Jack Harkness


 * This article is about the 51st century con man known as Captain Jack Harkness. For other uses of Jack Harkness, see Captain Jack Harkness (disambiguation)


 * '"Captian Jack Harkness, and who are you!"

Captain Jack Harkness (sometimes simply "Captain Jack" to those close to him, or as the Doctor refers to him Captain), was the name adopted by a con man from the 51st century and an associate of the Doctor. His original identity remains a mystery, whenever asked he refuses to answer. Reluctantly immortal and stranded on early 21st century Earth, he headed Torchwood 3.

Biography

 * Given his frequent time travelling, much of Jack's personal chronology remains confused. However, we can say with some certainty that certain events happened to Jack before he met the Doctor, and others afterwards. However, we cannot necessarily regard everything Jack says as accurate.

Youth
Jack was brought up on the Boeshane Peninsula, in a sandy beach-like area. He often played with his brother Gray and his father. They played cricket and sang around campfires. Then one day an alien race invaded his homeland and killed many of the inhabitants. Jack was told by his father to run away with Gray while he went back for Jack's mother. Jack accidentally let go of Gray's hand while running. He returned to his home hoping to find him, but all he found was his dead father. Jack claims it was the worst day of his life. He spent many years searching for his brother, but never found him. (TW:  Adam)

Escapades
Originally, Jack used a different name, though we do not know what it was. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness). He grew up sometime around the year 5000, an era differing attitudes to sex to those prevalent in the 21st century. Humans had begun to expand outwards to explore the universe, and, meeting other species, often pursued sexual relationships with them, regardless of differences of gender or species. (DW: The Doctor Dances) Although human stereotypes of "bisexuality" and "homosexuality" have been applied to Jack (i.e. Owen Harper once indicated to Gwen Cooper that Jack was "gay" (TW: Day One)), the most accurate term for Jack would be "pansexual" or "omnisexual".

As a young man, he persuaded a friend to "join up" with them to fight against some unspecified enemies that Jack did not describe or name — other than to call them "horrible", though it seems plausible that they are the same race that invaded Jack's home. Considering Jack's friend to be the weaker of the pair, the enemies tortured him as a lesson for Jack. Jack bore the guilt of his friend's fate. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

Once, when sentenced to death, he ordered four hypervodkas as a last meal and ended up bedding both executioners (at the same time). (DW: The Doctor Dances)

He also had a memorable experience once on a hunting expedition. (DW: Boom Town)

As a Time Agent
Jack Harkness worked as a Time Agent until he discovered that the Agency had erased two years of his memory, two years he wanted to have back. (DW:The Empty Child)

He had a friend called John Hart who also worked as a time agent. At some point, he spent five years trapped in a two-week time loop with John Hart, with the two becoming the equivalent of a married couple after spending so much time together (Hart eventually conceded that he was "a good wife", which closed the argument about which of them was the wife). (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

As a Con Man
Having left the Time Agency, Jack became a time-travelling con artist, performing various scams using his knowledge of future events, such as demanding money for items that he knew would be destroyed before the buyer could see it. He assumed the alias of an American volunteer Captain Jack Harkness, serving as a volunteer in the 133 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. (DW: The Empty Child)

The "real" Jack Harkness had died in action in January 1941. The impostor knew very little about the "real" Jack, other than basic information, such as the former's date and manner of death. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

First meeting with the Doctor
Jack worked as a con man, finding pieces of space junk and directing them to soon-to-be disaster sites, selling them to passers by, and letting them get destroyed before the buyers could pick up their merchandise. He would, at some point, acquire a sleek, small Chula spacecraft, fitted for human use, which could turn invisible.

In 1941, while pulling a con with a Chula Ambulance during the London Blitz, he spotted Rose Tyler hanging from a barrage balloon and rescued her, taking her aboard his Chula ship. Quickly deducing that Rose came from the future, he suspected that other Time Agents had discovered him. (DW: The Empty Child). Shortly after, Rose introduced him to the Ninth Doctor. Together, the trio worked to stop the Empty Child plague brought about by the Ambulance's nanogenes. Although he was almost killed carrying in his ship a German bomb about to explode, the Doctor and Rose rescued him just before the ship exploded. (DW: The Doctor Dances) He accompanied them on their subsequent adventures.

Working with the Doctor
Captain Jack Harkness is one of the very few people that have worked on the TARDIS itself and to have helped the doctor pilot the TARDIS. In the "Parting of Ways" at the beginning and in "Boom Town" he is seen fixing the ship while the Doctor is giving Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen her last meal. The reason for this could be because Jack is a Time Agent, and so has more understanding then most people, but not near the Time Lord level of knowledge.

Abandonment
Jack was aboard Satellite 5 when the Dalek fleet launched their assault on Earth and was exterminated while defending the satellite from their advance. He was resurrected by Rose Tyler, who at that time had the powers of the Time Vortex which turned her into the Bad Wolf. Returned to life, after coming back from the timeless dark nothingness, between the Pre-Universe and this one. Jack discovered he was now immortal, although he was unable to rejoin the Doctor and Rose before the Doctor's TARDIS departed, and was left stranded on the satellite. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) The Doctor, who had just regenerated, believed that Jack could begin the process of "rebuilding the Earth". (DW: Children in Need Special) The Doctor's instincts told him to run because from this point on Jack became a "fixed point" in time. (DW: Utopia)

Arrival in the 19th century
After Jack was left on Satellite 5, he employed the Vortex Manipulator in his Time Agency wrist strap to go back to Cardiff, the location of an active space-time rift. Jack ended up in 1869, and unfortunatly his Vortex Manipulator burned out and he was unable to leave (it was later repaired by the Doctor but disabled twice by him afterwards) (DW: Utopia)


 * Coincidentally or not, the Doctor had first encountered the Cardiff rift in that year. (DW: The Unquiet Dead):

He hung around the city, knowing that the TARDIS could re-fuel itself using the rift and that the Doctor would one day return there. (TW: Fragments)

Jack's second death and resurrection occurred when he was shot in 1892 during a fight on Ellis Island. (DW: Utopia) Jack would find that he still aged, but very slowly, could recover from any injury and from death itself, given a few minutes time. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)

In 1898 he helped save a boy, Anthony, from a Lawphorum, which had fallen to Earth. Anthony, a travelling stage show boy, had failed to predict the future of Jack when he asked him how he would die. (Best Friends) Probably he decided to take up this idea and so he joined a traveling show and was billed as "the man who couldn't die" in order to investigate the Night Travellers. (TW: From Out of the Rain)

In 1899, Torchwood Cardiff agents Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd found out about Jack's immortality and about the Doctor. They captured Jack and tortured him trying to discover why he couldn't die and what connection he had to Torchwood's enemy, the Doctor, who Jack had mentioned in conversation. He was released on the condition that he worked for them. On his first mission he had to go stop a criminal Blowfish, which he returned to the Hub only to see it killed by a shot to the head. He refused to do any more missions, but found himself persuaded to take them up their offer. (TW: Fragments)

In Lahore in 1909, a week after some of his troops had drunkenly run over a little girl. While on a train, the rest of his men died, their mouths filled with leaves, and he realized that the young girl was a Chosen One. (TW: Small Worlds)


 * Whether Jack fought in World War I during this time, or whether he had already remains unknown, though he did seem absent from Gerald Carter's Torchwood 3 during that time.

Prior to February 1944, he met Estelle Cole. (torchwood.org.uk) The pair spent some time in London together. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Somehow, however, this never happened, and they lost touch with one another. (TW: Small Worlds)

20th century
He continued working for Torchwood for about a hundred years, still pursuing his attempt to find the Doctor in the meantime. (TW: Fragments)


 * Jack's long involvement with Torchwood overlaps the Doctor's involvement with UNIT, supporting the notion that Jack may have played a role in Torchwood not becoming involved in the Doctor's UNIT exploits; this is supported by his comment in Utopia about waiting for the right incarnation of the Doctor to come along, suggesting observation of earlier incarnations.

Jack became leader on New Year's Day 2000 when the then-current leader, Alex Hopkins, knowing Jack couldn't die, shot to the death the rest of the team, before committing suicide himself. That left Jack as Torchwood 3's leader and only member. (TW: Fragments)



Recruitment of the new team
Jack recruited Toshiko Sato in either 2003 (TW: Fragments) or 2005 (TW:Greeks Bearing Gifts), and Owen Harper was recruited approximately a fortnight before the events of Aliens of London (TW:Fragments). At some stage, Suzie Costello, his second-in-command joined the team. (TW: Fragments).

Jack's activities at the time of the Blaidd Drwg incident in Cardiff - which involved Jack's younger, non-immortal self - are unknown, even though it is known that he was in charge of Torchwood 3 and based mere feet from the TARDIS' arrival at the time. (DW: Boom Town)

After the destruction of Torchwood 1 in the Battle of Canary Wharf, Jack still continued to run Torchwood 3. With Torchwood 1 gone and Torchwood 4 having "gotten lost", Jack ran Torchwood 3 with more or less complete freedom and decided to run it according to the ideals he thought the Doctor represented. (DW: The Sound of Drums) He took in Ianto Jones, after some heavy persuasion by Ianto himself. (TW: Fragments)

Jack, though, held on to the hope of re-establishing contact with the Doctor, whom he believed could help him. He kept the Doctor's hand (which he had lost, but re-grown on Christmas Day, 2006) in a portable hyperbaric chamber in Torchwood 3's nerve center, the Hub. (TW: Everything Changes-TW: End of Days)

Lastly, after his second-in-command Suzie Costello got exposed as a serial murderer and shot herself, he took in Police Constable Gwen Cooper (TW: Everything Changes)

He revealed very little of himself or his origins to his team, even when pursuing a flirtatious relationship with Gwen Cooper (TW: Ghost Machine) and a more physical one with Ianto Jones. (TW: They Keep Killing Suzie) Although he rarely confided in his team, preferring to keep his past secret - Gwen was the first person to learn about his immortality - he nevertheless often showed great compassion for them and other innocents who got caught up in Torchwood's missions (TW: Out of Time), even as he demonstrated a far more ruthless side in dispatching the team's enemies than the Doctor might have exercised (TW: Countrycide). Transported back to 1941 by the Cardiff rift, Jack met his namesake, the original Jack Harkness, and briefly romanced him, before returning to the 21st century. (TW: Captain Jack Harkness)

After the Cardiff rift was finally opened by Owen Harper, Jack was forced to confront Abaddon, released from the rift by Bilis Manger. Abbadon was destroyed while attempting to leech Jack's life, though the exertion Jack remained dead for three days, his immortality apparently unable to save him. He was brought back to life by a kiss from Gwen. (TW: End of Days) Minutes after his resurrection, Jack noticed the Doctor's hand begin to glow. The sound of the TARDIS materialising was heard inside the Hub. By the time the rest of the Torchwood team arrived to investigate the sound, Jack had gone. (TW: End of Days)

Reunion with the Doctor
Seeing the TARDIS, he grabbed on to the outside as it was dematerialising. The TARDIS tried to shake him off, throwing the Doctor, Martha Jones and Jack into the year 100 trillion. (DW: Utopia)

When he arrived in the year 100 trillion, he appeared dead, but, just as Martha was attempting to revive him, he awoke, gasping for breath. Jack, The Doctor and Martha saw a man being chased by the Futurekind. They went to a base where the last humans were hiding from the Futurekind. He brought the Doctor's Hand with him, describing it as a 'Doctor detector', and he met the Professor Yana. Jack helped to launch the ship by entering a chamber flooded with Stet radiation, and fixing the power canisters (the radiation would have killed a normal human). When Yana was discovered to be The Master, he took the Doctor's hand and went back in time to the 21st century. Jack, the Doctor and Martha returned to the 21st century using his Vortex Manipulator (which had burned out when he traveled to 1869 but was repaired by the Doctor) to escape from the Futurekind. He revealed to the Doctor that he was recruited in Torchwood 3 when he returned to Earth following the Battle of the Game Station. The Doctor was appalled at this; Jack stated that the old Torchwood had been destroyed at Canary Wharf. After the battle had ended, he had taken over and rebuilt Torchwood anew, in the Doctor's name. Soon after this explanation, Jack was arrested onboard the Valiant by Mr. Saxon, (the Master) along with the Doctor and Martha. He gave his Vortex Manipulator to Martha allowing her to escape by teleporting to Earth instead of trying to escape himself. After being imprisoned within the Valiant for one year, he managed to release himself (perhaps with the help of the Doctors temporary superpowers or was unbound and just guarded) and destroyed the Master's Paradox Machine with a machine gun. The Master tried to escape in the confusion, but a returning Jack caught him as he attempted to get away. He witnessed the (apparently) final death of the Master. Afterwards he decided to return to Torchwood and the Doctor disabled his Vortex Manipulator once again.

Coming back to Torchwood 3
After being onboard the Valiant with The Doctor and The Master for a year of an erased time line, Jack returned to Torchwood and the Team. Surprisingly for the Team, Jack arrives just in the nick of time to save a woman's life by killing a blowfish-like alien. The Team wondered where he had been, although he refused to explain himself, besides making a reference to his previous adventure with The Doctor. While this took place, there was some Rift activity and his old friend Captain John Hart from the Time Agency appeared in Cardiff. Jack tracked him to a bar, where they reunited with a passionate kiss, followed by a lengthy bar brawl. Soon after they got talking about their past lives. He told Jack that there were three alien 'radiation bombs' nearby, and the team split up and searched for them. Captain John was teamed up with Gwen. Hart disabled the team one-by-one after conning them into finding the pieces, which formed a triangular ring, to slot around a pyramid hologram device being carried by the blowfish alien. John Hart's ex-girlfriend appeared in the hologram, and claimed that the device would attach a DNA-seeking high-explosive onto whoever killed her. Hart subsequently handcuffed himself to Gwen with deadlock sealed cuffs and he raced to the rift, while Jack and Owen concocted a means of confusing the bombs DNA scanner, arriving just in time to save Hart's life, throwing the bomb into the rift. The resultant explosion caused all of the events prior to Hart's arrival to reset to before he arrived. Hart asked for a place on the team but Jack callously declined, telling him to leave. As Hart faded through the rift he mentioned to Jack that he knew where Gray was. A shocked Jack claims that the statement meant nothing. (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)

After Jack met Martha Jones when fighting the Master, he invited her onto the team for a few days. He asked her to investigate the Pharm, a medical organization that could cure diseases that were incurable. He ordered Toshiko to close it down. But the Pharm manager shot Owen Harper and then Jack shot him. Martha stayed for a few more days and he put her in charge as Medical officer. (TW: Reset) Jack found the other resurrection glove and resurrected Owen Harper. It worked but Jack had released an extradimensional alien, the embodiment of death, Durac. Owen saved the day by not giving his soul to Death and survived. (TW: Dead Man Walking)

Jack met his younger brother Gray again when John Hart came back and bombed a warehouse to kill all members of the Torchwood 3 team. This failed and Jack found a message from John on his Vortex Manipulator. Only to find that Gray and him were going to blow up Cardiff. (TW: Fragments) Jack discovered John was being manipulated by Gray who had him molecularly bonded to an explosive device, vengefully forcing John to bury Jack in the land that would become Cardiff in AD 27. Gray, insane, had blamed Jack for the unspeakable tortures he underwent in his capture, and wanted Jack to experience a similar neverending pain. Stuck in a cycle of death and resurrection, Jack is discovered by Alice Guppy and Charles Gaskell of the Torchwood of 1901, who he demands cryopreserve him until the present day. Jack awakes again to encounter Gray, forgiving him of his trespasses despite Gray's own unwillingness to absolve Jack. Jack chloroforms and cryopreserves Gray, refusing to kill him, but the damage had already been done, as Gray had been responsible for the deaths of Owen Harper and Toshiko Sato. Jack and John part ways on better terms, with John travelling the world in the 21st century and Torchwood Three reduced to Jack, Ianto and Gwen. {TW: Exit Wounds)

Up until the warehousing bombing, Jack had been "killed" 1,392 times. An exact count of his deaths as of the defeat of Gray is virtually impossible to calculate given the thousands of years he spent dying and resurrecting between AD 27 and 1901.

On September the 9th, Martha phoned Jack for help with the Particle Collider in Switzerland. He, Ianto and Gwen flew there, met up with Martha, and investigated 12 accidents, and found a creature that fed on neutrons. It convinced Oliver Harrington by pretending that it was the voice of his dead wife Marie,that everyone who it killed would be brought back to life.

The Medusa Cascade
An undisclosed amount of time later, the Earth was relocated by the Daleks to the Medusa Cascade. Initially, Jack was powerless to do anything but listen to the threatening Dalek communications and await the inevitable extermination of his friends (if not himself). Soon, however, he found himself involved in a secret communications network involving former prime minister Harriet Jones, Martha Jones, Sarah Jane Smith, and, ultimately, Donna Noble and the Doctor. After getting vital information from Martha that allowed him to reactivate his vortex manipulator, Jack teleported near to where the Doctor and Rose Tyler's reunion was interrupted by the Doctor being shot by a Dalek. (DW: The Stolen Earth) Subsequently, after the Doctor's regeneration aborted, Jack boarded The Crucible and surrendered to the Dalek forces. In order to infiltrate the vessel, he attempted to shoot the Supreme Dalek and was "exterminated". He subsequently burrowed into the Crucible and linked up with Sarah Jane Smith (to whom he expressed admiration), Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler. Using Sarah Jane's Warp star, he attempted to bluff the Daleks into calling off the detonation of the reality bomb but was ultimately transported to Davros' chamber instead. Later, after the Daleks were defeated by the "DoctorDonna", he helped pilot the TARDIS as it returned the Earth to its original location. Afterwards, he was last seen offering Martha Jones a position with Torchwood, and soon after was joined by Mickey - but not before the Doctor re-deactivated his vortex manipulator. (DW: Journey's End)

Future as the Face of Boe?
Jack has mentioned that in his childhood home, the Boeshane Peninsula, as result of being the first one ever (whether of the Peninsula or of the Time Agency generally remains unclear) he had been a poster boy and so was nicknamed the Face of Boe. (DW: Last of the Time Lords) Jack had previously mentioned that he did know of the "real" Face of Boe. (TDA: The Stealers of Dreams)

Whether this would make Jack the actual future Face of Boe remains unknown. This would explain how the Face of Boe had foreknowledge of the Doctor and of the true identity of Professor Yana. If Jack does become the Face of Boe, then he is destined to die in the year 5,000,000,053 (DW: Gridlock). However if Jack's existence, as he was in "Parting of the Ways", indeed has been fixed in time then he could not die at all (the Doctor seemed to believe this to be case as he suggested Jack might find himself, as he was then, in the shelter on Malcassairo), and thus he could not be the Face of Boe as he would not age.

Jack's resurrections can be delayed under unique circumstances, such as giving his lifeforce to feed Abaddon to death suggesting that if Boe is indeed Jack then he may not have truly died. The reason is that The Face of Boe in Gridlock had been giving his lifeforce for a solid 53 years, which would mean that Boe could be "dead" for years before he revives. Another theory is that Jack can only die of old age, as that appears to be the only method he has not experienced. It is also possible that the Doctor mistook "impossible to permanently kill under nearly all circumstances" with "immortal," as the two might "feel" the same to the Doctor's time sense. ''However if this were true this would mean Jack's ageing process has been slowed dramatically as he is now over two thousand years old, with most of that time having elapsed since Rose resurrected him, which is far beyond the lifespan of an ordinary human yet has not aged significantly. Also this ignores the Doctor stating that Jack's current state of existence has been locked in time and space, and thus the Doctor finds it hard to look at him and the TARDIS reacts violently to him clutching on.''

Another possible indication of Boe being separate from future incarnations of Jack Harkness is Boe's supposed age. It is stated the he has existed since the Dark Ages, suggesting that in the future Jack may be somehow lost or willingly travels into the past and evolves into Boe, or 'The Dark Ages' could be reference to the current time, and referred to as that by the future inhabitants of Earth, or New Earth

Donna's World
If Donna Noble had turned right, instead of left, stopping herself from ever meeting and saving the Doctor. Jack would have lost fellow Torchwood members, Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, who sacrificed their lives to save the Earth from the Sontarans' plan involving Atmos and would have been transported to Sontar, the Sontaran homeworld. (DW: Turn Left). The fate of this version of Jack is unknown.

Special items
When Rose and the Doctor first met him, Jack owned a own small Chula Warship, fitted for human use, as well as psychic paper and a store of nanogenes in the ship. When saving the Doctor and Rose by carrying a German bomb a safe distance away from London, the bomb explodes inside the ship, but luckily, the Doctor and Rose saved him. (DW: The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances)

Weapons
In contrast to The Doctor, Jack Harkness was far more willing to use weapons, and was capable of modifying equipment to that end. Jack owned a sonic blaster in the Doctor Who episode, 'The Doctor Dances'. (DW: The Doctor Dances) He also managed to store a Compact Laser Deluxe away somewhere "you really don't wanna know"', in case of emergencies. (DW: Bad Wolf). During his travels with the Doctor, he modified the Defabricator, to be capable of destroying a Dalek. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) As the leader of Torchwood 3, Jack liked to carry a World War II Webley. (TW: Everything Changes onward).

Special abilities
Since his resurrection by the Bad Wolf entity (DW: The Parting of the Ways), Jack can "die" and come back to life almost instantly (TW: Everything Changes onwards). So far he has "died" of a gunshot to the head (TW: Everything Changes, TW: End of Days) and multiple electrocutions (TW: Cyberwoman). In some circumstances, such as when in a scrape with a Weevil (TW: Combat) or pterodactyl (TW: Fragments), Jack heals of all wounds incurred instantly, but he does not necessarily heal from such minor injuries as a bloody lip (TW: Cyberwoman). Jack's confrontation with Abaddon forced him as close he could come to true death. (TW: End of Days) Jack views this power as a curse as much as a blessing, as each time he has died he has not experienced anything at all, good or bad, (TW: Everything Changes) although the process of resurrection is described as like being "hauled over broken glass" (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang).

Like other men in the 51st century, Jack possesses evolved human pheromones which make him naturally nice-smelling and attractive to others. (TW: Fragments)

Tosh could not use Mary's telepathy pendant to read his thoughts, although he could project thoughts to Tosh if he so chose, with Tosh apparently saying how it was like reading a dead man, and Jack confirming that he knew someone was trying to read his mind. But it could just be Jack showcasing some kind of psychic defence.(TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts)


 * Notes: DW: Army of Ghosts established Torchwood members receive at least basic psychic training, which is verified on the Torchwoood website which discusses developing telepathic 'defences' (torchwood.org.uk). The Face of Boe possessed powerful telepathic abilities; it may be that he expanded his psychic ability after he transformed or that his larger brain size and different physiology made his ability more powerful. Another theory is that because Jack has died so many times he is Owen's opposite, meaning that Jack is alive while being "dead" [and you can not read a dead person's mind] and Owen is dead while being "alive" [which means you can not take his life]. Alternatively, the Doctor suggested that Gwyneth's psychic powers (TW: The Unquiet Dead) may have come from growing up near the Rift (an idea first mentioned in (DW: Image of the Fendahl); it is possible that Jack's psychic powers increased after spending so many years in Cardiff waiting for the Doctor's return.  If so, it is also possible that Jack's abilities also increased during the two millennia that he spent buried in Cardiff.

Multiple Jacks
As stated above due to large amounts of time travel Jack's chronology is slightly tricky but what we do know is that during the second world war there were at least five men by the name Jack Harkness.

The first is an American soldier born Jack Harkness, the namesake of Torchwood's Jack (TW: Captain Jack Harkness) who died during WW2 prior to the "The Empty Child". Immediately after this, a former Time Agent from the future arrives in the 1940s and assumes the alias Jack Harkness before meeting the Doctor and joining him as a companion. During this period, he briefly visits Cardiff where he also simultaneously exists at least two other points in his personal history. After parting ways with the Doctor, Jack returns to 1899 Cardiff and lives as an immortal until the present day, once time travelling and meeting his namesake making their four Jacks in this period. Sometime after this, Jack is also taken back in time 2000 years and buried in Cardiff, in a cycle of death and resurrection until reawakening in 1901 after which he is placed in cryogenic suspension until 2009; this Jack is therefore present (if unconscious) in Cardiff during all the 20th/early 21st century events involving his earlier selves and the original Harkness.

Romantic interests
As an extremely long-lived man, Jack has had many lovers, both male and female and not all strictly human. By nature, Jack flirts with nearly everyone he meets. This is in contrast to the long-lived time travelling Doctor who rarely romantically involves himself. The earliest we can trace is his Time Agency partner Captain John Hart (TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), but Jack has also recalled lovers from his Time Agency days, such as his would-be executioners (a couple) and a boyfriend with no mouth. Some time after this while stationed in London in World War II, he carried on a serious relationship with Estelle Cole (TW: Small Worlds) but seemingly disappeared out of her life forever one day (possibly DW: The Doctor Dances), and around this time he also had an affair with a soldier named Algy. While travelling at their side, Jack appeared to develop romantic feelings for Rose Tyler and the Ninth Doctor (DW: The Parting of the Ways).

While stranded on Earth between 1869 and 2007, Jack alludes to countless romances. He is known to have dated real life notables Christopher Isherwood (TW: Reset) and Marcel Proust (TW: Dead Man Walking) and developed a relationship a Torchwood coworker named Greg Bishop (TWN: The Twilight Streets). Other mentions include acrobatic twins and the possibility of a relationships with other coworkers and acquaintances. During this period Jack also became married, but outlived his wife (TW: Something Borrowed). In the late 1960's, Jack met and had a brief relationship with involuntary time-traveller Michael Bellini (TWN:Trace Memory). Later, Jack recruits Gwen Cooper to whom he is romantically drawn, and Ianto Jones with whom he develops a physical and later, romantic relationship. Despite these burgeoning relationships, Jack meets the real Captain Jack Harkness after time travelling back in time and the two develop a romantic bond, culminating in a kiss upon their pained fairwell (TW: Captain Jack Harkness). Jack also meets and is attracted to Martha Jones, the handsome Tenth Doctor and even fleetingly to the female insectoid alien Chantho and a human male refugee (DW: Utopia).

Unrecorded adventures

 * As indicated above, Jack has worked for Torchwood since the late 19th century; to date only a handful of his missions prior to the recruitment of Gwen Cooper are known (TW: From Out of the Rain, Fragments)


 * Jack once quipped about the time he got pregnant, a memorable experience, though not necessarily in a good way. (TW: Everything Changes)
 * Although he states at the time that he is never going to become pregnant again, reference to the Face of Boe giving birth suggest that he will be forced to have more children eventually. (DW: The Long Game)


 * Jack has direct or indirect knowledge of the Cybermen of our universe. (TW: Cyberwoman) In a Captain Jack's Monster Files episode, Jack shows detailed knowledge of both types of Cybermen and even states that he "knows what will happen" in the Cyber-Wars of the future. (CJMF: Cyberman)


 * In 1909, while working for an unknown employer, he stole diamonds from a mine in Lahore. (torchwood.org.uk) One of his soldiers ended up accidentally killing a Chosen One, as a result of which, fairies killed every one of the men except Jack. (TW: Small Worlds)


 * The fairies spared Jack, for unknown reasons, perhaps because, having already gained immortality by then, he couldn't die. It is also possible that he was spared simply because he wasn't with them at the time they ran over the Chosen One.


 * In the early 20th century, Jack pursued a serious relationship with Estelle Cole. They had wanted to spend the rest of their lives together, but it never happened. Estelle never found out about Jack's life as a space-time traveler. (TW: Small Worlds)


 * Jack related to a captive that he had experience in torturing prisoners, and that, "a long time ago", he had "quite a reputation as the go-to guy" in the event of needing to force information out of a person. (TW: Countrycide)


 * Given that he wanted to frighten a prisoner into divulging information at the time, he may have lied or stretched the truth. However, given the treatment of Jack's friend at the hand of his torturers, Jack may well have sought revenge against their enemy in this way—and it is not known what skills his job as a Time Agent required him to develop and utilise. The Torchwood 3 team do not seem to know of any such past. This, combined with his displayed disgust against Torchwood's methods (TW: Fragments) might give more credence to the possibility that he lied, but, taking into account the secrecy with which Jack surrounds himself, it is more likely that he simply did not want to show that side of his personality to them, or preferred to keep such talents to himself until necessary.


 * He once worked for an employer named Victor, who surprised "his" staff by coming out as a male-to-female transsexual. (TW: Greeks Bearing Gifts)


 * Jack once had a boyfriend with no mouth. (TW: Fragments)


 * Jack implied that he was present at the extinction of the dinosaurs, and said that he had eaten Pterodactyl, stating that: "...there was nothing else around after the meteor hit". (TW: Fragments) The meteor was in fact a space freighter destroyed in a failed Cybermen gambit to change Earth history; the Doctor viewed the event and his companion, Adric, died aboard the vessel. (DW: Earthshock)


 * At some point, and over an unknown period of time, Jack makes a number of top secret video recordings providing information on the various alien races encountered by planet Earth. The timing of these recordings and why they were made, remains unknown. (Captain Jack's Monster Files)
 * The canonicity of the Captain Jack's Monster Files recordings, some of which appear to show Jack in the Torchwood 3 hub, is not confirmed.


 * Although not necessarily "adventures" per se, Jack has made references to having romantic relationships with several notable 20th Century humans, including Christopher Isherwood (TW: Reset) and Marcel Proust (TW: Dead Man Walking).

Key life events

 * Jack's home planet is invaded by an unidentified race of aliens, resulting in his father being killed and his brother vanishing, leaving only him and his mother. (TW: Adam)


 * Jack enters the military with a friend, who also joins, at Jack's urging. The friend undergoes torture by their foe.


 * Jack works for the Time Agency until, finding two years of memory gone (DW: The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances), leaves the Agency and met with another Time Agent, John Hart around this time. (TW: ''Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)


 * Jack has two years of memories stolen by the Time Agency, and leaving them behind escapes to begin a new career as a time travelling con man. (DW: The Empty Child)


 * Jack joins up with the Doctor and Rose Tyler. (DW: The Doctor Dances)


 * Jack is killed by a Dalek aboard Satellite Five.


 * Rose Tyler resurrected him using the power of the Time Vortex and made him immortal. The Doctor subsequently left him behind on Satellite Five. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)


 * Transported to Earth in 1869 using his Vortex Manipulator he used as a Time Agent. The Manipulator burnt out after this journey and forced Jack to live through the 19th and 20th centuries (DW: Utopia), and he is blackmailed into working the Torchwood Institute as a freelancer, but continues for over a century in hopes of locating the Doctor (TW: Fragments).


 * After the death of his entire Cardiff team in the year 2000, he takes over Torchwood 3 (TW: Fragments). Over the next couple years, he recruits Suzie Costello, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper.


 * Jack Harkness re-unites with the regenerated Doctor. (DW: Utopia)


 * During the Year that Never Was, he undergoes multiple deaths and resurrections by the Master. (DW: The Sound of Drums).


 * The Master defeated, Jack re-joins Torchwood 3. (DW: Last of the Time Lords, TW: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)


 * Jack is transported to 27 AD where he is buried alive by his brother Gray and is not found until 1901 where he is cryopreserved until he can reawaken in 2009, forced to cryopreserve Gray and mourn the losses of Toshiko and Owen (TW: Exit Wounds).


 * Jack and the Torchwood 3 help the Doctor and his allies defend the Earth against the Daleks. (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

Behind the Scenes

 * Jack Harkness' first name was originally "Jax", in Russell T. Davies's original production outline. In this Jack's proper name was Jax, and he was using the Jack alias as a cover in World War II. The name was later abandoned due to its similarity to other names in the wider Doctor Who Universe.
 * Davies has said he got the surname "Harkness" from Agatha Harkness, a recurring character from the Fantastic Four comic book.
 * John Barrowman revealed that Jack does sleep, and that he has a bed located down a ladder underneath a manhole cover near his office. (Revealed on The Friday Night Project, a late-night talk show.)
 * Jack Harkness has the distinction of being the first ongoing character in the televised Doctor Who universe to be definitely confirmed as being non-heterosexual (although, as described above, it is not strictly correct to refer to him as homo- or bisexual, either, more omnisexual). However, in the expanded Doctor Who universe he is far from the first, as Third Doctor-era recurring character Mike Yates was "outed" as gay in Happy Endings. The Doctor Who Magazine Eighth Doctor comics have featured Fey Truscott-Sade and the Doctor's companion Izzy Sinclair came out as a lesbian in Oblivion.