Jack Harkness

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This page refers to the fictional character in both Doctor Who and Torchwood. For other persons or meanings, see Jack Harkness (disambiguation).

Doctor Who universe character
Image:Jackharkness.jpg
Captain Jack Harkness
Affiliated with	Time Agency Ninth Doctor Torchwood Institute
Race	Human
Home era	51st century (originally) 21st century (currently)
Appears in	The Empty Child (Doctor Who) Everything Changes (Torchwood)
Portrayed by	John Barrowman

Jack Harkness, also known as Captain Jack (an alias; his real name is, as yet, unrevealed), is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and one of its spin-offs, Torchwood. A time traveller and confidence trickster from the 51st century, he first appears in the episode The Empty Child and remains for the rest of the 2005 series as the third known companion of the Ninth Doctor. He is the first openly bisexual companion.^[1]

Contents 1 Characterisation 2 Character history 2.1 Early history 2.2 Companionship 2.3 Torchwood 3 Powers and abilities 4 Appearances 4.1 Television 4.2 Other appearances 5 References 6 External links

Characterisation

A charming rogue from the 51st Century, who seems to flirt with everyone he meets, Jack had many adventures through time and space on his own before he begins to travel with the Doctor. He is a former soldier of several time periods, both past and future. With the Doctor and Rose, he helps to form a smoothly functioning TARDIS crew, and follows the Doctor's orders easily and willingly.

His departure from the Doctor's company, however, was in traumatic circumstances; this, and his unseen return to modern-day Earth, appears to change him once more. Less gregarious and with a darker tone to his life, in his leadership role at the Torchwood Institute he has, however, begun to soften after meeting Gwen Cooper and taking her under his wing.

Jack is bisexual, an orientation which the Doctor points out is more common in the 51st century, when mankind will deal with multiple alien species and sexuality becomes more flexible. In Boom Town he flirts with the Doctor in front of Mickey, and the Doctor plays along. He is the first companion to be anything other than openly heterosexual; Steven Moffat suggests in the Doctor Who Confidential episode "Welcome to Torchwood" that questions of sexual orientation do not even enter into Jack's mind. Some suggest that Jack is "pansexual", although Jack himself has only displayed attraction to people (and, arguably, robots) who fit into the gender binary of male/female. John Barrowman has described Jack as bisexual, and went on to discuss bisexuality in an interview.^[1] Jack himself refers to categories of sexual orientation as "quaint", noticing the reactions of his teammates to Gwen's kiss with Carys in Day One, implying a disbelief in total monosexuality.

Jack always gives his rank as Captain, even though he is initially seen posing as an officer in the Royal Air Force, which does not use the rank (the equivalent of army Captain is Flight Lieutenant). In The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances the rank insignia on his coat is of a Squadron Leader, the RAF equivalent of a Major. In later episodes it is explained that Jack Harkness commanded a squadron — this may suggest a misunderstanding of the RAF rank system on the writers' part, since a squadron is far too junior a command for a Group Captain. In a flashback to 1909 Lahore in Small Worlds he is seen wearing the three "pips" of a British Army Captain.

Character history

Jack's life was tumultuous before meeting the Doctor and his history remains mysterious, slowly being revealed throughout the course of Doctor Who and Torchwood.

Early history

In Captain Jack Harkness, Jack explains that in his youth (presumably in the 51st century) he convinced his best friend to go on an adventure fighting an enemy he only refers to as "the worst creatures imaginable". He and his unnamed friend were captured — becoming prisoners of war — and his friend was tortured to death because he was "weaker" than Jack, who was let go after being made to watch. In Countrycide, Jack also claims to have operated as a torturer himself.

It has been revealed that Jack was an Indian Army Captain in Lahore in 1909, where he was in charge of a unit of fifteen soldiers. These men were killed by supernatural creatures when they accidentally ran over and killed a girl who had been one of their "chosen ones", a child selected by these beings to eventually become one of them. A letter archived on the Torchwood website^[2] implies this was during Jack's time as a con man and that he was attempting to rob a diamond mine. This letter also indicates that the death of the girl, and therefore possibly also the killing of his men, occurred in January of that year.

In The Empty Child, Jack reveals he had been a "Time Agent" before leaving after the Agency stole two years of his memories and becoming a con man. In 1941 Jack assumed the identity of a recently deceased soldier, one Captain Jack Harkness, who had perished during the The Blitz. Small Worlds explains that after adopting the name of Jack he had been involved with a seventeen-year-old girl named Estelle Cole. He claims that when he met her at the London Astoria it was "love at first sight" but they were separated when she became a part of the Women's Land Army. It was later the same year that Jack disappeared from Estelle's life, leaving with two fellow time travellers.

Companionship

The Doctor's companion Rose first meets Captain Jack Harkness during the London Blitz in 1941, where he is posing as an American volunteer in the Royal Air Force. Rose and the Doctor have come in pursuit of an alien cylinder that has crashed on Earth. Rose accidentally hitches a ride on a barrage balloon and is about to fall to her death when Jack rescues her with his ship's tractor beam. Jack's ship — a stolen time ship of Chula design — is capable of becoming invisible. Its systems include nanogenes which can treat wounds.

Mistaking Rose and the Doctor for Time Agents, Jack tries to pass off the cylinder as an abandoned alien warship with a view to selling it to them. Jack believes that the cylinder is nothing but an empty medical vessel, unaware that it is actually filled with billions of nanogenes which begin transforming everyone with whom they come into contact (The Empty Child). Jack assists Rose and the Doctor in deactivating the nanogenes, but loses his own ship when he transports a German bomb on board to save them. He is rescued by the TARDIS before the bomb blows up his vessel and is taken on board as the newest member of the crew (The Doctor Dances).

In Bad Wolf, Jack becomes the first regular character in the programme's history to appear naked on screen (not counting the Third Doctor's shower scene in Spearhead from Space and Sergeant Benton at the end of The Time Monster), when gynoids, Trine-e and Zu-Zana use a "defabricator" to strip him naked in preparation for a fashion makeover, albeit discreetly shielded by strategically placed props. However, the BBC vetoed the production team's original intention of showing Jack's buttocks. In The Parting of the Ways Jack kisses both Rose and the Doctor good-bye on the lips, the latter being the first such same-sex kiss in the programme's history (not counting a similar kiss between male warriors in "The Ribos Operation," although that kiss is between the lead villain and his right-hand man).

Jack organises the defence of the Game Station against the Daleks in The Parting of the Ways to give the Doctor enough time to construct a Delta Wave projector. With the rest of his volunteer squad killed, Jack is the last to be exterminated, facing down the Dalek guns with quiet defiance. Although Rose brings him back to life shortly afterwards while suffused with the power of the time vortex, neither the Doctor nor Rose (whose memory was affected) seem aware of his death nor his subsequent resurrection and left the Game Station in the TARDIS, leaving Jack behind.

In the Children in Need mini-episode, Rose suggests to the recently-regenerated Tenth Doctor they go back for Jack. The Doctor replies that Jack is busy "rebuilding the Earth". How much either knows about Jack's status is unclear; the Doctor's comment suggests that he either knows Jack survived or wants Rose to believe he did; neither is actually present when Jack is shot by the Daleks.

Executive Producer Russell T. Davies stated in Doctor Who Magazine that Jack was left behind because they wanted to explore the effects of the Doctor's regeneration (at the end of Parting) on Rose, since Jack would have taken the regeneration "in his stride".

Jack was originally reported as reappearing in the 2006 series, but did not do so due to scheduling conflicts.^[3] Barrowman has confirmed that he has signed on to return as Jack for Series 3.^[4] The official Doctor Who website at bbc.co.uk announced on August 10 2006 that this appearance would come in the series finale,^[5] and Davies told Doctor Who Magazine that Jack will appear in "multiple episodes" in the second half of the series.^[6] Barrowman revealed that he would appear in three of the final four episodes of the third season in a yet-to-be-disclosed storyline, and that he would be the only actor from "Torchwood" to cross over into "Doctor Who."^[7]

Torchwood

In Torchwood, Jack is a changed man, having mysteriously returned to modern day Earth from Satellite 5. He has assumed a role of leadership at Torchwood Three, located in Cardiff. Jack is very protective of what he has left of the Doctor, however — the hand that was cut off by the Sycorax leader during The Christmas Invasion, which has since been preserved and is kept in a jar at the Torchwood Hub, where his elite team is stationed.

His colleagues comment that although they have worked with him for some time they know very little about him, including whether or not he is gay — Owen thinks he definitely is, but Toshiko believes he will go for anyone who is "gorgeous enough". In the first series' finale, Owen even remarks they don't really know anything about him, even who he is.

It is revealed in Everything Changes that when Rose brought him back to life he was rendered immortal (although he can still feel pain), and that he needs the Doctor to help him. Pictures on the Torchwood Institute website suggest that Jack has been associated with Torchwood since at least 1959, and no longer ages.^[8] He is also eager to find out from a recently resurrected man if there is an afterlife, only to be dismayed when the man responds that there is nothing.

In Cyberwoman, he seems to have experience of the Cybermen that goes far beyond the alternate Earth versions, suggesting that he's encountered the Mondas version of the Cybermen at some point before arriving in Cardiff. He survives being shot twice by the "Cyberwoman's" built-in energy weapon and her electric shocking grip (although with the latter, it took him longer to regain consciousness); this is the first time anyone other than Gwen has witnessed this and lived to speak of it. When giving CPR to Ianto, he kisses him too, perhaps transferring some of his life force into him as he does with Carys in Day One.

He also says that he is willing to shoot Ianto Jones, if Ianto doesn't kill Lisa, the deranged partial Cyberman. Gwen believes he never would have been willing to use lethal force. Similarly in Small Worlds, he allows Jasmine to join the "fairies", knowing that not doing so will result in countless deaths, perhaps even the end of the world. In the same episode, he loses his first love, Estelle Cole — now aged eighty — (with whom he had vowed to stay with until they died) murdered by "fairies".

Countrycide raises questions of Jack's ethical beliefs about the value of human life with the revelation that he once operated as a torturer. He is seen gunning down a series of cannibals with perfect accuracy (targeting their legs and, when one reaches for a gun, the offending hand), but then must be forcibly stopped by Gwen from murdering a man who has nearly eaten the Torchwood crew.

In Greeks Bearing Gifts after Toshiko receives a telepathy-granting alien pendant she finds Jack's mind a blank "as if he was dead". He is the first to suspect Toshiko has developed telepathic powers, which may relate to the fact that Torchwood staff are given psychic training^[9] and can use "psi shielding"^[10] and are told to be aware of "enhanced mental activity on your team".^[11] He also tricks "Mary" into using her transportation device, which he has programmed to send her into the middle of the sun.

In They Keep Killing Suzie, Jack yet again displays his ability to kill ruthlessly, riddling Suzie with bullets. Before dying, Suzie warns Jack that something dark is coming for him. At the same time, however, the episode also shows his compassion; when questioning someone who has been brought back to life with the resurrection glove, Jack didn't tell the man he was dead, but assured him, in the two minutes of life he had left, that they are taking care of his wife, and gently encourages him to tell them who had attacked him. In the closing scenes, it is strongly suggested that Jack may be having a sexual relationship with Ianto.

Jack's compassion is highlighted again in Out of Time in which Jack shares an affinity with the man who has been displaced from 1953 and lost his world, as he himself is also out of time. He explains to the man that death is not the answer, that there is nothing on the other side. Eventually, he helps the man to commit suicide, breathing in the same car exhaust fumes.

In Captain Jack Harkness, Jack and Toshiko are transported back to a 1940s dance hall due to a temporal shift. This episode introduces the real Captain Jack from whom Torchwood's Jack has taken his name. Jack's bisexuality is shown prominently during this episode, as it appears that he has fallen in love with the real Captain Jack, and the two exchange a parting passionate kiss, before Jack is transported back to 2008 via the Rift.

Because Owen has opened the rift to retrieve Jack and Toshiko (and partially to try and retrieve Diane, Owen's lost love) time splinters throughout the world. Everybody but Jack is unwittingly being manipulated by the mysterious figure Bilis Manger, using dead loved ones to motivate the team to fully open the Rift.

In the season finale, End of Days, Abaddon is released from the Rift by Jack's team. When he attempts to stop the team from making a heinous mistake, Jack is gunned down by Owen. As the rift tears apart, Jack surprises the team by waking up and, still weak, takes responsibility for his colleagues and battling the gigantic demon. Jack uses his apparent immortality to overfeed the creature, whose shadow instantly kills all in its wake (and thus feeds from life energy). A torrent of light appears from Jack as he screams in agony before both Jack and the demon fall dead. Despite now knowing of Jack's immortality all of the team but Gwen believe Jack is permanently dead when he doesn't wake up. Several days later Gwen kisses him goodbye and leaves the morgue, only to hear him whisper "Thank you" as he awakens. He displays forgiveness after coming back to life, forgiving Owen for shooting him and greeting Ianto with a kiss.

At the end of the episode, Jack is asked by Gwen about what apparition would have convinced him to open the time Rift, to which Jack replied "the right kind of Doctor." Jack then hears the TARDIS engines sound and the Doctor's hand begins to glow. Jack smiles and walks towards the noise. When Gwen and the others reappear, Jack has gone; presumably with the Doctor.

Powers and abilities

While it would not appear that Jack was born any different from an ordinary human being, the events of The Parting of the Ways render Jack with the gift and curse of immortality. When Rose Tyler absorbs the time vortex by looking into the Heart of the TARDIS, she becomes infused with infinite power and brings back a fallen Jack, who has died at the mercy of a Dalek.

Throughout Torchwood, Jack displays human frailty, retaining non-fatal wounds such as bloody lips, but when actually killed, his body heals itself some time after death. In Everything Changes, he is shot once in the head by Suzie Costello, and is soon resurrected, also regenerating quickly after being electrocuted by Lisa Hallett in Cyberwoman. When shot several times by Owen in End of Days it takes significantly longer for him to return and he is very weak when he does. Shortly afterwards Jack battles Abaddon, a Biblical demon who steals life, using his immortality to overfeed the creature. This death is the most horrific and painful yet, and he remains dead for days until receiving a kiss from Gwen.

Jack's immortality means he has an excess of life energy. In Day One, he is able to keep Carys alive longer by kissing her. In Cyberwoman, Jack gives CPR to and kisses a near-drowned Ianto, possibly using the same power again.

In addition to these supernatural powers, Jack is incredibly charismatic and persuasive and as a time traveller he is saturated in "artron energy", a form of radiation inside the time vortex. As a Torchwood Institute employee, Jack is trained in various psychic techniques, including defense against telepathy.^[9][10][11] He is apparently familiar with various institutional torture techniques and is proficient with firearms from different time periods. Jack's personal effects such as psychic paper allow him to easily assume another's identity. As the leader of Torchwood Three, Jack also has access to an arsenal of advanced alien and futuristic technology.

Appearances

Television

Doctor Who (Series 1)

• The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances — May 21–May 28 2005
• Boom Town — June 4 2005
• Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways — June 11–June 18 2005

Torchwood

• Everything Changes — October 22 2006
• Day One — October 22 2006
• Ghost Machine — October 29 2006
• Cyberwoman — November 5 2006
• Small Worlds — November 12 2006
• Countrycide — November 19 2006
• Greeks Bearing Gifts — November 26 2006
• They Keep Killing Suzie — December 3 2006
• Random Shoes — December 10 2006
• Out of Time — December 17 2006
• Combat — December 24 2006
• Captain Jack Harkness — January 1 2007
• End of Days — January 1 2007

Doctor Who (Series 3)

• Utopia — June 9 2007
• The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords — June 16-June 23 2007

Further information: List of Torchwood episodes

Other appearances

Jack features in the BBC Books New Series Adventures novels The Deviant Strain by Justin Richards, The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons and Only Human by Gareth Roberts. These novels take place between episodes of the 2005 series of Doctor Who. Captain Jack also appears in a number of Torchwood books, published by Ebury Press. To date, Jack appears in Another Life by Peter Anghelides, Border Princes by Dan Abnett and Slow Decay by Andrew Lane.

The name Harkness is shared by lead characters of Century Falls and The Grand (in both instances, an "Esme Harkness" features), both Russell T. Davies-scripted drama series. Davies took the name from the character of Agatha Harkness in the Fantastic Four comic book series.^[12] Coincidentally, the 1968 Doctor Who serial The Mind Robber features a character who wrote a series of books titled "The Adventures of Captain Jack Harkaway".

References

Wikipedia information about Jack Harkness This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jack Harkness". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.