Summary
Before the great John Barrowman landed a role on The CW’sArrowas Malcolm Merlyn, he held a recurring role on the British seriesDoctor Whoas Jack Harkness. His popularity eventually earned him a starring role on the spin-off seriesTorchwood.For those who pay attention, there’s a lot to learn about the great Captain Jack Harkness, who acted as a new kind of companion for the Doctor.
After Jack’s appearance in the Ninth Doctor’s finale episode, audiences learn that he’s not one to lay down and die. Ever.ThroughtoutDoctor WhoandTorchwood, Jack suffers fatal injuries without dying, going so far as blowing up in a bomb only to pull himself back together. However, he wasn’t always like that. He has Rose to thank for his ability to live a thousand lifetimes.
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Who is Jack Harkness?
The Captain Jack Harkness that fans love was born in the 51st century as Javic Piotr Thane. He lived on a colony with his family, but when an alien invading force killed them save for his brother Gray, Jack was on his own. He eventually joined the Time Agency and traveled through time,saving people and correcting events, much like the Doctor and his companions. However, when Jack learned that the Time Agency was keeping secrets and erased two years worth of his memory, he left.
By the time he encounters the Ninth Doctor for the first time, Jack is working as a con man and using his knowledge of the future to make himself some money. Jack unwittingly releases a plague onWorld War II Londonthat the Doctor and Rose fix. Jack redeemed himself in the Doctor’s eyes when he took an unexploded bomb in his ship to save London, prompting the Doctor to save Jack from certain doom. He traveled with the Ninth Doctor until the end of Series 1.
Eventually, Jack goes off to join the Torchwood Institute, making him the lead of the spin-off seriesTorchwood. He led the Cardiff branch, awaiting the Doctor’s return. Since then, he’s made several appearances throughoutDoctor Who, appearing as a friend of the Doctor and companions.
What is Torchwood?
Torchwood (an anagram forDoctor Who) is an organization tasked with protecting Earth against supernatural and extraterrestrial threats. Queen Victoria founded the organization in 1879 after theevents of theDoctor Whoepisode"Tooth and Claw." These events, despite the Doctor’s heroics, made him an enemy of the crown, with his name being written into Torchwood’s charter. In fact, it’s because of Jack Harkness mentioning the Doctor in 1899 that he gained their attention.
After some brief torture by Torchwood agents for information about the Doctor, the Institute put Jack to work as an agent, where he worked for them for over a century. Before Jack joined the institute, it was a ruthless and borderlinexenophobic organization, which the Doctor scolds Jack about when he learns Jack works for Torchwood. However, Jack argues that he reshaped the Institute in the Doctor’s image. It arguably remains ruthless, as torture remained a tactic of the Institute’s even with Jack as a member, but it became less blindly faithful. Under Jack, Torchwood valued life and egalitarianism.
Torchwoodshowed a side of Jack thatDoctor Whoaudiences didn’t get to see. It showed his morality as more ambiguous than the Doctor’s. Fans already knew he was more willing to kill than theDoctor Whohero, but Jack’s morality allowed him to sacrifice a group of 12 children to an alien species without question. He even goes on to sacrifice his own grandson for the greater good.
How Did Jack Become Immortal?
In part, Jack can thank the Daleks and the Ninth Doctor’s companion Rose for his immortal evolution. During the Ninth Doctor’s finale, “The Parting of Ways,“the Daleks invadea satellite that the Doctor, Rose, and Jack are visiting. The Doctor, as is his typical fashion, devises a way to defeat the invading force, but it proves lethal to humans and Daleks alike. In order to save Rose, the Doctor sends her back to her time period in the TARDIS, but Rose devises a way to return to the Doctor’s side.
She opens a panel in the TARDISand absorbs energy from the time vortex within. This gives her god-like powers, allowing her to return to the satellite and the Doctor. When she arrives, the Daleks exterminate the resistance forces, including Jack, who was organizing them to fight against the Daleks. Rose uses her newfound powers to evaporate the Daleks in a fashion that would make Thanos proud. When she discovers Jack died in the attack, she uses the same powers that destroyed the Daleks to return Jack to the land of the living.
Jack uses his vortex manipulator to return to Rose’s time period, but he ends up in 1869, forcing him to wait forthe Doctor to find him. However, during his time in 1869, Jack discovers he’s not quite the same as he was before he died. Not only can his body heal from fatal injuries, he can also live an exceptionally long time. It turns out that when Rose brought him back from the dead, she did too good of a job, and brought him back permanently.
Fans speculate that Jack eventually evolves into the giant head of a character named the Face of Boe. Russel T. Davies never confirmed that the Face of Boe and Jack Harkness are one and the same, but at the end of the episode “Last of the Time Lords,” Jack reveals that his nickname as a child was “The Face of Boe.” Millenia into the future, the Face of Boe does eventually pass away. But until then, Jack Harkness is almost guaranteed to keep popping up in unlikely places.
