Oh Brilliant: Another powerhouse showcase for the 13th Doctor. One of the many things that season 12 is getting very right is giving Jodie Whittaker material that shows off her awesome potential as the Doctor. Because of the twists in this episode this could have been a story where she floundered and came out with egg on her face but instead she really holds her own and proves to be the vital and alive Doctor of right now that I need. The conclusion that episode draws; that it doesn’t matter where she has come from or where she is going because right now she is an awesome person who deserves the name the Doctor, is the culmination of a year and half worth of effort on Whittaker and Chibnall’s part. We’ll come to remember series 11 as the one where the 13th Doctor was happy and content and finding her way in the universe again because in her second year she has a lot of things on her mind and keeps being shaken up by shattering revelations. We open the story with her pawing at the console for hours, looking for the Master. She’s sure he must have escaped. She’s been going home on her own and she doesn’t want to take her friends with her. She has no compunction in walking straight up to a Judoon Commander and joining his ranks and condemning him for his unlawful behaviour. She’s trying to save lives and it brings out the darker side of her. Throughout, the Doctor is working on the mystery of what is going on and she is the smartest person because she realises it has something to do with Ruth. Unlike series 11 where the Doctor was pretty much unflappable, series 12 has seen her facing one shock after another. Whittaker’s strengths come in how brilliantly she reacts in these moments; utterly floored, trying to comprehend what is happening and then dashing on with the plot. Somehow, they manage to have an argument between two female Doctors that doesn’t descend into a bitch fight. It’s like the tension in The Day of the Doctor but with added mysteries swirling around them. Whittaker and Swinson are excellent together. I felt a warmth between the Doctor and her companions in those final scenes in a way I haven’t since the 11th Doctor, Amy and Rory. This line up might not always been handled perfectly, but they certainly all belong together. There’s dark stuff coming for the Doctor and she needs her friends close. They’re family.
The Fam: Fugitive is one of those episodes where the Doctor’s friends are secondary to the main action and those are perfectly fine every now and again. There’s no problem with pushing the Doctor front and centre – the show is named after her, after all. All the same there are still the cute moments that I have come to expect from this trio in season 12, and a gorgeous summation of why they are so loyal to the Doctor, and how they are going to stay by her side at the climax. It’s like the climax to Arachnids in the UK only a million times more powerful because of what the Doctor is going through at the moment thanks to her decimated home.
Jack: Of all the people to return in Jodie Whittaker’s second season after six seasons away from the show! His appearance is ultimately a distraction in an otherwise mind-blowing episode but it is so lovely to see him back in the show (and it promises more to come) that I didn’t really care that this was massive foreshadowing for its own sakes. John Barrowman is clearly having a ball and there are some really fun moments. Kissing Graham and assuming he is the Doctor (this keeps happening to poor Graham) made me laugh out loud (when he goes in for a hug, Graham all but screams).
Ruth: The real smarts is in how this character is introduced. Sweet, funny, likeable; Ruth opens the story with a lot of focus but there is nothing unusual about that because Nikolai Tesla did exactly the same thing the week before. Clever thing number two is how much emphasis is put on her husband and the mysteries that he is keeping and how Ruth is simply caught up in the machinations of this plot. The third clever thing is where, halfway through the episode when the audience is starting to suspect that something is amiss about Ruth, the script then admits that she is the focus but refuses to say who she is or why (and using Jack Harkness of all people as a diversion) before finally hitting us with an awesome bit continuity shattering moment to go down in the ages. Yes, Ruth is the Doctor and the script won’t tell us whether she is the Doctor from the past or the future and that is all part of the fun to stir the ant’s nest and leave you desperate for answers. Like Professor Yana in Utopia, I really liked Ruth before she transformed, which makes the twist tragic and shocking. The lighthouse (a building with a light on top) should have been a huge clue. Tearing off the horn of the Judoon was an astonishing moment of nastiness. How cool is her TARDIS? It makes me ache with nostalgia for Hartnell’s TARDIS interior but has a moodiness all of its own. With her colourful shirt and glasses, looking down at the other Doctor in her presence and standing up to the Time Lords and the Judoon, Jo Martin cuts quite the dominant figure as the Doctor. I’m sure we will be seeing more of her at some point. Would Chibnall dare to mess about with the Doctor numbering again? Is this a pre-Hartnell Doctor? Or is this a Doctor from an alternative universe. The speculation is half the fun because one we come to know the truth; it has to be an answer that satisfies after all this build up. For now, she is a terrific Doctor, utterly authentic and with great presence. The mystery of why neither Doctor remembers the other is one of the best things about this episode. How can that possibly be?
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You’re in charge, right?’ ‘It’s a very flat team structure’ ‘You’re the smartest, I can see it in your eyes.’
‘An Empire of evil in ruins, right now’ – a great description of the Cybermen.
‘How did I end up like that? All rainbows and trousers that don’t reach?’
‘Is there even a word for how dumb you are?’ ‘Doctor?’
‘I’d quite like it if you got off my ship now.’
The Good: The return of the Judoon turns out to be the least celebratory thing about this episode, despite its top billing. And that is the most intelligent thing that Fugitive could do. Build the expectation around the return of an old foe to dismiss any expectation elsewhere. This might be their finest appearance yet and I was mightily impressed with the costumes this time around (my other half commented at how uncannily realistic they look) and the brilliant, bombastic score that Segun Akinola gave them. They appear in such numbers that it feels like an invasion, and Nick Briggs has great fun voicing the Judoon Commander, who is a great character in his own right. The shot of Whittaker atop the lighthouse really stood out to me as a very powerful shot. It’s right at the heart of the mystery. Moody seaside settings are often at the heart of Chibnall’s best work – Adrift, Broadchurch, Judoon.
The Bad: Because I feel like I need to find something negative to say…so Alan from the coffee shop is seriously creepy. Also, Chibnall seems to have an anti-old woman agenda. That’s two murdered within three episodes.
The Shallow Bit: I actually said out loud during this episode how beautiful Jodie Whittaker is. She’s radiant and this director is excellent at capturing her energy and essence of purity.
Result: ‘Either I should know you or you should know me!’ Well bugger me, Vinay Patel has written a damn near perfect episode of Doctor Who. AGAIN. This, for me, is the Alien Bodies of NuWho. If you haven’t read Alien Bodies from the EDA range then please go and do so right now and come back and read this review afterwards. It starts out as a fairly simple adventure, it builds a huge mystery into its fabric, it threatens a huge revelation and then it turns out to say something quite profound about the Doctor’s life. Fugitive of the Judoon starts out as the most comic book adventure of the Chibnall era (Judoon stomping around Gloucester) and then builds and builds and builds until it shakes the core of the entire series and leaves the viewer with massive questions about the implications of the revelations involved. One huge plus of the Chibnall era that has been handled far more effectively than during the Moffat years is the ability to contain a huge surprise and not ruin it with publicity drives. It means I was floored when the Master showed up in Spyfall, and there were two genuinely jaw dropping moments here. It’s not often I get to scream at my telly. This is a huge love letter to my favourite era of new Doctor Who; RTD’s time and between the return of the Judoon, the punch the air reveal of Jack Harkness and the use of the chameleon arch, there are call backs to a lot of the best moments of the first four years of NuWho. It feels like the Moffat years never happened. There’s a broader picture emerging about Gallifrey and the use of continuity is deployed like a weapon in the narrative to batter the audience at the appropriate moments. What I really loved was that despite some vivid location work (Gloucester makes for a refreshing change, and the scenes around the lighthouse are suitably vivid), this was the cheapest episode of the season to date and yet the most attention grabbing because of its twists. It shows that good storytelling will always be what makes good Doctor Who. Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin make quite a team and those central performances had me smiling throughout. Who the hell are the Alliance? Does this muck up Doctor Who continuity? What’s happening with the Cybermen? Where the hell is the Master? Fugitive of the Judoon is at the centre of the season and promises great things for the latter half of the season whilst being a phenomenal episode in its own right. I don’t know how it will fare to repeat viewing but given my explosive reaction to it last night I have no qualms in giving this an outstanding write up. The sequence with Ruth getting her memories back and the Doctor discovering the TARDIS goes down in my opinion as the best moment of the era so far: 10/10
6 comments:
Jo Martin, not Swinson. Little bit of the old politics showing there?
Sorry, I seem to be getting very pedantic with your reviews. But still enjoying them.
In an entirely coarse way, I have been injected the wrong Joe into places they shouldn't be my entire life hahaha.
I really enjoyed this one, even though the story was pretty thin. It felt like an episode of a more thoroughly serialized show. So I guess how I ultimately feel about it will depend upon how all this setup pans out.
I too have loved the fact that I've been surprised three times in this spoiler-happy age. Oh, to whoop/gasp/be dumbstruck like this about more in popular culture. Great review. Totally agree on every point. As long as Chibbers sticks the landing on this I think this might just be the perfect rebirth of my favorite show.
I would have liked this episode but the elements of RTD era feel a desperate gimmick to raise the ratings, say what you say about Moffat but he waited until the Capaldi era to abuse the fanservice, and see Captain Jack with the "Fam" emphasize how soft and forgettable they are, and is it sad to say that Jo Martin was more Doctor in an episode than Jodie in his own series?
this really feels like part of the Carmel Master Plan; the McCoy-era script editor who wanted to restore the mystery to the Doctor's past. Perhaps Hartnell's Doctor was NOT the first but something cataclysmic or amazingly secret happened that forced a change and a reboot of their brain. Or an alternate Universe. or THIS is an alternate Universe that we are in. Or they're from far in the future. so many possibilities.
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