Reverse the polarity of the spoiler glide! Proceed with warning in case you are but to observe the brand new “Doctor Who” episode “The Story & the Engine”.
In “The Story & the Engine”, the Doctor stops off for a haircut in Lagos, Nigeria, and finally ends up with a little bit greater than a brief again and aspects. A mysterious barber (Ariyon Bakare) is at the hunt for tales to energy his scheme to topple the gods, and no person has extra memorable stories to percentage than Gallifrey’s most famed export.
The episode references many of the Doctor’s acquainted faces from their many adventures via house and time, in conjunction with every other, less-talked-about incarnation from a prior existence. Here’s how the so-called Fugitive Doctor suits into “Doctor Who” lore.
The Fifteenth Doctor in brief has a unique face in Omo’s barbershop in “The Story & the Engine”. Who is she?
That’s in reality a flashback to a prior regeneration of the Doctor, performed via British actor Jo Martin. Known because the “Fugitive Doctor”, she made her first look within the collection 12 episode “Fugitive of the Judoon” (2020) and returned a couple of extra instances right through Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor technology.
It used to be this incarnation that Abena (Michelle Asante) recollects. The daughter of the trickster god Anansi, Abena spent her complete existence terrified that her dad would lose her in of venture, and nonetheless bears a grudge that the Doctor could not take her away.
“I was a fugitive back then,” explains the Fugitive Doctor. “Anansi was wrong to offer that bet. And frankly, darling, I was busy in a different story that might be finished one day.”
Hang on, have we neglected one thing? We do not take into account Jo Martin being the lead in any earlier seasons of “Doctor Who”.
That’s right kind, she’s by no means been the lead Doctor in any of “Doctor Who”‘s 62 years on TV. The Fugitive Doctor suits into the Time Lord’s timeline sooner than William Hartnell’s First Doctor began the nature’s televised run of regenerations.
Are some other Doctors lacking from ‘Who”s conventional numerical collection?
Yes, the long-standing numbering device has been extraordinarily complicated for the reason that 50th anniversary particular “The Day of the Doctor” offered the War Doctor (performed via John Hurt). This model slots in between the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) and the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), which means that David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor will have to extra correctly be described because the Eleventh Doctor.
An additional complication comes from the reality the Fourteenth Doctor used to be additionally performed via Tennant till he regenerated — or, technically, bi-generated — into Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor. There’s additionally the Richard E Grant model who gave the impression in 1999 Comic Relief particular “The Curse of Fatal Death” and changed into a part of canon when the Doctor confirmed off some earlier incarnations in remaining yr’s “Rogue“. And that is sooner than you may have introduced the Fugitive Doctor into the equation.
That stated, it is price remembering that this numbering device is extra for the advantage of fanatics than for characters throughout the “Doctor Who” universe. Whatever their look, the Doctor is the Doctor.
Why had no person talked in regards to the Fugitive Doctor sooner than “Fugitive of the Doctor”?
Because all reminiscences of that pre-First Doctor existence have been erased. Indeed, when the Thirteenth Doctor meets the Fugitive Doctor for the primary time, each are at a loss for words as a result of neither has any recollection of the opposite.
Why is the Fugitive Doctor so arguable inside of fandom?
Jo Martin’s efficiency has been broadly praised, however the Fugitive Doctor’s life basically adjustments the ‘Who’ canon. TL;DR model: The Fugitive Doctor is on the center of one of the vital largest, and maximum divisive, retcons within the display’s six-decade historical past.
Series 12 finale “The Timeless Children” printed that the Doctor used to be by no means simply an odd Time Lord who stole a TARDIS. Instead, they began out as a mysterious alien child came upon on an alien international via a scientist named Tecteun. Tecteun used to be a Shobogan (the former citizens of the Time Lord homeworld, Gallifrey), and he or she realised that this “Timeless Child”‘s talent to regenerate may well be grafted onto her personal species. This due to this fact gave start to the Time Lords, making the Doctor integral to the beginning fable of a complete civilisation.
The Doctor used to be due to this fact recruited to paintings for the Division, the shadowy Gallifreyan secret agent outfit that the Fugitive model is making an attempt to hand over when she first encounters the Thirteenth Doctor. It’s due to this fact protected to think there are lots of different earlier variations of the Doctor that we’ve not met but.
Many fanatics had was hoping this tectonic shift in “Who” mythology could be quietly forgotten within the display’s newest iteration — a lot as no person in point of fact talks in regards to the 1996 TV film’s revelation that the Doctor is “half human on my mother’s side”. It’s nonetheless, alternatively, very a lot a part of canon. The Doctor referenced being deserted via his folks in remaining yr’s “Space Babies“, and in addition mentioned being an orphan with Ruby Sunday.
Does the Fifteenth Doctor now recall his adventures because the Fugitive Doctor?
This is an intriguing query. In “The Vanquishers” (the finale of collection 13, aka “Flux”), the Doctor is given a fob watch that appears so much just like the Chameleon Arch the Tenth Doctor used to masquerade as a human trainer in vintage two-parter “Human Nature”/”The Family of Blood”. It comprises the entire Time Lord’s forgotten reminiscences, however she opts to cover it away, telling the TARDIS to “Keep this safe, somewhere I can never find it.”
However, the truth that the Fifteenth Doctor recollects his earlier come upon with Abena in “The Story & the Engine” suggests that he is since downloaded those reminiscences into his mind. Maybe he is additionally hoping for the Fugitive Doctor’s tale to be “finished one day”.
New episodes of “Doctor Who” flow on BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom and Disney+ in america each Saturday. The Fugitive Doctor’s earlier appearances are to be had on BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom and Max in america.