Illustrated thoughts on 'Capt Jack Harkness' (with added speculation)

[kaliha]

First of two posts. Lots of spoilers behind the cut. I'm feeling that my icon is rather apt.



Jack sure knows how to woo the ladies

This is evidenced by the fact that Jack took Tosh to a derelict (and most likely unsafe) building to do some investigation. And Tosh really isn't dressed for it. (Although I am coveting her coat)

I'm also having some building love. It's what Torchwood does to me, fills me with love. Yay!

Party like it's 1941

I think I liked the subtle transition between the present day and 1941 nearly as much as Jack did. Just a shame there was no Moonlight Serenade to complete the fangirly geek!out.

And everyone in the 1940's had ace hair too!

But things aren't quite what they seem

It really is very easy to disappear down a crack in time. (Maybe it can explain a number of missing people cases, or 'alien abductions'. Actually that would be really cool. I take it that the rift is constantly moving which is why they didn't just go back downstairs again.

Temporal distortions are very confusing. I think I need Stephen Fry (yes, Fry) to explain it to me in small, easy to understand words.

Ianto unleashes his inner snark

Am I the only one ever so slightly worried by the fact that Owen is second-in-command? He's hardly the most stable of people, well, generally (Although, who else could Jack have picked? (Tosh!! For she is the most sensible of them all))

Ianto's little barb at Owen (him not being in work lately) was a very nice little touch. It's nice to see antagonism that doesn’t degenerate into punching or rolling around on the floor of the Hub.

Vote Saxon

Cross over references ahoy!

Who is this mysterious Saxon? You may remember his name being mentioned by the Tank commander as the bloke who gave the order to fire on the Empress of Racnoss' ship.

What's happened to Harriet? *worries* Is her Golden Age over so quickly? Didn’t she go to three terms or something? But maybe this mysterious Saxon is heading up the MoD or something, staying behind the scenes and pulling the strings?

Is this next year's Bad Wolf for Doctor Who and Torchwood?


Ripples through time

Really, are the changes of our!Jack bumping into the real!Jack? Oh this is going to get confusing.

Tosh took being lied to by our!Jack really well, although it's going to have consequences in the future, I can just see it.

Nearly every member of the team has a little secret of Jack's: Tosh now knows that Jack isn't his name, Gwen knows he can't die and Ianto knows that he likes games involving stopwatches. Goodness only knows what Owen's got on him, or Suzie.

Who is Jack?

It's going to be speculation fodder now until we get the Jack!episodes in Doctor Who. The Time Agent thing is presumably true. He's not a Captain, which explains the outcomes of quite a few events. He's certainly not called Jack Harkness. And who is James Harper? Is it his friend who he persuaded to join up with him and died? Is it one of a multitude of false identities our!Jack has at his disposal? Has he be working undercover so long that he doesn't know who he really is?

Would they even have 'normal' names like ours three thousand years in the future? Or would it be just a series of numbers or clicks and whistles? Who says that the dominant language is even English in that great distance of time?

Sometimes I wonder if he's really a Time Agent. He may be conning them, but it doesn't mean that he actually worked for them. I'm sure a highly trained Time Agent wouldn't unleash a plague of nanogenes on an unspecting city, turning everyone into gask-masked zombies, nearly get himself blown up by a German bomb and get himself a spaceship that has now escape pod.

Then again, look at how good Team Torchwood are. They're supposed to be highly-trained operatives too.

What an ace camera

Is this the original Polaroid then? Where on earth do you get the film from for something like that?

Top sekkrit my arse

EVERYONE knows about Torchwood. EVERYONE!

A short geek out over the photography

I love all the match-cuts done all the way through this episode. The crossing over between Gwen and our!Jack and Tosh. So well done. Yay!

Correct me if I'm wrong

but that really does look like Gallfrey writing rather than a star chart. I have never seen a star chart that looks anything like that – but have seen writing that is.

It's not just a decorative water feature

I had wondered before why there were lights and stuff inside the fountain. Now we know, it's a big, old machine. Nice hiding place for it.

Jack alters the course of history

You can't help but meddle in other people's affairs, can you Mr Harkness? Imagine the ripples a tiny change like that could wreak? Jack really should know better. Then again he has been one who thinks with his heart, rather than with his head.

Led a merry chase

This is definitely all Bilis' doing, he's playing a very long game (sixty years long, in fact) he wants them to activate the Rift, but why?

Ouch!

Tosh really does go above and beyond the call of duty sometimes. I didn't think that the edge of a tin like that was sharp though? Her message to her family at the bottom was heart breaking. She really didn't think they were going to get out of this.

Plot holes ahoy!

Why is a very important part of the Rift machine in a clock in Bilis' office? If Team Torchwood built or even scavenged the blueprints and stuff for the machine surely they'd have the lot? And it's never explained, not in this nor the next episode and it makes me narky. I really don't like plot conveniences like that.

Owen knows his way around Jack's desk rather well

And Jack, the first rule of security is not to write all your passwords down in a book!

Who is Rhea Silvia though? Other than a Roman goddess, that is. Why is her name important to Jack. There's hidden meanings in everything (apart from the Cheese Man) and I can't figure out how she fits into everything.

Jack, by the way have lovely handwriting. All nice and old-fashioned.

Just good friends?

our!Jack can pull anyone can't he? Or maybe he found he had a lot more in common with the real!Jack than just an American accent. It's such a little, faltering relationship though.

Remember what I said before about how they don't roll about on the floor fighting?

Okay, so I was wrong. :/

Ianto takes charge

Ianto takes his job in Torchwood very seriously and he does his duty (after all he's been taught by Yvonne) of course he's not going to let anything that would endanger the Empire happen.


Owen should have known it would come to this. And let's face it, he does deserve it. For him getting Jack and Tosh home is secondary to finally being able to find Diane wherever she may be.

Really, why aren't they getting beaten up for this?

The 1940's were hardly the most tolerant of eras and in a room with a bunch of testosterone-filled flyboys and sailors it's even worse.

However, it is a really, really lovely scene. Living each night as if it was their last. *sighs*

Short goodbyes

Lookit Tosh, she's gone, no hanging round in the past for her.

The Gay Agenda rears its head

Oh, I bet this annoyed a lot of people. I bets there's a lot of blathering in certain sectors about the Gay Agenda and whatnot. I thought it was really touching. Poor Jack, off to die to following day and there's nothing our!Jack can say or do to stop it happening, because sometimes he does pay attention to the laws of time.

Bilis, Bilis, Bilis

What game are you playing? With your being in two eras of time at once. Hmmmm.


One thing I didn't cap for this review, but want to mention, because it was a very subtle piece of foreshadowing. When Gwen sees Jack and Tosh come out of the building a flock of birds in flight are reflected in her windscreen. A massive, panicked flock.

They say animals are the first to sense danger approaching.

That looks painful

But at least it was a clear shot. Of course, Ianto was really aiming for Owen's bollocks (because that's where his brains seem to be half the time) but won't admit this to anyone. Ever.

Another rare moment of Jack drinking

See, he saves it for special occasions.


In Conclusion
We've suspected for ages that Jack may not have been Jack's real name, but it's going to be very complicated if we find out his real name and have to start calling him that.

I wonder if the Doctor already realises this and knows what his real name is. Is it all connected to his missing two years of memory? Does he call himself Jack Harkness because he doesn't remember his real name?

All these, and many other questions to remain unanswered…for now at least. Argh!

I thought this episode was ace. It was a good, solid script (apart from the odd plot convenience.) and I was totally gripped by it.

8.5/10

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

And who is James Harper?

I think he just blurted it out - if there's a James Harper in his past it's a bit coincidental that he has the same last name as Owen (even in RTD-world, where there are half a dozen surnames to go round). I kind of wish he'd been James Tyler.

I bets there's a lot of blathering in certain sectors about the Gay Agenda and whatnot.

Oh god, yes. The usual about how unrealistic it is that there are 'no' straight people/relationships in Torchwood. (Because being snogged by someone of the same sex under pheromone influence makes Gwen and Owen bi, apparently.)

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

Did you see "BAD WOLF" scrawled across the wall at the top of the stairs just before Jack and Tosh are transported back to the Forties?

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

noooooooo!

[indigo-blind.livejournal.com]

I thought the kiss between the two Jacks was beatifully shot, the lighting, movement, made me all of a flutter.

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

I've really enjoyed your summaries - but I was wondering....

Stephen Fry?

You've read Making History?

[alysscarlet.livejournal.com]

I too felt that poor Real Captain Jack was liable to get lynched or thrown in prison for his kiss on the dance floor, lovely though it was...

Re the Rhea Silva reference, there's a clipping at http://www.torchwood.org.uk/html/realjack/images/yanks-ce.jpg which refers to a Captain Robert Silver of the 71st squadron (which our Jack also mentions). Can't help wondering if there's a connection somewhere.....

[jerel.livejournal.com]

I was going to point this out too. I had to rewind and make sure, but yep, there it was!

Ack, broken picture links. I want my Jack/Jack snog!

[mneiai.livejournal.com]

Tosh would have been a much better 2IC--I was actually wondering if maybe Owen meant it to mean he was in charge after Jack and Tosh? Though, Tosh doesn't have a very strong personality, she could probably be easily persuaded by Owen to do things, anyway. Ianto's untrustworthy (because of Lisa) and Gwen's a newbie....

I think the Harper name was one he came up with on the fly--James Harper/Jack Harkness...he just adjusted the name a bit. Also, Lynda with a "y" from 200,100 had at least one regular name, so I wouldn't think the 51st would be much different. Though they have ships that use human body parts, so who knows....

Yeah, I'm on a group in myspace and already there's someone complaining about how gay it was. It's like, shut up, it was touching! Plus, I can't think of any other way they could have approached Jack Harkness NOT being Jack's real name that wouldn't have pissed us off.

And apparently Jack drinks when someone he cares for dies ::sniffle::

[thinkzinc.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I didn't spot that either!

[marcella-riddle.livejournal.com]

The last of your pictures aren't working :/