John Hart


 * You may be looking for the Royal Navy officer of the same name, or John Hartshorn.

Captain John Hart was a rogue Time Agent who travelled to Cardiff in 2008. He was an old friend and lover of Jack Harkness. Like Jack, his real name was unknown. The name 'John Hart' was an alias he made up when hearing Jack's name. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

With the Time Agency
Hart was a former partner of Jack Harkness during their time in the Time Agency, both professionally and sexually. During their time in the Agency, Hart was trapped in a two-week time loop with Jack for a period of five years; after a brief argument, Hart agreed that he had been "a good wife, too". (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) He had been in rehab for drink, drugs, sex and even murder. By the time Hart reunited with Jack, the Agency had closed.

After the Agency
In 2008, Captain John Hart appeared through the Cardiff Rift to ask for Jack's help in locating three radioactive cluster bombs, apparently scattered across Cardiff. Jack told the Torchwood 3 team Hart could not be trusted, but agreed to help him. John seized the containers, trying to kill Gwen Cooper using a paralyzing lip gloss, shooting Owen and pushing Jack off the top of a building, thinking he was dead. However, the containers, which were supposed to contain the location of an Arcadian diamond hidden by the woman he had murdered, instead contained an explosive, which latched onto the DNA signature of her killer. Using the DNA of the Torchwood 3 crew, John superficially altered his DNA. Jack and Owen were able to save John's life before forcing him back through the Rift, but not before he revealed he had found Jack's brother, Gray. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) John found Jack's younger brother Gray, who, consumed by wrath at Jack for having supposedly abandoned him, had turned against him. Gray used John as an instrument of revenge. He molecularly bonded John's vortex manipulator to the skin on John's wrist and added a Ninth Generation Detonator to it. Gray then threatened to activate the detenator if John did not comply with his plans. (TW: Exit Wounds) John planted several bombs in an abandoned warehouse and the Torchwood team detected it as having came through the rift. At first they assumed it was Weevils, but as they investigated, they found bombs which detonated with the team inside the building. The team escaped from the rubble, injured but alive. At that point, Jack's vortex manipulator started to beep, revealing John in hologram form, showing that he had Gray. John told Jack he was going to wreak havoc in his world. (TW: Fragments) Later, John lured Jack back to the Hub and killed him. With the others dealing with various aliens in Cardiff, John took Jack, who had came back to life, to 27 AD Cardiff, where he had met Gray. He was then ordered by Gray to bury Jack alive, but refused as he still loved his old friend, but Gray threatened to activate the detonator if he did not comply. Before he filled in the grave he threw a ring, which was really a tracking device, into the hole. John was then set free by Gray. He decided to go back to Torchwood and find Jack to save him, calling it a matter of honour. He was briefly imprisoned by Gray along with Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, during which time he sent out a recall signal that stopped a Weevil infestation of Cardiff. After Gray's defeat, and the subsequent deaths of Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper, Hart left the Hub. Jack offered to help pinpoint a Rift event that John could use to return to his own time, but Hart reflected that it might be interesting to explore the world and get a better feel for what Jack found so fascinating about the time period. (TW: Exit Wounds)

John Hart visited Ianto's funeral in 2009, watching from a distance and saying "Take care, Eye Candy". Some time afterwards, John ended up in Mexico, making a living, by buying and selling alien artefacts from a rift off the Gulf. There, he met Beatrice and experienced "love at first sight". However, she stole an old-model vortex manipulator and went after Ianto Jones, two years prior to his death, in an attempt to make him change the timeline. Hart teamed up with Rhys Williams, as Gwen was now a young mother, and sought out Ianto. (TM: Shrouded)

Personality
Captain John Hart was treacherous and unreliable, to such an extent that Jack Harkness had three rules when dealing with him: the first was never trust anything he said, the second was to always keep him in front of you and the third was to never let him kiss you. Hart had amazing physical strength, being able to lift a grown man in one hand and drop him off a roof. Like Jack he was omnisexual (possibly even pansexual, which would explain why, at one point, he took a sudden interest in a poodle) taking a sexual interest in both males and females. He and Jack were once lovers and, according to Jack, John was the wife in their relationship.(TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

Although Hart was selfish and treacherous, he was not heartless and genuinely cared for Captain Jack Harkness, turning against Jack's brother Gray as soon as he was freed from Gray's control. He also told Jack that he loved him and the only reason he assisted Gray was because he would get blown up if he didn't. John also felt sorry for Jack after the deaths of Toshiko and Owen.(TW: Exit Wounds)

Behind the scenes

 * James Marsters originally wanted to be in Doctor Who after catching an episode of the new series with his agent, but was cast in Torchwood instead.
 * Marsters has expressed interest in returning as Hart.