Warning: SPOILERS for the Physician Who episode “The Story & the Engine” are forward!
We’re previous the midway level of Physician Who Season 2 on the 2025 TV schedule, with the most recent episode obtainable to stream with a Disney+ subscription seeing Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Physician getting trapped in a barbershop in Lagos, Nigeria the place the inhabitants had been compelled to inform tales to energy an alien engine. Arguably the most important shock from “The Story & the Engine” got here once we bought a cameo look from Jo Martin’s Fugitive Physician, who was launched through the Thirteenth Physician period. Martin wasn’t onscreen for lengthy, nevertheless it was sufficient to persuade me {that a} lingering storyline from when Jodie Whittaker was main Physician Who has lastly been resolved.
Secret incarnations of The Physician had been nothing new previous to when the Thirteenth Physician began touring round time and area within the TARDIS (see The Battle Physician), nevertheless it was throughout this era of Physician Who that we discovered that there have been incarnations of the protagonist who existed previous to The First Physician. The Fugitive Physician was a type of incarnations, however what’s even weirder is that The Physician had no recollections of their pre-First self. This all stemmed from The Physician having been revealed to as soon as be The Timeless Little one, an orphan from an unidentified world whom the Time Lords replicated regeneration from and infused into their biology.
On the finish of Physician Who: Flux, the Thirteenth Physician obtained a fob watch containing all her lacking recollections. Nonetheless, quite than open it up and have all these experiences from her previous lives come flooding again, 13 as an alternative deposited the watch into the TARDIS. The implication was that there could come a day when The Physician is able to regain these recollections, however for now, she needed nothing to do with them. Easy sufficient, proper?
However right here’s the factor: in “The Story & the Engine,” the Fifteenth Physician remembered assembly Anansi’s daughter Abena again when he was the Fugitive Physician. How did that occur? Have these pre-First Physician recollections began to resurface on their very own throughout the Time Lord’s thoughts? Possibly, however I’m considering that someday after the Thirteenth Physician regenerated, The Physician determined to retrieve the fob watch from throughout the TARDIS and eventually fill these reminiscence gaps.
Admittedly, it is a second I want to see onscreen, however I also can perceive why it might be dealt with offscreen. With Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Physician entrance coinciding with the collection changing into obtainable to stream on Disney+ outdoors of the UK, this Physician Who period has been designed to be essentially the most newcomer-friendly in a very long time. Positive, there have been loads of callbacks and different previous Physician Who characters who’ve appeared, together with Vanessa Redgrave’s Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Bonnie Langford’s Mel Bush. However for essentially the most half, accessibility has been extra essential than ever now that Physician Who is obtainable to extra individuals internationally than ever.
Delving into the nitty gritty of these pre-First Physician recollections could be too daunting of a job to delve into on Physician Who proper now. It’s one factor for the Fugitive Physician to briefly seem or allude to the Timeless Little one by having 15 inform Ruby Sunday that he’s adopted, it’s one other to attempt to clarify the backstory behind the fob watch and squeeze it right into a story that Russell T. Davies and co. need to inform. For now, my headcanon is that the Fourteenth Physician opened the watch whereas he was recovering from the psychological trauma of his previous few lives as a part of the therapeutic course of.
There are three episodes left in Physician Who Season 2, and if it seems that in both this season or a future season, we see The Physician opening up the fob watch, I’ll gladly admit I used to be flawed. Till then, I’ll return to ponder what the deal is with the mysterious Mrs. Flood.