Multi-media Doctor Who story Circuit Breaker has mysteriously introduced a cloaked villain watching the Fugitive Doctor on a view screen somewhere on the edge of our solar system.

Spanning audio dramas, comics, mobile games, novels, and digital storytelling, the interconnected narrative has introduced this villain in two comics released from Titan and Doctor Who Magazine.

The overarching narrative is crafted by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, who described the new villain in Doctor Who Magazine 631.

“[The team] wanted to give the Fugitive Doctor a character arc, and a villain fans haven’t seen before, and then lots of familiar things to balance all of that out.”

“I think it’s all about discovering more about the Fugitive Doctor. And then the villain reveal too. The villain is really interesting, because I think so much of their backstory is how the wounds that life gives us can really fester, and then come out in the hate and anger that we give to others. How it becomes a circle, or a circuit, and how that circuit or circle can be broken. I think that’s going to be a shocking and rewarding part of the story.”

In Titan Comics’ Adversary of the Daleks, the Doctor must face a Dalek in ancient Greece. The mysterious villain comments on the developments from a view screen.

“Hmmm, Yes. She very well could be the doctor. Just need her DNA to confirm it…”

In the Doctor Who Magazine’s Comic The Honourable Society, the villain appears in the epilogue viewing the Doctor after she faces Sontarans in 1894 Italy:

“Ahh, Doctor. You think you are so clever but now we have seen you in action. We can predict your futile responses in advance as you blunder towards your own destruction!”

The Fugitive Doctor, portrayed by actress Jo Martin, is now dodging The Division, a shadowy organisation founded on Gallifrey by the early Time Lords during the Dark Times. The Doctor is a runaway operative from The Division. Could this mysterious villain be from The Division?

The Doctor will face the Cybermen on her next adventure with The Deadliest Weapon, a BBC audio book written by Steve Lyons and narrated by Jo Martin. The Deadliest Weapon will be released on 30 July.

Circuit Breaker will conclude on 24 September 2026 with two Big Finish audio short stories; Battleships and Get Rich or Die Trying.