Doctor Who Just Replaced Captain Jack Harkness In The Most Perfect Way

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 15, episode 6, “Rogue.”

Doctor Who season 14, episode 6, “Rogue,” introduces a character very much like John Barrowman’s Captain Jack Harkness, meaning Barrowman’s franchise persona is now much less likely to come back. Debuting in Doctor Who season 1, episode 9, “The Empty Child,” Jack Harkness went on to return to the show several times and even became a main character in all four seasons of the Doctor Who spinoff show, Torchwood. The character offered a great deal to the franchise on the whole, but it looks as though he’s been replaced by a member of the Doctor Who season 14 cast.

“Rogue” leans very heavily into its Bridgerton-inspired elements, but it also doesn’t shy away from the sci-fi nature of Doctor Who. The episode’s titular character may feel familiar to long-standing members of the show, with those who watched before Doctor Who‘s Disney era perhaps feeling a subtle bout of nostalgia at the figure’s presence. With Jack Harkness making his first appearance during Russell T Davies’ first spell in charge, it would make sense that the returning showrunner may want to recreate certain aspects.

Doctor Who Season 14’s Rogue Is Very Similar To Captain Jack Harkness

Jonathon Groff’s Doctor Who character shares many traits with John Barrowman’s

In “The Empty Child,” the Ninth Doctor and Rose come into contact with Captain Jack Harkness during a period in Earth’s history. Jack isn’t native to the era in which he’s found, he’s armed with advanced weaponry, and he’s even in disguise to blend in with the locals. All of these aspects of Barrowman’s character also apply to Jonathon Groff’s Rogue, not to mention both characters sporting suave American accents and being members of the LGBTQ+ community. However, while Jack is human, Rogue’s species is currently unconfirmed.

Athough “Rogue” is one of the two Doctor Who season 14 episodes not written by Russell T Davies, it’s difficult to deny the strong possibility that Barrowman’s character has been used as a template to create Groff’s. “The Empty Child” was written by Steven Moffat, so there’s even the connection of both characters first appearing in scripts that haven’t been penned by Davies, despite being the showrunner in both instances.

Why John Barrowman’s Captain Jack Is Unlikely To Return To Doctor Who

The former Time Agent probably won’t show up again

Although Barrowman reprised his role as Jack when Jodie Whittaker was the Doctor (despite the fact he was absent for the respective runs of Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi), the possibility of his return in Doctor Who‘s new era is low. Allegations of inappropriate behavior on the sets of both Doctor Who and Torchwood may have cost him his role in the franchise. Speaking of the complaints against him (via Sky News), Barrowman has referred to his antics as “Silly behavior,” and that he, “Would never do it now.”

Barrowman has appeared as Captain Jack Harkness in 13 episodes of Doctor Who, 41 episodes of Torchwood, and has reprised the role numerous times for various podcasts and audio adventures. In the franchise’s Disney era, his return perhaps seems even less likely due to the studio’s family-friendly reputation. The ending of “Rogue” suggests that the Doctor hasn’t seen the last of Groff’s bounty hunter character, and having Jack Harkness and Rogue appear in the show at the same time seems awfully redundant. So, the introduction of Rogue would seem to be effectively drawing a line under Barrowman’s Doctor Who tenure.

Rogue Is The Second Character Replacement From RTD’s Original Doctor Who Era

Ruby Sunday shares several parallels with Rose Tyler

For all of Rogue’s similarities to Jack Harkness, there’s a much more direct comparison between two Doctor Who characters. With the Doctor Who 2023 Christmas special serving as a soft reboot for the show, it was difficult to ignore the connection between Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday and Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler. Both women were 19-year-old blonde companions when they joined the show, and their characters both have color-based first names. There’s also the fact that Ruby and Rose are both the first companions of new eras, with Piper’s character leading the 2005 revival and Gibson debuting during Disney’s reign.

Related

Ncuti Gatwa’s True Role In Doctor Who Season 14 Is An Unwelcome Surprise

Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor has been handled differently when it comes to the presence of his version of the characters, with some mixed results.

See also  How to create the perfect (fake) studio backgrounds using AI

So, Jack and Rose have now essentially been recast by Russell T Davies, while leaving the original personas intact. The showrunner clearly has a certain group of archetypes for whom he enjoys writing, so there could be more replacements coming in the future to accommodate Davies’ preferences. Of course, the Doctor has also been replaced, but that’s a writing mechanic that’s at the very heart of the show. Barrowman and Piper’s younger counterparts now stand the chance of being as influential as their Doctor Who predecessors.

Source: Sky News

Doctor Who

Originally premiered in 1963, Doctor Who is a sci-fi series that follows a powerful being known as a Time Lord, referred to as the Doctor. Using an interdimensional time-traveling ship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor travels time and space with various companions as they solve multiple problems and help avert catastrophe as much as they almost cause it. Though the Doctor is always the same character, they experience regenerations, allowing them to be recast every few seasons as a unique immortal being with new personality traits.

Release Date

November 23, 1963

Seasons

14