Posted in: Audio Dramas, BBC, TV | Tagged: big finish, doctor who, jo martin

Doctor Who: Chibnall, Big Finish on Jo Martin/Fugitive Doctor Return

Chris Chibnall and the Big Finish team discuss Jo Martin's return as The Fugitive Doctor for Doctor Who: The Fugitive Doctor: Most Wanted.

Out of all of Doctor Who, the Fugitive Doctor played by Jo Martin might be the most surprising and underused, introduced in "Fugitive of the Judoon" and only making cameo appearances in two other episodes for the rest of then-showrunner Chris Chibnall's run. Now she's getting her own Big Finish audio drama series starting in January with a first season of three stories. The latest issue of Vortex, Big Finish's free official magazine, spoke to Chibnall and the producers behind the new adventures.

"I absolutely adored the Fugitive Doctor's appearances on screen, and when the chance arose to make Jo the focus of her own series of audio adventures I leapt to the front of the queue to produce them," said producer David Richardson. "I signed up Robert Valentine as script editor, and our first discussions were all about what kind of stories we should be telling. I knew that I didn't want us to step on the toes of Chris Chibnall's backstory of the Fugitive Doctor, and so asked if Chris might be able to attend a Zoom meeting with myself and Rob so we could make sure we were on the right lines. Chris was incredibly generous with his time and we had a brilliant chat during which I felt much more confident about our plans."

Chris Chibnall on The Fugitive Doctor

"You've created something and it's then taken on by other people," said Chibnall. "Which is of course the whole thing about Doctor Who. Since it started, the baton has been handed around and around, with different people adding new things – and you always know you're passing the baton on to someone else at the end and to people in other media, not just television."

"We all agreed that we shouldn't be trying to solve any mysteries of the Fugitive Doctor – at least not yet," said Richardson. "For that reason, but mainly because I didn't want to clash with anything in The Second Doctor Adventures, we have steered clear of her time working for Division. Well, to some degree, there's some of that in there… but there were fine lines to tread and we have navigated our way through them. How can she meet the Daleks?' I hear you ask. 'How can she be in a police box?' I might ask too. I know the answers to these because I've chatted to Chris. We wanted to bring in some newer writers amongst established ones, and shake things up a bit. I'm confident that we have an exciting journey ahead…"

"Doctor Who is the definition of creativity," said Chibnall. "You're making things for specific purposes to tell specific stories. But then people love those characters or worlds enough that they can have another life that you never envisaged. So much of the appeal of the Fugitive Doctor is due to Jo Martin – her presence, brilliance, grace – her everything, really. She embraced the part. She has carried it and owned it. She is just phenomenal. I'm really absolutely thrilled that there's more being done with her character. I'll be interested to hear what happens there."

"The Fugitive" in Space and Time

"I loved writing for Jo, and I loved coming up with the whole concept for the series," said Valentine. "There's a lot of The Fugitive in this, with the Doctor being our Dr Richard Kimble figure and Cosmogon our US Marshal Sam Gerard. The Fugitive Doctor has exactly the same moral core as all the other Doctors, and I wanted to make her frustration with herself that she cares so much about other people a big feature of her character. She has an inherent inner conflict because she thinks her life as a fugitive would be so much easier if she didn't need to help people and fix problems. But ultimately, she is the Doctor whether she likes it or not, and helping people is what she does even when it increases her risk of getting caught."

Doctor Who: The Fugitive Doctor: Most Wanted is out from Big Finish in January 2025.

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