Doctor Who just made best move ever resurrecting its most controversial story

Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who episode five, The Story & The Engine.

The BBC sci-fi series returned for another week of adventures as Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor and companion Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) continue their chaotic trek across the universe in an attempt to get back home to their time.

This week, the Doctor arrived in Lagos, Nigeria in 2019, where he decides to pay a visit to his favourite barber shop that makes him feel accepted as the person he is – even when others haven’t.

But, his trip takes a turn for the worse when he discovers that the barber shop has been transformed into a ship with the figure of folklore – the cunning Anansi the Spider – caught up in the scheme.

Inside the shop, those being held hostage are forced to divulge their stories to feed the engine.

There’s plenty of gorgeous storytelling animation which weaves in Nigerian heritage and mythology, building on the high-budget visuals we’ve seen all season, especially in episode two, Lux.

And it’s heartening to see Ncuti’s dream location, taking the Tardis to Nigeria, come to fruition in such a heartfelt story of finding community and true acceptance.

At one point, a mysterious woman who seems to possess the ability to come in and out of the barber shop as she pleases sparks a flicker of recognition in the Doctor.

As he tries to figure out exactly where he knows her from, he soon puts two and two together and realises this enigmatic woman is actually Anansi’s daughter, Abena (Michelle Asante), whom he was once tricked into almost winning in a bet.

Instead, his former version had managed to wrangle himself out of the deal but failed to rescue the daughter upon his escape, leading to her building resentment for the Doctor over the years.

The twist? It was actually the Fugitive Doctor who abandoned her and, in an even more unexpectedly delightful turn of events, Jo Martin herself makes a cameo to directly apologise (well, kind of).

‘I was a fugitive back then, Anansi was wrong to offer that bet, and frankly, darling, I was busy in a different story that might be finished one day,’ she tells Abena.

After which it is revealed the barber’s ultimate goal is to cut the gods out of the storyweb and destroy them, and free Abena from her father’s shackles.

This is the first time Jo Martin has appeared in Doctor Who since Jodie Whittaker’s finale episode, The Power of the Doctor, in 2022.

She is a crucial element of the Timless Child arc, a controversial plot introduced during Chris Chibnall’s era of the show, which unveiled that the Doctor is from an unknown alien race who was found and experimented on to create the Time Lords on Gallifrey.

This meant there were far more than just (at the time, 13) iterations of the Doctor, with the Fugitive Doctor understood to be a regeneration from that era.

Up to this point, we know she is a version of the Doctor from before they left Gallifrey and was forcibly working with a secret Gallifreyan organisation known as The Division before going rogue as the group sought to control (and eventually end) the universe.

Although returning showrunner Russell T Davies has acknowledged the Timeless Child arc and all that entails in his new era of the show, it has been unclear how much he would explore it – aside from the 14th Doctor discussing his trauma in Wild Blue Yonder.

Despite the arc dividing the fanbase over whether it was a good idea to transform everything we thought we knew about the Doctor, introducing Jo Martin’s character was by far one of the best moves to win people around.

Now, with Jo returning to the screen, clearly with plenty of stories to tell if this cameo is anything to go by, RTD has opened the door for not only future episodes with Jo’s Doctor in, but even the potential for a spin-off to fully flesh out this character.

After all, there seems to be a hint of a promise in the Fugitive Doctor saying her tale might be finished one day.

As such an important aspect of the recent Who era, Jo could bring new life to this tension-filled plot and maybe even win more sceptical fans over. Even her 30-second appearance in this episode gave a fascinating glimpse into her fiery personality.

So, here’s hoping RTD’s decision to resurrect Jo’s character again is a sign of great things to come, because I’m ready to dive headfirst and fully commit to the Fugitive Doctor’s story.

Doctor Who continues airing every Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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