OK, so we’ve finished season 1 of TORCHWOOD (mostly, we missed some of the “Jack Harkness” episode because of a hiccough in TiVo.) My memory ain’t what it used to be, and while I enjoyed them and the new Doctors Who, I don’t want to go back to try to watch all the episodes to get some understanding of what’s going on.
Hence:
Why can’t Jack die?
What’s his origin story, so far as we know? He’s from the far future, right? but also seems to have been in the ancient past?
(Speculation): D’you think he really is the big face-in-the-jar friend of the Dr’s whom we find in cat-hospital and the end-of-the-earth (Eccleson) episode?
He doesn’t know, but it has something to do with Rose’s intervention in the final season 1 episode of Doctor Who. Some answers are revealed in the final season 3 episode of Doctor Who.
Torchwood doesn’t address this, but his origin is mentioned in Doctor Who.
If you’re asking this, then you already know the answers to your questions.
Do you think Jack’s in love with the Doctor? Forget the fact that Jack’ll sleep with anything that breathes - when asked what he needed, he said “A different kind of Doctor”. He built Torchwood up for the Doctor. And the look on his face when heeard the Tardis was joy and hope.
According to the ep in Season three, when Rose opened the core of the Tardis and absorbed the energy of the Time Vortex (or something) she poured that into dead Capt. Jack Harkness. He was resurrected and now he can’t permanantly die.
As RealityChuck indicated, most of the answers are spoilers for Doctor Who.
As such, I’ll box the answers.
When Rose opened the Heart of the TARDIS at the end of Season 1 of New Doctor Who (NDW), she brought him back to life. It turns out she brought him back a little too well.
In the far future, Jack is a rogue Time Agent, who tries to run a con in the Blitz era London. He accidentally unleashes a zombie hoard on London. He redeems himself, and The Doctor takes him in. He learns about the rift in Cardiff, and then is killed by Darleks in the future. After Rose resurrects him, he just misses the TARDIS, and uses his wrist time hopper to travel back to early 21[sup]st[/sup] Century Cardiff to catch up with The Doctor when he next needs to refuel. But he overshot his goal by about 120 years and a continent, winding up in late 19[sup]th[/sup] century New York. He then takes the long way back to the present.
It’s pretty much outright said that’s him after 4.5 billion years at the end of NDW Season 3.
Heheheh…my husband has a mancrush on Capt Jack - he was fortunate enough to meet John Barrowman to interview him for a Dr Who fanzine, and although it was about a year ago that he did it, he still talks about it today!
I think it’s pretty much said outright in the Doctor Who Season 3 episode “The Sound of Drums”, which has already aired in the US so I’m not going to spoiler anything.
The Doctor explains that the TARDIS perception filter is like “when you fancy someone and they don’t even know you exist.” Martha makes her trademark shmoopy face as the Doctor walks off obliviously, and Jack sort of grins at her and says “You too, huh?”
Which IIRC was cut from the Sci Fi airing in the US. Always fun to see what was cut for Sci Fi when the ep re-airs on BBC America. And by “fun” I mean “tremendously irritating when it turns out Sci Fi cut something important to the plot to squeeze in another ad.”
I had already read what the writers had to say about this prior to watching the episode. It’s a possibility that they’re leaving open. Apparently they’re taking the George Lucas approach to Cap’n Jack.
Are the Torchwood episodes airing uncut on BBC America (aside from bleeping the curse words)?
And I’m glad to hear that the second series is going to be aired on BBC America very shortly after it first appears on BBC Two. I always hate it when we have to wait months to see the imports.
When was this scene? Was this when Jack kissed Ianto? I don’t remember seeing a stopwatch.
I swear I saw it here in the U.S. But me being the oblivious moron though he was referring to the crush Rose had on the Doctor. I have heard the actor playing Captain Jack is gay, but it didn’t occur to me that the character was, probably because there was, IIRC, a Rose-Jack romance subtext.
In “They Keep Killing Suzie” Ianto is using a stopwatch to time how long Gwen can bring people back with the glove. At the end as Ianto and Jack are loading Suzie’s body back into her vault Ianto mentions that he still has the stopwatch and that there are all sorts of things he and Jack could do with a stopwatch. Which, really? Because I’m stumped.