click this to see dislikes www.patreon.com/harbowholmes

I didnt realize this was only a fan theory. I thought this was like… the case?

I never really considered this a fan theory, I always assumed it was canon and the contradictions in the FoB backstory were things he made up or agreed to out of convenience, in torchwood its shown he doesn't like telling people he's immortal, he prefers to keep it a secret, he pretended to be the son of himself in one episode to hide his immortality while wanting to stay in touch with someone

Technically speaking, we only assume the "Boe kind" are real because the cat lady said so, but who's to say she ever saw them? It could've been a rumour started by FoB/Jack himself to make the universe THINK there used to be more than one of him to hide the fact that he's actually an ageless humanoid and/or create a new identity for himself.

But it's not a theory, it is confirmed, just cause you don't like it doesn't mean it's not true

We never see what the rest of the Bo-kind look like, but we do know Jack is from Boshane Peninsula. It’s entirely possible the humans that settled there could have named themselves the Bo-kind, because like Cassandra says, when the humans left Earth they mingled and devised new names for their species. So when it is said he is the last of the Bo-kind it could be referring to the massacre that happened on Jacks home world that we see in Torchwood series 2.

Idk if this matters, but there's an official Doctor Who poster I have that says "Things I learned from Doctor Who" and the last bullet point is "being immortal can give you a big head."

I don't think its that much of a stretch for Jack to have developed psychic powers as he aged. There are already humans on earth with "low-level psychic energy," so who's to say he didn't have that potential but could only tap into it by living long past his natural lifespan? Or, maybe he got them some other way. Remember, the timelords didn't always have regeneration...

IMO Jack is Boe. When Martha mentioned Boe in Utopia, Jack figured out that he'd eventually become something unrecognisable known as "The Face of Boe", but didn't mention it because they had to stop The Master, and only mentioned it after The Master was defeated. Maybe Rose only made him immortal until he said "You are not alone"? Also I don't think anything happened to make Jack the Face of Boe, I think that's just what a human becomes after millions of years of aging.

He literally said in the show he would be called The Face of Boe to the doctor, it’s not a theory, it’s confirmed and it has been for a decade. However, it doesn’t really matter that much to the story, it’s just a bit of a fun surprise at the end of the episodes to keep people interested.

i can imagine jack being so flirty and had all the time to evolve through dying genetically just made his own race and civilization, that even could of died out making him the last

For a long time I wasn't even aware that it was a theory, because I'd thought the dialogue in Last of the Time Lords was explicit and undeniable confirmation. Even now it feels weird to call it a vague allusion.

Wasn’t it confirmed by Moffat that he wanted Captain Jack in the doctor’s “army” during A good man goes to war. And he wanted Captain’s head to be cut by the monks and separated from his body. Do to conflicting schedules he had to be replaced with Dorium Maldovar.

I feel like captain Jack's immortality wouldn't kick in with the headless monks since the monks decapitation keeps you alive

Why does HOW Jack turned into the FoB need to be explained? Something weird could have happened to him just once every thousand years, and that would literally mean millions of times during his ridiculously long lifespan.

So... hold on. The writer of the episode and co-creator of the character, the actor who plays the character, and the actors who play the characters closest to him all agree that Jack is the Face of Boe and you get to disbelieve it because you don't like it? That's kind of like saying you don't believe in mavity because you don't like what it says about it in books.

It is literally confirmed in series 3 that jack is the face of boe, not a theory but cannon lore confirmed in the tv show and explained by Russel t davies and john barrowman. Is this an out of season April fools joke?

I don't think the death of the author/authorial intent thing really applies here, that's moreso for themes and allegories and stuff like your example with tolkien, with something like this it's very obvious what the point of that final scene with jack martha and 10 was I think it's totally fine to dislike this narrative decision (I'm not a fan of it either it clashes with the previously established backstory of the face of boe and forces you to hc it as "maybe he made up that history" or something) but to pretend it's a "theory" and not just like an implicit fact in the show's universe is a bit silly imo

Right before revealing he is the Face of Boe, Jack asks the Doctor how aging will work for him but the Doctor does not know. Since the Doctor doesn't know how this all works, how did you figure it out?

Haven't seen torchwood but Jack being the face of Boe isn't a fan theory, it was stated in the show. We see the Doctor's true age in the S3 finale and see how it drastically changes someone's appearance. I think we can assume the same will happen to someone who lives for billions of years.

i always thought the reason why Jack went from basic humanoid "a few limbs and a face" to just a face was that, if you're gonna live to the year 5 billion your body is probably gonna go through all the millennia of human evolution THAT would be happening over thousands of generations. Especially if Jack continues to travel the universe after humans fully vacate earth, the evolution jack goes through would change depending on the environs he lives in, leading him to becoming something entirely unique... like a giant head in a jar

The nickname could have been a comment that Jack was rather big-headed 😂

I get that there's doubt over this because it feels like a "stretch" for him to change so much in every single way, but... Tbh, if he did live for billions of years, that is an absolutely insane amount of time. Like, an unthinkable amount of time. We have no idea what happened to him or how much that amount of time affected his body.

I would say what RTD did has a lot more Wait then what JK did. He actually put allusions and hints to his meaning in the text. Foreshadowing is a thing and just because a text doesn't explicitly say something doesn't mean that thing isn't the case.

At the end of Torchwood someone else gained Jacks ability of immortality. Maybe Jack repeated this in the future and start a race of immortals like him so he wouldn't be alone

It’s NOT fan theory, RTD himself said that captain Jack IS the face of boe

I think Harbo is under the impression that writers of the show make SO much of an effort to make every little thing perfectly line up with existing canon, for something that's been around for 70 years. When writers have someone say "The Face of Bo, they called me," it isn't a joke or anything complicated. It is exactly as it seems right on its face: writers who love the show, love its audience, and wanted to confirm their own favorite fan theory! If it doesn't make sense to one rando obsessive fan on KZfaq, who cares? They are the writers and they can fix things as they go! :D

I think if Davies has said it's Jack, it's Jack

Fan theory? You mean confirmed fact? Is it a fan theory that Luke and Leia are siblings too?

8:10 ... For the telepathy thing, look no further than Greeks Bearing Gifts. But I think the most damning piece of evidence to suggest Jack is the Face of Boe is that Jack is the only male character who can, and has gotten pregnant.

I like the Captain Jack Harkness is The Face Of Boe. For it makes a lot of sense.

Not so much to do with the theory, but I swore I recognised Bo from his first appearance, naturally I assumed, he was from classic. My immediate reaction was "Oh, it's him! Oh, what's his name..? He was a big part of,, I can't remember who's, era" Years later I discovered I was full of it, but I'm telling you, I greeted him like an old friend. Design was perfect in that regatd

this isn't a theory this is just what happened

Here's a point that was missed: In the episode The Long Game the year is approximately 200,000. While Cathica is explaining that Satellite 5 is the news station, she lists several current events including "And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant." So the Face of Boe is already a giant head by the year 200,000. (There is a shot of the FoB on the news screen.) Chronologically, the next time we see the FoB is on Platform One in the year 5 billion, then on New Earth, then in Gridlock where he finally dies. The point is, whatever and wherever the FoB is and came from, he has achieved his final form by the year 200,000. The question of pregnancy brings up another point: has Jack ever been pregnant? Or if Jack is the Face of Boe, when did he develop the ability to get pregnant? Which would be some time before becoming head of Torchwood III. In Everything Changes the opening lines for the TW team are from Jack. He talks about humans' birth control entering the water system, evaporating, then raining back down on the planet and demonizing the fish. Then he remarks "At least I won't get pregnant. I'm not doing that again." So he already had that ability. Unless he was joking. The team remarks a few times that they never know when to take Jack seriously with the crazy stuff he says. So who knows? Re psychic abilities, we know Jack has some. For instance, when Tosh acquires the pendant that lets her read thoughts, she reads each of her teammates (though her reading of Ianto ended up a deleted scene), and Jack is the only one who was aware of her attempt with him. She could not read Jack. But Jack felt Tosh's attempt to invade his thoughts and used the connection to communicate with her near the end of the episode. And as mentioned elsewhere, the Doctor has spoken of humans' latent psychic ability, most notable in Tim the schoolboy in Human Nature/The Family of Blood. So does all this prove Jack is the Face of Boe? No. Does it add to the theory? Maybe. I think RTD wrote it as a big joke, then when a lot of fans got a bit obsessed RTD just ran with it. It certainly entertained John Barrowman, David Tennant, and the fandom. Cheers.

Moffat apparently even intended Jack to return in "A Good Man Goes to War" but was replaced with Dorium Maldovar who got beheaded instead. Makes sense as it's the episode where the doctor calls in favors from a wide assortment of characters across time. This also helps explain the appearance of the vortex manipulator in "The Padorica Opens" (aka the one River gets from Dorium who got it from a "handsome time agent"). It's clear Moffat intended Jack to return during that era - Barrowman being too busy with Torchwood to film. I never thought we'd see Jack return post-controversy but was thrilled to have him join 14 even briefly. It's clear Chibnall had no interest in revisiting that storyline but I could honestly see some sort of nod or confirmation during the 60th. It's a shame we never saw the original storyline with the headless monks, but I still think there could be potential for something more exciting to confirm the transformation of Jack to Boe. I just hope they wrap that storyline up before RTD, Tennet, and Barrowman all lose interest in the show again.

If I recall, originally it was planned for Jack to show up in a good man goes to war and get his head lopped off by the headless monks... Which could happen even if he wasn't there at demons run, dude fucks pretty much everything and no doubt has seen a monk without it's hood. Also, the idea that Jack can regenerate from being blasted into tiny little pieces isn't a theory breaker for that either. The headless monk's arent kind enough to kill you by beheading, your head and body remain alive while separated. So it's not likely jack would regenerate as it has no need to heal damage that doesn't get registered.

Should we tell him...?

Do I want him to be the Face of Boe? No Do I think he is? Yes I don’t like the idea because just making Jack the same individual as Boe removes the potential for an interesting standalone character and removes the potential for future stories or just hints at what Boekind was like when they were an entire species. Or preferably just a mysterious figure all together with no real history. Sadly though, I think at this point he is. Regardless of original intention. Did I want the Borg to have a queen even though they’re a hive? No. Did I want Fred Weasley to die? No Do I want the Face of Boe to be Jack? No. Sadly, I’m afraid I can’t always get what I want.

I think a lot of people like to cling to the idea of Jack being the FoB because it gives Captain Jack a happy ending, when you think about it. He gets to basically die in The Doctor's arms after seeing the universe, his last words completing a cycle before he finally gets to rest. It's a damn romantic final scene for the character

Honestly I subscribe to the idea that the Face of Boe is a "Byproduct" of Jack's immortality... But isn't Jack himself. Pretty much the idea goes that as Jack Ages, he encounters a situation where he gets his head cut off and the other head is separated for an extreme amount of time and distance. Someone needs Jack Harness to help, and revives him using his body, which generates a new head due to his immortality, however the scrapped head lives on and tries to compensate, creating the Face of Boe. Is it wacky? Yeah, does it solve the problems of Jack being the face of Boe and someone else being the face of Boe? I think so at least, it writes around Jack's immortality while also explaining how Boe can know about Yana. Heck, maybe this whole thing happened as part of a time travel incident with Jack and The Face of Boe is the first Boekind with that discarded head evolving due to the shunted Immortality+him still aging. We do see that Jack has been doing funky stuff with himself in the Fugitive of the Jadoon, maybe that nanotech is what Jack's main body used to keep his self together after the Face of Boe split off?

Aside from this not being a theory and being confirmed in the show, it is probable that the face of Boe wasn't originally Jack and they plot-holed it in. But consider, maybe since he can age he can also mutate or evolve given the vast amount of time he's lived. This could explain his powers and his appearance, but it could also mean that his children would also have similar mutations: meaning he could have been the first and last of Boe kind.

wdym fan theorys it was literally confirmed lmao

I do believe in "death of the author" when it comes to Brain of Morbius, because I think a reasonable person such as myself, not knowing the writers intended the extra faces to be pre-Hartnel Doctors, I for years and years thought of them as Morbius incarnations. My view was unbiased by any inside intel, living here in America before the internet. Most people who jumped on it being Doctors were already privy to info I didn't have. That said, I do think Jack is Beau, because the only strong evidence Against Jack being Beau is the Beau-kind. Which perhaps, Jack, once he transformed into the head shaped being, began procreating and fathered a whole species that he of course outlived...? OR maybe Jack was transformed into another species by a villain who thought moving Jack's mind out of his original body, into that of another species, would be the one way to kill him, and again, he outlives all the members of the species he became a part of... As for psychic powers and whatnot, maybe that bit came along with the transformation, OR maybe Jack/Beau had an adventure with some plot device that gave him the powers along his billions of years. And it was never Reset at the end of said hypothetical adventure. You know, like life, instead of in stories, where things happen and don't get reset after 45 min.

This....isn't a theory....

I don't consider this a fan theory because it is a theory that didn't originate with the fans, but was directly posited as a possibility within the show itself. I feel a better question would be, "is it canon?" Even without going into the ever changing and evolving nature of canon within a show which is ongoing and has multiple writers, I think it is obviously not canon that Captain Jack is the Face of Boe. Characters within the show ponder if it is true, but we are never shown it is definitively true. So until we get an episode definitively showing the Face of Boe's origins, it remains a possibility but not a fact within the fiction of the show.

I also dont like the whole Jack is the face of boe thing but I disagree with a lot of these points. Why would we take the existence of other boe-kind as fact? That could easily be a back story that the fob made up for himself, we dont see any other boe-kind and no one is the show has either. Jack is constantly lying about his past. There are so many ways that a human might become physic after millennium of existence. I personally head canon that Jack isn't the fob but that doesn't change the fact that the show confirmed he was textually.

I think it's pretty easy to explain the face of boes race. We even get mention that he has a daughter. He could be the progenitor of his species, which came about after Jack mutated

Russell recently wrote a short story confirming that Harriet Jones survived the events of The Stolen Earth by dropping through a trap-door onto a mattress-trampoline and riding away on a motorbike. I'm not joking. Best to take his after-the-fact musings with a pinch of salt

I've never had any problem with Jack being the Face of Bo. I'm not sure where you got this idea that someone can't gain psychic abilities because to my knowledge that's never been stated in the show. The Doctor didn't seem to know about the Bo kind so that could have just been a made up story that Jack/Bo told the Cat person. Plus Jack is the only living thing like him in the universe so in a way he's been the last of his kind since he came back to life. All that being said I'm fully supportive to the Death of the Author approach and have many of my own unconfirmed Doctor Who head-cannons.

My issue with this has always been a rather simple one: Jack can't die. A literal time god granted him immortality, I don't see how he could have lost that to become the Face of Boe and die after telling Ten that he isn't alone.

At the End of Torchwood, There is literally another character like Jack because he inserted Jack's blood in order to stop the immortality curse in Torchwood:Miracle day.

It's not a fan Theory. They say it in the fucking show.

Using the "Boe Kind" lines doesn't make sense to me as a piece of evidence against the Face of Bo not being Jack. Rule #1: The Doctor Lies. Why not Jack? Personally, I'd find it pretty frustrating if I aged into a giant head and had to explain "Yeah, there's this blue box called the TARDIS, this girl from the 21st century was imbued by its powers and brought me back to life permanently. And basically, only me and that Doctor fellow you keep hearing about in legends are the only two people who seem to have an endless life span in this universe as a result." I might shorten that down by just saying "I'm from an extremely long-lived species; I survived a great extinction event and I'm the last of my kind" at some point. That lie I started telling thousands of years ago might spread across the galaxy and a cat lady in the far distant future tells the Doctor about some species I made up. And I might decide to keep it going as a joke, because I know the Doctor does eventually figure it out. (As for the pregnant bit: I took that as a joke towards gag tabloids declaring stuff like "Elvis Presley Pregnant with Alien") One of the other big aesthetic choices RTD made with NuWho is to create an almost wild-west style universe, where the Doctor travels, visiting different peoples throughout time and space, who don't have the complete picture of how everyone and everything interacts. It's hard to say how effectively people can communicate across distant galaxies. It's often implied to be very inefficient, with only the TARDIS being able to disobey the physical limits of communications technology. This was how legends spread on Earth: a long, arduous journey of telephone, and with occasional liars along the way, exaggerating sailors' encounters with manatees to be mermaid encounters. Or giant squid being a kraken that could eat a ship. Or strange, mangey looking creatures drinking the blood of goats in Mexico. I see this being the way the Face of Boe was spread around as a member of a legendary dead species. Even the Doctor talks of legends when he discusses the Face of Boe. Assuming that "Boe Kind" are a canonical species seems like a very big assumption when considering Jack's own "Face of Boe" line and it being a nickname. In my opinion, it takes more effort to justify "Boe Kind" being a unique species on both the canonical level and the artist intent's level. Especially since we really only have two solid pieces of evidence that they're a unique species: the existence of Boe and their pregnancy. Everything else is hearsay, even the Doctor's own expositions (as far as I can tell; I may have missed a scene when looking for clips on KZfaq and it's been a while since I have seen Boe episodes). Another point I'll make: Jack developing psychic powers in the span of millions, perhaps billions, of years is not far-fetched. Consider the powers of Badwolf, and consider that those powers were the very origin of Jack. Rose became Badwolf, a human girl. Let alone the endless possibilities of other mechanisms Jack could have harnessed (Doctor Donna was another instance of a human attaining great mental capacities; even Madame de Pompadour was able to employ some psychic skills with the Doctor's help; the entirety of humanity working together in a psychic network restored the Doctor, as well, which Jack witnessed and may have taken interest in looking for more instances of). I think it's weirder to say Jack ISN'T the Face of Boe, when accounting for all the mechanisms, that are already cannon, that could allow Jack to become the Face of Boe. And one other point, on a metatextual level: it would be extremely dissatisfying if the Face of Boe were actually a nonhuman species we never see and have no reason to care about, leaving Jack's permanent fixed-point style existence unresolved. It's a loose thread that, I think, needed to be resolved because of how often it was called upon in RTD's (now first) era.

Blud made a 14 minute video of saying “oh yeah it’s confirmed but I CHOOSE not to believe it!”

When they say the Face of Bo is the last of his kind they are referring to the immortals. Ishilda wasn't around yet in universe she was but she never met Jack. Also let's not forget rhe Headless Monks had strange powers that could keep a head alive even after decapitation. It makes sense that if he helps the Doctor at Demons Run and is decapitated his limbs don't grow back. We don't know what happened to his immortality after the end of Miracle Day. It can be argued that his immortality was effected. The bo kind can also have just been a lie something to keep people guessing about what he really was

FFS. "in season 3 it's set up that the face of boe dies and tells the doctor, his old friend despite the doctor not being fully aware of who he is, telling the doctor YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Both an forewarning of the events of utopia and also abbreviates to 'YANA' the name the master took when exiled to the end of time as a human. Jack, Martha, and the Doctor, are the only ones who know that the Master and Yana were the same people. And I doubt the Saxon Master told his cult about that. Only a few dozen people even remember the Saxon timeline too. Then, at the end of the episode Jack tells the doctor "I think I'm still aging, what happens if I live to be millions of years old", the doctor "I have no idea." Then Jack says goodbye and mentions about how he hopes to keep his dashing looks as he's proud of them and how he was known as 'the face of boe' in his past. It's not like IDK THE FUCKING SCENE SAYS >JACK IS STILL AGING >ONE OF JACKS NAMES IS THE FACE OF BOE >HES LITERALLY SAYING HES THE FACE OF BOE Jesus you're jumping through hoops

Even though I think the Face of Boe thing is confirmed to be Jack, I will say I prefer the idea of tFoB being either his own entity or the Doctor at the end of his life that you suggested Plus despite Jack being immortal, I genuinely don't think it would be impossible to kill him, it would just come with great risk/unforeseen consequences (if he was able to be made, he could be unmade). And just because the Doctor doesn't know the answer, doesn't mean one doesn't exist

How could there be other Boekinds? Simple: Jack is so old that *he had babies that subsequently became the rest of the species.*

I always saw the whole “old friend” thing as them being in a handful of individuals in the entire universe who understand living for so long whilst being the last of their kind, and so because of all of that they’re kindred souls, similar to the minotaur in The God Complex.

For me the BIGGEST argument against Jack being the Face of Boe is that when The Doctor explains to Jack why he hasn't been in touch it's because Jack is a living fixed point in time and shouldn't exist and that just looking at him basically makes his skin crawl. When Jack does the cute "The Face of Boe they called me" line, the Doctor and Rose are BOTH surprised and unsure if it meant they were the same person. However, if they WERE the same person, The Doctor would have gotten exactly the same sensation from FoB as he did with Jack every time he saw him and there's no indication he did - and if he did and didn't mention it then he wouldn't be surprised to find out they were the same entity.

I love the idea that Jack is the Face of Boe, but to add to your point, I'd say that if Face of Boe was some sort of big celebrity in the galaxy... Maybe Jack's friends gave him that nickname in reference to THE Face of Boe. Like, a conscious, voluntary reference to a famous person, because Boeshane sounds like Boe, idk...

I have something to pose to anyone who thinks Jack isn't the face of Bo and is instead out there somewhere traipsing about in his regular form: You cannot tell me that Jack would miss the destruction of earth. Even if he wasn't an earthling it's still the core of humanity and that man would definitely watch that event.

My big problem is that Jack isn't immortal, he's literally locked in time, he's more akin to what Clara becomes than anything else. THAT'S why blowing him up doesn't work, he doesn't Deadpool back, he literally just resets. The Doctor literally identified him as a fixed point in time, so he shouldn't be able to change at all. Sure, that implies *other* logical issues that I've always taken issue with and just had to ignore, but he literally *can't* change into Bo.

It's canon, he literally calls himself the FoB in The Last of the Time Lords

Wasn't the Silver Devastation the same place that Yana mentioned being found in Utopia? Assuming those were real memories of course, it is interesting that the only other mention of it seems to be in relation to the Face of Boe

Jack's children aren't immortal so maybe bow kind are his children or something? Also, Jack wasn't there at the end of the universe (Hell Bent) so it stands to reason he dies at some point

Jack literally tells the Doctor and sidekick that his nickname when he was a young man was "The face of Boe", after the place where he grew up, the Boeshane Peninsula. Terry Nation (or whomever) wanted to hint strongly at this but then went back to sitting on the fence, to the point where he was told off by others associated with the production for his vacillating.

It's confirmed, I don't see why you're fighting it.

Mate, if the writers write it in and then never contradict it publicly ever again it’s not really worth wondering about 😂

It's kind of weird to see this talked about as a fan *theory*, because, like... the scene where Jack says he was called the Face of Bo is completely pointless if it's not true. I can understand disagreeing with theories about *how* this happened - but that's mainly because the answer is "Somehow". Like, however it happened, it definitely did. (Over Roland Barthes... I don't think Barthes ever intended that you can just throw out authorial intent when it's explicit. Death of the Author doesn't mean "make stuff up". It says that other interpretations of the text are valid.)

It's possible that far in the future Jack Harkness underwent a genetic mutation which he became The Face of Boe.

"I can hear him signing." Credit to you, I was expecting a Rick Roll.

According to Steven Moffat, Captain Jack Harkness was going to be part of The Doctor's Army in “A good man goes to war”. However, John Barrowman was filming Season Four of Torchwood (2006) ("Miracle Day") in America. In the episode he was going to be beheaded and his head would survive separate to his body due to how to headless monks’ process works as shown with the blue guy that is beheaded in AGMGTW.

Idk. Nearly 5 billion years sounds like more than enough time for a whole civilization of Boe to rise and fall, as well as Jack learning a little ESP.

death of the author is ignoring authorial intent and comments OUTSIDE of the piece of work itself, you can’t just disregard elements of the actual text for convenience. If I’m writing an essay on hamlet I can’t just say “hamlet doesn’t die” and then quote death of the author when people say that’s not true (source: I’m an English major and have studied death of the author extensively) If RTD had just said that jack was the face of Boe out of nowhere on twitter years later (like JK Rowling as you referenced) then you would be well within your rights to ignore it, but as it’s said pretty explicitly in the show as well you can’t really just say “nuh uh” and dismiss it as a “fan theory”

What music did you use in this video??? 😎🤟

I always kinda thought that Jack, after over a million years evolved to something that became the father of the Boekind people, he birthed their "Adam and Eve" watched and guided them through their time, possibly worshiped, possibly hiding in the background guiding their world and/or protecting them from harm, or both or a mix of the 2 at different times as the eons rolled by, then wept as they grew to extinction while he remained. Perhaps he and his people were bipedal when it started and he was just a face in the end. Who knows.... Who nose....

Are you reviewing season 11?

re: Boekind, we know that The Face of Boe had a child, Boemina in the year 200,000 (as noted in the video). Presumably Boekind are all the descendants of the Face of Boe (presumably to different mothers and fathers if it's Jack). 5 billion years is long enough for him to have enough of them to form effectively an entire race of people, and enough time for him to outlive them all.

Face of Boe doesn’t even need to know anything about the Master or the Year That Never Happened. Any incarnation of the Doctor could have run in to a younger version of Boe and have some adventures with them at the end of which they could have shown him a picture of 10th Doctor and say something like "You will meet this version of me 3 times, the 3rd time you will die. When that happens, before you die, you need to tell that me 'You are not alone'. You need to say these exact words. Okay? Good." And just take of in the TARDIS. That would keep everything we saw of Boe the same. It would be just like Amy, Rory and Doctor in Time-Space minisode duo(yes I know it a weird example but it's the best one I could think of)

Why is it that we could believe a head in a jar has telepathy, but over the billions of years a guy who can not die can't learn telepathy. Just a thought.

Im faily certain this isnt a theory and was just outright confirmed at one point or another. I could be misremembering, but im pretty confident i remember reading somewhere that the showrunners confirmed this theory as fact.

Like jack never dies peacefully, he sometimes combusts so every time he comes back and stuff his atoms and stuff may be more and more altered bc he still ages, he’s not like a time lord where EVERYTHING gets a factory reset. It’s just kind of repaired, sort of like how 11 talked to the droid thing in “the nightmare in silver” and also with new technology etc and look at Cassandra, perhaps humans needing to “edit” themselves to this degree is commonplace and like Cassandras handlers and her rack thing and brain like how the FOB was in a tank, life supports to sustain yourself in this state and also probably commonplace.

boe kind could be what immortal humans look like after theyve lived for thousands of years with their bodies still aging. its not impossible that there were many more immortal humans that aged enough to become boe kind

You left out how in “bang the drums” the doctor aging had his body shrink yet his head increase! Plus if you tuned into a giant brain im sure mental powers would evolve to replace the body.

What are you talking about. This isn’t a fan theory. He IS the face of Bo

With regards to death of the author, my take has always been; if you felt something while experiencing a piece of media, you still felt that regardless of whether the author meant for it or not

**Captain Jack runs over to Martha & the Doctor** JACK: “Oh btw, I’m the Face if Boe… Bye!” **Jack proceeds to jump into a time vortex immediately disappearing**

All the problems with this theory can so easily be counted by the fact that it spans literally billions of years and this is a science fiction show. How does Jack turn into the Face of Boe? Something science fiction. This is the same show where the Doctor has been turned into a Weeping Angel, a gooey clone, a part-cyberman, and more. In just one short adventure, anything can happen to a character. Now imagine living for billions of years in this type of storyworld, yeah, it's so plausible that Jack could turn into the Face of Boe. He could be sauntering around in the year one billion, get thrown into some anti-fixed-point boe-making machine, and come out as the Face of Boe. Since he is slowly aging over the centuries and millennia, it's very possible that in five billion years (or more, given that he keeps travelling back and forth in time) that this is just how humans age if they survived that long. Our bodies shrink, eventually our heads grow, tentacles and shit. Also, radiation, alien influences, wounds that bypass his healing system, over billions of years that could have an impact. All it takes is one Big Finish story to show Jack becoming the Face of Boe and boom, that's how it happens. It's a very easy concept to imagine, to be honest. I like to imagine that at some point the Headless Monks do get to Jack, and their weapons are stronger than his healing system and so it overrides his natural DNA so he's a living head, and over centuries his body tries to adapt to that with its healing factor and he becomes the Face of Boe. Also, telepathy is probably the easiest to explain, there are so many ways humans or any creature could develop telepathy in this universe, and you could also just argue that he trained his mind for thousands of years and unlocked that ability. It's a very simple science fiction concept. Hell, who even says it's biological, he could just have some space technology implant that allows him to send telepathic messages. Lastly, the Boekind, it's also got a very easily explanation. Jack fucks. Famously, Captain Jack Harkness likes to fuck. When he becomes the Face of Boe, do you really think Jack would stop fucking? If there is a way for him to fuck, he will fuck. We see he's had children before, and they come out looking like a little him but without his immortality. So, imagine it's the year 200,000 and his biology has changed so much that he can get pregnant, and now he's done a fuck and gotten pregnant and out comes little Boemina. His daughter would look just like him, and thus he has created the race of Boekind. This birth could have happened in the Silver Devastation in the Isop Galaxy, hence that new speicies is considered to have been from there. Jack continues to have more kids, as one does, and these kids go on to have kids of their own (not necessarily with each other, but still continuing the species). The offspring, however, do not have their progenitor's immortality, and so they age and die, and eventually the entire species dies out (or evolves into another species). I mean, from the year 200,000 to 5 billion, that's 4.8 billion years. Anatomically modern humans only emerged 300,000 yeas ago. The first humans emerged two million years ago. Primates only diverged from other mammals less than 100 million years ago. The Cambrian explosion was only 500 million years ago. Earliest multicellular life was over 1.5 billion years ago. Earth itself is less than 4.8 billion years old right now. So, it's very plausible that in that time the Face of Boe could give birth to a whole new species, have that species rise and fall, become well-known and become ancient and then die out, all in the span of 4.8 billion years. It's a hell of a long time. And given Jack still cannot die until his fixed point, the Face of Boe survives it all, sees his own Boekind be born, rise and fall, and die out. This is quite literally the easiest part of this theory to explain. In billions of years, the Face of Boe could have children, create a new race, have that race die out, and then be the last of his kind.

Imagine getting over 5 billion years old and ending up as a big face in a glass a thousand years could be nice but that age can only be a tragedy

I think the reason the face of bo dies is because of rose, the year 5 billion was the furthest she ever went, so when she brought Jack back to life she made it so he'd be alive for as long as she could imagine, thats why the times we see him after "The end of the world" hes dying, because Jack's natural life span kicks back in.

I’d like to think that jack did get decapitated and the head became Bo but the body grew a new head. The immortality thing only applied to the body and so Bo could die and jack could not. A nice middle ground.

the reason i don't like this theory is because captain jack is a fixed point time so he literally cannot die people argue that it was at least 5 billion years when Boe died so its got to happen eventually but time is relative and on a universal scale 5 billion can still be considered to be nothing. But jack being fixed point in time transcends 5 billion years to the point where time has to definitively end for him to end but on the other hand, wtf does that even mean?

The revived version actually introduces two persons who become immortal. Jack and Ashildr. Now Ashildr is from Earth whereas Jack is from a colony of Earth. So it is safe to assume that the only reasons the biochemistry of both individuals will only change if 1. It is different on the colony planet where Jack is from when compared to Earth. 2. The device that Ashildr has in her is keeping her static instead of evolving and the future evolution of humans may look something like Boe-kind. The second reason sounds illogical though considering why would Jack evolve that way even if rest of humanity does. Besides we clearly see Jack aging (external reason is John himself is aging, like a fine wine if I may say so), so it is quite likely that he may die a natural death, he is just immune to other kinds of violent deaths. In such a situation, it is quite likely that he may transfer his consciousness into a Boe-kind being, with the name "Face of Boe" being some kind of a prophecy or something. He has to leave Earth for some reason (probably on Torchwood business) some time in the distant future, so when he left Earth, enemies of Earth who tried to invade but got thwarted by Jack, now decided that it was a perfect time to attack him, as he is getting old. Fed up of getting constantly attacked, but realising he holds vast amounts of valuable information that will help preserve humanity, he sacrifices his own human body by transferring his consciousness in that body, known only to Torchwood, and he leads Torchwood as the same old Jack in a new body while he maintains his cover as an "ancient venerable being" whose best defence is that he is incapable of defending himself physically, so he has to defend himself telepathically, and that he is worthless if destroyed. Its all speculation, considering none of the above is grounded in any Whoniverse media. Alternatively, a very simple explanation does exist and it is very very VERY silly. The "Face of Boe" is not a name but a position, like the Dalai Lama. Jack has inherited the position, and after Jack resigns, someone else will inherit it. Again, all speculation, so grain of salt. Two explanations: one complex, one simple. Occam's Razor. Until further info comes from the creative team, its all speculation.

The rules about the doctors memory in day of the doctor makes no sense even within the episode because right at the end we meet the curator and it doesn't seem like Matt forgot about him and you would only get your memory once the older version of you has lived that moment

outside of the writers directly saying that its true it isn't a theory, boehsame penunisula knew the YANA thing and "they called me the face of boe"

I mean it does make sense for captain jack to gain psychic powers, it's a sci fi show, and he's imortal traveling to so many different planets. also, again, sci fi, we don't know what happens when someone ages for millions of years, also the fact he seems to age slowly implies that the enviroment does have an effect on his body since aging is just the result of cells mutating and getting less good as they multiply which is affected greatly by stress, the sun, movemtn etc, this means that if jack were to spend a lot of time in harsh enviroments, then it wouldn't kill him, but it would definately take a toll on him physically, and space radiation is definitatley a thing, also hi. being immortal means he can take risks, he may not even realise that the enviroment does affect him but very slowly, so he'd be going into radiation, massive amounts of heat, cold, intense gravity etc without a worry and as others have mentioned, the boshane peninsula could have all had people referring to themselves as bo kind and they likely aren't fully human as cassandra mentions they all mingle with aliens and call themselves different things (hence bo kind) and they were all wiped out, so he would be the last of his kind also, it is confirmed in the show, that's what the line in series 3 does, he outright says "hey called me he face of boe" edi: just also realised, jack is constantly exposed to the time vortex, and with the immortality would be exposed more than any other time agent, and we know that does weird stuff

Invoking Death of the Author doesn't matter here. It's confirmed within the show, by the narrative. It's placed prominently at the end of a big event as a lorebomb treat. The reveal gets a big react shot from the main characters. Everything about the language of cinema and basic narrative is saying "ha ha ha! Betcha didn't see THAT one coming! What a fun twist that doesn't actually matter! You're welcome!" After all, if Jack isn't the big head, there's no reason for this scene to exist, and it has no weight. If it's not a reveal, then it's pointless exposition during the falling action, where you'd usually expect a twist or punchline or stinger of some sort. If it weren't a part of the story, it wouldn't be in the story, especially in such a prominent position in the narrative.

If he's not the Face of Boe then that means there are canonically two characters who have been referred to as the Face of Boe, and I don't know if I can live with that knowledge

If Jack was Boe, I'd imagine he probably went through some genetic modification for some reason, probably not willingly. That's honestly the only way I can explain his ability to reproduce and could also explain Boekind. No clue on why, maybe some aliens wanted to make an army of being's with Jack's powers, but failed 🤷‍♂️