Jack Harkness (Torchwood, Doctor Who)

Name: Jack Harkness
Rang: Captain
Alter: unbekannt
Waffe/Ausrüstung: Eine Handfeuerwaffe, diverse Alienesque Waffen und Tools
Geschichte: Not much is known about the dashing, openly bisexual (or "omnisexual" as he puts it) Capt. Jack Harkness's early life. Even the name Jack Harkness is a false identity. What is known so far: He was born in the 51st century in the Boeshane peninsula. His father's name was Franklin and he had a younger brother named Gray. His father was probably killed and his brother disappeared during some sort of alien raid. Some of this may be false memory planted by an alien entity, but to what extent is unknown.

As the first from this area (Boeshane peninsula) to sign up with the time agency and an obvious heartthrob, he was nicknamed "the face of Boe," possibly indicating that he will eventually turn into the mysterious alien of the same name (whom the Doctor encounters 5 billion years in the future).

During his time in the time agency Jack was equipped with various gadgets, such as his sonic blaster and the vortex manipulator wristband he uses to "space hop" his way between times. One day whilst working for the agency, Jack woke up to find two years of his memories missing. In an attempt to seek vengeance, he leaves the time agency and became a conman, performing the "perfect self-cleaning con" on time agents. After spotting the TARDIS heading through the time vortex, Jack sends his stolen Chula "warship" (actually a medical transport) out to lure the TARDIS to 1941 London.

He spots Doctor Companion Rose Tyler dangling from a bomb barrage balloon during a Blitz air raid, and sends a tractor beam to collect her and brings her on board his ship (also Chulan). Jack's guess that Rose is a time agent is "confirmed" when she recognizes psychic paper, and he attempts to sell her the broken Chula ship. Impressed by Jack's charm and knowledge, she takes him to meet the Doctor, who she claims has the power to negotiate a deal for the war ship.

The Doctor, unimpressed by Jack, realises the con after mysterious things begin to happen with humans mutating into gas-masked creatures calling for their mummy. Once Jack's plan is revealed to be the cause of the strange happenings, Jack sets about putting it right and diverts a bomb that was about to kill the restored humans, blowing up his own ship in the process. Fortunately, Jack himself is rescued by the Doctor and joins the TARDIS crew. He accompanies the Doctor and Rose on an unseen trip to Kyoto in 1336 and a pit stop in modern-day Cardiff to capture a surviving Slitheen.

When the TARDIS crew is teleported onto satelite 5, a sadistic, reality show studio/satellite, Jack fights his way free and reunites with the Doctor and Rose, who are facing the Dalek fleet. While the Doctor and Rose construct a weapon to defeat the fleet, Jack heads up the defense of the satellite and is exterminated by an advancing Dalek. Rose, having absorbed the time vortex, restores Jack to life, but the power overwhelms her and results in Jack becoming immortal. The Doctor saves Rose from the vortex, which is consuming her, by absorbing it himself and regenerating. However, he is disturbed by Jack's immortality and abandons Jack on Satelite 5.

Captain Jack uses his vortex manipulator to "space hop" back in time. Unfortunately, it malfunctions, dropping him in the late 1800s and then burning out. Jack is forced to live through to the modern age: he fights in several wars, romances a woman named Estelle, and occasionally watches over Rose during her childhood in London. He survives being shot, burned and thrown of a cliff. In the end, he realises that what happened to him on satelite 5 must have made him immortal and that the only one that might be able to help him is the Doctor. He eventually settles along the spacetime rift in Cardiff (where he knows the Doctor must someday return to refuel the TARDIS) and establishes Torchwood three.

Jack's Torchwood teammates are unaware of his history, and his secretiveness often causes tension among them. When Gwen Cooper joins the staff, she witnesses one of Jack's resurrections and begins to unravel some of the mystery surrounding him. During Torchwood's investigations, Jack is transported once again to WWII (at least his third visit to the era), where he meets (and falls in love with) the original Capt. Harkness, from whom "our" Jack stole his name.

At some point, Jack retrieves the Doctor's severed hand, which he stores in a jar and uses as a "Doctor-detector." In the final episode of the first series of Torchwood, this is seen flashing and Jack leaves to rejoin the Doctor. The Doctor attempts to leave Jack behind again, and accidentally pilots the TARDIS to the end of the universe, where the two men and new companion Martha encounter the Master. The Doctor explains the events on the satelite 5, but admits that he cannot reverse Jack's immortality.

Jack returns to the present day with Martha and the Doctor, and is taken prisoner by the Master for a year. During this time, he misses his team and realises that he will have to return to commanding Torchwood. He departs the TARDIS this time on good terms with the Doctor and Martha.