Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: christmas, Ncuti Gatwa

Doctor Who: My Ten Thoughts on "The Church on Ruby Road"

That was the Doctor Who 2023 Christmas Day special, with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson as the Doctor and Ruby in The Church on Ruby Road.

That was the Doctor Who 2023 Christmas Day special on BBC 1, a day full of them, including the final ever episode of Ghosts, new Call The Midwife, Strictly Come Dancing, and, um, well, Mrs Brown's Boys. But it was all really about Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson as the Doctor and Ruby in The Church on Ruby Road.

1. Gremlins is a Christmas Movie

Bad luck creatures that cause you to trip, fall, or see your harvest destroyed permeate human society over millennia. Roald Dahl codified them as Gremlins for Disney and the RAF, creatures who got into World War II bi-planes and caused mischief, eventually inspiring Steven Speilberg's movie of the same name. And it is this concept of the gremlin that has gotten into Doctor Who with the goblins. There's no alien explanation for these goblins either; they just are. It's new to the Doctor just as this Doctor is new to us.

2. Doctor Who Happen Stance

The idea of luck, coincidence, binding people into time like knots in a row, forming a narrative is 100% Doctor Who gorgeousness. A coincidence is just a sign that you matter, even if you just end up in a Final Destination movie. And by adding actual rope ladders, a mathematical language of ropes, and a nation of goblin time travellers eating babies and removing them from time, has echoes of Moffat, whether that be the Weeping Angels, or the Crack in the wall – or the ceiling, this time. Is it a crack, or is it more of a coinci-dent? The Snowman that fell from the department store? The same store Rose worked at.

3. Harry Houdini's Rope Trick

The shoutouts to Russell T Davies' first episodes on Doctor Who as showrunner back in 2005 are interesting here, but the biggest one wasn't his but Steven Moffat. So there's a lot linked to that first episode, Rose, introducing the show via the companion and having the Doctor pop up in their lives, jumping from moment to moment before he takes the narrative role. But also in that first season, in The Empty Child, we saw Rose encounter a rope ladder on a rooftop, which she chooses to climb, gets in trouble, and later has Captain Jack heal the rope burns on her hands. This time, the Doctor jumps on the rope ladder with special gloves for Ruby that negate mavity and burns. At the time, the Zeppelin ladder ride across 1940s London was the most expensive shot ever filmed for Doctor Who. This time, it was one of the cheapest.

4. Yes, We're Still Doing Mavity

Donna accidentally got Isaac Newton to name gravity as mavity. And it has stuck. Hopefully, it will never change and will always be funny. The Doctor also has often hung out with Houdini and has used tricks that Houdini shared with the Doctor and vice versa. Now we know it was a long, hot summer they shared as well. But what changed?

5. The Timeless Foundling

What The Timeless Children most accomplished was to strip the Doctor of their history. The Doctor does not know who they are. They were abandoned and found as a young girl, who then regenerated, and their genetics founded the entire Time Lord race before having their memory stripped. The essential mystery of the character from the first episode was finally restored. Some people thought Russell T Davies would reverse it. any presumed he would ignore it. Instead, he is making it part of the story. Knotting it in, making it part of the narrative.

Oh, and yes, people cry for people who no longer exist that they can't remember without even noticing. The Doctor can see it and does it himself. So could Vincent Van Gogh.

6. The Doctor Sings And Dances

Everyone was caught up in the goblin magic of the moment, but it gave both the Doctor and Ruby a chance to stretch their legs and their pipes without the whole bloody episode turning into a musical. While the earlier dance club scene in the kilt really let Ncuti Gatwa show off that he's been working out since Sex Education. A muscular Doctor? That's new. Oh, and the new sonic screwdriver? Once again, the Doctor has a machine that goes ping when there's stuff.

7. Ruby Tuesday's Child Is Full Of Ace

If Ruby Sunday feels like one of the blander companions, maybe that's just in contrast to Donna. A bit of the mystery girl of Clara, a bit of the get-up-and-go of Ace. And she carries her mystery, her parents, the woman who placed her on the church steps, her desire to know. And I suppose she must have had a lot of people singing Rolling Stones when she was a kid. Or maybe not; after all, the moment when she is dropped on the steps is the year before the Autons attack Hendricks, and the Doctor tells Rose to run…now how old do you feel?

The Doctor does like to involve himself with his companions when they were children, whether Rose, Mickey, Amy, Clara, and now Ruby…

8. Davina McCall, Who Did NOT Die

One for the Americans here. Davina McCall was the presenter of British TV station Channel 4's Streetmate, Big Brother, The Million Pound Drop, The Jump, and more reality or game shows, as well as the long-running presenter of the TV show Long Lost Family. Hence her inclusion in this episode, looking into Ruby's past. She's had quite a lot of bad luck in her life, too; being Eric Clapton's girlfriend may have been one. Doing ancestry shows herself revealed that she was the great-granddaughter of onetime Prefect of Police Célestin Hennion and of James Thomas Bedborough,  said to be an illegitimate son of King George IV. So naturally, the Doctor popped back to save Davina McCall's life. But he never did that for Adric. did he? Or Kylie Minogue…

Because Doctor Who seems to be laying down new time laws. Gravity can become mavity, Ruby's life can be removed and then rewritten, Mrs Flood can switch from someone who knows nothing to someone who knows everything, and more. Something is wrong…

9. Doctor Who And The Church

As atheists go, Russell T Davies always goes for the Biblical whenever he can. Whether that's Second Coming with Christopher Eccleston, coming up against Satan, or all the resurrections with the Doctor. It's a thing for him. Now we have an episode with a church in the title and the most selfless act of the whole show from a priest who saves the day… and Ruby.

10. Every Planet's Got An East End

Anita Dobson has quite the history when it comes to Christmas Day Specials. Playing Angie Watts, landlady of the Queen Vic pub in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, the Christmas Day episode in 1986, in which her husband Den Watts handed her divorce papers with the line "Merry Christmas", was watched by over 30 million viewers. Around half the population in the UK then, with a 90-point share of viewing. So to have her back as Mrs Flood for the Christmas Special was a nice touch, especially to take such a pivotal point at the end with a fourth wall break, just like William Hartnell did in his Christmas special. All it was lacking was the EastEnders "duff duffs." In fact, someone should add them to a fan edit. The show also had Eastenders actresses Belinda Owusu as the woman with the pram, and Angela Wynter as Ruby's grandmother, Cherry Sunday.

So, who is she? The Master? The Toymaker? Susan? Rassilon? The Valeyard? The Rani? (it's never the Rani)

Bonus thought… did the Doctor just park on a double yellow? Naughty Doctor… not even on Christmas Eve. Doctor Who 2023 Christmas Special: The Church on Ruby Road is on BBC iPlayer and Disney+, depending on your territory.

Doctor Who 2023 Christmas Special: The Church on Ruby Road
Long ago, on Christmas Eve, a baby was abandoned in the snow. Today, Ruby Sunday meets the Doctor, goblins, stolen babies and, perhaps, the secret of her birth.
The Doctor Ncuti Gatwa
Ruby Sunday Millie Gibson
Davina McCall Davina McCall
Trudy Mary Malone
Mrs Flood Anita Dobson
Abdul Hemi Yeroham
Writer Russell T Davies
Executive Producer Russell T Davies
Executive Producer Phil Collinson
Executive Producer Joel Collins
Executive Producer Julie Gardner
Executive Producer Jane Tranter
Series Producer Vicki Delow
Producer Chris May
Director Mark Tonderai
Production Company Bad Wolf Productions
Production Company BBC Studios

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