Owen Harper


 * For other individuals of the same name, see Harper.

Owen Harper performed medical and dissection duties for the Torchwood Three team. He had an incredibly tragic life. Moody and forthright, Harper wasn't slow to show his dissatisfaction with Jack Harkness's decisions.

Early life
Born 14th February 1980 (TW:Exit Wounds), Owen Harper had a difficult relationship with his mother, so much that on his tenth birthday his mother declared that she did not have to like him, only love him. (TW: Adam) He does not appear to have been close to his father, either, though apparently both parents were still alive at the time of Owen's death. (WEB: torchwood.org.uk)

Recruitment
In his early twenties and already a doctor, Owen was engaged to Katie Russell, who unknown to both them had an alien parasite in her brain. Though Owen did not understand this, both knew that she had a degenerative neurological condition. Before Jack Harkness arrived on the scene, the alien inside had killed the surgical team which had removed the top of her skull in surgery. Jack Harkness appeared, explained and left the scene with Katie's body, then, after which time Owen had told a disbelieved story about aliens, re-appeared and offered him a job with Torchwood Three. Owen reluctantly accepted. (TW: Fragments)



Life at Torchwood
At around age 26, Owen's personal life appeared to mostly revolve around the pursuit of casual sex, which he was happy to use alien technology to facilitate. (TW: Everything Changes) He also had an affair with Gwen Cooper. The closest he ever appeared to come to a serious relationship was with Diane Holmes, a pilot from 1953 whose aircraft the Sky Gypsy, fell through the Cardiff Rift. (TW: Out of Time)

Evidently, though, his team mate Toshiko Sato nursed a crush on him. When the alien Adam altered his personality and memories, turning him into a shy, sheltered nerd, he stumblingly declared his love for her. (TW: Adam) Though neither of them remembered the incident, Tosh eventually haltingly asked him out for a date (despite his flirting with temporary Torchwood Three agent Martha Jones) and he accepted, although circumstances would intervene and prevent this from happening. (TW: Reset)

First death
Owen was shot and killed by Aaron Copley, the director of the Pharm, who was in turn killed by Jack. (TW: Reset) Prior to his autopsy by Martha, Jack used the second resurrection gauntlet to temporarily restore Owen to life so that he could say goodbye to his friends (and, ostensibly, so Jack could obtain the passcode to the morgue). Although it was assumed that he would only regain consciousness for two minutes before dying forever (per how the first gauntlet worked), for reasons unknown Owen remained conscious, having been returned to a state of partial life. A consequence of Owen's resurrection was the manifestation of an old entity known as "Durac", which Owen vanquished. (TW: Dead Man Walking)

Although once again conscious and sentient, Owen Harper, post-death, found he had limited bodily functions. His wounds would not heal, he could not breathe (or blow air) and he couldn't sleep. He could ingest liquids and food, but he had no sense of taste and this material did not digest and needed to be removed or somehow expelled from his body; at one point, after an unsuccessful attempt at getting drunk, Owen had to stand on his head to allow gravity to drain fluids from his system. His lack of blood flow also rendered it impossible for Owen to achieve an erection. He was encouraged to maintain regular physical exercise to prevent rigor mortis from setting in (otherwise there's no indication such actions had any effect on weight or muscle condition). Apparently painful stimuli did not hurt. He injured his left hand twice by cutting it and then by deliberately breaking a finger; as these injuries did not heal, he was forced to wear a bandage/splint on the hand thereafter, which permanently limited his ability to use certain objects to the extent that he had to recruit Rhys Williams to use the singularity scalpel at one point. (TW: Dead Man Walking, A Day in the Death, Something Borrowed) Due to his inability to heal, Jack was initially hesitant to allow Owen to take part in regular operations again, and in fact was forced to demote him to "tea boy" at one point, but soon Owen was back out in the field. His lack of breathing and other bodily functions proved useful to the team, such as when he was able to circumvent a heat-based alarm system (TW: A Day in the Death) and it also on at least two occasions allowed him to avoid further damage at the hands of Rift-based creatures who found him unpalatable and confusing (TW: Something Borrowed, From Out of the Rain). Owen, being a Doctor, was distressed at being unable to perform artificial respiration on a dying man due to his inability to expel breath, though by telling his tale to a suicidal woman, he was able to prevent her from throwing herself off a building. (TW: A Day in the Death)

Owen coped with his self-pity and managed to pull himself together enough to go back to work and to carry on, which included a deepening, if somewhat strained, friendship with Toshiko. (TW: A Day in the Death)

However, Martha Jones indicated to Owen that the energy used to keep him "alive" began to dissipate after the defeat of Durac, but stated that it was impossible to predict when it would run out and "final death" would occur: she told Owen it could take anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 years. (TW: Dead Man Walking).

Owen's original response to his change of status (both in life and in Torchwood) led to him briefly alienating his colleagues, and on at least one occasion he tried to commit suicide by jumping into Cardiff Bay, though this was ineffectual (TW: A Day in the Death). To a degree, Harkness - himself accustomed to being unable to die - attempted to help Owen, but was initially rebuffed given the fact that Jack's immortality didn't prevent him from enjoying pleasures such as food and sex.

Final death
Several weeks after his death, Owen was tasked with trying to stop a nuclear reactor near Cardiff from going into meltdown during events precipitated by the arrival of Jack's brother, Gray. Being unfamiliar with nuclear reactors, Owen kept in communication with Tosh back in the Hub, who talked him through the shutdown procedure (unknown to Owen, however, Tosh had just suffered a mortal injury and Tosh tried to keep this from him). During the shutdown process, the control room was locked down, and Tosh and Owen realized the radioactive waste would be vented through the room, destroying Owen's body. Owen became defiant and angry and said he wasn't going to die quietly, which upset Toshiko, who was herself dying. After Tosh cried that he was breaking her heart, he relented and asked what was going to happen. As he was "dead" and could not feel the pain, Owen expected to watch as his body fell apart. He talked over the com with Toshiko discussing the date they had never gone on. They also discussed the fact that several years earlier Tosh had covered for him when he was hungover and unable to assist UNIT in investigating an unusual incident involving a "space pig" (DW: Aliens of London). As the reactor went critical, he appeared philosophical and reassured Tosh with the words "It's alright." A few moments later, the waste entered the room and the comm signal from Owen was snuffed out. (TW: Exit Wounds)

It is not known whether Owen's body was destroyed or if any remains were recovered. If the latter, then per Torchwood policy they would have been interred within the Torchwood Hub (per TW: Day One, They Keep Killing Suzie), and therefore possibly destroyed when the Hub was blown up (TW: Children of Earth: Day One). Owen left a resounding impression on the Torchwood staff as his photograph was still pinned up on Gwen's desktop (TW: Children of Earth: Day One) and Gwen also expressed her desire to "go out fighting, like Owen, like Tosh" when faced with a Dalek invasion of the Hub (DW: The Stolen Earth); the loss of Owen and Tosh continued to emotionally affect the survivors of Torchwood 3 for months. (BBCR: Lost Souls)

After the 456 incident, Jack revealed that he felt responsible for Owen's death, along with that of all the other Torchwood operatives who died under his command. (TW: Children of Earth: Day Five)

Other information

 * Owen Harper kept a UNIT ID card in his wallet. (TW: Ghost Machine)
 * He was Torchwood officer 565. (TW: Dead Man Walking)
 * Three of his favourite things were eating, sleeping and 'shagging'. (TW: Dead Man Walking')
 * Owen was 27 at the time of his death. (TW: Dead Man Walking)
 * Of the Torchwood 3 team in place following the death of Suzie Costello, Owen was the only one never to, in some way, meet the Doctor.