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Captain

Jack Harkness

1ST JANUARY 2007

(50-MINUTE EPISODE, PART 1 OF 2)

Borrowing from US genre shows like The X-Files and Stargate: SG•1, these final

two instalments of Torchwood are written by different people and have a different cast, yet they are inextricably bound together as tightly as any traditional two-parter. As Torchwood head towards an explosive, climactic finalé, here Catherine Tregenna takes a moment to slow the pace right down and examine the man who we know far less about than we do the Doctor – the team’s enigmatic leader, who goes by the name of Captain Jack Harkness.

Whilst doing a bit of everyday ghostbusting, Jack and Toshiko are mysteriously transported back in time to 1941. Initially, Jack appears to be in his element - after all, he has lived and breathed this era before. He has even fought in its wars. Tosh is a little more uncomfortable considering her Asian lineage, but not half as uncomfortable as Jack becomes when they bump into… Captain Jack Harkness. The original, you might say.

“It’s not my name. It’s his.”

Those who expect this eponymous episode to reveal all about Torchwood’s mystery-cloaked leader will be sadly disappointed. Much like the watershed Doctor Who novel Lungbarrow, one or two lingering questions about the main character may be answered here, but a hell of a lot more are raised in their place.

The man that we know as Captain Jack Harkness can’t recall his real name.

He took the name of a deceased US Air Force captain.

A US Air Force captain that he now finds himself face to face with....

Armed with the knowledge that the original Jack will die the next day, our Jack finds himself

in an impossible situation which is then exacerbated by the growing attraction that he feels towards his namesake. I’d say that Tregenna handles about half of this ‘relationship’ well; all the “kiss her goodbye” stuff concerning 1941 Jack’s girlfriend is incredibly touching, as is his evident concern for his men.

The other half, though – the two Jacks holding hands and smooching on the dance floor, for example – is taking things too far, in my opinion. Throughout the series has blatantly show-cased same-sex liaisons – by my reckoning every member of the principal cast has been involved in at least a same-sex kiss. Now that’s all fine and good when it works well in the context of the story, but here it simply feels far too forced. Just look how good the episode Greeks Bearing Gifts was, for example. Homosexuality was right at the core of the episode, but at no time did it feel out of place. Hell, I didn’t even mind Jack planting a smacker on the Doctor; I felt that it suited the tone of The Parting of the Ways superbly.

However, whilst I can suspend my disbelief that two members of a secret organisation can be whisked back in time to the Blitz, I cannot believe that 1941 Jack – even if he were gay – would have the fortitude not only to come out, but to do so in front of all the men under his command in the middle of a dance hall. After that, I think it is fair to say, considering how homosexuality was viewed in the 1940s, he would certainly have lost the confidence of his men and most probably lost his liberty to boot. He definitely would not have ended up going to his death in battle; at best, he would have been cashiered out of the forces in disgrace.

That one gripe aside, the relationship between the two Jacks is fascinating. Even though there is no real link as such between them – Jack merely took the name of a dead captain he had never met – there is a definite bond, and it’s not just sexual. Our Jack feels that he can confide in 1941 Jack; he tells him of the “worst possible creatures” imaginable, and of how he sent a young soldier to his death. 1941 Jack talks about his war. His men. And of course, his actions reveal his (then taboo) sexuality.

Back to the future, and the pace is much faster. Whilst Gwen investigates the sinister Bilis Manger – played by the unconscionably creepy Murray Melvin – who seems to be ‘doing

an Edward Waterfield’, Ianto and Owen have to decide whether or not to risk opening the

rift. Doing so would get Jack and Tosh home, but opening the rift without the precise math-ematical equation could be disastrous…

Now I have raved about Gareth David-Lloyd and Burn Gorman’s performances before, but

here both really push it to the nth degree. To open the rift, or not to open the rift? Owen says yes, Ianto says no. The gravity in Ianto’s voice says it all; you wouldn’t believe such gravely, hoarse threats were coming out of the mouth of someone who appears so youthful and innocent. And following what has happened to Owen in the last two episodes he is utterly unstable, and what’s more he is intent on opening the rift whatever the consequences. In-evitably they fight, but it’s the insults hurled between them that cut deeper than the blows. Owen heavily implies that there’s been some sort of sexual relationship going on between Jack and Ianto, calling Ianto his “part time shag boy”. That’s just about the final straw - Ianto shoots Owen, but it’s too late. He has pressed the button and opened the rift...

By the end of Captain Jack Harkness, the shit has really hit the fan. As a stand-alone show it leaves many lingering questions, not only about our Jack’s past but also several plot-related questions: who is Bilis Manger? How wereJack and Tosh transported back to the Blitz, and why? And what is Owen gonna do when he wakes up with a hole in his shoulder...?

Well thanks to BBC Three and their penchant for Torchwood double-headers, I didn’t have to

wait long to find out.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2007

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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