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Doctor Who universe character
Captain Jack Harkness
Affiliated with	Time Agency Ninth Doctor Tenth Doctor Torchwood Institute
Home era	51st century (originally) 21st century (currently)
First appearance	"The Empty Child"
Portrayed by	John Barrowman

Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood. He first appears in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappears throughout the rest of the 2005 series as the third known companion of the ninth incarnation of the series' protagonist, "the Doctor". Jack goes on to become the central character in Torchwood, an adult-themed spin-off of Doctor Who. He returns in the 2007 series of Doctor Who, reuniting with a tenth incarnation of the Doctor, and is set to return again for the 2008 series.

In the programme's narrative, Jack is a bisexual time traveller and former con man from the 51st century, the first openly non-heterosexual character in the history of Doctor Who. His real name is unknown; he is commonly called "Captain Jack" or "the Captain". As a consequence of his death and resurrection in the 2005 series finale of Doctor Who, the character becomes immortal, a lasting change throughout his appearances in both series.

Contents 1 Appearances 1.1 Television 1.2 Literature 2 Characterisation 2.1 Character creation 2.2 Character development 3 Critical reception and impact 4 References 5 External links

Jack's character history is presented simultaneously in the two television series as well as through flashbacks and exposition which relay his backstory, events of his earlier life. These events detail that Jack is initially a 51st century "Time Agent"^[1] (although what a Time Agent does remains unclear), a former prisoner of war,^[2] and later a con artist with stolen memories and a stolen name.

Jack first appeared in the two-parter episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" of the 2005 series of Doctor Who. The Doctor's companion Rose meets him during the London Blitz in 1941, where he is posing as an American volunteer in the Royal Air Force, with the rank of Group Captain. Jack initially tries to con the pair, but as he accompanies the Doctor for several adventures,^[3][4][5] the character is transformed from the con man he was into a hero.^[6] In his final 2005 appearance in "The Parting of the Ways", he is shot dead opposing the Daleks, but Rose brings him back to life while suffused with the power of the time vortex.^[5] The decision behind Jack's absence in the 2006 series was so that it could explore the effects of the Doctor's regeneration on Rose.^[7]

First airing in 2006, Jack returned as the star of spin-off series Torchwood (in which he appears in every episode), now leading Torchwood, a Cardiff-based organisation dedicated to protecting Britain from alien threats. In the series, Jack is a changed man,^[8] having become immortal after his resurrection and then waiting on Earth for the Doctor since the 19th century.^[9] Despite having worked with him for some time, his present-day colleagues know very little about him.^[10] The Torchwood Series 1 finale "End of Days",^[11] foreshadows the character's return to Doctor Who, in which Jack reunites with the Doctor and meets the new companion named Martha,^[9] as part of a three-episode arc beginning with "Utopia", and ending with "Last of the Time Lords". In the story's denouement, the character's search for the Doctor is over, and after having spent a year in an alternate time-line, he is offered full-time companionship but declines, opting to stay with his team in Cardiff,^[12] and will return in the 2008 series of Doctor Who and Torchwood.^[13]

Jack features in the BBC Books New Series Adventures novels The Deviant Strain by Justin Richards,^[14] The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons,^[15] and Only Human by Gareth Roberts.^[16] 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, which took over the BBC Books imprint in 2006. To date, Jack appears in Another Life by Peter Anghelides,^[17] Border Princes by Dan Abnett,^[18] and Slow Decay by Andy Lane.^[19] As with all Doctor Who and Torchwood spin-off media, the canonicity in relation to the television series is unclear.^[20]

"I wanted kids to like him, and I wanted women, men, I wanted everyone to like him. But first I wanted people to hate him. I wanted them to think he was arrogant and pushy and too sure of himself. And I wanted them to follow the arc of the change he went through in the final episodes of Doctor Who." —John Barrowman[21]

In naming the character, executive producer and head writer Russell T Davies drew inspiration from the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness,^[22] a character whose surname Davies had previously used in naming lead characters in Century Falls and The Grand. Jack's original appearances in Doctor Who were conceived by with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is transformed from a coward to a hero,^[6] and John Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the character.^[21] Following on that arc, the character's debut episode would leave his morality as ambiguous, publicity materials asking "is he a force for good or ill?"^[23]

The character's introduction served to posit him as a secondary hero and a rival to series protagonist, the Doctor,^[24] simultaneously paralleling the Doctor's detached alien nature with Jack's humanity and "heart".^[25] Such was the character's versatility, whereas in previous series the female "companion" would be exploited and sexualised for the entertainment of predominantly male audiences, the producers could reverse this dynamic, citing an equal need amongst modern audiences to "look at good looking men". They linked the larger number of women watching as a key factor in this.^[26]

"[H]e’s bisexual, but in the realm of the show, we call him omnisexual, because on the show, [the characters] also have sex with aliens who take human form, and sex with male-male, women-women, all sorts of combinations." —John Barrowman.[27]

Jack is bisexual,^[27][28] and is also the first Doctor Who character to be openly anything other than heterosexual. In Jack's first appearance, the Doctor suggests that Jack's orientation is more common in the 51st century, when mankind will deal with multiple alien species and becomes more sexually flexible.^[29] Within Doctor Who's narrative, Jack's sexual orientation is not specifically labeled as that could "make it an issue".^[28][30] The bisexuality-related labels "pansexual" and "omnisexual" are also frequently applied to the character.^[31] Writer Steven Moffat suggests that questions of sexual orientation do not even enter into Jack's mind.^[32] Within Torchwood, the character refers to sexual orientation classifications as "quaint",^[10] implying a disbelief in total monosexuality.

"I didn’t make Captain Jack bisexual from any principle, but because I thought it would be interesting from a narrative point of view. But having created him, I’ll defend him to the hilt." —Russel T Davies.[33]

John Barrowman himself was a key factor in the conception of Captain Jack. Barrowman describes that at the time of his initial casting, Davies and co-executive producer, Julie Gardner had explained to him that they "basically wrote the character around [John]".^[28] John recounts Davies as having been searching for an actor with a "matinée idol quality", telling him that "the only one in the whole of Britain who could do it was you". A number of television critics have likened John's performance as Captain Jack to those of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise.^[34][35][36]

The character's unexpected popularity,^[6][37] would later shape his appearances both as a traditional "action hero" and as a positive role model for younger viewers.^[38] Expanding upon his action hero role, the character would develop some supernatural abilities in Torchwood, primary among them a seemingly absolute immortality (with alternate mechanisms of resurrection and invulnerability),^[9] and also the ability to heal others^[10][39] as well as limited telepathy.^[40] Russell T Davies referred to a scene in "Last of the Time Lords" as promoting a theory that Jack may one day become recurring character "the Face of Boe" (a large, mysterious disembodied head in a jar) as a consequence of his immortality and slow aging.^[41] The Face first appeared in 2005 episode "The End of the World", appearing fully three times and maintaining a presence through to the end of the 2007 series.

The character is described as both "lethally charming... good looking and utterly captivating",^[23] as well as "flirtatious, cunning, clever and a bit of an action man".^[26] Within Doctor Who, Jack's personality is relatively light-hearted, although this changes in Torchwood, where he becomes a darker character.^[42] In Torchwood Series 1, Jack has been shaped by his ongoing search for the Doctor and also by his role as a leader, in which he is predominantly more aloof.^[8] In Torchwood, he would occasionally inquire or muse about the afterlife and religion,^[43] sympathising with a man's desire to die.^[44] Returning in the revived Doctor Who Series 3, Jack indicates he now maintains a less suicidal outlook than before.^[9] When he observes fellow companion Martha Jones exhibiting feelings of unrequited love for the Doctor, he subtly admits he felt a degree of unrequited attraction for the Time Lord as well.^[45] In several instances in Torchwood, Jack displays no qualms about killing a person of any species,^[46][39][40] which within Doctor Who, allows Jack's character to act in ways the lead character cannot.^[8] When reuniting with the Doctor in the 2007 series, he is verbally warned "don't you dare" when pointing a gun,^[9] and scolded when contemplating snapping a tyrant's neck.^[45] By contrast, in other episodes, especially with regard to the dying,^[46] the aged,^[47] and the lonely,^[44] Jack displays kindness and sympathy, going so far as to lie to ease pain.^[46] This humanity and compassion for the dying may relate to his adamant existentialist philosophies.^[48][11]

Following the character's initial introduction in the revived series 1 of Doctor Who, the character became incredibly popular with fans,^[6][49][37] to the extent that Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner created a spin-off series, Torchwood, primarily centred around the character.^[28] The Times described the undeniable success of the character as having propelled actor John Barrowman to "National Treasure status".^[50] Part of Jack's mystique was his sex appeal, swashbuckling heroism and sexual appetite.^[48] In anticipation of the character's return to Doctor Who in series 3 after a successful run in the first series of Torchwood, mainstream media hailed his return.^[50]

"I do watch a lot of television science fiction, and it is a particularly sexless world. With a lot of the material from America, I think gay, lesbian and bisexual characters are massively underrepresented, especially in science fiction, and I'm just not prepared to put up with that. It's a very macho, testosterone-driven genre on the whole, very much written by straight men. I think Torchwood possibly has television's first bisexual male hero, with a very fluid sexuality for the rest of the cast as well. We're a beacon in the darkness." —Russell T Davies[51]

In the media, Jack is described as both the "first openly gay companion" and as a "hunky bisexual".^[52] Jack's notability is largely due to his mainstream representation of a bisexual man in science fiction television, for whom sexual identity is "matter-of-fact",^[48] and not an issue.^[30] The ordinariness with which Jack's orientation is regarded within Doctor Who embodies part of a political statement about changing societal views of homosexuality.^[26] The distinct flexibility of Jack's sexuality contributed directly towards the character's popularity and public interest.^[26] The overtness of Jack's sexuality broke new grounds, the labels "pansexual" and "omnisexual" being applied to the character on occasion. In "The Parting of the Ways", Jack kissed both Rose and the Doctor on the lips,^[5] the latter being the first same-sex kiss in the history of the programme. Despite the boldness of the first LGB character in the series' run, there has been very little uproar about the character, although there was some controversy at the time of Jack's introduction.^[53] The presence of the character in prime time television sparked discussion of the nature of bisexuality in a number of outlets where normally it is dismissed or overlooked.^{[22][31][54][55]} Channel4.com cites Jack as a positive role model for gay and bisexual teenagers,^[56][57] where little had been present for this audience in years gone by and subsequently leading to a greater culture of tolerance.

Jack has gone on to become a recognisable figure in the British public consciousness, and therefore has attracted some parody. The character of Jack Harkness has been parodied several times on the satirical impressionist television show Dead Ringers. Played by Jon Culshaw, the show pokes fun at his bisexuality and apparent campiness, as well his melodramatic personality in Torchwood. In one sketch, he walks bizarrely towards the camera, kissing a policeman as he passes him.^[58] In another sketch, he can be seen having a threesome with two Cybermen,^[59] classic Doctor Who villains dating back to 1966.^[60] The character's popularity with young children has led to the creation of a Captain Jack action figure. The figurine depicts Jack as he appeared in his introductory episodes,^[61] specifically "The Empty Child"; however, more action figures are planned which will depict Jack in his Torchwood and Doctor Who Series 3 look.^[62]

• Captain Jack Harkness at TARDIS Index File
• Captain Jack Harkness on the BBC's Doctor Who website
• Captain Jack Harkness on the BBC's Torchwood website
• Captain Jack Harkness on the BBC-created Torchwood Institute website

v • d • e Torchwood
Torchwood main pages	Themes • Criticism • Torchwood Declassified • Doctor Who • Whoniverse • Torchwood Institute • Cardiff Rift • Weevils
Main characters	Jack Harkness • Gwen Cooper • Owen Harper • Toshiko Sato • Ianto Jones
Torchwood lists	Episodes • Novels • Audio books • Monsters and aliens • Minor characters • Items • Celebrity appearances

v • d • e Companions of the Ninth Doctor
Series	Series 1
Serials	161	162	163	164A / B	165	166	167	168A / B	169	170A / B
Companions	Rose →
					Adam			Jack (→)

v • d • e Companions of the Tenth Doctor
Series	Specials		Series 2			Specials	Series 3		Specials	Series 4
Serials	CIN	171	172 - 173	174 - 176B	177 - 181B	182	183 - 190	191A - 191C	192	193 - 195	196A / B	197 - (4.13)
Companions	← Rose					Donna	Martha		Astrid	Donna
				Mickey				(←) Jack			Martha