One of Those Niggling Things...

[fangrrl_squees]

So... Jack Harkness is unkillable, that's been well-established.

But what if he's merely hurt? Y'know, gets a devil of a paper cut, or something. Does he heal at a regular human rate, a little faster than normal, at a variable rate depending on the nature and severity of the injury, or what?

Personally, I think there's some sort of accelerated healing going on, but he's hardly Wolverine - and the severity of the injury would be a factor, too. Paper cuts? Better get Ianto's stopwatch. A good solid-swipe from a pissed-off Weevil? Could take a couple of days (rather than a few weeks, as per normal).

It's something I'm trying to settle in my head before I start, y'know, tearing Capt. Harkness to bits in a fic....

EDIT: Forsooth, inconsistency in the show doesn't help much, either. :)

Comments

[crabby-lioness.livejournal.com]

The severity of the injury factors into it. He was still sporting that split lip from Ianto when Ianto reported back to work, but the Weevil claw marks over his heart had already closed by the time he ran into Gwen and Rhys.

[louiex.livejournal.com]

I totally agree! The weevil marks also may have been gone by the same magical powers that healed his SHIRT upon being shot by Owen in End of Days as well.

God that bothered me so much! XD

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

Heh. I long since decided that apparently Jack's clothes regenerate, too. Else he wouldn't have looked nearly so dapper (relatively speaking) after a year on the Valiant, no? ;)

[louiex.livejournal.com]

Oh good point! Its just the little things like that I have issues with. It wouldn't of been so hard to say... burn a hole in the shirt with a lit cigarette just to get that hole would it? I'd want that job on a show like Doctor Who or Torchwood, the injury consistency keeper!

[cyberamanda.livejournal.com]

Yikes - tearing him to bits??? Is that the Jack/Lucy one or the Jack/Ianto one???

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

Yes.

:)

[cyberamanda.livejournal.com]

lol - good answer!

[gogo-didi.livejournal.com]

Well, in the book 'Another Life' Jack says "These flesh wounds sting like hell, but they heal up if I leave them uncovered. Made the mistake of putting a shirt back on over a knife wound once, and had to have the material cut out again. That was hard to explain to the nurse in triage."
Helpful?

[gogo-didi.livejournal.com]

ooh, and then, two pages later, "It was intended as a casual gesture of polite restraint, but when her fingers touched the bare skin of his arm she noticed that his wund was less raw, and surrounded by new, pink skin. The whole hing wa now only the size of a ten pence piece. 'Don't worry.' he said softly. 'Stings a little. Stings a lot, actually. Always does when the flesh heals.'

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

(iconluv!)

One day, SOMEDAY, there'll be internal consistency on this sort of thing. Really.

*grin/sigh*

For now, I guess it means that I can do whatever the bloody hell I like... ;)

[gogo-didi.livejournal.com]

(thank you! i did it myself ages ago cos i had no idea how to credit other ppl, lol)

Yes, do whatever the bloody hell you like, i love that! :-)

hmm...

[j00j.livejournal.com]

In the finale, Jack presumably gets killed by the toclafane at least once in order to get into the TARDIS to destroy the paradox machine. he gets cut up as well-- there's a cut or two over his right eye, etc. Jack shows up next in the elevator in time to keep the Master from getting out-- the cuts appear to be gone, but his face is bruised (not quite in the same location as the cuts were-- sloppy, perhaps, though he could've gotten into a fight or two on the way up, I suppose). And of course he's all clean and unmarked by the time they're in Cardiff again (though who knows how much time has passed).

Curiously, he's completely unmarked by the radiation in "Utopia"-- seemingly unaffected by it other than going "yow, the walls are hot!" on the way into the room. He apparently heals faster there than the time it would take for him to be burned or affected by radiation sickness?

If it took him awhile on earth to realize something was off, is his healing ability that much more advanced? Or maybe 51st century people heal faster, or Time Agents are augmented a bit? I mean, be dead inconvenient to break a leg in the middle ages and have to deal with contemporary medicine...

It may also depend on how much he's been killed recently. It took him a lot longer to recover from what Abbadon did to him than just getting shot, as has happened to him any number of times.

Re: hmm...

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

or Time Agents are augmented a bit? I mean, be dead inconvenient to break a leg in the middle ages and have to deal with contemporary medicine...

That's a good point. It would save an agent from the inconvenience (not to mention threatening to the local time-and-place) of carrying a 'first aid' kit...

[txteva.livejournal.com]

I think that life threatening... ie weevil wounds heal quicker but paper cuts/split lips doesn't affect life ergo don't heal quicker...

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

*nod* that was the approach I was thinking of. Kinda paradoxical but, the less serious the injury, the closer-to-normal healing time.

(y'know, this would all be moot if the show had some bloody consistency! Ah well...)