Fugitive of the Judoon was everything Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor Who era has been missing – inews

CultureTVDeft plotting, fantastic performances, mystery and a twist that landed with a wallop: this was a return to Doctor Who at its best

Sunday, 26th January 2020, 10:56 pm

Doctor Who, BBC1, 7pm,

One of the biggest criticisms of the Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who is that it has lacked the ideas, surprises and ambition that made the modern show such a hit in the first place. But no such thing could be said about this weeks barnstorming "Fugitive of the Judoon" a return to Doctor Whos very best.

Well publicised was the return of fan-favourite the Judoon, the heavy-handed rhino police force whose search for an alien fugitive brought them to the small English town of Gloucester. Cue a first act built around novelty nostalgia, silly gags (theres a platoon of Judoon near the moon!) and the mystery of potential fugitive Lee (Neil Stuke) and his bubbly tour guide wife Ruth (Jo Martin). In reality, though, the Judoon were just a Trojan horse (or rhino) for an episode which featured shock after shock after shock.

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The first, of course, was the sensational return of John Barrowmans Captain Jack Harkness, whose attempt to teleport the Doctor up to his orbiting ship went awry after he accidentally teleported the companions instead.

After nine years away, you got the impression Barrowman had missed the role just as much as fans did (you can get excited now!), and it was a genuine thrill to watch Graham, Ryan and Yaz try to process this horny force of nature. No one delivers a cheeky one-liner like Barrowman, nor an ominous warning. Beware the lone Cyberman, he said one of many intriguing mysteries set up here.

If this episode had only featured the return of the Judoon and Jack Harkness, it could have been written off as a surrender to nostalgia, a desperate attempt to evoke past glories after last series failed experiment of only featuring new monsters. But then came the twist.

Lee wasnt the fugitive the Judoon were searching for. It was Ruth, the seemingly innocuous tour guide who had no idea why she had the ability to take out a whole squad of Judoon like Jason Bourne, or why she felt drawn towards a curious lighthouse by the beach. Once they arrived, however, it was resolved with the biggest swing this era has taken yet: a TARDIS buried in an unmarked grave, and the revelation that Ruth was in fact a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor herself.

It is a twist that had been done before,with the Master having masked his identity using the same Time Lord technology in 2007s Utopia. Even so,thanks to some deft plotting, and fantastic performances from Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin it landed here with an absolute wallop. Who is this new Doctor? Where did she come from? Is she from the Doctors past or her future? Why do neither of them know each other? Why is this new Doctor so badass and gun-toting? Never before has this era been so engulfed in fascinating questions; never before has it proved so gripping.

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Fugitive of the Judoon was everything Jodie Whittaker's Doctor Who era has been missing - inews