Whilst I reckon Torchwood One and Yvonne Hartman's edict would have been Doctor hunting, you have to remember that Jack wanted to find the Doctor for very different reasons. Since he took over TW3 in 2000, he'd most likely have had the team investigating all the weird and wonderful Cardiff activities and rift incidents rather than hunting the Doctor. I can imagine a scene where the SUV rolls back into Cardiff city centre following the earthquake and sightings of the TARDIS.

JACK: Wow, busy night!
IANTO: The one night you happened to drive us all out into the countryside on a wild goose chase for the Cardiff Yeti.
JACK: What are the odds?

In the book The Twilight Streets, it's explained that Jack told the team he knew the quake was happening and made sure everyone stayed in the Hub

And to what extent has the novels been declared to be canon?

It makes sense though, Jack knows better than to let his team out with the chance they'd be running into his earlier self, and it would make sense he wouldn't let them near the CCTV monitors either.

To what extent have they not?

What is canon surely is up to the person alone to decide and not a group decision. If you don't like the books then don't think of them as canon! If other people like to think of them as canon that is fine as well.

AND the poor poster was only trying to help by making a very valid point as an explanation to explain something. They never said it was the truth and they certainly didn't deserve to be growled at because you don't think the books are Canon.

Why do you assume evil intentions on my part? I posed a question. The answer might be that Julie Gardner has decreed that they are such. The answer might be that no one has said they are. The former is something that must be accepted. The latter means that the information can be accepted or rejected, in this case, by personal preference.

I must beg to differ as to what canon implies. Jack is, at least for the time being, immortal. Jack used to be a hustler on Cardiff's skid row. Torchwood keeps a Pteranodon as a watchdog. Those are all canon. We have seen them on the program. They are not open to personal interpretation. They are, within the parameters of the whoniverse, facts. Canon is something that is expected to remain the same, and future events are to be predicated upon it, save that in the whoniverse the timeline and the facts resulting from previous actions can be nullified or changed.

If someone were to say that Jack, formerly on active duty in british India, participated in the Amritsar massacre, I would want to know the source and the canonical status of that event. If this were so, I would be disappointed, but, unfortunately, it would not surprise me, considering that Jack let himself be hired as an enforcer, and this IS canon, for a group that that he knew was not above eliminating prisoners, ie Torchwood.

I love him anyway.

I confess that there is no Captain save Jack Harkness, and that John Barrowman is his Avatar.

Your post seemed to suggest that the poster was suggesting something out of order when all they were doing was suggesting a credible answer to a question.

You have the source the BBC licensed Torchwood book Twilight streets.

As far as i know only once have the current production team discussed canon in any form.
RTD stated in DWM 356 about the Gallifrey Chronicles"Is it canon? they will ask, using a word that has never been used in the production office, not once, not ever" So it looks like it doesn't really bother them much.
The BBC aren't going to go around saying what is and isn't canon. So its up to the individual I personally think all the books, BF audios etc etc are canon because what is the point of me spending Thousands of pounds on them for the last few years if they are not? but I understand why others don't.

Your post seemed overtly aggressive to me considering the poster was only trying to be helpful by answering a question with a valid answer, maybe i took it in the wrong vein. If so sorry.

I really can't see how I could have asked the question less judgementally than I did, but apology accepted.

I see no reason to doubt the answer that you have now given to my original question. Thank you.

In response to the answer, I feel that they have given too much latitude to themselves to simply make things up as they go along.
As long as what we see in the future does not contradict what we have seen in the past, then everything is in order. It is only when we see things that contradict what we have already seen, and it's happened in Dr Who, that things get frustrating.


I confess that there is no Captain save Jack Harkness and that John Barrowman is his Avatar.

Mulled over this in my head and I have been a bit hasty here. Carsten was only asking a question. I get a bit oversensitive when it comes to canon.

If someone asks how did the Sixth Doctor regenerate I quote Spiral Scratch, if they ask about Romana I quote the audios and books (and maybe the article about the Time war by RTD) in which is she is president of Gallifrey. I don't quote them as fact just as possible answers. it does my nut in when people then say ah but its not canon and try to start an argument, it is only a possible answer by someone trying to be helpful. If you don't want to believe it then fair enough but don't bite the persons head off and tell them its wrong.

Which Carsten wasn't doing to be fair, I was a bit over zealous whilst pulling them up. I am writing this because I don't want to ruin this thread by discussing canonicity of the series for the next three pages. I am zipping my trapper now.

Ah but it's not canon!


Whoops!