Josh Charles leads Fox’s Best Medicine, a U.S. adaptation of the long-running British hit Doc Martin, with the show’s first trailer introducing his character, Dr. Martin Best, a brilliant Boston surgeon who relocates to a small East Coast fishing village where he spent childhood summers. The teaser underscores the series’ central tension: Best’s clinical precision and icy manner unsettle locals who cheekily dub him “Doc Martin” despite his protests. The network positions the hour-long entry as a comedic drama built around a fish-out-of-water physician whose guarded demeanor hides a debilitating new phobia and deeper psychological scars.
The preview also sets up the ensemble around Best: Abigail Spencer appears as schoolteacher Louisa Glasson, Annie Potts as Aunt Joan, Cree as assistant Elaine Denton, and Josh Segarra as Sheriff Mark Mylow. In a nod to the franchise’s roots, original Doc Martin star Martin Clunes will guest as Dr. Robert Best, Martin’s accomplished and more abrasive father, a storyline that suggests family conflict will collide with small-town medicine.
Best Medicine is slated to debut in January 2026 on Fox as part of the broadcaster’s midseason rollout. The series draws on the bones of its ITV predecessor but recalibrates for an American setting, swapping Cornwall’s Portwenn for a quaint New England community while keeping the template of a gifted, socially standoffish doctor learning to engage with neighbors who need him. The trailer emphasizes slice-of-life cases, prickly bedside conversations, and the community’s insistence on embracing their newcomer—whether he likes it or not.
Behind the scenes, the adaptation continues a trend of cross-Atlantic remakes built around well-defined character engines and durable episodic structures. The casting of Clunes as a guest star links the new show to the original’s legacy while giving the remake space to chart its own dynamics, particularly the father-son friction that could complicate Martin Best’s attempt to start over. With the first footage out and a date on the calendar, Fox is betting audiences will warm to a doctor who seems determined to keep everyone at arm’s length.
