Calling the Doctor

"We don't have time to chase a runaway."

Writer: Esme Jikiemi-Pearson

Format: Short Story

Released: 25 June 2026

Series: Circuit Breaker #1

Featuring: Fugitive Doctor, Osgood

Synopsis

When strange and corrupted alien artefacts begin spontaneously appearing inside UNIT's secure Black Archive, they bring with them a dangerous energy signature that tears tiny ruptures across space and time. Realising UNIT is out of its depth, a search for the Doctor begins. However, instead of an incarnation UNIT is familiar with, the connection to the mysterious and formidable Fugitive Doctor is their only hope...

Verdict

Calling the Doctor was an excellent start to the Circuit Breaker multimedia extravaganza! I think my expectations for this story arc are pretty much in the mindset of wait and see because this is the third attempt at this idea and it feels like the other two were snakebitten. The idea behind Time Lord Victorious was magnificent but it was halted by Covid and the release schedule felt all over the place. Then we had Doom's Day which felt like it was in the bin before it even took off with a large majority of the fanbase not taking the character of Doom seriously. That was a shame, but they have the winning formula here as the Fugitive Doctor in the lead role seems like an awfully exciting idea! I'm not sure a UNIT website story is the best place to start, but I can understand why that happens because it's free to read and it can get anyone interested hooked ready for every release. This did a superb job with that to be honest as the concept for the story ahead was set and it is an exciting one for sure. I think the idea of the Fugitive Doctor being conscripted by UNIT is brilliant and the prospect of her replacing lost artefacts in time from her future regenerations is glorious. I love mismatches of continuity so the prospect of her jumping into previous stories or encountering future villains is right up my alley. I think Osgood as the lead character from UNIT's perspective is going to be great too as I must admit she's been a sorely missed aspect of the organisation on screen in recent years. I thought her assistant Andrew had a pretty solid debut outing here and I'm pretty impressed that he conjured up the resistor device as a means to literally change time! That's an incredible feat but needing a Time Lord to handle it makes sense with them being no strangers to time travel. Yaz giving information to UNIT regarding the Fugitive Doctor is intriguing and I'm also jumping all over the fact it was stated that she is the earliest known incarnation of the Doctor. I think Chris Chibnall was careful to not set in stone when she places amongst Doctor chronology and numbering as I still think between The War Games and Spearhead from Space works best for me purely because the TARDIS is a police box in Fugitive of the Judoon. How could it be in that disguise if she was placed before An Unearthly Child? It's a fun mind bend and I love the mystery surrounding her incarnation. UNIT being able to contact her also seems impressive and she was pretty shocked by that communication. She didn't exactly welcome it either. I thought the format of the story with transcripts of conversations and private messages was unique and something I appreciated. Having a little bit of decoding in the story was good too even if the passwords were simple to obtain. It was just nice to have that little bit of interaction. Osgood discussing with Kate about the literal tears in time that were visible was brilliant and I loved that we got some images placed throughout the story and the simplicity of their captions containing their file codes was great. It just all felt authentic and I appreciate that. So the premise is simple. Artefacts from the likes of Sontarans and Carrionites to Daleks and Cybermen in the need of being returned to their rightful place in time to ensure the future regenerations of the Doctor are intact. The Fugitive didn't seem to think that concerned her if it was the future which was amusing and I do hope she is a little difficult to work with. From comics and audios to a novel and games, the circuit is well and truly broken. I'm ready. A fantastic start! 

Rating: 9/10