Doctor Who’s brand-new sonic screwdriver announcement has caused a right kerfuffle (yep, that’s the technical term) in the fandom.
Currently, the Fugitive Doctor (Jo Martin) is taking centre stage with Circuit Breaker, a new multi-platform adventure.
This week, it was revealed that she has an all-new sonic screwdriver, with Martin showing off the details in a video on the show’s socials (including how it honours Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor).
But some fans have been left a little confused as to why the Fugitive Doctor has a sonic screwdriver considering, in Doctor Who’s incredibly timey-wimey lore, her incarnation is before William Hartnell’s First Doctor. The First Doctor didn’t have a sonic screwdriver, with the iconic tool only being introduced with Troughton’s Second Doctor.
That’s led to plenty of speculation from fans, including some who have argued that the Fugitive Doctor is better placed after the Second Doctor, while others have suggested that the Fugitive Doctor wielding a sonic screwdriver doesn’t break the show’s canon at all.
To get to the bottom of it, Radio Times chatted to James Page, Brand Manager of the Doctor Who at BBC Studios, and producer of Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker.
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“Circuit Breaker is set after the Fugitive Doctor’s encounter with the Thirteenth Doctor, where she makes it very clear that she has no time for a sonic screwdriver,” Page explained.
“But in Circuit Breaker, she finds herself working alongside two UNIT scientists, Osgood and Andrew, who idolise the Doctor and encourage her to approach problems more like the incarnations they know.
“That creates a tension between the three: the Fugitive Doctor is fiercely proud of who she is and doesn’t believe she needs to change, but she also begins to see that Osgood and Andrew might have a point.”
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He added: “We’ve already seen just how uncompromising she can be in Titan Comics’ Adversary of the Daleks’, where her actions lead to [spoiler alert] the destruction of the Metiki and the deaths of many humans in Ancient Greece.
“She isn’t like the Doctors UNIT is familiar with, and that contrast sits at the heart of Circuit Breaker. How that ultimately leads to her carrying a sonic screwdriver however is something readers will have to discover in The Kaleidoscope written by Jo Martin, releasing on 3 September, and in more detail through the UNIT HQ website throughout the project’s duration.”
Asked whether the Fugitive Doctor is still considered a pre-Hartnell incarnation, Page went on: “Andrew and Osgood call on the Fugitive Doctor because, as far as UNIT knows, she is the earliest known incarnation of the Doctor.
“They have very little information about her, but that’s the understanding they are working from. Her character has so much mystery behind her, and it’s fun to speculate where she may fit in. But for Osgood and Andrew, they are firm with the knowledge that she is the earliest incarnation they know, and the more stories we tell with the Fugitive Doctor in the future, the more I am sure we will uncover.”
And, as for clarity in terms of when Circuit Breaker is set?
Page confirmed: “Circuit Breaker is set after Fugitive of the Judoon. The Fugitive Doctor is constantly on the move, always looking over her shoulder, so she rarely dwells on her past. However in The Kaleidoscope, she is faced with truths from her past which show a more vulnerable side to the character.”
Doctor Who: Circuit Breaker began on 25 June on the UNIT website.
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