The ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special Just Hinted at Jack Harkness’ Dark Origin Story

The Physician Who Christmas Particular, “Pleasure to the World”, was Ncuti Gatwa‘s second Christmas journey after “The Church on Ruby Street,” and it definitely took that likelihood to construct on the already huge lore of the BBC sci-fi. With The Physician trying to save lots of the complete universe’s Christmas, he hops via a number of totally different time durations with Pleasure (Nicola Coughlan), encountering dinosaurs, amongst different harmful threats. While the premise is definitely action-packed, it is likely one of the smaller particulars that made this Christmas Particular one to recollect. That’s the Time Lodge that The Physician primarily makes use of to traverse time, fairly than his typical technique of the TARDIS.

This time lodge must be thought of as a giant piece of addition to the lore due to one character it impacts specifically. Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). Many will bear in mind Harkness because the immortal human time traveler who we first met again in 2005 within the episode “The Empty Little one,” when he meets Christopher Eccleston‘s Physician and his companion Rose (Billie Piper) throughout The Blitz. Properly, not solely does the Time Lodge start to elucidate humanity’s evolving relationship with time-travel know-how, however it additionally offers hints as to the seemingly huge plot gap that revolved round how Jack Harkness was in a position to time journey like The Physician.

‘Physician Who’s Time Lodge is Not the First Time Humanity Has Meddled With Time Journey

From the very first second The Physician realizes what sort of lodge he has stepped into, we are able to sense the marvel he has for it, nearly like he’s watching an lovely canine study to trip a skateboard. He clearly does not respect the know-how on the identical stage as his personal TARDIS, however he’s fascinated by the best way people have used it to offer folks a very distinctive vacation getaway, as proven in the best way he virtually ignores the lodge supervisor performed by Jonathan Aris. Maybe his nearly comedic strategy to this revolutionary piece of know-how, in addition to the truth that he’s actually hundreds of years forward of humanity, is that this isn’t the primary time he has witnessed humanity discover this piece of science.

In reality, when The Physician final noticed how people had been getting on with this, they had been in a really primitive stage. They may solely look via the previous, and never traverse area in addition to time, nor can they appear into the long run. Due to this fact, it was solely known as a “Time Window.” This was created by the Twenty first-century group, UNIT, which we noticed Gatwa’s Physician work together with within the Season 14 finale in a much more productive method in comparison with the very fact he tried to ban UNIT from ever creating time journey gear in earlier Physician Who eras. Contemplating the Time Lodge exists within the forty third century, it does make sense that humanity would be capable of develop this know-how significantly, with the ability to now go ahead, backward, in addition to transfer via area and, figuring out ourselves, it isn’t shocking it has gone down a capitalistic route.

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The Time Lodge Begins to Clarify How Jack Harkness May Traverse Time and Area

Even if Captain Jack Harkness was undoubtedly one of many largest fan-favorite companions of The Physician, not solely being entertaining, but additionally serving to to deliver some much-needed LGBTQ illustration to the universe together with his relationship with Ianto Jones (Gareth David Lloyd), his capacity to maneuver via time and area like The Physician all the time felt like a plot gap. The way in which it was defined was the Vortex Manipulator, which Jack Harkness obtained as a Time Agent working for the Time Company within the 51st century, roughly 800 years after “Pleasure to the World” is ready. Nevertheless, it nonetheless felt like an unexplained piece of lore. How did humanity even start to develop this type of know-how till it might match on an individual’s wrist, as Harkness’ Vortex Manipulator does?

Properly, the Time Lodge begins to offer us the reply. Clearly, humanity was in a position to start with the Time Window earlier than upscaling this know-how to the Time Lodge all through over 2 millennia. Lastly, over 800 years, this know-how was synthesized down till it grew to become the Vortex Manipulator and was utilized by the Time Company. Nevertheless, that does not clear up the complete thriller surrounding humanity’s relationship with time. It’s because, if humanity had entry to this stage of know-how for over 800 years on the very least, it is rather unlikely Jack Harkness could be the one time-traveling human, and even much less possible that every one people would do that beneath altruistic intentions.

We Could By no means Get the Full Reply to Jack Harkness’ Backstory

While this was an interesting element, that’s all it’s presently. We will infer what it means for Harkness’ wider lore and origin, however it’s unlikely we’ll ever see the captain return within the Disney-era of Physician Who. That is due to the complaints that had been made in opposition to him for his inappropriate habits, together with flashing folks on the units of Physician Who and the spin-off, Torchwood. Talking to Sky Information in 2021, the actor did not reject these allegations, admitting they had been “foolish habits” that he would “by no means do” now. Nevertheless, with Disney’s repute of typically favoring actors with clear pasts, to guard the model picture, the Time Lodge is probably the closest we are going to ever get to even a whiff of Jack Harkness.

Nevertheless, that does not make the Time Lodge any much less fascinating. It nonetheless units up a mess of plot factors that we might see explored down the street, similar to who else has entry to this know-how and what they’d do with it. Moreover, it additionally reveals simply how superior The Physician is, as he admires the people’ progress, but Gatwa performs it with simply sufficient comedy that we are able to inform he is not too impressed in comparison with what the TARDIS can do. While we are going to most likely not see Harkness once more, the Time Lodge a minimum of offers us clues in order that we are able to start to fill a few of the greater plot holes in his backstory, and that may simply should be adequate for now.

Physician Who episodes can be found to stream on Disney+ within the U.S.

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The present follows the adventures of a Time Lord, “The Physician,” who is ready to regenerate, and the Physician’s human mates. The Physician and his companions journey via time and area within the TARDIS – a time-traveling ship formed like a police field – saving the universe with a mixture of wit, bravery, and kindness.

Launch Date

December 25, 2023

Solid

Ncuti Gatwa
, Millie Gibson
, Susan Twist
, Michelle Greenidge
, Angela Wynter
, Jemma Redgrave
, Yasmin Finney
, Anita Dobson

Seasons

1

Producers

John Nathan-Turner
, Innes Lloyd
, Peter Bryant
, Philip Hinchcliffe
, Verity Lambert
, John Wiles

Creator(s)

Donald Wilson
, Sydney Newman

Story By

Sydney Newman C. E. Webber Donald Wilson

Predominant Style

Sci-Fi

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