10 Times Doctor Who Gave Fans EXACTLY What They Wanted

7. Captain Jack Harkness Returns

Doctor Who Captain Jack Harkness Fugitive of the Judoon
BBC Studios

Throughout the 2010s, ask any Doctor Who fan to pick a character they wanted to see return, and there was a good chance that Captain Jack Harkness would be at the top of the list.

Despite having a consistent presence in the Whoniverse during the first few years of the 2005 revival, the cheeky Time Agent mysteriously vanished from our screens after the conclusion of Torchwood's fourth series in 2011, and despite fans clamouring for his return, the character remained MIA as the years ticked by.

This wasn't just something that everybody wanted to see either - it was also something that seemed like a natural fit for the show. Jack was still involved with Torchwood, so there was every chance he'd bump into the Doctor while investigating an alien threat. He was also known to use a vortex manipulator, meaning that he could jump around the universe - and into the Doctor's life - at will.

Presumably noticing the fan outcry, Chris Chibnall ultimately brought back Jack in the Series 12 episode Fugitive of the Judoon. His role here had little relevance to the plot, but nobody actually cared - this was nothing more than fan service, and Whovians lapped it up like a steaming hot bowl of fish fingers and custard.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!