More than two and a half years since it was originally announced, the first volume of Doctor Who: The Fugitive Doctor, titled Most Wanted, was finally released last week. Fans have been looking forward to this, for two reasons. First, like the War Doctor, we’ve seen very little of the Fugitive Doctor on-screen, and in all instances, her appearances have been in other Doctors’ episodes. So this was the first time we got to hear Jo Martin in stories entirely focused on her Doctor.

On top of that, there’s also the Fugitive Doctor’s chronological placement – or in this case, the lack of it. While her TV appearances seemed to imply that Martin’s Doctor is chronologically before Hartnell, former showrunner Chris Chibnall has been deliberately vague about where she fits in the timeline.

For their new audio series, Big Finish have decided to use this ambiguity to their advantage. This is partly in terms of character – in Big Finish’s depiction of the Fugitive Doctor, she has clear gaps in her memory, and even she doesn’t know why the Division are hunting her.

Spiritual reboot

But there’s another way that the ambiguity of Jo Martin’s Doctor works so well – a sense of freedom from continuity. Don’t get me wrong, I love how Big Finish has explored some of the gaps in the TV show’s mythology, such as exploring the Time War, or even giving the Sixth Doctor a satisfying final adventure.

But honestly, there’s something wonderfully refreshing about listening to a version of the Doctor that’s free from all of that. There’s nothing in this new box set that explores where she could take place in the show’s history – whether it’s before the series, during Season 6b, or even in the Doctor’s distant future – and it works so well because of it.

Spiritually speaking, it almost feels like a reboot, in the best possible sense. We haven’t had a Doctor that’s felt this free of continuity since Eccleston’s, and it genuinely feels refreshing as a result.

Cosmo

Another aspect that I enjoyed about this new box set is how much it leans into the fugitive aspect. That might sound obvious, given the name of both the series and this particular Doctor. But Big Finish clearly lean into the tropes of classic fugitive stories – with the classic TV series and film adaptation The Fugitive being an obvious example.

While the Doctor isn’t searching for a “one-armed man”, the audio series does have its own “Lt. Gerard” in the form of Cosmogon. Played by Alice Krige, Cosmogon (or “Cosmo”, as the Doctor calls her,) is the classic relentless pursuer character: someone who’s essentially a good person but also a major antagonist due to hunting down the lead character. With only three episodes, Most Wanted is only able to establish the beginning of the Doctor’s and Cosmo’s relationship. But I’m sure it will be explored further in future box sets.

Strong start

The series begins with “Fast Times” by Robert Valentine, and it certainly lives up to its title. The episode kicks off with a fast pace and doesn’t stop. I genuinely don’t want to go into too much detail on this one, as the story moves at such a fast pace and changes so much over the course of just one hour. All I’ll say is that it’s a great opening episode, establishing both the Doctor and the style of this new series extremely well.

Things slow down a bit in “The Legend of Baba Yaga” by Rochana Patel. With this one, we have a great Doctor Who take on Slavic folklore. While I’m unfamiliar with Baba Yaga or the tale of Vasilisa, Patel’s script not only explains the basic story well, but also captures that wonderful fairy tale feeling on its own terms. At the same time, Patel also weaves just the right amount of science fiction that you’d expect from a Doctor Who story.

The final episode of Most Wanted is “The Dimension of Lost Things” by Lisa McMullin. Things get a bit strange here, as the Doctor tries to escape Cosmo by heading into a bizarre dimension. She meets several distinctive characters in this place, including an alien scavenger, a famous mountaineer – and another version of herself! This episode has a few good twists and turns. It also develops the relationship between the Doctor and Cosmo a little more and closes this opening volume off nicely.

I need to mention how fantastic Jo Martin is to listen to as the Fugitive Doctor. In all her TV appearances, she gave a great performance, playing her Doctor with the right amount of authority and aggression, but never going too far with either. This new audio series expands on that, presenting us with a very different kind of Doctor, one that’s more reluctant to get involved and doesn’t trust easily. It’s a great new take on a familiar character, and Jo Martin plays it perfectly. I can’t wait to listen to Volume 2.