How did Captain Jack get to Cardiff?

December 5, 2007 1:52 PM

How did Captain Jack Harkness get to modern day Cardiff after he was stranded in the year 200100?
posted by lazy robot to Media & Arts (16 answers total)

Best answer: He used to be a time agent. The big watch on his wrist is a vortex manipulator. A "space-hopper" as it was. He ended up in 1869, it burnt out, and he lived through the 20th century.

(Details in Doctor Who Season 3)
posted by hindmost at 1:55 PM on December 5, 2007

Okay, excellent, but why doesn't he age or die?

/piggyback
posted by headspace at 2:12 PM on December 5, 2007

Same reason that when you shoot him in the head, the bullet eventually works its way out. It hasn't really been explained, but he's immortal.
posted by pompomtom at 2:15 PM on December 5, 2007

Because Rose revived him with the power she got from the TARDIS. There's an interesting bit at the end of season 3 about what other character he *might* turn out to be eventually.
posted by MsMolly at 2:15 PM on December 5, 2007

Actually, sorry, not really immortal... he does die eventually, after having lived longer than the galaxy due to aforementioned vortex manipulator thingy.
posted by pompomtom at 2:17 PM on December 5, 2007

Thank you both so much. I knew that he came out of Dr. Who, but never managed to catch his storyline to answer that burning question!
posted by headspace at 2:18 PM on December 5, 2007

i love captain jack. and i soooooooooooo want to spoil who he turns out to be at the end of season 3, but i won't. but i squeed when they said it.

/fangirl derail
posted by misanthropicsarah at 2:48 PM on December 5, 2007

misanthropicsarah: you didn't think it felt a bit tacked-on and hamfisted? I groaned when I heard it.
posted by Kellydamnit at 2:57 PM on December 5, 2007

Ya, great idea, but the implementation was tacked on and hamfisted.
posted by Chuckles at 3:14 PM on December 5, 2007

Spoiler for who Captain Jack is/becomes.
posted by blue_beetle at 3:40 PM on December 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

And it is good to remember that the reveal of who Jack might turn out to be is just that ... a big might.
posted by grabbingsand at 4:07 PM on December 5, 2007

In the director's commentary, Russel T Davies was hemming and hawing about it and the executive producer kind of poked him and was like, Oh, stop dancing around the subject! So I think it's definitely meant to be connected. (Oh good, it's mentioned here.)
posted by lhall at 4:53 PM on December 5, 2007

OK, timeline explanation of this needed. Does this happen prior or after Torchwood came on the scene. I'm not a big Dr. Who fan (at least the new series), but lapped up every episode of Torchwood season 1 on BBC America.

Captain Jack left at the end of Torchwood season 1 in the (unseen) Tardis and I know where Torchwood originated, so how does season 3 of Dr. Who fit into this?

Also, why is he know as "Captain Jack" when the coat he wears is an RAF officers greatcoat with the insignia of a Group Captain (4 rings) ? Am I right in thinking that BBC-A possibly shows these series out of their own sequence? (i.e not in terms of the episodes in the series, but the way different series fit together)
posted by 543DoublePlay at 5:26 PM on December 5, 2007

Captain Jack running out of The Hub at the end of S1 Torchwood flows into the last three-story arc of Doctor Who S3. He's in all three of those episodes.
posted by ersatzkat at 5:38 PM on December 5, 2007

We first meet Captain Jack during the Blitz (new Dr Who season 1, I think); he's with the RAF at the time, hence his name and coat. (He's already a time agent, having come from the umpteenth century). A later Dr Who episode is the one that gives him his unnatural longevity, although that fact isn't explained until the end of Dr. Who season 3. In Jack's personal timeline, I think his Torchwood career immediately precedes his appearance at the end of Dr Who season 3.
posted by hattifattener at 7:43 PM on December 5, 2007

The broadcast order of the series' was:

Doctor Who series 1 (where we meet and leave Jack),
DW series 2 (sans Jack and where he doesn't really get much mention - but where we find out Torchwood's origin, and other Torchwood stuff),
Torchwood series 1,
DW series 3 (with Jack in the last 3 episodes)

Jack's personal timeline is pretty much in that order as well, as far as we know (ignoring DW series 2)

Even if you don't like Doctor Who (seriously, you don't?), you might want to watch the last 3 episodes of DW series 3 after you've seen Torchwood series 1, as there is some Jack character development there that you might find interesting. Plus I've heard rumours that other DW characters might be making a trip to Cardiff, so you might want to get a bit of their back story.

I'm not sure how much Torchwood will/does stand alone, as I'm a bit of a DW freak so I'm probably not the best judge. So, I don't know how much of the aftermath of DW series 3 will spill over into Torchwood. I know it does work the other way round, you can watch Doctor Who and not Torchwood - but it has to be because many of DW's fans wouldn't be able to stay up late enough to watch Torchwood ;)
posted by Helga-woo at 2:09 PM on December 6, 2007