Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Captain Jack Harkness (Doctor Who / Torchwood)

Jack has two shows to contend with, so there’s a lot of potential for Big Damn Hero moments.  Of course, given Jack’s condition post-“The Parting of the Ways,” risks of derring do don’t carry quite the same risk, so I’ve got a mix of different stuff here in the interest of variety (spoilers.)

Disposing of the Bomb (Doctor Who:  Series 1, Episode 10 – “The Doctor Dances”)

Not that this post is entirely without “Jack sacrifices himself for…” moments, because he wasn’t always immortal.  This is a nice, lowkey scene that I just love.  Jack finds himself with a German bomb on his spaceship with no way to jettison or defuse it, having agreed to dispose of it for the Doctor and Rose.  After a (very) brief freakout, he takes a breath, accepts that there’s no way out, and calmly gets himself a drink.  Now that’s style!

Staring Down Daleks (Doctor Who:  Series 1, Episode 13 – “The Parting of the Ways”)

Okay, one more “Jack sacrifices himself for…” scene, but again, it’s not so much the fact of it as it is how he does it.  Jack has been leading the charge to engage the Daleks to buy the Doctor the time he needs, and he’s now the last man standing.  Backed into a corner with multiple Daleks coming at him, he empties every weapon he has before squaring his shoulders, looking them right in the eyestalks, and throwing off a cocky rejoinder as he’s about to be exterminated.

Realizing Mary’s Game (Torchwood:  Series 1, Episode 7 – “Greeks Bearing Gifts”)

Good last-minute save from Jack here.  Mary is about to make her escape – she wants to take Tosh with her, she’s prepared to kill Gwen to do it, and no one knows what to do.  Enter Captain Jack, who’s anticipated Mary and manages to totally play her, reprogramming her own transporter to use against her.  Not bad.

Removing the Engine Clamps (Doctor Who:  Series 3, Episode 11 – “Utopia”)

The rocket to Utopia can’t take off without removing the engine clamps, but thanks to sabotage, no one can enter the room where they’re being housed and live.  Naturally, Jack volunteers.  It’s not so much the inherent danger here – although, immortal or not, spending multiple minutes in a room flooded with radiation has to suck – as it is the larger scene.  As Jack removes the clamps and presumably feels the wildly-unpleasant effects of the radiation, he confronts the Doctor about why he was left on the Game Station, and the two men have a heart-to-heart about Jack’s immortality.  I like that, regardless of how he feels about the Doctor, Jack doesn’t let him off the hook for what he did.

Confronting PhiCorp (Torchwood:  Series 4, Episode 6 – “The Middle Men”)

A fairly simple one, but I like it.  Getting a private sitdown with a powerful executive by first flirting with his secretary, then priming her for a little “Hell hath no fury” and getting her to help with a con just feels like vintage Jack, and even though he doesn’t get too much useful information out of the whole thing, I still like to watch him pull it off.