Monster Files

The Files

Captain Jack

Captain Jack's Monster Files are an ongoing series of short, made-for-Internet videos in which John Barrowman, as Jack Harkness, narrates a brief history of various creatures and races encountered by the Doctor. The clips and videos are often depicted as being information acquired by the Torchwood Institute over the years, and live-action footage of Barrowman as Harkness is incorporated into the clips.

Produced and directed by Ian Smith [1] in BBC Wales and written by Justin Richards [2], the videos are streamed via the BBC's official Doctor Who website; like virtually all videos on the site (as of 2008), the clips are "geolocked" due to licensing and are technically not allowed to be viewed outside of the UK. As of 2010 none of these clips have been released on DVD.

The Monster Files were produced through to the end of Doctor Who's 4th season, and additional installments were also produced to tie in with the 2008 Christmas special, The Next Doctor and the 2009 Doctor Who Adventure Calendar.

The Adventure Calendar installment was presented differently than the others. Focusing on the Weeping Angels, the webisode was presented under the title A Ghost Story for Christmas (with no reference made to the Monster Files and no footage of Captain Jack although the character narrates the story) and featured a newly shot storyline in which a young woman has her own encounter with the Weeping Angels.

It has not yet been announced whether any future editions of Captain Jack's Monster Files will be produced in 2010 with the advent of a new Doctor Who production team (not to mention the events of TW: Children of Earth). As of late April 2010 no such productions have appeared.

The canonicity of the Monster Files is uncertain, especially given that some installments feature monsters the Doctor encountered away from Earth or in the far future, out of Torchwood's reach. In the case of others, it's possible that Torchwood might have obtained details about, for example, the Hath from Martha Jones and the Trickster's Brigade from Sarah Jane Smith, or indeed virtually any of the creatures from an unchronicled encounter with the Doctor. The context of the feature also implies that Harkness himself might have first-hand knowledge of many of these creatures from his own travels and adventures.

River Song

Whilst no new videos were made for the first four episodes, The Monster Files returned with Flesh and Stone and the vampires of venice, featuring a voiceover by Alex Kingston as River Song reading from her diary. Like at the end of Harkness' videos, she has survival tips, in this case called 'Useful Spoilers'.

Extra Files

Although Files installments usually correspond with the episode being shown that week, during some two-parters extra Files about old monsters are released for the first part if the monster's full story is kept secret until the complete story has been broadcast. The Slitheen were used for the Files broadcast in conjunction with DW: The Sontaran Stratagem, for example, and the Judoon were used for Silence in the Library. A Christmas-themed Files episode was also created, in which Jack talks about the Sycorax, The Titanic, The Empress of the Racnoss, the Roboforms, the Roboform Christmas Trees, the Graske and the Changelings.