3 Ups & 2 Downs From Doctor Who Series 12 - Fugitive Of The Judoon
Some BIG reveals, some BIG problems.
2013's The Day of the Doctor brought a huge amount of closure to a grey area in The Doctor's past, the Time War. Then, out of the blue, Fugitive of the Judoon lumped some more onto the canon as we know it. Not necessarily covering a grey area of the Doctor's life, instead just being about something, somewhere.
We're now halfway through the twelfth series of Doctor Who, and our latter five episodes have one meaty arc to get through. Lots of threads are being placed, and I'm hopeful it all points to a cohesive and logical conclusion come the end of the series. For now though, let's look at Fugitive of the Judoon, and what that had to offer as a mid-season spectacular.
As always, first we're on the downhill...
Downs...
2. The 'Lone Cyberman' Tease Was Messily Bolted Onto The Episode
Speaking of introducing plot threads to linger throughout the latter half of the series, Captain Jack Harkness' return was incredible (something we'll get to later), but his appearance brought with it a hefty blow of painfully explicit 'foreshadowing.' "Don't give the lone Cyberman what it wants." We knew the Cybermen were coming back in this series as they were shown in the first series trailer, but the way this arc was introduced in Fugitive of the Judoon was extremely lazy.
Jack's presence throughout this episode was simply to deliver this message to The Doctor, but his inclusion didn't play to the Judoon plot whatsoever. It felt wholly tacked on to the episode, and it could be a really clumsy plant if we don't see or hear more of this 'lone Cyberman' until it surfaces at what I'm guessing to be the finale of the series. Did it need to be hinted at in this episode, or could it have waited? Did it need to be hinted at at all?