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

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Jack Harkness - Internationalgalactic Man of Mystery!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's him! What we know about Jack would fit a thimble. What we don't know about him would fill the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Poor Gwen has the same problem - along with Tosh, Owen and Ianto. And drat it all, they are our viewpoints of Jack in Torchwood.

At least he's willing to talk openly to the Doctor, so we should learn more soon.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Well, it helps that the Doctor is also a time-traveller from another planet…

It's interesting, working out the best way of dealing in fic with a character whose experience of time (or space) is somewhat beyond the norm in his or her interactions with 'normal' people…

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

it helps that the Doctor is also a time-traveller from another planet…

Yes, and with him, Jack doesn't have to be careful about revealing too much about future history.

It's interesting, working out the best way of dealing in fic with a character whose experience of time (or space) is somewhat beyond the norm

Yes. I find it fascinating. I think my first experience of it was when I was trying to write about Methos. Dealing with the point of view of someone born in the bronze age. And now I'm trying to write about someone from the 51st century. It's so nicely mind-expanding.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yes. I find it fascinating. I think my first experience of it was when I was trying to write about Methos. Dealing with the point of view of someone born in the bronze age. And now I'm trying to write about someone from the 51st century. It's so nicely mind-expanding.

Yes. It's not like writing comedy pieces with ghosts, & c., as I have in the past.

I'm just getting to grips with this, with a character in my current story. He's been around for several hundred years (linear time, on-going), but is still strongly affected, psychologically and emotionally, by experiences in his original lifespan.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It's not like writing comedy pieces with ghosts, & c., as I have in the past.

Well, that's fun too, and sometimes it's a matter of balancing the deep stuff and the light stuff in such a way that's convincing but not too heavy or expository.


He's been around for several hundred years ... psychologically and emotionally, by experiences in his original lifespan.

That makes sense, like the theory that events we encounter when young make a stronger impression than those of middle age. I think there are limits to this - I certainly know people whose personalities were changed by midlife experiences - but there's a basic truth to it.

Put into Torchwood terms, wherever Jack goes, he'll still be a 51st cnetury sort of guy - even though events of the 1940s and on the Game Station clearly overturned his life and thinking.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Exactly! And if your original lifetime f***ed you over this badly…

For example, with Jack, it's clear that experience of going to war, and his friend's death, still affects him at a very deep level.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

with Jack, it's clear that experience of going to war, and his friend's death, still affects him at a very deep level.

Especially since he cares for others so very much. The pain stays with him.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Yup. And to be forced to watch your comrade being tortured is itself torture. I'm reminded of a quote from the Austrian-born philosopher and Holocaust survivor, Jean Améry (né Hans Maier) who committed suicide in 1978:
"Anyone who has been tortured remains tortured… anyone who has suffered torture never again will be able to be at ease in the world." (At the Mind's Limits)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Good quote.