Spoilers Fugitive of the Judoon grade and discussion thread

Of course I know want a big River-Doctor style history catch up between DoctorRuth and OurDoctor. Basically big fanservice/fan wankery talking about loud various points of history to find the point the link broke.

 

Having once failed to get the cast of Pie in the Sky to join Who, we now realise an alternate history took place where they actually nabbed the cast from Chef!

Shame, as I was hoping for a plot with Salmon doing 60mph up the M4.

 

Is nobody gonna' mention the elephant, er, "rhino" in the room?

The Judoon commander was female! (Which may explain the tuft of hair many had discussed when the photos appeared a few months ago. I say "may" because it could be biological as in a subtle sexual dimorphism with their species. It could be a cultural thing with females growing their hair longer. Or, it could be totally random; she, as an individual, just wanted longer hair.)

I loved how they just kinda' slipped that under the radar with Jodie's Doctor saying "...woman to woman..." That wouldn't have worked if the production went the expected route of giving her a purposely feminine voice.

 

She’s not a horny woman by the end of the episode though.

I try to avoid talking about the judoon ... doing stuff like mistaking something for a weapon and then executing them while running away is somewhat tone deaf political. I already accidentally raised havoc by wondering if the named judoon was risky for having the same name as a prominent police commissioner (fun fact, Dr.Ruth actress was also in the Stephen Lawrence Story.) but it turns out it’s very firmly named after a prominent Who fan who sadly passed. Which is nice. (Honestly. No sarcasm.)
But yeah. I will be honest...it felt like a BBC soap opera, then the Judoon turned up and it felt like the Sarah Jan Adventures (Which Dr.Ruth was in the spiritual successor to.) and didn’t really stop feeling like SJA.

 

Clayton has a few claimed versions - 'Clay settlement' or or 'from the clay bed' and so on not specifically 'earth'.

 

It’s not the kind of thing I tend to imagine the Chibnall era giving thought to. Heck, I don’t remember even Moffat looking for meanings in names.

 

The Morbius Doctor's were all dudes?

Of course they were.

The Daleks were going to make a perfect copy of 5, after they had recorded his brain patterns... The Doctor destroyed the hard copies of his brain, 8mm reels of tape for fucks sake, but what if the Dalek backed up the Doctor to the cloud first?

If you're scanning for the narrowest window of stuff to confirm that both of those women are the same Time Lady... Jenny is a clone of 10.

Does 13 ever call herself a Time Lady?

 

Maybe they are going for a rolling reboot. Chef! Doctor is the new second Doctor after TUAT messes with that initial regeneration. The changes creep up the timeline Faction Paradox style. That way, they can avoid having to come up with anything new, and can remake loads of basically old stories by having the Doctor not remember they have already had them. And, 1984 style, of course the doctor is a girl, the Doctor has always been a girl....

XD

 

Actually, there's a BF storyline where the Monk messes with the Doctor's timeline to put the "wrong" incarnation of the Doctor at certain events, albeit with the original companions. So Six is transposed with Two, for example. This doesn't work initially since the Doctor's companions help him realize what the missing incarnation would have done, until he forces the Fifth Doctor into an action that the First wouldn't have taken, allowing the Monk a chance to replace the Doctor with himself - intending to supplant the Doctor's role throughout history.

I could go for a modified version where the Doctor re-experiences one of the wiped early episodes but approaches the situation differently.

 

While I think it's likelier that the Martin Doctor is a result of weird things happening with time, it would be fun if they inserted her between Troughton and Pertwee... especially if they brought Sean in to fill in for his dad for a regeneration scene.

That would mess with Smith being the Thirteenth, but that's easily worked around.

Whoever she is, I thought she was great in the role. My interest is peaked.

 

One thing I forgot to mention before and I don't think anyone else has either: The Ruth Doctor had brainy specs! She sure looked dashing with them, halfway down the bridge of her nose and everything.

 

As an aside, with all this AND the discussions around Picard, isn't it a great time to be a fan ?

 

That would take up a whole episode by itself, even if they were talking really fast. Like, Tennant fast.

 

The more I think about it the more I feel that Ruth's Police Box TARDIS is an (accidental) red herring. They wanted the audience to have the shock reveal, which wouldn't work if it looked like something else but she is still pre-Hartnell from the days when the Time Lords were doing whatever it was they were doing that was so bad the Master destroyed them for it.

 

Where the hell has this episode been being all season? Good deployment of Captain Jack: once he showed up I totally forgot there was still the mystery of ‘the fugitive.’ Given how spare the show has been with backstory I never imagined we’d get a mystery Doctor AND Jack in the same episode!

As for where Jo Doctor fits into the timeline and how it affects precious Who, I’ve decided to care just about as much as ANY WRITER OF WHO EVER, which is to say: Not. At. All.

The whole thing is a spaghetti mess, getting all hot and bothered over ‘continuity’ now is literally insane. I mean, when we finally get an episode where Whittaker gets to be conflicted and show just a glimmer of the weight that being The Doctor puts on her shoulders, I’ll accept nearly any story justification. She’s a stellar actor and Chibnall hasn’t given her nearly enough to do until now.

 

The opening 2 parter with the Master was good
The Tesla one was good
So that just leaves one episode that people think was bad

 

Double chameleon arch thingy? Ruth gets her memory back and is revealed to be an alt Doctor...

Season climax, alt Doctor gets her memory back and is revealed to be The Master/ Missy 2 and epic evil scheme is revealed...

 

That’s a nine from me.

Whittaker was great, Martin was great and the supporting regulars were all on pretty good form. The TARDIS team seems to have more chemistry these days.

If Sacha Dhawan’s Master is from Ruth’s neck of the multiverse, perhaps he destroyed the wrong Gallifrey.

 

Neither- he chose to have series 11 be a new broom jumping-on point with no ties to before, and of course as a contrast to the continuity-steeped Capaldi era. Then once people were acclimatised....

 

It does seem like quite a huge change in tone though, from nothing to everything! The Master, an alternative Doctor, Captain Jack and the Judoon in just five episodes. Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed this series so far (even Orphan 55 wasn't that IMO) but it does feel like they're throwing everything but the kitchen sink at us. We know we've Cybermen to come and it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we might see the finale pit 13, RuthDoc and Jack against the Master and the Cybermen!