10 Doctor Who Companions Who Just Couldn't Stay Away
7. Captain Jack Harkness
Played by John Barrowman First appearance: The Empty Child (2005) Last appearance: Torchwood - Miracle Day (2011) The name's Captain Jack Harkness, note the stripes. When this titillating former Time Agent first appeared in Doctor Who, nobody could have imagined that John Barrowman would go on to become such an all-encompassing force within its far-reaching universe. And on television in general, really. Reared on the sandy plains of the Boeshane Peninsula in the 51st century, Jack grew up to become an active member of the Time Agency before discovering they had stolen two years of his memory. He subsequently reinvented himself as a time travelling con artist and first came across the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler when they unknowingly became caught up in one of his most ambitious scams in London in 1941. It was to be this fateful encounter with the TARDIS team that ultimately showed Jack the error of his ways and, with his own spaceship facing imminent self-destruction, he subsequently stepped aboard the police box to put his skills and bravery to better use as a coveted Defender of the Universe. And this is where it starts to gets complicated, kids. In the epic two-part Series 1 finale, Jack was killed - properly killed, completely dead, written off, nada - by the dreaded Daleks before being triumphantly resurrected by Rose who had stumbled upon the elusive power of controlling life and death after absorbing the energies of the time vortex. Jack subsequently found himself abandoned and alone in the year 200,000 but managed to use his ever reliable vortex manipulator to return to Cardiff in 1869 where he was forced to embark on a long and harrowing wait to be reunited with his beloved Doctor. Oh, he was also immortal by this point, too. Just 'cause. Amongst his string of countless deaths (he really did just get ridicuously careless at one point), he signed up to Cardiff's branch of Torchwood, eventually becoming its leader, in the hope that the Doctor would one day return to refuel the TARDIS on the city's time rift. He had plenty of time and a never ending abundance of extraterrestrial Earth invaders to kill. Centuries later, the day he'd been waiting for eventually arrived in Series 3's Utopia when Jack came face to face with the new face of his old friend (are you keeping up?) who finally gave him some well deserved answers. After aiding the Doctor and Martha Jones in their fight against the malevolent Master, Jack returned to the other side - the other side in this case being BBC Two, for the continuing adventures of his own spin off, Torchwood - before making another grand return to the mothership - the mothership in this case being the parent show, Doctor Who - for the epic Series 4 finale in 2008. As mentioned, Jack's shenanigans - 'shenanigans' being the operative word there - away from the Doctor have been heavily documented throughout Torchwood's impressive run, but he has always been on hand to assist the Time Lord, too, sometimes bringing the Doctor's handy spare hand along with him. In The End of Time, though, and with his latest regeneration looming, the Tenth Doctor took it upon himself to help Jack out for a change, by tracking him down to an intergalactic bar and pointing him in the direction of Midshipman Frame. Of course, viewers of Torchwood's third series, Children of Earth, knew that Jack was in a pretty bad place at this point, having just sacrificed his own grandson, which in turn lost him the love and respect of his daughter, and being forced to part with the true love of his never ending life. Wow, pretty heavy stuff, man. As such, a little pick me up was just what he needed. "Going my way?" he asked Alonso. Aw. Still a better love story than Twilight. Of course, Jack was next seen in Torchwood's fourth series, Miracle Day, back in 2011, which proved to be somewhat turbulent both on and off screen, so the less said about that, the better. If you want more of John Barrowman's face though, you can always check him out in his latest pantomime, or, alternatively, tune in to any TV channel ever and he's bound to pop up on it eventually. Haters gonna hate.
Dan Butler is the Doctor Who Editor at WhatCulture.com. When he isn't writing his own articles or editing other people's, he can be found trawling the internet for gifs of Steven Moffat laughing. Contact him via dan.butler@whatculture.co.uk.
Centuries later, the day he'd been waiting for eventually arrived in Series 3's Utopia when Jack came face to face with the new face of his old friend (are you keeping up?) who finally gave him some well deserved answers. After aiding the Doctor and Martha Jones in their fight against the malevolent Master, Jack returned to the other side - the other side in this case being BBC Two, for the continuing adventures of his own spin off, Torchwood - before making another grand return to the mothership - the mothership in this case being the parent show, Doctor Who - for the epic Series 4 finale in 2008. As mentioned, Jack's shenanigans - 'shenanigans' being the operative word there - away from the Doctor have been heavily documented throughout Torchwood's impressive run, but he has always been on hand to assist the Time Lord, too, sometimes bringing the Doctor's handy spare hand along with him. In The End of Time, though, and with his latest regeneration looming, the Tenth Doctor took it upon himself to help Jack out for a change, by tracking him down to an intergalactic bar and pointing him in the direction of Midshipman Frame. Of course, viewers of Torchwood's third series, Children of Earth, knew that Jack was in a pretty bad place at this point, having just sacrificed his own grandson, which in turn lost him the love and respect of his daughter, and being forced to part with the true love of his never ending life. Wow, pretty heavy stuff, man. As such, a little pick me up was just what he needed. "Going my way?" he asked Alonso. Aw. Still a better love story than Twilight. Of course, Jack was next seen in Torchwood's fourth series, Miracle Day, back in 2011, which proved to be somewhat turbulent both on and off screen, so the less said about that, the better. If you want more of John Barrowman's face though, you can always check him out in his latest pantomime, or, alternatively, tune in to any TV channel ever and he's bound to pop up on it eventually. Haters gonna hate.