Arnold
CibbuanoCaptain Jack Harkness
January 9th 2007 11:31
TORCHWOOD EPISODE 1.12 - "Captain Jack Harkness"
It's another day, another time-disturbance in Cardiff thanks to the Rift. Captain Jack and Toshj are investigating reports of 1940s music coming from an abandoned old dancehall when - BAM - they're suddenly back in WWII-era Cardiff. Soldiers are living it up at one last dance before they go to war, Cardiff is being bombed by the Germans, and Captain Jack and Tosh come face to face with a heroic soldier named (GASP!) Captain Jack Harkness.
This is the penultimate episode for the series, and there's a sense that this episode is building up to something big. The revelation that our Captain Jack appropriated his name from a WWII war hero serves to remind the viewer that we don't really know Captain Jack or his motivations. This episode also explores the Rift more... while Tosh and Jack are trapped in the past it's up to Gwen, Owen and Ianto to find a way to get them back. What follows is a series of back and forths showing Tosh's various attempts to communicate across time to the rest of the Torchwood team, leaving various messages and such - only someone is interfering on both ends.
Owen still pines for his lost love from two episodes ago (she disappeared into the Rift), so he is most keen to fling the Rift wide-open - using technology Jack has deemed off-limits. And it's a decision fraught with seemingly ominous consequences, especially when it transpires that the Torchwood team are being manipulated by someone, and it's clear that this is a set-up for the series finale.
It's a good episode, indicative of the upward swing in quality that has characterised the second half of Torchwood's first series. Looking back through the last few episodes, especially in the case of Owen, there's a clear setting up of events leading to the series finale - a kind of cause-and-effect that looks like it might payoff quite nicely.
This is also a very brave episode. The episode not only addresses the idea of a Japanese woman in 1940s UK and deals with it realistically, it also acknowledges the repressed homosexuality of the era. Now, Torchwood has never been a show to shy away from homosexuality, and it certainly hasn't been afraid to imply (controversially) that every single person is really, deep down, bisexual. But I honestly can't remember the last time a graphic man-on-man make-out session was shown in a sci-fi show. I mean, previous attempts by sci-fi shows to show us how tolerant and open-minded they are towards homosexuality (EG. 'Deep Space Nine') have always resulted in rather exploitative and emotionally weightless girl-on-girl action. The bravery of Jack's powerful pash here is not only in the fact that it ignores the double-standard, but also in that it carried real emotional weight and resonance. Bravo.
This episode should also be noted as having introduced us to the dapper and enigmatic Billis - a character we will no doubt see again in Torchwood, or maybe even Doctor Who. Bring on 'End of Days'.
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