Doctor Who: The brilliance of Captain Jack Harkness

Thirteen years after his first appearance, and Captain Jack Harkness is still a character who stands out in a big way. Not just in Doctor Who, but in TV and films in general. We look at why.

I was re-listening to an episode from the fifth season of Torchwood, (specifically, Changes Everything,) enjoying one of Captain Jack Harkness’s witty moments, when something suddenly struck me: how incredibly unique a character like Jack really is. It may sound silly, but for a huge fan who’s so used to his character, it’s almost so easy to take the character for granted. Not just in Torchwood or Doctor Who, but in general.

Last week was Bisexual+ Awareness Week. Which sadly I didn’t learn until Bi Visibility Day on Sunday. Perhaps I would have written this article up sooner, but then again, it didn’t even occur to me to write this article even then.

But it’s only now, listening to Torchwood and being reminded of last week, that something occurred to me: how incredibly unique Captain Jack is. It’s over thirteen years since his first appearance, and yet he still stands out as a character to an incredibly huge extent. And that is partially due to his sexuality. But not solely because of it.

LGBTQ+ representation: how not to do it

These days, we’re used to being told by writers or creators that characters are queer, without actually doing anything to show that. Whether it’s Lando Calrissian in Star Wars or Dumbledore in Harry Potter, a lot of characters are only labelled as queer without anything to show for it. Even the highly controversial “gay moment” in last year’s Beauty and the Beast turned out to be a man dancing with another man.

Looking at these examples, it’s really no wonder that the term “queerbaiting” exists. It’s almost like filmmakers, showrunners and writers want to show support to the community, without actually doing anything about it.

Which is why Doctor Who genuinely stands out. There have been many instances of including many LGBTQ+ characters in the show. Some of these would be admittedly small, but at least explicit.

Other times, these are more significant. Just last year, Doctor Who had its first openly homosexual companion with Bill. And while the handling of the character and her sexuality felt a little heavy-handed at times, it was at least a genuine effort by Moffat at making an important character explicitly gay.

Captain Jack Harkness is a character who stands out for a variety of reasons. His sexuality, while important, is only one of them.

(Image credit: Torchwood/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Torchwood website.)

Why Captain Jack stands out

But despite this, Captain Jack Harkness still stands out so much more. For one thing, his sexuality was not only open, but was naturally written, too. A moment that clearly established this was just his second episode, The Doctor Dances, when he decided to “distract the guard” instead of Rose.

It’s a small moment, but it also stands out at making his sexuality very clear. Particularly with the Doctor’s speech afterwards about how “flexible” Jack is when it comes to “dancing”.

But even better than that: Jack’s just a fantastic character in his own right. Yes, he flirts with every gender/species, at the very least. We’ve seen his history of relationships with men and women.

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But we also see him as a leader, as a soldier, as a man trying to do the right thing but not getting it right. He’s a very flawed and very well-written character.

And this last part is important. When it comes to representation, it’s not enough to just show a character’s sexuality clearly. It’s especially not enough to just claim that they’re queer without actually doing anything to express that. What everyone – and I mean everyone wants – are well-written characters, too.

With Captain Jack Harkness, Russell T Davies was able to do both. He gave us a major character that was openly pansexual, a huge thing not just for the LGBTQ+ community, but especially for the bisexual community, where visibility is a major issue. But Davies also gave us a character who’s still greatly loved and quite possibly one of the best Doctor Who characters from the New Series.

Over thirteen years since his first appearance, and Jack still stands out in the TV landscape as a brilliantly written character that just happens to be explicitly pansexual. It’s no wonder that he still remains as a fan favorite.

Next. Reviews are in Jodie Whittaker’s first episode, but what’s the consensus?. dark

Do you agree on how much Captain Jack stands out as a character? What is your favorite story with the leader of Torchwood? Let us know in the comments below.

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