Theory:Timeline - Torchwood

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This page lists appearances of Captain Jack Harkness in the order he experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed that for each novel, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.

Limiting factors

As he joins him late in his sole Doctor Who season before being left behind, Jack's travels with the Ninth Doctor in prose are limited to being between DW: The Doctor Dances and Bad Wolf. Also, due to the nature of Torchwood series 1's ending cliffhanger and the opening of series 2, no story involving Jack with Torchwood Three can be set in between.

Overview

Captain Jack Harkness was briefly a companion of the Ninth Doctor, travelling through time and space on Doctor Who television and BBC New Series Adventures prose. After being trapped with a broken vortex manipulator in 1869, with few opportunities to time travel over the next century, he later joins Torchwood Three, though the majority of his stories told are set after Gwen Cooper's recruitment to Torchwood in 2007 and before Torchwood Hub's destruction 2009 in Torchwood television, BBC Torchwood novels and audiobooks, and Torchwood short stories and comic stories, mostly told in Torchwood Magazine, with remaining stories or scenes set in between told in flashback.

His adventures with 21st century Torchwood Three and the related Torchwood team in America that was formed after the destruction of the Hub can be categorised as:

With Gwen, Owen, Ianto and Tosh in Torchwood Three
With Gwen and Ianto in Torchwood Three
With Gwen, Ianto and associate Rhys Williams following the Torchwood Hub's destruction
With Gwen, Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond as part of a new team codenamed Torchwood

Timeline

DW: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
NSA: The Deviant Strain
NSA: Only Human

Takes place before Boom Town due to Jack mentioning he has not visited the Ninth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler's era (the 21st century).

DW: Boom Town
NSA: The Stealers of Dreams

Rose phones her mother Jackie and tells her about the events of Boom Town

DW: Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

Jack is left behind on Satellite 5.

TW: Fragments (flashback with Alice and Emily)

Set in the late 19th century.

TW: Small Worlds (flashback)

Set in 1909.

TW: Immortal Sins (flashback)

Set in 1927 and 1928.

TW: Children of Earth: Day Four (flashback)

Set in 1965.

TW: Fragments (flashbacks with Alex Hopkins and Jack's 2007-era Torchwood associates)

Set over the course of the late 20th and early 21st century before Gwen Cooper is recruited to Torchwood Three

TW: Everything Changes

Gwen is recruited.

TW: Day One

Gwen's first day on the job.

TW: Ghost Machine

Gwen is still inexperienced with weapons.

Several references are made to the events of Cyberwoman.

TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts
TW: They Keep Killing Suzie

Set three months after Everything Changes.

Owen is visibly upset by the events of Out of Time in this story. He calls off his affair with Gwen.

TW: Captain Jack Harkness
TW: End of Days

Continues where Captain Jack Harkness left off. Jack disappears from Torchwood.

DW: Utopia / The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords
TW: Kiss, Kiss, Bang Bang

Gwen has started taking charge more in Jack's absence, in comparison to Captain Jack Harkness, where Owen was said to be second-in-command. Gwen is now engaged to Rhys.

Continues where Reset left off. Owen is resurrected, but with no lifesigns.

TW: A Day in the Death

Set three days after Reset.

Exit Wounds continues where Fragments left off. Owen and Tosh die. All TV stories between A Day in the Death and Exit Wounds (apart from Adrift) reference Owen's condition following his resurrection.

BBCR: Lost Souls

Martha meets Jack for the first time since Owen and Tosh's funeral.

DW: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
TW: Children of Earth: Day One
TW: Children of Earth: Day Two
TW: Children of Earth: Day Three
TW: Children of Earth: Day Four
TW: Children of Earth: Day Five

BBCR: The House of the Dead

The House of the Dead is set in the six-month gap at the end of Children of Earth: Day Five. Jack leaves Earth at the end of Children of Earth: Day Five. Days One through Five flow into one another.