Full Circuit

"I've woven the web of my own death."

Writer: Robert Valentine

Format: Audio

Released: September 2026

Series: Circuit Breaker #11

Featuring: Fugitive Doctor 

Synopsis

Strange alien artefacts begin appearing inside UNIT's Black Archive. Each object is unmistakably linked to a different regeneration of the Doctor, but they've been tampered with. A corrupted energy signature of unknown origin pulses through them, and their sudden arrival has torn tiny ruptures across time and space. 

To solve the mystery, UNIT calls upon a little-known incarnation of the Time Lord: the Fugitive Doctor. But how does UNIT know about her? And is she the Doctor they expect?

The Doctor, Osgood and Andrew are joined by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. A final mysterious object is manifesting, this one at the pinnacle of UNIT Tower itself.

A Time Bomb! Which threatens a dark future for all of the Doctor's incarnations.

Only this Doctor can save herself – and her other selves – from this intricately woven scheme.

Verdict

Full Circuit was a great audio adventure to conclude the main arc of the Circuit Breaker multimedia story! This has been a really fun couple of months across numerous formats with the Fugitive Doctor and it just feels right that it would be Big Finish to wrap things up. I think this has been easily the most seamless of the multimedia outputs as Time Lord Victorious was a bit all over the place and Doom's Day was a little uninspiring with a website text story serving as the finale, but here we have ninety minutes of full cast drama! This was really exciting and whilst some elements were very predictable, this was still a really strong story. I always enjoy adding to the lore of the Fugitive Doctor and having Osgood change tune a little on this incarnation being the first known one was really intriguing. I mean, it sort of undermined the entire purpose of the arc as the whole point was to get an incarnation that hadn't interacted with any of the objects needing to be returned to their right time and place, but I do appreciate at this point that things weren't quite the same as they were at the start. The whole concept of the Doctor and UNIT making their own demise and completing their own circuit in returning the objects which was actually the trap was terrific. I mean, it wasn't a big surprise and the reveal of Andrew being a bad guy was not a shock at all. It had been alluded to quite a lot throughout the Circuit Breaker story arc and it was always sitting uncomfortably with me that he was able to create the resistor. I am though a big fan of the Sontarans being the culprits in trying to wipe out the Fugitive Doctor because despite their many strengths and their standing amongst the Whoniverse, I still think they're underrated as a villain. The reveal of the Conductor here was fascinating and whilst it is a bit of a shame that Big Finish spoiled it early with the cover reveal announcement, the design is unique to say the least! I thought the concept behind him as Sontaran strength personified into intellect was fantastic! Talk about a change to the gene pool! I also thought the continuity with Betrayal at the House of Sontar was wonderful in the Fugitive Doctor remembering her role in starting the eternal conflict between Sontarans and Rutans. I thought the immediacy of the follow on from The Kaleidoscope was strong too although as suspected the way Martha was quickly put to the side was a bit of a shame considering how prominent she has been in the last half of Circuit Breaker. I'm really liking how important The Doctor and the Three Witches has been too with the Fugitive Doctor here realising the significance of the Carrionites prophecy as it was coming true. The Time Bomb as it was dubbed was a good threat and I thought the miniaturisation of the Doctor to go in and diffuse it was a tad strange as the means to stop it. Surely there was an easier way? I thoroughly enjoyed Kate coming onto the scene and interacting with the Fugitive Doctor as another incarnation for her to tick off and that was a meeting of two very strong personalities indeed! I liked that a lot. I think the story would have worked better if Andrew was a more significant character akin to the betrayal of Mike Yates in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, and I suspect that things will tie in better after the Short Circuits in a couple of days. The significance of The Deadliest Weapon coming into prominence was brilliant as well which really alters the perspective of that. It lived up to its promise of having a later impact for sure! Andrew blaming the Doctor for the erasure of his parents and the resistor actually being a kind of prototype was good stuff and it did feel a bit like The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky with the Conductor egging Andrew on in much the same way Staal did to Luke Rattigan. The simplicity of the plot concluding with the Doctor altering the circuit's DNA target was neat and tidy, if not perhaps a little uneventful? But the line about wanting the red wire or blue wire was great, as was Kate and Osgood's discussion when they thought they might not make it back alive. Overall, a really strong conclusion to the multimedia story! A final mention goes to the Fugitive Doctor seeing all of her future (or past) incarnations as they were all impacted by the circuit. The Doctor faking her death as well to trick Andrew into revealing his betrayal was excellent. A great listen! 

Rating: 8/10