{"id":7738,"date":"2021-01-20T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=7738"},"modified":"2021-01-11T09:08:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T17:08:15","slug":"mark-watches-doctor-who-s12e05-fugitive-of-the-judoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2021\/01\/mark-watches-doctor-who-s12e05-fugitive-of-the-judoon\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Doctor Who’: S12E05 – Fugitive of the Judoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the twelfth series of Doctor Who<\/i>, I TRULY WASN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T READY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For discussion of police brutality<\/b><\/p>\n

Holy shit. y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. What the fuck is happening on this show? Let me just say this upfront before we dive in: I LOVED THIS EPISODE SO MUCH. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bizarre. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thrilling. It completely fucks up the mythology of Doctor Who<\/i> in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wildly entertaining and fits super well with Thirteen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s current emotional arc. I. WAS. NOT. READY.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk.<\/p>\n

Scooped<\/b><\/p>\n

So, I recognize that from a story standpoint, the return of Captain Jack Harkness isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really a story at all. Like, literally: There is a beginning here for the companions, since all three of them meet Captain Jack for the first time. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no structure beyond that. And Captain Jack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story is somewhere in the middle or perhaps at a point just before the big climactic scene. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s admittedly a cool idea! I like that they are in such drastically different points of their own respective stories. But it largely serves as a portent for a dark, dark future, one that Captain Jack is aware of but which is news to the Doctor.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultimately why it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother me how incomplete this part of the episode is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mostly a piece of a puzzle for an inevitable story that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coming. Captain Jack is The Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unknown future, which is just as threatening as The Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past. This is a story of dichotomies and where The Doctor lands in between them.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just FUN. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little weird for me only because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent the last few years watching John Barrowman play Malcolm Merlyn on Arrow<\/i>, but it was so nice seeing him slip right back into this role and still be his chaotic, cheesy, queer self. I am also INCREDIBLY eager to see what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be like when The Doctor and Captain Jack are reunited.<\/p>\n

So what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Lone Cyberman? HOW IS ALL OF THIS CONNECTED?<\/p>\n

Ruth and the Judoon<\/b><\/p>\n

You know, watching the Judoon here in 2021 is a very weird thing.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much attention being paid (though not nearly in a substantive enough way) to the fictional depiction of police officers and law enforcement in TV and film. Watching the Judoon is horrifying, both because they really are a threat, but also because of some of the more unexamined elements of their characters.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give an example. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a telling moment when Graham can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand what the big deal is about the Judoon. He wonders why The Doctor is so worried, and he says something to the effect of, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the police.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The understanding is that the police are a good thing. And while I think it was apt that the older white gentleman was the one to say something like this\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand not the other two non-white companions\u00e2\u20ac\u201dThe Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reply is just that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trigger-happy.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Which seems to suggest that Earth police forces aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure you know how I feel about that. The evidence that counters this is so overwhelming, so deep in its detail and scope and size, that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even offensive to attempt to spell it out here. I had hoped that Graham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line would be unpacked, but it never is. The Judoon are less an analogy for Earth police forces. Actually, they seem a lot more like bounty hunters or lawyers with guns. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re obsessed<\/i> with following their rules and the rules of the worlds that they inhabit, but surely murdering Marcia didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit any of those?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I get it. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re meant to be intimidating and scary, and they certainly achieve that over the course of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fugitive of the Judoon.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d There are some very neat things done here to escalate the search for the fugitive, as well as an expertly executed red herring in Lee Clayton. I have to wonder, then: Is the larger examination of the Judoon absent because this story really isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about them? Because that does make this episode more complicated to talk about! They are just a tool of the Time Lords; this episode is actually about THEM as antagonists. (Maybe antagonists? I assume there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reason behind the events we see here, and The Doctor did what she did for good reasons? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS???)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All that being said: Once this episode moves away from being about the Judoon, it becomes something else, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s special. It felt<\/i> special, like I was watching this monumental thing in the Doctor Who<\/i> canon. First, I want to praise both Jo Martin and Jodie Whittaker for their performances, as they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re able to pull of something that was magical to watch. Jo Martin in particular had an interesting challenge: She couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t play Ruth as anyone but<\/i> Ruth. The Doctor chose to hide herself from<\/i> herself, so Ruth had to convincingly not know anything that was going on. It sold the red herring, too! From the beginning, Lee seemed off. He was very odd about Ruth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s birthday; All Ears Allan had assembled a dossier about how weird Lee was. It was so obvious that he was the fugitive!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And then the transformation begins. God, it was so SUBTLE. We saw a glimpse of Ruth as The Doctor when she read that text message from Lee. Again, Jo Martin pulls off a masterful thing in that scene, too, snapping from The Doctor out of instinct and back into Ruth. The fear and confusion on Ruth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face felt so real!\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By the time Ruth breaks the seal and becomes the Doctor again, a second transformation unfolds, though. God, I want a THOUSAND episodes with Jo Martin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Doctor, first of all. That outfit! Her behavior! Her mannerisms!!! I love that Jo made this version of The Doctor so distinct. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important, though, because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a dramatic role reversal. Before ruth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s secret is out, the Thirteenth Doctor is the knowledgable one. She seems to be in control, insofar as she CAN be in control of a situation that was so mysterious. Part of that is because The Doctor thought she was just dealing with a human who was in over her head, whose husband had lied about who he was and had sent their lives into chaos.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet once Ruth becomes The Doctor, the dynamic shifts. Suddenly, this Mystery Doctor is the one with more information. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in control. The Thirteenth Doctor stumbles about in confusion and shock, at least until she can throw a curveball to Gat and the Judoon. (God, that moment was so quintessentially Thirteen, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I LOVE IT.) Even in the closing scene of this episode, we see how deeply affected Thirteen was by all of this. How could she not be? Thirteen made a conscious decision to move forward in this regeneration. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treated her companions, too! Yaz, Ryan, and Graham know virtually nothing about her, and not in the same way past Doctors have been reluctant to share who they are. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thinking of how Nine was in series one, for example. He absolutely hid much of who he was and where he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come from from Rose, right? But he eventually opened up, slowly at first. Up until the events of this series\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opener, Thirteen did no such thing with her companions.<\/p>\n

And now, she can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ignore it. One of her past companions, Captain Jack, has resurfaced with dire warnings of the Cybermen. A past regeneration of herself\u00e2\u20ac\u201done she has no memory of\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhas now appeared, and from context clues, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that Mystery Doctor pre-dates the First Doctor. She has to, right? I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 her TARDIS console??? That looked like the First Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s console, but also not like it?<\/p>\n

Anyway: the point I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trying to build to is that I love that this is making The Doctor more vulnerable with her three newest companions. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly not ready to talk openly about her past or take them to Gallifrey, but this is a start, right? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way for her to let them in just the tiniest bit, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this is all she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna give. She just needs time.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Look, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll repeat what I said at the end of the video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fugitive of the Judoon.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wonderful that Chris Chibnall is getting a chance to reimagine Doctor Who<\/i> canon now that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the showrunner. Each showrunner previous has gotten to, and if this is a sign of what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to come, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M FUCKING READY. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have as strong an attachment to Who<\/i> canon as people who grew up with it, so the idea of mucking up the whole timeline doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bother me at all. Play with it all! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time travel. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s science fiction. Have fun with it! (And lord, is this episode ever FUN, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.) Right now, this feels like a huge, game-changing moment in the Thirteenth Doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story, and I am incredibly excited to see what may come of it.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fugitive of the Judoon\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My second novel, EACH OF US A DESERT, is now out in the world!<\/a>
\n<\/strong>– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"