Favorite Characters: Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who / Torchwood)

 

*Disclaimer: Shortly after the Noel Clarke allegations were coming out, stories were reemerging about John Barrowman. I remember reading about some of them back when I was first getting into Doctor Who and Torchwood and, unfortunately, my reaction was the same as a lot of fans’: not exactly, “Oh John, that loveable prankster!” but not properly upset. While these allegations are obviously different than the ones against Clarke and seem to stem from a very different motivation, they still fall on the spectrum of unacceptable behavior/language/attitudes that fuel the wider landscape of rape culture. That’s not something that people should ever have to deal with in their workplace.*

 

 

Jack!  I may have some periodic issues with the good captain on Torchwood (as I do with most everything on Torchwood,) but the Jack we meet on Who is an utter delight and a fantastic addition to the series 1 TARDIS crew.  Any quibbles I have with Jack on Torchwood tend to vanish as soon as he returns to the mother show.  While I’ll touch on Torchwood a little in today’s post, it’s Who’s version of Jack that I really want to celebrate.

In hindsight, I suppose Jack fits Moffat’s cool-supporting-character template.  Like River and Vastra, he’s a techie badass with a come-hither attitude who’s comfortable with time-hopping, has an intriguing backstory (with hints of darkness) whose surface is barely scratched, and tends toward quippy dialogue and action poses.  (Come to think of it, if you take out the sci-fi bits, that fits Irene Adler pretty well, too.  Moffat definitely has a type.)  I don’t really tire of Jack on Who, though, while River and Vastra (and Irene) can sometimes be a little “too much” for me.  I’m not sure why that is.  Is it because Jack has had more writers behind him, evening out his larger-than-life edges?  Did he have the good fortune to arrive on the show before I started to experience intriguing sexy badass fatigue?  Is it because he’s male, or because Moffat’s penchant for writing these characters as female sometimes makes it feel like he only writes one kind of woman?

Whatever the reason, Jack completely works for me on Who.  A 51^st-century time agent turned conman, the Doctor and Rose meet him working a job in the middle of the London blitz.  He’s roguish, deceptively charming, and self-confident to the point of vain, and he first tries to pull a fast one over on our heroes and later willfully ignores his part in the bad stuff going down – not your typical companion, right?  However, Jack is more than he appears; his past isn’t all breezy heists and partying, and he steps up to the plate in the end.  Though Rose feels he’s earned his place on the TARDIS, the Doctor isn’t so quick to be sure.  When Jack makes the usual remark about the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, the Doctor tells him, “You’d better be.”

And really, he is.  When it comes down to it, Jack is all about life, and that’s what he brings to the show.  He’s more shoot-first than the Doctor likes, but he’s also brave and dedicated – he comes back for those left behind, and in the face of death, he squares his shoulders and orders a drink.  Traveling with the Doctor satisfies his adrenaline-junkie rush, and he throws himself wholeheartedly into his new, less destructive way of life.  He gushes over flashy alien tech, his default setting is take-charge, and he has the best “pursued by aliens while naked” stories.  His omnisexuality can be a bit of a joke (when he flashes that smile and introduces himself, you can practically hear the show saying, “Here we go again!”), but I think it’s ultimately affectionate.  Jack loves/desires/beds the same way he does everything:  with 100% commitment.

This is what I think Torchwood doesn’t get.  It’s true that, by the time we get to Torchwood, a lot more crap has happened to him, but it still feels like that show works too hard to make him a “dark brooding hero,” and the flirty cheekiness is just a perfunctory nod to continuity between angsty backstory and present-day “someone has to make the hard calls” moments.  If the show is saying that this is the natural progression of Jack’s experiences, then I’d say it’s a road it shouldn’t have gone down.  Dark brooding heroes are everywhere, and Jack is a more novel character without all that baggage, as evidenced by his reappearances on Who in series 3 and 4, which feel like returns to form and breaths of fresh air after the Drama! on Torchwood.