try to eliminate Vox . When Torchwood Three restored a natural focal point for the Rift ' s energy which Vox had previously destroyed , the focal point became a new outlet other than Vox for the Rift ' s energy , and thus Vox lost the Rift ' s power . ( COMIC : " Rift War ! " ) Gray ' s revenge . Jack Harkness ' s brother , Gray , during the latter ' s revenge on Jack , forced John Hart to widen the Rift in order to create chaos around Cardiff . ( TV : " Exit Wounds " ) Contacting the Doctor . In the year 2009 , when Earth was transported by the Dalek s to the Medusa Cascade , the Rift seemed to move to there with Earth . Jack Harkness , Gwen Cooper , and Ianto Jones of Torchwood Three used the Rift ' s power via the Rift Manipulator in conjunction with Sarah Jane Smith ' s supercomputer , Mr Smith , to power a message to the Doctor via Martha Jones ' superphone . ( TV : " The Stolen Earth " ) They later used the combination of the Rift and Mr Smith again to help the Doctor return the Earth back to its regular orbit . ( TV : " Journey ' s End " ) Closure . The Rift was permanently closed when the House of the Dead , which was built on a crack in the Rift , was destroyed by the ghost of Ianto Jones . ( AUDIO : " The House of the Dead " ) Persistence . Despite the apparent closure of the rift , the Eleventh Doctor was still able to use Cardiff as a fuel source for his TARDIS , as he did in 2013 . ( COMIC : " The Doctor and the Nurse " ) That same year , he warned Clara Oswald to stay away from space - time rifts in Wales , as she spent time alone living a " normal " life . ( PROSE : " Normality " ) The area remained weak in the years that followed with temporary holes in space time persisting and thus alien phenomena in Cardiff eventually returned . By 2017 , following several periods of inactivity and activity elsewhere after the destruction of the Torchwood Hub in 2009 and the Miracle Day phenomenon in 2011 , ( TV : " " , " " ) Torchwood returned to deal with the emerging phenomena , which they weren ' t sure was a sign of the rift reopening or simply the position in Cardiff being vulnerable . ( AUDIO : " More Than This " ) Use by other extraterrestrials . The Weevils used the Rift to cross over into Cardiff for reasons of their own , more so as the Rift de - stabilised . ( TV : " Everything Changes " , " Combat " , " End of Days " ) The Sanctified Empire were also known to harvest energy from the Rift , and used it to send their Harrowkind troopers to their intended destinations . ( COMIC : " Rift War ! " ) Behind the scenes . The closing of the Rift . Different sources say a variety of different things in regard to the closure of the Rift . According to the audio story " The House of the Dead " , the Rift finally closed when the House of the Dead was destroyed . On the other hand , Russell T Davies stated that the Rift closed with the Cracks in Time when the Eleventh Doctor rebooted the universe . However , " Torchwood " stories released by Big Finish Productions have since shown that the Rift was not actually closed , just erroneously believed to have been . Torchwood website . A file on the series 1 version of the Torchwood website says that one end of the rift is fixed , ±5 miles from Cardiff Bay , while the other end is " wandering in a seemingly random progression across the universe " . Though it notes Rift activity has increased since the " recent " Cardiff Earthquake , it notes that after the events in December 1869 , the Rift has " not " been quiet . The series 1 version of the Torchwood website had a letter home dated 92 AD addressed from the soldier Q . Asinus Balbus to Ti . Marcus Musca . Toshiko Sato noted it had " interesting references " . It said that the girls who hang around camp brought back messages of a " terrible god " beneath that land that became restless and hungry . When Balbus went on an expedition to the territory , he found entire empty villages along the shore . After hearing what sounded like " the howling of a giant beast " , Balbus headed back to camp . By the time the expedition made it back , three of the patrol were " lost " . Despite not hearing or seeing anything , the rest of the group " knew " that they were being " melted away " , and carried on , knowing they could do nothing about it . The series 1 version of the Torchwood website features a speech from Queen Victoria , calling the Rift a " chilling " example of what the British Empire can " only " be defended from . She was concerned how the Empire could protect against a " border " like the Rift and how anyone can be safe if " unimaginable demons " could step through the rift at any moment . She claimed that the Rift need " [ v ] igilant , tireless and fearless " guardians to protect the " infinite shores " of the Empire . The series 1 version of the Torchwood website had a " rift memo " , dated 13 April 1913 . It alerted the " chief " that on that day there was a sudden increase in Rift activity that manifested as " a series of small ground tremors " . It was concerned about Robertson ' s conclusions from the data : it seemed to be a ripple from a " much bigger " event , or " [ an ] aftershock washing back to towards us through time – call it a preshock , if you will . " Robertson calculated that it orginated at some point in the 21st century . The memo claimed that Cardiff has " got about a century to go before the rift tears it apart . " It said it " might be an idea " to increase safeguards on the rift manipulator .