Doctor Who: Should Captain Jack have returned during Steven Moffat’s era?

After more than a decade, Captain Jack Harkness has returned to Doctor Who! But should he have come back sooner? We don’t think so.

Fugitive of the Judoon was a Doctor Who episode with some major surprises. One that particularly stood out was the return of an old friend: Captain Jack Harkness, once again played by John Barrowman!

This is the first time that Barrowman’s appeared in Doctor Who since David Tennant’s final episode, The End of Time: Part 2. That was over ten years ago, on New Year’s Day 2010. Unsurprisingly, fans are extremely enthusiastic about his return, and we’re certainly happy to see him back.

The same is true for John Barrowman, too. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he explains why the character hasn’t returned sooner.

"Well, as much as I would have loved to, I knew it wouldn’t probably have happened because it’s entirely up to the showrunner at that moment and that showrunner was…um…um…gosh, what was his name?"

He is, of course, referring to Steven Moffat. Barrowman’s attitude towards him is unsurprising. He’s claimed in the past – both subtly and not so subtly – that Moffat has been preventing the return of Torchwood. A claim that Moffat has completely denied. So perhaps Barrowman thinks that the former showrunner should have brought Captain Jack back sooner. But the big question is: did Moffat really need to?

Moffat’s own era

Yes, there’s no question that Captain Jack Harkness proved to be one of the more popular companions of the New Series. But it’s also clear that Moffat wanted to focus on creating popular characters and storylines of his own.

Just as Russell T Davies chose to focus more on creating new companions and new storylines rather than bringing back too much from the past, Moffat did the same with his era. That’s not to say that major characters or races weren’t brought back during either showrunner’s run. But they also had to keep the show moving forward, too.

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And Moffat gave himself a lot to work with during his run. Along with regular companions Amy, Rory, Clara, Bill and Nardole, his era also included many major allies and foes, including the Paternoster Gang, the new UNIT team, Missy, Madame Kovarian, the Silence and, last but not least, River Song. With so much to focus on, it’s no wonder that Captain Jack wasn’t brought back sooner.

I won’t deny that it’s great to see Jack again. A lot of fans are happy to see him return, and it’s easy to see why. But Doctor Who is so much bigger than Jack. There are so many other wonderful characters easily as brilliant as Jack who haven’t and more than likely won’t be coming back. And that’s OK. Chris Chibnall needs to create an era of his own. While I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Jack eventually, there are many new stories and foes that we can look forward to before then.

What do you think? Do you think Captain Jack should have returned sooner? Or do you think that Moffat was right to focus on his own characters more? Let us know in the comments below.