Don’t Panic, It’s Just a Gay Man in Sci-Fi

I found the trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas Special recently. After immediately posting it to Facebook and Twitter for me and my nerdy friends to enjoy, my mind turned to another conspicuous absence from my appointment TV calendar: Doctor Who’s more somber spin-off cousin, Torchwood.

Now, if you are reading this post and do not know Torchwood, then shame on you. But I’m all about second chances today, so I’ll give it a pass. To understand the charms of this British sci-fi drama, you have to understand the charms of its main male protagonist, Capt. Jack Harkness.

Jack, played by the delectable John Barrowman, is an immortal human from the 51st century, who is now in charge of an organization in present-day Cardiff called the Torchwood Institute. Torchwood was developed to protect the Earth from hostile alien life.

I know how awesome this sounds, but it gets even better.

Jack is confident, sexy and really knows how to handle a vortex manipulator. And he’s also gay. Well, according to Wikipedia, he’s an “omnisexual,” due to the possibility of hot alien sex. Jack is the first character in the Doctor Who pantheon who is not a confirmed heterosexual.

The closest American TV character I can compare him to is The Todd from Scrubs. He’s neither straight nor gay; he appreciates beauty, whatever its form. But this comparison does not do justice to Jack. The Todd is just … gross. Jack is complicated. He’s dark. He’s seen things and killed people. He’s a man of the universe and you never forget it.

But it’s not the fact of Jack’s sexuality that makes the show worth noting. Lots of shows nowadays have gay characters. It’s the context.

Just take a second and think of all those awesome gay male sci-fi characters. I don’t know about you, but I’m drawing a blank. Admittedly, my knowledge pool in this area is not Comic-Con caliber, but let’s check off some of the usual suspects. Star Trek, no. Star Wars, no. Lost, no. Battlestar Galactica, no. Firefly, no. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, no. I’m sensing a pattern.

So seeing a gay man who is large and in charge in a sci-fi drama is itself unique and worthy of attention. But that fact alone does not make Torchwood great. Let me share with you the moment I truly fell for the show.

It was in the first episode of the 2009 miniseries, Torchwood: Children of Earth. The plot, while exciting and compelling, is not that important here. Suffice it to say, some pretty nasty aliens were coming after human children. Jack was in a relationship with Ianto Jones, who is perpetually in a three-piece suit and one of the Torchwood employees, played by the adorable Gareth David-Lloyd. Ianto went to check on his niece and nephew, when his sister confronted him with rumors of his relationship with Jack. She explained how hurt she felt that Ianto didn’t feel comfortable coming out to her, when he said this:

“It’s weird. It’s just different. It’s not men. It’s just him.”

What the eff? Did Ianto just say that out loud? On international television?! What Ianto is proposing would have been unthinkable even a few years ago: that maybe, just maybe, you can’t help with whom you fall in love. Maybe it’s much more complicated than we like to think. Maybe, once we get past our hang-ups and social norms, the world is much bigger, more terrifying and more beautiful than we previously thought.

And isn’t that what the sci-fi genre is for, to imagine a world we can’t quite grasp now, but with the hope that we will one day far surpass it?

It was in my lifetime that gay men could be criminally charged with having consensual sex with another man in private. Now, 10 countries, one Native American Nation, Mexico City, five U.S. states and the District of Columbia allow gay people to get married. It’s not perfect, but the future is much closer than we think.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons