Jack Harkness

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For other uses of Captain Jack, see here.

Captain Jack Harkness was the name adopted by a con man from the 51st century who became an associate and occasional companion of the Doctor. He was made reluctantly immortal by the Bad Wolf and stranded on Earth from the mid-19th to the early 21st century due to putting too much strain on his vortex manipulator. During much of that time, he worked for Torchwood Three until its destruction in 2009. After that he left Earth in 2010, but returned in 2011 when Miracle Day spread across the world. The phenomenon also temporarily stripped him of his immortality, and Jack decided to stay on Earth afterwards and establish a new Torchwood team.

Biography

Youth

Early life

Jack was born under a different name, which has yet to be revealed. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) He grew up in the 51st century in an era when attitudes towards sex differed from those prevalent in the 21st century. (DW: The Doctor Dances, TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Adam)

Attack on the Boeshane Peninsula
Young Jack Harkness on Boeshane Peninsula. (TW: Adam)

Jack was brought up on the Boeshane Peninsula, a sandy, beach-like area. He spent time with his brother Gray and his father, Franklin, playing cricket and singing around campfires. One day an unknown enemy 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, thinking Grey was behind him hiding in a bush while the invaders flew overhead. He returned to his home hoping to find his brother, but instead found only his father, dead. Jack claimed it was the worst day of his life, and that he spent many years searching for his brother, though he never found him. (TW: Adam)

Growing up

As a young man, he persuaded a friend to "join up" with him to fight against an unspecified enemy Jack described only as "horrible". When captured, the enemy, considering Jack's friend to be the weaker of the pair, tortured him as a lesson for Jack. The enemies let Jack go, bearing 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). Eventually Jack found that the Agency had erased two years of his memory, which he wished to have back (DW:The Empty Child).

Jack with Rose and the Ninth Doctor. (DW: The Doctor Dances)

Jack left the Agency and became a time-travelling con artist, running 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 be destroyed before the buyers could pick up their merchandise. He would, at some point, acquire a small, sleek Chula spacecraft, fitted for human use which could turn invisible. (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. He knew very little about the real Jack, other than basic information such as the date and manner of his death. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

Meeting the Doctor

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

While running a con involving a Chula ambulance during the London Blitz, he spotted Rose Tyler hanging from a barrage balloon and rescued her, taking her aboard his ship. Deducing that she came from the future, he suspected other Time Agents had discovered him. (DW: The Empty Child) Rose introduced him to the Ninth Doctor and crushed his dream of conning the Time Agency. The trio stopped the plague brought about by the ambulance's nanogenes. Jack took 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 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 Jack, who found both Rose and the Doctor likewise.

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. He was killed defending the satellite against them. He was resurrected by Rose Tyler, who at that time had the powers of the Time Vortex which turned her into the Bad Wolf. He was unable to rejoin the Doctor and Rose before the Doctor's TARDIS departed; Jack was left stranded on the satellite. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) Jack later learnt from the Tenth Doctor that this resurrection was what made him immortal. (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. His Vortex manipulator burned out and he was unable to leave. (DW: Utopia)

Jack stayed in Cardiff, knowing that the Doctor's TARDIS could re-fuel itself using the rift and that the Doctor would one day return. Jack chose to continue using the Harkness alias, or was using when he started working for Torchwood Three. (TW: Fragments) 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 - he noted that he had a couple of gray hairs in 2008, one hundred thirty-nine years after arriving in Cardiff (DW: Last of the Time Lords) - and could recover from any degree of physical harm, including death itself, given a few minutes time. (DW: Utopia)

In 1898 Jack flirted with a woman (and her father) at a music hall bar. He booked a private box to watch the performance (suggesting some wealth), of The Amazing Anthony – The Wonder of 1898 and referred to himself at the time as being “on duty”. Jack appeared to have had at this time, his 'wristband' (vortex manipulator), and over the years of Anthony Bradshaw’s life it seemed that Jack was coming to terms with his own immortality. Anthony was saved by Jack from a Lawphoram, which had fallen to Earth. Anthony, the 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 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. They captured and tortured him to discover why he could not die and what connection he had to

Jack in 1899. (TW: Fragments)

the Torchwood Institute's enemy. He was released on the condition that he work for Torchwood, 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. She gave 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 until his version of the Doctor coincided with his timeline, Jack reconsidered Torchwood's offer and began working for them and awaiting the Doctor's return.

On his first mission, Jack Harkness was sent to stop a criminal Blowfish, which he returned to Torchwood Three's Hub, only to see it killed by a shot to the head. He continued working for Torchwood for over a hundred years, still pursuing his goal of find the Doctor in the meantime. (TW: Fragments)

Shortly after this, Jack went to China during the Boxer Rebellion, where he worked with explosives. (TW: The Blood Line)

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's 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 Ninth 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)

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Jack in 1927. (TW: Immortal Sins)

In 1927, Jack went to New York on a mission to stop the Trickster's Brigade from infecting President Roosevelt's brain with a parasite. When he arrived at Ellis Island, Jack met Angelo Colasanto. The two stayed in a room in New York together and had sex. Comparing Angelo to one of the Doctor's companions, the two went to the warehouse where the parasite was being kept and killed it. As the two tried to escape, however, Jack was killed and Angelo was captured and taken to jail. The next year, after Angelo got out of jail, Jack returned claiming that he had only been playing dead. Angelo didn't believe Jack, however, and assumed that Jack was the devil. Angelo stabbed Jack and was shocked when Jack came back to life. Jack was then chained up and repeatedly killed, since people assummed that his

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Jack in 1927. (TW: Immortal Sins)

immortality was either a miracle or a blessing. Jack then saw three men come to the room where he was chained, but he never learned who they were. Angelo decided to help Jack escape, but Jack jumped off of a building and disappeared from Angelo's life. (TW: Immortal Sins)

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. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Four)

In 1965, the alien race known as the 456, communicating through radio, set up a deal: 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 twenty-five million people. Jack received 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)

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A picture of Jack in the 70s. (TW: End of the Road)

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)

On several occasions during the 1990s, Jack visited the Powell Estate to watch you

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Jack in 1999. (TW: Fragments)

ng Rose Tyler grow up, but did not approach her to avoid disrupting her timeline. (DW: Utopia)

21st century

On New Year's Day 2000, Jack, now a full-time agent for Torchwood Three, suffered a major emotional blow when one of his colleagues, Alex Hopkins, suffered a nervous breakdown and killed the entire Torchwood Three 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)

Jack in 2006. (TW: Fragments)

The New Torchwood Three

Over several years Jack 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)

Jack in 2007. (TW: Fragments)

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 Torchwood One destroyed the Sycorax ship in 2006 under orders from Prime Minister Harriet Jones, (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 Tenth Doctor. He kept the hand in a portable hyperbaric chamber in Torchwood Three's nerve centre, the Hub, and treated it as a prized possession, much to the occasional consternation of his colleagues. (TW: Everything Changes, End of Days) He eventually relinquished the hand to the Tenth Doctor. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)

After his colleague 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)

(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 a secret, Gwen learned about his immortality, as did the others later. Jack often showed great compassion for the team and 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)

At some point during this time, Jack was kidnapped and Gwen searched for him. This event would later be significant to Miracle Day. (WC: Web of Lies)

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)

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 Tenth Doctor. (DW: Utopia)

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 time vortex on the exterior of a TARDIS, thanks to his immortality. The Tenth Doctor and Jack had an awkward reunion, mainly because the Doctor had seemingly abandoned him on Satellite Five. Before long the Doctor admitted that he had run from Jack because his unique nature as a living temporal anomaly made the Time Lord physically uncomfortable when near him - even looking at Jack was an effort. Jack made the happy discovery, though, that Rose Tyler had not been killed in the Battle of Canary Wharf as he had believed. 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)

Jack, Martha and the Doctor in hiding. (DW: The Sound of Drums)
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)

Jack says his goodbyes to the Doctor and Martha. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)

After Jack had been imprisoned and tortured on 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 retained any memory of the year's events.

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

Captain Jack shoots the Blowfish. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

At some point in the course of events, the Doctor obtained his severed hand from Jack. (DW: The Doctor's Daughter)

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 while 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 thought incurable. He ordered Toshiko to close the Pharm 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. (TW: Something Borrowed)

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, Durac, the embodiment of death. 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 acclimatize. (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

Jack and John entering the Rift. (TW: Exit Wounds)

of the Torchwood Three team. This failed and Jack found a message from John on his vortex manipulator, which included an appearance by Gray. 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 before abducting Jack and taking 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 stabbing Jack in cold

Jack in 27 AD. (TW: Exit Wounds)

blood. Gray then forced John to bury Jack alive, twenty feet beneath what would become Cardiff. Gray, transformed into a merciless, sadistic beast by a lifetime of horrific torture, 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 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.


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

One last encounter... (TW: Exit Wounds)

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 twelve accidents, and found a creature that fed on neutrons. (BBCR: Lost Souls)

Against the Daleks

Captain Jack during the Medusa Cascade incident. (DW: The Stolen Earth)

Later, when the Earth was relocated by the Daleks to the Medusa Cascade, Harriet Jones, a former Prime Minister and acquaintance of the Tenth 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 abortive regeneration, 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)

Jack is killed by the Dalek Supreme. (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 were confiscated by UNIT and were made top-secret footage. (WC: Captain Jack's Monster Files)

Fighting the 456

Jack's past would return to haunt him when the 456, in need of more subjects for their drug production, once more contacted humanity

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

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,

Jack visiting his daughter, Alice. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)

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 Frobisher's chief of operations in the taskforce realised 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.

Agent Johnson looking at a dead body of Jack. (TW: Children of Earth: Day One)

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)

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Jack chained up, after the effect of the explosion inside him. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Two)

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.

Jack saves the world at a terrible price. (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)

Jack was declared dead as a result of the 456 Regulation. (TW: The New World)

Leaving Torchwood Three

Jack then went on to travel the world. He did not find it enough to rid himself of his guilt. After six months he returned to Cardiff to destroy the House of the Dead, and encountered the ghost of Ianto Jones, and the couple finally confessed their love to each other for the first and last time. (BBCR: The House of the Dead) Shortly afterwards, after saying goodbye to Gwen and Rhys, he used

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

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)

Some time later, Jack was in Zaggit Zagoo, a city on the planet Zog, drowning his sorrows in a local bar 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 Tenth Doctor 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)

Mortal once again

Jack returned to planet Earth when the word "Torchwood" was emailed all around the world, coinciding with the start of the Miracle Day phenomenon. He used malware to expunge evidence of Torchwood from the Internet, and went to the CIA hard copy records to clear the last of the information, where he encountered CIA agent Esther Drummond, on whom he use

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Jack walks alone, the only mortal man on Earth. (TW: The New World)

d Retcon. Jack used the alias "Owen Harper" as he gathered more information. On Miracle Day, Jack lost his immortality. He followed Rex Matheson, also CIA, to Wales, as part of his efforts to protect Gwen. There, they fought off assassins. Matheson extradited Jack and Gwen to the United States. (TW: The New World)

Forced onto a plane headed for America, Jack had his Vortex manipulator confiscated by Rex and was handcuffed to his seat. Hearing his manipulator beeping, Jack informed Rex that it has detected he had low sodium levels. Jack asked for a Coke and was poisoned with arsenic by corrupt C.I.A. agent Lyn Peterfield. He was cured of the poison by Rex and Gwen with the help of Dr. Vera Juarez. Upon arrival at the airport, Jack (along with Gwen) was freed by Rex as the C.I.A. has become corrupt and now wished to make them seem the bad guys. After Lyn's head was broken and the guards knocked out, Jack boarded the car of Rex's fellow ex-agent, Esther, and was rushed from the airport after briefly meetering the doctor who had saved his life over the phone. (TW: Rendition)

Jack took command of the now ex-C.I.A. agents with Gwen to form a new Torchwood team. They began stealing materials needed for operations. Soon coming into possession of the phone of the CIA director who had given the orders to eliminate Torchwood, Brian Friedkin, Jack led the team to a warehouse owned by PhiCorp. Inside was a stockpile of painkiller drugs, indicating that they knew "Miracle Day" would happen. Seemingly out of character, Jack decided to take the night off from his usual persistence in solving such a mystery. The following night, Jack confronted PhiCorp's new public face, Oswald Danes and got him to admit his true feelings about his crime. Jack realised that Danes wished desperately for death. He was tossed out by Dane's guards. (TW: Dead of Night)

Jack then went to Los Angeles with the new Torchwood team, in order to infiltrate a PhiCorp facility that was located there. Unknown to him at the time, they were followed by an assassin who had orders to kill Jack. After arriving in LA, Jack and Gwen were able to trick Nicolas Frumkin into giving them access to the PhiCorp base. However, the assassin also managed to gain access, and followed Jack and Gwen there. Once inside the building, the assassin tied up Jack and Gwen, and informed them that he had been ordered to kill Jack. However, the assassin was fascinated by the fact that Jack was the only mortal man left, and did not want to kill him. After informing Jack that something that he did in the past was involved, the assassin threatened to cut Gwen's throat, but before he could carry out his threat, he was shot by Rex. (TW: Escape to LA)

After the new categories of life were released and the overflow camps were opened, Gwen went back to Wales to try to free her father from a camp, and Dr. Vera Juarez came to LA to join the Torchwood team. Rex, Vera, and Esther decided to infilitrate an overflow camp, but Jack was not able to go because he was too easily recognized. Instead, Jack decided to stalk Oswald Danes at the Miracle Rally. Jack tried to persuade Danes to read a speech that he wrote, which revealed that PhiCorp knew of the miracle beforehand, instead of the speech that Jilly Kitzinger had written him. Jack told Oswald that if he read his speech, Jack would be able to end the miracle so that he could die. Oswald, however, decided not to read either Jack or Jilly's speech, and made up his own speech about how humanity had become angels. (TW: The Categories of Life)

Jack managed to gain access to Stuart Owens' email, and found out that he was having an extra-marital affair with Janet Tanner, and that he planned to transfer her. Jack met Janet in a bar, and persuaded her to help him meet Owens. Janet pretended to have been kidnapped over the phone, while Jack spoke with Stuart in a restuarant. Stuart explained that despite his position in PhiCorp, he did not know anything about the miracle, and had been trying to find out about it. He also told Jack that something called the Blessing was involved. The police soon arrived at the restuarant, and Jack was forced to leave. Jack returned to Torchwood's temporary headquarters, and began to investigate the blessing. Gwen soon contacted him using the Eye-5 contact lenses, and Jack recorded Gwen blowing up the modules at the Cowbridge Overflow Camp. (TW: The Middle Men)

Gwen recieved a message on the Torchwood contact lenses, telling her that they had Rhys, her mother, and Anwen, and that she would have to hand over Jack if she wanted to see her family again. Gwen returned to LA, and asked Jack to come outside. Once outside, Gwen stunned Jack and tied him up in the car. She then drove him to where the contact lenses were instructing her to, despite Jack's attempts to escape. Once they arrived at the specified location, and a van arrived carrying three people, Rex and Esther revealed that they had followed them, pointing sniper rifles at the people from the van. Jack was then informed that they wanted to take him to Angelo Colasanto, the only person who knew the true nature of the miracle. (TW: Immortal Sins)

Jack kisses Angelo for the last time. (TW: End of the Road)

It turned out that the person who had arranged to have Gwen's family kidnapped was Olivia Colasanto, the grand daughter of Angelo. Olivia took Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team to Angelo's house, where Jack was informed that Angelo had been able to live to over 100 through artificial means, but had still aged normally and was in a coma on a life support system. Rex soon brought the CIA to Angelo's house, and Allen Shapiro had Olivia and Brian Friedkin arrested. Jack spoke to Angelo despite the fact that he was unconscious, and removed part of his life support system to save him. Jack unplugged Angelo's life support equipment, assuming that he would not be able to die due to the miracle, and was surprised to find that Angelo did in fact die. After Shapiro had Gwen deported back to Wales, Jack discovered that there was a null field generator under Angelo's bed that cancelled out the morphic field that had caused the miracle in the first place. Jack decided that he didn't want the CIA to obtain the null field technology, so he persuaded Rex and Esther to help him escape with a vital component of the null field generator. Unfortuanetly, Jack was shot soon after he escaped, so Esther was forced to go with him, while Rex stayed with the CIA. (TW: End of the Road)

Jack spent the next two months with Esther, and they eventually ended up in Scotland. Esther collected Jack's blood, as she believed it must be somehow relevant to the miracle. Eventually, the two were contacted by Gwen who informed them that Oswald Danes was in her house and wanted to speak to Jack. Jack and Esther went to Wales, where Jack retconned a man who was watching Gwen's house before they went inside. Oswald explained to Jack that he had stolen Jilly Kitzinger's laptop, and knew what she was doing for the families. It turned out that Jilly was helping them to mistranslate video fom other countries to hide the location of the Blessing. Torchwood then realized that there were two blessings, one in Shanghai, and one in Buenos Aires. Jack went to Shanghai with Gwen and Oswald, but once they arrived there his gunshot wound began to hurt more. Gwen helped him change his bandage, and Oswald noticed that Jack's blood was moving by itsself. Gwen determined that Jack's blood must be moving towards the Blessing. (TW: The Gathering)

Back to abnormal

Jack, with the help of Oswald and Gwen, located the Blessing, which was about to be blown up by the Families to bury it forever, as they knew that Torchwood had located it. Strapping Oswald to a bomb, the three are able to force their way into the Blessing while Rex and Esther were captured while trying to infiltrate the blessing in Buenos Aires. Jack, despite being from the future and having had experiences with the Doctor had no idea what the Blessing really was but believed it to have been on Earth since the beginning. The Blessing seemed to show everybody themselves, but Jack didn't appear significantly effected by seeing all the lives he had lived. Jack learned that his blood was used to change the Blessing which runs Earth's morphic field causing Jack to realize that the Blessing changed in defense of itself and that his mortal blood can change it back. The family member revealed that mortal blood would need to be put into the Blessing from both ends to reverse the Miracle, so Jack would have no way to do it. Rex, however, revealed that he had tranfused Jack's blood into his own body. The two men were prepared to sacrifice themselves to end the Miracle with Gwen planning to shoot Jack, but Esther was shot by the Families in an attempt to prevent this, as ending the miracle would kill Esther. The two went decided to end the Miracle anyway, and Gwen shot Jack while Rex removed his bandage. Jack died of the gunshot wound. Oswald decided to stay behind to blow up a family member, and Gwen and Jilly decided to escape. Jack's immortality returned and he escaped with Gwen as Oswald detonated his bomb. Rex also survived the ordeal, but Esther sadly passed away. Jack attended Esther's funeral and watched as Charlotte Wills was exposed as the CIA mole and killed Rex before being killed herself. Jack was shocked when Rex resurrected, having somehow gained Jack's immortality. (TW: The Blood Line)

Alternate realities

Donna's World

If Donna Noble had turned right instead of left, stopping herself from ever meeting and saving the Tenth 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 and possibly captured and tortured. (DW: Turn Left)

Undated events

Personality

Jack Harkness' personality was willfully enigmatic;. Hey enjoyed his persona of 'mysterious time traveler,' much of which remained constant in his experiences with Torchwood and the Doctor. He would take to saying "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.", much like the Doctor, when something particularly tragic happened to someone. Before being cursed with immortality, he was flippant former con man who loved adventuring with the Doctor and seducing beings throughout the galaxy. Jack automatically flirted with most people he met, not caring about their gender or if they were human, alien or even robots. (DW: Bad Wolf, Utopia, The End of Time)

Besides being a flirt, Jack was a drinker. He once remarked that on one occassion 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. (DW: 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. (DW: 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. (DW Utopia) Living forever (or at least as near to forever as a human can live) brought him to an existential viewpoint. While he joked about gray 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. (TW: 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. (TW: Exit Wounds, Children of Earth: Day Five)

Always a vocal, unreliable narrator of his own adventures, Jack was much of a mystery to the people he met as much as the countless lives he claimed to have led. Jack continued to protect himself with an air of mystery. No one he has encountered thus far knows 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 death of Ianto Jones left him wracked with guilt and grief, unable to remain on Earth. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)

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. (TW: Exit Wounds)

Other information

Concept and creation

In naming the character, executive producer and head writer Russell T Davies drew inspiration from the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness,[84] a character whose surname Davies had previously used in naming lead characters in Century Falls and The Grand. Davies states that reusing names (such as Tyler, Smith, Harper, Harkness and Jones) allows him to get a grip of the character on the blank page.[85] Jack's original appearances in Doctor Who were conceived with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is transformed from a coward to a hero,[6] and John Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the character.[83] Following on that arc, the character's debut episode would leave his morality as ambiguous, publicity materials asking, "Is he a force for good or ill?"[86]

Actor John Barrowman himself was a key factor in the conception of Captain Jack. Barrowman says that at the time of his initial casting, Davies and co-executive producer, Julie Gardner had explained to him that they "basically wrote the character around [John]".[87] Davies had singled out Barrowman for the part. On meeting him, Barrowman tried out the character using his native Scottish accent, his normal American accent, and an English accent; Davies decided it "made it bigger if it was an American accent".[88] Barrowman recounts Davies as having been searching for an actor with a "matinée idol quality", telling him that "the only one in the whole of Britain who could do it was you". A number of television critics have compared Barrowman's performances as Captain Jack to those of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise.[89][90][91][92][93]

The character's introduction served to posit him as a secondary hero and a rival to the series protagonist, the Doctor,[94] simultaneously paralleling the Doctor's detached alien nature with Jack's humanity and "heart".[95] John Barrowman describes the character in his initial appearance as "an intergalactic conman" and also a "rogue Time Agent" which he defines as "part of a kind of space CIA" and alludes to the moral ambiguity of having "done something in his past" and not knowing "whether it is good or bad because his memory has been erased".[94] Writer Stephen James Walker notes similarities have been found between Jack and Angel (David Boreanaz), the heroic vampire from America's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal pointed out that "Back alley fights, knowledge of the paranormal and an unwanted task of defending the helpless are only a few of the correlations between the two characters."[96][97] Jack has also been compared to the title character of America's Xena: Warrior Princess, which featured lesbian subtext between Xena (Lucy Lawless) and her close friend Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor). Polina Skibinskaya, writing for AfterElton.com, notes both are "complex characters" haunted by their past misdeeds. Furtheremore, like Xena, Jack is "a gay basher’s worst nightmare: a queer weapon-wielding, ass-kicking superhero gleefully chewing his way through awesome fight scenes".[98] One academic article refers to Jack as "an indestructible Captain Scarlet figure".[99] In a comparative contrast, where the Doctor is a pacifist, Jack is more inclined to see violent means to reach similar ends. The BBC News website refers to Jack's role within Doctor Who as "[continuing] what began with Ian Chesterton and continued later with Harry Sullivan".[100] Whereas in the classic series the female "companions" were sometimes exploited and sexualised for the entertainment of predominantly male audiences, the producers could reverse this dynamic with Jack, citing an equal need amongst modern audiences to "look at good looking men". John Barrowman linked the larger number of women watching the show as a key factor in this.[101]

Jack is bisexual,[87][102] and is also the first Doctor Who character to be openly anything other than heterosexual. In Jack's first appearance, the Doctor suggests that Jack's orientation is more common in the 51st century, when humankind will deal with multiple alien species and becomes more sexually flexible.[2] Within Doctor Who's narrative, Jack's sexual orientation is not specifically labeled as that could "make it an issue".[87][103] On creating Jack, Davies comments "I thought: 'It's time you introduce bisexuals properly into mainstream television,'" with a focus on making Jack fun and swashbuckling as opposed to negative and angsty.[104] Davies also expresses that he didn't make the character bisexual "from any principle", but rather because "it would be interesting from a narrative point of view."[105] The bisexuality-related labels "pansexual" and "omnisexual" are also frequently applied to the character.[106] Writer Steven Moffat suggests that questions of sexual orientation do not even enter into Jack's mind;[107] Moffat also comments "It felt right that the James Bond of the future would bed anyone."[108] A reviewer for Screened.com made the comparison, "He's like Captain Kirk with an equal taste for trim and dick."[109] Within Torchwood, the character refers to sexual orientation classifications as "quaint".[11] In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, John Barrowman explained that "[He]’s bisexual, but in the realm of the show, we call him omnisexual, because on the show, [the characters] also have sex with aliens who take human form, and sex with male-male, women-women, all sorts of combinations."[102] The term is also used once, in-universe, in the novel The House that Jack Built, when Ianto comments to a woman's remark about Jack, "He prefers the term 'omnisexual'."[57] [edit] Costume

While in his first several Doctor Who appearances, Jack had no set costume, Torchwood established a continual look for Jack which recalled that of his first Doctor Who appearance. The design has been described as "an iconic piece of sci-fi couture".[110] A writer for Wired attributes much of Jack's appeal to the coat: "I think it has lots to do with that coat he always wears. Coats are cool, just like fezzes and bow ties and Stetsons. The only difference is that Captain Jack doesn’t ever tell you his coat is cool. It just is."[111] In fact, Sarah Gilligan attributes Torchwood's popularity, as well as that of the character, to the costume. She credits the greatcoat with helping to fashion the character's masculinity, and argues that Jack's costume creates its own discourse "through which costume drama and Post Heritage cinema's escapism flows".[112]

During Jack's initial appearances in Doctor Who, Russell T Davies held a "half-hearted" theory that Jack would dress specific to the time period he was in, to contrast the Doctor who dresses the same wherever and whenever he goes. He is introduced wearing a greatcoat in World War II-set episodes, but changes to modern day jeans in contemporary episode "Boom Town" and black leather in futuristic episodes. Davies admits that this was a "bit of a lame idea" and decided that Jack "never looked better than when he was in his World War II outfit".[113] From the pilot of Torchwood onwards, Harkness once again wears period military clothes from the second World War, including braces and an officer's wool greatcoat in every appearance. Costume designer Ray Holman commented in a Torchwood Magazine interview that "We always wanted to keep the World War Two hero look for him, so all his outfits have a 1940s flavor." Because the character was expected to "be running around a lot", Holman redesigned his RAF Group Captain's greatcoat from Doctor Who to make it more fluid and less "weighty". Jack's other costumes are "loosely wartime based", such as the trousers are "getting more and more styled to suit his figure". Holman explains that there are actually five Captain Jack coats used on the show. The "hero version" is used for most scenes, while there is also a wetcoat made with pre-shrunk fabric, running coat which is slightly shorter to prevent heels getting caught, and two "stunt coats" that had been "hero coats" in the first series."[114] Davies feels the military uniform reinforces the idea that the character "likes his Captain Jack Harkness identity". Julie Gardner describes the coat as "epic and classic and dramatic", while director Brian Kelly believes it gives Jack "a sweep and a presence".[113]

For Miracle Day, Davies commissioned new costume designer Shawna Trpcic (previously costume designer for Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse) to create a new greatcoat design. This was partially motivated by Los Angeles' warmer climate; shooting in Wales had necessitated Barrowman be fit in much warmer clothing. The new coat is custom made by Italian designers, and is actually cashmere-blend wool where the previous one had been cotton. Trpcic says that she "just wanted to modernize it, give it a more modern fit, but leave the drape and keep it cape-like". Trpcic felt prepared for the job of redesigning the coat because of her prior work on Firefly, tailoring for Nathan Fillion's Captain Malcolm Reynolds: "I'm kind of used to iconic captain's coats and the importance of staying loyal to what the fans expect and to what we need". Journalist Maureen Ryan commented that the new coat is "greatly improved" and the redesign "gives the coat the kind of movement and swagger Jack brings with him on every adventure".[110] [edit] Development

The character is described as both "lethally charming ... good looking and utterly captivating",[86] as well as "flirtatious, cunning, clever and a bit of an action man".[101] Within Doctor Who, Jack's personality is relatively light-hearted, although this changes in Torchwood's first series, where he becomes a darker character.[115] In Torchwood's first series, Jack has been shaped by his ongoing search for the Doctor and also by his role as a leader, in which he is predominantly more aloof.[7] In Torchwood, he would occasionally inquire or muse about the afterlife and religion,[8] sympathising with a man's desire to die.[116] Returning in Doctor Who Series Three, Jack indicates he now maintains a less suicidal outlook than before.[7][15] In the second series of Torchwood, Jack became a much more light-hearted character once again, after appearances in Doctor Who where he was reunited with the Doctor.[18][19] In the third series of Torchwood, the audience sees some of Jack's "darker side", as well as "the secrets that Jack has, the pressures, drama and the trauma he's carrying on his shoulders".[117]

Lynnette Porter comments on Jack's relation to scholar FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan's theses on 'the hero' in fiction. Because Jack is immortal and always comes back from the dead, Porter argues that Jack cannot literally fulfil the "physical death aspect" of Raglan's criteria for a hero. However, Jack instead has several symbolic deaths. For instance, in the last scene of Children of Earth. Porter observes that camera angles emphasise Jack's profile as solitary man atop a hill in Cardiff, departing. This scene of "going away for good" against the backdrop of the city he has long protected, hints at the death of the Captain Jack persona; in Porter's words, "the immortal captain "dies" at the top of a hill in Wales at the conclusion of the "epic" miniseries", "epic" traditionally being the genre of heroism.[118] The American political blog Daily Kos states Jack "can certainly be characterized as a Byronic hero, a tragic figure with a streak of melancholy, heroic yet misunderstood, bold yet rash. Most importantly, his sexuality is one single aspect of a much more complex, flawed character."[119] G. Todd Davis examines the ways in which Jack conforms to the Byronic hero character trope. Physically, he identifies Jack as dark-haired and strikingly handsome, with masculine physique; he is intelligent and aware of it, to the point of a superiority complex; he demands unquestioning loyalty, has guilty secrets in his past, and is self-sacrificing. For this, Davis lists Jack alongside Milton's Satan from Paradise Lost, Shelley's Prometheus, and also Angel from Buffy, amongst others.[120]

As a show, Torchwood is highly intertextual. The consequence of this is that many sides of Jack are shown across various media. One commentator feels that this emphasizes Jack's pivotal place in the development and change of modern science fiction heroes.[118] The character's unexpected popularity with a multitude of audiences,[6][92][108] would later shape his appearances both as a traditional "action hero" and as a positive role model for younger viewers.[121] Barrowman also remarks that "The beauty of Captain Jack, and one of the reasons why I think, as an actor, I've landed on my feet, is that he's popular with one audience in Torchwood and with another in Doctor Who."[7] [edit] Moral ambiguity

In several instances in Torchwood, Jack displays no qualms about killing a person of any species,[122][123][124] which within Doctor Who, allows Jack's character to act in ways the lead character cannot. Barrowman remarks, "He'll do things the Doctor won't do ... [such as] fight. Jack will kill. And the Doctor, in a way, knows that, so he lets Jack do it. I'd say Jack's the companion-hero."[7] A flashback in the third series shows Captain Jack sacrificing twelve children to aliens in order to save millions of lives.[31] Davies feels that the third series of Torchwood is a "tale of retribution and perhaps redemption" for Captain Jack, who experiences "maximum damage" when his lover Ianto is killed. Davies chose to have Ianto die so that Jack would be damaged enough to sacrifice his grandson in order to destroy the same aliens.[125]

When reuniting with the Doctor in the 2007 series of Doctor Who, he is verbally warned "don't you dare" when pointing a gun,[15] and scolded when contemplating snapping the Master's neck.[126] Witnessing the murder of his colleague Owen in Torchwood, Jack shoots his killer in the forehead, killing him in an act of swift revenge.[127] Whilst the Doctor scolds Jack for joining the Torchwood Institute (an organisation he perceives as xenophobic and aggressive), Jack maintains that he reformed the Institute in the Doctor's image;[126] Jack himself had initially been critical of the moral failings of a 19th century Torchwood.[22] Actor Gareth David-Lloyd describes the 19th century Torchwood as "quite ruthless and quite evil" and "on the other side" from Jack and the Doctor. Through Jack, whose perspective is widened by the his experiences in other planets and times, the organisation was able to grow less jingoistic.[128] One academic article, which compares Torchwood to the American drama series 24, opines that Jack's attitudes make the show's ethos largely antithetical to that of 24. Because Jack explores the "complexity of negotiating differing worldviews, cultural values, beliefs, and moral codes" through a framework established by the Doctor, to "value life, support democratic principles and egalitarianism, and protect those who cannot protect themselves", consequently "The world of Torchwood is depicted, not as the dichotomous "us" (or United States) and "other" of Jack Bauer's 24, but as the omnipolitical, omnisexual, omnicultural world of Jack Harkness."[129] Porter finds, however, that like Bauer, Jack saves the world using similarly morally grey means when he tortures Beth the sleeper agent, in "Sleeper", in order to avert an interplanetary attack.[118]

Although science fiction heroes have, Porter argues, "grown grayer over time", Jack represents as of Children of Earth a culmination of this trend, resulting in a full "devolution/deconstruction of the traditional hero".[118] In Children of Earth, Jack has to sacrifice his own grandson to save the world. Barrowman was concerned that the storyline could have made the character unpopular. He believes however that Jack was given the tough decision on how to save humanity; the actor says "when I read all of the stuff he had to do, I had to look at it from the point of view of 'I'm Jack Harkness and I'm right'."[117] For Lynnette Porter, Jack's actions in the serial make him "a benchmark for [morally] gray heroes"; some audiences may even view him, in light of his actions, as "villainous or downright monstrous." Although Jack ultimately saves the majority of the world's children and finds a way to foil the monstrous 456, the situation in which he is placed forces him to make a morally difficult (and to some viewers, reprehensible) decision. Such, Porter argues, is the mark of a grey hero.[118] Davies stated in an interview with SFX that he "loved" the uproarious reaction to Jack's actions, defending the character in saying "He saved every single child in the world! If you would fail to do that then you’re the monster, frankly. It’s this extraordinary treatment that only science fiction heroes get."[130] When Jack is departing Earth, the music playing is titled "Redemption", signifying that his departure is also perhaps his redeeming act in the serial.[118] [edit] Face of Boe Main article: Face of Boe

Russell T Davies referred to a scene in "Last of the Time Lords" as promoting a theory that Jack may one day become recurring character "the Face of Boe" (a large, mysterious disembodied head in a glass case) as a consequence of his immortality and slow aging.[17] The Face first appeared in 2005 episode "The End of the World", appearing fully three times and maintaining a presence through to the end of the 2007 series. Barrowman described himself and David Tennant as being "so excited" to the extent where they "jumped up screaming" when they read Jack's line regarding the Face of Boe, remarking "It was probably the most excitable moment we had during the shooting of that series."[131] The Face of Boe had originally been a throwaway line in a script for "The End of the World"; because creating the character seemed expensive, the Face of Boe was nearly discarded and replaced. However, special effects designer Neil Gorton loved the idea and pushed to make sure the character lived. Davies loved Gorton's design and to his surprise, the character was written into future episodes and became pivotal in the third series.[132] In a spin-off novel, The Stealer of Dreams (2005), Captain Jack makes a reference to the Face of Boe as a famous figure.[44] Davies conceived the idea that the two characters might be connected midway through the production of the 2007 series.[17]

Barrowman states that when fans ask him if Jack is really the Face of Boe, he tells them he believes he is and states that he and Davies hold it to be true "in [their] little world"; the link is "unconfirmed" within the text of the show. As to how Jack becomes the Face, Barrowman feels the answer doesn't matter as it is intentionally mysterious. Barrowman likes the characters being connected because it means in spite of how the Doctor initially treats Jack, "Boe becomes his confidante and the one the Doctor returns to for advice and information" which he feels is a "wonderful twist of events".[133] However, Davies doesn't like making whether Jack really is the Face of Boe explicit, stating "the moment it became very true or very false, the joke dies". He has refused the publication of spin-off novels and comic books that have tried to definitively link the two.[134]

In relationship to Miracle Day, where Jack becomes mortal, critics approached Barrowman and Davies about the implications of such a move for Jack's potential future as the Face of Boe. Barrowman stated that the open-ended rules of the science fiction genre meant that Jack could still become the Face of Boe even after Miracle Day.[135] By contrast, Davies was keen to emphasise that the possibility of Jack becoming the Face of Boe remained "conjecture", and that the possibility remained that Jack would not survive Miracle Day, adding "You know how I love killing people off."[136]

Deaths

Jack has died thousands, perhaps millions of times.

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

Jack fought in World War I

Jack fought 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

Presuming he can hold his breath near the longest of any recorded human he still would have died just shy of two hundred million times. Alternatively, as his resurrection is often accompanied by a large intake of air, it is possible he died a single time and remained dead for nearly two thousand years.

Special abilities

Since his resurrection by the Bad Wolf entity (DW: The Parting of the Ways), Jack could die and come back to life almost instantly (TW: Everything Changes onwards), although on occasion his resurrection was delayed if he experienced enough trauma. (TW: End of Days, Children of Earth: Day One) An interesting side effect, albeit it was only used 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 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 in a bit over twelve hours. His bones grew back first, followed by his internal organs, and lastly his skin. The process of resurrection could often be very painful, especially in this instance. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Two) He also endured events which might have burned or vaporized regular humans, such as stet radiation. (DW: 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 (TW: Everything Changes), although the process of resurrection was described as being "hauled over broken glass." (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

Notably, although Jack quickly recovered from fatal injuries, he has been shown to 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 facilitate his ability to cope with less serious injuries, although it is unclear whether this would apply if Jack broke any limbs or was paralysed (TW: Cyberwoman, Fragments). However, these wounds healed much more quickly then the average human's, and were usually gone within a day or so.

It was impossible to calculate how many times Jack died and resurrected since his first death from the Dalek blast. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) 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 a cycle of suffocation deaths and resurrection – potentially hundreds of thousands – before being finally rescued in 1901. (TW: Exit Wounds)

The Tenth 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, 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. (DW: Utopia)

During the events of Miracle Day, Jack discovers that he has lost some portion of his immortality, as he realised that the wounds he sustained which should have healed quickly had not. He concluded that while everyone on Earth seems to have become immortal, he has 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. Its 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. (TW: The New World; Rendition, The Blood Line)

See "Future Possibility as the Face of Boe", below, for a potential consequence.

Like other men in the 51st century, Jack possessed evolved human pheromones which made 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 had no other superhuman abilities as such, but was in excellent physical condition and an expert in various firearms. He 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 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 (DW: 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 (NSA: The Stealers of Dreams). Remaining unsure of his continued aging process due to seeing gray hairs over hundreds of years, Jack inquires with the Tenth Doctor about his facial appearance if he were to live for a million years and was told he is an "impossible thing," knowing something he had already been told before with no concise answer as to his fate. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)

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 Ninth Doctor in World War II, there were three versions on Earth: the young mortal Jack who subsequently joined the Ninth Doctor and Rose (DW: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances); the immortal Jack working for Torchwood (location at this point in time unknown) (DW: Utopia, TW: Fragments); and a still older Jack being kept in cryogenic sleep at the Torchwood Three Hub in Cardiff. (TW: 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. (DW: Boom Town, TW: 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. (DW: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, TW: Captain Jack Harkness, Fragments/Exit Wounds)

Possessions

Jack killing a Dalek shortly after it shot the Tenth Doctor. (DW: 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. (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)

Romantic interests

Although once described as gay by Owen Harper, Jack was, correctly, omnisexual, in that he found both males and females attractive and not exclusively humans, either. He has had many lovers of both sexes and of numerous species. By nature, Jack flirted with nearly everyone he met. The earliest known example is his Time Agency partner Captain John Hart (TW: 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. (DW: The Doctor Dances, TW: Fragments)

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: Boom Town)

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 may have had a sexual relationship with Alan Turing (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) 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 (TW: 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. (TWN: The Twilight Streets) Later in the 40s, he had a relationship with Estelle Cole but seemingly disappeared out of her life forever one day (TW: Small Worlds). In this period, Jack also became married -- as black and white photos showed -- but outlived his wife. (TW: Something Borrowed) In the late 1960s, Jack met and had a brief relationship with involuntary time-traveler Michael Bellini. (TWN: Trace Memory) Later still, with Torchwood agent Lucia Moretti, Jack was the father to Alice Carter (TW: Children of Earth), who in turn produced a grandson. Jack was vague when asked precisely how many children he had fathered. (TW: 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), (TW: Everything Changes, Day One, Something Borrowed) and Ianto Jones, whom he developed a romantic relationship with. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Fragments) 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) 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) 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. (BBCR: 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. (DW: Utopia) On witnessing Martha's obvious unrequited love for the Doctor, Jack commented, "You, too, huh?" (DW: The Sound of Drums) 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)

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. (DW: 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. (TW: 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 renders Gray's fate unclear. (TW: Exit Wounds, Children of Earth: Day One)

He also had at least one wife, all but one of whose names are unknown. 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. (TW: Something Borrowed, Children of Earth: Day Three, Children of Earth: Day Five)

The fact his daughter was aging 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. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five

See also

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. However, this is not the first time he has used the name Harkness. He used it in 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, 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 NA: 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 TW: Everything Changes. (This is mainly because the word is spelt oestrogen in British English.) However it needs to be noted that Harkness was not an American, but rather someone from the far future who has pretended to be one, like he did during the "miracle" period (TW: Rendition). Furthermore, 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 has actually been using an "American" accent; his accent may actually be Boeshanean or something else. Jack's family have been shown to speak with similar accents to his.
  • 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.
  • 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]
  • Jack is similar to the Doctor in that both are time travellers with a form of immortality that 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.
  • In the Declassified segment for Children of Earth, Russell T Davies states that Jack has several children other than Alice.
  • 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.[1]
  • Steven Moffat has stated that he and John Barrowman have discussed the possibility of Jack returning alongside the Eleventh Doctor at some point in the near future. [2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Steven Moffat, twitter.com http://twitter.com/#!/steven_moffat/status/77350574932246528
  2. ↑ http://doctorwhotv.co.uk/jacks-who-return-discussed-21604.htm
 
Jack Harkness
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