Jack Harkness

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This article is about Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood Three. For other uses of Jack Harkness, see Captain Jack Harkness (disambiguation).

Captain Jack Harkness (also known as "Captain Jack" to those close to him, or, as the Doctor refers to him, Captain), was the name adopted by a con man from the 51st century and an associate of the Doctor. His original identity remains a mystery and whenever asked he refuses to answer. Reluctantly immortal and stranded on Earth from the mid-19th to the early 21st century, he joined Torchwood Three.

Biography

Given his frequent time travelling, much of Jack's personal chronology remains confusing. While it is known certain events happened to Jack prior to his meeting the Doctor and other events afterwards, not all of Jack's statements about his life can be taken as accurate.

Youth

Early life

Originally, Jack was born under a different name, which has yet to be revealed.(TW: Captain Jack Harkness). He grew up sometime around the year 5000, an era whose attitudes towards sex differed from those prevalent in the 21st century. Humankind, having begun expansion and exploration of the universe, met other alien species. They often pursued sexual relationships with them, regardless of differences of gender or species (DW: The Doctor Dances, The End of the World). Although the human sexualities of bisexuality and homosexuality have been applied to Jack, such as Owen Harper once indicating to Gwen Cooper that Jack was "gay" (TW: Day One), the term Jack uses to refer to himself is "omnisexual".

Attack on the Boeshane Peninsula
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Boeshane Peninsula, home of the young Jack Harkness. (TW: Adam)

Jack was brought up on the Boeshane Peninsula, a sandy beach-like area. He often spent time with his brother Gray and his father, Franklin, playing cricket and singing around campfires. One day an alien race invaded his homeland and killed many of the inhabitants. Jack was told by his father to flee with Gray while he went back for Jack's mother. As Jack was running, Gray stumbled and Jack accidentally let go of Gray's hand. Jack continued to run, hiding in a bush as the invaders flew overhead. He returned to his home hoping to find his brother, but instead found only his father, dead. Jack claims it was the worst day of his life, and that he spent many years searching for his brother, though never found him.

Young Jack Harkness on Boeshane Peninsula

Growing up

As a young man, he persuaded a friend to "join up" with him to fight against an unspecified enemy Jack merely described as "horrible". Considering Jack's friend to be the weaker of the pair, the enemies tortured him as a lesson for Jack. Jack bore the guilt of his friend's fate. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

Once, when sentenced to death, he ordered four hypervodkas as a last meal and ended up bedding both executioners (at the same time). He recalled them as a lovely couple who kept in touch. (DW: The Doctor Dances)

As Time Agent and con artist

Jack worked as a Time Agent with a partner, in multiple contexts, called John Hart. At some point, they spent five years trapped in a two-week time loop, with the two becoming the equivalent of a married couple after spending so much time together. Hart conceded to having been "a good wife" which closed an argument between the two about which of them was the wife in the relationship,. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang). Jack eventually discovered that the Agency had erased two years of his memory, which he wished to have back (DW:The Empty Child).

While in 1941, he assumed the alias of an American volunteer Captain Jack Harkness, who had died in action the January prior. Jack knew very little about the "real" Jack, other than basic information such as the former's date and manner of death. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

Having left the Time Agency, Jack became a time-travelling con artist, performing various scams using his knowledge of future events, such as demanding money for items that he knew would be destroyed before the buyer could see it. Finding pieces of space junk and directing them to soon-to-be disaster sites, Jack would sell them to passers-by, then allow the items to get destroyed before the buyers could pick up their merchandise. He would, at some point, improperly acquire a small, sleek Chula spacecraft, fitted for Human use, which could turn invisible. (DW: The Empty Child)

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Jack with Rose and The 9th Doctor

Meeting the Doctor

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In uniform as 'Captain Jack Harkness'. (DW: The Empty Child)

While pulling a con with a Chula Ambulance during the London Blitz, he spotted Rose Tyler hanging from a barrage balloon and rescued her, taking her aboard his ship. Quickly deducing that Rose came from the future, he suspected that other Time Agents had discovered him. (DW: The Empty Child) Shortly after, Rose introduced him to the Ninth Doctor. Together, the trio worked to stop the plague brought about by the ambulance's nanogenes. Jack carried an active German bomb ready to explode in his ship to save many people, and was almost killed himself. However, the TARDIS materialized within his ship and the Doctor and Rose rescued him just before the ship exploded. (DW: The Doctor Dances) Jack subsequently became a new companion for the Doctor, to the delight of both Rose, who found Jack attractive, and to Jack, who found both Rose and the Doctor to be attractive.

The trio shared numerous adventures together and clicked as a team to the point where Mickey Smith found himself an outsider during a shared adventure (DW: Boom Town).

Jack was aboard Satellite 5 when a Dalek fleet launched their assault on Earth and was exterminated and killed while defending the satellite from their advance. He was resurrected by Rose Tyler, who at that time had the powers of the Time Vortex which turned her into the Bad Wolf. Jack later discovered he was immortal and could never fully die when killed. He was unable to rejoin the Doctor and Rose before the Doctor's TARDIS departed and was left stranded on the satellite. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) The Doctor, who had just regenerated, told Rose that he believed that Jack could begin the process of "rebuilding the Earth" (DW: Children in Need Special). However, this may have been a simple ruse to disguise the fact that the Doctor's instincts told him to run because from this point on Jack became a "fixed point" in time (DW: Utopia).

Life on Earth

19th century

After Jack was left on Satellite 5, he used the Vortex Manipulator in his Time Agency wrist strap to go back to Cardiff, the location of an active space-time rift. Jack ended up in 1869, and unfortunately his Vortex Manipulator burned out and he was unable to leave. The manipulator was later repaired, once by the Doctor, and once by Jack (with the aid of Martha Jones) but was disabled by the Doctor soon after both occasions. (DW: The Sound of Drums, DW: Last of the Time Lords, DW: The Stolen Earth, DW: Journey's End)

Coincidentally or not, the Doctor had first encountered the Rift in 1869 (DW: The Unquiet Dead). Thus, Jack may have accidently instructed the manipulator to trace the Rift to its point of origin, rather than to locate a specific point in its being, presumably in a haste to relocate the Doctor.

Regardless, he chose to remain in the city, knowing that the Doctor's TARDIS could re-fuel itself using the rift and that the Doctor would one day return there. (TW: Fragments) Jack appears to have chosen to continue using the Harkness alias, or was at least using it as of 1899. Jack's second death and resurrection occurred when he was shot in 1892 during a fight on Ellis Island. Jack would find that he still aged, but very slowly, and could recover from any degree of physical harm, including death itself, given a few minutes time. (DW: Utopia) In 1898 he helped save a boy, Anthony, from a Lawphorum, which had fallen to Earth. Anthony, a travelling stage show boy, had failed to predict the future of Jack when he asked him how he would die. (DWF: Best Friends) In order to investigate the Night Travellers, he took up this idea and joined a travelling show in which he was billed as "the man who couldn't die". (TW: From Out of the Rain)

Recruitment by Torchwood

In 1899, Torchwood Cardiff agents Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd found out about Jack's immortality and about the Doctor. They captured Jack and tortured him, attempting to discover why he couldn't die and what connection he had to Torchwood's enemy, the Doctor, who they knew Jack had mentioned in various conversations around the city. He was released on the condition that he worked for them, an offer which he initially refused outright. The two asked him to reconsider this option, and Jack wound up in a bar, alone until a young cartomancer offered to read him his fortune. To his immense surprise and bewilderment, she imparted a completely accurate prophecy of the Doctor's eventual return to Cardiff 100 years into the future. Left with nothing to do but wait for a full century, Jack reconsidered Torchwood's offer and began working for them. On his first mission he was sent to stop a criminal Blowfish, which he returned to the Hub, only to see it killed by a shot to the head. (TW: Fragments)

He continued working for Torchwood for over a hundred years, still pursuing his attempt to find the Doctor in the meantime. (TW: Fragments)

20th century

In 1909, Jack was traveling through Lahore by train with a group of soldiers under his command, when they were killed by Fairies. Some of the soldiers had recently run over and killed one of the Fairies' Chosen Ones. In revenge, the Fairies suffocated the soldiers by forcing rose petals down their throats. (TW: Small Worlds) Jack's presence in Lahore was part of a con intended to steal the diamond shipments the soldiers were guarding (WEB: torchwood.org.uk); however, he did appear to take his responsibility for the men seriously, however temporary it may have been, enough to be distressed by their deaths. His participation in the con itself was at the direction of (or at least in cooperation with) an unknown agent. Jack later left Torchwood to fight in World War I. In 1914 the Doctor met a soldier who mentioned to him that Captain Harkness had survived a bullet to the head and was recovering in hospital. (IDW: The Forgotten)

Prior to February 1944, he met Estelle Cole. (WEB: torchwood.org.uk) The pair spent some time in London together. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Somehow, however, this never happened, and they lost touch with one another. (TW: Small Worlds)

Jack in 1965

In 1965, the alien race known as the 456, communicating through radio, set up a deal where Jack, along with three other military officers, whose names he did not know at the time, would deliver to them twelve young orphans as a "gift" at a meeting point in Scotland. In exchange for the children, the unseen aliens would give to them a cure for a new strain of Indonesian flu that the aliens claimed would mutate and kill 25 million people. Jack recieved the assignment specifically because of his immortality, and the perception, as one of the officers later told him, that he "didn't care." Despite his misgivings, Jack followed his orders, and delivered the children. Clement MacDonald, however, slipped away from the exchange, and would have nightmares about Jack for the rest of his life. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Four)

In 1975, Jack and another Torchwood agent, Lucia Moretti, had a daughter, Melissa Moretti, who would age normally. Lucia and Jack split up sometime prior to 1977, and at the request of her mother, their daughter was sent into the Witness Protection Programme, relocated and given the name of Alice Sangster, presumably arising from her mother's fear of the immortal Captain Jack. The application was approved on February 14, 1977; however, Jack eventually rebuilt a relationship with his daughter. Although Jack was a Torchwood agent at this time, he was still considered a freelance operative rather than a full-time employee. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Three)

21st century

On New Year's Day 2000, Jack, now a full-time agent for Torchwood 3, suffered a major emotional blow when one of his colleages, Alex Hopkins, suffered a nervous breakdown and killed the entire Torchwood 3 staff. Knowing Jack couldn't die, he did not attempt to kill Jack and waited for him to arrive at the Hub before committing suicide. As the only surviving member of Torchwood Three, he would spend the next few years recruiting new members. (TW: Fragments)

Leader of Torchwood Three

Jack quickly rebuilt his decimated organization, recruiting Toshiko Sato from prison in 2004 (TW: Fragments, TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts), and Dr. Owen Harper in 2006. (TW: Fragments) At some stage, Suzie Costello, his second-in-command, joined the team. (TW: Fragments) Jack's activities at the time of the Blaidd Drwg incident in Cardiff, which involved Jack's younger, mortal self (DW: Boom Town), included keeping the entire Torchwood team on lockdown in the Hub, to prevent them from seeing his younger self, and vice versa (TWN: The Twilight Streets).

After Torchwood One was destroyed in 2007 during the Battle of Canary Wharf, Jack continued to work for Torchwood Three. With Torchwood One gone and Torchwood Four having gotten "lost", Torchwood Three had more or less complete freedom, and used the removal of oversight from Torchwood One as an opportunity to operate according to the ideals Jack thought the Doctor represented. (DW: The Sound of Drums) He took in Ianto Jones, a survivor of Torchwood One, after some heavy persuasion by Ianto himself. (TW: Fragments)

During this time, Jack held on to the hope of re-establishing contact with the Doctor, whom he believed could help him. At some point after the 2006 Sycorax incursion (DW: The Christmas Invasion), Jack obtained a severed hand that had fallen from the Sycorax craft and which was identified as having belonged to the Doctor. He kept the hand in a portable hyperbaric chamber in Torchwood Three's nerve centre, the Hub, and treated it as a prize possession, much to the occasional consternation of his colleagues. (TW: Everything Changes-TW: End of Days) He eventually relinquished the hand to the Doctor. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)

After his colleage Suzie Costello was exposed as a serial murderer and shot herself, Jack recruited Police Constable Gwen Cooper as Torchwood's newest member.

Jack asking Gwen to join Torchwood

(TW: Everything Changes) Over the coming months, he helped train Gwen in dealing with aliens and alien weaponry, and before long, she had become second in command, taking over for him during his later absence. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) He revealed very little of himself or his origins to his team, even when pursuing a flirtatious relationship with Gwen (TW: Ghost Machine) and a more physical one with Ianto Jones. (TW: They Keep Killing Suzie et al) Although he rarely confided in the team, preferring to keep his past secret, Gwen was the first person to learn about his immortality, the others finding out later on. Nevertheless, he often showed great compassion for the team and other innocents who were caught up in Torchwood's missions (TW: Out of Time), even though he demonstrated a far more ruthless side in dispatching the team's enemies than the Doctor might have exercised. (TW: Countrycide)

Transported back to 1941 by the Rift, Jack met his namesake, the original Jack Harkness, and briefly romanced him before returning to the 21st century. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

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Jack confronting Abaddon (TW: End of Days)

After the Rift was finally opened by Owen Harper, Jack returned from the past along with Toshiko. Jack was forced to confront Abaddon, who was released from the rift after Bilis Manger manipulated the rest of the Torchwood team to fully open the Rift. Abbadon was destroyed while attempting to leech Jack's life, though the exertion resulted in Jack remaining dead for three days, his immortality apparently unable to save him. He was brought back to life after a kiss from Gwen. (TW: End of Days) A short while after his resurrection, Jack noticed the Doctor's hand begin to glow. From inside of the Hub, Jack recognised the sound of the TARDIS materialising, elated after decades of waiting by the knowledge that the young cartomancer's prophecy had been fulfilled and that a version of the Doctor he knew was returning to refuel. By the time the rest of the Torchwood team arrived to investigate the sound, Jack had gone. (TW: End of Days)

Reunion with the Doctor

Jack with Martha and The 10th Doctor

Having heard the TARDIS, Jack left the Hub chasing after the sound. With the Doctor's hand in a backpack, he managed to jump onto the ship before it dematerialised and re-materialised in the year 100,000,000,000,000. Jack is the only individual known to have withstood a trip through the vortex on the exterior of a TARDIS, thanks to his immortality. The Doctor and Jack had an awkward reunion. Jack made the happy discovery, though, that Rose Tyler had not been killed in the Battle of Canary Wharf. They met and helped Professor Yana to build a spaceship in order to help the last humans in the universe reach Utopia. After Yana opened a fob watch, the Master regained control, regenerated and took off in the TARDIS, leaving Jack, the Doctor and Martha stranded at the end of the universe. (DW: Utopia)

For a full discussion of these incarnations of the Master, see Yana and Harold Saxon.

The Doctor, Jack and Martha traveled back to 2008 with the aid of Jack's vortex manipulator (part of his Time Agency wrist strap), which the Doctor modified. The newly regenerated Master had been elected as Prime Minister. After being listed as one of the most wanted persons in the UK, Jack was captured on the Valiant along with the Doctor. He gave his vortex manipulator to Martha, allowing her to escape by teleporting to the ground. (DW: The Sound of Drums)

Captain Jack when he shot a Blowfish

After being imprisoned within the Valiant for one year, Martha Jones helped the Doctor and Jack to gain control of the ship, and Jack destroyed the Master's Paradox Machine using a Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle. This resulted in time reverting one year, only those aboard the Valiant at the time retaining any memory of the year's events (see The Year That Never Was).

After the Master's death, Jack had the opportunity to end his long exile on Earth, however out of loyalty to his team at Torchwood, he decided to stay. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)

At some point in the course of events, the Doctor obtained his severed hand from Jack, and Jack would later witness the hand being used to prevent the Doctor fully regenerating. (DW: Journey's End)

Return to Torchwood Three

Jack returned to Torchwood and the team, saving the life of a woman being menaced by a Blowfish. While this took place, there was some Rift activity and John Hart from the Time Agency appeared in Cardiff. Jack tracked him to a bar, where they reunited with a passionate kiss followed by a lengthy bar brawl. John caused quite a bit of trouble before leaving Cardiff via the Rift, but disclosed to Jack that his brother Gray had been found. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) After Jack met Martha Jones when fighting the Master, he invited her onto the team for a few days. He asked her to investigate the Pharm, a medical organization that could cure diseases that were incurable. He ordered Toshiko to close it down. But the Pharm manager shot Owen Harper and then Jack shot him. Martha stayed for a few more days and he put her in charge as Medical officer. (TW: Reset)

Jack crashing Gwen's wedding

Unwilling to accept the loss of another teammate, Jack tracked down the other resurrection glove and brought back Owen Harper. The attempt, though successful, left Owen unable to digest food, sleep, or enjoy sex. In addition, the glove released an extradimensional alien, the embodiment of death, Durac. Owen saved the day by using his new condition to stifle the needs of the entity, but still expressed a deep resentment towards his former leader. A regretful Jack was forced to temporarily relieve Owen until he could aclimatize. (TW: A Day in the Death)


Second destruction of Torchwood Three

Jack's team came under further pressure when Captain John Hart returned, laying bombs within a warehouse in an attempt to kill all the members of the Torchwood Three team. This failed and Jack found a message from John on his vortex manipulator, which included an appearance by Gray himself. Left shaken, Jack immediately went back to the Hub to confront Captain Hart, leaving the other members of the team to deal with their respective challenges. (TW: Fragments) On meeting John again, Jack was killed before being chained up and made to listen whilst John explained his predicament. Jack's rogue partner then detonated strategically placed bombs in and around Cardiff, obliterating the city to Jack's horror before forcibly kidnapping him and sending both of them back through time to Cardiff in 27 AD. Here, Jack discovered that John was being manipulated by Gray, who marked his return by shooting Jack down in cold blood. Gray then forced John to bury Jack alive, 20 feet underground in the land that would become Cardiff. Gray, transformed into a merciless, sadistic beast by a lifetime of horrific torture, had blamed Jack for letting go of his hand when they were children and wanted Jack to experience a similar never-ending pain by choking on dirt, thrashing on the edge of life every time he revived, only to die again. (TW: Exit Wounds) Before totally burying Jack, John, finally pushed too far by the awareness of how wrong his actions were, slipped a signet ring into the grave with him, hoping that the signal it emitted could be used to locate Jack.

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Jack in 27 AD

Stuck in a cycle of death and resurrection for centuries, Jack was discovered by Alice Guppy and Charles Gaskell of Torchwood in 1901, who had picked up the signal of John's ring (an act which confused his Time Agent partner, who had returned to the 21st century to rescue him, thinking that the ring, despite being 'guaranteed 5 millenia', had malfunctioned). Back in the early 20th century, Jack, insistent that he could not be allowed to cross his own timeline (for by now two versions of Jack were present – his past self and present self) demanded to be placed in cryopreservation for 107 years until the present day. Despite being baffled, the two granted him this request and Jack awoke again inside Torchwood Three concurrent to Gray's mayhem – just in time to prevent Gray from finishing off Toshiko with a bullet. Despite Gray's own unwillingness to absolve him, Jack forgave his brother of his trespasses. Left with no other option, a tearful Jack chloroformed and cryopreserved Gray, refusing to kill him, but the damage had already been done, as Gray had been responsible for the deaths of Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato. Jack and John parted ways on better terms, with John travelling the world of the 21st century, determined to find out why Jack found the time period so interesting. Torchwood Three would continue on, reduced to Jack, Ianto and Gwen. (TW: Exit Wounds)

On September 9, Martha phoned Jack for help with the CERN's Large Hadron Collider. He, Ianto and Gwen flew there, met up with Martha, investigated 12 accidents, and found a creature that fed on neutrons. (BBCR: Lost Souls)

Against the Daleks in the Medusa Cascade

Captain Jack during the Medusa Cascade incident

Later, when the Earth was relocated by the Daleks to the Medusa Cascade, Harriet Jones, a former Prime Minister and acquaintance of the Doctor, contacted Torchwood and other allies of the Doctor via the Sub-Wave Network. After receiving vital information from Martha that allowed him to reactivate his vortex manipulator, Jack teleported to the Doctor's side just as a Dalek shot him. (DW: The Stolen Earth)

Subsequently, after the Doctor's regeneration aborted, Jack boarded the Crucible and surrendered to the Dalek forces. He attempted to shoot the Supreme Dalek and was "exterminated". He subsequently burrowed into the Crucible and linked up with Sarah Jane Smith (with whom he flirted), Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler. He attempted to use Sarah Jane's Warp star to bluff the Daleks into calling off the detonation of the reality bomb but was ultimately transported to Davros' chamber instead. He helped pilot the TARDIS as it returned the Earth to its original location. He offered Martha Jones a permanent position with Torchwood, and soon after was joined by Mickey, but not before the Doctor deactivated his vortex manipulator once again, refusing to run the risk of allowing him to travel in time. (DW: Journey's End)

It was some time around here that Jack made a series of tutorial videos about Adipose, Pyrovile, Ood, Sontarans, Slitheen, Hath, Vespiforms, Vashta Nerada, Judoon, Midnight, The Trickster's Brigade, Daleks, Davros, festive aliens and Cybermen in The Hub. These have been confiscated by UNIT and are now top-secret footage. (WC: Captain Jack's Monster Files)

Fighting the 456

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Jack just before the bomb inside him blows up. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)

Jack's past would return to haunt him when the 456, in need of more subjects for their drug production, once more contacted Humanity by using the children of Earth as a collective mouthpiece. The British government, fearing that the secret of the deal would come out, assigned John Frobisher to deal with the situation. Frobisher, knowing Jack's role as part of the team which had negotiated with the 456, reluctantly ordered Jack's assassination. Speculating, incorrectly, that the Hub had special properties which enabled Jack's regenerative abilities, Frobisher insisted on the complete destruction of the Hub, along with Jack, who was already attempting to investigate by seeking to examine his grandson Steven. The government, through a ruse involving their agent Rupesh Patanjali, killed Jack and planted a bomb inside his body before he revived. When Jack, unsuspecting, returned to the Hub, the bomb detonated, destroying both Jack's body and the Hub, but not before Jack managed to evacuate Gwen and Ianto. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)

A covert ops team conveyed Jack's scattered remains to a holding facility, where he slowly regenerated his body and returned to life. When Agent Johnson, Frobisher's chief of operations in the taskforce, realized that destroying the Hub had not rendered Jack mortal, she had him encased in concrete. Gwen and Ianto, however, had not been idle, and with the help of Rhys and Ianto's sister Rhiannon, they infiltrated the facility and rescued him (TW: Children of Earth: Day Two).

With Ianto's knowlege of Torchwood One's old infrastructure, and a little criminal mischief orchestrated by Gwen, Jack headquartered his team inside a former Torchwood facility. Gwen arranged for the protection of former 456 victim Clem MacDonald by bringing him to "Hub 2," as Rhys came to call it. Jack himself tracked down Frobisher and warned him to call off the assasination, or the 1965 incident would be disclosed. However, Frobisher countered with a new bombshell: Johnson's team had taken Jack's daughter Alice and grandson Steven hostage in order to ensure Jack's silence in the plans to negotiate terms with the 456. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Three)

Jack, Gwen, Ianto and Rhys retaliated by persuading Lois Habiba to collect incriminating evidence against the entire Cabinet regarding the new terms, then threatining full disclosure unless Torchwood was allowed access to the 456. Storming into Thames House to confront the aliens, Jack and Ianto promised a "fight to the death." In response, the 456 released a virus into the Thames House, killing all inside. Among the victims was Ianto, who died in Jack's arms. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Four).

A tearful Captain Jack surrendered to the authorities, blaming himself for Ianto's death. He instructed Gwen to have Rhys surrender himself as well, and arranged for the couple to return to Cardiff, with instructions to inform Rhiannon of her brother's death, and to see to the needs of her family. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)

As the world governments began capitulating to the demands of the 456, and began rounding up children by the millions, Jack found himself sprung from prison by a surprise ally - Agent Johnson, who had become disillusioned and convinced by Alice to take a stand. With the aid of Johnson and Mr. Dekker, who had managed to escape the massacre at Thames House, Jack devised a way to defeat the 456 using a reconstitution wave of a similar wavelength to that the 456 had used to kill Clem, using the children as one vast transmitter. There was one major catch: in order for it to work, the wave needed to be channeled through one child, for whom the force of the transmission would be deadly. Only one child was available to serve as the "transmitter." Ignoring his daughter's screams and protests, Jack used his own grandson, Steven, as the prime transmitter. The plan succeeded, and the 456 were violently ejected from Earth. However, Steven died as a result, and Alice severed all contact with Jack, walking away without speaking a word. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)

Leaving Torchwood Three

Jack then travelled the world for six months. He did not find it enough to rid himself of his guilt. Saying good-bye to Gwen and Rhys, he used his vortex manipulator (which Rhys and Gwen had retrieved from the ruins of Torchwood) to signal a nearby cold fusion freighter near the edge of the Sol system and teleported off into space. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)

As Jack was still on Earth during the main events of The End of Time, it is uncertain, given his unknown ancestry, whether or not he was turned into a dupicate of the Master along with the rest of the human race.

Jack in a bar. (DW: The End of Time)

Some time later, Jack was in Zagizalgul, a city in the planet Zog, drowning his sorrows in a local bar and surrounded by various alien species, when a barman handed him a folded piece of paper which indicated that someone's name was Alonso. Looking up, he saw the 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. (DW: The End of Time)


Alternative realities

Donna's World

If Donna Noble had turned right instead of left, stopping herself from ever meeting and saving the Doctor, Jack would have lost fellow Torchwood members Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, who sacrificed their lives to save the Earth from the Sontarans' plan involving ATMOS, and would have been transported to Sontar, the Sontaran homeworld. (DW: Turn Left)

Undated events

  • As indicated above, Jack has worked for Torchwood since the late 19th century; to date only a handful of his missions prior to the recruitment of Gwen Cooper are known (TW: From Out of the Rain, Fragments, Exit Wounds)
  • Jack had a memorable experience once on a hunting expedition (DW: Boom Town).
  • Jack once quipped about the time he got pregnant, a memorable experience, though not necessarily in a good way. (TW: Everything Changes)
  • Jack had direct or indirect knowledge of the Cybermen of our universe (TW: Cyberwoman) and even stated that he knew what would happen in the Cyber-Wars of the future. (CJMF: Cyberman)
  • Jack related to a captive that he had experience in torturing prisoners, and that, "a long time ago", he had "quite a reputation as the go-to guy" in the event of needing to force information out of a person. (TW: Countrycide)
Given that he wanted to frighten a prisoner into divulging information at the time, he may have lied or stretched the truth.
  • He once worked for an employer named Vincent, who surprised "his" staff by coming out as a male-to-female transsexual renamed Vanessa. (TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts)
  • Jack once had a boyfriend with no mouth. (TW: Fragments)
  • Jack implied that he was present at the extinction of the dinosaurs and said that he had eaten some of them, stating that: "... there was nothing else around after the meteor hit." (TW: Fragments) Jack appears to be unaware that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused not by a meteor, but a space freighter that exploded, killing the Doctor's companion Adric. (DW: Earthshock) Unless there is an unchronicled time travel event during Harkness' tenure with Torchwood, this event appears to have occurred prior to his first encounter with the Doctor.
  • At some point, and over an unknown period of time, Jack made a number of top secret video recordings providing information on the various alien races encountered by planet Earth. The timing of these recordings and why they were made remains unknown. (WC: Captain Jack's Monster Files)
  • Although not necessarily "adventures" per se, Jack has made references to having romantic relationships with several 20th century notables, including Christopher Isherwood (TW: Reset) and Marcel Proust. (TW: Dead Man Walking)
  • Since Jack lived on Earth from 1869 to 2010, he may have been aware of when the Doctor appeared at each point in history. If he was aware of all the Doctor's adventures until then, it is possible that, presuming the Doctor comes to Earth from 1869 to 2010 in all his forms, then Jack may know what the Doctor looks like in every regeneration both past and future.

Personality

Other information

Deaths

Jack has died multiple times. This is one attempt to place these deaths in a precise timeline.

Jack fought in World War I and World War II

During The Year That Never Was, the Master frequently killed Jack for fun

By this time, Jack has died at least 1392 times

Special abilities

Since his resurrection by the Bad Wolf entity (DW: The Parting of the Ways), Jack can die and come back to life almost instantly (TW: Everything Changes onwards), although on occasion his resurrection may be delayed if he experiences enough trauma. (TW: End of Days) An interesting side effect, albit it was only used once on record, is the ability to transfer a little of his life force to another being allowing that person to recover very quickly (TW: Day One). He can also re-grow limbs, organs, bones, etc. After a bomb that was planted in his stomach exploded, he was able to fully regenerate from just an arm, a shoulder, and part of his head. His bones grew back first, followed by his internal organs, and lastly his skin. The process of resurrection can often be very painful, especially in this instance. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Two) He has also endured events which might have burned or vaporized regular humans, like a blast from a Judoon laser gun. Once, he stayed under stet radiation from a rocket ship that completely burns flesh but it never even bothered him. (DW: Utopia) Jack views this power as a curse as much as a blessing, as each time he has died he has not experienced anything at all, good or bad (TW: Everything Changes), although the process of resurrection is described as like being "hauled over broken glass." (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

It is impossible to calculate how many times Jack has died and resurrected since his first death from the Dalek blast. By the time John Hart killed him in a warehouse bombing, he had died at least 1,392 times (TW: Fragments), starting from 1892, when he first discovered his immortality. (DW: Utopia) However, Jack was subsequently buried alive by his brother, Gray, in 27 AD, and endured an endless cycle of suffocation deaths and resurrection – potentially hundreds of thousands – before being finally rescued in 1901. (TW: Exit Wounds)

The Doctor explained to Jack about his power after their reunion: Rose resurrected him as the Bad Wolf entity with the power of the Time Vortex after his first death, when he was shot by a Dalek. She couldn't totally control the power she wielded and she brought him back forever by accident. The Doctor knew from the moment it happened and so abandoned Jack in the future. The Doctor said that Jack is a fixed point in time, an impossible thing which the Doctor has trouble even looking at and even the TARDIS tries to get rid of. The Doctor says even he's unable to undo Jack's resurrection power and doesn't know if Jack will ever die due to this. (DW: Utopia) See "Future as the Face of Boe", below, for a potential consequence.

Like other men in the 51st century, Jack possesses evolved human pheromones which make him naturally nice-smelling and attractive to others. (TW: Fragments)

Tosh could not use Mary's telepathy pendant to read his thoughts, although he could project thoughts to Tosh if he so chose. Tosh likened it to trying to read a dead man, and Jack confirmed that he knew someone was trying to read his mind. (TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts)

Jack has no other superhuman abilities as such, but is in peak physical condition and an expert in various firearms. He has demonstrated extremely fast reflexes, such as when he noticed and fired on a Dalek seconds after teleporting from Cardiff to London (DW: The Stolen Earth)

Future as the Face of Boe?

Jack has mentioned that in his childhood home, the Boeshane Peninsula, as result of being the first one ever (whether of the Peninsula or of the Time Agency generally remains unclear) he had been a poster boy and so was nicknamed the Face of Boe. (DW: Last of the Time Lords) Jack had previously mentioned that he did know of the Face of Boe. (NSA: The Stealers of Dreams) Also, Jack asked The Doctor "What happens? If I live for billions and billions of years, will I age?" Also when The Doctor meets the Face of Boe in (DW:Gridlock) he says "It's good to see you again, old friend," even though they have only met twice.

Whether this would make the immortal Jack the actual future Face of Boe remains unknown. If true, then Jack is fated to outlive the Earth. (DW: Gridlock)
In his commentary for a preview of Children of Earth, Russell T Davies said of Captain Jack: "He has lived through hundreds and hundreds of years, and will live through billions of years.

These words sound suspicously similiar to the legends surrounding the Face of Boe, implying that Jack really is/will be the Face of Boe.

In comments in a panel at Comic-Con, John Barrowman talked at length about receiving the scripts for Utopia and Last of the Time Lords at Comic-Con and about how great he thought it was that Jack was the Face of Boe, because of what it did to the dynamic between Jack and the Doctor.

Multiple Jacks

Due to Jack's immortality and time travel, there have been several occasions in which several Jacks existed on Earth at the same time. At the time of Jack's first encounter with the Doctor in World War II, there were three versions on Earth: the young mortal Jack who subsequently joined the Doctor and Rose (DW: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances); the immortal Jack working for Torchwood (location at this point in time unknown); and a still older Jack being kept in cryogenic sleep at the Torchwood Three Hub in Cardiff. Later, when the Doctor, Rose, and Jack arrive in Cardiff prior to the Blaidd Drwg power station incident, they are only feet away from the Torchwood Three Hub where the older Jack is based and the cryogenically frozen Jack awaited resurrection. (DW: Boom Town) Yet another trio of Jacks existed on Earth, again during World War II, when the immortal Jack accidentally passed through a rift in time back to World War II, when in fact not only were there three Jacks (the 21st century Jack, the 1940s Torchwood member Jack and the frozen Jack) but a fourth as the original user of the name was also present. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

Possessions

The Defabricator at work

When Rose and the Doctor first met him, Jack owned a small Chula Ambulance, fitted for human use, as well as psychic paper and a store of nanogenes in the ship. When saving the Doctor and Rose by carrying a German bomb a safe distance away from London, the bomb explodes inside the ship, but luckily, the Doctor and Rose saved him. (DW: The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances) In contrast to the Doctor, Jack Harkness was far more willing to use weapons and was capable of modifying equipment to that end. Jack owned a sonic blaster. (DW: The Doctor Dances) He also managed to store a Compact Laser Deluxe away somewhere "you really don't wanna know"', in case of emergencies. (DW: Bad Wolf) During his travels with the Doctor, he modified the Defabricator, to be capable of destroying a Dalek. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) As the leader of Torchwood Three, Jack liked to carry a World War II Webley. (TW: Everything Changes onward)

Romantic interests

Although once described as gay by Owen Harper, Jack is, correctly, pansexual, in that he finds both males and females attractive and not exclusively humans, either. As such, he has had many lovers of both sexes and of numerous species.

By nature, Jack flirts with nearly everyone he meets. The earliest known example is his Time Agency partner Captain John Hart (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), but Jack has also recalled lovers from his Time Agency days such as his would-be executioners (a couple) and a boyfriend with no mouth.

Some time after leaving the Time Agency, he became a con man during World War II and had an affair with a soldier named Algy. (DW: The Doctor Dances) While traveling at their side, Jack appeared to develop romantic feelings for Rose Tyler and the Ninth Doctor, kissing them both on the mouth upon leaving them to fight the Daleks. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) The Doctor chose neither to encourage nor discourage Jack, though he himself did little more than playfully tease Jack. (DW: Boomtown)

When once again living around the time of World War II (this time immortal and working for Torchwood) he had a relationship with Estelle Cole (TW: Small Worlds) but seemingly disappeared out of her life forever one day (possibly to go off to war again).

While stranded on Earth between 1869 and 2007, Jack alluded to countless romances. He is known to have dated notables Christopher Isherwood (TW: Reset) and Marcel Proust (TW: Dead Man Walking) and developed a relationship with a Torchwood coworker named Greg Bishop. (TWN: The Twilight Streets) Other mentions include acrobatic twins and the possibility of relationships with other coworkers and acquaintances, such as Duchess Eleanor. (BBCR: Golden Age) During this period Jack also became married but outlived his wife. (TW: Something Borrowed)

With Torchwood agent Lucia Moretti, Jack was the father to Alice Carter (TW: Children of Earth) (who in turn produced a grandson). In the late 1960s, Jack met and had a brief relationship with involuntary time-traveler Michael Bellini. (TWN: Trace Memory)

In the early 21st century, Jack recruited Gwen Cooper, with whom he had a great deal of sexual tension (but she ultimately chose her boyfriend Rhys Williams, who became her fiancé), and Ianto Jones, whom he developed a romantic relationship with. Despite these burgeoning relationships, Jack met the real Captain Jack Harkness after traveling back in time and the two developed a romantic bond, culminating in a kiss upon their pained farewell. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) Jack also met and was attracted to Martha Jones, the handsome Tenth Doctor and even fleetingly to the Malmooth Chantho and a human male refugee on Malcassairo. On witnessing Martha's obvious unrequited love for the Doctor, Jack commented, "You, too, huh?" (DW: Utopia)

When he returned and John Hart departed (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), he began an exclusive relationship with Ianto, though he continued to flirt with everyone he met. During the Medusa Cascade incident, Jack confessed to being a fan of Sarah Jane Smith, because of her triumph against the Slitheen, which did come to some flirting. (DW: The Stolen Earth) Also, expectedly, Donna Noble found Jack attractive, offering a hug (Jack assumed she was kidding) after the Doctor and Rose did. Eventually Donna hugged Jack after saving the universe by pushing Sarah Jane out of the way, though Jack didn't mind. The relationship with Ianto, however, was close enough for him to surrender the world to the 456 to stop them killing Ianto. This did not save him, and the relationship was tragically ended. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Four)

He was later introduced to Alonso Frame by the Doctor during his last farewells. Although they certainly flirted with each other, it is unknown whether they merely had a fling, or if this grew into something more serious. (DW: The End of Time)

Relatives

Jack's known relatives are his father, Franklin, and his younger brother, Gray. His father was killed during an attack on the Boeshane Peninsula. Gray later turned against his brother and was eventually cryogenically frozen in the Torchwood Hub; the Hub's subsequent destruction during the 456 incident renders Gray's fate unclear. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)

He also had a mother and at least one wife, whose names are unknown. On Earth, he had a daughter, Alice Carter, and a grandson, Steven Carter; Steven died at the resolution of the 456 incident, and his relationship with his daughter has become estranged. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)

The fact his daughter was aging and his grandson died indicates that Jack's immortality cannot be passed genetically.

Key life events

Behind the scenes

  • Jack Harkness' first name was originally "Jax", in Russell T Davies's original production outline. In this, Jack's proper name was Jax, and he was using the Jack alias as a cover in World War II. The name was later abandoned due to its similarity to other names in the wider Doctor Who Universe.
  • Davies has said he got the surname "Harkness" from Agatha Harkness, a recurring character from the Fantastic Four comic book.
  • John Barrowman revealed that Jack does sleep and that he has a bed located down a ladder underneath a manhole cover near his office (revealed on The Friday Night Project, a late-night talk show) This bed and manhole are seen in Small Worlds.
  • Jack Harkness has the distinction of being the first ongoing character in the televised Doctor Who universe to be definitely confirmed as being non-heterosexual (although, as described above, it is not strictly correct to refer to him as homo- or bisexual either, more omnisexual). However, in the expanded Doctor Who universe he is far from the first, as Seventh Doctor companion Chris Cwej was revealed to be bisexual in the 1996 novel Damaged Goods (written by Russell T Davies), while Third Doctor-era recurring character Mike Yates was "outed" as gay in Happy Endings (although there is no suggestion of this in the televised episodes, which showed him flirting with Jo Grant on occasion). The Doctor Who Magazine Eighth Doctor comics featured recurring character Fey Truscott-Sade, and the Doctor's companion Izzy Sinclair came out as a lesbian in her final regular appearance in Oblivion.
  • Much like Nicola Bryant's portrayal of Peri, sometimes Barrowman uses word choices and pronunciations that an American wouldn't use. The most obvious example is in his way of saying "estrogen" in Everything Changes. (This is mainly because the word is spelt oestrogen in British English.) However it needs to be noted that Harkness is not an American, but rather someone from the far future pretending to be one, and it is established that he has spent much of his life (especially after gaining immortality) based in the British Isles or travelling with "British-speaking" companions such as the Doctor and Rose Tyler. There is nothing to say that Harkness is actually using an "American" accent; his accent may actually be Boeshanean.
  • Jack Harkness wears the rank slide of a Group Captain but is addressed, incorrectly, as "Captain". However, in his initial appearance in Doctor Who he is incorrectly wearing the cap and insignia of a Squadron Leader.
  • The implication that Jack is destined to become the Face of Boe is not considered set in stone due to Russell T Davies waffling over the issue during the DVD commentary for Last of the Time Lords, in which he would not commit absolutely to Jack becoming the Face in the future. However, in media and public (i.e. science fiction convention) statements, producer Julie Gardner, along with both John Barrowman and David Tennant, have all gone on record as saying that Jack is the Face of Boe.
  • Jack has appeared in every season in the revived series, with the exception of Series 2 (unless he is really the Face of Boe).
  • Jack is one of only three of the Doctor's assistants (the others being Sarah Jane Smith and K-9) to get their own spin-off show.
  • In the Declassified segment for Children of Earth, Russell T. Davies states that Jack has several children other than Alice.

See also

v • e
Companions of the Ninth Doctor
Original to television
Multi-adventure
Single-adventure
Original to prose
Ali • Ikalla
Original to comics
Original to audio
Multi-adventure
Single-adventure
If a medium is not mentioned, then this incarnation did not have companions who were original to that medium; it does not mean that this Doctor failed to appear in that medium.
v • e
Companions of the Tenth Doctor
Original to television
Multi-story
Single-adventure
Multi-adventure
Narratively ambiguous
Original to prose
Multi-story
Single-adventure
Original to comics
Multi-story
Single-adventure
Multi-adventure
Original to audio
Multi-story
Single-adventure
Original to video games
Multi-adventures reference the rare instance when a companion is shown or stated to have multiple adventures with the Doctor but only appears in a single story.
If a medium is not mentioned, then this incarnation did not have companions who were original to that medium; it does not mean that this Doctor failed to appear in that medium.
v • e
Torchwood Three personnel
Turn of the 20th century
Mid-late 20th century
21st century
Notable associates
Pets
v • e
Children of Time
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