Horror and Sci-Fi Brief · Thursday 22 October 2026
The Fugitive Doctor is back on the run. Big Finish has released the trailer for Jo Martin’s next audio adventure, and the TARDIS roundels that went on sale this week have already gone. Paramount+ has won a bidding war for a big first-contact series, and the critics have finally had their say on DC Studios’ Clayface, a day before it opens in UK cinemas.
The News That Matters
Doctor Who: the trailer for the Fugitive Doctor’s Running Wild is here
- What’s new: Big Finish released the trailer for Doctor Who: The Fugitive Doctor: Running Wild on Wednesday 21 October
- Starring: Jo Martin as the Doctor, with Helen Lederer as the newly regenerated Cosmogon
- Writers: Alex Hewitt, Katharine Armitage and Rochana Patel, across three full-cast stories (206 minutes)
- UK availability: Released by Big Finish in November 2026 as a download or a CD and download set; the exact day is not yet confirmed
Jo Martin’s Doctor has spent her audio adventures running from Division, and Running Wild is the set where she starts fighting back. Pursued across space and time by the relentless Cosmogon, now played by Absolutely Fabulous star Helen Lederer, she goes looking for the truth about her own origins. In Alex Hewitt’s Tholos, she travels to the Temple of Lucidity, a vast structure floating through space. In Katharine Armitage’s Scripture, she meets scribes who record the whole history of the universe, and the Daleks want answers from them too. Rochana Patel closes the set with Genesis of the Doctor, which promises answers she may not be ready for.
There is also news for collectors. The roundels from the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors’ TARDIS set, which went on sale through Propstore this week, have already sold out, The Doctor Who Companion reports. For more on where the Doctor goes next, catch up with our Doctor Who news round-up.
Paramount+ wins the bidding for first-contact sci-fi series Zero Hour
- What’s new: Paramount+ is developing the series after a competitive bidding situation, Deadline reports
- Who’s behind it: Writer and showrunner Matthew Michael Carnahan (World War Z) with the Russo brothers’ AGBO, based on a short story by Harrison Query
- Status: In development; no cast announced yet
- UK availability: UK date not yet confirmed
When mysterious ovals appear in the sky, the world changes forever. That is the hook for Zero Hour, which follows several people in the minutes that follow: a wife fighting to keep her ailing husband alive, a doomsday prepper racing to get his family to safety, teenage runaways caught up in a bank robbery, and a brilliant young presidential aide trying to make sense of it all. What starts as a survival thriller slowly turns into a mystery about who the visitors are and why they have come.
Carnahan previously made his directing debut, Mosul, with AGBO, and Query has had a busy year, with other stories set up at Netflix and Amazon. Deadline calls this the streamer’s first major move into big world-building sci-fi, and it comes at a time when Paramount+ has no new Star Trek series in development. We will be watching to see if it gets a full series order.
Update: Clayface reviews are in, and it’s the best-rated solo Batman villain film yet
- New development: The critics’ embargo has lifted, and the film is on 76% on Rotten Tomatoes from 93 reviews
- The record: That puts it ahead of Joker on 68%, making it the best-reviewed solo Batman villain film on the site
- The film: Directed by James Watkins from a script by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, with Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen
- UK availability: In UK cinemas from Friday 23 October
After yesterday’s row over an early pulled review, the full wave of verdicts has landed, and most critics are on the film’s side. Clayface opened at 77% on Rotten Tomatoes, dipped slightly overnight and sits at 76% from 93 reviews as we write. That is comfortably ahead of Joker’s 68% and well clear of Supergirl’s 52%.
The Hollywood Reporter called it one of the year’s biggest surprises and compared it to David Cronenberg and Sam Raimi, while IGN called it a fun body horror romp that finds its nasty side in the final act. Not everyone is convinced: USA Today called it a messy DC miss, and several critics felt the script does too little with its hero. Almost everyone agrees on one thing, though. Tom Rhys Harries is the real find, giving a performance that shines through layers of practical make-up. For the story so far, see our Clayface trailer breakdown.
Movieversalfilm Takeaway
It is a good week to be a genre fan. The Fugitive Doctor is finally chasing answers instead of running from them, Paramount+ is betting on big original sci-fi, and Clayface has turned a shaky build-up into the best reviews any Batman villain has had on his own. Friday’s audiences now get the final say.
Are you booking Clayface this weekend, or waiting for the Fugitive Doctor’s return in November?