The Mystery That Has Bothered Doctor Who Fans For Years
By Robert King
Russell T. Davies may not be the showrunner of Doctor Who anymore — and Torchwood, the spin-off series specifically focused on Jack may have ended — but that doesn't mean his time working on Who canon is necessarily over. Recently, he participated in a lockdown live-tweet session of several of his era's episodes — which included "New Earth" and "Gridlock." As a special treat, the Twitter party also included a short audio drama as a bonus coda for the New Earth storyline from his time running the show, entitled The Secret of Novice Hame.
During this live tweet session on May 30, 2020, Davies made mention of the continuing Face of Boe/Jack Harkness theory directly. He tweeted, "So... why does Captain Jack looks like that after 5 billion years? The question is, why not? Have you seen how your ears keep growing, your nose? After FIVE BILLION YEARS, extraordinary changes must happen. And here they are!"
This was the first acknowledgement from the Former Word of Whovian God that it was indeed his intent to draw a direct causal line between Jack and Boe. He's tap-danced around the question for years, which is fair enough since Who canon is so wibbly and wobbly about that whole timey-wimey thing.
Torchwood, for all its effort put into characterizing Jack, never sought to explain it either. Back in 2009, Davies explained that he actually put the kibosh on some spin-off comics and books attempting to firmly canonize the connection between the characters, stating that "the moment it became very true or very false, the joke dies." For Davies' mileage, the twist seems to have been more for a giggle than any intent to add something monumental to Doctor Who's canon, but fandom will do what it will and focus on that which they wish to care about, and the musing over it has never been given up.
