Utopia Speculation

[taffimai]

I've been pondering the continuity issues raises by the clip we saw of "Utopia" and what we saw in "End of Days" and I have an idea ...

What if they're both accurate?

Everyone's been looking at the Utopia trailer as a huge problem, since the only thing that we know from End of Days is that Jack didn't go out through the tourist office. It certainly looked like the Doctor picked him up from the Hub, but Jack taking the invisible lift up to the Plass was certainly possible. And yet in Utopia he's clearly running to catch the Tardis on the Plass from that direction of the tourism office.

And that's not the only problem.

In Utopia Jack has a rucksack, but it definitely doesn't look like he had time to grab a bag in End of Days. Now it's not a hard sell that Jack always keeps a bag packed, just in case, but it doesn't seem likely that he's keep it in the middle of the hub, and it doesn't seem like there would have been time to grab it from anywhere else.

Finally, in End of Days Jack has just revived, he looked like hell and seemed weak. In Utopia he's all-out sprinting towards the Tardis. This isn't a huge issue, since we have lots of evidence of Jack pushing himself and doing what's needed, but it's a little strange.

So why assume that the two are mutally exclusive? What if Jack did get picked up by the Doctor in the Hub, a Doctor from a later point in his timeline who wanted to get Jack ready to face his younger self? It would resolve all the issues in continuity, since the Doctor would have dropped him off just out of site on the Plass, Jack could have packed a bag from his old room in the Tardis, and the Doctor would have given him some time to recover his strength. Plus, given the little we've seen of the Doctor in Utopia, I could see older-Doctor wanting to prepare Jack for the idiocy of his younger self.

Obviously it's a bit early to know if this works, but I thought it was interesting. What do you all think?

Comments

[fandom-me.livejournal.com]

You know, honestly, the biggest problem I have with the trailer isn't the direction Jack's running or that he's got a bag. It's that he looks like hell in EoD and he's all pink cheeked and perky in the Utopia trailer. I have weird issues - and I like your idea a lot. I'm not at all sure it'll be canon, but I like it, regardless.

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Or....we just have a great big gaping plot hole and a massive continuity error. Cos the writers at DW couldn't figure out a way to tie it in to TW without confusing the kiddies and the adults who haven't seen TW. So they didn't even try, other than having Jack dressed in approximately the right outfit, and running from a direction that TW viewers will recognise as being from the tourist office.

I don't think they'll bother to explain. *is bitter and twisted* ;)

[lixa-turner.livejournal.com]

I think he may have ran up the stairs. Okay, I don't see how he could have done it quickly enough, but we only know for certain that he didn't go up either of the lifts. I suppose he could have kept a bag handy in the Tourist Office just in case the Doctor ever popped up. It's not the neatest of solutions, but it's possible.

[athousanderrors.livejournal.com]

except for the Doctor and Jack crossing their own timelines. He doesn't like doing that. :P

But yes, I'll admit that I was a bit 'jigga-whaaa?' when I was watching it. Pale, frail Jack in the Hub one moment, with gust of wind in his face, and then suddenly Jack running full pelt across the Plass.

Continuity? What Continuity?

[noneofyours.livejournal.com]

My real gripe, which I addressed a little in my journal, is that if he ran through the tourist office, forgetting everything else for the moment, what about Tosh, Owen, and Ianto? Would he have been that quick that he didn't run right past them?!

[cassandraterra.livejournal.com]

Aren't DW and Torchwood two SEPERATE shows? Therefore, there doesn't have to be any continuality, etc. There just have to be some common links. Jack in Torchwood. Jack in Carddiff. More like common, but parallel worlds? So not everything has to link up. Does this make ANY sense?

[admiratio.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you remember, but I posted a poll back in April regarding how continuity between TW and DW was important. 41% of the people who responded thought that 'BBC is in for a smackdown if they ruin this'.

I had foreseen that when people saw the spoilery bit revealed in the clip we would see these types of discussions in this community. I am beginning to wonder if we had the same type of poll it might reveal the same results!

[aunt-deen.livejournal.com]

We haven't seen every little nook and cranny of the Hub. It's possible that Gwen and Ianto and Tosh came down via the lift with the coffee, and at the same time Jack was pelting up a flight of stairs and still managed to exit through the Tourist Office without being seen.

And yes, he wasn't fully recovered at that point but I'm guessing that the knowledge of the Doctor's presence and the desperation to reach him in time could give him a hell of an adrenaline boost.

[(Anonymous)]

thi is another idea (probably dumb) what if jack rqan to his office/ bed room in torchwood (to get his bag) then l8er on he sneaked out lol

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

See, what I don't understand is that in the clip the Dcotor clearly saw Jack. The Doctor has known Jack was alive all along (at least according to "Children In Need"), so why does he pull off when he clearly sees Jack running toward the TARDIS? I mean, WTF?