Fugitive of the Judoon
review

Holistic Review: A heady mix of the old and the alt-new, Fugitive of the Judoon builds from an intriguing if run-of-the-mill mystery to a mind-bendingly explosive final act loaded with revelation-bombs.

My expectations for Fugitive of the Judoon were, I regret to say, not high. I was anticipating a standard runaround in which the Judoon invade Gloucester to hunt down an alien criminal, the Doctor has to figure out who it is, etc, etc. Indeed, the first 20ish minutes of the story do follow that pattern. And then, gradually, the story takes a massive right turn.

But I'm about to get ahead of myself. Before we start dissecting the story's jaw-dropping twists, let me give a little bit of context for how I viewed this week's episode. Ten seconds before I hit 'play' on Fugitive of the Judoon, I learned a tidbit about the story that shifted my expectations. Or, as the Doctor would say: well, I say 'tidbit'... massive honking spoiler, actually. To the point that I literally threw my phone down on the couch in frustration and screamed a bit. One point about this season that I haven't yet mentioned in my reviews is that while the production team has continued to be absolutely stellar about keeping important plot points under wraps — thus enabling us to be shocked by numerous plot surprises that previously would've been leaked months before — the official BBC Doctor Who social media team has not. Less than 24 hours after Spyfall aired, they posted a video titled "Call him Master... the Doctor's best enemy returns!" which riled up dozens-to-hundreds of people who hadn't yet been able to watch the episode, in turn incurring the mocking wrath of people with no compassion or empathy who lobbed the old "stay off the internet!" riposte, as if that's practical or in many cases even possible. (Likewise, I've heard that some sci-fi news websites posted massively spoilery headlines immediately after the episode ended, which popped up unbidden on fans' phones before they even realized what they were looking at.) IMHO their position is essentially the same as claiming that once a film has had its opening-night premiere, it's fine to prominently post spoilers about the ending, because if you didn't go on opening night, it's all your own fault for daring to look at anything online. (Betcha can't guess which side I'm on!) Ahem. Anyway, much to their credit, by the time Fugitive of the Judoon aired, the BBC team had apparently realized the error of their ways, and decided to explicitly institute a brief spoiler moratorium. This week, their after-episode discussion post was the refreshingly non-spoilery "Tonight's episode was 😱! But don't worry, we are keeping the biggest spoilers to ourselves for 24 hours. Make sure you and your fellow TARDIS team catch up before then!" accompanied by a video of Jodie Whittaker telling us: "Shh! No spoilers!" I am immensely grateful.

However, apparently John Barrowman didn't get the memo, so immediately after the story's UK airing, he posted: "CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS IS BACK!!! Hope you enjoyed the surprise!" and — as my friend Jason pointed out — tagged BBC America, where the episode wouldn't even be shown for another five hours. Thankfully, I'd managed to beat the spoilers for Spyfall to the punch, but just as I was about to start up Fugitive of the Judoon, I took a quick spin on Facebook (all my own fault, right?) and glimpsed Barrowman's post, 45 minutes after he'd shared it. Le sigh. But I mean, you can't even be slightly mad at John, because he's clearly beyond thrilled to be returning, because his glee is infectious, and also because Captain Jack Harkness is back!!! which is truly truly awesome, and something that practically all of fandom has been craving for the past decade.

But I would've loved to be surprised when Jack's voice came on over the intercom. Had I not known he was appearing, I probably would've screamed the house down. As it was, I spent the episode waiting for him to appear, and wondering how it might happen. Now, the (scant) silver lining to spoilers like this is that they can put me further off the scent than I otherwise would've been, and misdirect me into incorrectly assuming that I've learned all of the surprises that the episode has to offer, which is exactly what happened here. I initially assumed that of course Jack was going to be the fugitive that the Judoon were pursuing; then, when the episode seemed to be pointing the finger at Lee, I wondered if he might be Jack in disguise (but that didn't seem very likely, because his personality and dialogue were very un-Jack-like). Of course, I was totally wrong.

Fugitive of the Judoon is pretty much a masterclass in misdirection, even without my leaping to spoiler-fuelled conclusions. The entire first act leads us to believe that Lee is the Judoon fugitive: an alien who has somehow made a life for himself on Earth, and settled down with a kind, funny local woman. He seems harmless, so we think we know where the story's heading: the Doctor will find out that he's either innocent or reformed, and devote herself to protecting Lee and his newfound home life from Judoon retribution.

Welp, think again.

Once the Doctor hustles Ruth out of the flat, the story begins to switch gears. Gradually, we learn that while Lee is an alien, he's not the fugitive that the Judoon were looking for.

I was rooting for Ruth Clayton basically from the moment we meet her. She's upbeat, outgoing, funny, nervous about her first day on the job, and she likes toast. (Guess who else loves toast? Me!) Favorite descriptor, from Courtney Enlow of SyFy Wire: "so likable I assumed she'd be killed almost instantly." Ha! Right? I love the scene of Ruth strolling along the canal, gregariously saying hi to every person and animal she meets, just loving life. She's an immediately sympathetic character, and I really wanted to see her succeed in this new chapter of her life. Once the Judoon materialize in Gloucester city centre, it seemed clear that Ruth was going to fill the standard role of "plucky Earthling who finds herself in over her head, but quickly rallies and discovers unknown reserves of inner strength". Especially as she begins to come to terms with the revelation that her husband is secretly an alien fugitive.

And then the episode begins to drop hints that Ruth is not exactly Ruth. She's having visions of a lighthouse, she possesses impressive sleeper martial arts skills, and... she can speak Judoonese?!

By the time Ruth discovers her true identity, the episode started throwing me for loop after loop, as my brain tried vainly to keep updating my theories to fit everything that was happening onscreen. When Ruth shatters the alarm glass, the energy that streamed out of it was clearly recognizable — visually, and auditorily — as Time Lord energy. I didn't quite twig that it was a chameleon arch, but I figured Ruth had just been imbued with Time Lord knowledge. My brain screeched to a halt, incapable of formulating a theory.

Outside, the Doctor has materialized a shovel and dug up... her TARDIS?! Was it a duplicate? Or was this a Fires of Vulcan situation, where the TARDIS was now preordained to be buried here?

Finally, Ruth reappears, standing behind the Doctor in a quite magnificent costume, consisting of a deep blue jacket and fitted trousers, with a gold-buttoned waistcoat over a brightly patterned shirt peeking out at the neckline and cuffs. It's a happy outfit overall, but it's just dark enough and zany enough that, combined with the gun she carries, my brain instantly leapt to the possibility that Ruth might be yet another incarnation of the Master. First assumption: Dhawan had altered his appearance, or was hiding behind a Ruth disguise, much like I initially thought Jack had done in taking Lee's face. Followup revision: Was it possible that Ruth was a brand-new incarnation of the Master? Could they, or would they, have regenerated Dhawan already?! Or: might she finally be the Rani??? (My brain always goes there, in desperate hope.)

Then she claimed the TARDIS as her own, and finally the penny dropped: Ruth was another incarnation of the Doctor. And my brain screeched to a halt again, enthralled and puzzled, and full of questions, and dying to know what was going to happen next. Without knowing more about Ruth's Doctor, it was impossible to know how I felt about the idea — how does she fit into the Doctor's timeline? were they already planning ahead to cast Jo Martin whenever Whittaker decides to turn over the role, like I thought they were doing with David Morrissey? — so instead, I tried to banish my overthinking brain and just soak everything in. And, wow, is it ever glorious.

In Ruth's TARDIS, we get to the heart of the matter: both Ruth's Doctor and the thirteenth Doctor assume that the other is in their future, because neither one remembers having been the other. (That's one of those sentences that you can only write when reviewing Doctor Who.) My initial deduction was that this paradox rules out the possibility that Ruth is a War-Doctor-esque unknown previous incarnation... but in that case, what might it rule in?

But then, two days later, Chris Chibnall goes and explicitly blows my theory out of the water (unless he's lying to throw us off the scent!), which puts me back to square one. However, this article does suggest another intriguing possibility: Ruth is a season 6b Doctor.

So, a revised hypothesis:

It has long been accepted in fan circles (thanks to The Discontinuity Guide) that, following The War Games, the second Doctor was forcibly recruited by the Celestial Intervention Agency, who suspended his sentence while he worked for the Time Lords. Presumably he pulled some strings to get Jamie and Victoria back as companions (though why not Zoe? grrr). But aside from TV Comic, nobody to my knowledge has yet theorized what eventually caused the second Doctor's sentence to be carried out. What if Troughton's regeneration didn't occur when the Time Lords exiled the Doctor to Earth, but rather on one of his missions for the CIA? Afterward, the Ruth-Doctor continued working for them for some time, under Gat's leadership, until she couldn't stand being under their thumb any longer, and decided to flee Gallifrey yet again, using the chameleon arch to hide from the CIA by going deep undercover on Earth with her current companion, presumably a Gallifreyan CIA operative (like Serenadellatrovella from Terrance Dicks' season 6b novel World Game). Naturally, the CIA would be furious with her for breaking their contract, so they've terminated the reprieve of her sentence, and have dispatched Gat to bring her back to Gallifrey, with the intention of wiping her memory, forcibly regenerating her, and carrying out her exile to Earth. That theory actually would fit really well with everything we see onscreen, including the alt-Doctor's retro TARDIS console room, except for two problems. One: it uses up yet another early regeneration, which should have the Doctor reaching his final regeneration in The Stolen Earth rather than The End of Time. But there's no reason why the CIA couldn't have granted the Doctor an extra regeneration in exchange for his assistance, especially if he lost one while in their employ. Two: Ruth doesn't recognize the sonic screwdriver, which the second Doctor was using by Fury from the Deep, by either appearance or name. That one's a stickler, and probably rules out the season 6b theory all by itself, unless there's some reason why the Time Lords would have temporarily blocked her memory of the device (?!).

After learning all this, the Doctor wanders around Gloucester as if shellshocked, and it's easy to understand why, because we kinda are too. Not only has she met an unknown and impossible incarnation of herself, the mere possibility that Gallifrey might still exist somewhere sent shockwaves through both the Doctor and the audience. The whole situation is rather headache-inducing, in the best possible way. I'm reluctant to deliver a verdict on this storyline yet, until we get more clarity on what exactly is happening and why, but if Ruth is the Doctor from a parallel timeline, this season arc has the potential to broaden the Doctor Who universe in really exciting ways. It reminds me of Supernatural seasons 4 and 5, which kept introducing twist after twist that expanded the show far beyond its original scope of urban legends, monsters, and demons.

Smartly, Fugitive of the Judoon doesn't give us all the answers just yet. What this means is I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. Dangling unsolved mysteries include:

Given the mind-blowing plot, I'm pretty impressed that I don't have more questions than these few:

It feels appropriate to me that in the story which introduces our first BAME Doctor, the alien adversaries-of-the-week are "trigger-happy police" whom the Doctor has to prevent from causing mass casualties in their single-minded pursuit of justice. Thanks to a combination of flawless prosthetics, excellent animatronics, and superb physical and vocal performances (by Paul Kasey behind the mask for Captain Pol-Kon-Don — so adorably named after a beloved Doctor Who fan (as well as convention organizer and author) who recently passed away, that I don't even care that it doesn't match Judoon phonology — and Nick Briggs as the Judoon voices), the Judoon have been elevated from amusing heavies to seriously loveable semi-adversaries. Kasey and Briggs imbue Pol-Kon-Don with heaps of personality: her astonished gasp when Allan shoves her, and her growl of satisfaction after she shoots him in retribution; her growl of frustration when the Doctor stonewalls her with Earth Law 12; the eager line "Two payments!"; and most especially her sad sigh and slumping shoulders, when the Doctor declares, "I'm very disappointed in you!" (My second loudest LOL of the night!) These are all such subtle moments, but they really reinforce the sense of a personality behind the prosthetic.

On the whole, the Judoon stick to their established modus operandi. Having isolating the location sheltering their target, they use their translators to determine the local language (most helpful for those of us who do not speak Judoonese) and work their way through verifying the identity of the inhabitants one by one. Their leather-kilt costumes (right down to the abs) and spaceships (aside from a more textured exterior) are delightfully unchanged, and they're still handing out compensation vouchers in cases of police overreaction, though their catalogue-marking tool has been upgraded from a Sharpie to a more efficient stamp, their vaporization weapon is quicker and less gruesome, and the prosthetics are slightly more mobile. But we learn a couple of new tidbits, including that they can create quarantines with a temporal isolation dome (which, in typically excessive Judoon fashion, vaporizes anyone who touches it), and that removing their horn is a grave insult.

Jo Martin gets the plum guest role this week, taking on a character whom, if we're lucky, we'll be revisiting for a long while yet. Because she gets to play two very different versions of the character — the commanding and focused alt-Doctor, whose desperation to retain her freedom leads her to be a bit more cutthroat than we're used to from our mostly-pacifist Doctor, and her blissfully innocent alter-ego Ruth Clayton, so friendly and charming — Martin is given the opportunity to show off an impressive range. As Ruth, I loved her delivery of "No presents. Just a cake.", "I will!", "They're aliens! Real aliens!", "'Course I'm sure! I know where I was brought up.", and "Are you testing me?!"

But as delightful as Ruth is, it's the alt-Doctor that we can't take our eyes off. After Ruth's personality rewrite, Martin's performance is similarly transformed. Where Ruth was sweet and funny and pensive, the alt-Doctor is straightforward and sarcastic, with a definite swagger. She gets to show off both her smarts (when she calculates the moment that the freighter enters interstellar space, and scoffs at relying on the sonic screwdriver) and her athletic ability (she seems to employ Venusian aikido against the Judoon "bullies", and she's strong enough to snap off a sturdy-looking Judoon horn). The contrast between the two Doctors is instructive: the thirteenth Doctor's bouncy zany personality seems positively kooky next to the grounded, more serious alt-Doctor, who practically dismisses our Doctor as childish. But the alt-Doctor also has a much looser moral code than the ethical thirteenth Doctor, whose conscience is strongly pricked as she watches the alt-Doctor taking the fight to her pursuers. I love that the usual cross-incarnation rivalries crop right back up, especially in this hilarious exchange:

Though it's a shame that since the alt-Doctor spends so much time being cross at the thirteenth Doctor and Gat, her jovial side disappears once they enter her TARDIS. Still, I adored Martin's performance of "You're gonna love this." and "Yeah, that's the one." And I am absolutely wild about her new outfit, particularly the brightly multicolored African-style print of her blouse, with its ultra-cool pleated collar and cuffs. And she gets to wear stylish spectacles!

Plus, let's not overlook the fact that Jo Martin has officially become the second female Doctor, and the first Black actor ever to take the role, which is a huge moment in series history, not to mention a huge step for all the children (and adults) who finally see themselves reflected in our favorite Time Lord. Reading some of the reactions from fans online has been so very deeply touching, and I'm delighted that Doctor Who has finally taken this important stride toward even greater inclusivity. I've been assuming, and hoping, that an actor of color would be the natural next step in casting whenever Whittaker leaves, and knowing the vitriol that Whittaker faced from a vocal minority, I've been concerned that her successor might face even worse abuse from those fans who have been loudly hoping that the next Doctor would finally be a white male again. From that perspective, this is an absolutely perfect way to introduce the first non-white Doctor. In the same way that Missy paved the way for the Doctor to undergo a gender transformation, the Martin Doctor (Jo, not Trevor!) slips in under the radar, winning over audience hearts before revealing that, surprise!, she's been the Doctor all along. But she's not replacing Whittaker, so the fans who are hoping for another white dude don't have to get up in arms just yet, and while they wait, Martin can quietly normalize the idea of a lead actor of color. Though it enrages me that racist fan reactions are even a remote consideration in this day and age, and though I'm sure Chris Chibnall and Vinay Patel never for a moment took those opinions into consideration when deciding how to craft this reveal, I think this was an absolutely brilliant way to handle it. Delightfully, the reaction to Martin's casting and performance seems to be almost universally positive, and I'm thrilled that she's received such a warm welcome to the Doctor Who family from the fan community. The only downside is that, if she's playing a Doctor whose time has come and gone, rather than a current incarnation, I don't suppose we'll get to spend as much time in her company as we'd like. (Unless they decide to do a spinoff??? You better believe I'd watch that!)

I cannot overstate how delightful is John Barrowman's return as Jack Harkness. In his interim away from Doctor Who and Torchwood, I've enjoyed him in Arrow, at least until our whole TV-night group (Nancy and her husband and I) got fed up with the redundant-seeming plotlines and bailed after season three. So it's great to see him reinhabiting a familiar and much-loved role. From his first moment onscreen to his last, Jack is his usual ebullient self, greeting 'the Doctor' (actually Graham!) with a big old kiss on the lips, gleefully telling ribald stories, and bouncing around the controls with a huge grin on his face. It's telling that the mere mention of Jack Harkness jolts the Doctor out of her funk; I have a feeling that his chipper confidence is going to be a much-needed source of support as this Gallifrey storyline plays itself out. Dare we hope for another multi-episode visit, as in season 3? (Funnily enough, I was just thinking the other day that what I'd really love to see is a return visit by a classic companion, like Ace, not just for a single episode but for a story arc, like Martha in series 4. I'd happily take Jack for starters!) Loved Barrowman's delivery of "Whoo! That was a night! ...Actually, that was a month."

Before he departs, far too prematurely for my liking, Jack leaves the Doctor with yet another mystery: "In the meantime, tell her: beware the lone Cyberman." At which point I got really worried that Jack was going to leave it at that, like an RTD-era cryptic prophecy, rather than using his remaining few moments to give her something useful and concrete. Thank goodness the Chibnall era doesn't, so far, go in for that sort of thing, and Jack goes on to provide more details. (Starting with, "You don't... know what a Cyberman is yet, do you?") This is good writing.

All in all, Doctor Who is delivering a lot of really impressive surprises this season. It's reminding me of the fast-paced Emergence — my favorite new show of the 2019–20 season, which airs its season and perhaps series finale this week — in which nearly every episode includes a plot twist that would've been worthy of a season finale, only to spring a surprise resolution before moving onto the next season-finale-worthy twist. In this episode alone, we've got Jack's return, the reveal of an as-yet-unknown Doctor, and the return of the Time Lords in some fashion. The "lone Cyberman" plotline sounds like it could very well fit the bill too, and perhaps it will end up forming part of the season finale plotline.

As a result, season 12 is turning out to give Whittaker loads of interesting material to work with. For starters, I love these little glimpses we're getting into how the loss of Gallifrey is affecting the Doctor's life, and the tension it's brewing between her and her companions. After being buffeted by so many earth-shattering surprises, the Doctor finally starts to open up to them this week. She's not telling them about Gallifrey just yet, but she's sharing some of her burdens with them, rather than bottling it all up. I'm getting the impression that the Doctor took her latest regeneration as a literal rebirth, an opportunity to start afresh, and has been bouncing around the universe all carefree with her new family, until suddenly her past gets dredged up. All she wants is a clean slate — she doesn't want to face her past, and she doesn't want her new friends to know about any of her baggage — but she can't ignore the fact that her home planet has been destroyed, and she keeps getting pulled into confrontations with demons from her past, despite her wishes. It's revealing a great deal of depth behind the thirteenth Doctor's cheerful exterior, and deepening her relationship with her newfound chosen family in both negative and positive (but mostly positive) ways. I'm loving how her character is developing, and Whittaker is really sinking her teeth into this more complex, layered portrayal. Loved her delivery of "Have you lost him?!" (onto which she adds a tiny extra dash of annoyance), "Struggling with this.", her anguished "It's gone! Forever.", "But you knew she would!", her reluctant "Yes." (when the alt-Doctor asks her to confirm that no crime has been committed), and "It was Ruth." We learned this week that Whittaker is committed to at least a third season as the Doctor, and I'm beyond thrilled that she'll be back next year.

For the companions, however, the episode is less generous with its runtime. One by one, it plucks them out of the narrative and deposits them safely out of the way of the Doctor's massive paradigm shift, by letting them hang out with Jack Harkness until the story is nearly over, mostly listening to him monologue. Which, admittedly, is vastly entertaining.

In an episode that features the alien Judoon law enforcement, I was dying for Yaz to go full-on police officer and beat them at their own game. Sadly, although Fugitive of the Judoon does eventually raise this possibility ("I'm a police officer. I speak their language."), it's only paid lip service. All Yaz really gets to do is say "Stop! Arbitration complete." and order the Judoon to turn off their temporal isolator, which isn't much, and doesn't require any police know-how at all. I had hoped that, when they first encountered the Judoon, Yaz might suggest some actual Earth police regulations to stall them, but instead, she allows the Doctor to (humorously) invent Earth Law 12, and simply backs her up with generic agreement when the Doctor asks ("Isn't that correct, Liaison Officer Khan?"). Still, her police training does come in handy on a couple of occasions, when she notices that Lee is planning to flee town, and most especially the impressive way that she ferrets out a little silver trunk in a hollow compartment at the back of their wardrobe within about two minutes! Bravo!

Still, as little as Yaz gets to do, she is at least the best-used companion this week. Graham's plotline is entirely limited to his chat with Jack, though their scenes together are delightful, particularly Jack's, er, ardent greeting for the man he assumes is the Doctor. Great delivery of "Look at the state of that! That's the worst cake I've ever seen!"

As for Ryan, well, he's mostly Reaction Guy this week, my favorite being when he learns about the Cybermen: "Oh, I can't wait to meet them, then!"

I was a huge fan of Neil Stuke's incredibly creepy vocal performance in Big Finish's fourth Doctor and Leela story The Crooked Man, so I was thrilled to hear that he'd been cast in the television show. He's equally excellent as the far less frightening Lee Clayton, Ruth's good-humored, caring, somewhat forgetful husband and, evidently, the erstwhile "faithful companion" to her Doctor. In scenes with Allan, Lee's dialogue could easily have come across as defensive and angry, but instead Stuke plays it as if Lee is amused, perplexed, and good-naturedly weary of Allan's behaviour, which is just fantastic.

The entire scene onboard the Judoon ship is rivetting, as answers begin to fly, and Whittaker scores some fantastic moments confronting Ritu Arya as Gat. I want to highlight Gat's death scene, which is predictable in just the best way. The moment that the alt-Doctor warns Gat about pointing the gun at her, I knew exactly what she'd done. For that exact reason, though, the thirteenth Doctor's righteous anger is a bit puzzling. It was predictable precisely because this is what the Doctor does, giving her adversary the opportunity to be hoist by their own petard if they don't choose to reform — in fact, Whittaker's Doctor pulled the exact same trick herself just last year, against Tzim-Sha in The Woman Who Fell to Earth — so I'm not exactly sure why she's getting on her high horse with the Martin incarnation, except that perhaps she somehow intuited that the DNA bombs wouldn't kill Tzim-Sha, whereas Gat's gun backfired fatally. (Here again, I feel obliged to point out: Dominators. Graff Vynda-K. Solomon. Shockeye. Solon. Oh well, I honestly don't fault her for having turned over a new leaf, and being committed to holding herself to a higher standard these days.)

Ritu Arya has impressive screen presence as Gat. Her performance is electric, and she has great chemistry with Whittaker (in particular), so I'm actually really disappointed that she was killed off. I sense that this character had a lot of depth that we didn't get to explore. Loved Arya's delivery of "Talk about sledgehammers to crack a nut.", "Did you really think that we wouldn't find you? Did you think that I'd ever stop looking?", "Good place to hide, mind!", "You didn't scan him yet, did you?", "Yes, Ruth, do as your little friend says.", and "But it ends here!" Truly a superb performance. Her costume doesn't even hint at her Gallifreyan origins, but it's creative and intricately designed, and I love the crystalline design of her gun.

Not until my fourth viewing did it finally hit me that "All Ears" Allan, played with sweet charm by Michael Begley, reminds me really strongly of Rory! I loved his surprisingly non-creepy, though rather pitiful and certainly inappropriate, flirting with Ruth. (Unwise though pursuing a married woman might be, especially because she's asked him not to — which suggests that he has a worrisome problem with boundaries — Begley's performance convinces me that Allan truly cares for Ruth and genuinely has her best interests at heart. After all, his wild claims about Lee, though undoubtedly rooted in jealousy and animosity, turn out to be spot-on!) Loved the crestfallen look on Allan's face when Ruth leaves, and his delivery of "How long you got?!" and "I've got no money! I'm sorry, I'm terrible at this job."

In Ruth's orbit, Katie Luckins is fun as the skeptical tourist, and Marcia (Judith Street) is a likeable though short-lived ally. I enjoyed Street's dismayed "That took me nine weeks!" (What's she knitting, a multicolored scarf for the Doctor? Hands up who thinks she was knitting it to satisfy a mysterious sudden craving of Ruth's?)

I've never been to Gloucester, but on the strength of this episode, now I really want to visit. Nida Manzoor shows the city off to great advantage: its tranquil canals and quaint green in front of the cathedral look like a gorgeous place for a long wander. I'm also now quite determined to book a weekend at the West Usk Lighthouse someday! (I bet they loved the publicity! Especially given that the owners were evidently big Doctor Who fans already.)

After last week, I was really happy to have Nida Manzoor behind the camera again. Her directorial eye lends flair to this episode as well, particularly the great fade from the dossier to the Judoon ship hovering over the Earth, and the gorgeous sweeping shot around the lighthouse. One of my favorite of Manzoor's choices is the inverted parallel between the companions relaxing on the steps at the start, trying to wheedle information out of the Doctor, and the Doctor slumped wearily on the steps at the end, as she finally spills most (but not all) of the secrets that she's been holding onto. It beautifully illustrates the power dynamic between them: at the start, the Doctor holds all the cards, and she isn't willing to divulge much information; but at the end, her friends loom over her like an interview panel or a (friendly) interrogation, as she reluctantly opens up to them. Gorgeous, visually and thematically. We do however seem to have a way-higher-than-usual number of lens flares (I counted at least 161 of them, often occurring multiple times within the same shot), which have a tendency to obscure what's happening onscreen.

We have another unobtrusive score from Akinola this week, but I enjoyed the music as the camera reveals the Judoon ship poised above the Earth.

Effects this week are again excellent, especially the freaky effect of Marcia getting zapped by the temporal barrier, the pixellated scoop transfer, the Judoon tractor beam pulling the TARDIS out of the ground, and my favorite, the very cool rainbow transporter effect when Commander Gat arrives, which in hindsight reminded me of the Colin Baker era title credits.

On the heels of the alien alphabet in Orphan 55, I must yet again compliment the graphic designers on the way they've evolved the Judoon script from Smith and Jones. It retains the same bold, angular look that matches the aesthetic of the Judoon as a curt, aggressive police force, but now, impressively, it also appears to be phonologically consistent: every two-character glyph ends with the same symbol, presumably representing the /o/ phoneme. (Though, while it looks fine on the Judoon ship displays, it's been reversed on the transparent warning notification that pops up in the TARDIS, from both angles. Why it looks like an identical mirror-image from both the Doctor's perspective and the companions', I do not understand.)

This episode features two really well-designed and distinctive-looking ships. The Judoon ship is all dark and moody, with orange lighting resembling caution or directional signage. Meanwhile, the bridge of Jack's stolen vessel looks suspiciously TARDIS-like, with its glowing mushroomesque console, and a walkway lined with lit-up pyramids that are not unlike the Rani's TARDIS from Time and the Rani. More foreshadow-y misdirection, I wonder? And speaking of TARDISes, the alt-Doctor's classic-style TARDIS is just great. It echoes several previous Doctors, with its monochrome-era column, Hartnellesque ceiling fixture, and Davisonesque sound effects. Yet it has a character of its own, with its lighted entryway, Gallifreyan-symbol wall displays, and what might be a multicolored fault locator.

Fugitive of the Judoon only cements my feeling that, after avoiding a season arc entirely last year, series 12 is executing its arc way better than any previous season of the revival. Sure, arc seeds like "Bad Wolf" and "Vote Saxon" and cracks in walls keep us wondering and curious, but they don't excite and thrill the same way that ancient Gallifrey and Time Lord secrets do, at least in my opinion. And who knows, this story arc could still fall to pitiful bits in the season finale, but in the context of this episode alone, it wouldn't even matter, because it's just that gripping. The way this season has built anticipation and interest is leagues better than ever. I'm on the edge of my seat and I almost literally can't wait to see what happens next. Even though Doctor Who has always been my favorite show of all time, it's rarely if ever given me this level of plot anticipation.

Minor points:

Under most circumstances, I'd be grumbling about the fact that Fugitive of the Judoon is light on plot (because practically the whole story is setup for future revelations in an adventure yet to come) and the companions aren't given very much to do. A story has to be pretty incredible for me to overlook flaws as big as that, and in Fugitive of the Judoon, I wasn't even bothered. The latter half of the story, once answers begin to arrive, is absolutely rivetting. Especially after the revelations and hints in Spyfall, Fugitive of the Judoon builds an enormous sense of anticipation for what comes next.

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