In the interviews on the production of Valentine's Fast Times, the writer of the Fugitive Doctor's premier story in her own range recounts calling Chris Chibnall to discuss the character, and the crucial detail that her creator spoke of her in a hypothetical, spitballing light; Chibnall "thinks," instead of knows, that his own creation is X, Y, and/or Z. This approach I would have previously turned my nose up at, believing it points toward a lack of focus, but here, it's intensely respectable as an almost post-modern fanbrain, theorising the ambiguous nature of your creation alongside your audience. Such is incredibly opportune for writers, and Valentine indubitably takes this in his stride. The Fugitive Doctor is a cog in the works of Doctor Who's aesthetic and stylistic continuity, attracting caricatures and locations directly lifted from late-20th century comics, sixties Daleks and their surrounding sensibilities, and the dense mythology of the revival, all of these epicentral to her; Fast Times picks up Coda's leftovers and makes a deliberate, three-course meal of them. Most refreshing about the character is how reined in she is from the grandeur mythos surrounding her origins, and the Doctor's more omnipotent depicted tendencies. As much as she is a fugitive by name and nature, she is also the ultimate tourist - a welcomely earnest, sobering portrayal - and likewise, is not afraid to be petty (the 'Colonel Runaway' scene from A Good Man Goes to War would look positively infantile compared to the jabs Martin perfectly delivers). In this respect, a dialogue is opened with Fugitive's on-screen contemporary, as her seclusion and unwillingness to meditate on matters imitates those of the Thirteenth Doctor's, albeit delivered in a delightfully more blunt fashion. The sprawling nature of Fast Times complements the grounded characteristic of Martin's incarnation, which progressively grows on me the more I listen to. An utterly eclectic seizure of the open floor its Doctor presents in her conceit, Fast Times is a thoroughly enjoyable listen which ought to be treated as a touchstone for everything with this Doctor coming forward.