73 Yards

She looks like what she is.

Carla Sunday

Warning: This review contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen 73 Yards yet, then my spoiler-free review can be found here.

Synopsis

Landing on the Welsh coast, the Doctor and Ruby embark on the strangest journey of their lives. In a rain-lashed pub, the locals sit in fear of ancient legends coming to life.

Review

73 Yards feels as though it has set its stall out to show us Ruby’s credentials to be a companion, and to do so, we’re given a Doctor-lite episode. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept, and we haven’t had one for a little while, these tend to thrust the companion front and centre, with the Doctor in a minimal role and have included stories such as Blink, The Girl Who Waited and Turn Left.

73 Yards bears the most similarity to the latter of those stories, as the Doctor’s sudden and unexplained disappearance leaves the companion alone in a universe without the Doctor, and this time, the TARDIS is locked from the inside. As a result, Ruby very much has to solve this problem herself, which feels a bit more like Martha in The Last of the Time Lords. Whilst these are parallels that myself and many others will have drawn between this, the element of Welsh folklore and the fairy circle that Doctor accidentally damages, which appears to be a shrine for a mysterious figure called Mad Jack. The story is designed to unsettle the audience from the off with the absence of the opening credits.

I really like the beginning of this and I think that the set up of this story is really strong. The woman following her at the titular distance is effectively creepy along with her message to anyone who approaches her, which makes everyone run away from her in apparent fear and disgust. The pub sequence is really good, where the locals use Ruby’s predisposition towards the locals to create really tense scenes, which is concluded with an effective piece of humour. Whilst the locals enjoy mocking her, the fact is that Ruby is being stalked, albeit it from a distance when you’re able to register her presence but not make out any features. I like the idea around this woman, where it would be all too easy to make her a character that only Ruby can see, or someone that anyone who approaches them ends up dead, but the idea that it can be seen, but remains unfocused is even more unsettling than that. By not explaining what the woman says to the UNIT soldiers or Carla, it is left up to the audience’s imagination as to what those ethereal whispers are that generate those reactions. Equally, the hospital sequence at the end is really creepy as the woman approaches the end of the elderly Ruby’s hospital bed. I think that these sequences are really effectively directed by Dylan Holmes Williams and it is a very good introductory story for a new director.

Where the story fell down for me was when it came to Roger ap Gwilliam’s section of the story. This felt a bit like a cast-off of another story and that a Welsh folklore story had been mashed together with another story for fear of both running short. Whilst the story has the Doctor raise the spectre of the most dangerous Prime Minister in history in the opening minutes, the character does not appear until around the 28-minute mark and this element of the story ultimately feels rushed as a result. Aneurin Barnard does his best with what he is given, with his interview with Amol Rajan, where he casually asks about whether the part where he tells the interviewer that he wants to fire a nuclear missile, being an undoubted high point. The aftermath of that interview where he is introduced to the unfortunate Marti. I don’t think we’re ever shown the true nature of the beast that is Roger ap Gwilliam, who we’re told is a monster but this plot strand feels all a bit too underdeveloped and that we’re not really shown the reality of this. We don’t need to see everything, and Ruby’s effective sacrificing of Marti to his abuse is quite a dark moment.

Ultimately, this story feels as though it is unresolved and I would have thought it would have some impact on where this series is going. When it is revealed that the mysterious lady is Ruby, it is unclear why she is causing her past self to be abandoned, especially by Carla. However, with this story being set in an alternative timeline which is resolved by the end of the episode, and Ruby does not seem to completely remember what happened in that aborted timeline, it almost feels as though this will not have any wider consequences. I would love to be proven wrong and have this be proven to have great significance, but I really can’t see that happening right now. This is the first story that has given me doubts about how effective these new supernatural elements in Doctor Who can be.

As down on this episode as I have been, I must say that Millie Gibson puts in a fantastic performance as the sole lead and manages to elevate this episode substantially. It is even more impressive considering that this is the first episode that was shot in the series. Whilst Boom certainly put her through the wringer, this goes to a further extreme, almost completely removing any element of hope from the character. It strips Ruby of her support network, by having Carla speak to the mysterious woman, gives her hope by connecting her with Kate and UNIT, only for this to also be snatched away from this. The story isolates Ruby by making any person who cares about her abandon her and damaging her ability to form meaningful relationships except for with the lady following her over the course of her lifetime. She has enough strength of character to then go after ap Gwilliam and use her curse to stop his schemes. For reasons stated above, I don’t feel as though this plot element worked too well, I think it is incredibly promising to see Ruby not give up despite the adversity and experience of being continually abandoned, determinedly entering into the Albion Party’s campaign to save the world and bring back the Doctor. If anyone had doubts about Ruby before this story, this does go some way to resolve these, albeit, with the reset button it remains to be seen how much of this story she does actually remember.

Verdict: There is a lot to enjoy in 73 Yards, even if the story does feel a little bit messy at times. I have really struggled to review this story, and I suspect my reaction to it may change after a while. Millie Gibson’s performance is great though. 7/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday), Sian Phillips (Enid Meadows), Aneurin Barnard (Roger Ap Gwiliam), Maxine Evans (Lowri Palin), Hilary Hobson (The Woman), Susan Twist (Hiker), Sion Pritchard (Joshua Steele), Gwion Morris Jones (Ifor Jones), Elan Davies (Thin Lucy), Glyn Pritchard (Eddie Jones), Michelle Greenidge (Carla Sunday), Angela Wynter (Cherry Sunday), Anita Dobson (Mrs Flood), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Sophie Ablett (Marti Bridges), Graham Butler (Frank Hinchey), Ali Ariaie (Sanjay Miah), Albey Brookes (Rufus Bray), Miles Yekinni (Craig Deloach), Amol Rajan (Himself), Shane David-Joseph (Akhim Patil), Jason May (Groundsman), Dylan Baldwin (Security Officer), David Constant (Armed Policeman), Deeivya Meir (Newsreader), Amanda Walker (Old Ruby), Rhyanna Alexander-Davis (Elizabeth Campbell) & Vee Vimolmal (Nurse).

Writer: Russell T Davies

Director: Dylan Holmes Williams

Producer: Vicki Delow

Composer: Murray Gold

Original UK Broadcast Date: 25th May 2024

Behind the Scenes

• This is the fourth episode of Doctor Who not to feature the opening credits, following Sleep No More, The Woman Who Fell to Earth and Resolution.
• The story was written as Doctor-lite due to Ncuti Gatwa’s commitments to the final series of Sex Education, which was filming at the same time as this episode.

Cast Notes

• Sian Phillips has previously appeared in the Big Finish productions The World Traders (The Fourth Doctor Adventures), Better Watch Out/Fairytale of Salzburg and The Walls of Absence (The War Master).
• Aneurin Barnard previously appeared in the Big Finish Main Range story The Whispering Forest.
• Maxine Evans appeared in the Torchwood story Countrycide, as well as the Torchwood Big Finish play Dead Man’s Switch and also in Mother Tongue, part of Gallifrey: Time War.
• Sion Pritchard appeared in the Big Finish Class range stories The Soers’ Ditch and The Strangers.

Best Moment

I really liked the shots of the woman following Ruby as she travels back up to London on the train, which were really creepy. The way she just appears in streets and fields as the train travels works really well.

Best Quote

Previous Fifteenth Doctor review: Boom

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