Phantom Jack...

[fajrdrako]

gigs_83 on torch_wood pointed me to this clip on YouTube, which has John Barrowman singing "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera. I like the Phantom music, I love Barrowman's singing, of course I watched it. It shows visuals from "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" - but what I really enjoyed is at the end, a trailer for "The Doctor Dances" in Japanese. I get a kick out of seeing Captain Jack be so... omnilingual.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

"Wait and hope"

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.

[myfavouriteplum.livejournal.com]

Yes, when you have your name, you have a footing. You have something solid on you--a clear sense of identity. Rose has a name and the Doctor none.
(In Highlander, it's the other way round. The hero has a real name and the sidekick has a nebulous identity.)
Jack has earned his name, by using it longer than using his real name, by doing things the original owner of the name would approve. He doesn't seem to miss very much the 51st Century or his earlier life before TARDIS, when he had his own name with him--the only things we know from this period are the dead friend and the memory loss. Two things he'd like to get rid of, for his own peace. And he's not that satisfied with himself the first time we met him, when he told the Doctor it was a con.
What we see repetitively is that he loves 1940s a lot. If people and place can be home, then time can be home, too.
Torchwood 3 is everything that Torchwood 1 isn't. I doubted Jack would like Torchwood 1 when I first saw it in DW. Torchwood 1 is in a tower when Torchwood 3 is in a...cave? Then TW 1 has a female boss and TW 3 has a male one. I know I've lost my mind every time the name Freud comes to mind...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Jack has earned his name, by using it longer than using his real name, by doing things the original owner of the name would approve.

As Tosh points out. Also by living under that name during what was probably the most significant period of his life, when he was on the TARDIS. It's the name with good connotations for him.

What we see repetitively is that he loves 1940s a lot. If people and place can be home, then time can be home, too.

Rather endearingly. Again, a time and place with good connotations for him - I like to think it's at least partly becaue he met the Doctor and Rose then, the event which changed his life for the better. Obviously he likes the music and style of the era. Memories of Estelle too, perhaps?

I know I've lost my mind every time the name Freud comes to mind...


I prefer to gravitate to Jung, and I have a few ideas on this one, but they're not clear enough to articulate yet.