30 Days of Torchwood: Day Nineteen
Started this last night, but I was dead on my feet and couldn't give it the appropriate level of cowbell. Day Twenty to come later today, possibly tonight after rewatch.
Full disclosure: writing this one choked me up not once but twice. So. Er.
30 Days of Torchwood: Day Nineteen - Your favourite Jack moment
Another difficult one. There's so much Jack to be had -- heh -- across two different shows, and a lot of who Jack is comes down to surviving (figuratively if not literally) moment-to-moment.
When we meet him in Doctor Who, he's living as a grifter after having two years of his memory wiped by the Time Agency. His first round with the Doctor is comparatively peaceful and starts with a failed con that nearly kills him and ends with him dying in battle on the Game Station. When he tries to catch the Doctor up using his vortex manipulator, he "bounces" -- hits the wrong bit of time stream, maybe -- and burns out the circuitry, leaving him trapped on Earth, walking the "slow path" for the better part of 150 years.
He doesn't even know that he's immortal right away.
Doctor: "When did you realize?"
Jack: "Earth. 1892. Got in a fight on Ellis Island, a man shot me through the heart. And then I woke up. Thought it was kind of strange. But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War I, World War II, poison, starvation, stray javelin..."
Doctor: *winces*
After Ellis Island, it's a different sort of survival for Jack. Abandonment makes room, at least, for some sort of moving-on. How do you continue, though, if there's no end in sight? We see him coping with that despair in "Fragments." Back in Cardiff, Jack is living his misery. Lots of drinking, lots of fights. It's a bit like Owen's worst turned up to eleven. And then Torchwood finds him.
With a century's worth of prophecy to wait out -- and considering Torchwood's connection to the Doctor -- what's he got to lose?
It's really not until S2 that we see Jack actually at any sort of real peace with himself. He's had his reunion and reconciliation with the Doctor, and given the chance to continue on he chooses Cardiff and Torchwood instead. He starts courting Ianto in earnest, he settles into his work for real this time. There's a real earnestness to Jack in S2. He's more open and joyous, more participatory. That continues through most of CoE, I think, though he falters a little when he realizes that the 456 are behind things.
Also, he does kind of spend two thousand years in an unmarked grave. Coming out of that in any kind of condition at all is a massive feat of survival, immortality or no.
I think a lot of the reason Jack runs at the end of CoE is because that's the world he lived in before everything in his life came apart. Before the Doctor and his death and immortality, he was a grifter and a Time Agent and a bright young thing playing in the stars. Earth was finally too heavy. After everything that happens to Jack, who wouldn't want a change of scene?
(And how kind is it, incidentally, for the Doctor to acknowledge that and give him a nudge with Alonso Frame? Mourn, sure, but come out of it whole, you know?)
That's a lot to pack into one moment, people. But if I had to try, it would be the scene in "Dead Man Walking" where Jack and Owen are locked in a holding cell together talking about being dead.
OWEN: God, I'm going to miss farting. And sex.
JACK: Sex more than farting, I hope.
OWEN: Oh, you take these things for granted. It's only when they're slipping away
that you realize how amazing they are. This could be the last time I see those flecks or you know, feel these bricks underneath my hands.
JACK: "Only in suffering do we recognize beauty."
OWEN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah -- Who said that?
JACK: Proust.
OWEN: You’ve read Proust?!
JACK: Yeah! Well, no. We dated for a while. He was really immature.
OWEN: You know, none of us know whether to take you seriously when you say those things.
JACK: When you’ve lived as long as I have, you don’t make any more up.
OWEN: You’ve got forever. I could have seconds. Hardly seems fair.
JACK: It isn't. But then, forever’s overrated.
OWEN: Not from where I'm sitting.
JACK: If you've got forever, you don't notice the flecks on the concrete, or bother to touch the bricks. And you send your friends into danger, knowing the stakes aren't the same for you, that you might get them killed while you walk away unscathed.
OWEN: Then why did you bring me back? Guilt?
JACK: No, that's not why.
OWEN: They why did you, really?
JACK: Because I wasn't ready to give up on you. I guess I was hoping for a miracle. And I still am.
(He pushes Owen’s head away. Owen smiles. Jack chuckles.)
JACK: Let's go home.
(transcript source)
Day 01 - Your favourite Torchwood member
Day 02 - Your favourite series
Day 03 - Your favourite episode
Day 04 - Your favourite alien
Day 05 - A scene that made you cry
Day 06 - A scene that made you smile
Day 07 - Your favourite quote
Day 08 - Your favourite cast member
Day 09 - An image that makes you smile like a git
Day 10 - Your favourite promo picture
Day 11 - Your favourite couple
Day 12 - Your favourite couple scene
Day 13 - A piece of music you love from the series
Day 14 - Something you’d like to re-write in the series
Day 15 - Behind the scene video that made you laugh the most
Day 16 - Your favourite outfit
Day 17 - Your favourite Gwen moment
Day 18 - Your favourite Ianto moment
Day 19 - Your favourite Jack moment
Day 20 - Your favourite Owen moment
Day 21 - Your favourite Toshiko moment
Day 22 - Who you’d shag, cliff and marry
Day 23 - Your favourite Torchwood website
Day 24 - A Torchwood geek moment you’ve had
Day 25 - Your favourite Torchwood fan-fiction
Day 26 - A piece of fan-art
Day 27 - A fan-video
Day 28 - Your favourite location or set
Day 29 - Where you think the series should continue to
Day 30 - Best Torchwood on Doctor Who moment
Full disclosure: writing this one choked me up not once but twice. So. Er.
30 Days of Torchwood: Day Nineteen - Your favourite Jack moment
Another difficult one. There's so much Jack to be had -- heh -- across two different shows, and a lot of who Jack is comes down to surviving (figuratively if not literally) moment-to-moment.
When we meet him in Doctor Who, he's living as a grifter after having two years of his memory wiped by the Time Agency. His first round with the Doctor is comparatively peaceful and starts with a failed con that nearly kills him and ends with him dying in battle on the Game Station. When he tries to catch the Doctor up using his vortex manipulator, he "bounces" -- hits the wrong bit of time stream, maybe -- and burns out the circuitry, leaving him trapped on Earth, walking the "slow path" for the better part of 150 years.
He doesn't even know that he's immortal right away.
Doctor: "When did you realize?"
Jack: "Earth. 1892. Got in a fight on Ellis Island, a man shot me through the heart. And then I woke up. Thought it was kind of strange. But then it never stopped. Fell off a cliff, trampled by horses, World War I, World War II, poison, starvation, stray javelin..."
Doctor: *winces*
After Ellis Island, it's a different sort of survival for Jack. Abandonment makes room, at least, for some sort of moving-on. How do you continue, though, if there's no end in sight? We see him coping with that despair in "Fragments." Back in Cardiff, Jack is living his misery. Lots of drinking, lots of fights. It's a bit like Owen's worst turned up to eleven. And then Torchwood finds him.
With a century's worth of prophecy to wait out -- and considering Torchwood's connection to the Doctor -- what's he got to lose?
It's really not until S2 that we see Jack actually at any sort of real peace with himself. He's had his reunion and reconciliation with the Doctor, and given the chance to continue on he chooses Cardiff and Torchwood instead. He starts courting Ianto in earnest, he settles into his work for real this time. There's a real earnestness to Jack in S2. He's more open and joyous, more participatory. That continues through most of CoE, I think, though he falters a little when he realizes that the 456 are behind things.
Also, he does kind of spend two thousand years in an unmarked grave. Coming out of that in any kind of condition at all is a massive feat of survival, immortality or no.
I think a lot of the reason Jack runs at the end of CoE is because that's the world he lived in before everything in his life came apart. Before the Doctor and his death and immortality, he was a grifter and a Time Agent and a bright young thing playing in the stars. Earth was finally too heavy. After everything that happens to Jack, who wouldn't want a change of scene?
(And how kind is it, incidentally, for the Doctor to acknowledge that and give him a nudge with Alonso Frame? Mourn, sure, but come out of it whole, you know?)
That's a lot to pack into one moment, people. But if I had to try, it would be the scene in "Dead Man Walking" where Jack and Owen are locked in a holding cell together talking about being dead.
OWEN: God, I'm going to miss farting. And sex.
JACK: Sex more than farting, I hope.
OWEN: Oh, you take these things for granted. It's only when they're slipping away
that you realize how amazing they are. This could be the last time I see those flecks or you know, feel these bricks underneath my hands.
JACK: "Only in suffering do we recognize beauty."
OWEN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah -- Who said that?
JACK: Proust.
OWEN: You’ve read Proust?!
JACK: Yeah! Well, no. We dated for a while. He was really immature.
OWEN: You know, none of us know whether to take you seriously when you say those things.
JACK: When you’ve lived as long as I have, you don’t make any more up.
OWEN: You’ve got forever. I could have seconds. Hardly seems fair.
JACK: It isn't. But then, forever’s overrated.
OWEN: Not from where I'm sitting.
JACK: If you've got forever, you don't notice the flecks on the concrete, or bother to touch the bricks. And you send your friends into danger, knowing the stakes aren't the same for you, that you might get them killed while you walk away unscathed.
OWEN: Then why did you bring me back? Guilt?
JACK: No, that's not why.
OWEN: They why did you, really?
JACK: Because I wasn't ready to give up on you. I guess I was hoping for a miracle. And I still am.
(He pushes Owen’s head away. Owen smiles. Jack chuckles.)
JACK: Let's go home.
(transcript source)
Day 01 - Your favourite Torchwood member
Day 02 - Your favourite series
Day 03 - Your favourite episode
Day 04 - Your favourite alien
Day 05 - A scene that made you cry
Day 06 - A scene that made you smile
Day 07 - Your favourite quote
Day 08 - Your favourite cast member
Day 09 - An image that makes you smile like a git
Day 10 - Your favourite promo picture
Day 11 - Your favourite couple
Day 12 - Your favourite couple scene
Day 13 - A piece of music you love from the series
Day 14 - Something you’d like to re-write in the series
Day 15 - Behind the scene video that made you laugh the most
Day 16 - Your favourite outfit
Day 17 - Your favourite Gwen moment
Day 18 - Your favourite Ianto moment
Day 19 - Your favourite Jack moment
Day 20 - Your favourite Owen moment
Day 21 - Your favourite Toshiko moment
Day 22 - Who you’d shag, cliff and marry
Day 23 - Your favourite Torchwood website
Day 24 - A Torchwood geek moment you’ve had
Day 25 - Your favourite Torchwood fan-fiction
Day 26 - A piece of fan-art
Day 27 - A fan-video
Day 28 - Your favourite location or set
Day 29 - Where you think the series should continue to
Day 30 - Best Torchwood on Doctor Who moment