Bo Kro No Sko Fo Ro To To! The Judoon are back and lumbering back into our living rooms! These intergalactic mercenary rhinoceros have stormed back into present day Gloucester in search of their mystery fugitive. Its up to the Doctor and her gang to find out who that is… But where has the Doctor seen the Judoon before? 

Smith and Jones

★★☆☆☆

TX: 31/03/2007

Written by Russell T Davies Directed by Charles Palmer

Having checked into a London hospital in order to do some undercover investigation, the Tenth Doctor meets his new companion, medical student Martha Jones. However, the meeting is promptly interrupted by the entire hospital, along with its staff and patients, being transported to the Moon. The rhinoceros-like Judoon, an intergalactic police force for hire, has moved the hospital to a place of neutral jurisdiction in their search for a blood-sucking criminal, a Plasmavore.

The Doctor allows the Plasmavore called Mrs Finnegan to drink his own blood so she registers as non-human on the Judoon’s scanners, allowing them to find and execute their wanted murderer. The Judoon return the hospital to Earth just before the air supply runs out. Back on Earth, Martha Jones discovers that her adventures with the Doctor have only just begun.

I wrote a Doctor Who short story that got published in an anthology. It was based on a scene in Smith and Jones where the Doctor name drops that he met Benjamin Franklin:

The Stolen Earth

★★★★★

TX: 28/06/2008

Written by Russell T Davies Directed by Graeme Harper

Making a brief appearance in this fantastic finale to Series 4, the Judoon appear as part of the intergalactic space police, the Shadow Proclamation when the Doctor visits the organisation in order to report the disappearance of Earth. The Judoon and the Shadow Architect inform the Doctor and Donna that Earth is one of over 24 planets that have vanished.

The Doctor traces the stolen Earth to the Medusa Cascade, an inter-universal rift, but not before incurring the wrath of the war-mongering Judoon. The Judoon and the Shadow Architect would later make a fleeting appearance together in The Magician’s Apprentice.

The Sarah Jane Adventures:

Prisoner of the Judoon

★★★☆☆

TX: 15 – 16/10/2009

Written by Phil Ford Directed by Joss Agnew

Tracking a crashed space pod to Earth, Sarah Jane Smith and her gang discover that the stranded Judoon Captain Tybo is in search of his prisoner, the bodysnatching Androvax the Annihilator. When the Veil life form possesses Sarah-Jane, its up to Luke, Clyde, Rani and Tybo to stop the alien fugitive. Androvax takes control of Genetec Systems’ nanobots in order to rebuild his Roswell spaceship and escape, threatening the destruction of Earth in the process. The Judoon troopers arrive to take control of the situation and Androvax is recaptured by Tybo… but not before Rani’s parents, Gita and Haresh, have encountered the Judoon.

Androvax the Veil would later return to The Sarah Jane Adventures in The Vault of Secrets, whilst the origins of his Roswell spaceship would later be explored in the animated Doctor Who adventure Dreamland. The Judoon would go on to make a number of cameo appearances throughout the new series of Doctor Who, in episodes such as The End of Time, The Pandorica Opens, A Good Man Goes to War, The Magician’s Apprentice and Face the Raven.

Fugitive of the Judoon

★★★★★

TX: 26/01/2020

Written by Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall Directed by Nida Manzoor

In tonight’s latest episode of Series 12, the Thirteenth Doctor and her gang discover that a group of mercenary Judoon are stomping through the streets of Gloucester, searching for their mysterious fugitive. Graham is beamed aboard a nearby spaceship where he meets the Doctor’s old friend, Captain Jack Harkness. Before disappearing, Jack gives a warning concerning ‘the Lone Cyberman’ to Graham, Ryan and Yaz to pass onto the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Doctor discovers that the Judoon’s fugitive is in fact the tour guide Ruth. Ruth takes the Doctor to a nearby lighthouse. Inside the lighthouse, Ruth regains her Time Lord consciousness from the Chameleon Arch. Her real identity is a being known only as… the Doctor. But she isn’t from the Doctor’s future; she is actually from her past. A past that the present Doctor already thought that she knew, but now is not so sure about.