How Doctor Who canceled the graphic novel would have been linked to the feed
A canceled Captain Jack graphic novel was said to have been linked to Doctor Who: Flux – and that could also have explained an unsolved mystery.
One canceled Doctor Who graphic novel could have explained one of the mysteries of Doctor Who: Flux. Running Doctor Who Showrunner Chris Chibnall brought Captain Jack Harkness back from John Barrowman in Season 11, setting him up for a bright future. The character made sporadic appearances during Russell T. Davies’ tenure as showrunner, even serving as a companion to Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor for a time, and starred in the spinoff series. Torchwood; his return has naturally delighted the fans. Barrowman reappeared in the 2021 vacation special, “The Dalek Revolution,” an event that even seemed to point to the possibility of a Torchwood the comeback.
And then it all fell apart. Allegations surfaced that Barrowman exposed himself on set during the production of Doctor Who during the Davies era, and he appears to have been blacklisted by the BBC – which understandably doesn’t want a family drama associated with this kind of scandal. Even ties to Captain Jack were cut, like a Big Finish audio drama in which Barrowman took over the role. A mysterious graphic novel by Captain Jack, designed to relate to Doctor Who: Flux, was also fired. This, naturally, led to intense speculation as to how this complemented the plot of Doctor Who season 12.
An important clue was offered by a plot summary briefly posted on the Penguin Random House website. According to the summary, this was designed to Doctor Who: Flux episode 2 – in which the Sontarans invaded Earth – and would see Captain Jack transported through a “time window“in Cardiff in the 19th century.
In the midst of kicking alien butt – and looking good doing it – Captain Jack Harkness is suddenly transported through a time window to Cardiff in the 19th century… again!
Realizing that there is more than one thing in the works, he sets out to find out what the team at the Victorian-era Torchwood Institute are up to behind closed doors, in the hope of solving the mystery of why time windows are popping up everywhere. But what he finds is very unexpected, and will certainly leave him in need of a helping hand from some old friends …
Straight out of the long-running blockbuster TV series, this bold new story ties directly into Episode Two of the highly anticipated Series 13.
It’s reasonable to assume that the graphic novel would have started with Captain Jack taking on the Sontarans, perhaps giving a better idea of what an Earth occupied by aliens looked like. The most interesting detail in the synopsis is the “time window,“however, which transports Captain Jack through time and space. Doctor Who: Flux Episode 2 saw the Doctor separated from his companions Yaz and Dan by mysterious temporal events that dragged them through time and space, Dan leading a resistance against the Sontarans in present-day Liverpool and Yaz transported to the mysterious temple of Atropos. It looks exactly like “time window“that scared off Captain Jack – and it is possible that the graphic novel Captain Jack – written by Jody Houser, with illustrations by Roberta Ingranata – could have explained these phenomena, which seemed more than a little practical in episode 2 himself.
Running Doctor Who Showrunner Chris Chibnall clearly prefers a transmedia approach to storytelling. Doctor Who: Flux episode 5 secretly made a Doctor Who Magazine Dalek’s short story canon, while the upcoming 2022 holiday special features Executioner Daleks – a Dalek variant introduced in the 2020 “Time Lord Victorious” transmedia event. The series is unlikely to fully embrace transmedia – Doctor Who is produced by the BBC, a public service broadcaster, and the BBC’s Charter means that links should never be essential reading. Always, Doctor Who: Flux‘s tie-in might at least have shed some light on a underlying mystery, even if it was not essential reading.
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