Bayseian Fandom

[twincityhacker]

Cannon Statement:
Jack is a Fact of the universe.

Theory:
Jack's probability of existence is 1. This only becomes interesting when you realize that everyone else's probability of existence is lower. ( Ex. Toshiko Sato has a probability of 63% )

Not only can people be erased from existence with a paradox, there is - or now there is, since the fabric of time has grown more unstable since the Fall of the Time Lords and their obsessive matenence of a strict version of events - a small flickering in and out of existence based on events that happen do to even minor time travel interference in the time stream.

Examples in Cannon:
Timey-Wimy Sally Sparrow. Harriet Jones' political career. Tim Latimer missing that bomb, and resulting family because he lived. The Great and Bountiful Fourth Human Empire, though I'm not sure this one is a casualty of the Time War or not.

Conclusion:
So even if you made a Paradox Machine and killed Jack Harkness before he became Jack Harkness, he still would exist. And then he would probably kill you twice - before and after he destroyed the Paradox Machine.

Comments

[aeshna_uk]

My theory is that Jack's just. like. gallifrey.

Hmm, I don't think he's on quite the same level as Gallifrey - Gallifrey was ultimately created (in the sense of being outside of time) by the Time Lords and destroyed by a Time Lord. I don't think Jack can be destroyed or changed by anyone (or else the Master would have as I don't doubt he has that same knee-jerk instinctive reaction to him as the Doctor does; even if he didn't kill him, he would have made sure to leave physical scars). And that makes him something new and scary and potentially very powerful.

[fandom-me.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's *exactly* like Gallifrey - it's just a fun pet theory that I like to play with - but I really don't think he has endless power, either - A lot of 'life' and 'energy', but the only 'power' he seems to have is raw stuff and the inability to die and healing. Though I could be reading you wrong there.

And we've got some evidence that he's changing. I mean 1-) he keeps marks until he's dead or some time after injury (Cyberwoman and that bruise), 2-) he's aging, 3-) ultimately he turns into the freaking face of BOE. Even if you ignore that last thing - he's changing in some ways, and as for destroyed. Dunno. I'd be surprised if he was completely incapable of being destroyed. I don't think the Master or Doctor knows how, but I'm guessing there's a way.

[aeshna_uk]

The sense I get is not so much that it's a "power" he has but that he simply is: he's a universal constant, like gravity. He can't be destroyed, he can't be changed, he's fixed in space and time. The universe is stuck with him (and pretty much literally revolves around him)!

As I mentioned in another comment here, I'm not completely sold on the aging thing and the healing aspect outside of death seems to be human but accelerated-according-to-plot-requirements - a combination of Rose playing god without the manual and the likelihood of the writers not actually having decided on what Jack's deal was until Utopia was written. ;) Hopefully there'll be more consistency from here on out now they've worked out what's up with him. :)

(for the record: not going with the FoB thing because a) it's presented as a throwaway joke, b) it completely contradicts that beautifully structured scene in the radiation room as well as all canon concerning both characters up to that point, and c) I had a close relative die bedridden and physically dependent and I can remember how miserable and humiliating they found the latter aspect, so it's not a fate I'd wish on a character I claim to like, for the 5 billion years or so that the FoB was around!)