Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Doctor Who - Fugitive of the Judoon


"Fugitive of the Judoon" offers several questions and few answers for an episode that sees the return of Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), dire warnings about the return of the Cybermen, and the first appearance of another version of The Doctor (Tosin Cole) whose place in time makes no sense to either Doctor (or to most fans). Returning to Earth to find it being quarantined by the Judoon who are furiously seeking a fugitive, The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and her companions buy some time while searching for answers which lead to her companions being stolen from the planet by Jack and The Doctor coming face-to-face with an alternate version of herself whose existence she cannot comprehend.

More of a tease than it needs to be, the episode does pull from threads of various other episodes including The Doctor hiding as a human, the Judoon hunting fugitives, and an older-style T.A.R.D.I.S. with more modern flashes. Aside from the paradox of the two Doctors, the truth of which may have been alluded to in The Doctor's monologue about time swirling around her, and all the continuity problems it entails, Jack's appearance feels a bit shoehorned in while foreshadowing other trouble to be found this season. The weakness of "Fugitive of the Judoon" is that it doesn't lead anywhere in particular other than to set-up other storylines to be played out elsewhere. As such, it's hard to judge the episode on its own rather than the first episode of a multi-episode arc.

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