Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. The character first appears in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and subsequently features in the remaining episodes of the first series (2005) as a companion to the series' protagonist, the Doctor. Subsequent to this, Jack became the central character in the adult-themed Torchwood, which aired from 2006 to 2011. Barrowman reprised the role for appearances in Doctor Who in its third, fourth, and twelfth series, as well as specials "The End of Time", and "Revolution of the Daleks".
In contrast to The Doctor, Jack is more of a conventional action hero, as well as outwardly flirtatious and capable of acts which The Doctor would view as less than noble. In the programme's narrative, Jack begins as a time traveller and con man from the 51st century, who comes to travel with the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). As a consequence of his death and resurrection in the Series 1 finale, "The Parting of the Ways", Jack becomes immortal and is stranded on 19th-century Earth. There he becomes a member of Torchwood, an organization dedicated to combating alien threats. He spends over a century waiting to reunite with the Doctor, over which time he becomes the leader of the Torchwood branch in Cardiff. He later reunites with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) for further stints on Doctor Who. Aspects of the character's backstory—both prior to meeting the Doctor, and during his many decades living on Earth—are gradually revealed over Torchwood (and to a lesser extent, Doctor Who) through the use of flashback scenes and expository dialogue.
Jack was the first openly non-heterosexual character in the history of televised Doctor Who. The popularity of the character amongst multiple audiences directly influenced the development of the spin-off series Torchwood. The character became a figure of the British public consciousness, rapidly gaining fame for actor Barrowman. As an ongoing depiction of bisexuality in mainstream British television, the character became a role model for young gay and bisexual people in the UK. Jack is featured in various Doctor Who and Torchwood books and has action figures created in his likeness.
Contents
Appearances
Television
Jack Harkness first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who two-part story, "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances", when Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), a companion of the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), meets him during the London Blitz. Although posing as an American volunteering in the Royal Air Force, Jack is actually a former "Time Agent" from the 51st century who left the agency after inexplicably losing two years of his memory. Now working as a con man, Jack is responsible for unwittingly releasing a plague in London in 1941. After the Doctor cures the plague, Jack redeems himself by taking an unexploded bomb into his ship; the Doctor and Rose rescue him moments before it explodes. He subsequently travels with the Doctor and Rose in the Doctor's time-travelling spacecraft, the TARDIS. During his time with the Doctor, Jack matures into a hero, and in his final 2005 appearance, he sacrifices himself fighting the evil alien Daleks. Rose brings him back to life while suffused with the power of the time vortex, but when the power leaves her she doesn't remember doing it. She and the Doctor subsequently leave Jack behind on Satellite 5.
Jack returned in 2006 as a character of the spin-off series Torchwood, in which he is a member of the Cardiff-based Torchwood Three in combating alien threats and monitoring a spacetime rift which runs through Cardiff. Jack is re-introduced as a changed man, reluctantly immortal, having spent years on Earth waiting to reunite with the Doctor. Jack recruits policewoman Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) to the team of experts after she discovers them; there are hints of romantic feelings between the two, but Gwen has a boyfriend and Jack enters a sexual relationship with the team's general factotum Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd). Despite having worked with him for some time, his present-day colleagues know very little about him; over the course of the series they discover that he cannot die. Jack was once a prisoner of war, and was an interrogator who used torture. In the Torchwood Series 1 finale "End of Days", Jack returns to the TARDIS. This immediately leads into the 2007 Doctor Who episode "Utopia", where he joins the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and his companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). Jack explains he returned from Satellite 5 to the present day by travelling to 1869 via vortex manipulator, and lived through the 20th century waiting for the Doctor. By the series finale, having spent a year in an alternative timeline enslaved by The Master (John Simm), Jack opts to return to his team in Cardiff. Before departing, Jack speculates about his immortality and reminisces about his youth on the Boeshane Peninsula, revealing that his nickname had been the "Face of Boe", suggesting that he may one day become the non-humanoid recurring character of the same name, voiced by Struan Rodger.
Literature
Jack features in the BBC Books "New Series Adventures" Doctor Who novels The Deviant Strain, The Stealers of Dreams, and Only Human. These novels take place between episodes of the 2005 series of Doctor Who. In The Stealers of Dreams, Jack refers to the Face of Boe as a famous figure in his home era; the producers of the series had not conceptualized the possibility of a Jack and Boe connection until mid-way into the production of the 2007 series.
The first wave of BBC Books Torchwood novels, Another Life, Border Princes, and Slow Decay (published January 2007), are set between episodes of the first series of Torchwood. The novels Trace Memory, The Twilight Streets, and Something in the Water (published March 2008), are set during the concurrently airing second series of Torchwood. The Twilight Streets suggests Jack was a freelance Torchwood agent in the 1940s, who disagreed with their methods but was persuaded by the love of an ex-boyfriend, Greg. The novel also explained that during the events of the Doctor Who episode "Boom Town" (which was set in Cardiff), Jack placed a lockdown on Torchwood activity so as not to create a paradox involving his past self. Trace Memory similarly depicts Jack as a freelance Torchwood agent, living and working in the late 1960s. Pack Animals, SkyPoint, and Almost Perfect (October 2008), are made up of more second series adventures, apart from Almost Perfect which is set after Series Two finale "Exit Wounds". Into the Silence, Bay of the Dead, and The House that Jack Built (May 2009), similarly are set between the second and third series of the show. The House that Jack Built focuses partly on Jack's life in 1906. Risk Assessment, The Undertaker's Gift, and Consequences (October 2009), are likewise set between "Exit Wounds" and Children of Earth.
First published in January 2008, the monthly Torchwood Magazine began occasionally including Torchwood comic strips, in which Jack also appears. One such comic, written in 2009 by John Barrowman and sister Carole E. Barrowman, "Captain Jack and the Selkie", expands on Captain Jack's characterisation. Barrowman comments that "We'd already agreed to tell a story that showed a side of Jack and a part of his history that hadn't been explored too much in other media. I wanted to give fans something original about Jack." Torchwood Magazine also ran with the ten-part Rift War! storyline from April to December 2008. The first Torchwood comic "Jetsam" was later collected along with Rift War! in a graphic novel.
The Torchwood Archives, published after the second series in 2008, is a companion book written by Gary Russell which gives an "insider's look" into the life of Jack and the Torchwood team. The book collects and re-publishes ancillary material which appeared on the Torchwood website in the first two seasons, and provides new material such as rough dates for things like Jack's marriage as relayed by the book's fictional narrator. The book is composed of fictitious archive notes, personnel forms, photographs, newspaper clippings and staff memos, and offers revelations about the character which would later be confirmed by the television series. For example, Archives first mention Jack's lover Lucia Moretti, who is mentioned in Children of Earth. In a similar vein to The Torchwood Archives but from a real-world perspective, Gary Russell's The Torchwood Encyclopedia (2009) expands on "every fact and figure" for Jack and the Torchwood world.
Online media
During the first series of Torchwood, the Torchwood website, located at torchwood.org.uk, recounted some adventures by Captain Jack through an alternate reality game made up of electronic literature in the form of fictional intercepted blogs, newspaper cutouts and confidential letters and IM conversations between members of the Torchwood Three crew. Written by James Goss, the first series' website sheds some light on Jack's backstory in the years he worked for Torchwood. For the second series in 2008, a second interactive Torchwood online game was devised, scripted by series writer Phil Ford, and as with the 2006 website contained some information on Jack's unseen adventures. The BBC America Torchwood also has a 'Captain's Blog' section which relays Jack's accounts of the events of each episode. The Torchwood Archives by Gary Russell collects much of this online literature for the first two series in hardback form, including the Captain's Blog section of the BBC America website.
During Series Four of Doctor Who, the BBC's website also included a section called "Captain Jack's Monster Files" featuring weekly webcast videos narrated by John Barrowman in character as Captain Jack giving "top secret" facts collected by Torchwood about Doctor Who monsters, such as the Slitheen. A Christmas special 2008 Monster File features Barrowman in new footage as Jack, as does the Cybermen edition added following the airing of "The Next Doctor" on Christmas Day. For Dr Fiona Hobden, the Monster Files' mock-documentary format give an "additional twist" to the interplay between history and fiction. Because Captain Jack narrates, "the story unfolds in the tradition of contemporary historical documentary, the docudrama"; in the Monster File for "The Fires of Pompeii", Harkness' commentary moves the 'reality' of the episode away from the explosion of Vesuvius and the human experience, and to the story itself. From Series Five onwards, the Monster Files are instead presented by River Song (Alex Kingston).
Jack also appears in the web-based motion comic series Torchwood: Web of Lies (2011), which ties into Miracle Day. The story depicts a series two-set adventure where Jack is kidnapped by unknown assailants and pursued by Gwen. Investigations by a woman named Holly (voice of Eliza Dushku) establish that Jack was kidnapped by the Three Families so they could acquire entire vats of his blood, which she destroys.
Audio drama
In addition to the paperback novels, Jack also appears in Torchwood audio books, the first four being Hidden written by Steven Savile and narrated by Naoko Mori, Everyone Says Hello written by Dan Abnett and narrated by Burn Gorman, released February 2008, In the Shadows by Joseph Lidster and narrated by Eve Myles, released September 2008, and The Sin Eaters written by Brian Minchin and narrated by Gareth David-Lloyd, released September 2008. Joseph Lidster also wrote a BBC Radio 4 Torchwood drama, "Lost Souls" which aired in Summer 2008 as an Afternoon Play featuring the voices of John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and Freema Agyeman. Set after the events of the 2008 series, Jack and his team make their first international adventure to CERN in Geneva, as part of Radio 4's special celebration of the Large Hadron Collider being switched on. The special radio episode's plot focuses on the Large Hadron Collider's activation and the doomsday scenario some predicted it might incite, as well as the team's mourning of Toshiko and Owen's recent deaths.
Between 1 and 3 July, Radio 4 aired three further audio dramas in The Afternoon Play slot, bridging the gap between Series 2 and 3. "Golden Age" introduced Jack's ex-lover Duchess Eleanor (Jasmine Hyde), the leader of Torchwood India, which Jack closed down in 1924. "The Dead Line" features another ex-girlfriend of Jack's, Stella Courtney (Doña Croll).
2011 audio drama series The Lost Files was released to tie in with Miracle Day. "The Devil and Miss Carew" and "Submission" are set in the same period as the previous audio dramas. "House of the Dead", however, reveals itself in its final act to be set six months after Ianto's death; Jack visited the House of the Dead to make contact with Ianto, who is unaware that he is dead. Jack and Ianto say a final goodbye and tell each other they love one another for the first time. Jack attempts to return to the land of the living alongside Ianto, but Ianto stays behind to close the Cardiff spacetime rift forever with Jack's device.
In 2015, BBC Worldwide granted a licence for Big Finish Productions to produce Torchwood audio plays. Barrowman was the first Torchwood cast member to reprise his role and has appeared in numerous releases, including semi-regular appearances in the monthly range, an ongoing series set after the events of Miracle Day and various special releases. Captain Jack was set to appear in Absent Friends - marking the fiftieth Torchwood monthly range release - which would have seen him reunited with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). However, while this story was recorded, its release was cancelled in May 2021.
Characterisation
Concept and creation
In naming the character, executive producer and head writer Russell T Davies drew inspiration from the Marvel Comics character Agatha Harkness, a character whose surname Davies had previously used in naming lead characters in Century Falls and The Grand. Davies states that reusing names (such as Tyler, Smith, Harper, Harkness and Jones) allows him to get a grip of the character on the blank page. Jack's original appearances in Doctor Who were conceived with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is transformed from a coward to a hero, and John Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the character. Following on that arc, the character's debut episode would leave his morality as ambiguous, publicity materials asking, "Is he a force for good or ill?"
Actor John Barrowman himself was a key factor in the conception of Captain Jack. Barrowman says that at the time of his initial casting, Davies and co-executive producer, Julie Gardner had explained to him that they "basically wrote the character around [John]". Davies had singled out Barrowman for the part. On meeting him, Barrowman tried out the character using his native Scottish accent, his normal American accent, and an English accent; Davies decided it "made it bigger if it was an American accent". Barrowman recounts Davies as having been searching for an actor with a "matinée idol quality", telling him that "the only one in the whole of Britain who could do it was you". A number of television critics have compared Barrowman's performances as Captain Jack to those of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise.
The character's introduction served to posit him as a secondary hero and a rival to the series protagonist, the Doctor, simultaneously paralleling the Doctor's detached alien nature with Jack's humanity and "heart". John Barrowman describes the character in his initial appearance as "an intergalactic conman" and also a "rogue Time Agent" which he defines as "part of a kind of space CIA" and alludes to the moral ambiguity of having "done something in his past" and not knowing "whether it is good or bad because his memory has been erased". Writer Stephen James Walker notes similarities have been found between Jack and Angel (David Boreanaz), the heroic vampire from America's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; Alan Stanley Blair of SyFy Portal pointed out that "Back alley fights, knowledge of the paranormal and an unwanted task of defending the helpless are only a few of the correlations between the two characters." Jack has also been compared to the title character of America's Xena: Warrior Princess, which featured lesbian subtext between Xena (Lucy Lawless) and her close friend Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor). Polina Skibinskaya, writing for AfterElton.com, an American gay men's website, notes both are "complex characters" haunted by their past misdeeds. Furthermore, like Xena, Jack is "a gay basher's worst nightmare: a queer weapon-wielding, ass-kicking superhero gleefully chewing his way through awesome fight scenes". One academic article refers to Jack as "an indestructible Captain Scarlet figure". In a comparative contrast, where the Doctor is a pacifist, Jack is more inclined to see violent means to reach similar ends. The BBC News website refers to Jack's role within Doctor Who as "[continuing] what began with Ian Chesterton and continued later with Harry Sullivan". Whereas in the classic series the female "companions" were sometimes exploited and sexualised for the entertainment of predominantly male audiences, the producers could reverse this dynamic with Jack, citing an equal need amongst modern audiences to "look at good looking men". John Barrowman linked the larger number of women watching the show as a key factor in this.
Costume
While in his first several Doctor Who appearances, Jack did not have a set costume, Torchwood established a continual look for Jack which recalled that of his first Doctor Who appearance. The design has been described as "an iconic piece of sci-fi culture". A writer for Wired attributes much of Jack's appeal to the coat: "I think it has lots to do with that coat he always wears. Coats are cool, just like fezzes and bow ties and Stetsons. The only difference is that Captain Jack doesn't ever tell you his coat is cool. It just is." In fact, in her essay "Fashioning Masculinity and Desire", Sarah Gilligan attributes Torchwood's popularity—as well as that of the character—to the costume. She credits the greatcoat with helping to fashion the character's masculinity, and argues that Jack's costume creates its own discourse "through which costume drama and Post Heritage cinema's escapism flows".
During Jack's initial appearances in Doctor Who, Russell T Davies held a "half-hearted" theory that Jack would dress specific to the time period he was in, to contrast the Doctor who dresses the same wherever and whenever he goes. He is introduced wearing a greatcoat in World War II-set episodes, but changes to modern day jeans in contemporary episode "Boom Town" and black leather in futuristic episodes. Davies admits that this was a "bit of a lame idea" and decided that Jack "never looked better than when he was in his World War II outfit". From the pilot of Torchwood onwards, Harkness once again wears period military clothes from the second World War, including braces and an officer's wool greatcoat in every appearance. Costume designer Ray Holman commented in a Torchwood Magazine interview that "We always wanted to keep the World War Two hero look for him, so all his outfits have a 1940s flavour." Because the character was expected to "be running around a lot", Holman redesigned his RAF greatcoat from Doctor Who to make it more fluid and less "weighty". Jack's other costumes are "loosely wartime based", such as the trousers are "getting more and more styled to suit his figure". Holman explains that there are actually five Captain Jack coats used on the show. The "hero version" is used for most scenes, while there is also a wetcoat made with pre-shrunk fabric, running coat which is slightly shorter to prevent heels getting caught, and two "stunt coats" that had been "hero coats" in the first series." Davies feels the military uniform reinforces the idea that the character "likes his Captain Jack Harkness identity". Julie Gardner describes the coat as "epic and classic and dramatic", while director Brian Kelly believes it gives Jack "a sweep and a presence".
For Miracle Day, Davies commissioned new costume designer Shawna Trpcic (previously costume designer for Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse) to create a new greatcoat design. This was partially motivated by Los Angeles' warmer climate; shooting in Wales had necessitated Barrowman be fit in much warmer clothing. The new coat is custom made by Italian designers, and is actually cashmere-blend wool where the previous one had been cotton. Trpcic says that she "just wanted to modernise it, give it a more modern fit, but leave the drape and keep it cape-like". Trpcic felt prepared for the job of redesigning the coat because of her prior work on Firefly, tailoring for Nathan Fillion's Captain Malcolm Reynolds: "I'm kind of used to iconic captain's coats and the importance of staying loyal to what the fans expect and to what we need". Journalist Maureen Ryan commented that the new coat is "greatly improved" and the redesign "gives the coat the kind of movement and swagger Jack brings with him on every adventure".
Development
The character is described as both "lethally charming ... good looking and utterly captivating", as well as "flirtatious, cunning, clever and a bit of an action man". Within Doctor Who, Jack's personality is relatively light-hearted, although this changes in Torchwood's first series, where he becomes a darker character. In Torchwood's first series, Jack has been shaped by his ongoing search for the Doctor and also by his role as a leader, in which he is predominantly more aloof. In Torchwood, he would occasionally inquire or muse about the afterlife and religion, sympathising with a man's desire to die. Returning in Doctor Who Series Three, Jack indicates he now maintains a less suicidal outlook than before. In the second series of Torchwood, Jack became a much more light-hearted character once again, after appearances in Doctor Who where he was reunited with the Doctor. In the third series of Torchwood, the audience sees some of Jack's "darker side", as well as "the secrets that Jack has, the pressures, drama and the trauma he's carrying on his shoulders".
Lynnette Porter comments on Jack's relation to scholar Lord Raglan's theses on 'the hero' in fiction. Because Jack is immortal and always comes back from the dead, Porter argues that Jack cannot literally fulfil the "physical death aspect" of Raglan's criteria for a hero. However, Jack instead has several symbolic deaths. For instance, in the last scene of Children of Earth. Porter observes that camera angles emphasise Jack's profile as solitary man atop a hill in Cardiff, departing. This scene of "going away for good" against the backdrop of the city he has long protected, hints at the death of the Captain Jack persona; in Porter's words, "the immortal captain "dies" at the top of a hill in Wales at the conclusion of the "epic" miniseries", "epic" traditionally being the genre of heroism. The American political blog Daily Kos states Jack "can certainly be characterised as a Byronic hero, a tragic figure with a streak of melancholy, heroic yet misunderstood, bold yet rash. Most importantly, his sexuality is one single aspect of a much more complex, flawed character." G. Todd Davis examines the ways in which Jack conforms to the Byronic hero character trope. Physically, he identifies Jack as dark-haired and strikingly handsome, with masculine physique; he is intelligent and aware of it, to the point of a superiority complex; he demands unquestioning loyalty, has guilty secrets in his past, and is self-sacrificing. For this, Davis lists Jack alongside Milton's Satan from Paradise Lost, Shelley's Prometheus, and also Angel from Buffy, amongst others.
As a show, Torchwood is highly intertextual. The consequence of this is that many sides of Jack are shown across various media. One commentator feels that this emphasises Jack's pivotal place in the development and change of modern science fiction heroes. The character's unexpected popularity with a multitude of audiences, would later shape his appearances both as a traditional "action hero" and as a positive role model for younger viewers. Barrowman also remarks that "The beauty of Captain Jack, and one of the reasons why I think, as an actor, I've landed on my feet, is that he's popular with one audience in Torchwood and with another in Doctor Who."
Relationships
In a Doctor Who Magazine interview, Barrowman described Jack's love for Ianto as "lustful", and explained "I don't think he'd settle down with Ianto. He might do, but he'd let Ianto know that he [Jack] has to play around on the side". The Torchwood Series Two premiere sees Jack ask Ianto out on a date, after finding out Gwen is engaged. John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd opined in an interview at Comic-Con to fan questions that Jack's relationship with Ianto has however brought out Jack's empathy, and helped to ground him. John Barrowman said in an interview that Ianto "brings out the "human" in [Jack]" and "brings out more ... empathy because he's actually fallen for someone and he really cares about somebody ... [which] makes him warm to other people ... [and] makes him more approachable." In the same interview, Gareth David-Lloyd said of the relationship and his character that "I think Ianto's always made him care and that is really the heart of the show." However, Stephen James Walker feels that Jack's relationship with Ianto is one-sided; Ianto seems to feel the relationship is "serious and committed", but while dancing with Gwen in "Something Borrowed", Walker believes that Jack appears to equate his relationship with Ianto to nothing more than a "recreational activity", and considers it "obvious Jack only has eyes and thoughts for Gwen". The novel The House that Jack Built includes a scene where Ianto confides in Gwen that he knows that to Jack he is "just a shag", though discloses that the relationship means more to him. In the same novel, however, he also refers to himself in front of Jack as his "boyfriend". When Ianto expounds these same insecurities to Jack in the radio play "The Dead Line" (just prior to Children of Earth), however, Jack insists "You will never be just a blip in time, Ianto Jones. Not to me."
Just as Jack and Ianto's relationship is developing, Ianto dies, in Children of Earth (2009). While some fans felt "cheated" at not seeing the relationship develop further, Davies explains his intention was to heighten the tragedy by it also being a loss of potential, stating "You grieve over everything they could have been. Everything you hoped for them." For dramatic purposes within the story, Davies explains that Ianto's death was necessary so that Jack would be damaged enough to sacrifice his own grandson. Gareth David-Lloyd feels that the lack of resolution for the love story is "part of the tragedy". Lynnette Porter feels that Ianto's demise is intended as a watershed moment where Jack loses his effectiveness as a hero. At least for a time, a grieving Jack loses his focus and gives up; within a few months, Jack flees Earth and his role as the expected hero. Some fans were displeased by Ianto's death scene and the end of the relationship, and some even accused one the writers of "deliberately egging on the shippers'". Subsequent to Ianto's death, in "The End of Time" (2010), the Doctor sets up Jack with a new romantic interest, Alonso Frame (Tovey). Fans of Ianto, who felt cheated by the character's death, disliked this development. GayNZ.com compared the situation to Buffy fans' reaction to Willow's relationship with Kennedy (Iyari Limon) in Buffy's seventh season, following Tara's death in the show's sixth.
Critical reception and impact
Following the character's initial introduction in the revived series 1 of Doctor Who, the character became incredibly popular with fans, to the extent that Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner created a spin-off series, Torchwood, primarily centred around the character. The Times described the undeniable success of the character as having propelled actor John Barrowman to "National Treasure status". For his role as Captain Jack, John Barrowman was nominated for Best Actor at the 2007 BAFTA Cymru Awards, and again for Children of Earth at the 2010 TV Choice Awards, against Eleventh Doctor actor Matt Smith. Harkness was also listed number nine in TV Squad's "Ten Most mysterious characters on television", behind the Tenth Doctor, who was listed number three. John Barrowman, who is himself gay, has ranked in the Independent on Sunday Pink List, a list of the most influential gay people in Britain, in 2007, 2008, and 2009 with the Independent commenting that "Proof of his popularity came with the continued runaway success of his bisexual Captain Jack Harkness on Russell T Davies's Torchwood". Part of Jack's mystique was his sex appeal, swashbuckling heroism and sexual appetite. In anticipation of the character's return to Doctor Who in series 3 after a successful run in the first series of Torchwood, mainstream media hailed his return.
Captain Jack has gone on to become a recognisable figure in the British public consciousness, and has attracted some parody. These parodies frequently echo criticisms both of the character and of Barrowman's portrayal. The character of Jack Harkness has been parodied several times on the satirical impressionist television show Dead Ringers. Played by Jon Culshaw, the show pokes fun at his bisexuality and apparent campness, as well his melodramatic personality in Torchwood. In one sketch, he walks bizarrely towards the camera, kissing a policeman as he passes him. In another sketch, he can be seen having a threesome with two Cybermen, a race of cyborgs from Doctor Who. Satirical technology columnist Verity Stob wrote a parody of Torchwood Season One in the style of Dylan Thomas's radio play Under Milk Wood, called Under Torch Wood. This parody described Captain Jack as "the insomniac bicon; snug as a hobbit, pretty as a choirboy, immortal as carbon dioxide, wooden as a horse." Barrowman's ubiquity, however, has even provoked criticism of the character. Jim Shelley of the Daily Mirror, in his review of Children of Earth, said "Unlike David Tennant's Doctor, Barrowman's endless appearances on friendly drivel like Tonight's the Night, The Kids Are All Right and Any Dream Will Do, is so over-exposed, 'Captain Jack' is about as intriguing or alien as a Weetabix and twice as irritating. Unlike Tennant, as an actor he is just not good enough." Television journalist Charlie Brooker, in his Screenwipe review of 2009 criticised Barrowman, with focus on his acting. "Harkness is of course a man of mystery. You can't tell what he's thinking just by looking at his face... no matter how hard Barrowman tries."