An Hour of Who a Day: 09/28/24

September 28: "The Church on Ruby Road"

After three episodes of celebrating the series, it's now time to look forward with a new Doctor. Same logo and titles though, which is perhaps slightly surprising, since I'd sort of figured that was just for the 60th. But I suppose if you've spent all that time and money branding things with the new logo, you don't want to immediately get rid of it.

But here we are at the start of series 14 -- and it is series 14, no matter what Disney or anyone else says. I get it's not sexy to start your new show at 14 (and runs the risk of people asking where 1-13 are), but trying to pretend this is "season one" is disingenuous. It gets even slightly dafter when you consider that the first three episodes Disney put on their streaming service were the 60th anniversary specials, so they've already admitted there's a whole bunch of the show that's not on their streaming service. (Not that you'd know it through their interface; when you click on "Doctor Who" the fourteenth Doctor is nowhere to be found -- those are apparently "Doctor Who Special 1-3" and something completely different.) And besides, we've already had a season one and it starred William Hartnell.

Sorry, where was I? Ah, that's right.

It's the start of series 14 and, more importantly, for the first time since 2017, Doctor Who is back on Christmas Day (instead of the New Year's Day experiment Chibnall tried). This means that once again we get a festive opening, with Christmas trees and decorations and such. But unlike some other Christmas episodes, this time the focus is not so much on Christmas as it is on our incoming companion: Ruby Sunday (which, let's be honest, isn't a great name since it sounds like an off-brand Rolling Stones song). And so we (and the Doctor) follow Ruby around a bit, seeing that she seems to be a magnet for bad luck for some reason. This, by the way, lets us see the fifteenth Doctor in a white tank top and kilt, dancing in a club -- something it's a bit difficult to imagine many, if any, of the other Doctors doing, yet Gatwa makes it seem completely natural. But yes, we learn that Ruby is a musician (complete with another Susan Twist appearance), a foundling who was adopted by a loving foster mother, and unlucky. It's those last two qualities that the episode is going to mainly focus on, with the last one, it seems, related to the second: there are goblins stalking Ruby, making her life seem unlucky, so that the coincidence of a baby arriving to be fostered on the same day of the year as Ruby was found will make the baby more appetizing to the goblins who are going to eat the baby. Or something. To be honest, it's a bit difficult to follow the rationale here. I get that the goblins like coincidence, but I'm not sure how bad luck plays into it. Does it make people more memorable or something and thus more prone to coincidence? Are coincidences and bad luck related somehow? It's never really clear.

But then in some ways it doesn't matter. There's almost a dream logic at work here, with goblins operating a flying cloud ship that's held together and powered by knots and who come down and kidnap babies to eat. Oh, and who can "bimble" through time. We get some handwavy stuff about a science based on luck which is a different form of physics, but even that feels token at best, a way to say, "don't worry about it, just enjoy the episode". This is one of the most overt dalliances with out-and-out fantasy that the show's ever had; whether you like that or not may come down to personal preference.

In terms of the story, the most successful part is the moment where the goblins go back in time and take baby Ruby away from the church she was left at back in 2004, because we get a glimpse into the life of Ruby's mother Carla if she'd never fostered and then adopted Ruby. It's a much colder and less cheery life, and Michelle Greenidge, playing Carla, does an excellent job of showing us the subtle differences, seeming much more tired and worn-down in the Ruby-less timeline. It's a nice way of showing how someone can make a difference in others' lives, without being too flashy or twee. That's where the real meat of the episode is, not in singing goblins and flying ships. Not that those bits aren't entertaining, mind, and there's something wonderfully audacious not just having a jolly pop song about eating babies but then having Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson join in to sing their own verses. It's just that those bits don't resonate in the same way as the parts with Carla, or the Doctor admitting he recently learned he was adopted.

Oh! But we haven't properly discussed Ncuti Gatwa or Mille Gibson yet! It's perhaps not much of a surprise, given his performance in "The Giggle", but nevertheless Gatwa completely owns every scene he's in. His Doctor is confident and fun-loving, and there's no hint of uncertainty in Gatwa's performance. The exuberance on display is infectious, and you want to see more of him, both marveling at the universe and in the quieter moments, such as the aforementioned "adoption" scene or his interactions with Ruby-less Carla. He simply is the Doctor. Against that Millie Gibson does a good job of holding her own. There was a slight worry, in the publicity leading up to this episode, that Ruby was going to be another version of Rose Tyler, but she manages to sidestep that for the most part. She's engaging to watch, letting Ruby's kindness come through along with her pluck, and it doesn't feel like Ruby's just another Rose.

So like I said, appreciation of this story likely depends on just how much pure fantasy you want in Doctor Who. I'm personally a bit ambivalent about it, but fortunately the performances of the cast carry the show, so that even if you do wonder just what's up with those goblins, you don't find yourself completely bored or disconnected from the story. This story succeeds on the shoulders of Gatwa, Gibson, Greenidge, and the rest of the cast, much more so than the script itself. And sometimes that's enough.

(Oh, and what's the deal with Mrs. Flood? How does she know what a TARDIS is?)