The Lives of Captain Jack: Volume 2

The Lives of Captain Jack Harkness #2

by James Goss, Guy Adams

Captain Jack Harkness - time-travelling con-man, saviour of the Earth, and intergalactic adventurer. He has lived many lives. Here are three more of them.

2.1 Piece of Mind by James Goss
When the Sixth Doctor falls dying into his arms, Jack must carry on in his place. Is the universe ready for a whole new kind of Doctor?

2.2 What Have I Done? by Guy Adams
On the battlefields of World War I, something is hunting in the trenches. Jack must try and save the life of a wounded soldier.

2.3 Driving Miss Wells by James Goss
Alien invasions, stolen planets and burning skies - Newsreader Trinity Wells used to tell everyone the world was ending. One day she stopped believing it. Will her new chauffeur change her mind?

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Anthologies, Fantasy

Audio CD

First published June 1, 2019

About the author

James Goss has written two Torchwood novels and a radio play, as well as a Being Human book. His Doctor Who audiobook Dead Air won Best Audiobook 2010. James also spent seven years working on the BBC's official Doctor Who website and co-wrote the website for Torchwood Series One. In 2007, he won the Best Adaptation category in the annual LA Weekly Theatre Awards for his version of Douglas Adams' novel Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

Reviews

[Lady Nerd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow. The second story in this is probably the best Big Finish two-hander I’ve ever listened to. Other ones were great, too- but “What Have I Done?” is the best of them by far. The writing and the atmosphere was so well done that I actually felt I was in those trenches, and the fantastic dialogue exchange and Jack’s speech were brilliant.

Piece of Mind: 4.5/5
What Have I Done: 6/5!
Driving Miss Wells: 3.5/5

[The Post Monument · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piece of Mind - 4 stars
What Have I Done? - 3 stars
Driving Miss Wells - 4 stars

Overall - 3.5 stars

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good selection of stories. The first is the standout one if the set but the other two are still brilliantly told with the middle story bring an incredibly powerful two-hander. John Barrowman excels as Captain Jack with the right mix of heroism and wit. Top stuff.

[Taksya · Rating 5 out of 5]

2.1 Piece of Mind by James Goss
John Barrowman nei panni del sesto Dottore e Colin Baker in quelli di Jack Harkness... storia apparentemente complessa, ma con ottime interpretazioni.
2.2 What Have I Done? by Guy Adams
Prima Guerra Mondiale, trincee e pioggia infernali, un soldato ferito e un mostro che lo insegue.
Una buona prova, ottenuta con pochissimi effetti speciali.
2.3 Driving Miss Wells by James Goss
Chi segue la serie madre dovrebbe ricordarsi di Trinity Wells, la conduttrice del telegionale apparsa, durante le prime stagioni, tutte le volte che c'era da annunciare una catastrofe aliena.
Qui la vediamo vittima di una di queste invasioni, con Jack come chauffeur personale.

Lo scambio di persona del primo audio, divertente da ascoltare (e da registrare, stando alle interviste) da solo regala le 5 stelle al box set. Colin Baker nei panni di Jack è quasi più Jack di Jack.
Il secondo episodio è molto cupo e coinvolgente, non che l'ambientazione aiuti la leggerezza, mentre il terzo gioca molto sul ricordo delle prime stagioni di Doctor Who e dei vari spin off.
Nel complesso tutto ben scritto e recitato, posso dire che non avevamo dubbi.

[Yvonne Alf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already enjoyed Vol. 1 a lot and the second box is also great in every aspect. I really appreciate that all the stories are so different in style from each other.

1. Piece Of Mind - 4/5
I have to admit, I was dreading this one a bit - I feared it would be too silly and over the top. I have to admit, I was wrong. Sure it is silly and over the top, but so well executed from start to finish, that it's a lot of fun to listen to. Jack's attempts to impersonate the doctor work much better than I anticipated at first. I especially love his attempts with the accent. Only when he he gets too over excited, John Barrowman sounds way too much like himself, which is a bit distracting. The story itself is really well done and I'm in awe how James Goss was able to write such a complex story for a 60 minutes audio.

2. What Have I done - 5/5
While the first story was fun and fast paced, this is the complete opposite. It's my favorite in the set. I'm so in love with Jack's quieter and toned down side and here we are treated with it from start to finish, with lots of deeper inside into his character. Set during WWI is something new and I just love every chance to get a peak what Jack has done in the past. It's a two-hander throughout the whole story (well almost) and it always impresses me how Torchwood and Big Finish manage to create wonderful characters that you really care for in such a short time. And the ending was so sad!!

3. Driving Miss Wells - 4/5
The one minus point I give because this story does not include enough Jack, otherwise I found it an excellent story that kept my attention from start to finish. I can't really remember Miss Wells from the show, but I found her very intriguing and she was a good lead for the story. I loved the story and how we could never be sure if she is just loosing her mind or if she is right. Maybe I won't relisten to this one as often as the rest, but the quality of the story was very good.

[MrColdStream · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE CAWPILE OF 'THE LIVES OF CAPTAIN JACK VOLUME 2'

Piece of Mind is Captain Jack at his very best and this is easily John Barrowman's best performance in the part. The story mixes his typical, sassy and ever-loving Captain Jack with small fragments of earlier Doctors, including a sexy attempt a British accent. Colin Baker appears in a small but funny cameo as the Sixth Doctor. Somehow, the combo of Jack and Sixie's personalities is flawlessly brilliant. Moreover, the American Sixth Doctor is probably the funniest I have ever heard Colin Baker!
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What Have I Done? shows us a more heroic, down-to-earth and serious version of Captain Jack, and how he is ready to go to great lengths to save a wounded soldier despite the trouble it will cause him. Jack's chemistry with the soldier is admirable and they share several intimate scenes together. This feels like a more emotionally charged date than the one between Jack and Alonso in One Enchanted Evening in the previous set.
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I don't know if it's me, but both John Barrowman and Lachele Carl seem bored and tired in this story, which means their characters don't lift the way they're intended to. The acting is so subpar that it things these characters and therefore the enjoyment of the story as a whole.

Most of Piece of Mind feels and flows like a typical Doctor Who adventure, but the bits that stand out are the outrageously funny parts where Jack is being the Doctor. Despite the funny gimmick of this story, we soon realize that Jack's take on the Doctor isn't half as bad, even if it goes against some basic rules the Doctor has set up for himself (such as no guns). Between the funny and the exciting, this story is also properly touching in its quieter, more beautiful moments.
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After the hilarious and fast-paced Piece of Mind comes this smaller and slower What Have I Done, throwing listeners right into the muddy and rainy trenches of WW1, where Jack has to save the life of a wounded soldier. The terrible weather and the poetic plot is well captured by the soundscapes and the actors, and gives more value to the otherwise slow story. The dialogue taps into the horrors and despairs of the war surprisingly effectively. The touching parts towards the end are somewhat flattened by the overly monotonic storytelling preceding it, but it has a strong emotional impact nonetheless.
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It's interesting how Driving Miss Wells tries to constantly build tension towards something that seems explosive and big, but never quite gets there. It stays in shallow waters for the entirety of its runtime. Even The car chase sequence is clumsily written and performed with such soulless delivery, that it fails to be exciting.

James Goss is a talented writer, both in terms of following established formulas and breaking them. His dialogue is sharp, his characterizations perfect and his sense of world building and tension setting impeccable.
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What Have I Done? sees Guy Adams return to the world of Jack Harkness. Being a character-centred story, he writes fine dialogue moments, showing a more vulnerable side of Captain Jack. Apart from those moments, though, there is little to enjoy in his writing.
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The dialogue written for Driving Miss Wells mostly comes across as stiff and lifeless. There are a generic alien threat and a mystery that doesn't go anywhere until the final few minutes.

The first few minutes of Piece of Mind are far better than anything that came on the first volume of this Big Finish spin-off. This story has a nonsensical but hilarious plot that closely mirrors a very typical Main Range adventure, but with Captain Jack as the Doctor. It's not a very original or surprising story per se but definitely holds up thanks to the outrageous dialogue and many memorable scenes.
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What Have I Done? features a small but intimate little story, closely resembling a wartime character drama. It slows things down considerably and focuses on the dialogue scenes between the two characters. It doesn't really fit within the wider narrative of Jack's life the way most other stories in these sets do but provides an interesting change of pace. It's also a minor alien invasion storyline, but the alien part of the story, fortunately, doesn't take centre stage.
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Driving Miss Wells rips off that film with Morgan Freeman, but that doesn't give the plot any bigger value. It has the central alien fly mystery that drives the plot forward, but it's so boringly handled it doesn't help loft the plot.

The central gimmick of this story keeps the listener engaged for the first 20 minutes or so, after which the story itself has reached a point where it's simply impossible not to continue listening to until the end. There are touching moments in the second half and spurs of excitement until the satisfying finale.
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Despite the slow and straightforward plot of the second story, what keeps listeners engaged is the effective atmosphere, which evokes a true sense of wartime hysteria, horror and despair. The bad weather and the fear of being killed by enemy soldiers loom strongly over the story. Unfortunately, though, there isn’t enough tonal shifts or changes in tempo to keep the listener engaged throughout the entire story. I also like how the ending for once isn't big and bombastic.
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Despite featuring an established character from the DW universe and an alien mystery at the centre of things, the story itself does very little to keep the listener engaged in the action. The acting is so subpar and the build-up is so slow, that I lost interest very quickly.

Piece of Mind is funny, exciting and original in all the best ways, starting the second Captain Jack set in the best possible way and putting both Jack and Six to very good use. It's one of my favourite Doctor Who spin-off stories for sure.
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While not quite as entertaining or immediately memorable as Piece of Mind, the second story of the set is a surprisingly minimalistic and character-driven wartime character drama. It has many well-written and performed scenes but unfortunately loses most of its steam quickly and doesn’t hit quite as hard by the end as it was intended to.
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Driving Miss Wells is a fine idea badly executed. The subpar performances kill much of the enjoyment, as does the sluggish pace of the plot.

CAWPILE RATING: 6.43 / 10 = 3 stars

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

PIECE OF MIND

Quando il Sesto Dottore cade morente tra le sue braccia, Jack deve andare avanti al suo posto. L'universo sarà pronto per un nuovo tipo di Dottore?

Dato che il mese scorso mi è stata negata la reunion tra Jack e il Decimo Dottore, mi rifaccio con l'accoppiata Jack/Sei. Il fatto che oggi sia anche il compleanno di Colin Baker è una piacevole coincidenza...
Quando Jack si vede arrivare il Tardis davanti, dopo più di un secolo di attesa, è a dir poco estasiato. Purtroppo per lui, si ritrova con un Dottore che non si aspettava, per di più quasi sul punto di rigenerarsi. Scampato il pericolo, ma con Sei costretto a letto a recuperare, Jack decide di prendere il suo posto fingendo di essere il nuovo Dottore.
Con la missione di salvare un memoriale da una razza di androidi, Jack prende il suo ruolo molto sul serio, imitando i manierismi del Sesto Dottore e fingendo un'amnesia post-rigenerativa. Il risultato è esilarante, eppure qualcosa del Dottore ce l'ha, anche se per alcune cose ha un'opinione alquanto diversa (come l'uso delle armi). Sei non è molto impressionato dal suo modo di imitarlo, e i loro battibecchi sono fantastici. Vediamo anche il Dottore imitare Jack con un accento americano spaventoso e degli “Hyah!” che saltano fuori da chissà dove.
Jack sa il fatto suo, ma a volte i suoi metodi rischiano di fare più danni che benefici. Ci sono anche dei momenti di quieta drammaticità che mi hanno fatto provare apprensione, ma il finale è stato assolutamente soddisfacente.
Davvero un inizio col botto per questo volume!


WHAT HAVE I DONE?


Sui campi di battaglia della Prima Guerra Mondiale, qualcosa sta infestando le trincee. Jack deve provare a salvare la vita di un soldato ferito.

Gallipoli, Prima Guerra Mondiale: gli Alleati stanno combattendo gli Ottomani. Ma quando Jack trova un soldato ottomano ferito, fa di tutto per allontanarlo dalla prima linea e portarlo verso la salvezza.
È un episodio molto lento e in cui non succede molto per la maggior parte del tempo. Ata, il soldato ferito, è tormentato dai sensi di colpa per qualcosa che ha fatto. Inoltre c'è una creatura nelle trincee che si nutre di paura, ma è quasi sempre sullo sfondo.
Tutto si regge sui due personaggi principali, con solo voci di soldati a dare loro la caccia e un medico che compare alla fine come uniche eccezioni. È quindi una storia molto introspettiva e psicologica.
Alla fine abbiamo un discorso molto pregnante da parte di Jack sulla sua più grande paura.
Ho letto recensioni molto positive che ne elogiano la sceneggiatura e l'interpretazione, e da un punto di vista obiettivo non posso che essere d'accordo. Questo genere di drammaticità, tuttavia, non è nelle mie corde.



DRIVING MISS WELLS


Invasioni aliene, pianeti rubati e cieli che bruciano – la conduttrice Trinity Wells era abituata a comunicare a tutti che il mondo stava finendo. Un giorno ha smesso di crederci. Il suo nuovo chauffeur riuscirà a farle cambiare idea?

Avete presente la conduttrice del telegiornale che è stata presente per tutta l'era di RTD? Io ci avevo a malapena fatto caso e di sicuro non sapevo neanche come si chiamasse. Eppure ecco qui che la ritroviamo in una storia che gira tutta attorno a lei.
Scopriamo che Miss Wells, dopo aver lasciato il suo lavoro, ha scritto un libro in cui smentisce tutti gli eventi legati alle invasioni aliene a cui ha assistito, ritenendole semplici allucinazioni di massa. Eppure ora sembra prendere forma una cospirazione extraterrestre, e lei è l'unica ad accorgersene.
Insieme al suo nuovo autista, Jack Harkness, indagherà per arrivare in fondo alla faccenda.
È interessante notare che Trinity è a tutti gli effetti la protagonista: è lei ad indagare e ritrovarsi coinvolta nei fatti e scopriamo di più sulla sua vita e la sua famiglia, mentre Jack rimane sullo sfondo come supporto, in un ruolo più tranquillo rispetto a quello a cui siamo abituati.
La trama è avvincente, quasi un thriller, ma concedendosi dei momenti ironici. È stato quindi un ascolto piacevole.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stories with very different themes, all united by starring Jack Harkness. Whereas the previous volume concentrated on his life before he joined Torchwood, here only one is set during that period, although none of the other characters from the show are present.

Piece of Mind – The first story is a comedy that sees Jack pretending to be the Sixth Doctor in order to try and save a planet from invasion by killer robots. Much of the initial humour comes from Barrowman’s imitation of Colin Baker but that would hardly sustain the whole story and, fortunately, it doesn’t need to. Instead, we get Jack’s very different approach to solving the sort of problem that’s a better fit for Doctor Who than it would be for Torchwood, giving us a ‘Doctor’ who uses guns and sexual seduction to achieve his ends. It’s perhaps more lightly amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, but it is a nice twist on the format, with the comedy counterbalanced with the subplot about a fangirl whose adoration and trust of the Doctor ends up putting her in peril. And there are some fun bits of banter between Six and Jack. 4 stars.

What Have I Done? – In a total contrast to the opening episode, the second one is set during the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I, showing us a different battlefront than we usually see, at least in British stories. It’s almost entirely a two-hander, with Jack rescuing an injured Ottoman deserter and becoming trapped in No Man’s Land as they attempt to make it to safety. There is a science fiction twist beyond Jack’s immortality, but most of the story concerns the relationship between two characters on the opposite sides of a war that neither of them wants to be a part of. If the dark secret that the soldier is hiding is a little easy to guess, it’s otherwise a strong story with a solid emotional core. 4.5 stars.

Driving Miss Wells – The final story is essentially a regular Torchwood story, little different from those in the monthly audio series, which typically only feature one or two of the regular characters anyway. This is slightly unusual in that it’s told from the point of view of a newsreader who has come to doubt the existence of aliens but now finds herself embroiled in what certainly looks like an alien conspiracy of some kind. This leaves less room for Jack, who is evidently trying to work out whether she has genuinely stumbled across something but spends at least as much time flirting with random men and seemingly not getting much done. Instead, it’s the newsreader who drives the story and whose responses to the situation rapidly escalate and raise the question of whether she is an unreliable narrator. Compared with the first two stories, there’s nothing much unusual about it, but it works as what it is. 4 stars.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like that the Sixth Doctor apologizes on behalf of his future self for all the times he's abandoned people. Thinking about it, it's kind of tragic that Jack waited so long for the Ninth Doctor and would never get to see him again.

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story was great, the second was boring, and the third was ok.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. 5 stars - The Doctor's imitation of Jack is hilarious
2. 2 stars - I found this one to be pretty boring
3. 3 stars - Decent enough

[Charlie Fenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ratings of individual episodes below.

Piece of Mind
Rating: 5 stars
Colin Baker and John Barrowman pretending to be each other, what’s not to love?

What Have I Done?
Rating: 5 stars
Now this one is really sad and moving, about Jack saving a man in the trenches in World War I.

Driving Miss Wells
Rating: 3 stars
Not as good as the others and stars a pretty minor character, but still okay.

[Joseph S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sixie!

[Debra Cook · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a get vol of stories.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved volume two of the Lives of Captain Jack, especially the 1st story : Piece of Mind".
Looking forward to Volume 3.