Jack Harkness (Captain Jack Harkness)
Captain Jack Harkness was a young American serving as an RAF Group Captain stationed in Cardiff. He had a brief though intense affair with Captain Jack Harkness, the man from the future who had appropriated his name.
Biography
While based in the World War II time period (DW: The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances), Captain Jack Harkness had taken the name and assumed identity of an Ameerican airman who he knew would die in battle on January 21 1941. Jack hadn't known anything about the other Jack as a person, even what he looked like, until, transported from the 21st century to 1941 with Toshiko Sato, they met each other. In 1941 again, the future Jack adopted the name Captain James Harper.
Jack was gay but trapped in a heterosexual relationship, spending a night with his girlfriend Nancy at a Cardiff nightclub called The Ritz. Distressed at the idea that his Nancy might actually be in love with him, he felt unhappy about leading her on. He also bore of hearing a friend die on the radio as a German Messerschmitt shot him down.
On the night of January 20, 1941, Jack and "Harper" met. The two men felt an immediate attraction. Both had experience of war and of close friends having died by it, though Jack had to overcome the fear and reluctance over moving the relationship to a sexual level. For his part, "James" knew jack would die the next day.
Jack eventually struck up the courage to dance with "Jack" in front of a party of servicemen and their guests. As the Cardiff rift transported "James" and Toshiko back to their own time, the two men kissed passionately, leaving both in tears.
The next day, January 21, Captain ack Harkness died fighting German fighters. In the present day, Toshiko Sato comforted Torchwood's Jack by telling him that 1941's Captain Jack would be proud that he took his name, carrying it on as he saves the world.
Behind the Scenes
1941's Captain Jack is identified as of the same rank as the future Jack. This could reflect a misunderstanding of the RAF rank structure by the writers, since he only commanded a squadron, and Group Captains are never addressed or referred to as "Captain".
