Continuing the discussion from TV Club: The End of the World:
The End of the World introduces the mysterious, ancient Face of Boe who would then go on to reappear in New Earth and Gridlock (as well as cameos in The Long Game and Utopia).
Initially just one of the many strange guests on Platform One, the Face of Boe’s enigmatic message of You Are Not Alone would eventually pay off at the end of Utopia.
And then, in Last of the Time Lords we are given the rather odd suggestion that the Face of Boe is actually a future version of Captain Jack.
The sort of alien who could only appear in Doctor Who, who has love for the Face of Boe?
(And who owns his dynamic, rolling, mouth-moving (sort of) ‘action’ figure?)
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I really like The Face of Boe, but the idea that he’s Captain Jack is just silly. I take it as a joke really.
Also I never really got the whole “You are not alone” thing:
His final message to the Doctor shouldn’t have been so cryptic. People don’t speak like that. Also was Professor Yana already called that and Boe made it into a cryptic anagram, or did Yana call himself after hearing that prophecy… it just does not make any sense!
I love a mystery seeded into an earlier episode to get people talking, but when it just doesn’t make sense if you think about it for longer than 5 minutes that really winds me up!
I think this is a part where Moffat was a stronger writer than RTD (although I know Moffat’s resolutions weren’t always perfect).
I haven’t listened to any of the War Master audios so for all I know it’s all tied up neatly there, but I doubt it 
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I really like it!
I might not be the biggest Fan of End of the World and really don’t like New Earth (Gridlock is superb), but as a Concept it’s really fun! The Design of Boe is quite a striking one that you won’t easily forget, and having him reappear in pretty disconnected Stories (okay maybe only Gridlock is pretty disconnected) is just fun and something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of!
That said, I really don’t like the Idea of Jack being the face of Boe and how it’s handled in the Show itself was a bit random.
“Oh by the way they called me the face of boe!”
I know it has some Fans, and I am happy for them! That said, I don’t like it.
The Mystery Message he gives Ten in Gridlock is a bit odd and @shauny put it pretty perfectly, but still there is a lot to like about him!
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Omg this is a thread…
So, I do disagree with the idea that Jack Harkness is not The Face of Boe. I think he is. And I don’t think it’s silly.
(Spoilers for Torchwood season 3):
Thematically, it fills my Janto-shipping heart with joy. Because they die in the same way. Due to political failings concerning drugs which leads to an airborne virus, with Boe dying in the Senate being a direct parallel to Ianto dying in Thames House. But the only difference here being that Jack did manage to find a way to save someone close to him from an airborne virus. And I think this was also why he chose not to die in New Earth, he was preserving himself so that he could save Novice Hame with his life force. Like he tried to with Ianto by kissing him in Day 4 (but it failed). That, and I know people will bring up the point “but he’s billions of years old, he probably forgot about Ianto”, and yet the plot highlights how Boe specifically remembers Yana and TYTNW, and what does he do after getting back from that year??- asks Ianto on that date saying how he planned it while “he was away” being tortured for an entire year. Also the scene where the entire team confronts him about going missing, he says he came back for Ianto (I interpret “I came back for you” as singular, and that’s why he has to say “all of you” to clarify). Beyond this, I do also have headcanons about why Jack changes his mind to be more official with Ianto (with how the Doctor tells Jack that Rose is still alive and she wasn’t killed at TW1), and y’know, the whole year of torture) but I won’t go too deep into it lol
And Gridlock and New Earth are some of my favorite episodes ever. And I think there’s no better way to tie up Jack’s character arc.
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Thank you for replying after nearly a year to this thread because it’s something I adore so much
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No worries, always fun to resurrect accidentally a Topic from Months.
Glad to see your Viewpoint 
While I sadly can’t comment much on it (due to some lack of Context), it’s lovely to see somebody who likes an Idea, which I am not too fond of!
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I’m just thinking on this more and coming to the realization I desperately need to put all my headcanons in one place for the two of them. Best duo in the Whoniverse.
I was just thinking about how in canon, it takes Jack until the 43rd (or maybe 42nd) Century to seriously consider having another romantic relationship with someone, with it being implied he never got another lover for a long time after Ianto. This would place him at around ~4400 years old himself, with him being ~200 at the start of the S1, and being buried for 2000 years at the end of S2. And I absolutely love this for implying that he didn’t have a proper lover for years after Ianto’s death because of “In The Shadows” highlighting how one of his biggest insecurities was Ianto only pretending to love him, so when Ianto inevitably dies, he can feel the same crushing pain as when Jack killed Lisa. And then in the books, following this insecurity realization, he also starts having nightmares of Ianto’s death prior to season 3.
Brimming with ANGST
So to then have the Face of Boe die in a similar fashion…I think it’s great
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My Face of Boe headcanon, of course he’s NOT Captain Jack he’s obviously Doctor Who, the Timeless Child having regenerated thousands of times their final form is the Face of Boe. So all the stories he appears in are multi-Doctor stories. & how Doctor like to sacrifce himself to save others. & of course this is why he calls himself the Face of Boe, misdirection remembering being 10 & what Captain Jack said. He also remembers being 10 when hearing the words, “You Are Not Alone.”
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