Doctor Who's Jo Martin was exactly what Chris Chibnall needed
On the actor's birthday, we celebrate Jo Martin's short but significant time as the Fugitive Doctor.
The best Doctors are the ones you fall in love with in fewer than five minutes.
For Matt Smith, it was when he frisbeed a slice of bread out of Amelia’s kitchen door. For Peter Capaldi, it was the moment he started flirting with a T-Rex on the South Bank. For Ncuti Gatwa… well, let’s be honest, he played catch in his pants - I don’t really need to say any more.
But, unlike these other Doctors, Jo Martin literally had five minutes to make us fall in love with her, and from the outset the odds were pretty stacked against her.
Martin’s identity as the Fugitive Doctor was revealed to us 36 minutes into the fifth episode of Jodie Whittaker’s second season, which, up until that point, had had mixed reviews.
Plus, while Chris Chibnall’s tenure as showrunner had been relatively light on the big swings, it also came on the heels of Sacha Dhawan’s sensational entrance as the Master and the return of fan favourite Captain Jack Harkness.
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Plus, there’s that little aspect of her identity completely rewriting the lore of the show, writing a brand new regeneration somewhere in the Doctor’s past without any kind of warning or explanation – and that mystery still remains unsolved today.
So, it’s fair to say that she had a lot to overcome.
But overcome it she did: Martin’s performance as the Doctor was nothing short of awesome, and exactly what the Chibnall era needed.
As a mysterious renegade version of the Time Lord, she brought bite and grittiness to the part in a way that opposed yet complemented Jodie Whittaker’s more golden retriever-esque style.
We got to see her fight and cross boundaries that our Doctor never could, and show a level of toughness that hadn’t really been seen since the days of Christopher Eccleston.
She also carried the mysteries of her role well. Where Whittaker’s Doctor clearly showed the evolution from the past 13 incarnations (including John Hurt, don’t @ me), Martin’s was raw and unfiltered in a way that made her impossible to place in the Doctor’s timeline.
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She was jagged and harsh enough that she could be from the distant past, and yet she was still the Doctor - loving and gentle enough that she could have been a recent version.
As her arc progressed across the season, and then into Flux, Martin’s role became a symbol for strength for Whittaker’s Doctor.
In The Timeless Children, when Thirteen is at one of her weakest moments, the Fugitive Doctor tells her: "No time to be tired. Still work to do out there. Lives at stake. Armies being born. People need the Doctor."
Then, again, in Power of the Doctor, when Thirteen confronts the Master under the disguise of a hologram, who does she choose to be? The Fugitive Doctor.
For me, it hasn’t been highlighted enough that Chibnall chose to put two women supporting each other at the forefront of the series. Nor does it get talked about enough that Martin is the first non-white actor to play the Doctor.
In short, despite fleeting appearances on screen, Martin encapsulated everything the Doctor should be.
To be clear, I’m not the biggest fan of the Timeless Child storyline, but Martin’s performance more than makes up for it. In reality, it doesn’t matter how the Fugitive Doctor got there, all that matters is that we got her.
So, when she took Jodie Whittaker’s hand – two minutes and two seconds into her time as the Doctor – and said, "You’re gonna love this," that was the moment I fell in love with her.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One and iPlayer on Saturday 11th May 2024.
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