Beginning Notes: badly-knitted I tend to think of Ianto as being from Newport instead of Cardiff (just like GDL), but that is a personal head-canon thing.
About the Time Agency, I can't remember the fics or the authors but early on in my exploration of the Torchwood fandom I came across two fics. One had the Time Agency as an offshoot of the Torchwood Institute, which has become so bloated and corrupt in its 2-3 century history that it imploded shortly after Jack left. And another had Jack becoming "The Commander", the individual who set up the Time Agency and who ran the Agency remotely and as a result was considered a mythological figure. If I recall correctly the second fic also implied or outright stated that Jack was his own ancestor and when the Time Agency was disbanded he was decapitated and therefore begun the process of becoming the Face of Boe. Both fics influenced my own head canon concerning the Time Agency.
I do believe that The Time Agency was set up for a good reason, time travel became easily available (not publicly, but when has that stopped people when they wanted something) and people are popping all throughout time and it started to destabilised the universe so a police force that specialised in time travel was created. But over a century or two, upper and middle management became corrupt started sending Agents to the future (which had been declared illegal) or creating assignments for the sole purpose of being profitable. Hiring people like "John Hart" became standard practice because those individuals were less likely to challenge orders and more likely to continue the cycle of bad behaviour. But then they went too far they were now destabilising time instead of stabilising it. Another agency stepped in (Torchwood) and disbanded the Time Agency. (The Sub-Director should never have killed the Director than try to steal the Hope Diamond.)
Title: The Torchwood Tribble
Author: Daashi
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Rating: 13+
Genre: Drabble, Humour
Warnings: Swearing (Owen's potty mouth, again)
G: "It's so cute."
T: "It looks like a Tribble."
O: "Lets hope it isn't anything like a Tribble, or goodbye Cardiff."
G: "What's a Tribble?"
I: "It doesn't seem to purr like a Tribble."
J: *sigh* "It is going into the records as a Tribble isn't it."
I: "Of course sir."
T: "What are we going to name it."
J: "Bodge."
I: "No."
J: "I'll have you know that Bodge will become a very popular name in a hundred and fifty years."
O: "That is because people are fuckwits."
~End
Word: Bodge
bodge (verb) : to make a mess of; botch
End Notes: I know I am not the first person who has had the idea of the Torchwood team coming across a Tribble-like creature. I am sorry I can't remember who has done this so I can give you credit. It is an utterly brill idea. We don't get enough of the nice stuff from the show. And Tribbles are utterly adorable how can we resist the urge to insert them into the Torchwood universe.
Star Trek would definitely be something that all members (except for Gwen) would be familiar with various levels of like and enjoyment. I say it would be a tie between Owen and Tosh as to who is the biggest Trekkie. Ianto would happily watch it if it is on TV or if a friend has the DVDs (Tosh). Where as Jack would only watch Original Series and the first 6 movies (he views himself as Kirk and Ianto as his Spock, and he has all these interesting cosplay ideas).
My belief is that Gwen would never have been into science-fiction or science-fantasy. I think as a kid she would have considered it something for losers and nerds, and as a pre-teen would have considered fantasy and high fantasy as something for little kids. Also I don't think she was ever an excessive reader, she did the bare minimum of reading to get through school, school wasn't for leaning for her it was for socialising. And I think that being the apple of daddy's eye that she was, she got her father to help her with homework (and he probably ended up doing most of it).