What the hell?
For several days before Sunday, various twitterings on Twitter from the BBC, BBC America and other sources (including frickin' Doctor Who producer herself, Nikki Wilson) have been on a major push.
Sunday's episode, Fugitive of the Judoon, was NOT to be missed.
Or to quote the Doctor: "Crisis. Big crisis. Serious crisis. Big, serious crisis."
My brain has been buzzing for days trying to figure out what the hell we're building up to without racing too far in front of Chris Chibnall.
Yaz has a Rose Tyler moment and professes her love for the Doctor?
Or something more sinister. The TV promo repeats the Master's admonishment to the Doctor, "Everything you know is a lie."
Yasmin Kahn is NOT who she says she is.
Yaz is secretly an enemy of the Doctor, biding her time.
Maybe a secret that Yaz herself doesn't know, hidden under the power of a Chameleon Arch?
Is Yaz the Rani, the Doctor's other Time Lord enemy?
See! Stuff like that, I'm getting WAY ahead of myself.
Wait! In Spyfall Part One, C of MI6 thought Graham was the Doctor?
Is Graham the Valeyard?
Is Ryan secretly the Meddling Monk?
Is the Doctor's entire fam a bunch of disguised renegade Time Lords hiding out behind her back?
Maybe the big thing has nothing to do with Yaz or the rest of the fam.
Capt. Jack Harkness is back?
Oh, we've been waiting for that one so long and we're always disappointed.
Benni from "Orphan 55"?
The TV promo on BBC America said if you thought the reveal of the Master was a big deal, wait until you see what happens next.
What happens next has happened and...
What the hell...?
More after the spoiler warning.
FUGITIVE OF THE JUDOON
by Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall
The episode begins with an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary couple named Lee and Ruth living in Gloucester.
Then the Judoon shows up, looking for a fugitive and things get weird.
Alerted that the Judoon are on Earth, the Doctor goes to investigate. Whatever the Judoon are up to seems centered on Lee for some reason.
OK, it's not Lee, it's Ruth.
Meanwhile, the fam is getting teleported one by one to a spaceship by...
Wait for it.
Wait for it!
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS!
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Doctor tags along with Ruth to her childhood home, an old light house. In a grave where Ruth's parents are supposed to be buried, the Doctor finds......
a police box?
Meanwhile, Ruth gets zapped by a light and her memories and her true self are restored.
Her body and mind re-written by a chameleon arch, Ruth is revealed as a Time Lord. But not just any Time Lord but...
Wait for it.
Wait for it!
The SAME Time Lord!
"Hello," says Ruth, "I'm the Doctor!"
Wait!
What?
The Judoon have been contracted to by Commander Gat, a woman who is also revealed as a Time Lord from Gallifrey, to retrieve the fugitive Doctor.
This other Doctor appears to be from our Doctor's past, a past she does not remember or recognize.
Meanwhile, Harkness is about to get zapped by the aliens he stole his spaceship from so he gives the fam a warning for the Doctor: Beware of the lone Cyberman.
And the fam gets teleported back to Earth.
Meanwhile with the Judoon outmaneuvered, the two Doctors go their separate ways.
Finally reunited in the TARDIS, the Doctor and her fam compare notes. The Doctor is very much rattled by this version of herself she never knew existed. She's snappish with the gang but Ryan steps up to voice the gang's support of the Doctor. They may not know who she was or what she will be but they know who she is now and they have her back.
There's a lot to unpack here. Naturally, I am stoked that Jack Harkness is back. He's still the dashing daredevil we know and love. But his interactions are limited to the fam. No Doctor and Jack meet up this time.
It seems that Jack's involvement is to help keep the fam off the board while the Doctor is off doing her thing with Ruth, AKA The Doctor?
And speaking of which, Jo Martin makes for a very forceful and confident Doctor. But is she THE Doctor? Is she our Doctor?
I'm sure the trolls will be out in force to tear this a part: another Doctor who is not only a woman but a woman of color? Ooh how politically correct!
Well, those trolls can stick a Judoon horn up their backsides for all I care. We have a compelling mystery here with all manner of possible solutions. Is this new Doctor really part of the Doctor's timeline? Her past? Is she from an alternate universe? Is she a trick by the Time Lords on the Doctor? Is she connected to the Timeless Child? Is she in fact the Timeless Child?
There is a lot about the "Fugitive of the Judoon" to get excited about. The return of the Judoon and of Jack Harkness, the introduction of a potentially mythology shattering addition of an heretofore unknown Doctor.
That being said, I'm not sure I can get behind this as an effective episode. Too much of it seemed scattershot without coalescing into a meaningful whole.
But it certainly set the stage for some interesting things to come for the rest of the season.
Then the Judoon shows up, looking for a fugitive and things get weird.
Alerted that the Judoon are on Earth, the Doctor goes to investigate. Whatever the Judoon are up to seems centered on Lee for some reason.
OK, it's not Lee, it's Ruth.
Meanwhile, the fam is getting teleported one by one to a spaceship by...
Wait for it.
Wait for it!
CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS!
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Doctor tags along with Ruth to her childhood home, an old light house. In a grave where Ruth's parents are supposed to be buried, the Doctor finds......
a police box?
Meanwhile, Ruth gets zapped by a light and her memories and her true self are restored.
Her body and mind re-written by a chameleon arch, Ruth is revealed as a Time Lord. But not just any Time Lord but...
Wait for it.
Wait for it!
The SAME Time Lord!
"Hello," says Ruth, "I'm the Doctor!"
Wait!
What?
The Judoon have been contracted to by Commander Gat, a woman who is also revealed as a Time Lord from Gallifrey, to retrieve the fugitive Doctor.
This other Doctor appears to be from our Doctor's past, a past she does not remember or recognize.
Meanwhile, Harkness is about to get zapped by the aliens he stole his spaceship from so he gives the fam a warning for the Doctor: Beware of the lone Cyberman.
And the fam gets teleported back to Earth.
Meanwhile with the Judoon outmaneuvered, the two Doctors go their separate ways.
Finally reunited in the TARDIS, the Doctor and her fam compare notes. The Doctor is very much rattled by this version of herself she never knew existed. She's snappish with the gang but Ryan steps up to voice the gang's support of the Doctor. They may not know who she was or what she will be but they know who she is now and they have her back.
There's a lot to unpack here. Naturally, I am stoked that Jack Harkness is back. He's still the dashing daredevil we know and love. But his interactions are limited to the fam. No Doctor and Jack meet up this time.
It seems that Jack's involvement is to help keep the fam off the board while the Doctor is off doing her thing with Ruth, AKA The Doctor?
And speaking of which, Jo Martin makes for a very forceful and confident Doctor. But is she THE Doctor? Is she our Doctor?
I'm sure the trolls will be out in force to tear this a part: another Doctor who is not only a woman but a woman of color? Ooh how politically correct!
Well, those trolls can stick a Judoon horn up their backsides for all I care. We have a compelling mystery here with all manner of possible solutions. Is this new Doctor really part of the Doctor's timeline? Her past? Is she from an alternate universe? Is she a trick by the Time Lords on the Doctor? Is she connected to the Timeless Child? Is she in fact the Timeless Child?
There is a lot about the "Fugitive of the Judoon" to get excited about. The return of the Judoon and of Jack Harkness, the introduction of a potentially mythology shattering addition of an heretofore unknown Doctor.
That being said, I'm not sure I can get behind this as an effective episode. Too much of it seemed scattershot without coalescing into a meaningful whole.
But it certainly set the stage for some interesting things to come for the rest of the season.
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