Doctor Who's 73 Yards episode shows Ruby is a new type of companion (2024)

Doctor Who episode 4 spoilers follow.

The fourth episode of this Doctor Who season, '73 Yards', gives Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) her moment outside the Doctor's (Ncuti Gatwa) main character shadow, clad in a buffet of voluminous wigs and horn-rimmed glasses.

Shorn from the now moss-covered TARDIS and cast out by her adoptive family, Ruby takes the whole sorry ordeal in her stride and saves the day from the nefarious nuke-friendly politician Roger Ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard).

But while this arch evil Mad Jack – who was being warded off by the clifftop fairy circle the Doctor stumbles into – is the ostensible villain, it's the story of our companion herself that is the more gripping one this episode.

Set to the lilting strum of Labi Siffre's 'Watch Me', Ruby cycles through the years with a glass of wine in hand overlooking the lurking older lady outside her flat, marking the passage of time with an evolving set of birthday cards and fairly non-starter relationships.

The ghoulish phantom, who we spend the episode getting goosebumps at from a distance of 73 yards, is revealed to be an aged up Ruby herself. It's a great rug-pull, even if it does leave more questions than answers about who Ruby really is. Maybe that's the point.

This season so far has been a breadcrumb trail of clues – the snow, the Susan Twist appearance – creating questions circling around Ruby and her parentage which hark back to that Christmas special night at the church on Ruby Road.

These motifs are starting to tire the more we return to them with no fresh understanding of what they might be throwing us in the direction of. The snowfall phenomenon hasn't been questioned by the Doctor or Ruby, outside infuriating dialogue like, "Snow isn't snow until it falls."

But showrunner Russell T Davies is a master of overarching narrative and doesn't lay breadcrumbs just to let them go stale.

After successive seasons of the show teasing out the Doctor's psyche, so far this one isn't all that interested in the Doctor's maudlin Gallifrey remembrances, unless it's a way to interrogate Ruby's own tale as a foundling.

Now at the halfway point of the season, this Doctor-lite episode marks an inflection point in Ruby's characterisation as a companion.

The lurking older Ruby is inexplicably scaring everyone else off her younger self. But just as baffling is Ruby's approach to the unfolding carnage of her life this episode. As the Doctor disappears, her mum changes the locks and even UNIT washes their hands of her, she remains remarkably calm.

Perhaps this is the Disney effect – nobody wants to watch a distraught Ruby going through it on her own. Or maybe it's an indication of exactly who it is we're dealing with.

Unlike some of the scaredy-cat companions we're used to seeing at the Doctor's flank, Ruby is never fazed. Even in 'Boom' when handing the vacuum-packed remains of a man to the Doctor atop a ticking landmine, she kept things light.

It’s a different Doctor-companion dynamic – Ruby doesn't always listen to the Doctor and when she's left to her own devices this episode, she never once falls to pieces or agonises over what he would do in her place.

Instead, she's pretty inscrutable. From the moment she leaves Wales, we don't know what Ruby is up to. She's content living out her life never knowing what became of the Doctor or reconnecting with her now-estranged mother.

Something is afoot. The theories are aplenty – is Ruby a Big Bad? Is Ruby a Time Lord? Is there something supernatural going on, since Kate (Jemma Redgrave) told us things are going in that direction lately?

Davies has teased the overarching storyline will come to a head in the two-part season finale. "With the title 'The Legend of Ruby Sunday', you've got that foundling story reaching its peak," he told Doctor Who Magazine. "Millie plays it beautifully. I'm delighted with the way it all dovetails."

An official synopsis teases the episode could reveal: "What is Ruby Sunday's most precious secret?" So it's becoming increasingly clear Ruby is much more than your run-of-the-mill human companion – if the fact that she can make it snow when she's distressed wasn't indication enough.

Doctor Who's '73 Yards' is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney+ in the US.