Doctor Who recap: series 38, episode five – Fugitive of the Judoon

‘Something’s coming for me. I can feel it’

This recap comes to you delayed due to the BBC’s reluctance to provide a preview of the episode. It is not hard to understand why, however frustrating that decision. This was Doctor Who at its most psychedelic and awesome. It has been a fair criticism of Chris Chibnall-era Who that, at times, the stakes have felt low. Not any more.

This week effectively pulls a rug out from under 56 years of continuity, with a whole alternate past timeline established for the Doctor, including a female BAME incarnation. A Gloucester tour guide named Ruth is outed as an alien fugitive before being revealed as a former incarnation of the Doctor she doesn’t even remember being. Which, if true, means Jodie Whittaker is not the first female Doctor, while the newcomer Jo Martin is the first Doctor of colour.

Her Tardis has a 60s feel, suggesting her Doctor came from a long time ago, perhaps even predating William Hartnell. I didn’t think Chibnall had it in him to tear up continuity so rabidly. Does this make Whittaker number 14 now? Or are there even more back there? “Everything you think you know is a lie,” warned Hot Camp Master back in Spyfall, and that is certainly becoming the case. Also, let’s not forget: he is still out there.

Set against all that, the adventure of the week from writer Vinay Patel is as flimsy as it needed to be. Rhino-headed space mercenaries infiltrating a love triangle in Gloucester? Neil Stuke is always good quality as a guest actor, but I think the word we are looking for is “whatever”.

‘You think I’d choose this box? It doesn’t even have a bar!’

On top of all this, Jack is back! John Barrowman returns as the immortal pansexual time agent Captain Jack Harkness. It is sometimes sacrilege for writers to take on other writers’ characters. It would be wrong, for example, for anyone other than Steven Moffat to write River Song (although this has happened, in the Big Finish audio plays). But there is form here. Chibnall was the showrunner on the first two series of the spin-off Torchwood, in which Harkness was the leading man.

There is little explanation of what Jack has been up to since Torchwood: Miracle Day, or any reference to Gwen Cooper. His cameo comes out of nowhere, but since he never came face to face with 13, it seems inevitable he will be back. Barrowman said: “If they ask me to come back, I will always say this: I will come back at the drop of a hat,” adding this of the character: “My favourite thing about being part of Doctor Who is playing a character that changed the face of television. Also, because I was the first openly gay man to play an omnisexual hero and nobody cared – in a good way; no one made an issue out of it … that, to me, is the biggest gift we can give as people who are in the industry.”

Still, it seems there were scheduling gods up to mischief, airing this directly opposite Barrowman’s new gig as a judge on Dancing on Ice.

Fear factor

As discussed, the Judoon were hardly the point here, but it was a canny spot of make do and mend with prosthetics that were gathering dust in a warehouse. The rhino-headed intergalactic cops-for-hire were introduced by Russell T Davies in the 2007 series opener Smith and Jones, where havoc was wreaked on the moon and Freema Agyeman joined Team Tardis.

Mysteries and questions

Where to begin? Walls are closing in on the Doctor. Her fixation with the Master and the destiny of Gallifrey is becoming problematic. Plus, there is the small matter of her unknown previous self. Were any of the Doctors we have come to know actually real? Meanwhile – leaving aside the Timeless Child for the moment, because no one has the bandwidth – the warning of the Lone Cyberman from Jack sounds like a more clear and present danger. We know the Cybermen are back in a few weeks. Now it is all to play for.

Deeper into the vortex

• Good news! Whittaker has confirmed she will film a third series, telling Entertainment Weekly: “One day it will be time to hand the shoes over, but it’s not yet.”

• The same is not certain of Tosin Cole, AKA Ryan. He has just been cast as a lead in the US drama 61st Street. Given the nine-month-long Doctor Who shoot, this will hardly allow time for both. Are the “fam” about to be ripped apart?

• Unfortunately, Walsh’s cockneyisms are spreading, with Jack referring to Whittaker as “Doc”.

Next time

Next week’s episode is called Praxeus. I know nothing whatsoever about it. Not a thing.