Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Captain Jack Harkness
6. Rose Tyler Helped Cover Up His Return
Captain Jack's long-awaited return in the 2020 episode Fugitive of the Judoon was an incredible bit of misdirection from Chris Chibnall and the Doctor Who team.
By hyping the episode as one not to miss, they made us all believe that the episode's biggest revelation would be the return of John Barrowman – right before they unveiled Jo Martin as a brand-new incarnation of the Doctor.
To maintain the secrecy of his return to Doctor Who, Barrowman went to considerable expense by renovating his house, as an explanation for why he was in Cardiff! But that wasn't the only strange measure taken in order to keep things under wraps.
During filming of the episode, Barrowman was given a special codename, to avoid members of the cast and crew having to say "Captain Jack" out loud. This codename was also printed in the script, to keep the big secret as secure as possible.
And that codename was? Roy Lester.
This is notable for two big reasons. Firstly, it continued Doctor Who's grand tradition of using fake names in cast lists, a sly technique employed many times over the decades to cover up the returns of characters like the Master and Davros. And secondly, "Roy Lester" is an anagram of Rose Tyler!
It's a sweet callback to Captain Jack's debut in The Empty Child, where he saved Rose from a barrage balloon during the Blitz. It's also likely that it caused a few people to ponder whether Billie Piper was on her way back, creating yet another layer of security to keep Jack's return a surprise.