Captain Jack Harkness


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Captain Jack Harkness

Serial Code


First Transmitted


Final Ratings



Torchwood Season 1 Blu Ray



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Regular Cast

John Barrowman (Captain Jack), Eve Myles (Gwen), Burn Gorman (Owen), Naoko Mori (Toshiko), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto), Matt Rippy (The Captain [Jack Harkness]), Murray Melvin (Bilis Mager), Elen Rhys (Nancy), Nadine Beaton (Audrey), Gavin Brocker (George), Peter Sandys-Clark (Tim), Ciaran Joyce (Smiler), Melissa Moore (Singer)


Written by Catherine Tregenna
Directed by Ashley Way
Produced by Richard Stokes


“Captain Jack Harkness” is an episode in the British science fiction television series Torchwood.

While investigating an abandoned dance hall, Jack Harkness and Tosh find themselves having slipped through time and stuck in 1941, where the dance hall is being used for service personnel. Jack meets the real Captain Jack Harkness, the man whose identity Jack took after his death, which Jack learns will be the following day at a training exercise. Jack and Tosh recognize that they must find a way to open the Cardiff Rift from the present day in order to get back, and Tosh begins to work out ways of leaving the necessary equations to the rest of the Torchwood team. Jack manages to talk to Captain Harkness, and learns that the officer is attracted to him, though such demonstration in that setting and during those years, is socially unacceptable.

The two talk more, Jack asking if the Captain would like to go elsewhere, but he refuses, acknowledging that Jack has obliquely told him that his remaining time on Earth is limited.

In the present, the rest of the team come to realise Jack and Tosh are missing in time from photographs taken during the dance, and also determine that the Rift is the only way to bring them back, though Ianto believes it to be too dangerous. As they investigate the dance hall, they meet its proprietor, Bilis Manger.

Unknown to them, Bilis is also present at the dance hall at 1941 and has attempted to alter and change the messages that Tosh is leaving for the Torchwood team. After finding the Rift key that Jack placed in a clock in Bilis’ office and Tosh’s equations, Owen is prepared to take the chance to open the Rift. Ianto holds him at gunpoint to try to stop it, but Owen refuses, and proceeds to open the Rift.

As the dance in 1941 winds down, Captain Harkness invites Jack to dance with him, shocking the other partygoers. During the dance, the Rift opens. Jack says his goodbyes to the Captain, giving him a passionate kiss before he and Tosh step through the Rift. Bilis is also pulled through the rift. In the present, they are met by Gwen and return to Torchwood, where Jack and Tosh share a toast to the late Captain Jack Harkness.


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