Talk:Jack Harkness: Difference between revisions

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
Tag: 2017 source edit
 
(48 intermediate revisions by 29 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{ArchCat}}
{{ArchCat}}
== Jack and The Doctor ==
Is it just me or is Jack like a mirror image of The Doctor? He hides his real name, he has coat like the Tenth Doctor's, he can't die like The Doctor, he travels through time and space, he was stranded on Earth for a bit, he lost his family and friends in a great war. He's like a Human Doctor. And yes he is the face of boe, davies said so. The reason why he dies in gridlock is because he drains all of the time vortex out of him and into the power-grid so he dies there! -- User:PuzzleSolverer 14: 08, April 15, 2010 (UTC)


You're right, he is a bit of a reflection of the Doc, I noticed that too. But for the record, the Doctor can die. [[User:Sorryaboutthatchief|Sorryaboutthatchief]] 03:39, February 20, 2011 (UTC)
== Jack's Timeline ==


==Alonso==
Shouldn't the burial of Jack in 27 AD and reappearance in the early 20th century in Exit Wounds appear not at the end of the timeline but at the beginning? I realize this means Jack crosses his own timelines but it's odd to read of his activities in Torchwood in the 1900s without acknowledgment that his team unearthed a later version of him back then.[[Special:Contributions/69.125.134.86|69.125.134.86]]<sup>[[User talk:69.125.134.86#top|talk to me]]</sup> 16:29, December 17, 2012 (UTC)
: N-no, no it shouldn't... [[User:OttselSpy25|OS25]] ([[User Talk:OttselSpy25|talk to me, baby.]]) 16:40, December 17, 2012 (UTC)


:''Some time later, Jack was in Zagizalgul, a city in the planet Zog, drowning his sorrows in a local [http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Zagizalgul_bar bar] and surrounded by various alien species, when a barman handed him a folded piece of paper which indicated that someone's name was [http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Alonso_Frame Alonso]. Looking up, he saw the [http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Tenth_Doctor Doctor] – making his parting goodbyes – staring back, before gesturing towards the man approaching the bar. Seizing the opportunity, Jack addressed Alonso by his first name and told him that he was psychic when asked how he knew him. The Doctor left as Jack continued to flirt with Alonso. ([http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/DW DW]: ''[http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_End_of_Time_(TV_story) The End of Time]'')''
== Policy question ==
Any source confirming the continuity? It looked to me as if Jack didn't know the Doctor yet in this scene, so that it wasn't meant to be after he left Torchwood, but sometime before meeting the Doctor. I thought the Doctor was simply putting things into place so that some future event would happen.
I have a question about policy regarding comments by actors. In explaining why Jack is immortal, John Barrowman stated:


It's perfectly obvious that Jack knows the Doctor in the scene. The recognition is instantaneous. And the Doctor already knew who Alonso was, so he must have already done the trip on the Titanic.
""Now you're really getting me into the fan boy stuff here, it takes us all the way back to the first time Jack actually died and came back to life because we thought it was the time, uh.uh .the TARDIS that him brought him back to life. But it was..you know .because of the death you know from the Dalek, that all happened and it was Rose. It turns out that his blood is actually alien blood. So there's more to him than we ever thought. So it is his blood that keeps him alive, it was not time. You know there's all those questions now which NEED to be answered".


Does this mean that Jack will recruit Alonso for Torchwood series 4? I hope Alonso isn't gay. :-( I had enough of that with Jack and Ianto.
- JB, Dragon Con 2012, Starting at the 12 minute mark. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=R8V9D_K0MA8#t=726s]
* It's been reported extensively that the bar scene is post-COE. [[Special:Contributions/68.146.64.9|68.146.64.9]] 20:44, February 9, 2011 (UTC)
** It would have to be. After Jack first arrived on 19th century Earth, he never left Earth without the Doctor until after ''Children of Earth''. --[[User:Witoki|Witoki]] 20:51, February 9, 2011 (UTC)


==Series 5==
Are insider comments by the actor considered noteworthy to add to the Skills and Abilities (Immortality) or Other Matters section of Jack's wiki?  It appears to subvert canon and rewrite his known history.


Was Jack mentioned in series 5? I thought I got a hint of him. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember the scene in the first half of the finale - The Pandorica Opens, where River was trading for a Vortex Manipulator. The guy who sold it to her said it was 'fresh of the wrist of a handsome Time Agent.' He then complained to his helper that he wanted it 'off the wrist'. Could that have been Jack? Maybe he went back to being a Time Agent after he left Gwen?
Thanks.
*It could also just as easily be John Hart. However, it seems like the show has phased out 51st century resident Jack Harkness for 51st century resident River Song. --[[User:Witoki|Witoki]] 20:52, February 9, 2011 (UTC)
~ ~ ~ ~ kpattersonraven
:For future reference, these kinds of questions can be asked at [[Board:The Panopticon|The Panopticon]], since it's a policy question. It will gain more attention there. Also, don't add spaces between the tildes (so <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> instead of ~ ~ ~ ~), as it's unhelpful.
:To answer your question though, according to [[T:SOURCES]], only narrative sources are allowed for information on in-universe pages such as this. What [[John Barrowman]] says happened is irrelevant to the article. Anyways, read through [[Tardis:Valid sources]], and you'll get an answer much more in-depth than I can possibly give you.
:But, specifically, no, actors' comments on their characters '''cannot''' go in the main body of an in-universe page, and they '''cannot''' be used as sources for information on the character. Hope that helps!<br>--[[user:SmallerOnTheOutside|SOTO]] [[User talk:SmallerOnTheOutside|]] 06:55, April 2, 2013 (UTC)


== Captain Jack in "De-Lovely" ==
==Deaths, buried under Cardiff==
Jack was buried underneath Cardiff in 27AD and released in 1901, which means he was buried for 1874 years.


Okay, it technically doesn't have anything to do with Doctor Who continuity. But in the musical biopic [[wikipedia:De-Lovely|''De-Lovely'']] , starring Kevin Kline as Cole Porter, John Barrowman plays a handsome young actor who Porter coaches with a song (and seduces). The actor's name: "Jack".
Presuming that it takes him four minutes to be revived each time he dies of things which don't require his entire body to re-grow itself (based on how long it took him to revive after Suzie shot him), and that it takes him six minutes to suffocate (brain death occurs roughly four minutes after loss of consciousness), he dies 52.595 times per year.
It's at least ''plausible'' Captain Jack could have whiled away some time like that while waiting for the Doctor, figuring that the Doctor tends to get drawn to famous people. Certainly this "Jack" had the whole "sex-with-anything-with-a-pulse" thing down. Is there a section for "fan theories"? :) —[[User:Robotech Master|Robotech Master]] 03:45, May 8, 2011 (UTC)


==Human?==
That means he died 98.563.030 times while buried underneath Cardiff. --[[User:Danniesen|DCLM]] [[User talk:Danniesen|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 16:38, October 31, 2015 (UTC)
In rewatching some of the older episodes, I noticed that Jack is referred to as human at least twice: by the Doctor in ''Parting of the Ways'' (very explicitly), and my Davros in ''Journey's End''. I'm wondering if the "more or less human" comment referred to in the comments of the article itself is just referring to him being human, minus the immortality factor. [[User:Witoki|Witoki]] 20:01, May 26, 2011 (UTC)
:So technically we '''can''' calculate how many times Jack has died. Shall we put it on the main page? perhaps as "it can be estimated that Jack has died.....[[User:Snivystorm|Snivystorm]] [[User talk:Snivystorm|<span title="Talk to me"></span>]] 22:05, December 19, 2015 (UTC)
* In addition, when Jack discovered he was mortal again, he stated "I'm normal again. I'm plain old human." '''<font color=#609000>d</font> [[User:Witoki|<font color=#609000>●</font>]][[User_talk:Witoki|<font color=#FF6090></font>]][[Special:Contributions/Witoki|<font color=#6090FF>●</font>]]''' 02:50, July 9, 2011 (UTC) (Witoki, by the way. New sig.)
::This debate was left unfinished. I'd very much like some other voices on this topic. To me, this makes sense, and I propose an edit on this topic. --[[User:Danniesen|DCLM]] [[User talk:Danniesen|<span title="Talk to me"></span>]] 15:37, December 8, 2016 (UTC)
* Well he seems to be from far in the future and theres no reason he couldn't be human even though he's likely not from Earth since I don't think theres any place on Earth called the Boeshane Peninsula, and I doubt they would start completly renaming places on Earth. [[User:GrimmShadows|GrimmShadows]] 00:15, July 10, 2011 (UTC)
:::Honestly, all this seems to me like speculation. Can we '''really''' be sure it took him four minutes to revive after Suzie shot him? Can we '''really''' be sure it takes him the same time to come back to life every time he dies? Can we be '''really''' sure he kept coming back to life while burried? [[User:OncomingStorm12th|OncomingStorm12th]] [[User talk:OncomingStorm12th|<span title="Talk to me"></span>]] 15:57, December 8, 2016 (UTC)
* He's got enough human DNA to be counted as human at least. He could have alien ancestry, but human is dominant. The comment on "plain old human" is in regards to his immortality. - '' <span style ="color:midnightblue"> [[User: Excalibur-117| Excalibur-117]]</span>''-<sup>([[User talk:Excalibur-117|talk]] • [[Special: Contributions/ Excalibur-117|contribs]])</sup> 00:56, July 10, 2011 (UTC)
::::I typed all this out and there was an edit conflict. Since I'm too lazy to rewrite, I"ll just repost what I had already written.
* Of course the comment is in regards to his immortality, but he is obviously at least near human. The only thing we know for sure is if he is only near human and not human, his race is obviously close enough for his DNA to be able to combine with human DNA. [[User:GrimmShadows|GrimmShadows]] 02:26, July 10, 2011 (UTC)
We already know he's at least [[near human]], the question is whether or not his repeated (and increasingly frequent) references to himself as "human" are enough to confirm him as primarily [[human]]. His parents were clearly the same race as well. '''<font color=#609000>d</font> [[User:Witoki|<font color=#609000>●</font>]][[User_talk:Witoki|<font color=#FF6090>●</font>]][[Special:Contributions/Witoki|<font color=#6090FF></font>]]''' 02:29, July 10, 2011 (UTC)


I realize thats what we're talking about my main point was that if he isn't human he isn't that far from it as he has reproduced with humans. I'm no expert on gentics but I would think if the near human race he would be, if not human, was too far removed from human then off spring could not be produced. Such as I don't believe a Human-Timelord could be produced not just due to the human brain not being able to handle all the stuff a Timelord brain does but I don't think the 3 helix DNA could meld, if thats the right word, with the 2 helix of a human.[[User:GrimmShadows|GrimmShadows]] 02:37, July 10, 2011 (UTC)
::::I'm going to rule against this idea. It's never a good idea to use dates to calculate something we don't know, because you never know what DWU authors are going to do next. For all we know, some future author will say that year so-and-so lasted for four hundred days instead of 365, or something like that, which would throw off the calculations. More importantly, this whole post is based on speculation: "presuming" that it takes a certain amount of time for Jack to revive in certain circumstances. If we aren't given the exact time it takes, we can't calculate the number of deaths. [[User:Shambala108|Shambala108]] [[User talk:Shambala108|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 16:00, December 8, 2016 (UTC)


When asked about who created Jack in a recent French interview, Moffat directly said Jack is a human. The fact that this debate continues is an example of how pointlessly stubborn and controversial people can be. He is human, as evidenced by the show and the stuff the writers say. No point in arguing, really. [[Special:Contributions/90.199.247.42|90.199.247.42]] 18:21, July 14, 2011 (UTC)
== Handsome Jack ==


== Jack's TARDIS ==
Ok, I did a little digging, but wasn't able to figure out how to edit the main page to update it.


Read now on Torchwood Magazine that Jack is trying to have his own TARDIS with a little coral piece. What episode as this appeard?
The reference to Handsome Jack of Borderlands fame needs a cite.
* I don't believe it has. I think this is a bit of background fanon that was never developed beyond, at most, a couple of subtle references in the first season. [[Special:Contributions/68.146.71.145|68.146.71.145]] 02:30, July 31, 2011 (UTC)


== Captain Jack Bollocks? ==
https://web.archive.org/web/20160229111528/http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/community/articles/1099


Someone please check the Aliases list in the infobox. I'm flagging "Captain Jack Bollocks" because, well, it sounds pretty dubious. I certainly don't recall it mentioned in an episode. Assuming, therefore, it originates from a novel, audio or comic strip, I think it may be wise to add a reference source so it's made clear it's a good faith addition to the list. [[Special:Contributions/68.146.71.145|68.146.71.145]] 02:30, July 31, 2011 (UTC)
The real article is no longer available.
 
Inside the Box: You (Still) Don't Know Jack
10.28.13 - Anthony Burch
...
That said, combining our new story (“kill this one dude named Handsome Jack or whatever he ends up being called, by the way we definitely can’t ship the game with him being called Handsome Jack because that’s just a Doctor Who reference I pulled out of thin air”) with answering the old BL1 questions was one of the trickiest narrative problems Paul and I tried to solve during preproduction.
...
 
HTH,
Bsinkk
 
== Married to River Song? ==
 
This page and River Song's list each other as spouses, but it is not discussed or written on the actual page that I can find - as in it's only listed in the top right - and I can't remember or find a referenced time where either someone in-universe or not said they were married or it was shown. Am I wrong and they are married/were married? or can I edit that off? (sorry if this doesn't make sense, this is my first time trying to edit a fandom wiki!!) [[User:Kindaliketeal|Kindaliketeal]] [[User talk:Kindaliketeal|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 15:43, April 10, 2020 (UTC)
:I'm not 100% sure because I haven't hear the story myself, but the information was added just one day after ''[[R&J (audio story)|R&J]]'' was added, so I'll assume the events happened/were mentioned in that story, but perhaps [[User:BananaClownMan]] can confirm if that's the case or not, since he was the one who added it to the page. [[User:OncomingStorm12th|OncomingStorm12th]] ([[User talk:OncomingStorm12th|talk]]) 16:20, April 10, 2020 (UTC)
:: I can’t remember if I saw it in Jack's page, or if u read it in their timeline pages, but I definitely found out from one of them.[[User:BananaClownMan|BananaClownMan]] [[User talk:BananaClownMan|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 16:37, April 10, 2020 (UTC)
::: They do have a wedding in ''R&J'', and make their vows, but the wedding is interrupted, and they drop the idea after dealing with Snorvlast. Whether or not River can be put in under partner is also questionable, because they dance around the idea of pursuing a relationship, but ultimately (I think; I'll have to relisten for proper chronology) River tells Jack that they'll have to remain friends "for now".{{User:SOTO/sig}} 17:48, April 10, 2020 (UTC)
 
== Name assumptions ==
 
For reasons I outline at [[Talk:Gray Thane#Full name]], I propose that the subject out not to be referred to as Thane (as if that is clearly his sole surname) in prose. [[User:CdeDBD|DBD]] [[User talk:CdeDBD|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 12:12, 24 July 2021 (UTC)
 
== Main image change ==
[[File:Captain Jack Harkness Last of the Time Lords.png|thumb|left]]
Not a big fan of Captain Jack's current infobox pic, it's a little too close up. I've uploaded this image to the left that I think offers a better look at the character from "Last of the Time Lords". -- [[User:MattTheNerd42|MattTheNerd42]] [[User talk:MattTheNerd42|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 17:56, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
:A: Pictures should, if possible, face left.<br>
:B: I think the current one ''absolutely'' fits him better. [[User:Najawin|Najawin]] [[User talk:Najawin|<span title="Talk to me">☎</span>]] 18:39, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
 
::I agree with Najawin. The current image suits him, and I think it's fine. — [[User:FractalDoctor|Fractal Doctor]] [[User talk:FractalDoctor|<span title="Send a space-time telegraph">@</span>]] 20:04, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 20:04, 29 August 2023

Archive.png
Archives: #1, #2

Jack's Timeline[[edit source]]

Shouldn't the burial of Jack in 27 AD and reappearance in the early 20th century in Exit Wounds appear not at the end of the timeline but at the beginning? I realize this means Jack crosses his own timelines but it's odd to read of his activities in Torchwood in the 1900s without acknowledgment that his team unearthed a later version of him back then.69.125.134.86talk to me 16:29, December 17, 2012 (UTC)

N-no, no it shouldn't... OS25 (talk to me, baby.) 16:40, December 17, 2012 (UTC)

Policy question[[edit source]]

I have a question about policy regarding comments by actors. In explaining why Jack is immortal, John Barrowman stated:

""Now you're really getting me into the fan boy stuff here, it takes us all the way back to the first time Jack actually died and came back to life because we thought it was the time, uh.uh .the TARDIS that him brought him back to life. But it was..you know .because of the death you know from the Dalek, that all happened and it was Rose. It turns out that his blood is actually alien blood. So there's more to him than we ever thought. So it is his blood that keeps him alive, it was not time. You know there's all those questions now which NEED to be answered".

- JB, Dragon Con 2012, Starting at the 12 minute mark. [1]

Are insider comments by the actor considered noteworthy to add to the Skills and Abilities (Immortality) or Other Matters section of Jack's wiki? It appears to subvert canon and rewrite his known history.

Thanks. ~ ~ ~ ~ kpattersonraven

For future reference, these kinds of questions can be asked at The Panopticon, since it's a policy question. It will gain more attention there. Also, don't add spaces between the tildes (so ~~~~ instead of ~ ~ ~ ~), as it's unhelpful.
To answer your question though, according to T:SOURCES, only narrative sources are allowed for information on in-universe pages such as this. What John Barrowman says happened is irrelevant to the article. Anyways, read through Tardis:Valid sources, and you'll get an answer much more in-depth than I can possibly give you.
But, specifically, no, actors' comments on their characters cannot go in the main body of an in-universe page, and they cannot be used as sources for information on the character. Hope that helps!
--SOTO 06:55, April 2, 2013 (UTC)

Deaths, buried under Cardiff[[edit source]]

Jack was buried underneath Cardiff in 27AD and released in 1901, which means he was buried for 1874 years.

Presuming that it takes him four minutes to be revived each time he dies of things which don't require his entire body to re-grow itself (based on how long it took him to revive after Suzie shot him), and that it takes him six minutes to suffocate (brain death occurs roughly four minutes after loss of consciousness), he dies 52.595 times per year.

That means he died 98.563.030 times while buried underneath Cardiff. --DCLM 16:38, October 31, 2015 (UTC)

So technically we can calculate how many times Jack has died. Shall we put it on the main page? perhaps as "it can be estimated that Jack has died.....Snivystorm 22:05, December 19, 2015 (UTC)
This debate was left unfinished. I'd very much like some other voices on this topic. To me, this makes sense, and I propose an edit on this topic. --DCLM 15:37, December 8, 2016 (UTC)
Honestly, all this seems to me like speculation. Can we really be sure it took him four minutes to revive after Suzie shot him? Can we really be sure it takes him the same time to come back to life every time he dies? Can we be really sure he kept coming back to life while burried? OncomingStorm12th 15:57, December 8, 2016 (UTC)
I typed all this out and there was an edit conflict. Since I'm too lazy to rewrite, I"ll just repost what I had already written.
I'm going to rule against this idea. It's never a good idea to use dates to calculate something we don't know, because you never know what DWU authors are going to do next. For all we know, some future author will say that year so-and-so lasted for four hundred days instead of 365, or something like that, which would throw off the calculations. More importantly, this whole post is based on speculation: "presuming" that it takes a certain amount of time for Jack to revive in certain circumstances. If we aren't given the exact time it takes, we can't calculate the number of deaths. Shambala108 16:00, December 8, 2016 (UTC)

Handsome Jack[[edit source]]

Ok, I did a little digging, but wasn't able to figure out how to edit the main page to update it.

The reference to Handsome Jack of Borderlands fame needs a cite.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160229111528/http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/community/articles/1099

The real article is no longer available.

Inside the Box: You (Still) Don't Know Jack 10.28.13 - Anthony Burch ... That said, combining our new story (“kill this one dude named Handsome Jack or whatever he ends up being called, by the way we definitely can’t ship the game with him being called Handsome Jack because that’s just a Doctor Who reference I pulled out of thin air”) with answering the old BL1 questions was one of the trickiest narrative problems Paul and I tried to solve during preproduction. ...

HTH, Bsinkk

Married to River Song?[[edit source]]

This page and River Song's list each other as spouses, but it is not discussed or written on the actual page that I can find - as in it's only listed in the top right - and I can't remember or find a referenced time where either someone in-universe or not said they were married or it was shown. Am I wrong and they are married/were married? or can I edit that off? (sorry if this doesn't make sense, this is my first time trying to edit a fandom wiki!!) Kindaliketeal 15:43, April 10, 2020 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure because I haven't hear the story myself, but the information was added just one day after R&J was added, so I'll assume the events happened/were mentioned in that story, but perhaps User:BananaClownMan can confirm if that's the case or not, since he was the one who added it to the page. OncomingStorm12th (talk) 16:20, April 10, 2020 (UTC)
I can’t remember if I saw it in Jack's page, or if u read it in their timeline pages, but I definitely found out from one of them.BananaClownMan 16:37, April 10, 2020 (UTC)
They do have a wedding in R&J, and make their vows, but the wedding is interrupted, and they drop the idea after dealing with Snorvlast. Whether or not River can be put in under partner is also questionable, because they dance around the idea of pursuing a relationship, but ultimately (I think; I'll have to relisten for proper chronology) River tells Jack that they'll have to remain friends "for now".
× SOTO (//) 17:48, April 10, 2020 (UTC)

Name assumptions[[edit source]]

For reasons I outline at Talk:Gray Thane#Full name, I propose that the subject out not to be referred to as Thane (as if that is clearly his sole surname) in prose. DBD 12:12, 24 July 2021 (UTC)

Main image change[[edit source]]

Captain Jack Harkness Last of the Time Lords.png

Not a big fan of Captain Jack's current infobox pic, it's a little too close up. I've uploaded this image to the left that I think offers a better look at the character from "Last of the Time Lords". -- MattTheNerd42 17:56, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

A: Pictures should, if possible, face left.
B: I think the current one absolutely fits him better. Najawin 18:39, 29 August 2023 (UTC)
I agree with Najawin. The current image suits him, and I think it's fine. — Fractal Doctor @ 20:04, 29 August 2023 (UTC)