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Jack Harkness

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Captain Jack Harkness was the alias adopted by a Time Agent and con man from the 51st century who became an associate and occasional companion of the Doctor. He was made immortal when killed by a Dalek and revived by Rose Tyler using the energy known as the "Heart" of the TARDIS (absorbing its full power), and stranded on Earth from the mid-19th to the early 21st century. During much of that time, he worked for Torchwood Three until its destruction in 2009. He left Earth in 2010 and did some soul-searching. However, he returned to Earth in 2011 when Miracle Day spread across the world. Jack decided to stay on Earth afterwards and establish a new Torchwood team.

You may be looking for this character's namesake or the television story.
HES GAY SOOOO VERRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY VEEEEEEERRRRRYYYYYYYYYYY FUUUUUKIN GAAAY AND HEEE FUAKD THE DOCTOR A MILION TIMES WITH HIS GIANT DICK THE DOCTOR SUCKED IT IN HIS MOUTH WHOLE

Personality

 
Jack "says hello" to Chantho. (TV: Utopia)

Jack Harkness' personality was willfully enigmatic. He enjoyed his persona of 'mysterious time traveller,' much of which remained constant in his experiences with Torchwood and the Doctor. Before being cursed with immortality, he was a flippant former con man who loved adventuring with the Doctor and seducing beings throughout the universe. Jack automatically flirted with most people he met, not caring about their gender or if they were human, alien or even robots. The Doctor often told him to stop and Jack would often reply, "I'm just saying hello". But as the Doctor pointed out, "For you, that's flirting". From this, it can be inferred that Jack is an omnisexual. (TV: Bad Wolf, Utopia, Journey's End, The End of Time)

Besides being a flirt, Jack was a drinker. He once remarked that on one occasion when he was sentenced to death, he got drunk and ended up in bed with both his executioners. He told Rose that he preferred to discuss business while he was drinking. (TV: The Empty Child) Jack claimed to the Ninth Doctor that before he met him he had been a coward and said that he might have been better off that way. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Despite the fact that he was incapable of dying even if he wanted to, Jack retained a sense of humour, frequently telling jokes and being lively and cheerful. However, underneath his cheerful demeanour, Jack was unsure if he wanted to die or not. (TV Utopia) Living forever (or at least as near to forever as a human could live) brought him to an existential viewpoint. While he joked about grey hairs and remained silent about mortality, Jack saw death as the ultimate end of being; there was no afterlife and no one waiting for him from his past lives. Although friendly and flirtatious, Jack could also be ruthless at times and did not hesitate to kill anyone or anything that he felt was a threat. This sometimes got him into trouble with his allies in Torchwood who disapproved of his lack of compassion. On one occasion Owen Harper shot him because he felt that Jack didn't care about what they had lost. (TV: End of Days) Although he could be aggressive, Jack still cared deeply about his allies and was devastated when any of them were harmed or killed. (TV: Exit Wounds, Children of Earth: Day Five)

Always a vocal, unreliable narrator of his own adventures, Jack was as much of a mystery to the people he met as the countless lives he claimed to have led. Jack continued to protect himself with an air of mystery. No one he encountered knew his real name or many details about his career or life. He often told anecdotes about his sex life, but no one knew how many were real. Though he professed "responsibility" as his motto after the Year That Never Was, the utter devastation Jack experienced in the space of five days over the course of the 456 incident and the deaths of his grandson and Ianto Jones left him wracked with guilt and grief, unable to remain on Earth. When he returned to Earth, Jack seemed to be a shadow of his old self because he had lost so many people he cared about, although he had recovered enough to stay on Earth in order to defend it. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five, Miracle Day)

Jack was haunted by the loss of his younger brother Gray and spent many decades searching for him. He blamed himself for Gray's disappearance because he'd let go of his hand when they were fleeing from aliens during their childhood. Jack loved his brother deeply and, even after Gray turned against him, Jack told him that he forgave him. (TV: Exit Wounds)

Other information

Deaths

Jack died thousands, perhaps millions or billions of times.

Jack was killed fourteen times in the six months before encountering Torchwood.

Jack fought and died in World War I.

Jack fought and died in World War II.

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

By this time, Jack had died at least 1,409 times.

Skills and abilities

Since his resurrection by the Bad Wolf entity, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) Jack could die and come back to life almost instantly, (TV: Everything Changes onwards) although on occasion his resurrection was delayed if he experienced enough trauma. (TV: End of Days, Children of Earth: Day One) An interesting side effect, used only once on record, was the ability to transfer a little of his life force to another being, allowing that person to recover very quickly. He could also re-grow his whole body. 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 in a bit over twelve hours. His bones grew back first, followed by his internal organs, and lastly his skin, and it would appear that he retained all his memories and knowledge as well. The process of resurrection could often be very painful, especially in this instance. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Two) Jack apparently underwent a similar experience in 2007 after his body was destroyed after being thrown out of an airplane at 30,000 feet over Chernobyl and he subsequently reconstituted after most (but not all) of his body parts were recovered; however, due to exposure to a form of retcon gas, he lost all memory of this. (WC: Web of Lies) He was also able to endure heat and radiation which would have burned or vaporised regular humans, without appearing to feel any pain. (TV: Utopia) Jack viewed this power as a curse as much as a blessing, as each time he died he did not experience anything at all, good or bad (TV: Everything Changes), although the process of resurrection was described as being "hauled over broken glass." (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

Notably, although Jack quickly recovered from fatal injuries, he did sustain more minor wounds such as a cut lip or a black eye and retain them for a while after the injury was inflicted, demonstrating that his immortality was just that and would not automatically facilitate his ability to cope with less serious injuries. (TV: Cyberwoman, Fragments) However, these wounds healed much more quickly than the average human's, and were usually gone within a day or so, although it is unclear whether this would apply if Jack sustained potentially long-term damage such as paralysis.

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

The Tenth Doctor explained to Jack about his power after their reunion: Rose, as the Bad Wolf entity, resurrected him 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, then in his ninth incarnation, knew from the moment it had happened and so abandoned Jack in the future. The Tenth Doctor said that Jack was a fixed point in time, an impossible thing which the Doctor had trouble even looking at, and even the TARDIS tried to get rid of him. The Doctor said that he was unable to undo Jack's resurrection power and didn't know if Jack would ever truly die. (TV: Utopia)

During the events of Miracle Day, Jack discovered that he had lost some or all of his immortality, as he realised that wounds he sustained which should have healed quickly did not. He concluded that while everyone on Earth seemed to have become immortal, he had become mortal and human once again, although it was initially unclear whether this was a deliberate consequence of Miracle Day, or if the Miracle simply 'crossed wires' with the immortal Jack and made him mortal. It was eventually revealed that his blood was used on the Blessing to make the world immortal, and it had the reverse effect on him. Once he used his mortal blood to reverse this, his immortality returned as the world returned to mortality. (TV: The New World, Rendition, The Blood Line)

Like other men in the 51st century, Jack possessed evolved human pheromones which made him naturally nice-smelling and attractive to others. (TV: 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, although it was unclear if this was a side-effect of his immortality. (TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts)

Jack had no other superhuman abilities as such, but was in excellent physical condition and an expert in various firearms. He was physically strong enough to rip the bolts of chains he had been bound with by the Master out of the wall, which ultimately resulted in the use of special clamps on his restraints. (DW: Last of the Time Lords) He also demonstrated extremely fast reflexes, such as when he noticed and fired on a Dalek seconds after teleporting from Cardiff to London. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

Future as the Face of Boe

Jack had mentioned that in his childhood home, the Boeshane Peninsula, he was referred to as the "Face of Boe," a poster-boy name resulting from being the first one ever to sign up to the Time Agency. This led the Doctor and Martha to speculate that Jack may in fact become the Face of Boe himself. (TV: Last of the Time Lords) Jack had previously mentioned that he did know of the Face of Boe, a being that existed for billions of years. (PROSE: The Stealers of Dreams) Remaining unsure of his continued ageing process due to seeing grey hairs over hundreds of years, Jack inquired of the Tenth Doctor about his facial appearance if he were to live for a million years and was told he was an "impossible thing," knowing something he had already been told before with no concise answer as to his fate. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)

Multiple Jacks

Due to Jack's immortality and time travel, there were several occasions in which several Jacks existed on Earth at the same time. At the time of Jack's first encounter with the Ninth Doctor in World War II, there were three versions on Earth: the young mortal Jack who subsequently joined the Ninth Doctor and Rose; (TV: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances) the immortal Jack working for Torchwood (location at this point in time unknown); (TV: Utopia, TV: Fragments) and a still older Jack being kept in cryogenic sleep at the Torchwood Three Hub in Cardiff. (TV: Exit Wounds) Later, when the Doctor, Rose, and Jack arrived in Cardiff prior to the Blaidd Drwg power station incident, they were only feet away from the Torchwood Three Hub where the older Jack was based and the cryogenically frozen Jack awaited resurrection. (TV: Boom Town, TV: Exit Wounds) 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. (TV: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, TV: Captain Jack Harkness, Fragments, Exit Wounds)

Possessions

 
Jack killing a Dalek shortly after it shot the Tenth Doctor. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

When Rose and the Ninth Doctor first met him, Jack owned a small Chula ship, fitted out 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 exploded inside the ship; luckily, the Doctor and Rose saved him. (TV: 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. (TV: The Doctor Dances) He also managed to store a compact laser deluxe away somewhere "you really don't wanna know", in case of emergencies. (TV: Bad Wolf) During his travels with the Doctor, he modified the defabricator to be capable of destroying a Dalek. (TV: The Parting of the Ways) As the leader of Torchwood Three, Jack liked to carry a World War II Webley. (TV: Everything Changes)

Romantic interests

Given his long life and Jack's comment, "If you went through my back catalogue, we'd be here 'til the sun exploded", Jack had numerous to uncountable relationships through the hundreds of years he was alive. (TV: Day One)

Although once described as gay by Owen Harper, Jack was, correctly, omnisexual, in that he found not only both human males and females attractive, but members of alien races as well. He had many lovers of both sexes and of numerous species. By nature, Jack flirted with nearly everyone he met. The earliest known example was his Time Agency partner Captain John Hart, (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) but Jack also recalled lovers from his Time Agency days such as his would-be executioners (a couple) and a boyfriend with no mouth. (TV: The Doctor Dances, TV: Fragments)

During his stint as a con man during World War II, Jack had an affair with a soldier named Algy. (TV: The Doctor Dances) While travelling 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. (TV: The Parting of the Ways) The Doctor chose neither to encourage nor discourage Jack, though he did playfully tease Jack at one point. (TV: Boom Town)

While stranded on Earth between 1869 and 2007, Jack alluded to countless romances. He was known to have dated notables Christopher Isherwood (TV: Reset) and Marcel Proust, (TV: Dead Man Walking) and may have had a sexual relationship with Alan Turing. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets) Other mentions included acrobatic twins and the possibility of relationships with other coworkers and acquaintances, such as Duchess Eleanor. (AUDIO: Golden Age) In 1927, Jack had a brief relationship in New York with Italian thief Angelo Colasanto, whom Jack likened to a "companion". Jack left him after Angelo, and later the wider Italian-American community, attempted to kill him after Angelo was released from prison the following year. (TV: Immortal Sins)

Of his more significant relationships, in the early 1940s, Jack fell in love and developed a relationship with a Torchwood coworker named Greg Bishop. (PROSE: The Twilight Streets) Later in the 40s, he had a relationship with Estelle Cole but seemingly disappeared out of her life forever one day. (TV: Small Worlds) In this period, Jack also became married -- as black and white photos showed -- but outlived his wife. (TV: Something Borrowed) The Eleventh Doctor implied that he knew Jack to have been married, or at least engaged, several times.(TV : The Wedding of River Song) In the late 1960s, Jack met and had a brief relationship with involuntary time-traveller Michael Bellini. (PROSE: Trace Memory) Later still, with Torchwood agent Lucia Moretti, Jack was the father to Alice Carter, who in turn produced a grandson. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One, Children of Earth: Day Three) Jack was vague when asked precisely how many children he had fathered. (TV: Immortal Sins)

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, whom she later married), (TV: Everything Changes, Day One, Something Borrowed) and Ianto Jones, with whom he developed a romantic relationship. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Fragments) Despite these burgeoning relationships, Jack met the real Captain Jack Harkness after travelling back in time and the two developed a romantic bond, culminating in a kiss upon their pained farewell. (TV: Captain Jack Harkness) 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. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four) It was also close enough for Jack to attempt to stay in the Rift after it closed forever, not wanting to live in a world without Ianto. Ianto tricked Jack into not attempting suicide, killing himself (or, technically, his spirit). Before Ianto died for the second time, though, the two finally confessed their love to each other. (AUDIO: The House of the Dead)

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. (TV: Utopia) On witnessing Martha's obvious unrequited love for the Doctor, Jack commented, "You, too, huh?" (TV: The Sound of Drums) When he returned and John Hart departed, (TV: 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. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

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

Relatives

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

He also had many spouses, all but one of whose names were unknown. When the Eleventh Doctor explained to Dorium Maldovar the possibilities a time machine could bring, he said he could go on all of Jack's stag parties. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)

On Earth he had a daughter, Melissa Moretti (later known as Alice Carter), and a grandson, Steven Carter; Steven died at the resolution of the 456 incident, and Jack's relationship with his daughter became estranged. (TV: Something Borrowed, Children of Earth: Day Three, Children of Earth: Day Five)

The fact his daughter was ageing and his grandson died indicates that Jack's immortality could not be passed genetically. By this time, Jack's only known living relative was his daughter, Alice. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Five)

Behind the scenes

The Face of Boe?

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.

While promoting Torchwood: Miracle Day Davies insisted that the idea of Jack living to become the Face of Boe is just a conjecture, and the possibility of Jack not surviving Torchwood remains. [1]

Other matters

  • 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.
  • It is suggested that Jack could get pregnant as he says, "You take the pill and flush it away, it enters the water cycle, feminizes the fish. It goes all the way up into the sky and then falls all the way back down onto me. Contraceptives in the rain. I love this planet. Still, at least I won't get pregnant... never doing that again." (TV: Everything Changes)
  • Borrowman auditioned for the role with Scottish, English and American accents. The writers decided that he use his American accent.
  • Davies has said he got the surname "Harkness" from Agatha Harkness, a recurring character from the Fantastic Four comic book. This is not the first time he has used the name Harkness. He used it previously in one of his earlier works, Century Falls.
  • 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, he appears to prefer males during his time in the 21st century). 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 Virgin New Adventures novel Damaged Goods (written by Russell T Davies), while Third Doctor-era recurring character Mike Yates was "outed" as gay in PROSE: 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 and various guest actors portraying Americans, sometimes Barrowman uses word choices and pronunciations that an American wouldn't use. The most obvious example is his way of saying "estrogen" in TV: Everything Changes. (This is mainly because the word is spelt oestrogen in British English.) Unlike Peri, Canton Delaware, Lt.Gen. Sanchez, and others however, Jack is from a distant future where those British usages may well have become the norm. He is also not actually American per se, but rather an alien human from another planet. Finally, in most of his appearances, he had lived in Britain for many decades and would presumably have adopted vernacular.
  • Jack Harkness wore the rank slide of a Group Captain but has been addressed, incorrectly, as "Captain". However, in his initial appearance in Doctor Who he was incorrectly wearing the cap and insignia of a Squadron Leader.
  • Jack is similar to the Doctor in that both are time travellers with a form of immortality, they don't go by their real names, and both are main characters of a TV show.
  • Jack is one of only three of the Doctor's assistants (the others being Sarah Jane Smith and K9) to get their own spin-off show.
  • Jack was originally slated to appear in the Doctor Who Series 6 episode A Good Man Goes to War, working with the Eleventh Doctor's army. However, John Barrowman was unable to appear due to the filming of Torchwood: Miracle Day.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ io9 - What the Creators of Torchwood: Miracle Day Promise You'll See, 6 July 2011; accessed 5 December 2011
  2. ↑ Steven Moffat's Twitter feed, 5 June 2011; accessed 5 December 2011
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