Doctor Who Spin-Off Review: ‘The Lives of Captain Jack’ (Audio)
By James Aggas
John Barrowman stars in the new audio series ‘The Lives of Captain Jack’. (Credit: Big Finish)
Only a character as awesome as Captain Jack Harkness would get not just one but two spin-off series. So what makes new audio box set The Lives of Captain Jack so different to Torchwood?
Well, for one thing, the stories are much more focused on Jack himself. While Torchwood was in some ways his own spin-off series, it was also very much an ensemble piece. Episodes would tend to focus more on particular characters some weeks than on others. This is especially true of Big Finish’s current monthly range of Torchwood audios.
Unsurprisingly, Captain Jack is entirely the main focus on this new spin-off. A series that focused entirely on one character all the time would usually be risky. But Jack’s had an interesting life, and this series takes full advantage of that.
Instead of four linked episodes set over a relatively short time frame, you have four stand-alone stories taking place at different points in Jack’s life. All of them away from Torchwood, and they use a great deal of mythology established in Doctor Who.
Which brings me to my second point. The Lives of Captain Jack is definitely a lot closer in tone and feel to Doctor Who than Torchwood. This is mostly because of the mythology it explores. Hints of mythology that were established in Who about Captain Jack are more heavily explored here than they could be in Torchwood.
It’s also distinctly less gritty and, dare I say, less “adult” than Torchwood. These are stories taking place across all of time and space, which gives us a wider viewpoint of Jack’s life.
Credit: Big Finish
The Year After I Died
The series begins one year after the series 1 finale of Doctor Who, The Parting of the Ways. Earth is still recovering from the last Dalek invasion. Many survivors are desperate and hungry. Worse, there are monsters out there who are all too willing to take advantage of that desperation. The survivors of Earth need a hero. But Jack is far too reluctant to become one of those ever again…
I really liked how this box set kicked off with a big, post-apocalyptic thriller. Especially one with close ties to such a major story of the New Series. The Earth was devastated in The Parting of the Ways, but we didn’t get to see that at all on-screen. While technically, we don’t get to “see” it here, we definitely get to experience it close up. There is a real atmosphere of desperation and darkness to this story, which I really liked.
My favourite part? How it explored Jack. Jack is a very different man to the one we know both from Doctor Who and Torchwood. As the story unfolds, we get to see why. It’s clear that the events of The Parting of the Ways had a huge impact on him. It’s going to take something big to push him into becoming the man he once was. More than that: into someone even better.
The Year After I Died is a really great opening for this new series. A nice mixture of dark and gritty future sci-fi with some major character development, this is a nice introduction into what stories The Lives of Captain Jack can tell that Torchwood can’t.
Credit: Big Finish
Wednesdays for Beginners
Captain Jack Harkness and Jackie Tyler. Jack and Jackie. Two classic characters of the Russell T. Davies era meeting up for the first time. That alone is worth the price of the whole box set!
Better still, it’s almost entirely a two-hander, so Wednesdays for Beginners is absolutely full of great dialogue between them. It’s a neat little setup, too. The story is able to feature the Powell Estate while only featuring these two characters, and also makes sure to include a good little sci-fi story, to boot.
It’s strange to think how two very different people close to both the Doctor and Rose meet for the first time in this episode. What I enjoyed about it was how it explored their very different viewpoints. Jack’s pretty much used to future tech and dealing with aliens by this point.
In some ways, Jackie also has experience of those things, but she’s still very much a woman of the 21st century. She has never been off the planet Earth, and she’s not planning on changing that any time soon.
It’s also nice to explore their personal lives, too. Jackie is, as ever, worrying about her daughter’s safety. She does get to learn more from Jack at least, which gives us a very sweet moment.
As for Jack, well, he’s still waiting for the Doctor at this point. He’s been waiting a long time, and we all know that he’s going to be waiting just a little while longer. But it’s nice to get a good glimpse of his life during this time, especially as he gets to meet such a great character like Jackie.
Credit: Big Finish
One Enchanted Evening
Towards the end of The End of Time, the Tenth Doctor briefly visited all of his old friends before he regenerated. One such visit involved briefly seeing Jack and introducing him to Alonso, one of the survivors from the earlier special Voyage of the Damned.
One Enchanted Evening begins directly afterwards and follows Jack and Alonso on what should’ve been a nice, romantic encounter for both of them. Instead, it becomes just another very bad night.
This is a nice, big science-fiction romp of an episode. The monster in this story is pretty black-and-white in how evil they are, which is kind of refreshing. Jack’s more used to dealing with matters with more shades of grey, so it’s almost good for him to fight against an out-and-out baddie, as it were.
Like the other episodes of this set, the main science-fiction plot is really just a way of exploring its main characters. What I really appreciated was the way this was done. It’s made clear that Jack is in a really bad place right now, but not why that specifically is. So while fans who have seen Torchwood: Children of Earth get a nice bonus from the story, it’s not essential to watch to enjoy this episode.
Interestingly, for someone who only had two appearances in the TV series, Alonso gets some rich character exploration, as well. It’s been some time since Voyage of the Damned, and he’s been living with a lot of survivor’s guilt. The fact that One Enchanted Evening has echoes of that TV story without being a repeat of it is a nice touch.
Overall, it was nice exploring both of these characters at a bad point in their lives, and John Barrowman and Russell Tovey both give great performances. I don’t ship their characters as much as Jack and Ianto in Torchwood, but they do make a great pairing.
Credit: Big Finish
Month 25
This episode is probably my favourite of the whole set. Ironically, it’s not technically a story about Captain Jack Harkness.
Month 25 takes place some time before he meets the Ninth Doctor in The Empty Child. In fact, he hasn’t even taken up the alias of “Captain Jack Harkness”, yet. At this point, he’s still working for the Time Agency, and he’s one of their best agents. (At least, that’s what he likes to believe.) But everything changes when he finds out how old he really is…
I absolutely loved this story for giving us the rarest glimpse of Jack yet: who he was before he met the Doctor. We love Jack now because he’s someone who’s heroic, daring, and is always willing to do the right thing. But that’s because he met the Doctor, and as we all know, meeting the Doctor can really affect someone’s life.
Nothing highlights this more than hearing young Jack in this episode. At this point, he’s arrogant, reckless and selfish. He has none of the self-doubt or caution that he will gain in later years. He also has none of the heroism or sense of justice. All he’s interested in is having fun and getting paid. It’s certainly a very different look at the character, and it’s a very welcome one.
I also loved the story of this episode. We heard – surprisingly briefly – that Jack had lost two years of his memories when he worked for the Time Agency, all the way back in The Doctor Dances. It’s funny to think that this little mystery was never touched upon again in the TV series. (Then again, Jack’s life did become a lot more complicated after he met the Doctor.) The Ninth Doctor comics have touched upon this, at least, but it’s really great to hear Jack’s immediate reaction to finding out what he’s lost.
Serving as a reminder to how much Jack has developed as a character, while still presenting a great conspiracy thriller, Month 25 is a real highlight of a great set.
Final Thoughts
This series is a really great exploration of one of Doctor Who’s most memorable characters. All the stories in this set are of a very high quality, and John Barrowman gives a consistently brilliant performance throughout. Allowing a bit of variety by exploring Jack at different points in his life was a stroke of genius.
The Lives of Captain Jack is more than just a brilliant tribute to its title character, though. By focusing heavily on characters and storylines from the first four series of modern Who, it’s also a very worthy tribute to the Russell T. Davies era, too. Even the stories match the tone of his era just right. If you’re a fan of either the Captain or of Russell, then this box set is an essential purchase.
Next: Doctor Who Review: The Monk Arc