Transported back to the Blitz, Jack and Tosh find themselves facing a dark secret from Jack’s past, one he hoped and believed had been buried for good.
Length 48’13”
First Transmitted
9:30pm, 1st January 2007, BBC Three and BBC HD; 9pm, 3rd December 2007, BBC Two, both in double-bills with End of Days (combined end credits, no Next Time sequence or saga sell in the middle).
Guest Cast
Matt Rippy (The Captain [Jack Harkness]); Murray Melvin (Bilis [Mager]); Elen Rhys (Nancy); Nadine Beaton (Audrey); Gavin Brocker (George); Peter Sandys-Clark (Tim); Ciaran Joyce (Smiler); Melissa Moore (Singer)
Writer Catherine Tregenna
Director Ashley Way
Setting
Almost entirely in real-time, one afternoon in Cardiff (and, simultaneously, the night of 20th January 1941, a Monday). The episode also confirms that Out of Time finished on December 24th.
Did You Spot?
The episode has clips from Out of Time and Combat edited into the saga sell. In the opening shot a “Vote Saxon” poster can be seen – presumably the same Saxon who can be seen in a newspaper headline in Love and Monsters (2006) and who gives the orders to fire on the Racnoss ship in The Runaway Bride (2006). Early in the modern day sequences, ‘Bad Wolf’(the repeated meme in the 2005 series of Doctor Who) can be seen graffitied on a wall. Rhea Silver, the key to the code of Jack’s safe, was the mythological mother of Romulus and Remus.
Twisted Reality
As Tosh tells us, the Japanese celebrate the 88th birthday over many others – it is known as beiju or “yone-no-iwai” and became popular since the Japanese characters for “88”, when written together, resemble the character for “rice” (yone, also read as bei).
Love is in the Air
Nancy loves the real Captain Jack. Numerous characters in the 40s, fearing for their lives, get a bit fruity (two of whom attempt to with Tosh). Gwen checks out Owen after snapping at him. And who could forget, in the episode’s final moments, the most beautiful screen kiss in decades of UK television?
If it’s Alien, it’s Ours
The rift machine, perhaps.
Cymru am Byth
A bilingual street sign briefly at the episode’s start
To Live and Die in Cardiff
No deaths onscreen, but we know a large amount of the people in 1941 die the following day.
Sounds Brilliant
In 1941 we hear new recordings of classics My Melancholy Baby (1921), and (There’ll Be Blue Birds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover (1941) along with a specially written song at the end in the 40s style.
Quotables
“Where’s the SUV? Has it been stolen?” – Tosh
“No. We have.” – Jack
“That’s easy for you to say. I’m the only Asian here.” – Tosh
“Don’t worry… You’re with the Captain.” – Jack
“I was only dancing.” – George
“I think it was your fist in his face he didn’t like, not your foxtrot.” – Capt. Jack
“I know too much.” – Jack
“Then share.” – Tosh
“You wouldn’t want that. Trust me.” – Jack
“So what do I do? Tell them I saw a boy shot in the eyes mid-flight?” – Capt. Jack
“I understand.” – Jack
“Do you? Did you hear him on the radio yelling for his Mom while the Messerschmitt pumped him full of holes and blew his plane apart? All I can hear on the radio…” – Capt. Jack
“…is screams. I went to war when I was a boy. I was with my best friend. We got caught crossing the border over enemy lines. They tortured him, not me, because he was weaker. They made me watch him die. And they let me go.” – Jack
“Who are they?” – Capt.Jack
“The worst possible creatures you could imagine.” – Jack
“I thought you’d gone. This could be your last chance.” – Jack
“That’s why I came back.” – Capt. Jack
“I might have to leave before the night is over.” – Jack
“Well, make the most of now.” – Capt. Jack
“You’re just the teaboy.” – Owen
“I’m much more than that.” – Ianto
“Jack, we need to get out. Jack, you have to. We need you.” – Tosh
Weren’t You In?
Matt Rippy can be seen in episodes of Goodnight Sweetheart’(1996), Doctors (2000), Jonathan Creek (2001), Wild West (2002), Dinotopia (2002) and the relaunch of Cracker (2006) – at the time of filming, he was also involved in the 2007 production of Day of the Dead. Murray Melvin has a lengthy career, dating back to a small appearance in the 1960 film Suspect. Since then highlights include Alfie (1966), an episode of Softly, Softly (1968), one of Out of the Unknown (1969), Gulliver’s Travels (1977), Slipstream (1989), Alice in Wonderland (1999), Starhunter (2000-3) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004). The 1941 cast were, for the most part, stage actors making their first major TV appearances.
Unanswered Questions
Tosh and Jack seem to be rushing rather recklessly to the dance hall – why? Does Tosh really never go anywhere without her laptop? Why doesn’t she bring the power cord with her? Why does Bilis lead Gwen to the photo? Why does Bilis have part of the Rift machine in his office? (And for that matter, why hadn’t we heard of this machine before)? This is probably the third time Jack has been through 1941 (see also The Empty Child, where he’d been around for weeks, and also hints throughout Torchwood that he’d lived all through the 20th century after Parting of the Ways) – how does he avoid bumping into himself and why didn’t he look up the real Jack the second time around? And just who IS Bilis Mager? And how does he know so much about Torchwood? It is HIGHLY coincidental that Tosh’s two messages don’t get moved over 60 years, and that Gwen pretty much discovers them without really looking too hard (there was plenty of junk in that room, so why did she start with that small, almost concealed can?). What makes Owen think the pendulum will fit the Rift Manipulator, or even be a part of it for that matter? Was Bilis perhaps telepathically leading Gwen and Owen to these items? How does Bilis find Tosh’s first message and why does he choose to only scratch out a bit of the equation instead of destroying the message entirely? If the equation is necessary to open the rift and this is what Bilis wants, why is he trying to stop them? Was the real Jack Harkness this confused about his sexuality before meeting our Jack? Is Owen’s penchant for opening the rift solely to save Jack and Gwen, or is this another way he’s trying to destroy himself? Why does Captain Jack run away from Jack so quickly after they hold hand? He almost looks a bit disgusted, but perhaps he’s afraid of the feelings he has for Jack? Does no one else see the lift cast from the rift except Tosh and Jack? Everyone is remarkably still and no one seems to ask any questions. What is the meaning of the look on Bilis’s face after Jack and Tosh cross over?
Fuck Ups
The poster at the start reads “Saturday 20th January 1941”, although that date was a Monday. Tosh really shouldn’t have shouted “Jack we’re supposed to be blending in!” if thery were actually supposed to be blending in. Not even the real Jack asks where they were from. The shot Bilis takes of the two Jack’s and Tosh doesn’t quite seem to match up with the photo Ianto and Owen later discover. The low battery warning on Tosh’s laptop that not only covers the entire screen, but had a battery-draining voice prompt. In Everything Changes Yvonne says that Captain Jack Harkness didn’t report for duty on the morning of January 21st. Yet, according to our Jack’s story he did report in – and was shot down. Perhaps Jack altered the records in 1941, but if so why are there no further records of our Jack’s time in London as well? Sunrise in Cardiff on the date in question was 0743, not 0812. Tins with an opening like the one Tosh finds to store her message rarely have sharp edges on the outside, so unless the tin were damaged in some way that we couldn’t see because of the low light, there’s really no way it could have cut her hand. When blood coagulates it turns brown – the only way for Tosh’s blood to stay bright red over the years is if the coffee tin is free of oxygen when she seals it and/or she’s just taken a heavy dose of Heparin, an anti-coagulant (which would have then killed her as she slowly bled to death from her hand wound). Or, of course, she’s not human. Ianto manages to punch in Tosh’s equation faster than Gwen reads it out.
Torchwood: Declassifed Episode 12 (Length: 10’04”)
Broadcast BBC Three, Tuesday 2nd January, 2:40am.
John Barrowman, Matt Rippy, Julie Gardner and Naoko Mori introduce the story.
Richard Stokes, Gardner, Mori, Rippy and Russell T Davies talk about Jack’s loneliness.
Stokes, Ashley Way, Marie Doris, Keith Dunne on the beauty of the period piece and Way contrasts it with the 2006 scenes.
Footage of Carol Perry teaching the cast to dance and Gavin Brocker and Mori talking about their experiences.
Davies, Rippy, Barrowman, Catherine Treganna and Stokes on the Jacks’ romance, and Mori admits she cried during the kiss.
Site Review by Rob Tizzard
Although this story is very much stand alone, it is also as much part one of a two-part finale to the series, which is quite something. Despite the basic plot, I was glued to the screen trying to work out why and how Jack and Tosh were transported back in time. Teased by the title that we might find out some little piece about the lead character, no one was really expected that, were they?
All we are told is that there was a real Captain Jack Harkness and the character we have seen for so long now just stole his identity, now he doesn’t even have a real name. Even more important is how like this human the ersatz Jack is, so even his personality might not be real, could he even be something other than humanoid. So instead of finally getting some answers for Jack, we are just left even more puzzled.
Tosh is given more to do again, proving again what a great character she could be. Ianto also get’s a little more action for once in conflict with Owen and I know who’s side I was on. And then we have the mysterious Bilis, because that’s just what we need, another character who is clearly not what he seems. He was brilliantly brought to life and gives a chill from the moment he appears.
Although it’s clear this is mostly a set-up for a thundering final episode, as I said it stands nicely on it’s own and the last few moments are very well played. It’s an episode of mainstream TV of the like I never thought I would ever see.
Reader Reviews
Catherine Tregenna’s second script for Torchwood consolidates her position as my favourite writer thus far for the series. She weaves an interesting and intriguing tale around Captain Jack Harkness and.. well… Captain Jack Harkness! A great episode that answers a few questions that we’ve had about Captain Jack right since he was introduced in the Doctor Who episode, The Empty Child – and then goes on to pose a good few more about him. In fact, the answers we get merely prove that our preconceptions about Jack, and what has thus far been revealed about him, are not entirely accurate or reliable. As the series has developed Jack has grown and has a mystery about him that makes him a fascinating element of the series – in a way, he’s like the Doctor circa 1963 – a wanderer with great intellect and dynamism, but about whose background we can only guess at, and to whom there is considerably more than is revealed.
Adding hugely to the impact of this episode is long-time Ken Russell collaborator, Murray Melvin, chilling and enigmatic as Bilis Mager, a character that leaps out of the screen at you. A great villain – well created and played to perfection by Melvin. Matt Rippy as the Captain Jack Harkness (“the original, you might say!”) is similarly effective and well painted and John Barrowman is completely in his element by now, and delivers an impassioned performance.
The 1940s setting represents a welcome change of scene and, keeping in tune with the BBC’ s unprecedented reputation for making superb period pieces, is carried off with aplomb by the set designers and costumiers. It has to be said that it’s more than a little reminiscent of the Doctor Who story The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances – and that‘s quite as it should be.
My only reservation with Captain Jack Harkness has to be regarding the same-sex kiss between Jack and his 1941 namesake, the reaction to which by those present in the hall seemed rather anachronistic and, for that reason, unrealistic. It seemed like a 21st Century reaction, rather than a 1940s one – after all, homosexuality was outlawed in the UK until 1967. This spoiled the scene for me, and smacked of revisionism and historical liberty-taking, even if the intent of including such a scene in a television drama is an honourable one.
All in all, another fine episode of Torchwood. I’d put it in the top three of the season with Out of Time and Small Worlds.
Alan Hayes
