As it has now been over five years since her introduction, I thought it would be interesting to ask where in the Doctor’s timeline people consider the Fugitive Doctor to sit. In interviews, Chris Chibnall has stated that his intention with the Fugitive Doctor was for her to be ambiguous in terms of her placement, and while various pieces of media (and off screen comments) have implied her relation to other Doctors, we still haven’t had any official confirmation on screen. So, for those who have their own theories, where do you think she sits?
Fugitive is a pre-Hartnell Doctor
Fugitive is a season 6B Doctor
Fugitive is a future Doctor
Fugitive is an alternate universe/timeline Doctor
Other (please specify in a comment!)
0voters
Going a bit further - do you ever want this incarnation’s placement to be confirmed onscreen, or would you rather she remains ambiguous?
My personal take is that the Fugitive Doctor (and the Timeless Child incarnations) is 100% a future Doctor, for a couple of reasons. From a real-world perspective, I really dislike the idea of pre-Hartnell Doctors (yes, I know the idea originated in The Brain of Morbius, but it was ambiguous there) and I like the idea that our audience perspective of the Doctor roughly aligns with their personal chronological timeline - hence, Fugitive fits more as a near past, present or future than a distant past incarnation to me (as there was no televised Doctor Who before Hartnell, so we can’t “see” an incarnation before him). From an in-universe perspective, she’s also a lot more capable than most of the classic Doctors, and her TARDIS is already a police box.
I also like the idea she’s a future Doctor, because it allows the timeless child storyline to happen without making the character inherently “special”. If the Doctor somehow becomes the timeless child after leaving Gallifrey, following all her adventures, then becomes the Fugitive Doctor after THAT, it means the Doctor is still “special” because of her actions, rather than any inherent status as the “original” time lord. Granted, the timeless child and Fugitive incarnations are never confirmed as following on from each other, but for me, given the two storylines are so linked, it makes sense to keep them together.
As Big Finish have recently made S6B a thing, personally I’d love her to fit into that timeline. It makes sense with what BF are going for with the 2nd Doctor in S6B right now, combined with the fact we had a secret incarnation already between 8 and 9, so there is a precedent for it. For a while I was pro-Timeless Child but against her being pre-Hartnell but I’ve come to be like sure I don’t mind if it happens. It’ll likely never get 100% confirmed, but maybe! Chibnall has been feeding BF some info on that regard I believe, but still ambiguously.
Is there though? You can explain away most of it, in my opinion. I think the biggest point in favour of pre-Hartnell is recognising Anansi’s daughter but even that isn’t a smoking gun, as we’ve had other instances of the Doctor recalling future memories. I agree it’s definitely plausible she’s pre-Hartnell (and that’s clearly the implication of most of her appearances), but I don’t think we have any 100% confirmation.
That’s fair enough I think there’s plenty of evidence to point in that direction, as well as those of the other poll options (which I really like! The Doctor should be mysterious, and what could be more mysterious than an incarnation we can’t place?)
I also view her as a timeless child incarnation - I just prefer the idea that the timeless child Doctors are in the Doctor’s personal future, relative to those we see in the show
I think she’s pre-Hartnell. Evidence for it or against it aside, I think it makes sense, considering she was introduced in the same season, where Pre-Hartnell Doctors were made into a Thing (for certain). That said, I think there is a lot of Appeal of Fugitive being a Season 6B, considering she would fit quite in (and honestly her being S6B than 2 is one that I like much more I must admit).
We could just do the sixth Option: Fugitive is a Pre-Hartnell Incarnation, but also a future Incarnation and Season 6B Incarnation at the same time!/j
As for answering her Placement: Keep it ambiguous!
I’m honestly happy not knowing, especially now we seem to be getting regular content with her on audio it’s kinda nice to have a little bit of the ‘who’ back in Doctor Who, but for practicalities sake her audio series goes before the 1st Doctor on my shelf coz that’s the placement that makes the most sense to me
Honestly I’m okay with her being maybe pre-Hartnell but never being sure. I don’t mind the idea of her having been a sort of prequel Doctor because she’s like separate and the same to me. It’s the Other all over again
I do think she’s pre-Hartnell. That’s clearly what the plan was supposed to be. I don’t see any reason to change it. TBH I’ve just head-canoned that the various Time Wars in the wider Whoniverse have messed everything up that if it’s contradicted…Time War did it. Whether that be Alan Moore’s Time War, the War in Heaven, the Last Great Time War, so Lungbarrow history of the Doctor has been the case, at one point Hartnell was THE first Doctor, and now the Doctor has had lifetimes before Hartnell, and one day it may change again.
I think she’s pre-Hartnell, and I didn’t actually realise that was ambiguous until now – my memory of quite a lot of New Who is bad and I could have sworn it was explicitly confirmed somewhere.
As for ambiguity, I’d prefer her placement to be confirmed, not because I think that would be narratively the best decision, but purely because I like information and need to be able to place her in my diagram of the different Doctors Who.
I personally think she was intended to be pre-Hartnell, to explain the Brain of Morbius.
The only thing I definitely don’t think she can be is a future Doctor. That makes zero sense to me, because that would mean that in the future Gallifrey is restored, the Doctor starts going on missions for the Division, defeats Swarm, Swarm is locked up and then escapes and goes to the past to find the Doctor in a past incarnation? Why?
And the Thirteenth Doctor has memories of her future? And so does Fifteen? I’m confused.
Ah, yes, yes. Every once in a while the Doctor regenerates into Jo Martin, every time this happens they forget every other face, and only remember the Fugitive lives they’ve led as one single continuous incarnation. It’s like that Severance tv series (which I’ve seen less episodes of than I have seen Fugitive Doctor episodes. Which means zero) except she’s activated by Division with a forced regeneration. This means she’s a pre-Hartnell Doctor, a 6B Doctor, a future incarnation, one several of the Timeless Children, the Other, a Morbius Doctor, a bigeneration of the Shalka Doctor, the last incarnation of Merlin and also the War Chief who is the Master.
I think there’s plenty of evidence to point in that direction, as well as those of the other poll options (which I really like! The Doctor should be mysterious, and what could be more mysterious than an incarnation we can’t place?)