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 think we can take it from Jack's description of the enemy as "the worst creatures you can imagine" that the war was against the Daleks.

I don't think Jack meant the Daleks. If it had been the Daleks who tortured and killed his friend, wouldn't his reaction in BW/PotW been different? He expects people to be killed, but he never seems to expect anything 'worse'. When he faces them at the end, he's all 'Go ahead and kill me'. Not a trace of fear that they might have somrthing different in mind.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If it had been the Daleks who tortured and killed his friend, wouldn't his reaction in BW/PotW been different?

I really don't know. It seems to me likely that it's the Daleks for various reasons, but there's no clear evidence. I would agree that Jack's reactions to the Daleks in "Bad Wolf" don't imply that background - but Jack is a con man who is used to covering up his real feelings and thoughts, and he wanted to present himself as brave and competent for the Doctor. I'm still thinking about all these ideas and possibilities.

Given the unviverse we're dealing with, what is or could be worse than the Daleks, in Jack's eyes?