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It’s kind of amusing how much I like Russell T. Davies’ writing, given in his fondness for relationships with enormous power imbalances, and my…lack of fondness for the same. It occurred to me that this is why I don’t really ship Jack Harkness with anyone: All his relationships are too unbalanced in his favor, except for his relationship with the Doctor, which is too unbalanced in the Doctor’s favor.
I briefly shipped Jack with Martha, after watching her on Torchwood and on the Season 3 finale of Doctor Who, but after watching the rest of Season 3, I realized she was younger and more…young than I’d given her credit for, and the relationship started seeming too unbalanced for me.
Someone online was complaining that they overdid Martha-is-wonderful in her guest appearances on Torchwood, trying to compensate for her sometimes questionable treatment on DW. I wasn’t sure about her in my first watching of Reset, because, as the person pointed out, everyone seemed to just love her, but the second time around, I believed it. Jack obviously loved her, and if Jack loved her, the others would fall in line.
And note, the one character who doesn’t seem taken by Martha: Toshiko Sato. This is probably because the writers had already chosen her backstory, and knew she had issues with UNIT, but it fits with what I’ve noticed: Tosh isn’t as taken in by Jack as the others. She’s not going to love someone just because Jack does, whereas for Gwen, Owen, and Ianto, Jack’s feelings are enough.
And if you think Owen’s flirting with Martha had nothing to do with Jack’s adoration for her, just remember what he did the last time Jack brought a new woman into Torchwood and displayed obvious favoritism for her. Season 1 Owen was much rougher around the edges, and his treatment of Gwen was less like flirting and more like sexual harassment, but he obviously wanted her in bed, and I’m quite sure he wanted her in bed because she was Jack’s golden girl. His argument with Ianto in Death in the Death (where he says that Ianto has “won” because he goes out in the field now, and is “shagging Jack”) makes it clear that he considers having sex with someone as a way to get status, and Owen is nothing if not focused on status. Gwen was very much Jack’s golden girl in Season 1 (and still to a lesser extent in Season 2), and I’m sure that’s a large part of why Owen wanted to sleep with her. Also why he had no interest in Tosh—Owen perceived her as being below him in status, and therefore something to be avoided. Also, she’s a blatant geek, and Owen is a closet geek who associates geekiness with weakness, and will do just about anything to avoid both.
I briefly shipped Jack with Martha, after watching her on Torchwood and on the Season 3 finale of Doctor Who, but after watching the rest of Season 3, I realized she was younger and more…young than I’d given her credit for, and the relationship started seeming too unbalanced for me.
Someone online was complaining that they overdid Martha-is-wonderful in her guest appearances on Torchwood, trying to compensate for her sometimes questionable treatment on DW. I wasn’t sure about her in my first watching of Reset, because, as the person pointed out, everyone seemed to just love her, but the second time around, I believed it. Jack obviously loved her, and if Jack loved her, the others would fall in line.
And note, the one character who doesn’t seem taken by Martha: Toshiko Sato. This is probably because the writers had already chosen her backstory, and knew she had issues with UNIT, but it fits with what I’ve noticed: Tosh isn’t as taken in by Jack as the others. She’s not going to love someone just because Jack does, whereas for Gwen, Owen, and Ianto, Jack’s feelings are enough.
And if you think Owen’s flirting with Martha had nothing to do with Jack’s adoration for her, just remember what he did the last time Jack brought a new woman into Torchwood and displayed obvious favoritism for her. Season 1 Owen was much rougher around the edges, and his treatment of Gwen was less like flirting and more like sexual harassment, but he obviously wanted her in bed, and I’m quite sure he wanted her in bed because she was Jack’s golden girl. His argument with Ianto in Death in the Death (where he says that Ianto has “won” because he goes out in the field now, and is “shagging Jack”) makes it clear that he considers having sex with someone as a way to get status, and Owen is nothing if not focused on status. Gwen was very much Jack’s golden girl in Season 1 (and still to a lesser extent in Season 2), and I’m sure that’s a large part of why Owen wanted to sleep with her. Also why he had no interest in Tosh—Owen perceived her as being below him in status, and therefore something to be avoided. Also, she’s a blatant geek, and Owen is a closet geek who associates geekiness with weakness, and will do just about anything to avoid both.
The Empty Child/Doctor Dances two-parter of Torchwood, particularly Children of Earth. It occurred to me that Jack in CoE or Torchwood is somewhat parallel to Nancy, the girl who looks after the children in the Empty Child two parter.
(“It’s all my fault”, Nancy says at one point.)
And the solution is the reverse of the solution in CoE. The young blond male child to whom Nancy has been lying to about their biological relationship has to be saved to save the world. In CoE, Jack murders the child to save the world.
I remember, the first time I watched the Empty Child two-parter, how interesting it is that Jack is so upset about having lost two years of memories in the Doctor Dances, and then in Torchwood is administering Retcon left and right. It’s also interesting in that Jamie’s story is a metaphor for keeping secret from children…if anything slips out, just shut the door, hang up the phone, try to shut it in, don’t let the child know, but this only makes things worse. To make things better, you have to be honest, to tell them the truth. This is interesting in light of how secretive Torchwood is, and how much they hide things.
(“It’s all my fault”, Nancy says at one point.)
And the solution is the reverse of the solution in CoE. The young blond male child to whom Nancy has been lying to about their biological relationship has to be saved to save the world. In CoE, Jack murders the child to save the world.
I remember, the first time I watched the Empty Child two-parter, how interesting it is that Jack is so upset about having lost two years of memories in the Doctor Dances, and then in Torchwood is administering Retcon left and right. It’s also interesting in that Jamie’s story is a metaphor for keeping secret from children…if anything slips out, just shut the door, hang up the phone, try to shut it in, don’t let the child know, but this only makes things worse. To make things better, you have to be honest, to tell them the truth. This is interesting in light of how secretive Torchwood is, and how much they hide things.
