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Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, Review, TV | Tagged: bbc, catherine tate, disney, doctor who, Millie Gibson, Ncuti Gatwa, russell t davies
Doctor Who: "73 Yards" Review: Horror Tale of Abandonment & Surviving
"73 Yards" starts out as a British folk horror episode of Doctor Who but it takes a left turn into something deeper, odder - and political.
"73 Yards" appears, from the trailer, to be the Gothic Horror episode of this season of Doctor Who, but it is much more than that. We've been led to expect one thing, but it turns into another kind of story altogether. Russell T. Davies calls it a piece of "Welsh folk horror," but it takes a left turn into something more than a horror story. It morphs into existential horror and surreal comedy, then takes a left turn into political commentary and a story of resistance and fighting off fascism. That's a lot, guys, but Davies never does anything by half, and it's rare for a single episode of a TV series to be this unpredictable in just less than one hour. From this point forward, there are MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD – consider yourself warned!
Doctor Who? More like Inside No. 9!
This episode feels more like an episode of the genre-hopping BBC anthology series Inside No. 9. That series might hop from horror to supernatural to murder mystery to farce to dark comedy from one week to the next. It had the vibe of 70s and 80s horror about it, and every episode always carried an air of mystery about it even when it's a crime story without any supernatural elements in it. The start of "73 Yards" feels closer to British 70s and 80s horror movies and anthology TV series like The Wicker Man (the good original version, not the hilarious, meme-heavy 2000s US remake). The air of supernatural horror on the Welsh mountain and the claustrophobic sense of menace in the pub full of hostile, passive-aggressive locals is out of a lot of old British horror movies and anthology shows, and An American Werewolf in London. Steve Pembleton and Reese Shearsmith, the co-creators, writers, and stars of Inside No. 9, have both guest starred on Doctor Who, and former companion Jenna Coleman has played the lead in one episode of Inside No. 9.
Callbacks to Russell T. Davies' Past Work
The callbacks and easter eggs in this episode are not references to the lore and history of Doctor Who so much as Russell T. Davies' past work, not just on Doctor Who but his other TV series since he last ran the show. It's the first Doctor-Lite episode since the last time Davies was a showrunner, but this is usually due to practical factors. In this case, Ncuti Gatwa was off filming the final season of Sex Education for Netflix, so this was one of the earliest episodes shot this season. "73 Yards" is similar to the Season Four episode "Turn Left," written by Davies, where Donna (Catherine Tate) ends up in an alternate timeline living a life without The Doctor. The shift into the political in the last third of the episode makes it feel like a new version of Years and Years, Davies' 2019 BBC miniseries about a family in a dystopian near-future UK who end up fighting a fascist dictatorship.
Susan Twist Has a Twist – She's Totally Ordinary!
Susan Twist shows up as a hiker after The Doctor disappears. She comes off as a perfectly ordinary woman just out for a hiking holiday, not the ghostly figure stalking Ruby as some fans thought. Ruby asks her to talk to the mysterious woman who won't come close to Ruby. When she goes up to the woman, she ends up fleeing in terror. She could have been anyone, but Davies used her instead to keep her in the season as an ongoing puzzle as well as be the first "victim" of the horror in this story. This will happen to everyone who approaches the Ghostly Woman, in a reversal of the horror movie It Follows, where the heroine needs to get as far away from the entity following her. There, if the entity reaches her, she will die. In "73 Yards," the Ghostly Woman stays at a distance from Ruby but drives away everyone in Ruby's life who comes to find out who or what she is.
A Tale of Distance
73 yards is 219 feet, or 66.75 metres, if you're metric-minded or not in America. That is the distance the ghostly woman always maintains from Ruby, hence the title of the story. This episode reminds me of the horror movie It Follows, except the heroine of that movie has to keep the entity following her from reaching her because that would result in her death. Here Ruby wants to find out who the ghostly woman is and what she's saying, but the women won't come close to her. Anyone she sends to talk to the woman flees in terror and especially stays away from Ruby forever.
The Return of UNIT in this Season
Ruby does what any sensible companion does when in trouble and The Doctor is not around: call UNIT. We get Kate Stewart (Gemma Redgrave) explaining, as much to the audience as to Ruby, that UNIT now has a policy of helping and even employing former friends and companions of the Doctor, as seen in "The Giggle" when Mel (Bonnie Longford) showed up for the first time since the 1980s now working for them. She lays out how UNIT has saved the Earth from alien menaces when The Doctor isn't around, usually by the skin of their teeth. Kate is Ms. Basil Exposition in this episode, the only time we get things explained to us in a discreet infodump. Kate also states the series' new additional direction for UNIT. She even explains that they've been dealing with an increasing number of supernatural cases – which applies to this episode.
You Know You're Really Screwed When UNIT Hates You
But even UNIT can't stand up to the supernatural here. It all goes pear-shaped for Ruby when Kate's entire squad of armed UNIT forces recoil from the ghostly lady just like everyone else – and when Kate hears what they heard, she looks at Ruby with sheer hatred and walks out of her life forever just like Carla did. This is also Screenwriting 101. What's the heroine to do if a powerful government military organization can't and won't help her, and in this case, save her from a ghost?
The Haunted Life of the Abandoned
Ruby spends the next decades of her life alone with the ghostly woman, her only companion, always staying 73 yards away, standing outside her flat when she's at home. Ruby can't hold down a romantic relationship because of the presence of the woman. This episode becomes a British character drama about a lonely woman unable to move on with her life after being abandoned. "73 Yards" is now existential horror, like an allegory for depression and everyone's fears of being abandoned and alone, a fear that's stronger in orphans and foundlings who carry that trauma their whole lives. The most horrifying moment is when Ruby's mother (Michelle Greenidge) Clara runs away, then cuts her out of her life forever (though it's almost comical that she would jump in a cab to get away from Ruby and her own house). You need a charismatic and skilled actor like Millie Gibson to hold your attention for this type of story.
Doctor Who Remakes Years and Years
In "73 Yards", the biggest villain is human, a Welsh populist political candidate named Roger ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard), who runs on a fascistic "Britain-first" platform. The Doctor mentions that he was the worst prime minister the UK ever had, who took the country to the brink of nuclear war. When he shows up in the public eye as a political candidate, Ruby remembers the Doctor's words and finally finds a purpose in her life: to stop Roger ap Gwilliam. While Davies is happy to celebrate Welsh culture and history, he's also pointing out that anyone can be a dangerous fascist, including a Welshman.
Ap Gwilliam is a version of Emma Thompson's populist Thatcher-like PM in Davies' series Years and Years, whose theme was about the urgent need to fight fascism. He also carries Saxon vibes, the identity The Master (John Simm at the time) used in Season Three of the early 2000s series. I was so relieved that ap Gwilliam did not turn out to be The Master.
How to Stop a Fascist Dictator: Sic a Ghost on Him!
I laughed when Roger ap Gwilliams showed up in the last third of the story and immediately figured out how Ruby was going to stop him. It's the perfect way to wrap up what plot there is in "73 Yards" and give us a payoff. Otherwise, what the hell can you do with a ghost that always keeps its distance from the heroine and never harms her? Of course, she was going to bring the ghostly lady right up to ap Gwilliams and terrify him into running away, out of office, and never to be in public again! The personal and supernatural become political. Like Years and Years, the corrupt fascist leadership is brought down by the resourcefulness of ordinary heroes, not superheroes. But not everyone can use a terrifying ghost to stop fascism and nuclear war. That's what fantasy stories are for – a fantastical element to push and solve the plot.
It was Ruby All Along
Ruby lives to a quiet old age and lies dying in hospice, and the ghostly woman shows up at the end of her bed at last, close-up. Then reality warps, and the ghostly woman turns out to be her all along, old and in the last moment of her life. She goes back in time to haunt the younger version of herself from the moment she and The Doctor arrived on the mountain. What she's been trying to say is revealed: she's there to tell her younger self and the Doctor not to step into the mystical circle. There's no explanation for who put the circle there in the first place, only that it might be magical, and breaking it caused The Doctor to disappear from the universe. That's her purpose all along – to go back and warn them not to break the circle.
Timey-Wimey… Wait, Does It Make Any Sense?
Ruby and Old Ghostly Ruby become a time paradox with no beginning or end. Old Ghostly Ruby is not the one who laid out the mystic circle, and if it's in the past, how could Roger ap Gwilliam turn out to be Mad Jack? Did breaking the fairy circle release Mad Jack's evil spirit to be reborn as Roger ap Gwilliam, who would grow to adulthood by 2049 to run for office and threaten the world with nuclear war? Ruby discovers his nickname was Mad Jack, so how could he be dead and gone in the past? I'm assuming Old Ghostly Ruby is moving back in time until she disappears when she finally reaches Young Ruby to warn her, which erases her timeline and the timeline of the entire episode where The Doctor is gone. That's the same outcome of "Turn Left," where Donna must die to correct the timeline and put her back with The Doctor.
So, who stops Roger ap Gwilliam? It's not Ghostly Old Ruby, who doesn't exist anymore in the new and corrected timeline. The Doctor remembers his brief run as Prime Minister and he was stopped. Presumably, someone else does it? Timey-wimey, best not to think about it. Just enjoy the ride.
Doctor Who is now streaming on Disney+.
Doctor Who Episode 4: "73 Yards"
8/10
“73 Yards” appears, from the trailer, to be the Gothic Horror episode of this season of Doctor Who, but it is much more than that. We’ve been led to expect one thing, but it turns into another kind of story altogether. Russell T. Davies calls it a piece of “Welsh folk horror,” but it takes a left turn into something more than a horror story. It morphs into existential horror and surreal comedy, then takes a left turn into political commentary and a story of resistance and fighting off fascism. That’s a lot, guys, but Davies never does anything by half, and it’s rare for a single episode of a TV series to be this unpredictable in just less than one hour. From this point forward, there are MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - consider yourself warned!
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