Theory:Timeline - Jack Harkness

This page lists appearances of Captain Jack Harkness in the order he experienced them. This timeline is based upon observations of the Doctor Who universe and the events that occur during each of these stories. From these observations we have attempted to build a concise timeline. It is assumed that for each novel, comic, audio or television series, their published, broadcast or numbered order is the order they occur in.

Limiting factors
Any story with the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler must be after TV: The Doctor Dances and before TV: Bad Wolf. Any story with Jack waiting on 19th and 20th century Earth must be after TV: The Parting of the Ways and before TV: Everything Changes. Any story with Gwen, Ianto, Owen and Tosh must be after TV: Everything Changes and before TV: End of Days or after TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and before TV: Exit Wounds. Any story where Owen is dead, but still mobile must be set after TV: Dead Man Walking and before TV: Exit Wounds. Any story where Gwen is married to Rhys must be after TV: Something Borrowed. Any story with Gwen and Ianto must be after TV: Exit Wounds and before TV: Children of Earth: Day One.

Overview
Captain Jack Harkness was briefly an original to Doctor Who television companion of the Ninth Doctor, travelling with him through time and space. After being trapped with a broken vortex manipulator in 1869, with few opportunities to time travel over the next century, he later joins Torchwood Three, though the majority of his stories told are set after Gwen Cooper's recruitment to Torchwood in 2007 in the premiere episode of Torchwood, with remaining stories or scenes set before then occurring in flashback.

His adventures with 21st century Torchwood Three and the related Torchwood team in America that was formed after the destruction of the Hub can be categorised as these original to Torchwood television lineups:


 * With Gwen, Owen, Ianto and Tosh in Torchwood Three
 * With Gwen and Ianto in Torchwood Three
 * With Gwen, Ianto and associate Rhys Williams following the Torchwood Hub's destruction
 * With Gwen, Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond as part of a new team codenamed Torchwood

Childhood

 * TV: Adam (flashback on the Boeshane Peninsula)
 * Jack is a child on his homeworld.


 * Javic Piotr Thane is rescued from an orphanage in the Boeshane Peninsula by River Song, who teaches him that the monsters will never catch him so long as he keeps running. (AUDIO: R&J)

The Time Agency

 * AUDIO: Month 25
 * Javic Piotr Thanw is working as a Time Agent.


 * Javic investigates a time disturbances in 15th century England. He finds that River Song is posing as Elizabeth I and together they fight android duplicates. Upon his return to the Time Agency, Javic finds that River is there posing as is new boss. She calls him "Jack Harkness", a name which he decidedly likes before wiping his memory with Hallucinogenic lipstick. (AUDIO: R&J)


 * Jack Harkness is stationed in London during World War II. He recognises River faintly from their previous encounters. They fight vortex wraiths together before River uses her hallucinogenic lipstick on him once again. (AUDIO: R&J)


 * TV: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances
 * Jack joins the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler.

Companion of the Doctor

 * PROSE: The Deviant Strain
 * PROSE: Only Human
 * Takes place before Boom Town due to Jack mentioning he has not visited the Ninth Doctor's companion Rose Tyler's era (the 21st century).


 * COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction
 * Set immediately after The Doctor Dances.


 * COMIC: Hacked
 * COMIC: Doctormania
 * COMIC: The Transformed
 * COMIC: Official Secrets
 * Tara Mishra joins the TARDIS.


 * COMIC: Slaver's Song
 * Jack stays behind.


 * COMIC: Secret Agent Man
 * The Doctor finds Jack.


 * COMIC: The Bidding War
 * Tara stays behind to help on 54th century Nomicae.


 * COMIC: The Lost Dimension
 * The Doctor sends Jack to pick up Tara.


 * The Doctor Jack and Rose eat Kronkburgers together. Jack stops River Song from assassinating the Doctor. (AUDIO: R&J)


 * TV: Boom Town
 * With Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen regressed back into an egg, the Doctor intends to take her to a hatchery on Raxacoricofallapatorius.


 * Set during Boom Town. Jack is trying to rewrite the extrapolator while Rose and Mickey are out together and the Doctor isn’t taking Margaret to dinner. He is visited in the TARDIS by River Song whom he last met when she tried to kill the Doctor. She quickly leaves after the earthquake begins. (AUDIO: R&J)


 * PROSE: The Stealers of Dreams
 * Rose phones her mother Jackie and tells her about the events of Boom Town


 * AUDIO: Night of the Whisper
 * Rose has visited Raxacoricofallapatorius, setting this after Boom Town.
 * In Bad Wolf, the Doctor recalls that they went straight from Raxacoriofallapatorius to Kyoto in 1336. To reconcile this with the preceeding stories, the TARDIS must have visited Raxacoriofallapatorius a second time.


 * COMIC: Return of the Volsci
 * Set immediately before Bad Wolf, with the TARDIS team visiting Kyoto, Japan in 1336.


 * TV: Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways
 * Jack is left behind on Satellite 5.


 * AUDIO: The Year After I Died

Association with Torchwood

 * AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack
 * TV: Fragments (flashback with Alice and Emily)
 * Set in the late 19th century. Jack joins Torchwood. He is informed by the girl that he will ultimately meet the Doctor again, but only after the century turns twice.


 * AUDIO: The Victorian Age
 * Set on 17 May 1899.


 * PROSE: Consequences: The Baby Farmers
 * Features Alice and Emily after Jack joined their team.


 * TV: Small Worlds (flashback)
 * Set in 1909.


 * TV: Immortal Sins (flashback)
 * Set in 1927 and 1928.


 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Four (flashback)
 * COMIC: Time Fraud (comic story)
 * Set in 1965.


 * TV: Fragments (Alex Hopkins flashback)
 * Set on the night of 31 December 1999.


 * AUDIO: Piece of Mind
 * Jack has spent one hundred years waiting for the Doctor and is now at the point where he is actively searching for him, suggesting an early 21st century placement. He has met River Song. Jack recalls having been to the Red Dragon Centre, which was named in the real world in the year 2000.

Leader of Torchwood Three

 * TV: Fragments (Toshiko Sato flashback)
 * TV: Fragments (Owen Harper flashback)
 * Set over the course of the late 20th and early 21st century before Gwen Cooper is recruited to Torchwood Three


 * AUDIO: Wednesdays For Beginners
 * Set in 2005 while Rose Tyler is travelling with the Ninth Doctor.


 * AUDIO: Crush
 * Jack has visited Jackie Tyler several times since the events of Wednesdays for Beginners. He takes her into space for the first time.


 * Jack stops by the Powell Estate to visit Jackie, but finds River Song already there. (AUDIO: R&J)


 * TV: Everything Changes
 * Gwen is recruited.


 * TV: Day One
 * Gwen's first day on the job.


 * TV: Ghost Machine
 * Gwen is still inexperienced with weapons.


 * PROSE: Another Life
 * PROSE: Border Princess
 * PROSE: Slow Decay
 * TV: Cyberwoman
 * TV: Small Worlds
 * TV: Countrycide
 * Several references are made to the events of Cyberwoman.


 * TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts
 * AUDIO: Broken
 * Takes place during the events of Cyberwoman, Small Worlds, Countrycide, and Greeks Bearing Gifts.


 * TV: They Keep Killing Suzie
 * Set three months after Everything Changes.


 * TV: Random Shoes
 * TV: Out of Time
 * TV: Combat
 * Owen is visibly upset by the events of Out of Time in this story. He calls off his affair with Gwen.


 * TV: Captain Jack Harkness
 * TV: End of Days
 * Continues where Captain Jack Harkness left off. Jack disappears from Torchwood.

The Year That Never Was

 * TV: Utopia


 * TV: The Sound of Drums


 * PROSE: The Story of Martha
 * Set during the events of Last of the Time Lords.


 * River visits Jack during his incarceration aboard the valiant. She provides him with a means to escape so he can join Martha in her final stand against the Master. (AUDIO: R&J)


 * TV: Last of the Time Lords

Return to Torchwood Three

 * TV: Kiss, Kiss, Bang Bang
 * Gwen has started taking charge more in Jack's absence, in comparison to Captain Jack Harkness, where Owen was said to be second-in-command. Gwen is now engaged to Rhys.


 * AUDIO: The Conspiracy
 * Jack has left Torchwood before. Fall to Earth suggests that the events of Cyberwoman are still quite recent.


 * AUDIO: Uncanny Valley
 * Jack is still on his mission to learn more about the Committee.


 * COMIC: The Legacy of Torchwood One!
 * TV: Sleeper
 * Torchwood deals with an attack by Cell 114, and are made aware that other sleeper agents are on Earth.


 * AUDIO: Serenity
 * Set after Sleeper, Jack and Ianto spend a period of some weeks undercover to destroy the last of Cell 114.


 * TV: To the Last Man
 * PROSE: Something in the Water
 * TV: Adam
 * PROSE: Trace Memory
 * PROSE: The Twilight Streets
 * COMIC: Jetsam
 * PROSE: Harm's Way
 * COMIC: Rift War!
 * PROSE: Black Water
 * TV: Reset
 * TV: Dead Man Walking
 * Continues where Reset left off. Owen is resurrected, but with no lifesigns.


 * TV: A Day in the Death
 * Set three days after Reset.


 * PROSE: Pack Animals
 * TV: Something Borrowed
 * PROSE: SkyPoint
 * TV: From Out of the Rain
 * TV: Adrift
 * TV: Fragments
 * TV: Exit Wounds
 * Continues where Fragments left off. Owen and Tosh die.


 * AUDIO: Lost Souls
 * Martha meets Jack for the first time since Owen and Tosh's funeral.


 * PROSE: Almost Perfect
 * TV: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End
 * PROSE: Into the Silence
 * PROSE: Bay of the Dead
 * PROSE: The House That Jack Built
 * PROSE: Risk Assessment
 * PROSE: The Undertaker's Gift
 * PROSE: Consequences: The Wrong Hands
 * PROSE: Consequences: Virus
 * AUDIO: Asylum
 * AUDIO: Golden Age
 * AUDIO: The Dead Line
 * PROSE: Consequences: Consequences
 * AUDIO: The Devil and Miss Carew
 * AUDIO: Submission
 * TV: Children of Earth: Day One
 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Two
 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Three
 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Four
 * TV: Children of Earth: Day Five
 * COMIC: Shrouded
 * AUDIO: The House of the Dead
 * Shrouded and The House of the Dead are set in the six-month gap at the end of Children of Earth: Day Five. Shrouded takes place at Ianto's funeral after Ianto dies in Day Four. Jack leaves Earth at the end of Children of Earth: Day Five. Days One through Five flow into one another.

Time away from Earth

 * AUDIO: What Have I Done?
 * Set during World War I. Jack knows that the war will end soon.


 * Immediately after the events of What Have I Done?, Jack is visited by River Song in Gallipoli. He confirms that he came to Gallipoli to do some good after the recent death of a very close friend. He also laments the loss of any family he makes. (AUDIO: R&J)


 * TV: The End of Time


 * AUDIO: One Enchanted Evening

Battling the Three Families

 * TV: The New World
 * Jack returns to Earth.


 * TV: Rendition
 * Jack and Gwen are taken to America.


 * TV: Dead of Night
 * TV: Escape to LA
 * TV: The Categories of Life
 * TV: The Middle Men
 * TV: Immortal Sins
 * TV: End of the Road
 * Jack and Gwen return to the UK, along with Esther after End of the Road. The New World through End of the Road flow into one another.


 * TV: The Gathering
 * Takes place a few months after End of the Road.


 * TV: The Blood Line
 * Continues where The Gathering left off.

Working alone

 * AUDIO: Red Skies
 * AUDIO: Mr Invincible
 * PROSE: Exodus Code
 * COMIC: The Choice
 * Jack, wearing his Torchwood "World War II" coat, is kidnapped by Adam Mitchell among companions of the Doctor but is soon freed by Frobisher. Leads into Endgame.


 * COMIC: Endgame
 * The first eleven Doctors rescue their companions from Adam and.


 * AUDIO: Forgotten Lives
 * Gwen and Rhys have not seen Jack for five years.


 * COMIC: Cindy, Cleo and the Magic Sketchbook
 * Set in November 2016. Ending leads directly into Arena of Fear.


 * COMIC: Arena of Fear

A new Torchwood

 * AUDIO: Changes Everything
 * Having been "dumped" by the crew of the Ice Maiden, Jack has returned to duty at Torchwood Cardiff.


 * AUDIO: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy
 * AUDIO: Orr
 * AUDIO: Superiority Complex
 * AUDIO: Love Rat
 * AUDIO: A Kill to a View
 * AUDIO: Zero Hour
 * AUDIO: The Empty Hand
 * AUDIO: Poker Face
 * AUDIO: Tagged
 * AUDIO: Escape Room
 * AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn
 * AUDIO: Future Pain
 * AUDIO: The Man Who Destroyed Torchwood
 * AUDIO: See No Evil
 * AUDIO: Night Watch

The Future

 * TV: Fugitive of the Judoon
 * Jack meets Team TARDIS and learns that the Doctor is now a woman. Promising that he will see the Doctor when she needs him, he passes a warning regarding the Lone Cyberman.


 * AUDIO: Mighty and Despair

Unplaced

 * PROSE: First Born (flashback)
 * PROSE: Long Time Dead (flashback)
 * PROSE: Mrs Acres
 * PROSE: The Beauty of Our Weapons
 * PROSE: Plant Life
 * PROSE: Monster
 * PROSE: The Book of Jahi
 * COMIC: Captain Jack and the Selkie
 * PROSE: Who by Fire
 * PROSE: Gordian
 * COMIC: Broken
 * COMIC: Fated to Pretend


 * PROSE: Best Friends
 * AUDIO: Hidden
 * AUDIO: Everyone Says Hello
 * AUDIO: In the Shadows
 * AUDIO: The Sin Eaters
 * AUDIO: Department X
 * AUDIO: Ghost Train
 * TV: Web of Lies
 * COMIC: The Return of the Vostok (comic story)
 * COMIC: Escape to Penhaxico (comic story)
 * COMIC: The Birthday Boy (comic story) (illusion)
 * COMIC: Prisoners of Time (comic story)
 * AUDIO: The Green Life
 * Jack is aware of Rose's fate which he was made aware of in Utopia, setting this after Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang at the earliest.


 * AUDIO: Driving Miss Wells
 * Set at least after Journey's End. UNIT and Torchwood are still running.


 * COMIC: Overture
 * AUDIO: Peach Blossom Heights