Jack's story is about how our masks sometimes end up becoming our real faces. Our lies are in our truth, and our truth is also in our lies.
And lying about ourselves is another way of changing ourselves.
Maybe it's only coincidence. Maybe it's karma.
Or a way for people to grow. Sort of - evolution driven by making mistakes.
Name is about identity. It can be glory and it can be a curse. And a false name can even be more significant than a real one, because we get to choose it, so it can be consciously/subconsciously meaningful to us.
And there are so many name-resonances in Doctor Who and Torchwood. The Doctor himself has no name, which means the topic of a name comes up frequently. When the Doctor and Captain Jack met, each had a false name - the Doctor was introduced to him as Mr. Spock. Rose's name is used frequently, over and over, often the Doctor calling her name, or people repeating her name, sometimes as Rose, sometimes as Rose Tyler. Look at that great moment at the end of "The Runaway Bride", when the Doctor says, "Rose. Her name is Rose." She's gone, but her name still has power.
In Torchwood we have another hero without a name, because we know Captain Jack Harkness isn't his name, and yet he's adopted it and wears it with such a certainty of identity that it's become his name. "Torchwood" itselt is an interesting name, a chameleon-like thing, based on the anagram of "Doctor Who" as a sort of secondary identity - reinforcing the theme of Jack as a surrogate version of the Doctor. And Torchwood Three has a nebulous identity and relationship with regard to Torchwood One.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 04:38 am (UTC)Interesting quote! It does seem to fit Jack.
Jack's story is about how our masks sometimes end up becoming our real faces. Our lies are in our truth, and our truth is also in our lies.
And lying about ourselves is another way of changing ourselves.
Maybe it's only coincidence. Maybe it's karma.
Or a way for people to grow. Sort of - evolution driven by making mistakes.
Name is about identity. It can be glory and it can be a curse. And a false name can even be more significant than a real one, because we get to choose it, so it can be consciously/subconsciously meaningful to us.
And there are so many name-resonances in Doctor Who and Torchwood. The Doctor himself has no name, which means the topic of a name comes up frequently. When the Doctor and Captain Jack met, each had a false name - the Doctor was introduced to him as Mr. Spock. Rose's name is used frequently, over and over, often the Doctor calling her name, or people repeating her name, sometimes as Rose, sometimes as Rose Tyler. Look at that great moment at the end of "The Runaway Bride", when the Doctor says, "Rose. Her name is Rose." She's gone, but her name still has power.
In Torchwood we have another hero without a name, because we know Captain Jack Harkness isn't his name, and yet he's adopted it and wears it with such a certainty of identity that it's become his name. "Torchwood" itselt is an interesting name, a chameleon-like thing, based on the anagram of "Doctor Who" as a sort of secondary identity - reinforcing the theme of Jack as a surrogate version of the Doctor. And Torchwood Three has a nebulous identity and relationship with regard to Torchwood One.