Captain Jack Harkness (1 Jan. 2007)

Jack and Tosh investigate when there are reports of music coming out of nowhere in an abandoned dance hall. While in the building, a temporal shift puts them in back in 1941 but they soon ... See full summary »

Director:

Ashley Way

Writers:

Russell T. Davies (creator), Catherine Tregenna

Stars:

John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
John Barrowman	...	Captain Jack Harkness
Eve Myles	...	Gwen Cooper
Burn Gorman	...	Owen Harper
Naoko Mori	...	Toshiko Sato
Gareth David-Lloyd	...	Ianto Jones
Matt Rippy	...	The Captain
Murray Melvin	...	Bilis Manger
Elen Rhys	...	Nancy
Nadine Beaton	...	Audrey
Gavin Brocker	...	George
Peter Sandys-Clarke	...	Tim
Ciaran Joyce	...	Smiler
Melissa Moore	...	Singer

Storyline

Jack and Tosh investigate when there are reports of music coming out of nowhere in an abandoned dance hall. While in the building, a temporal shift puts them in back in 1941 but they soon realize can't get back to their own time, at least not without Tosh sending those in the present day the necessary equations to make it happen. While at the dance hall, Jack runs into someone he knows, an American RAF pilot by the name of Jack Harkness. In the present day Owen, Ianto and Gwen are working to get them back. Owen wants to open the rift and try to get Diane Holmes back as well, but opening the rift could destroy the city. The dance hall manager, Bilis Manger, seems to have little trouble going back and forth in time however.

---

Plot Keywords:

kissing | dancing | kiss | man dancing with man | gay kiss

---

Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi

---

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 January 2007 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Wales, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min 50 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

As Jack and Tosh are heading down the stairs in the club, the words "Bad Wolf" (the series 1 arc keyword for Doctor Who) can be seen in the graffiti on the wall at the top of the stairs.

---

Goofs

When Captain Jack first enters the dance hall he is wearing shiny black dress shoes rather than his normal Cat boots. Did he therefore have foreknowledge that this would help him fit in better as an off-duty officer in 1941?

---

Quotes

[Jack and Tosh walk into the ballroom of the Ritz dance-hall]
Captain Jack Harkness: Wow. Look at the chandelier. No neon lights back then. Just dashing young soldiers and pretty young ladies.
[Jack grabs Toshiko and starts dancing with her]
Captain Jack Harkness: And as they dance, the girls would look into their partner's eyes, smile softly and say...
Toshiko Sato: [as Jack spins her] Jack! Mind my laptop!
Captain Jack Harkness: I was thinking more along the lines of, "and how long before you head off to war?"

---

Connections

Featured in Doctor Who Confidential: The Saxon Mystery (2007)

User Reviews

Good Acting & Dialogue on top of a Bad Plot

I do agree that the actors' performances here are quite good, and the writer did give the character's some good dialogue/development in this episode. This was such a nice emotional episode that one can easily get drawn into the human drama and overlook an otherwise feebly constructed plot -- which is great for those who don't care about details and simply love the human drama. However, if you are a science fiction fan whose suspension of disbelief "circuit" tends to trip up on poorly designed details, this episode is quite annoying. Over all, the writers abandon ingenuity in favor of using overused, contrived, and misconstrued plot-devices throughout. I will fore go giving a list of issues since such a critique is too long winded for my tastes (and they are very obvious anyway), and simply note the general critique for those of us who find this kind of issue important.