Doctor Who Season 2, Episode 5 Features The Surprise Return Of The Doctor You Forgot

This article contains spoilers for "Doctor Who" season 2, episode 5, "The Story & The Engine."

"Doctor Who" season 2, episode 5 – titled "The Story & The Engine" — continues the show's current trend of combining copious winks and nudges with genuinely heartfelt stories that are the cornerstone of showrunner Russell T Davies' tenure. This time, the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) finds himself in Lagos. There, his friend Omo's (Sule Rimi of "Andor" and "The Day of the Jackal" fame) barbershop has been taken over by the mysterious and hostile Barber (Ariyon Bakare, "His Dark Materials") and his accomplice, Abena (Michelle Asante, "Top Boy"). After the Doctor enters the shop and finds that he and several locals have been trapped inside and have to fuel the Barber's mysterious machines with their stories, the plot truly kicks in.

The Barber first attempts to introduce himself as the God of Stories, which would imply that he's the newest member of the ever-expanding Pantheon of Discord. However, the Doctor is quick to call this bluff, and the villain turns out to be something even more dangerous: an embittered immortal who served all the real story gods and fed them power and is now on a quest for revenge with his spider-like Nexus and Story Engine machines. His goal is nothing less than to kill the gods by severing them from their stories, and his aide is equally threatening: Abena is the daughter of the Akan folklore hero and story god, Anansi. This revelation and the ensuing confrontation not only bring Abena to the forefront, but it also brings her face to face with an obscure version of the Doctor that fans were likely not expecting to see: Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor, who originally introduced in the 2020 episode "Fugitive of the Judoon."

Abena has a personal grudge against the Doctor because Anansi once tricked the Time Lord into marrying her by throwing a bet. Instead of following through, however, the Doctor bailed out and left the humiliated Abena behind. Notably, though, it wasn't the Ncuti Gatwa incarnation of the Doctor or any of the other numbered mainline regenerations, for that matter. Instead, either by using the peculiar story powers of the barbershop or simply by summoning her spirit from within, the Doctor allows the reincarnation who was behind this perceived misdeed to face Abena.

The Fugitive Doctor, with her characteristic sternness, reminds Abena that she was a fugitive at the time, so she had little chance of actually taking anyone with her. She also notes that she was preoccupied with another story at the time and teases that it might actually one day reach its conclusion.

The cameo isn't long, but it packs a disproportionate punch. The Renegade Doctor entered the show during the 13th Doctor's (Jodie Whitaker) era and remained a sporadic presence for the rest of then-showrunner Chris Chibnall's ("Broadchurch," "Doctor Who" spin-off "Torchwood") tenure. Chibnall's style differed from his predecessors Davies (who was the original revival-era "Doctor Who" showrunner before returning to helm the Disney+ era) and Steven Moffat, and the greatest mysteries he left behind are the Doctor's mystifying status as an ancient Timeless Child — something the show has since downplayed — and, of course, the Fugitive Doctor. The latter's re-emergence during the second Davies era means that this comparatively obscure Doctor might still have a role to play in the series' future ... especially since she specifically tells Abena (and the viewers) that her big story isn't necessarily over just yet.

The Fugitive Doctor has made just enough appearances in live-action, novels, comics, and other "Doctor Who" projects that dedicated Whovians have a reasonable idea of who she is (a comparatively martial-minded forgotten regeneration who lived long before William Hartnell's First Doctor). However, seeing the Gatwa-era "Doctor Who" all but sweep Chibnall's Timeless Child concept under the rug made it all too easy to suspect that the Fugitive Doctor was destined to become one of the many unaddressed mysteries of a decades-old show where the constantly changing creatives aren't always keen to explore the ideas their predecessors set up.

This, fortunately, isn't the case here. Martin has invariably been captivating as this lost Doctor, and the character's story still has so many holes that seeing the show outright state that the Fugitive Doctor's story might actually be finished at some point is great news — both for fans who are delighted to see her and for friends of the show in general.

Here's why: The Disney+ "Doctor Who" has made self-awareness a major recurring theme. In "Lux," the series broke the fourth wall to pay homage to the fandom. In "Lucky Day," it similarly introduced one of the most realistic "Doctor Who" monsters by using familiar tropes to lull the viewer into false assumptions about the monstrous influencer Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King). With the Fugitive Doctor callback, Davies once again shows that his "Doctor Who" is ready and willing to explore any and all concepts surrounding the show. In other words, the Disney+ "Doctor Who" isn't just one showrunner's vision. It's embracing everything "Doctor Who" has ever been, and there really is no telling what deep cuts the series might choose to revisit next.

New episodes of "Doctor Who" premiere Saturdays on Disney+.