Doctor Who review: The Lives of Captain Jack – Driving Miss Wells explores a briefly seen character

Former newsreader Trinity Wells has seen a lot of strange things. But her life is about to get even stranger when she meets her new driver, in the final episode of Doctor Who spin-off box set The Lives of Captain Jack: Volume Two.

The last episode of The Lives of Captain Jack: Volume Two focuses on Trinity Wells – one of very few characters to have appeared in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. If you don’t recognize the name, don’t worry – while she made quite a few appearances, especially during Russell T Davies’s era as showrunner, she was a rather minor character. Remember the American newsreader that kept briefly showing up? That’s her.

It’s definitely intriguing to explore such a minor character in a deep way. Especially when that character is sharing a story with Captain Jack. But in this instance, Jack is rather restrained in his manner, due to being undercover as Wells’s driver. Oh, don’t get me wrong – he still stands out far more than a driver should do. It is Jack, after all. But he’s also keen to help Miss Wells in any way possible.

As a result, Driving Miss Wells is essentially about two things: Trinity Wells herself, and her relationship with her strange driver. How does writer James Goss handle this story?

Expanding on a minor character

Goss’s story references the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who in a lot of ways, which is unsurprising. During her many but brief appearances in the series, Trinity Wells had to report on a lot of weird events. From spaceships crashing into landmarks to walking fat, Wells has seen it all. So naturally, she doesn’t believe any of it.

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It’s interesting to explore how the many adventures of the Doctor, Torchwood and Sarah Jane would impact the life of such a minor character. Wells has grown extremely cynical of it all, and while that seems hard to believe at first, the character makes the strong point that everything always seems to go back to normal afterwards. However, when Captain Jack becomes her driver, she’s slowly starts to change her mind – in more ways than one…

Putting Captain Jack in the role of a quiet yet helpful driver is an interesting choice. But it also works. Especially as Jack, while at least being occasionally helpful, isn’t always so good at showing restraint. But seeing him try gives us some great moments with both him and Wells, and shows us another different side to him. Certainly, it’s different compared to what we got in the previous two episodes.

Overall, Driving Miss Wells is an effective way of rounding off this box set. Not as fun or quirky as Piece of Mind but not as dark or gritty as What Have I Done?, Driving Miss Wells gives us a great exploration of a previously minor character, and another glimpse of Captain Jack’s many lives.

Which Doctor Who character do you think should be explored in more detail? Let us know in the comments below.