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Crew
Jack and Tosh go to investigate a possible breach in time: 1940s music has been heard from an abandoned dance hall. They find themselves back in time, in 1941, at a dance for service personnel. They meet Captain Jack Harkness, the man whose identity Torchwood's Captain Jack stole after his death, which will occur the following day during a training exercise. Back at Torchwood, Owen thinks the best way to rescue Jack and Tosh is to open the rift, but Ianto thinks it is too dangerous. Gwen investigates the dance hall; from time to time, Jack and Tosh can hear her shouts.
Bilis Manger, the caretaker of the dancehall in present-day Cardiff, appears to be the same man as the dancehall manager in 1941, and uses the same office, where Owen finds the missing key to the Rift Manipulator, hidden on the pendulum of a clock. Tosh leaves messages for the Torchwood team in the future, the necessary mathematical equations to open the rift safely. First, she takes a photograph of her writing, but then realises that she accidentally cut parts off, and it is too risky to return to take another. She tries to leave the remaining equations by cutting her hand and writing in blood, which she believes will stay throughout the years. However, Bilis Manger scratches out some of the numbers. Without the whole equation, it is dangerous to attempt to open the rift. Owen, however, claims it will be safe to open, and also the better option. Ianto disagrees, holding Owen at gunpoint and warning him not to continue. Owen claims that as second in command, he is in charge. As Owen moves to put the key in the machine, Ianto shoots him in the shoulder; however, Owen manages to finish the task, and the rift opens.
Back in 1941, the real Captain Jack reveals he is attracted to Torchwood's Jack, and the two share a brief moment holding hands. Captain Jack invites Torchwood's Jack to dance. The rift opens as the pair are about to kiss and Torchwood's Jack pulls away, saying it is his duty to go. However, on his way over to Tosh, he stops and turns back to the real Captain Jack. They share a passionate kiss, to the further astonishment of the other dance hall guests, before Captain Jack and Tosh return to the present day. There is a tear on Torchwood Jack's cheek.
Analysis by Cuisle If the kiss between Jack and The Doctor was in the most memorable moments of the 2005 series, then the dance and kiss between Jack and JACK in this episode of Torchwood is going to stick in the mind even more. It was a beautiful scene from start to finish. The hint that the ‘real’ Jack might swing both ways was given earlier in a hand-touching scene that was interrupted, and taken up again in that last emotional scene as they dance a slow dance, while the astonished 1941 ‘straights’ stared. Then a kiss that was so passionate from both sides that beautiful to watch. Let Alabama scream blue murder. Let Mary Whitehouse rot in her grave. It WAS beautiful. Two good looking men kissing each other with love, before both had to face uncertain danger, was, as in Parting Of The Ways, a wonderful moment. Only this time it was MORE than a moment. It was several fantastic moments. Ok, enough about the kiss. The rest of the episode was an exploration of issues that have been boiling up all through the season. Ianto and Owen with their antagonistic responses to each other reflected tensions that had to find an outlet eventually. The points scored against each other about their respective girlfriends were about the cruellest things two people could say to each other, and though it could be said that it was better to clear the air and hold it all in, it didn’t look like either of them were feeling better for it afterwards. The Rift Manipulator and whether or not to use it was, of course, the source of the friction. Owen, from the start, wants to use it. His heartfelt comment ‘I lost my lover and my Captain’ sums up the reason why. He is not ready to listen to anyone else on the matter. He wants to get Jack back. He HOPES to get Diane back. He doesn’t allow anything to get in the way. Not even Ianto shooting him. How many times now have members of the team shot each other? There is nothing cosy about these relationships. That is for sure. Incidentally, did anyone else think that the Manipulator looked awfully TARDIS Time Rotor like? The working relationship between Jack and Toshiko was another exploration in this episode. More often in this season we’ve seen Jack and Gwen looking like the star couple of the ensemble cast. But this time it was Jack and Toshiko. Mostly what it showed, here, was that Jack is an old fashioned man when it comes to protecting women. He rose to the occasion to punch out anyone bothering Toshiko in 1941, and when she asked what would happen if they didn’t get back he promised to take care of her. Bear in mind, this is the summer of 1941. In November of that year Japan entered the war, and life would become very difficult or Japanese people in Britain. He knew as well as she did that a promise to take care of her in such circumstances was a seriousb undertaking. But Jack, for all we know about him, including, after this episode,
the fact that he isn’t even really called Jack Harkness, is
always going to be the hero who will save the girl. That much we ARE
sure about him. But why save him to the end? Since Mr. Manger appears to have a long term plan for the rift and for Torchwood, it might have been an idea if he had been a sinister presence running through the whole series, coming to a head in these episodes. He could easily have been seen involved in a minor way in the Out of Time story, and the Ghost Machine one, in particular, those stories involving manipulation of time. He could have been the equivalent of Bad Wolf and Torchwood in this series. Anyway, plenty left unfinished and unsaid for the finale.
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