Continuity Problem (series 29) (SPOILERS FOR AMERICANS)

[Billz]

So if Jack is immortal and turns into the Face Of Boe through the coarse of his existence, then why would he have died as the Face Of Boe in 'Gridlock'? Also, why would he have changed from an American to a British accent as the Face Of Boe?

[Admiral Mappalazarou]

time?

I dunno, I don't think it is Boe because in Utopia when Martha says 'remember what the Face of Boe said!' Jack doesn't flinch.

[The Signal]

Accents change over time, millions of years would be more than enough. Also, The Face of Boe may not have died, he could always have been reborn into a new body without The Doctor knowing. Bodies eventually wear out, no matter what, but Jack's essence could have survived somehow.

The other option is that The Face of Boe isn't Jack, but took his name at some point in history.

[Commander Jumper]

time?

I dunno, I don't think it is Boe because in Utopia when Martha says 'remember what the Face of Boe said!' Jack doesn't flinch.

Duh Mapp! Jack didn't know he was the face of Boe then... after the course of billions of years he becomes the face of Boe... he wouldn't know he was the face of boe befoer he was the face of boe... duh! FAULTY LOGIC!!!!... on your behalf. I am making perfect sense...

[gopher65]

He knew he was that one of his nicknames was "The Face of Boe". So it should have at least made him raise an eyebrow when he heard the name.

[Reefgirl]

Jack's never met the Face of Boe, that we know of, he said he was known as the Face of Boe back on his home planet, he probably never put the two together

[cheese]

Not really a continuity issue. Accents change over time. When I went to uni mine definately changed. The fact of his death can be explained too, maybe he found a way to die (that involved decapitating him and putting his head in a jar or something).

It's not quite a fact that Jack is the Face of Boe... the name could be a coincidence.

[gopher65]

I dunno. Utopia really bothered me at the time because (I'm not going to bother with spoiler tags because the title already warns people) Boe said, "You Are Not Alone" and the bad guy's name was Y.A.N.A.. How could Boe have known that? But Jack ends up knowing YANA, because he was there. So therefore the Face of Boe would know it, and be able to tell it to the Doctor. He would already have known *when* he was going to tell the doctor, because he'd heard that the Face of Boe had told the doctor his secret just before he died. So all he had to do was wait until he was about to die, then tell the doctor.

This also explains how tFoB knew that The Doctor was going to come to New New New... + nNew +... New York. He was dying, and he *knew* that he would tell The Doctor his secret before he did. So The Doctor *had* to come.

Make sense?

[Mamid]

ack! time lord logic.

just like Sparrow in Blink.

[wise one]

well over a few billions of years accent to change

and maybe jack was still surprised about there being another timelord to even listen to what martha said

[wise one]

just rewatched the clip where martha is telling the doctor about the watch

and when she mentions the face of boe, jacks face is down like his thinking and then staright after that the rocket blasts off

which in the time jack was possibly thinking and the rocket blasting might of made him confused and think about the rocket and the time lord

i dunno what im saying really!

[P-90_177]

I do. you're saying that jack was surprised to hear his own nickname but what with the big emergency after that then there was really no time to think about it and he just forgot about it. makes sense really.

As for the whole actually dieing thing.......well remember at the last ep of torchwood.

Spoiler:

abadon did take a lot of his life force away....so maybe that meant that he wasn't immortal anymore, just very slowly ageing. Even slower than the doctor.

I think it was a nice touch to the ep though. Very cool.

[Cycrow]

well it was never states that he could never die.

the doctor even said he wasn't sure.

he just appears immortal in the present as he hasn't been able to die, but he is aging.

so perhaps he is immune to damage but can still die of old age.

i was stated that he is a fixed position in time or something like that, he just is. Perhaps he loses that over a long time.

[Madeleine]

Rose said "Everything dies" and that she brought life. Letting Jack have a finite - if incredibly high - number of GooDF* cards was consistent with her message. She didn't make him perpetually immortal, just temporarily immortal.

* Get out of Death Free, as patented by a Dr Jackson

[P-90_177]

lol. good point.