What makes Captain Jack tick...

[fajrdrako]

I was thinking what an excellent metaphor a stopwatch is for Jack. Time is a central factor in his life. Once a Time Agent, he is now displaced in time; from once being able to travel to any era he wished, he is now stopped in time and forced to live one day at a time, like anyone else. For him, the number of days will be endless.

And he is living a countdown to two future events: the time in the twenty-first century when everything changes, and the return of the Doctor. We don't know when those events will be, and we don't know when Jack thinks they will happen.

Though I've been discussing a lot of my thoughts about Jack in various venues, I thought I'd put them down in more explicit form here. I might be wrong on any point, I might be Russelled at any moment, but here are my conclusions.

Since the chronology of Jack's life is unclear, I think of it as having three distinct stages:

1. Past - before we meet him in the Doctor Who episode The Empty Child
   In his past, he was a Time Agent, part of his memory was erased, he quite the agency and became a galactic con man in a stolen Chula ship. Running a con in 1941 London, he met Rose and the Doctor.



2. Turning point - from The Empty Child to The Parting of the Ways
   Jack, because of an act of self-sacrifice meant to compensate for a danger he unleashed, gets a place on the TARDIS and stays there for an indeterminate length of time (three more episodes) with the Doctor and Rose. After that time, in another act of self-sacrifice, he is killed by Daleks, revived by Rose, and abandoned by the TARDIS.



3. Present and Future - Torchwood
   Jack comes to Cardiff in or before 2007 or possibly 2008, and sets himself up in charge of Torchwood Three. Some time later, he takes Gwen Cooper into the team and the events we see in Torchwood unfold.

It is remarkable how much we don't know, in terms of the facts. We don't know how he travelled in time before or after he was on the TARDIS, but we know that he did - he has been to both pre-volcanic Pompeii and the 51st century. There is reason to think he is from the 51st century, as the Doctor seems to think so - I tend to take the Doctor's beliefs as usually reliable, given that he can see far into time and space and people's psyches. All we know for sure is that Jack got his weapon (the sonic blaster) from that time - and from the evidence of Girl in the Fireplace, we know that people in the 51st century could meddle with time, which might be taken as a partial corroboration. We know nothing about the Time Agency except that they had Agents. We don't know where Jack came from, but he passes as an American in 1941 London and 2007/08 Cardiff - possibly just to cover any odd cultural unfamiliarities.

And we have no idea how much subjective time has passed for Jack since The Parting of the Ways, or what happened to him between then and the beginning of Everything Changes.

The rest we know as a matter of surmise, and hints from Jack's running commentary on his own life. We know Jack likes sex, is flexible about categories, and has lived a sexually active life - twin acrobats, executioners, a Chula warrior, Estelle, Algy. We know he's good with technology, electronics and machines. Jack isn't very forthcoming on the what he has done, or when and where, but he's usually ready to talk about 'who'.

My interpretation:

Wherever he came from, Jack was living a life of somewhat increasing rootlessness. When he left the Time Agency, life as a free-lancer (or con man, or criminal, choose which term you prefer) he couldn't have had much stability - lots of casual sex, always on the move, presumably hunted by the Time Agents he was cheating.

So when he met the Doctor, two things happened. He found his own sense of courage and integrity - his own morality. Having endangered humankind in his con with the nanogenes, he risked himself to save others from the bomb.

The other thing that happened was that he fell in love with the Doctor and Rose.

Jack always talks warmly and positively about his former lovers; love comes easily to him, both physically and emotionally, but as he was always moving on, he couldn't let it reach him deeply. With the Doctor and Rose, he committed himself entirely - he wanted to stay with the Doctor on the TARDIS forever, just as Rose did, and was determined to prove himself worthy of the Doctor's love and trust. With the compatible company of the Doctor and Rose, he was free to be himself. It was as close to paradise as Jack could imagine.

This of course came to a sudden end when the TARDIS left without him. Whether he was Lucifer or Adam, I'm not sure, but Jack was left without an explanation for his expulsion from paradise - all the worse that it didn't happen as the result of a sin or even a mistake, but in conjunction with the greatest heroic act of his life, dying to save Earth from the Daleks. His phrase "see you in hell" is both ironic and poignant. With immortality, Jack was trapped forever in this purgatory.

My guess is that he used his skills with mechanics to get off the game satellite, and his gifts as a con man to make his way back to Cardiff, Earth, at a point sometime after the events of Boom Town. Because the TARDIS had once re-energized at the rift, he could guess the Doctor might take it back again, and Jack could be waiting there. He couldn't go back before the events of Boom Town for fear of meeting himself, changing time, and setting up the same kind of short-circuit of the universe that happened in Father's Day. But he could wait for the Doctor to return. I suspect he didn't go directly from the 2001st century to Cardiff of our time - I think the reason the faeries didn't kill him in Lahore in 1909 was that they knew he was immortal. He may have done some time-hopping to gather resources.

I would guess further that he arrived about the time of the Battle of Canary Wharf, or shortly before - so that when he tried to trace Jackie Tyler, or Rose, at the Powell Estates, he was too late to find them, and simply learned they were dead. I think he took advantage of his knowledge of extraterrestrials and his con man skills to get himself put in charge of Torchwood 3 at a time when Torchwood London was so in disarray that no one knew what was happening. I think he gathered (or stole) any memorabilia of the Doctor he could from Torchwood - the 1950s televisions, the 3D glasses, and so on. I think the 'period military' style he dresses in is a tribute to the circumstances in which he first met the Doctor.

Believing Rose to be dead, believing the Doctor had abandoned him, believing that living up to the higher ideals he had adopted was futile, Jack was embittered, depressed and alienated. He kept his friends and coworkers at a distance, and so never saw Susie's breakdown coming, and didn't notice that Ianto was hiding a Cyberwoman on the premises, or that morale was at a low ebb, or that Torchwood was increasing unable to fulfilling its mandate of preparing mankind for whatever is about to happen. In Gwen he saw a sense of humanity that pulled him out of his funk just when he woke up to the need for it - that any attempt to save the world from aliens (or itself) was doomed before it started if he couldn't manage a decent life for himself and improvement in Torchwood's capacity for teamwork and dedication to their purposes. He sees Gwen as giving them, or him, a second chance, with her innocent good nature and caring heart. She has given him a sense of hope.

Comments

[cassandraterra.livejournal.com]

Those are really good speculations. I was always wondering about him being in 1909 myself. Maybe he started there? Maybe that's where he was from originaly? And he was found out by the Time Agents? I dunno. He's done so much jumping around. I know that Jack will see the doctor again sometime in season three of DW. At least, that's what I've heard/remembered hearing. I don't know if it will match up with Torchwood. I hope it does. Jack nees sooo much closure.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was always wondering about him being in 1909 myself.

It's a puzzler. Going by the hints on the Torchwood web page, I could guess that he needed money, and found a diamond scam he could use to fund himself to get into Torchwood. This implies more time travelling ability than we currently know him to have.

I don't think he's from the nineteenth century, but my reasoning is thin: first, I'm working on the general principle that if the Doctor thinks something is true, it is, and the Doctor thought Jack was a fifty-first century man. Second, I don't see why the Time Agents would need to recruit people from the past - unless there was something special about Jack, but I don't see any evidence of that, either. So I would guess that Jack really was born in the 51st century, and that his trip to 1909 Lahore was part of his hopping around in time.

This doesn't explain his being in England - or was it Cardiff? - again in 1944. Okay, more time-hopping. As a Time Agent? As a con man? As an escapee from the game station trying to find the Doctor again? Could be any of these things.

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

You know, I really want to be in love with this series, because of Jack, but it's not doing it, and I'm so burnt crispy from Potter fandom. Just pray that SPN doesn't let me down. Because then I will be a very sad malfoy indeed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I really want to be in love with this series, because of Jack, but it's not doing it

I do love it very much indeed, but I'd be hard put to explain why, or to justify the feeling. Because of Captain Jack, because of Gwen, because I like the look of it, because the pterodactyl tickles my fancy, because Ianto has a stopwatch, I don't know.... I love it with a passion and at the same time find their expensive incompetence annoying. I want them to stop screwing up. I want Gwen to stop doing things (like helping a multiple murderer escape) that are just so appallingly stupid, however well-meaning.

I'm so burnt crispy from Potter fandom.

I'm not sure what you mean. Burned out? Wary of other fans? Over-extended? I have almost no knowledge of Harry Potter fandom. Just a little, on the fringes. I have considerably less knowledge of SPN.

[ataniell93.livejournal.com]

Terrified of being painfully and deeply disappointed. HBP is the most painfully disappointing book I have ever read. I no longer care what happens in that world. The only characters I still like in it now are probably doomed.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. Disappointed not by the fandom or the fans, but the canon as it developed. I think we've all been there, sometimes many times. X-Files did that for me; at one time I loved that show with a passion and now I can't even watch the good episodes any more, because the later seasons annoyed and upset me so much. Insofar as I watched them. This effect may be fading with time, as I find I can think of the characters and the stories I liked with pleasure again.

But there have been fandoms I loved that never did disappoint. And so far, Torchwood has, to my eyes, been steadily improving and building on itself to something deeper and better, and I have hopes it will continue to do so - this has been Russell T. Davies' pattern in the past.

My love of Torchwood is so extreme, pleasurable, and so utterly irrational that it completely escapes my understanding. Yes, I am disappointed with it in some ways, but that disappointment doesn't seem to mitigate my enjoyment on iota.

The only characters I still like in it now are probably doomed.</i. This is probably why I haven't gone more deeply into Harry Potter fandom.

[boji.livejournal.com]

My love of Torchwood is so extreme, pleasurable, and so utterly irrational that it completely escapes my understanding. Yes, I am disappointed with it in some ways, but that disappointment doesn't seem to mitigate my enjoyment on iota.


Here we differ. I enjoy it less. But I still love the bastard so it's like being in a dysfunctional relationship in which the make up sex is fic - which will be e-mailed to you on Saturday (chp1) which yes, is later than I'd wanted. Damn RL.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I enjoy it less.

Yes. I can't even get enough perspective to be analytical about it. I would be less puzzled if the show didn't do so many things that have me shaking my head sadly and then automatically forgiving it. Why does Gwen have to act so stupid? She could be smart and nice at the same time, she could. Why doesn't Jack even try to be an effective leader? I think these things, but I'm still watching with eager voraciousness, a smile on my face.

I still love the bastard so it's like being in a dysfunctional relationship in which the make up sex is fic -

Looks to me like a wonderful solution!

which will be e-mailed to you on Saturday (chp1) which yes, is later than I'd wanted.

I wondered. I considered giving your ankles a little kick to remind you. But then RL was messing with me too. Still looking forward to it!

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

She could be smart and nice at the same time, she could.

No, she couldn't. Because then she'd be even more of a Mary Sue, in far too many fans' eyes. </cynical> Look, she's not perfect, no. But she's also still a newbie. I would consider Torchwood to be a job that has a pretty long climb as far as learning the ropes. And I'm not going to condemn her for either idealism or compassion. It's the others I have a harder time forgiving for their stupidity.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to condemn her for either idealism or compassion.

Neither am I, and I hope it didn't sound as if I did. I love Gwen. I love her flaws as well as her virtues. If she has learned her lesson about letting murderers take road trips, that's a good thing.

And yes, I'm just as likely to roll my eyes at Tosh for telling Torchwood stories to a pretty stranger, or to Owen for stealing alien products to save himself the trouble of seducing people the slow way.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

Neither am I, and I hope it didn't sound as if I did.

No, no, I'm just a little tired of seeing all the stupidity accusations thrown at her without considering why she might be reacting that way. Also, I was a little grumpy this morning. Sorry. :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm just a little tired of seeing all the stupidity accusations thrown at her without considering why she might be reacting that way.

Yes. I'd much rather see a warm, compassionate Gwen making mistakes out of the goodness of her heart than see her act unfeeling or cold while getting things right. I also like it that she can be reckless and impulsive.

Also, I was a little grumpy this morning. Sorry. :-)

*Hug* No problem!

[doradoradora.livejournal.com]

This doesn't explain his being in England - or was it Cardiff? - again in 1944. Okay, more time-hopping. As a Time Agent? As a con man? As an escapee from the game station trying to find the Doctor again? Could be any of these things.

My pet theory on that one is that Jack had one shot to get to approximately the right point in time/space and he ended up on Earth in the 20th century... just the early end of it. So he's been waiting things out ever since, and it just happened that he got into Torchwood.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

We'll see! I've heard that from several people, and it might be true.

I was just looking at They Keep Killing Suzie again and saw that Suzie talks about it having been Jack who recruited her. That would argue against Jack's tenure at Torchwood being as recent as I was saying - though we don't know when he recruited her.

[doradoradora.livejournal.com]

I don't think Jack's employment at Torchwood is as short as you do, but I don't think it's more than a decade, either. Jack has been very careful to hide his immortality, and anything longer than that and you run into the whole Highlander thing; people start to notice that the older man who was dating a young woman is now a young man dating an older woman.

I also agree that Jack would have good enough sense not to be in Cardiff when his past self was, but it's entirely possible that Jack, remembering when he and the Doctor and Rose would show up, took some of his accrued sick time (since he seems like the type who'd hoard it).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's more than a decade, either. Jack has been very careful to hide his immortality

Good point. Can't stay in one place for fifty years without changing. People would talk.

it's entirely possible that Jack, remembering when he and the Doctor and Rose would show up, took some of his accrued sick time

A quick visit to the Glasgow branch of Torchwood?