Doctor Who – Fugitive of the Judoon Review

Doctor Who sees a return to a grand and entertaining story with one of the most recognisable monsters from the modern era making an appearance.

In Gloucester, an alien fugitive is hiding and the troop of Judoon has taken up the bounty. Because of this The Doctor and her companions arrive in the city to find out what the Judoon wants and tell them they have no judication on Earth. A married couple, Lee and Ruth Clayton (Neil Stuke and Jo Martin) end up getting caught up in the Judoon’s search.

“Fugitive of the Judoon” is easily one of the best episodes of the Chibnall era and could easily have fitted during the Davies or Moffatt’s runs. The first thing the episode gets right was remembering that Doctor Who was sci-fi escapism: many episodes during Series 11 were po-face and rather dull. “Fugitive of the Judoon” had a scene of fun. The Judoon were great monsters who have been under-unitised: they were big, lumbering beasts who were over-zealot when executing their duties. They were a great threat.

The episode had a scene of scale. The Judoon were introduced on their spaceship orbit and the CGI was impressive by Doctor Who standards. Their first appearance on Earth was them marching around Gloucester Cathedral and they present resulted in collateral damage. “Fugitive of the Judoon” showed that the world of Doctor Who extended beyond the Earth and humans. The Judoon have changed from being a police force for Shadow Proclamation to a mercenary force, indicating something happened to that government.

The most famous part of the episode was the reveal that Ruth was really an earlier version of The Doctor that The Thirteenth Doctor doesn’t remember. This episode used the show’s lore to justify this change to the Doctor’s backstory. This episode used the fob watch device from Series 3 where The Doctor was able to change their DNA and erase their memory as a defence mechanism and when the Thirteenth Doctor uncovered the buried Tardis it reminded me of “Cold Blood’s” ending. This reveal is controversial because it changes The Doctor’s history, but it does set up a mystery fans would be begging for an answer for.

Jodie Whittaker has been lacklustre as The Doctor. Her portrayal has been surface level and she was written to simply be quirky. In this episode, there was more depth to her character because The Doctor was incredibly guarded when her companions questioned her about what she gets up to when she disappears. The Doctor looked like she suffered from emotional pain early in the episode. Whittaker and Martin had a great dynamic when Ruth turns into The Doctor: they argued and bickered and it funny to watch.

One of the other selling points of the episode was the return of Captain Jack. Captain Jack was always a fan favourite and he was a fun presence. But his appearance in episode was just to get the companions away from The Doctor and foreshadow the Lone Cyberman for later in the season. His appearance felt tacked on.

The director of the episode looked like she was influenced by J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek films because there was a lot of lens flare during all scenes set on spaceships.

“Fugitive of the Judoon” was a massive improvement for the Chibnall era. It worked both as an entertaining standalone adventure and sets up a lot of intrigue for future storylines.