Owen Harper

Template:Doctorwhocharacter Dr Owen Harper is a fictional character played by Burn Gorman, and a regular in the BBC television series Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. He is the resident medic and second-in-command of the Cardiff branch of the Torchwood Institute.

Characterisation

Owen Harper is a trained doctor, who worked as a houseman and aspired to become a surgeon. He was working at Cardiff A&E when he was recruited to the join Torchwood. Owen is one of the darker characters in the series, a narcissistic genius, a seducer and an attempted murderer, although a good person at heart.

Owen is a womaniser who has a series of affairs, with Suzie, Gwen and possibly Tosh, among many others. In "Everything Changes", he uses an aphrodisiac spray to encourage a woman to have sex with him. He later uses the same spray to pacify her angry boyfriend, resulting in the man kissing him, implying that he may be bisexual, although perhaps with a preference for women. A note in the Torchwood website from someone named Jason referencing his bedside manner in a suggestive context. This page also suggests he has had a series of casual relationships, some of which were less casual on the part of his partners, and which may have cost him his previous job. An article in The Sun claims all the main characters are bisexual, although this is not overtly displayed onscreen.

Owen also shares a close relationship with his colleague Toshiko Sato, having drinks with her outside work, although he is unusually nasty to her sometimes. They are seen together in pictures on the Torchwood Institute website.

Character history

Despite his apparently skewed moral sense in "Everything Changes", in "Ghost Machine", a different side of him emerges when an alien artefact forces Owen to witness the rape and murder of a young woman named Lizzie Lewis in 1963. Unable to do anything but watch, Owen comes out of his vision with a strong sense of responsibility toward Lizzie. Though he's denied backup from Torchwood, Owen tracks down the killer (Ed Morgan), now an old man, and confronts him with the knowledge of his crime. Initially, Owen's intention was just to scare the man, but as Morgan's growing paranoia fuels him into a confrontation, Owen loses his temper, threatening Morgan with his own confiscated knife and coming within an inch of killing him. He is talked down from the brink just in time, thanks to Gwen's intervention.

In "Cyberwoman", he and Gwen share a passionate kiss which he dismisses as the last act of a man about to die. He denies he "fancied her" but she counters that she could "feel his hard-on". However, in "Countrycide", the group discusses their last kisses in which Owen admits that his was Gwen. When she confronts him about it later on he confronts her right back in a rather sexually explicit fashion about how good the two of them would be together. At the end of the episode an apparently naked Owen is seen approaching Gwen from behind and kissing her passionately. The episode then ends abruptly. In "Greeks Bearing Gifts", Tosh's telepathic pendant reveals they have since had sex twice in the Torchwood SUV.

"They Keep Killing Suzie" reveals that as with Gwen, Owen pursued a sexual relationship with Suzie before she killed herself.

In "Out of Time", Owen enters a sexual relationship with Diane Holmes, a temporal refugee, and develops an emotional connection to her. He explains he has never felt as strongly for any of his other partners, which would include Gwen. The accompanying website features also suggest that Gwen has feelings towards Owen, which he does not return. Diane leaves at the end of the episode, flying into the Rift. In "Combat" Owen is still despondent over Diane's leaving and breaks off the affair with Gwen.

In "Captain Jack Harkness", Ianto and Owen scrap for leadership of Torchwood Three with Jack gone, but Owen clearly states that he is next in command after Jack (and the deceased Suzie). Owen attempts to open the Rift with the pretense of rescuing Jack, but really wishing to find Diane. He is shot by Ianto as he tries, but succeeds anyway. Eventually, Owen opens the Rift, saving Jack and Tosh but ultimately causing apocalyptic results.

In "End of Days", Owen's actions have caused a worldwide disaster as time fractures. Owen is fired by Jack after little provocation, despite protest from Gwen and others. An apparition of Diane Holmes later appears, convincing him to return to the Hub and open the Rift completely, believing he will be able to save her. Supported by Ianto, Tosh and Gwen (each similarly coerced through loss of love ones) Owen overthrows Jack's leadership and shoots him several times in the head. After releasing the demon Abaddon, it is defeated by Jack who had resurrected himself. Jack eventually resurrects a second time, only to forgive Owen for what he had done. In an intensely vulnerable moment for the character, Owen breaks down and cries in Jack's arms after being forgiven.

After Jack's disappearance Owen, along with the rest of the Torchwood Three team, was despatched on a "wild goose chase" to the Himalayas by Mr. Saxon.

Other appearances

In the spin-off novel Another Life, it is stated that Owen was in a serious relationship with a fellow medical student, Megan Tegg, when he used to live in London six years ago. During the events of Another Life, he meets up with her again and tries to recruit her into Torchwood but, through her involvement in an operation, she dies, leaving Owen with further animosity towards women. Like all Torchwood spin-off media, the canonicity in relation to the television series is unclear.

Episodes

Main article: List of Torchwood episodes

• "Everything Changes" — October 22 2006
• "Day One" — October 22 2006
• "Ghost Machine" — October 29 2006
• "Cyberwoman" — November 5 2006
• "Small Worlds" — November 12 2006
• "Countrycide" — November 19 2006
• "Greeks Bearing Gifts" — November 26 2006
• "They Keep Killing Suzie" — December 3 2006
• "Random Shoes" — December 10 2006
• "Out of Time" — December 17 2006
• "Combat" — December 24 2006
• "Captain Jack Harkness" — January 1 2007
• "End of Days" — January 1 2007

External links

• Owen Harper on the BBC's Torchwood website
• Owen Harper on the BBC-created Torchwood Institute website
• The Torchwood website