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'ORIGINS – THE FUGITIVE DOCTOR TAKES FLIGHT"

Origins, written by Jody Houser and drawn by Roberta Ingranata, stands as the Fugitive Doctor’s sole comic book outing to date—and thankfully, it’s a strong one. Set before the events of Fugitive of the Judoon, this four-part series explores a formative Division mission that ultimately sets the Doctor on the path to rebellion. The plot may be simple, but the themes are sharp, the characters are strong, and the visuals elegantly echo the cold, clinical beauty of Gallifreyan design. This is a crucial stepping stone in fleshing out a once-mysterious incarnation—and a worthy companion to her few televised and audio appearances.

A MISSION WITH STRINGS ATTACHED

At its core, Origins is a mission story: the Fugitive Doctor is dispatched by Division to track down and stop a rogue cult believed to pose a threat to Gallifrey. She’s partnered with a freshly graduated Time Lord, Taslo—a regulation-loving, gun-toting rookie whose devotion to the High Council is both her strength and her blind spot. The comic thrives on their chalk-and-cheese dynamic. The Fugitive’s sharp wit and disdain for bureaucracy contrast brilliantly with Taslo’s indoctrinated loyalty and trigger-happy nerves.

What elevates this beyond a basic team-up is how clearly it signposts the Fugitive’s disillusionment with Time Lord society. When the Doctor realises that Gallifrey's elite is willing to exterminate entire Time Lord colonies for perceived ideological impurity, the seeds of rebellion are sown. This isn’t just a mission gone wrong—it’s a moral reckoning, and a significant pivot point in the Doctor’s mythos. Her defiance here draws a straight line to the character we later meet in Fugitive of the Judoon and the broader Timeless Child arc.

TASLO AND THE DOCTOR: TWO PATHS DIVERGE

Taslo emerges as more than a simple foil—she becomes the emotional core of the arc. Torn between her duty and the Doctor’s conviction, she undergoes a quiet transformation. When push comes to shove and she’s ordered to execute the Doctor, her hesitation allows the truth to come to light. Her redemption is small but sincere, and while the story doesn’t linger on her future, the suggestion that she might follow the Doctor’s path—however cautiously—adds depth to what could have been a throwaway sidekick.

Houser writes the Fugitive Doctor with clear affection. Her dialogue drips with righteous cynicism, rebellious charm, and simmering frustration. Jo Martin’s performance is easy to hear in your head as you read, with that commanding presence and deadpan delivery preserved in every line.

STRONG FOUNDATIONS, SIMPLE STRUCTURE

The comic’s structure is neat and straightforward. Issue #1 offers a fun Division briefing (always welcome), #2 and #3 form the meat of the mission, and #4 brings the ideological reckoning and fallout. If there’s a drawback, it’s that the mission itself doesn’t pack much tension. The cult, the chase, and the central conflict play out in predictable beats, and there’s little sense of threat throughout.

Still, the stripped-back plot allows the spotlight to fall where it matters—on character and theme. This is less about suspense and more about showing why the Doctor turns her back on Gallifrey. It's a prelude, not a standalone epic.

INGRANATA’S ART: CLINICAL ELEGANCE

Roberta Ingranata’s art is clean, confident, and evocative—particularly in the design of the TARDIS interior, rendered with a luminous, blue-tinted alienness that sets it apart from other incarnations. The alien world is intriguing if somewhat static, with the action scenes never quite leaping off the page. Still, it complements the script’s cerebral tone.

The biggest frustration is that Origins ends just as things are getting interesting. The closing pages tease further stories—perhaps audio-bound—but never overpromise. It's a tantalising goodbye that both satisfies and leaves you wishing for more.

📝THE BOTTOM LINE: 8/10

Origins is a thoughtful, well-structured introduction to the Fugitive Doctor’s journey toward rebellion. While the action may lack punch, the themes of disillusionment, conscience, and identity shine through in both script and art. A compelling piece of Fugitive’s fragmented history—and a perfect springboard for further adventures.

Easily the best thing about this story is having some sign time with the Fugitive Doctor without having her overshadowed. I loved the intro, and seeing her flex her muscles, getting an insight into the Doctor’s early years.

But as her first mission with Division unravels and you see the wretched Time Lord plot (which she foils in a rather predictable way) it all becomes a little less special, a little more generic. The planets she visits are under-explored, so you don’t feel a weight of importance in their safety. Taslo is not interesting enough a character for the reader to feel anything when she lets The Doctor down. We never really get to know her.

I’m also opposed to using the TARDIS to transport planet-loads of people to safety en masse. Wouldn’t they just do this every week if it was an option??

Ultimately it winds up being a wasted opportunity to satisfyingly expand on this missing little bit of The Doctor’s life.

I have big hopes for the Fugitive Doctor’s audio adventures to right this wrong!

A bit disappointing, honestly. As the first Solo Fugitive Story, this simply just doesn't deliver much. I don't feel like I have a better Idea of her as a Character, sure she does get some nice Bits here and there, but really just feels a bit like a "Nothing"-Force here. She doesn't really do much, and really it does, kinda is on the verge of being a more 'Standard-Affair' as a Doctor Who Story.

Nothing wrong with that, but I insist that I think any kind of Pre-Hartnell Incarnations should at least try to shake Things up more. Yes, you can have your more Standard-kind of Stories with any of those, but I think you should aspire to delve into some newer Territory, if possible. This one just feels like Titan tipping their Toes into this unexplored Era, a bit 'cowardly'.

Judging the Story on its own Terms, I do say it's fine, there are some great Character Bits and some nice new Characters we get to see, but really it doesn't give me all that much, sadly. The Big Standout here is probably the Art and the Colors, all of which are chosen so well and give this Story just the Edge to not fall down as average.

Really great little mini-series. I like how the Fugitive Doctor is characterised, she feels exactly like how I'd imagine an early version of the Doctor to act. The story was really interesting and I didn't expect the twist that the colonists were Time Lords. I did however expect the twist with Taslo. 4 issues just isn't long enough to really make you get to know the character, so the betrayal didn't hit hard at all. I liked the idea of a Weeping Angel companion, I wish we'd seen more of them. I also really enjoy how this story portrays Time Lord corruption, basically everyone but the Doctor has their own hidden agenda in this.

The artwork is really nice, it gets the likeness of Jo Martin down quite well and I love the strange Time Lord colonist designs. The worlds they visit are also very vibrant and interesting in a way only this medium can achieve. I love how this manages to feel like no other era, there really aren't any Doctor Who stories that feel similar. All this makes me really excited for the Fugitive Doctor audios coming out soon, if they nail the vibe of this then I'll be more than happy with them.

Vibrant story that is a lot of fun.

It doesn't add as much as a reader looking for more answers to who The Fugitive Doctor is but that seems to be a recurring theme with this incarnation of The Doctor, much akin to her Big Finish debut in Most Wanted.

That said, the story is plenty enjoyable nonetheless with colourful, vibrant artwork and character designs. Plotwise it's a fairly standard Doctor Who story but it does have a genuinely great twist along the way. There is a somewhat pointless cameo very early on that doesn't add a great deal to the overall plot other than hinting where The Fugitive Doctor fits into The Doctor's timeline which just didn't feel like it needed to be there.

Hopefully there are more comics for The Fugitive Doctor to come because this left me wanting more.

I enjoyed Origins more than I expected to. Not that I don’t like the Fugitive Doctor, I just hadn’t really interacted with any of the EU stuff for her. But I found the comic to be a good self-contained story that gives just enough context at the end to almost seamlessly lead into Fugitive of the Judoon. The bit at the beginning with the Weeping Angel was great and I think, overall, her character is portrayed pretty well. She hits all the right traits without overly being written as a person she isn’t yet, having a strong moral compass but not yet as rigid as her future iterations. I thought the non-human Time Lords were fascinating and I’d love to see more of them. My nitpicks are small, where I think it would have been better if she was more actively driving the Time Lord corruption element of the plot. It felt like Taslo had more effect on events as a side character than Fugitive did. Regardless, it was a fun read.

FUGITIVE DOCTOR COMIC: STORY 1

I’d like to start this review by saying that I really like the idea of the Fugitive Doctor, and think it was well executed on screen.

Therefore, I was excited, and mildly nervous, about a Fugitive Doctor comic, set during her time working for Division!

Thankfully, Origins lives up to my expectations, with a fun, engaging adventure.

We get to learn a bit more about Division, the mysterious Time Lord organisation that sends the Doctor on her missions.

The Doctor also gets a companion here, Taslo, who starts off a little bit unlikeable, but as the story goes on, I ended up really enjoying the Doctor and Taslo’s dynamic, which made Taslo’s betrayal even more shocking.

The ending is perhaps the most intriguing section of Origins, with Gat (from Fugitive of the Judoon) having a conversation with Tecteun, as the Doctor goes on the run, and becomes a Fugitive...

Overall, this is a cracking good read, with beautiful artwork, excellent characterisation, and a great adventure.

I got the graphic novel version of this one, and it includes all four main issues and the bonus Free Comic Book Day story.

The Free Comic Book Day issue acts as a prologue of sorts, but doesn’t really add much as it originally was intended to be a separate standalone story. So I’m going to talk about it as such.

I hope you enjoy today's special: two reviews for the price of one!

FCBD 2022

The Fugitive Doctor lands on Earth in the year 1962 and saves a bunch of children from a group of alien invaders... or rather the little kids save themselves and she just captures the bad guys afterward. She’s then deemed ‘cool’ and invited to ‘hang’, but she can’t stick around. Though she does reflect how Earth is starting to grow on her just a bit.

Then we cut to the First Doctor and Susan first arriving on Earth in 1963. The End.

I understand what they were trying to go for here; that the Doctor chose Earth as his first adventure with Susan, because he subconsciously remembers being Martin, but it doesn’t really work. Mainly because Martin’s Doctor doesn’t work as a pre-Hartnell incarnation. Even if you buy The Other/Timeless Child/Morbius Incarnations ect., she still doesn’t fit.

Look, for the sake of augment, let’s pretend that the Master and the Matrix wasn’t lying (even though they always lie); any pre-Hartnell incarnations wouldn’t call themselves the Doctor, they wouldn’t have a Tardis that looks like a Police Box, and they wouldn’t have the same moral code that we associate with the Doctor.

Hartnell is called the ‘First Doctor’ because he’s the person who grew into the Doctor. Both in the meta sense and within the canon of the series itself.

He wasn’t called the Doctor until Barbara and Ian gave him that name. He didn’t form his moral code until he met them and learned form them. And the Tardis didn’t become a blue Police Box until it landed in that junkyard in 1963.

To suggest otherwise is to s**t all over 60 years of character development, and that is where I draw the line.

Mess with continuity and the lore all you want. Reset the retcon button each era. I don’t care. But do not erase the development of the main character!

Fortunately, it’s all so incompetently done that it’s easy to ignore.

The connection between Martin’s Doctor and Hartnell’s Doctor is so vague and disconnected that you can just assume whatever you want.

Look, I like Martin, I like her Doctor. I’m happy to have her. But give me any other explanation for her other than Pre-Hartnell, or worst, mealy mouthed allusions with no resolution. Please, I’m begging you show.

Origins

Thankfully the main story is far better.

The Doctor is tasked by the Division to ‘eliminate’ a terrorist cult that threatens Gallifrey.... Only to find out that said ‘cult’ are really just Gallifreyans themselves, looking to leave their home planet and start life anew.

This deception, of course, is what inspires her to break ties with the Division and is supposed to lead into The Fugitive of the Judoon.

Well not quite. Lee is absent, so we’re meant assume that other stories exist between this one and Fugitive of the Judoon.

Instead we get Taslo as the Doctor’s companion.

I really like Taslo.

She has a lot of layers to her and a nice arc.

Similar to Romana, she’s a Time Lord fresh out of the academy and assigned by the High Council to assist the Doctor in her mission.

And that’s where the similarities end. They have two completely different personalities, skill sets, and character developments.

Taslo is primarily a solider, an undercover agent. Like all Time Lords she is smart, but not smarter than any other Gallifreyan. You get the feeling that she’s decidedly average by Gallifreyan standards, but was chosen for the job because she’s inexperienced and young, and therefore easier to manipulate by the Division.

That’s interesting.

Like, that’s really, really interesting. A Time Lord that isn’t amazingly special at first glance; who’s neither a renegade nor a person of political power. She’s just normal... or at least normal to a Gallifreyan.

And that’s fascinating because it gives us more of a glimpse into Gallifreyan culture than perhaps any story ever has before. How the machinations of those in power are viewed by the everyday citizens, and how someone who isn’t intended to be a female Doctor clone (sorry Romana fans, but it’s true) would behave.

The dynamic between her and the Doctor is also great. It’s another mentor/student relationship, but its handled really well.

Over all I’m sadden that she’ll most likely wind up as a one off character.

Anything else? Oh I do like the idea of Time Lords being able to regenerate to match their environment. That’s cool.

All in all I highly recommend this comic. Especially fans of Martin’s Doctor. Also, the graphic novel version is probably easier to get a hold of. I went for the digital copy myself.

I really like this and the conflict with the proto-companion. Some good concepts explored nicely, and an era of the Fugitive Doctor we've not seen much of. I do hope we get some stories from BF set whilst she's in Division!