Occupation: Torchwood Three Medical Officer
Born: 14th February 1981
Species: Human
Status: Deceased
Played by: Burn Gorman
Dr Owen
Harper had a terrible childhood until he left home at 16. Although his mother
was meant to love him, she didn’t like him very much at all. Given this
information it’s interesting to see that Owen’s love life was in as much
turmoil as that of his motherly affections. Not wishing to commit to Megan
(Another Life), while he was in medical school, he was prepared to settle down
with Katie, a nurse at the hospital that he worked at, only to discover that
she was suffering with what appeared to be early onset Alzheimer’s.
After an operation to remove the ‘tumour’
it was discovered that there was an alien parasite feeding off her brain, and
once uncovered, expelled a toxic gas killing all theatre staff and Katie.
Captain
Jack Harkness had been investigating this case and avoiding all knowledge of
Torchwood when he met Owen, drugged the young man, and doctored the CCTV.
As you
would expect, Owen was enraged to discover that what he had seen was
disbelieved by staff and security.
At the
cemetery he met the man from the hospital and stormed across the cemetery to
confront him, it was only after this, that he found out more about Torchwood,
and the life it could offer him, and there were such things as aliens.
After this, Owen’s relationships were
short lived and often one night stand’s. Using alien tech to woo the ladies
into bed, it was to continue until he fell for aviator Diane Holmes, a woman
from another time, who briefly showed him what love really was. Although he had
had a brief affair with Gwen Cooper, it was Diane that broke his heart when she
left to find a way back to 1953.
Broken hearted Owen needed to find
something that would ease the pain and entering into a men’s fighting den, that
used Weevil’s as fight partners, seemed the ideal solution. Standing in the
cage minutes before Torchwood arrived to close the place down, he allowed a
Weevil to maul him, as at this point, he had all but given up.
During a routine investigation, this time
into the P.H.A.R.M. Owen Harper was fatally wounded by Professor Aaron Copley
whose business was being shut down by Torchwood Three. The shooting rocked the
team. However, Captain Jack Harkness wasn’t prepared to let him go without
everyone having their final goodbye’s with him, so locating the second
Resurrection Gauntlet, Jack brought Owen back from the dead…except along the
way, he brought a demon known as ‘Duroc’ back too.
Through Owen, Duroc needed 12 souls in
order to rule the Earth for an eternity. Owen had been studying the behaviour
patterns of the Weevils prior to Duroc’s arrival, so when Jack and Owen ran from
the creatures to the topmost point of a car park, expecting to be mauled, Jack
was a little startled to say the least, when the Weevils crouched down and
swayed from side to side, murmuring in a low voice. Owen at this point had
become Duroc, with eyes as dark as coals speaking in an ancient tongue.
Back at the
Hub, Toshiko had run the phrase through their alien computer software to
discover that Duroc or Death was now amongst them. It was at this point, Owen
wanted the team to embalm him, to send Duroc back into the ether and him along
with it.
It was harder saying goodbye a second
time, but it was clear to see that the one person deeply affected by the
initial loss of Owen had been Toshiko.
After Duroc
was sent back whence it came, Owen struggled with his own immortality. It
wasn’t that he would live forever, but that he would be dead forever. It also meant that any physical injury would
never heal. He had no breath. His face never warranted a shaver. He couldn’t
eat or drink as the come back was horrendous. Sex was now a complete no-no. But
yet despite all of these faults, one person was determined not to let it cloud
her.
Toshiko Sato, had always loved Owen, and
sometime before Turnmill, when Owen had accepted that life was one endless road
of living one day to the next with no sex drive, settled for second best. Not
in a bad way. Toshiko had always loved him, despite his behaviour and manner
towards her.
She had
always been there for him, even after countless relationships with other women,
even covering for him as a medical officer while he was unreachable.
They agreed to go out on a date together,
but sadly, after Captain John Hart’s return (Exit Wounds), saw key buildings
destroyed in and around Cardiff ,
this never happened. Ianto Jones was unable to reach the nuclear power station
at Turnmill as all exits were blocked by Weevils. Owen was the only one who
could get there in time, but exiting was another story.
As Toshiko
worked to stop the meltdown, she was mortally wounded by Gray, losing vital
minutes in which to instruct Owen how to seal it off at Turnmill. The security
doors slid shut, trapping him inside the building. This time there would be no
resurrection.
On this day, Dr Owen Harper, died for
good!
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