Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness (S1, E12)

"He would have been so proud that you took his name, because here you are, saving the world."

Captain Jack Harkness (Season 1, Episode 12)

("Trapped in 1941, Jack and Toshiko meet an American squadron leader by the name of Captain Jack Harkness.")

What I Liked

* Jack and Tosh working together--a rare pairing that worked surprisingly well.

* Bilis Manger--the viewer knows he's shady from the very beginning, but it's not until the end of the episode that you understand he's manipulated the whole thing: first, sending Jack and Tosh back in time, and second, making sure Owen would use the Hub's Rift Manipulator to get them back (and, as we'll find out next ep, free Abaddon).

* The real Captain Jack Harkness. Great actor and a great kiss with "our" Captain Jack.

What I'm Not Sure About

* Captain Jack's statement to Tosh that he's seen a friend undergo torture by creatures and been unable to do anything about it--at first I thought this might be a reference to Gray, but Jack never actually saw this happen (if I correctly remember season two). Is it something that happened during one of the Doctor Who episodes? Or is it a continuity flub/unexplained event?

Commentary

By: Richard Stokes (Producer), Ashley Way (Director), John Barrowman ("Captain Jack Harkness")

Tone: Entertaining and Interesting

Interesting Bits:

* The shots of the 1940s "soldiers and sweeties" dancing had to be edited considerably because the professional dancers they hired were unrealistically good.

* The scriptwriter's brother is a mathematician and created the formulas that Tosh is trying to transmit, endeavouring to make them as theoretically consonant with time-travel as possible.

Deleted Scenes

* Jack and Tosh first arriving at the 1940s party;

* Jack talking with a soldier about the "real" Captain Jack Harkness;

* Real Captain Harkness talking to our Captain Jack about whether it was a mistake to enlist;

* Tosh getting bandaged by a soldier, who asks her if she'll write to him;

* Tosh confronting Captain Jack on the fact that he can't die.

Torchwood Declassified: "Blast From the Past"

* Talking heads about Captain Jack being enigmatic and lonely;

* Discussion of recreating 1940s glamour;

* Shots of Naoko Mori (Tosh) and an actor playing a soldier learning how to fox-trot

* Discussion of the big kiss scene