Should Doctor Who Fans Give This 13th Doctor Storyline Another Chance?

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home March 22, 2025 103 Views 10 Min Read
Should Doctor Who Fans Give This 13th Doctor Storyline Another Chance?



Chris Chibnall’s period as showrunner on Doctor Who is beginning to fade from public memory, but the scars it has left on the series are still felt by the fandom. Many criticized Chibnall’s Timeless Children arc, a key component of which was Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor, a character quickly disposed of after an intense backlash. In this new era of the show, should fans give Martin’s Doctor another chance?

Chibnall was in charge of Jodie Whittaker’s run as the 13th Doctor from 2018-2022. With the eight-year chief of Doctor Who Steven Moffat leaving the series, along with most of his production team, 13’s introduction to the show felt like a completely fresh start. A brand-new jumping-on point for fans, and exciting news for supporters of Chibnall’s previous work on the widely successful drama Broadchurch (2013-2017). But following his appointment, he presided over a disastrous period that almost led to the series’ cancelation. Initially, Series 11 saw the highest ratings in years, peaking at 10 million despite a fairly dry and simple set of episodes. However, viewership steadily plummeted afterward to a new low of 3.47 million during the 2022 special “Legend of the Sea Devils”. Since the end of his tenure, Doctor Who has struggled to recover. There was a brief turnaround when David Tennant reprised his role in the 60th Anniversary, but the show has once again sunk in viewership figures throughout Series 14.

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In a show as long as Doctor Who, there are a wide range of beliefs, opinions, and disagreements. Fans fervently debate the importance and relevancy of storylines they think hindered or helped the overall success of the show. But there is one plot line that, rather unusually, unites an overwhelming majority of angry and critical Whovians: the Timeless Child arc. This huge lore-breaking event is most likely the reason why so many audience members slowly deserted the show in the Chibnall era.

However, fans of the show may be surprised to learn that an unresolved part of this narrative could potentially come back. Jo Martin, who played the mysterious and previously unheard-of incarnation, the Fugitive Doctor, is a loose end to the Timeless Child’s story. The actor recently spoke to the Radio Times and expressed an interest in returning to the program.

The Timeless Children: An Unmitigated Disaster

This twist was brought in at the end of Series 12 as a way to answer the Doctor’s backstory and origins. In the episode “The Timeless Children”, the Master informs the Doctor that the Time Lords brainwashed them to forget their past. Apparently, this whole time, the Doctor has been the progenitor of the Time Lord race’s ability to regenerate. As well as an orphaned extradimensional being said to have had countless lives before the 1st Doctor (William Hartnell). It had relatively little set-up, felt shoe-horned, and was an ill-thought-out response to criticisms that spoke of Series 11’s lore-light plot.

Instead of elevating the Doctor’s character, it wiped away their mysterious history and the Time Lord’s otherworldly, enigmatic aspects. One episode managed to completely retcon 50 years of history, overturning long-established lore. Many fans had despairingly hoped that it was a deceitful trick played on the Doctor, perhaps initiated by Rassilon, the former leader of the Time Lords who was exiled from Gallifrey by the Doctor in Series 9.

Although this creative decision led to a divisive uproar, by the end of 13’s run, was it even really worth the trouble? During her last season, Series 13: Flux, Whittaker’s Doctor finally possessed the key to learning about their extensive past. However, instead of using it to enlighten themselves, they threw it into the heart of the TARDIS. The twist was also lightly revised by Davies in the 60th Anniversary Special, with the Toymaker claiming that he rearranged the Doctor’s history himself. Now that Doctor Who has settled into a new era under Russell T. Davies and the show is bursting forward with Ncuti Gatwa’s 15th Doctor, is it worth returning the Fugitive Doctor to the series?

The Fugitive Doctor Is Still A Mystery

Fugitive Doctor

The Fugitive Doctor first appeared in Series 12’s “Fugitive of the Judoon”. The 13th Doctor and the audience were baffled to learn that an incarnation of the character was on the run. This regeneration was apparently being forced to work for the nefarious Division, a secret Gallifreyan black-ops task force. Martin’s Doctor fled, deserting their responsibilities, hiding out on Earth disguised as a human and earning their Fugitive title. Fans speculated intensely as to where this incarnation could be placed in the Doctor’s timeline, either in the future or another previously hidden incarnation like the War Doctor. But they were later confirmed to be a much older version of the character in the series finale.

The Fugitive Doctor reappeared again in Series 13’s “Once, Upon Time”, and was revealed to have played a major part in ending the Dark Times, a horrific era of cosmic history. However, past this, the incarnation has altogether disappeared. The central mystery of Martin’s Fugitive Doctor, the Division, has also been erased from the overarching story of Doctor Who. This organization was responsible for the Flux, an anti-matter wave the Doctor failed to stop which destroyed half the universe. An event that is revealed to be fairly traumatic for the 14th Doctor in the 60th Specials. But there has been no resolution whatsoever to this chapter in the character’s life.

The 13th Doctor encounters the head of Division, Tecteun, in “Survivors of the Flux”, but they are quickly killed off and the rest of the organization is nowhere to be found. How the Fugitive Doctor’s feud began with Division, her departure from it, and their journey through the cosmos fighting it, all remain undocumented. This is something that Martin is evidently aware of: “There are still lots of questions that when fans ask me, I’m like, ‘I don’t know! I’m not sure!’“

Martin signaled to the Radio Times that she would love to return in a spin-off series of her own:

“The possibilities are endless because it’s all make believe anyway, so anything could happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up going back at some point. It wouldn’t surprise me and I hope that happens.”

Out of all the messy recanonizing that Chibnall’s era did to Doctor Who’s timeline, the Division was perhaps the most interesting aspect of it. Even, maybe, an aspect that can somehow be redeemed. The idea of a shadowy organization controlling Gallifrey from behind-the-scenes has a lot of weight and potential to it. Given Doctor Who’s continual search for overarching villains, this may be a way to recycle divisive creative choices and give them a new spin. Martin was fairly good as the Fugitive Doctor. It would certainly reopen old wounds, but if any part of the 13th Doctor’s run is going to make a reappearance, the Fugitive Doctor’s story is still left wide open with a number of possibilities. Although, perhaps future Doctor Who showrunners should give it a few more years to help the fandom forget about this era’s major weaknesses.

Doctor Who Series 15 is coming to Disney+ on 12th April.

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