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For Christmas I got the Big Finish "The Lives of Captain Jack" CDs. I am not at all into audio plays because I am a very visual person and find it hard to manage without the visuals, especially faces, and without the descriptions of thought processes you get in written media, but I'd already tried out "Broken" and "The Conspiracy" last year and when this boxset came out I knew I had to have it. I mean, the chance to get even a tiny glimpse into some of Jack's past that's been glossed over on the TV? Who wouldn't want that?
(I'd also really, really love some new *future* canon, even if it isn't really considered canon, but just *something* to give me *some* ideas for role-playing purposes of what Jack might be up to post-Miracle Day. Maybe that'll come next? *crosses fingers*)
Anyway, I just listened to "The Year After I Died" and it was pretty good. A rather big section in the middle with no Jack (I mean, he's who we're all here for, isn't he!) but otherwise pretty entertaining and it felt like it fitted well into the DW universe. Not as many new insights into Jack as I'd hoped for, but there were some nice little snippets.
I liked the idea that he'd stuck around on Earth for a bit rather than immediately using his vortex manipulator to try and find the Doctor. I've always wondered if he waited around for a bit first, and this suggests that he did. Perhaps he didn't think there was any point in looking for the Doctor at first, given that the Doctor had abandoned him. Perhaps he didn't even *want* to find the Doctor at first!
In this story, he's very bitter at first, trying to cut himself off from everything, saying he's not a hero. He says it's because he's very cautious now, because the Daleks should have killed him but they didn't, so now he wants to hang on to that second chance at life and not lose it again.
Only, later, he has the chance to be a hero and save everyone but knows it's going to kill him, and he realises perhaps this is why he was saved, because the universe still needs him, and he does it, because of course he *is* a hero. And of course he survives. It's nicely handled, with the other characters saying they can't find a pulse only to have him gasp into life (much as with Martha in Utopia), and it's fast enough that they (and he) would be able to believe the pulse was there, they just didn't find it in time.
It makes me wonder how many times that happened, before he got shot through the heart at Ellis Island and finally acknowledged what was going on. How many times did he go to what he thought was certain death to save people? I mean, what a guy! Sorry, cliché, but then Captain Jack is a walking cliché – and yet so much more on top of that.
I mean. Twelve years on, and I'm still finding new stuff to explore with him!
(I'd also really, really love some new *future* canon, even if it isn't really considered canon, but just *something* to give me *some* ideas for role-playing purposes of what Jack might be up to post-Miracle Day. Maybe that'll come next? *crosses fingers*)
Anyway, I just listened to "The Year After I Died" and it was pretty good. A rather big section in the middle with no Jack (I mean, he's who we're all here for, isn't he!) but otherwise pretty entertaining and it felt like it fitted well into the DW universe. Not as many new insights into Jack as I'd hoped for, but there were some nice little snippets.
I liked the idea that he'd stuck around on Earth for a bit rather than immediately using his vortex manipulator to try and find the Doctor. I've always wondered if he waited around for a bit first, and this suggests that he did. Perhaps he didn't think there was any point in looking for the Doctor at first, given that the Doctor had abandoned him. Perhaps he didn't even *want* to find the Doctor at first!
In this story, he's very bitter at first, trying to cut himself off from everything, saying he's not a hero. He says it's because he's very cautious now, because the Daleks should have killed him but they didn't, so now he wants to hang on to that second chance at life and not lose it again.
Only, later, he has the chance to be a hero and save everyone but knows it's going to kill him, and he realises perhaps this is why he was saved, because the universe still needs him, and he does it, because of course he *is* a hero. And of course he survives. It's nicely handled, with the other characters saying they can't find a pulse only to have him gasp into life (much as with Martha in Utopia), and it's fast enough that they (and he) would be able to believe the pulse was there, they just didn't find it in time.
It makes me wonder how many times that happened, before he got shot through the heart at Ellis Island and finally acknowledged what was going on. How many times did he go to what he thought was certain death to save people? I mean, what a guy! Sorry, cliché, but then Captain Jack is a walking cliché – and yet so much more on top of that.
I mean. Twelve years on, and I'm still finding new stuff to explore with him!
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