Review by Scott Lopes

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The Fugitive Doctor is back! After a very extended break, save a brief return back in November, Jo Martin‘s Doctor returns for her own series starting with her first box set, Most Wanted.

Our first episode is Fast Times by Robert Valentine. The story sees the ever-mysterious Division order the capture of the Doctor for reasons that are still a bit unclear. The Doctor narrowly escapes their attempt only to end up in the hands of a bounty hunter who delivers her to a prison for safekeeping at the request of the shadowy organization. Out of options, the Doctor is forced to work with the inmates to escape before their problems catch up with them.

Fast Times is a pretty fun introductory story. It does a good job at setting up the overarching plot of the set while being a decent adventure on its own. Its use of the Daleks is unfortunately a bit bland, and it would probably have benefited from cutting them out, but overall it’s a strong start with a fun adventure for the Doctor and some solid side characters. 

Rochana Patel‘s second episode, The Legend of Baba Yaga, is the absolute highlight of this set. We see the Doctor, in desperate hope of escaping Division, seek out the Baba Yaga of Russian folklore. It isn’t long, however, before she meets a young girl named Vasilisa and is thrown into the greatest of the Baba Yaga’s legends. The Legend of Baba Yaga is a fantastic example of a Doctor Who and folklore mix done right. After coming off of something like 73 Yards, a story that attempted this with a bit of a weaker approach, it was really nice seeing it done so well.

The final episode, The Dimension of Lost Things, by Lisa McMullin, finds the Doctor face to face with herself in another dimension. With Division right behind them and strange and unnatural threats trying to damage their memory even further, the Doctors, along with others lost in the strange realm, must find a way to escape before their capture or worse…before they lose who they are completely. The Dimension of Lost Things is a fun, if a bit confusing, finale. It feels like some important context was missed between the first and third episodes, and it’s a bit hard to tell what’s intentionally a mystery and what’s an inconsistency, but it’s still a fun story overall, with Jo Martin especially doing a fantastic job at managing to play two of one character together.

The performances in Most Wanted are fantastic. Jo Martin seems to have only gotten better in her role since Fugitive of the Judoon, and hopefully she’ll be with Big Finish for years to come. Every episode has a fantastic cast of side characters as well, with Leah Harvey, Jacqueline King, and Sophie Shad being the standouts.

Overall, Most Wanted is a great start to the Fugitive Doctor’s adventures on audio and perfect for anyone who’s been itching for more of her story. It’s maybe a bit confusing and a little inconsistent at times, but maybe that’s just the nature of her character. Anyone who’s enjoyed her episodes or anyone who’s just wanted to return to the Thirteenth Doctor’s era of the show will be sure to have a fantastic time with this set.

Most Wanted is available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com