First comments of newest Doctor Who episode

[auroracloud]

I just watched the newest Doctor Who episode, The Fugitive of the Judoon (ep. 5 of S12). If you haven't watched this one yet, my advice: stay away from spoilers until you do. Avoid the internet, maybe. And don't read the rest of this post because it will be full of spoilers.



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*deep breaths*

I don't even know where to start. Jack is back! Ruth! What the hell is going on??????

In S11 things had so much lower stakes that I wasn't even prepared for this level of OMG OMG what the heck is going on how can this be I love this!!!

*hyperventilates*

Okay, with Ruth and the Doctor both being the Doctor but not remembering one another - the only thing that makes sense is that it's got something to do with alternate dimensions (like Pete's World) or alternate timelines. That somehow different versions of the Doctor's timeline have met. There's clearly more difference going on than just having regenerated into a different body - this Ruth!Doctor is more willing to use violence and is working for someone/something mysterious. Also the Gallifrey stuff? What is going on with all that???

What the heck, they brought Captain Jack Harkness back and managed to keep it secret (at least, I hadn't run into that spoiler at all!) and that wasn't even the most exciting thing about the episode! (And I'm saying that as a Jack fan, just to be clear.) Okay, I'm willing to partly forgive having been spoiled about Dhawan!Master because I got to both of these things completely unspoiled and got to just gape at the screen and make strange noises and be all around gob-smacked, and it was great!

This is a very hyper Jack, I'll just assume he's running particularly high on adrenaline (well, John Barrowman probably is, anyway). Probably been a while since Torchwood for him, eh?

It feels weird to have Jack assume the role of delivering cryptic messages with warnings that don't explain quite enough. Not really his style, you know? But at least there was a reasonable reason why he didn't get to finish the message.

I don't know what is going to happen with Ruth!Doctor, but I really do want the next Doctor or some other down the line to be a badass middle-aged black woman like her. The end credits said "Introducing [actress name, Jo something*] as the Doctor" and that felt amazing. Wherever this storyline is going to end up.

*I'm too excited and frazzled to go back to check her name right now.

Also hee Jack snogged Graham, and should we start betting on how many Jack/Ryan fics are going to turn up, say, within the next week?

Finally, should note I love the Judoon design here, and also that the lead Judoon was a woman. And oh, I should also add that Gat was seriously hot in a villainous way, mrawr.

I have nothing sensible to say, I'm just going to resume flailing incoherently. I've missed this feeling!

Comments

[nostalgia]

"It feels weird to have Jack assume the role of delivering cryptic messages with warnings that don't explain quite enough. Not really his style, you know?"

"You are not alone..." XD

[auroracloud]

Well, I never subscribed to that one, so it doesn't count. :-P

[unfeathered]

Hee hee hee!

Yeah, I'm still undecided on whether I accept that one, but - good point!

[auroracloud]

I've personally never believed the Face of Boe thing - not so much because I'd have something against Jack being unpretty at some point, but rather because I so much liked the idea of the Face of Boe as this weird entity of his own and I don't want him to be the future state of another (human) character. It seems like the sort of joke that Jack would play on the Doctor, anyway. :-) But of course, people can believe what they wish. ;-)

[nostalgia]

Yeah I tend to assume it's not Jack because wtf really

[unfeathered]

Oh definitely. I think my personal canon is that it was a joke. The way he turns away and then back before he says it, as if he's just deciding to have this joke on them.

But it's complicated by the fact that RTD insists it's true. I don't generally subscribe to anything off-screen making something canon, but thatdoes lend it some weight, I feel.

That said, I've read several fics and theories that get round it and make sense of it, so I don't really mind either way. It's so far off you don't really need to worry about it anyway!

[unfeathered]

Re. the two Doctors, my money's on alternative realities, or a split timeline - though the lack of recognition of a sonic screwdriver would presumably mean it must have split a long, long way back.

Re. Jack being hyper - I thought that too, and then realised it might well just be JB being over-excited at being back! Although the way it was written was very much over-the-top DW Jack (as opposed to moping, serious TW Jack) so that might have been a part of it too.

I wish there'd been some indication of how long it had been for him. I've always thought if they brought him back they could say he was from a long, long way in the future, to account for his ageing, but the way they'd made him up he didn't *really* look a lot older, just as if he'd put on a lot of weight, so I assume they're trying to keep him contemporary with the Doctor and assuming he's living linearly, which seems like something of a missed opportunity to me. Still, really not going to complain!

Jack/Ryan - very much expecting that!

Judoon woman - yes, I liked that. Nice little throway line.

And god yes. Isn't it nice to feel excited again! I got quite excited about Skyfall part 1, just generally and with the Master cliffhanger, but this? THIS is excited!!!!

[auroracloud]

Now I can no longer remember what I've already said in other comments to you, but yeah, alternate realities or a separate timeline sounds the most likely to me. Curious to see what actually turns up! But we'll also have fun speculating, hee.

It's very true this is more original-Doctor-Who-Jack than angsty Torchwood Jack - and it stands to reason he'd eventually get over everything that was weighing on him during the Torchwood era. I do still feel he was more hyper than previously on Doctor Who, though. But maybe he's excited to see the Doctor again! (Even if he doesn't yet.) But really it's probably especially because Barrowman is so excited. ;-)

I hope we learn more about how long it's been for him and what he's been up to! Not having aged a lot appearance-wise still can mean he's lived a few centuries since we saw him last.

Yay for feeling excited! I'm glad they took a year to get this season done when it's already showing such good results!

[shadowhive]

It was definitely very much ahhh!

Yeah you’re right about last season being low stacks. Having the master return alone would’ve been enough to up the stakes but everything tonight too? Ahhh

That might be true! I mean if you’re a fugitive what better place to hide then an alternate universe?

Yay Jack! I assume he wasn’t going to give a cryptic message, that he was gonna explain everything and wanted to do it to the doctor face to face. Even so it seems odd for him to be giving a message like what he did. Why would the doctor give the last cyberman what it wanted anyway?

*wants to know all the things*

Yess! I really hope there’s some Jack/Ryan! And I love that he just kissed Graham like that

[trobadora]

Alternate dimensions, the timeline being rewritten, something like that, yeah. I don't think it's just retconning someone else into the Doctor's past. (I hope that's not it, anyway.)

And JACK. OMG. I still can't believe they kept this quiet! And I'm so delighted they managed to make him look like he hasn't really aged (much), because I like my Jack immortal, dammit.

Yeah, Gat was also great. And that whole confrontation scene! Though how the Doctor didn't realise the other Doctor had rigged the gun, I have no clue. It was so obvious from the moment she asked Gat not to shoot. Sounded a bit (a lot) Ten, actually. Great acting.

Yeah, this is what Doctor Who should be like.

[fucktheg0ds]

I'm internally screaming with excitement right now, omg.

Jack's return was the best kept secret in forever, wtf. So disappointed he didn't get to see the Doctor, but delighted we got to see him at all!

This definitely seems like pre-Torchwood Jack - I guess we'll find out next time he returns.

I was hoping for some f/f or m/m action this series, and Jack kissing Graham was not what I expected, lmao! I loved Graham's little "Ah" when Jack called him Doctor.

Gat was definitely hot, but not very smart re: the gun. As trobadora above me said, it was extremely obvious. The weird thing about Gat's performance was that it felt like we were meant to recognise her, but I take it she was a new character?

all the squeeeee!

[oldtoadwoman]

I'd picked up on a low-level hum of the Internet being affected by this one and carefully avoided spoilers so that I wasn't even sure if people were happy-excited or pissed-off-wanna-rant about something. All I knew was that something happened that people wanted to talk about. When Jack turned up, I thought, "Ah! That's what all the buzz is about." And, yeah, not even the most exciting thing in the episode.

Possible theory: What if Ruth is a previous incarnation of the Doctor that the Time Lords erased from her memory for some reason? (I looked it up to verify my memory. The sonic screwdriver wasn't introduced until Troughton's Doctor.) Since we saw Hartnell regenerate into Troughton, the only way to squeeze her into the timeline would be to put her pre-Hartnell, which doesn't quite work since that was the Doctor who stole the Tardis that she already has. But… if we allow for mindwipes, the "first" Doctor could have been unknowingly re-stealing his old ship. Alternate timeline is a likely possibility, but I haven't ruled out a secret past regeneration.

I'm just excited to have crazy contradictory ideas bouncing around in my head. I don't even care if all my theories go up in flames. This is FUN! Last season was okay, but I think we were all a teensy bit let down that it wasn't more somehow. This episode was everything I could have asked for.

!!!!

[foreverdawning]

I went absolutely nuts when I saw Jack AND THEN find out that Ruth was the Doctor?!?

I don't go online so I had no idea that they were teasing a familiar face. To be quite honest, when I heard John Barrowman's voice I had assumed it was Tom Cruise (ha!).

I won't stop thinking about this for days, for sure.