Doctor Who Series 12 Spoilers – “Fugitive of the Judoon”

Continuing our spoiler-filled tour through the latest series of Doctor Who. Today is all about “Fugitive of the Judoon,” which has all sorts of goodness to offer, of both the continuity-porn and big-twist varieties. This is your warning: here there be spoilers (for this episode, along with a reference to the main spoiler from “Spyfall.”)

The return of the Judoon was already a fun thing. As I said last season, I was bummed that Chris Chibnall seemed so intent on avoiding references to the show’s storied history, making it feel like Thirteen wasn’t being allowed to play in quite the same sandbox that her predecessors did. Luckily, he’s been making up for it in spades this year. I already talked about some nice continuity goodness in my spoilery thoughts on “Spyfall,” and this episode gives us plenty more, including lots of the new Who variety. We’re talking Judoon. We’re talking the Chameleon Arch. And of course, we’re talking…

Captain Jack Harkness! As soon as I heard his voice on the comms, I knew it was him and I screamed. As with the Master reveal in “Spyfall,” I love that this was kept so well under wraps, because it makes it all the sweeter. Everything about Jack’s appearance is amazing. I love that he thinks Graham is the Doctor at first and gets excited when he finds out Thirteen is a woman. I love that he then briefly assumes Yaz is the Doctor before incredulously realizing that there are three companions (he had a dream like that once!) I love that he’s clearly in the middle of a wild sci-fi adventure of his own that we only get a peek at, and always with the nanogenes! I had a big dumb grin on my face during all his scenes with the companions. Now he just needs to meet Thirteen!

Now, it’s impressive when a surprise cameo from Captain Jack Harkness isn’t the most talked-about thing to come out of an episode. Because there’s also Ruth, the seemingly-ordinary Gloucester woman who’s being hunted by the Judoon. The one with a secret past buried underneath the fake life and memories that’s been layered over them. The one who, once the effects of the Chameleon Arch are reversed, remembers who she is: the Doctor.

The big headline is that neither she (who I’ve taken to calling the Nth Doctor) or Thirteen remember being one another, which, after the episode aired, sent everyone buzzing about where she might fit in. Like many, I was on the “previously-unknown past Doctor” side. There’s precedent (hello, Eight point Five!,) and it just seems to lend itself better to mystery than a Doctor from the future, not to mention the the latter would be difficult to manage unless she was the next one along. I was fond of both the pre-One and the “season 6B” (aka Two point Five) theories, as slipping an extra, forgotten Doctor in either of those places seemed decently retcon-able. There were also alternate timeline, deleted timeline, and parallel universe theories. I won’t get into later revelations now, but post-“Fugitive of the Judoon,” I couldn’t remember the last time a Who arc/mystery caused so much buzz.

The Nth Doctor herself is an intriguing character. She seems a lot more serious than most new Who incarnations, taking herself more seriously and having less time for nonsense. She’s a little haughty (which, to me, lent credence to the pre-One idea,) her moral code seems a bit grayer than most Doctors, and she appears to have been unwillingly conscripted into working at the behest of the Time Lords (shades of Two point Five.)

Let me repeat it: Captain Jack came back after a 10-year absence from the show, and he was the second-most-talked-about aspect of the episode. Quite a feat, that!