What the...Chibnall (Doctor Who SPOILERS. Do not read if you haven't seen Fugitive of the Judoon)

Double you tee...you get the picture. This week's episode was by far the best Chibnall/Whitaker episode.

It also hurt my brain. Spoilers below.


Captain Jack! Captain Jack! CAPTAIN JACK! Okay, I'm done squeeing now.

Captain Jack is back, and given how long he was apparently in Cardiff I doubt this was a one off. Barrowman has put on a tiny bit of weight of late, but he stepped back into the character like an old military style trench coat.

And our friend Harkness is up to something involving the Cybermen. And smooching companions by mistake, which is such a vintage Jack thing to do.

Meanwhile, the rhino-headed Judoon make their reappearance, hunting for a fugitive on Earth.

Which turns out to be the Doctor.

Both of her.

Yes, we just met a completely new incarnation of the Doctor, whom I'm calling Ruth for now. In a repeat of something Eleven did, Ruth apparently wiped her memory and was hiding on Earth with a (human? We don't know) fake husband and everything. Ruth was played by Jo Martin and is the first non-white incarnation of the Doctor. Yup. The Doctor has a forgotten incarnation who's a black woman.

Except it makes no sense. Ruth has the TARDIS, meaning she can't be an incarnation prior to Hartnell (the negative numbers theory). She does not know what a sonic screwdriver is, meaning she can't be an incarnation after Troughton (when the sonic screwdriver was introduced).

And we saw Hartnell regenerate into Troughton.

Twice.

Or...did we.

So, Ruth is the Doctor. Ruth has the TARDIS. She acts more like River Song, but I don't think that's where we're meant to go.

The obvious lead theory, especially with the throwaway mention of timelines and alternate futures in Orphan 55 is that Ruth is an alternate timeline incarnation of the Doctor.

So, how did this happen?

The possibility that immediately jumps to mind is "Twice Upon A Time."

That's when 12 meets 1, and the two talk each other into regenerating instead of dying. With timey wimey stuff. We have the two doctors together, with time stopped and the Doctor intervening to save the ancestor of the Brigadier.

So.

What if that is where the timeline splits. The intervention in time, as important as it was, caused a split in the Doctor's timeline. In 13's timeline, the Doctor regenerates into the Two (Patrick Troughton) we know and love.

But because of the way time split, the Doctor also regenerates into Ruth. Hence her not recognizing the sonic screwdriver. That Doctor goes back to Gallifrey, gets roped into something, runs away again, hides on Earth...

...and this all ties into the Timeless Child and whatever really happened with the Master.

I'm probably wrong, I usually am, but it kinda fits.