15.5: 73 Yards
In which Ruby faces her fears alone.
Broadcast: May 2024
Watched: December 2024
“Rule number one: do not step on the grass.”
My attempts to rewatch the season have stalled here twice, even though it might be the best one. It might be that, even though I’m a sucker for stories that go to places the show hasn’t before, horror isn’t really my thing. Or it might just be that it is, in the most literal sense, nightmarish.
For one thing, it’s set in an incredibly hostile world – the unfriendly pub, the borderline aggressive barmaid, the way they all conspire to wind her up about the fairy circle (“For god’s sake, child, you walked into a piece of string”; Sian Phillips is amazing in it, by the way, is there anyone from I, Claudius they still need to cast? Biggins has only done Big Finish, I suppose).
But that’s fairly regular TV horror fare. Where it goes next is haunting in a way Who rarely is. Is there any line in the history of this show more painful than “Even your real mother didn’t want you”? The look Carla gives Ruby from the back of the cab might be the most terrifying moment in all of Doctor Who, although Kate abandoning a companion is almost as great a violation. The people who complain that we never find out what the strange woman says are missing the point – any answer would be disappointing, the point is that is the very concept that there could be something she could say which would make your mother abandon you. Like I said: a nightmare.
Just to really ramp up the unnerving vibes it’s also a deeply odd episode structurally, from the lack of opening credits onwards. The way the time shown accelerates, so days pass, then weeks, months, years – then suddenly we've watched an entire life, communicated mainly through birthday cards and wigs. Plus, of course, there’s something truly creepy about the whole concept of someone whose face you can never see – which makes the moment she finally approaches at the end even scarier.
I’m less sold on the political stuff – it still feels like RTD hasn’t bothered to Google “parliamentary democracy” at any point. Anyway, Albion is the party from Years and Years. I can’t decide if I think it’s overkill to make Gwilliam sex pest as well as psycho. The cut on “I’ll even carry the coats” to Ruby carrying the coats looking pissed off is hilarious.
I’m not sure the paradox makes logical sense – the random Roger ap Gwilliam reference at start feels a bit weird – is this whole story meant to be about preventing Roger ap Gwilliam? Which Ruby does, but then becomes the woman who inspires her to do it, but then in doing so prevents it ever happening? Huh?
…but as with the unheard words I don’t think it really matters. This story is incredible, if not always fun. All the more so when you consider that the Doctor vanishes 90 seconds in and a 19 year old actress carries most of this herself.
+++A COMMERCIAL MESSAGE: HERE ARE 47 FACTS TO SHOW HOW MY BOOK A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 47 BORDERS MAKES THE IDEAL CHRISTMAS PRESENT. MESSAGE ENDS+++
Other things:
It’s faintly baffling that everyone in this seems to use imperial measurements, not metric. I assume because they sound older and thus spookier.
UNIT now investigates “the extra terrestrial... and more and more the supernatural”, apparently. Which is a mission statement of sorts. When Kate says how the world survives without the Doctor is “classified”, I wonder if she’s referring to the upcoming spin off – the Doctor does mention “The war between the land and the sea”.
This week Susan Twist is a hiker! Ncuti, meanwhile, dresses like a fisherman for the eight or nine seconds he’s on screen.
“I could make it snow, once upon a time.” “That’s nice.” The scenes on the cliff tops make it look like it might have actually snowed on location? Which actually is nice.
“I can’t get a signal for the engine this far out” blimey, the future sounds shit. Talking of which:
“2031, the Great Russian War” – oh, god.
The moss coloured TARDIS in the final minutes of the episode is incredibly eerie. At the very end there is now a note in the circle reading “Love you, Josh”. Wonder what happened to Josh.
Okay, I know it’s been a running joke for a while that Amol Rajan gets every job like some kind of BBC George Osborne, but… now he’s on Doctor Who, somehow? FFS.