Fugitive of the Judoon – Review & Thoughts
On the planet Logopolis, setting for Tom Baker’s 1980 swansong, there lived a race of beings who cared so much for numbers that they could convert them into solid matter. Mathematics so pure that objects, even living creatures capable of independent thought, could be summoned into being. The were the guardians of our galaxy, keeping the ever-expanding system in place with their sacred numbers. In place that was until the Master’s meddling corrupted the code releasing a wave of entropy that would destroy their world and potentially every other.
In many ways Tom Baker’s last hurrah plays out like an allegory for Doctor Who and it’s delicate relationship with fandom. The planet Logopolis is like the Doctor Who forums online; dry, cold, cheerless environments populated by stoney-faced fans who keep their expanding universe in harmony by curating the sacred numbers; their hands click-clicking on ancient abacuses (well, iPhones), monitoring the whole system for rogue numbers.
Logopolis’s presence has been felt this series already. In Spyfall, The Master reappeared in a new body (at last), complete with Tissue Compression Eliminator (TCE) ray gun. Atop the Eiffel Tower he even directly referenced this story, casually asking the Doctor about Jodrell Bank (although at the time I merely assumed he was talking in Cockney rhyming slang. Well, it is a very romantic location). Even in this week’s episode we have Logopolitan imagery; lighthouses (pharos), mysterious future (or is past?) incarnations and regeneration.
Fugitive of the Judoon doesn’t care for the fan’s sacred numbers. Episode 5s are supposed to be insubstantial stuff like the Sontaron Stratagem or Time Heist, right? Light stuff to superficially enjoy and then pick to pieces for fun on the internet later – not something important that could unravel the whole causal nexus (well… crash the forums). Prior to transmission, pretty much all we knew about this story was its set in Gloucester (home of Sarlacc pit-like puddles) and features RTD invented, goth-rocker-space-police, the Judoon. So, with this to go on, Dr. Foster jokes were innocently prepared, and rhino puns were readied, for a knockabout romp featuring everybody’s favourite odd-toed ungulates. However, it was all for nothing – the episode turned out to be a bad wolf in sheep’s clothing. A romp that mid-way through chameleon arches into an arc-heavy tale featuring not one but two big surprises, lobbed in like narrative hand grenades. Deal with that! So, with lots to chew over, let’s muddle on with this week’s rhino nasty (you see I was ready. I was ready!!)
Things begin in Gloucester with Ruth Clayton (Jo Martin) and her shifty husband Lee (Neil Stuke stretching himself by playing ‘unreliable’). Meanwhile the TARDIS is travelling through the vortex, with the Doctor brooding over the controls. She’s been looking for the Master, so she tells the ‘fam’ (Ryan, Graham and Yaz – you know their names by now) but with no luck. Her attention is suddenly diverted by the sight of a Judoon spaceship orbiting the Earth, preparing to beam down.
Outside Gloucester Cathedral, Ruth works as a tour guide and is trying to (unsuccessfully) entice potential customers. Suddenly a squadron of Judoon (a herd?) arrive, erecting a forcefield (well, doesn’t everybody this series?), locking down the whole City. They’re in full-on Tommy Lee Jones mode, making a hard target search of every farmhouse, henhouse, outhose and doghose in the area. All eyes are looking at Ruth’s husband Lee to be the guilty man. Realising this, and stalling for time with the Judoon, the Doctor questions the couple in their apartment. Meanwhile Graham is teleported to an alien ship piloted by somebody with a very familiar voice – its none other than Captain Jack Harness! “Did you miss me?”
We should pause here a moment to discuss Captain Jack. Last seen in 2010’s The End of Time, waving a cheeky farewell to the outgoing Tenth Doctor, Harkness is another sign of the show reconnecting with the RTD years. Jack didn’t get the opportunity to meet Docs 11 & 12 under Steven Moffat (not for the want of Barrowman trying) so it’ll be interesting to see how he interacts with Jodie Whittaker’s Timelord. He’s big surprise no.1, and hats off to the production team for keeping it a secret given the twin dangers these days of social media and JB’s loose lips. For a few brief moments on Sunday night, Barrowman temporarily ruled mainstream TV, appearing on both main terrestrial channels simultaneously (he’s also a judge on ITV’s Dancing on Ice). Jack was his old self although the tone of surprise in his voice at a female Doctor seemed a little strange for “an evolved 51st Century guy”, and he also continued the in-joke, first begun in Spyfall, of characters assuming Graham to be the Doctor (‘Q’ jumps to the same conclusion in that episode).
The character of Jack himself has always functioned like a parallel universe version of the Doctor. He has eternal life and youth (well relatively – there’s no need to get personal here), a stolen vehicle, time travel and anachronistic clothing. Perhaps it’s fitting he appears in this episode given that one of his most memorable reappearances was in 2007’s Utopia, a story about a fob-watched Timelord masquerading in human form… but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Back in the City of Puddles, Ryan and Yaz (who suddenly remembers she’s a police woman. To be honest, we’d forgotten too, Yaz) distract the Judoon whilst the Doctor and Ruth escape, seeking sanctuary in the nearby Cathedral. Whilst Ryan and Yaz are scooped up by Jack to join Graham on board his stolen ship (which is being attacked by its original owners) the Judoon stampede through the apartment looking for their Harrison Ford. There they are joined by a new character Gat, who hired the mercenaries prior to the events of the episode. On Gat’s orders the Judoon kill a surrendering Lee, and continue looking for the Doctor and Ruth, tracking them down to the Cathedral. Ruth instinctively (and unconsciously) defends them both by attacking the Judoon (even snapping the horn off the startled Captain’s schnozz), sending them packing. In a state of shock, she sees a text message on her phone from Lee telling her to “Follow the light. Break the glass” which she interprets as meaning to return to the lighthouse where she grew up; she will get answers there.
Meanwhile on Jack’s stolen motor, the anti-theft systems attack and force him to make an emergency exit (also sending the ‘fam’ back home). Before leaving, Jack has one last cryptic message for the Doctor – “Beware the lone Cyberman” and to not give him what he wants.
Away from the Judoon, Ruth and the Doctor take an ocean drive to her lighthouse family (I’m not even sorry). Whilst she’s exploring her deserted former home, the Doctor examines a blank gravestone outside, erected for Ruth’s parents. Whispering voices draw Ruth to a fire alarm button (well she did say she was going to light a fire) whilst the Doctor starts to exhume the grave. Pressing the alarm button, regeneration energy shoots forwards, enveloping a startled Ruth whilst outside the Doctor finds something buried beneath the soil – the TARDIS!
Ruth, wearing new clothes and carrying a laser rifle, joins the Doctor beside the grave, introducing herself as… also the Doctor! Big surprise no. 2!!
Doctor Ruth (Doctor Ruuuuuuuueeeeeeeeoooooooooth) teleports them both to her TARDIS’s console room where the 13thDoctor scans her with the sonic, confirming they share the same DNA. But is Doctor Ruth a future or past incarnation since they both have no memory of the other?
Whilst the two Doctor’s squabble amongst themselves, the TARDIS is seized by the Judoon ship, still in orbit; Gat has found them! On board the ship, surrounded by Judoon, Gat take’s Doctor Ruth’s rifle from her. As Gat pulls the trigger the gun explodes, killing her instantanteously. Doctor Ruth then threatens the Judoon, escaping with our Doctor. She drops her home (to avoid temporal anomalies) to be reunited with her ‘fam’. Back in her TARDIS our Doctor fills them all in on the day’s events.
Well… where do we start??
As has been mentioned before, the lifeblood of Doctor Who is change. Many of the established rules that fans feel so protective towards were themselves contradictions of what had gone before. When William Hartnell was in possession of the TARDIS owner’s manual, nobody thought of him as the first of anything – the shows future wasn’t mapped out, it was added to piecemeal. Not every new addition to the mythology stuck. For every rule that became embroidered into the Castrovalvan tapestry of the show, there were dozens of dropped stitches that did not. Above all else, to Doctor Who fans the numbers mattered; those sacred numbers. Most importantly the Doctor has 13 lives, and we are into the second life of a second cycle of 13. Okay?
Occasionally the elasticity of this rule has been tested. An in-joke by the crew of 1975’s The Brain of Morbius (dressing up as past lives of the titular monster – or were they the Doctor’s past lives??) took on a life of its own in fandom circles until 1983’s Mawdryn Undead put the toys back in the box. Peter Davison’s Doctor was now ‘officially’ number five. Peace had been restored to fandom; entropy sent packing. The numbers were now explicitly acknowledged by subsequent Doctors, wearing their digits with pride (for example, in 1989’s Battlefield, McCoy’s Bessie was licensed “Who 7”, in 2005’s Aliens of London the Doctor’s code number is ‘9’ and in 2010’s The Lodger, the Doctor wears a football shirt with “11” on the back.).
Doctor Ruth’s appearance could change all of this.
With the gift of hindsight there were clues to Ruth’s identity from the beginning, assuming she is who she says she is. Literally the first thing she does in the story is check her watch. It’s a small detail but it shows that time matters to her. Punctuality aside, her name is Hebrew for ‘companion’, or ‘friend’, and if one remembers their RE lessons from school, in The Bible Ruth is “among the maternal progenitors of our Lord” (Matthew 1:5). Ironically the word ‘ruth’ is also a noun meaning a feeling of pity, grief or distress (now reflected in certain parts of fandom). Her surname of Clayton also evokes memories of Back to the Future 3 (and former companion Clara), a movie series the Tenth Doctor refers to in 2007’s The Shakespeare Code.
Ruth’s human biography is that she’s a 44 year old tour guide, something which certainly mirrors the Doctors place as the universe’s tour guide. Her ancestral home is also a lighthouse which, with its lightbulb on top, resembles the Police Box form adopted by the outer plasmic shell of the TARDIS. And yet for all the clues drip fed to us, her surprise reveal does still pack a punch, although how convincing she is as a mysterious new incarnation of the Doctor is a matter of opinion. Certainly, dusting up Space-Rhinos and snapping off their horns doesn’t feel particularly Doctorish. Neither does wielding or indeed sabotaging laser rifles so they backfire on would-be assassins. But maybe they are symbolic of a new, ahem, ruthless streak in the Doctor we’ve never witnessed before. But who is this Doctor? Before we assess the odds, let’s look at the runners and riders.
1. She’s the Doctor from an alternate timeline.
Hurray – thank the maker! This seems like the most likely scenario, and also the one with the least likelihood of upsetting the apple cart. Chibnall’s version of the show already feels like a parallel universe version of Doctor Who where RTD continued to write for it, and now he’s created a parallel Universe RTD Doctor to go with it, full of sass and attitude. Supporting this hypothesis is the presence of the inter-dimensional Kasaavin from Spyfall, ceding the notion of beings skipping realities. There’s also the potential for the Master himself to be an alternate incarnation. No explanation was given why Missy is no more, which is consistent with the character but maybe this time it’s not mentioned for a reason. There’s even the possibility he’s from the same dimension as the Kasaavin.
Another piece of supporting evidence is that at the end of Orphan 55, both the Earth and Gallifrey lie in ruins. The Doctor is keen to point out this represents just one possible future for our planet. Perhaps Doctor Ruth is just one potential Doctor and the arc of the series is essentially a multiverse.
Odds 7/1
2. She’s a future Doctor.
This is another safe option and would allow her to reappear as often as they like without messing up the timelines. Then again, this story partly takes its inspiration from concepts laid out in Paul Cornell’s 1995 New Adventures novel Human Nature, a story which does feature a potential future incarnation of the Doctor, but who is ultimately revealed to be a sham. Which leads us onto…
Odds 10/1
3. It’s a Master plan.
Another non-offensive solution. At the lighthouse the button pressed to unlock Doctor Ruth was hidden behind glass conjuring up allusions to Alice in Wonderland and unreality. We know from 1982’s Castrovalva (sequel story to Logopolis), that the Master learned how to perform block transfer computations of his own, even ones who could think and feel for themselves like Shardovan. Maybe there’s a virus installed into the Doctor’s screwdriver to stop her from discovering this (maybe the Master got the idea from Jodie’s Doc planting a virus in the Kasaavin statue, back in Spyfall). But if Ruth isn’t real, and is really just the devils’ algebra, then for what purpose? The trouble with this ‘trick’ theory is not the how but the why? Surely the Master could just do a Sukdoku or two if he was just looking for a spot of recreational maths to pass eternity?
Another possibility ceded in Spyfall is the fact that the Kasaavin possess technology that rewrites DNA, effectively turning one species into another. Maybe Daniel Barton was just one of the Master’s failed experiments before attempting the big one.
Odds 9/1
4. She’s an unknown, pre-Hartnell Doctor
Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrgggghh!!!!!! Run away, run away! This is the Brexit option which will polarise fandom if it’s true. This theory runs as follows: there was once an ancient being called the “timeless child” from which timelords stole their technology and the ability to regenerate. For reasons unknown, the Timeless Child, becomes the Doctor we know, without retaining the memory of this past life. This theory is similar to former script editor Andrew Cartmel’s idea for “The Other” a mysterious character who along with Rassilon and Omega helped to establish Timelord society. Despite this being finally realised in Marc Platt’s 1997 New Adventures novel Lungbarrow, the story was never completed on screen allowing plenty of narrative space to manoeuvre, if this is the direction Chibnall is taking things.
The 13th Doctor has certainly been a bit trigger happy with her mind powers this series. Searching the Dregg’s memories in Orphan 55 and even wiping Ada Lovelace of hers in Spyfall. It’s seemed a bit out of place at the time (since when does the Doctor feel the need to do this?) but could this be a clue that something similar once happened to her? At the very least it reminds the audience that Timelord’s possess the power to alter memories.
Evidence that could support this theory of a pre-Hartnell Doctor includes the fact her TARDIS (which was buried, symbolising the past) resembles the First Doctors ship and that she doesn’t recognise or need the Sonic Screwdriver.
Odds 8/1
Obviously, option 4 will create the biggest shockwaves to the Elders of the Internet. When John Hurt was unveiled as a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor in 2013’s The Day of the Doctor, it certainly ruffled feathers but it had one big advantage over this – he didn’t call himself the Doctor. This compromise meant that the Logopolitans could pick and choose whether it was okay to accept him as a fully fledged ‘Doctor’, or to reach for the time cone inverters instead. If, and at this stage it’s just a big ‘if’ (and if we remember our Castrovalva, “If is the most powerful word in the English language”), Doctor Ruth predates Hartnell then the biggest issue won’t be the notion of former lives but rather former Doctors. This incarnation is in no way a compromise. She calls herself the Doctor and her TARDIS has taken the form of a police box, long before that fateful day in a junk yard at 76 Totters Lane. She’s also a contradiction to the early Doctors, predating them but essentially being a Nu Who incarnation (actively fighting baddies instead of being just a traveler, and piloting the TARDIS with pinpoint accuracy). She’s not a rounding error that can be ignored. The sacred numbers will need to be recalculated.
If we were being uncharitable for a second we could suggest that Chibnall is even trolling his own fan base (or a particularly militant wing of it at least), by implying its a past incarnation. “Didn’t like a female Doctor? Okay… have another. And while you’re at it, you can go to your room and renumber all your old Doctors.”
The odd thing is this is a BIG deal. Yes, the first female Doctor was an important milestone for the series but the show has been crying out for better diversity in the casting of the Doctor for a long time now. A person of colour playing the Doctor is important and it will be regrettable if Doctor Ruth is revealed to be a deception or at the very least a hugely divisive incarnation that a good number of people will disown (if she’s a pre Hartnell Doctor). Politics aside, it’s a shame too because Jo Martin has great screen presence and eclipses Jodie Whittaker in the scenes she has as the Doctor. She has confident body language, takes charge of scenes and seems one step ahead of everybody… now those are Doctorish qualities. It’ll be interesting revisiting this post in 5 weeks’ time to see how it all played out and whether the fan’s Charged Vaccum Emboitments (CVEs) are holding the entropy at bay.
VERDICT
There are a few stolen vehicles this week (the TARDIS and Jack’s mysterious ship) but none more so than the story itself, which is stolen by the series arc. Whilst the execution might not be to my taste, it is exciting to see where this goes. But the numbers! My god, the numbers!
Film Thought 