Editor's Note: This recap contains spoilers for Doctor Who Season 1, Episode 4, "73 Yards."
The Big Picture
Doctor Who
's new "Doctor-lite" episode focuses on Ruby Sunday, as she navigates a world without the Doctor.- Ruby faces abandonment, eerie mysteries, and manipulative forces, ultimately saving the world in an alternate timeline.
- The episode blends horror and fantasy elements, leaving audiences with unanswered questions and a bittersweet resolution.
After letting Steven Moffat take the reins for last week's explosive episode, showrunner Russell T. Davies has returned to pen Doctor Who’s first “Doctor-lite” episode in 16 years. It’s almost impossible to watch “73 Yards” and not think of the iconic “Turn Left” episode from Series 4 in which Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) is pulled into a parallel world in which she never met the Doctor. In “73 Yards,” the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) suddenly disappears after stepping through a fairy circle, seemingly abandoning Ruby (Millie Gibson) to live out the rest of her days alone. Both scary and funny in turns, and at times achingly sad, this episode gives Gibson her time in the spotlight, proving that part of why she and Gatwa are so good together is because they’re both phenomenally talented in their own right.
While it may feel strange to have a virtually Doctor-less episode so early in the reboot of the series, the combined power of Gibson’s performance and Davies’ writing makes it work. And an appearance from UNIT’s Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) always makes any Doctor Who episode that much better, if you ask me. The episode does introduce more questions than it answers, but it certainly gives audiences plenty to chew on as we continue to unravel the mystery of Ruby Sunday. Davies appears to be leaning even further into the fantastical elements of the series, even going as far as to have the characters note that themselves. “73 Yards” also features yet another appearance from the mystery woman played by Susan Twist — at this point, it will be more of a surprise if she doesn’t pop up!
Doctor Who
The show follows the adventures of a Time Lord, “The Doctor,” who is able to regenerate, and the Doctor’s human friends. The Doctor and his companions journey through time and space in the TARDIS – a time-traveling ship shaped like a police box – saving the universe with a combination of wit, bravery, and kindness.
- Main Genre
- Sci-Fi
- Studio
- BBC America
- Streaming Service(s)
- Disney+
The Circle Must Not Be Broken on ‘Doctor Who’
On a blustery day not too far off from Ruby’s standard timeline, she and the Doctor stumble out of the TARDIS onto the clifftops of Wales. As they marvel at the scenery and banter back and forth about bad dates and terrible politicians, the Doctor stumbles into a fairy circle and promptly vanishes. With the use of a clever in-camera trick, director Dylan Holmes Williams disappears the Doctor while Ruby reads tiny scrolls that say “Rest In Peace, Mad Jack.” When she looks up again, he’s gone and the TARDIS has locked her out. Immediately setting an eerie and unsettling tone, an elderly woman dressed in all black stands in the distance. When Ruby tries to approach to ask if she’s seen the Doctor, the woman is suddenly further away.
With no Doctor and no help from the woman in the distance, Ruby sets off toward the local village for help. While she can’t shake the creepy lady giving major Conjuring vibes, Ruby runs right into yet another mystery woman who seems to follow her everywhere she goes. Twist’s ever-changing character now appears as a hiker, seemingly concerned about Ruby’s lack of a coat on a chilly evening. Things get interesting with this appearance of the woman as, for a moment, Ruby thinks that she recognizes her. With each appearance, Twist becomes more directly entangled with Ruby and the Doctor, previously sticking to screens or their periphery. Ultimately, Ruby brushes it off and asks if she could tell the other mystery woman to leave her alone. However, when Twist approaches the figure, she looks back at Ruby and runs away screaming.
Taking refuge in a local pub, Ruby finds a cast of characters right out of a game of Clue or an Agatha Christie novel. A pair of teens, an elderly intellectual woman, a local handyman, and a brisk barmaid all enjoy taking turns making Ruby feel a bit silly for being what they assume is a tourist in their town. When the handyman leaves, she asks him to also speak with the woman who appears to be following her and ask if she’s seen the Doctor. When Ruby explains that the woman is constantly staying at the same distance away from her, the older lady suggests a Latin phrase — semperdistans — to describe their situation. When the man also runs away screaming, Ruby reveals what happened with the fairy circle. Seizing another opportunity to mess with her, the locals lean into the witchcraft of it all and make Ruby believe, if only for a few minutes, that she’s accidentally unleashed some kind of supernatural evil back into the world. It’s spooky and heart-pounding on the first watch and cleverly funny on the second.
Ruby sticks around for a few more days, hoping the Doctor will return, but as he stays gone and the mystery woman in the distance continues to lurk and scare away the locals, she’s asked to leave. Returning to the TARDIS to say goodbye, she makes one last plea with the blue box, saying what may be a permanent goodbye despite wanting more than anything to see the Doctor again. Gibson carries the turmoil of emotionswell as Ruby is both exhausted and exasperated, and more than a little heartbroken over the Doctor disappearing on her. Abandonment has haunted Ruby all her life, and “73 Yards” sees it play out through every single one of her relationships, making for a somber hour of television.
‘Doctor Who’ Traps Ruby Sunday in an Alternate Timeline
Ruby ultimately leaves Wales and heads home. Expecting to leave the mystery woman behind on the clifftops, she’s disturbed to see her keeping pace with the train as she stands semperdistans away all the way back to Carla and Cherry’s flat. At home, Ruby finds a very brief moment of respite in the arms of her mother. Michelle Greenidge, who plays Carla, does a wonderful job in “73 Yards,” comforting Ruby with a laugh and anecdotes about men from her objective lesbian opinion. When Ruby reveals the mystery woman, Carla comes up with a surefire plan to get to the bottom of who’s stalking her kid by keeping Ruby on the phone with her when she approaches the lady. Unfortunately for Ruby, Carla also runs away screaming and Ruby is not only no closer to having any answers, but is now utterly alone.
If it weren’t already obvious that we’re in the wrong timeline with the Doctor’s absence, the moment Carla decides to abandon Ruby entirely would surely cement it. With a coldness she’s not expressed since the alternate timeline in which Ruby never existed, Carla turns on a dime and says every orphan’s worst fear to Ruby: Even your own mother didn’t want you. Greenidge does a marvelous job of pulling a complete 180 and completely breaking hearts in the process as she pushes Ruby away.
A year passes before Ruby finds her next glimmer of hope in UNIT’s Chief Scientific Officer, Kate Stewart. While Kate is, as ever, remarkably lovely and doing her best to help everyone who comes in contact with the otherworldly — but especially former companions — she does seem suspiciously off. As we’re in the wrong timeline already, it’s not clear if we’ll ever learn what it is or if this world is just meant to feel increasingly incorrect. However, at least two shots of Kate’s ruby red nails look eerily similar to those that picked up the tooth holding the Master at the end of “The Giggle.” More in line with the Kate we recognize, she gives Ruby a brief rundown of what they do at UNIT, offering a comforting word and letting her know they’re here to help people like her — as well as gushing about the Doctor as long as he can’t hear her. She also gets a little meta with her speech, noting that things have gotten more supernatural than alien lately, and pointing out that she suspects they’re not in the correct timeline.
While Ruby has tried everything she can to get rid of the lady or just to figure out what she wants, she reveals she’s afraid to travel via boat or plane for fear of killing the woman — and herself — in the process. That very fear just happens to be a clever bit of foreshadowing of the woman’s true identity. Ruby finally believes that someone will actually be able to help her. UNIT arrives armed to the teeth with psychic dampeners and everything one would assume they need to finally get some answers. However, promptly after promising she isn’t going mad, Kate abandons Ruby just like everyone else has, seemingly crushing any hopes of getting back to the correct timeline.
Ruby Sunday Saves the World in 'Doctor Who's "73 Yards"
Time passes in a montage of lonely birthdays and bad dates until Ruby suddenly finds herself at age 40, as exemplified by nothing more than a wig and a pair of glasses — I really need this Ruby to drop her skincare routine. In a callback to the beginning of the episode, Ruby suddenly realizes why she’s in this timeline when a campaign ad for Roger ap Gwilliam appears in the background. Recalling her conversation with the Doctor, Ruby realizes that this politician is about to bring the world to the brink of nuclear destruction. While the finer details of this episode are about as fuzzy as the woman standing 73 yards away, it’s worth pondering if this guy always existed or if he’s a product of the Doctor and Ruby stumbling into the circle and unleashing “Mad Jack.” As evidenced by the world around us, people are fully capable of this kind of evil all on their own, however, giving him the same nickname does make it more spooky.
Ruby installs herself as part of his campaign, playing the long game to get close enough to Gwilliam to take him out. Things only get worse as he wins the election, harasses his campaign staffers, and makes a play for control of half the world’s nuclear arsenal. In a move that would make the Doctor proud, Ruby decides to finally use her strange little friend to change the world. It may not be Doctor Who’s most dramatic climax, but it’s tense and triumphant to see Ruby send this would-be fascist running for the hills. While the climax in “Turn Left” sends Donna rocketing back into the right world, “73 Yards” exiles Ruby for the rest of her days, flashing another 40 years into her future. With one last visit to the TARDIS, Ruby tells the Doctor that while she never got any answers, she never gave up hope.
The episode brings back the horror elements for the grand finale as the woman finally approaches Ruby in her old age. It seems as though the woman is the harbinger of death, but as she finally comes within arms' reach, the alternate Ruby finds that she is in fact the woman who’s been following her all her life. All those years were leading up to this moment as the old Ruby finally gets her message across to her past self, preventing the Doctor from breaking the circle and sending herself on the right timeline. Like fairy circles themselves, “73 Yards” is a bit of a mystery as it leaves the audience with several unanswered questions despite wrapping the storyline up with a neat little bow. The episode would fit right into a season of Black Mirror, and Gibson deserves heaps of praise for delivering such a harrowing episode for Ruby without Gatwa there to bounce back and forth with her.
Doctor Who
Millie Gibson shines in the first "Doctor-lite" episode in 16 years.
- Russell T. Davies blends horror and heartbreak in this Doctor-less alternate universe.
- Millie Gibson holds her own in an episode without Ncuti Gatwa to bounce back and forth with her.
- Guest appearances from Michelle Greenidge and Jemma Redgrave make the episode that much better.
- The episode does leave audiences with more questions than answers.
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