# Doctor Who : Ashildr vs Jack Harkness **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2017, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751 "2017-06-12T04:26:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/1 "2017-06-12T04:26:52Z")
The Doctor has encountered two apparently immortal humans: Ashildr [![](https://img.inthefame.com/front/uploads/2015/10/maxresdefault3629.jpg) ](https://img.inthefame.com/front/uploads/2015/10/maxresdefault3629.jpg) Jack Harkness [![](http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Captain-Jack-Harkness-captain-jack-harkness-1155040_1024_768.jpg) ](http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Captain-Jack-Harkness-captain-jack-harkness-1155040_1024_768.jpg) Are they related? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/2 "2017-06-12T04:44:54Z")
Like, lineage related? I doubt it; both are immortal because Dr. Who somehow intervened in their [del]lives[/del]deaths. OTOH, that kind of ridiculous crap has been a part of story-telling for, oh, all of recorded history, so who knows what the writers will decide later? ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/3 "2017-06-12T04:45:29Z")
“Encountered” is putting it mildly. The Doctor was fairly instrumental in each of them becoming immortal. As for whether they’re related…why would you think so?! They were born millennia apart, and the ways they each became immortal were completely different. ---
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/4 "2017-06-12T05:04:58Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > The Doctor has encountered two apparently immortal humans: > > Ashildr > [https://img.inthefame.com/front/uploads/2015/10/maxresdefault3629.jpg](https://img.inthefame.com/front/uploads/2015/10/maxresdefault3629.jpg) > > Jack Harkness > [http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image\_uploads/Captain-Jack-Harkness-captain-jack-harkness-1155040\_1024\_768.jpg](http://images1.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Captain-Jack-Harkness-captain-jack-harkness-1155040_1024_768.jpg) > > Are they related? No. Jack Harkness was made immortal by Rose Tyler after she looked into the heart of the TARDIS and became “Bad Wolf” She brought him back to life after he was killed by Daleks. Ashilder was a Viking girl who the Doctor accidentally made immortal by using alien technology from the Mire to help revive her after an accidental death. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/5 "2017-06-12T09:29:23Z")
Can I just say that as a Scandinavian the mangling of Ashildr’s name makes me cringe every time she reappears? It’s a combination of Ás (deity) and hildr (battle/strife) and shouldn’t start with the syllable Ash! Why research Norse names and not bother looking up pronunciation? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/6 "2017-06-12T12:18:33Z")
Jack isn’t even human. Unless there’s a _good_ explanation for how mere extreme age could turn a human being into a giant disembodied head… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/7 "2017-06-12T12:32:40Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Jack isn’t even human. Unless there’s a _good_ explanation for how mere extreme age could turn a human being into a giant disembodied head… I thought that was just something that might be; is it canon now? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/8 "2017-06-12T12:45:41Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Jack isn’t even human. Unless there’s a _good_ explanation for how mere extreme age could turn a human being into a giant disembodied head… It’s weird but then there’s no precedent for someone living five billion years so who knows? When the Master aged the Doctor he went all big-head, tiny-body too. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I thought that was just something that might be; is it canon now? Pretty much, yes. Jack, who comes from the Boeshane Peninsula, commented in passing that in his youth he was known as the “Face of Boe” in some publicity campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-ashildr-vs-jack-harkness/788751/9 "2017-06-12T12:48:56Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Pretty much, yes. Jack, who comes from the Boeshane Peninsula, commented in passing that in his youth he was known as the “Face of Boe” in some publicity campaign. Aye; I remember that. But I also remember that it was left hanging. [Wikipedia seems to back up my recollection: > [@](#): > > In the episode “Last of the Time Lords”, the immortal time traveller Captain Jack Harkness expresses concern about how he might look if he lives “for a million years”, because although he cannot die, he is still aging, albeit slowly. He tells the Doctor and Martha Jones that it is a matter of vanity, because as the first person from the Boeshane Peninsula to join the Time Agency, he was featured on posters, becoming known as “the Face of Boe”. > > Writer Russell T Davies, in the episode’s commentary, called the implication of this scene “a theory” as to the Face of Boe’s origins, prompting Executive Producer Julie Gardner to urge him to “stop back-pedaling” about the two characters being the same. Davies also said that after writing the scene he inserted a line in the ADR recording for “Gridlock” in which the Face of Boe calls the Doctor “old friend”.[1] Davies does not like making the relationship between Jack and 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. ]([Jack Harkness - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_of_Boe#Possible_origin))