Doctor Who Is NEW!: 73 Yards

 I was pondering something that a writer (whose name eludes me at the moment) called "the refrigerator moment".

It goes something like this.

You see a movie. 

The experience was a satisfying one.  You were sufficiently entertained, laughing at the jokes, being sad when things took a dark turn.  You feel good about the experience.

Several hours later, you wake up in the middle of the night feeling a bit peckish.  You need a snack. 

You pad your way to the kitchen, open up the refrigerator to see if there are any of those pudding cups you like when all of a sudden...

Hey! How did the butler know the letter opener that was used to stab the old man was put in the top desk drawer after the lawyer's secretary left the wedding? 

...

Also why are there no pudding cups?  

And what has any of this got to do with this week's edition of Doctor Who Is NEW!?   

Let's find out.

73 Yards 

by Russell T Davies 

We're already off our heels from the start.  

As the TARDIS materializes on a cliff overlooking the sea, the credits that normally appear over the theme music and opening sequence just float silently in the air: the title of the episode, the names of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson.  

I say! What goes on here then?

The Doctor and Ruby have arrived in Wales.

Not Wales pretending to be somewhere else but actual Wales. 

The Doctor is gushing about Wales and all things Welsh including a prime minister named Roger Ap Gwilliam who nearly started a nuclear war and... Whoops! That's in 2046! Scratch that! Spoilers! 

Then the Doctor accidentally steps into a magic circle.

Yes! 2 weeks in a row, the Doctor is putting his foot down on something he's not supposed to. 

While examining this collection of strings, scrolls and artifacts, Ruby realizes the Doctor isn't talking.

The Doctor isn't there.  

Ruby's key no longer works in the TARDIS lock and the Doctor has just vanished. 

Ruby Sunday has been abandoned.  

But she is not quite alone. 

Off in the distance (73 yards away) is an old woman, dressed in black with long white hair. I'm gonna call her the Old Ghost Lady or OGL for short. She doesn't approach Ruby but when Ruby heads towards this strange figure, the OGL shifts position to remain 73 yards away. 

When Ruby walks away, the OGL follows still at 73 yards.  

Sending surrogates to talk to the OGL doesn't work. They approach the OGL and then they run off and refuse to have anything to do with Ruby anymore. 

That includes her adoptive mother Carla and even Kate Letheridge-Stewart and UNIT.  Anyone who might be of help to Ruby abandons her.  

Time passes. 

Ruby ages to 25, then 30 and on the 40, holding down a variety of odd jobs and even having relationships with people even if they don't last long.  

The OGL is always there, always 73 yards away.  

Ruby has reached the year 2046 and Roger Ap Gwilliam is running for prime minister.  Ruby remembers what the Doctor said about this guy nearly causing a nuclear Holocaust. 

Ruby joins the campaign as a volunteer to get close to Roger Ap Gwilliam and somehow save the world. 

It's pretty darn clever how Ruby manipulates her physical position relative to Roger Ap Gwilliam to put the OGL next to him. 

Roger Ap Gwilliam runs away screaming, resigns as prime minister and there is no nuclear war! Yay!  

40 years more pass. Ruby Sunday is now 80 years old and near death from old age. Finally the OGL approaches and...

The OGL was Ruby all along?!?!?! 

Wow! 

Suddenly time snaps and everything reverses back to the Doctor and Ruby arriving in Wales.

And Ruby stops the Doctor before he steps into the magic circle.

Wow! What a bold innovative episode. "73 Yards" will likely go down as an all time Doctor Who classic! 

Later, looking in the refrigerator for pudding cups when...

Wait a minute!!!

• Who put the magic circle there?
• What exactly did the OGL say to people to make them run off and refused to deal with Ruby anymore? 
• Why was the OGL always 73 yards away?  
• Is Roger Ap Gwilliam still going to be a problem in 2046? 

Let me say that for the majority of the episode, RTD has crafted a seriously suspenseful mystery play, masterfully building up the tension.

Then it just... ends. The balloon doesn't pop, it just... deflates. 

And once again, there are no pudding cups.   

It is a bit daring to do a Doctor-lite episode at only the 4th episode into an already too short 8 episode season.  But it seems Ncuti Gatwa still had some work to finish on his previous TV series Sex Education.  

We get another appearance from actor Susan Twist, this time as a hiker in Wales.  Who looks familiar to Ruby.  (Russell claims we shouldn't read too much into this, claiming there's a shortage of actors requiring them to use Susan Twist over and over again. Yeah, right.)  

It was good to see Jemma Redgrave back as Kate Letheridge-Stewart and that UNIT has expanded it's scope beyond just alien threats but supernatural ones as well.  

There is the idea that the unanswered questions left at the end of "73 Yards" may pay off as the mystery of Ruby Sunday's origins potentially gets unfurled by the end of the season.  

I hope so because for the most part, "73 Yards" has all the hallmarks of a great episode until you look in the refrigerator.