Torchwood: Captain Jack's childhood...

[fajrdrako]

I was thinking about what we do know and what we don't know about Captain Jack. He appears to be in his thirties and American, but we know that's largely an illusion - he's an immortal of unknown age, presumably from the 51st century - even that leaves room for fudging, since he might have gone to the 51st century from another time.

So do any Torchwood fans here have any theories as to his original background? We know from his comments to the other Jack in "Captain Jack Harkness" that he went to war when young - though we don't know exactly how young. Are there any other clues?

Would would you speculate? Did he choose to appear as an American just to cover the Captain Jack Harkness identity? What kind of a family do you think he came from? A nuclear family? Or something more futuristic and outre? Two parents, or more? Fewer? None? Siblings? Schooling? Was he born on a poverty-stricken post-holocaust world, or did he come from a comfortable middle-class background, or was he a scion of a wealthy ruling class?

Any ideas?

Cross-posted to torch_wood.

Comments

[andreawashere.livejournal.com]

I do believe he grew up in a loving home, with a whole lot of younger sisters who basically adored their big brother. Don't know why, I just think he did.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It sounds nice! It would explain how well he relates to women.

So... do you think he lost that loving home in the war?

[andreawashere.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. He's been through that horrible incident with his best friend during the war, and I think he must have had that loving home to patch him up after the war. Had he also lost his family, I don't think he would so easily be happy again with the Doctor and Rose. If that makes any sense...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Had he also lost his family, I don't think he would so easily be happy again with the Doctor and Rose. If that makes any sense...

You mean it would be difficult for him to love and trust to that extent, if he had not known that kind of environment before?

Perhaps. Or perhaps he would value and want it all the more.

I was thinking of him as being orphaned before the war - but I have dozens of 'young Jack' scenarios as possibilities in my mind, none of them definitive. Yet.