I was struck by how everyone who approached the semper distans Ruby could only run away. Reminded me of what the Toymaker said he did when he met The One Who Waits. Makes me wonder if there's a connection, though like you, I would be satisfied or even find it preferable if this was unrelated.
Didn't watch it and never will. As a long time fan of the show Ncuti, RTD and whatever that screeching guy in a dress from episode two is called all told me it was no longer aimed at me, I needn't watch and should "go touch grass" The terms were acceptable to me and millions of other fans and now the show is dying in ratings. Good.
@@UranusMcVitieFish-yd7oq Why are you even here, buddy? There's no grass to touch in this comments section for a show you have no interest in anymore, it seems like you're a bit lost.
This episode gives us not enough information to understand exactly what’s happening but just enough information to make our own blurry conclusions. Kind of like trying to make out how a person looks 73 yards away…
I really like how the lack of a conclusive explanation seems to be the central theme of the episode, with Kate's line about people seeing something that makes no sense and trying to apply rules to it, as well as Elderly Ruby's reflection on how she never learned what happened to Carla and never found her birth mother. Connecting that back to the woman being close enough to see her but not close enough to make out many specific details just hits it home further for me.
The episode also calls back to Wild Blue Yonder (Susan Twist’s first episode) where the Doctor talks about the Tardis going to an outcrop by the sea & slowly decaying as people come and lay tributes around it. There’s a lot of stepping in this season. - Ruby steps on a butterfly, the Doctor steps on a mine, then steps on a Fairy circle (& Susan Twist’s hiker asks Ruby if she has stepped into something)
@@ChristyAbbeyI reckon Susan is the “storyteller” like a cosmos writer hence all the references to themes and stuff and narrators occasionally can incorporate themselves
Also the subtext is quite strong in this episode to. I mean think about it, your loved ones are told something that would make them fear and reject you, leaving you isolated, but then the thing that causes others to reject you, you take it and embrace it... I see what you did there Russell.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! I came into this comment section to talk about how it was a mixed bag for me, how i loved the first half (and I mean like all time G.O.A.T episodes) but found the lack of answers frustrating (although I wasn’t looking for EVERYTHING to be answered). And then I saw this…and I think I’ve changed my mind. I actually feel very silly that I didn’t pick up that subtext at all. Bravo! No notes!
@@Joe_Brennan_it’s very Japanese in that way. I think Yahtzee said it best a long time ago when talking about Silent Hill that the Japanese approach to horror is being totally alone with something that hates you in a very passive aggressive way.
Really love that Ruby doesn’t desperately wish the doctor was back or wait for him. Very soon into the episode she feels she has to come to terms that he’s gone and even assumes he’s left her. She’s not pleading for him to come out, she says she would really love it if he came back, but she doesn’t feel like she’s earned that from him. It’s a great insight into her. I feel like most companions would investigate why he’s gone, try to get him back. Be angry. But the tragedy of this which also ties into the episode generally is while Ruby is sad he’s gone, shes not very shocked. She’s never seen the tardis dematerialise so she might just assume the box shell stays for a while but he’s away on adventures. Her thinking is very sad. Someone’s left her again, and why shouldn’t they?
its such a minor thing but ruby asking "that woman can you see her" to people makes me adore her like in her head shes already processed this could be alien and she could be alone and her adapting her language from "can you ask if shes seen the doctor" to "can you ask if shes seen my friend black guy 5'10" since she doesn't want the extra questions of "do you need a doctor" i dont know its so good you can see her mind working and adapting to her situation, shes very capable. the roger plotline could've had more.
I really like this observation, that’s a sharp bit of writing from RTD. He’s very good at thinking of things that may not occur naturally to a writer but really go towards realising a wonderful human character.
I’ve seen some say that the ending was disappointing because Ruby didn’t get to keep all those years of character development but I don’t think that was the point. We the audience got to see what she is capable of. That’s great character development! I love, love, love Ruby after this episode and can’t wait to see where they take her character now.
@@ginjamuthashe also seems to remember the time subconsciously! At the end she says she’s been to wales 3 times but she’s technically only been twice, unless she remembers the last time this time happened
This one didn't feel like a doctor who episode and felt way more like an A24 supernatural horror I absolutely loved it and it's now up there as one of my favourite episodes
Idk, I like that Roger ap Gwilliam is just some arrogant playboy who blunders his way through his lack of knowledge or skill with a cheeky grin and a shrug, it's very Trumpian in just how absurd it is. I know it doesn't feel real, but that seems to be politics MO as of late
@@Joe_Brennan_ I mean, yeah, I don't blame you, I felt the same way, literally "really Russel, you can't think of a better fascism allegory than literally wanting to fire a nuke?" but, is it that crazy? People seem up in arms when some politicians even mildly suggest we get rid of our nuclear arsenal, and I've heard some MP's say some exceptionally dumb things on television without even being prompted, like that Tory who asked a question time viewer if Rwanda and the Congo are different countries.
I saw a review that refused to give their political party but lamented the fact that using red, white, and blue and the phrase Albion linked him directly to the current Tory party and wanted them to use a fake political party. Also said Doctor Who shouldn't be getting political. These people obviously have no idea what Doctor Who is about.
The way you describe him feels more Boris Johnson than Donald Trump. To me, he feels like a combination of Johnson’s skill for deceit and narcissism along with Trump’s nefarious sociopathy.
I find it interesting, that Russel told us that Susan Twist is not really relevant to the plot and they just ran out of actors, but in this episode Ruby remembers seeing her before, when she meets her hiking. So I think he either lied or he's just teasing us with something that won't have any meaning in the future, just because he can
This might not be a popular take, but I liked the stuff with Marti and the implication that she was sexually abused by Mad Jack, even if that subplot was a bit clunky. I'm a survivor of sexual abuse myself and it's led to a lot of both internal and external isolation. It's part of why I resonated so much with Ruby in this episode, so for her to sit down with someone who's also been through that and have that moment of connection with her, it felt very right. I wouldn't judge anyone for finding it tasteless but it meant a lot to me
i completely agree! And the joy Marti felt when he ran off the stage felt so rewarding, knowing the hopelessness she felt so deeply before. I appreciated it, personally.
Even if that's true it was very badly done. All we know is she says he is a and as other reviewers have said why didn't she walk away leave the job or go to the police. And when she sees him run away she gave this really crazy insane laugh. If this was about sexual abuse it was handled really badly and insensitively.
@@CyberSlammer2024 The reason she didn't leave the job or go to the police is pretty obvious if you think about it for a minute. She didn't leave the job because she thought stopping Roger was part of the curse. She didn't go to the cops because she didn't have any concrete proof and these things are notoriously difficult to prove even when the abuser isn't highly influential. Plus Marti herself didn't tell Ruby to do anything. Going to the cops when you've been sexually abused is really fucking hard and retraumatising, so Ruby going there on Marti's behalf would've been even worse. I much prefer SA stories like this over stories that make a graphic spectacle of the abuse and then don't bother to show the full emotional aftermath. The entire episode was about the emotional experience of something happening to you that you don't understand, that isolates you and sticks in the back of your mind whatever you do, and having to live the rest of your life with that instead of "defeating" it. It puts people in the head of someone who has to live with that trauma better than most media I've seen that deals with it, and it did it without showing the abuse actually happening. It made me feel seen and understood on a visceral level so I just don't understand the critique that it's insensitive
@@mirawest8510 I actually meant that the victim could have left the situation Or gone to the police. I'm not saying it would have been easy but a very sensitive subject like this was handled quite badly.
@@mirawest8510 I agree with what you're saying in principle, however I disagree that this was what was showed in the episode. All we saw about Marty was that she was liked by the politician, the next thing we know she's calling him a monster. When I first saw it I thought he was going to be revealed as a zygon or something. ( A real monster) Calling someone a monster doesn't mean it's sexual abuse, it could have been all manner of things but it wasn't explored or explicitly explained. So rather than leave the situation or go to the police she stays. No explanation was given for that either. We didn't see much more of her other than at the football stadium behaving really weirdly and laughing like a maniac when the politician ran off. There was nothing further about her character or how she felt or what happened to her after, it was literally about four naff scenes. I agree with what you're saying principle but the character was very badly written and the situation was so obtuse that it made no real sense. Victims should be heard yes, and listened to, of course but people are assuming that he sexually abused her, just because she called him a monster. For all we know she might have fallen in love and kept begging him to marry her and he told her to fuck off and in her mind that was him being a monster. We have never see any real interaction between the two of them, we have no idea what went on, people make unfounded assumptions. I'm sorry to hear you have been the victim of sexual abuse, I hope you are recovering from it and thank you for sharing your thoughts on the situation even though we may disagree! :)
I’m sure others have posted or said this better.. So, as I’ve read elsewhere, the sign language translation is “bless you, thank you for the gift. It is precious. I hope to think of a way to repay you” (something like that). When she dies, the gift Old Ruby receives is to witness herself when she’s young and happy. She says something in the ep at the end that it’s so great to see herself “look how young I am”. And the gift Old Ruby gives to Young Ruby is that message “Dont step” saving Young Ruby from the timeline where she loses her family and stays alone and never discovers her birth mother, etc. … just some thoughts 10/10 episode
@@The-Busy-Beeeee in that case you might as well just write any old crap with stuff happening and no explanation. If the excuse for it is going to be It's supernatural then what's the point watching it's just going to be pointless nonsense.
Something that's really solidifying for me is that this season is probably the wildest and most creative season we've ever had? We're halfway through now and we've had goblins singing a song about eating babies, one traditional adventure with an extremely bizarre premise, an episode that pretends to be a historical and becomes a confrontation with a god for the fate of the world, a bottle episode where the Doctor can't move, and now a lifetime spanning supernatural horror where the Doctor is erased immediately and most of the mysteries get no explanation (For the better, in my opinion. This story would not be better if you knew what the woman said to people, for instance). And next week looks like it might be doing something along the lines of Blink but in a more sci-fi setting, we'll see how accurate that impression actually is? TLDR: Any fears I had that we were just going to go back to making the show feel like it did in 2008 with nothing new brought to the table have all but vanished by this point. I genuinely have no idea what to expect from the remaining episodes and that's the most exciting feeling.
So true. Knowing the titles but not having a clue what to expect from the remaining serials is almost addictive. For the first time in what has got to be a full decade now, I'm struggling to wait a week to just get into the next story. Its so satisfying to feel this show back on the rise!
@@brandonwinchester4564 True! My point is more that it's the most traditional "yep that's a Doctor Who adventure" setup in the season (at least so far), and the premise is "space station run by talking babies". It's like, the least normal normal episode possible and I have a lot of respect for it for that.
If anything I'm terrified of Ruby. She also defiled the circle. Whatever happened quite happily removed the doctor from the universe, and we've seen what happens when people try that, but this time the universe went on. However whatever happened didn't or maybe even couldn't remove ruby the same way, which ended up being it's downfall
It simply removed Ruby's POV reality from the Doctors. I assume she is special somehow. It is entirely possible the circle has nothing to do with it and it was all caused by Ruby.
RTD in the BTS vid says Ruby and the Doctor broke the circle carelessly and because it was a sacred thing they are punished - he gets deleted and she goes thru a penitence purgatory thing to make it all right again.
@@Joe_Brennan_i like that the episode addressed these kinds of questions by having ruby say that she was worried something could happen if she went somewhere the woman would be unable to follow, like on a plane
She seems to teleport or something rather than walk, so best guess, she'd probably keep popping up on park architecture at 73 yards from wherever Ruby happens to see her
She seems to teleport or something rather than walk, so bust guess, she'd probably keep popping up on park architecture at 73 yards from wherever Ruby happens to see her
It might be initial hype, but i genuinely rank this with Blink. People have been asking so many questions, but its ambiguity is part of its beauty. Not all of Doctor Who needs to be explained with an exposition dump at the end.
@@ChristianTamblyna man of taste I see. All of those episodes certainly belong in the same group of episodes. All very experimental with the usual format.
@@charg1nmalaz0r51 explaining all of the magic tricks after the show doesn't make the show better. Fill in the details yourself. It's more fun that way anyway.
@@Joe_Brennan_ Like Blink, for example! Series 3 was amazing but oh man the run of episodes from Human Nature to The Last of the Timelords were pure bangers!!!
@@RobTFilmsthe Doctor Lite episodes are often some of my favourites. Turn Left is a masterpiece and incidentally part of one of the greatest running streaks on Doctor Who - the back half of series 4 from Silence In The Library to Journey’s End is unassailably good.
You’ve echoed my sentiments. I came away saying, “This is ‘Black Mirror’ good.” The sense of dread I felt was palpable and awful, and I immediately went from “What is she saying?” …to a more internal… “What are you (me) afraid someone could say about you that would make people shun you? What do you keep secret?” It all clicked from there, and I knew, instinctually, we weren’t getting an answer. Nothing Davies could’ve written could satisfy that feeling of dread and horror.
My take on how shallow Roger ap Gwilliam is as a character is that its... kinda the point? The fairy trap was holding the Mad Jack entity in check, and once it was released, it manifested in Roger (who would have been a baby at the start of the story) and then set out to do what it does, which is apparently cause so much harm that reality would warp itself fundamentally to defend itself by creating this curse. Ruby suffers in a closed loop so that she can get the opportunity to avert the suffering and death of millions or billions. Of course, I'm just a human, seeing something that doesn't make sense, and applying rules to it. So what do I know? Great time watching, as usual Joe!
That episode reminded me that fairies are canon in the DW universe since the first season of Torchwood. They’re mean, wrathful creatures who can time travel. Wonder if it’s gonna come back again.
73 Yards is so far my favourite episode of the series, I absolutely loved the psychological thriller feel to it, with great suspense. I love the little paradoxical loop of this timeline that both must always be and will never be, with it (sort of) closing itself off at the end. I felt like it all tied together well and it had 100% of my attention the entire time through. However I've found most people I know were left confused by what they just watched without any explanation at the end.
This is the first episode of Doctor Who in a very long time that I have literally been non stop thinking about almost 2 days after watching. The more I think the more I get from the episode. It's really bigger on the inside. I feel like it will only get better with time and will become a cult classic
Genuinely, I think this is gonna stay in my top 5 stories for Doctor Who. I love that we didn't get answers for everything, loved how immediately intriguing and creepy it was and Millie was absolutely perfect.
I think the reason gwilliam was so cartoonishly evil is because he was born when the doctor broke the circle so he was possessed by the spirit of mad jack which set him on his path
As I commented on another video, this one has properly shaken me in a deep and indelible way. As you seem to agree, this perfectly captured the feeling of abandonment trauma for me, and how it becomes a self-perpetuating thing. People leave you with no sensible reason, and you know it’s because of you but not necessarily the right reason that it is you. You try to find reason and purpose in that, but ultimately it is meaningless. The lack of answers and the emotional effect of leaving you with a sense of trepidation waiting for the next shoe to drop are features not bugs. That’s how abandonment trauma feels. You never get answers there, and you have to come to terms with that.
It’s not going out of the way to understand that the episode has no point in existing. Nothing gets stopped, nothing is learned, and there is no meaningful impact on the characters. So many of the unanswered questions we’re left with are ones that are vital to the plot. What happened to the Doctor, and why? Who’s going to deal with Roger now that Ruby isn’t there to oppose him? Why was Ruby only taken back in time near the end of her life? _Why_ was she taken back? How did old Ruby suddenly gain the power to make others abandon her younger self, and what did she say to make that happen? Other, slightly less important questions include: Why didn’t UNIT recover the TARDIS? How are there going to be any high-stakes episodes set on Earth when we now know that nothing bad happens for the next _60 years?_ What were all of old Ruby’s hand gestures for? What was stopping Ruby from having a normal life after Roger when all she had to do was _not_ mention the woman to anyone? If an episode leaves you with so many important questions that don’t get even a _hint_ of an answer, then that means that someone, somewhere, has failed to make a coherent story.
I'm surprised that people had a problem with Ruby's ageing. I guess they could have done a little more to make her look more 40, but ageing make-up is so easy to do badly that I think I'd always prefer the alternative. I was definitely relieved when I saw that they just used a different actress for her as an 80 year old!
I thought it was a little odd that Ruby didn’t seem to age much for those first 20 years. But at the same time in defense of that, I’m also in my mid-30s and still look like I did when I was in high school.
Also it would legit very funny if Susan Twist turns out to be nothing. Just a genuinely reused actor in several unrelated roles, and RTD is just having fun.
I might be way off, but I was under the impression that "Mad Jack" was some kind of malevolent entity that got released from the fairy circle. So Roger ap Gwilliam (sp?) being a bit cartoonishly destructive kind of made sense to me.
Yeah that's what I thought too, maybe he was some kind of demonic figure that fed on death or destruction and that's why he wanted to set off a nuke. I would have liked a little more of that in the episode, even if it's just an implication.
@@stanley5745I don't think this aspect of the story isn't quite over yet as the "knot" theme keeps coming back ans also consequences for a seemingly small action (the stepping)
@@The-Busy-Beeeee You might be right! I kind of hope this story is self-contained, but there is a lot of recurring themes and I have no idea where they're going with it .
@@stanley5745 same tbh who knows maybe the main theme is literally tying the story up again, I have a theory that Susan is actually like the god of stories or something, and ruby has ties with or is the spirit of chrismas
It's not just "what could she say to turn people on her", it's "what gave her so much power to make them believe that no matter what." They spelled out that UNIT soldiers "with full psychic training" still fell under her "spell". And it is a spell-like level of power. And sure, I see both sides of either needing or not needing answers, but I don't think it would've taken much more for the ending to do *something* to satisfy why whatever she said had such absolute power. Still good, I just think it's kind of a "mystery box" episode without enough thought put into what's in that box.
I don't think she said anything, I think she was just terrifying, then people made the connection that it's actually Ruby so they become afraid of her too
@@Joe_Brennan_Kate iirc did say something about maybe the fairy circle being in some sense "boosted" by the Tardis' perception filter. As far as I'm concerned that's sufficient Sci fi handwave
@@TheCagedCorvidI don't even think it's that. I think she just pours pure unadulterated cosmic horror directly into people's brains and rewires them. "ASK HER!"
My reaction to this episode in real-time as I watched it was gushing over how much I loved it, and realizing I could honestly consider this a peer to Blink & Turn Left, a new addition to the greats of Doctor-lite stories
@Joe_Brennan_ True, as much as I love it, it has a different enough vibe it didn't come to mind as a contemporary in the moment, but that shouldn't exclude it from the list
in dr who unleashed they say the woman is doing sign language saying something along the lines of thank you for giving me something precious how will i ever repay you so i kind of like the thought she is reaching out to herself to thank the woman/herself for not abandoning her. like near the end of the episode i think she says something about never being alone bc the woman was always there
So to summarize: As I understand it , the Doctor breaks the circle. Ruby is shunted into a time loop where somehow she is haunted by her future self. She uses her unique relationship with herself to stop Mad Jack (Roger ap Gwillian) from escaping the loop into the real world. Then she has to live through the loop until the end/beginning comes round again so she can warn herself and prevent the circle from being broken. It is a sort of bootstrap paradox. As for the running away, I think there is a perception filter on Ruby. Whatever she is, getting close to the old lady version of her turns off the filter on the young version (like the filter can’t exist on both simultaneously). The old lady never actually looks at or says anything to the people. They look back and then freak. Whatever people see when they look back at the young version terrifies them, so they run away. There is this hypothesis running around that she is the Trickster’s daughter from Sarah Jane Adventures. Maybe she is? Or something even worse?
I love your point about the people in the pub being in with her on the supernatural fear and then, when it's revealed they're joking, that she's left all on her own again. Really adds to the themes of abandonment. As for the episode overall, I adored it the first time through until the ending, when I found there were so many loose ends and things that didn't quite make sense or were narratively unsatisfying. Then I watched it again, hoping that those wouldn't matter on second viewing, and thankfully they didn't. I enjoyed it just as much as the first time through, and this time I had already worked out and voiced my annoyances, so I was able to just love this episode for everything it did character and atmosphere-wise.
This is easily one of my all-time favorite Doctor Who episodes: a plot that explores the characters more than whatever nebulous Sci-fi/cosmic horror is operating as the vehicle. Honestly, I feel like all the RTD juice was poured into 73 Yards and Wild Blue Yonder (hopefully at least one more this season), because everything that bothers me about the other episodes is absent, and what it shares with the Great Episodes it has in spades. The laser focus on Ruby makes this episode shine, because aside from thinking she’s hopeful, kind, and takes no shit, Ruby has mostly been kind of… “meh” for me. I like that she can take most of the Doctor-related shenanigans in stride, but that does often slide into plot-convenience rather than actual character development. 73 Yards does a marvelous job of taking those scant attributes and blooming them into a beautiful character. Ruby, seemingly abandoned and certainly followed, stumbles her way towards what she hopes are answers and is only met with stories and jokes and, then, more abandonment and isolation. She holds out for as long as she can before deciding that maybe there are no answers to be had, only home to return to. Then Ruby is haunted by the horror of the absolute: she IS being followed, and she WILL be abandoned because of it. Enter Kate Stewart and UNIT, the experts, the people that take care of EVERYTHING because they can piece together enough of an answer to help. The only breath of fresh air Ruby gets before she has to go under again. Because UNIT isn’t immune, for all their preparations, all their answers, they cannot give her answer, will not because they abandon her too. Years slip by, people slide in and out of Ruby’s life. And then a familiar name calls Ruby from the reverie of the things that keeps everybody at a distance. The name of certain danger. He’s the Everyman, and people call him “mad”, a badge he wears with honor. But he has ideas, dangerous ideas that will hurt people; but he doesn’t care because he’ll get what he wants. And no one else cares either, because they’re more than happy to give him the keys to the castle if it means that maybe they can get what they want. And Ruby holds his coat. It’s where she needs to be, at a distance, close enough to see and be seen, but not close enough to be taken in. Semperdistans. Because Ruby needs to be certain, she’ll stand by and let Mad Jack’s colors be shown before she takes that most decisive action, a future balanced on the edge of a knife and easily tipped one way or the other. Because of something you see in the distance, something you don’t even fully understand. And then Ruby goes on until the end of her life, always abandoned, never alone, but no longer haunted by the absolute. She didn’t have answers in the end, but she did have hope. And from the distance, she keeps another Ruby from walking in her footsteps. Semperdistans.
The start reminded me of an episode in welsh folklore when a man on a horse is trying to catch up to a woman on the road and she just walks away from him no matter how fast the horse gallops. Its such a cool idea. I love that the show can still reinvent itself endlessly to surprise us. Folklore cool bring it on lets slip more of that in for a while I'll take it all with a pinch of salt.
this episode was actually so good but in a brilliantly dreadful way, watching it at 1am on my own was totally wild it was a horrible episode of just "totally break the audience surrogate", at least in the start of it. it does a fantastic job of building this intense and almost suffocating sense of dread, even with roger ap gwilliam - even in the later acts it still held its ground i loved how there was no concrete ending, i loved how strange it was some part of me wanted it to be 60m, but then it sort of sunk in that we don't need a total explanation for everything. the ending looking back i thought was great, just the right amount of surreal. if ruby questions things then why shouldn't we, the audience, do the same? loved it so much
@@alexrobertssingsThis kind of belittling is the type of thing Joe calls out in the video. Wanting an explanation for why the plot of the episode happens isn't exactly unreasonably pedantic. Totally get how people can enjoy the episode without that, but there's no need to demean those who like more explanation.
@@Fff99901 I get that but a lot of people that are demanding an explanation are falling back to insulting the episode for lazy writing and not spoon feeding them the answer to them immediately. I understand wanting an explanation but the episode isn't bad or lazy because you didn't get one.
This is probably my favourite episode since like Demons of the Punjab (proper good episode that one is). I don't think that 73 Yards woman was ALWAYS Ruby I think she was something entirely different and was only partly Ruby at the end of the episode. The pub scene was amazing and I do need a full episode exactly like that but I still love the rest of the episode. Phenomenal 47 minutes of television.
A dangerous right wing extremist politician rose to power and prominence in the UK - oh that happened in Doctor Who too. On an unrelated note Joe along with Ben Shapiro it’s also your fault I now know Laurence Fox exists.
Honestly I just wish the ending was a little less abrupt. After all that the episode did, I didn't feel like it gave enough closure. But I really liked the rest of the episode, and the concept itself was amazing.
Generally, I enjoyed "73 Yards" immensely. The spooky tone that builds and builds until Ruby "figures out" what she's meant to do about Roger ap Gwilliam, at which point it feels more like a standard DW outing but with a supernatural solution. Seeing Kate turn up as a friend and potential savior, only to lose her like all the rest who approached the Woman was a beautiful twist. I can see where the ending lost some people, but RTD has conditioned me to realize that not every standout episode requires spelling out every last detail. On a humorous note, I firmly believe RTD must have seen _An American Werewolf in London_ shortly before writing this. The creepy pub scene with the disturbing patrons was a mild clue, but when Aneurin Barnard turns up looking like a modern-day Griffin Dunne, we were well past the point of coincidence. Your Mileage May Vary.
I think there's a disappointing aversion to ambiguity that exists in a lot of Doctor Who fans that, I'm going to be honest, makes me sad. 99% of episodes explain themselves entirely and give you all the answers; Can we really not hold space for ONE EPISODE that's actually this bold, artistic, and experimental? Is the universe and potential of sci-fi and fantasy so limited that it must be fully understood by humans on a literal level on first viewing? It makes me feel like some people don't want Doctor Who to be more than people being chased down corridors by scary monsters. I honestly wish Doctor Who could be this strange and artsy more often, because it's such a special show, with such a weird concept already. Why not lean in and just make cool art sometimes? "Blink" is a really experimental episode for Doctor Who, and the ambiguity of the Weeping Angels made them something truly special, and then what happens? We get five more stories with the Angels and they lose all of their sparkle. They die thematically. They become just another alien. I've even read comments in the past of people wanting the creature from "Midnight" to return so we can know what it was. Why? Whyyyyyy would you want that? And it's the same with "73 Yards." We got something beautiful, something personal and dreamy and abstract, and it seems like a lot of people either want to flatten it to an easily digestible form or get angry that it asks a little more of the audience than the typical episode. It's a 10/10.
Mostly agree with this take. I was surprised to find out it wasn’t universally liked bbl, for me this is probably my new second favourite episode after heaven sent. I think people are putting too much emphasis on questions that could have many plausible answers that would make total sense. Also I really liked the Gwilliams subplot since I felt like the actor managed to act in a way that is so reminiscent of some politicians, especially during that interview scene, where he is able to act charming and put together and twisting arguments towards the topics he is interested in, all while keeping an air of menace to the viewer wherever he goes. And I don’t think his motives are as flat as everyone seems to be saying, to me it didn’t feel like his motivation was to just launch a nuke, more like he was willing to launch should he find some reason to do so (even if he reason is small relative to the degree of the response) and knowing his character he was likely to launch at some point.
I agree with basically everything you said. 10/10 for me and it honestly might crack my top 10 of all Doctor Who episodes ever. I feel like not getting every answer you want is part of what makes the episode intriguing. You also described basically how I felt watching the whole episode which was pretty much that it kept getting better and better as it went on. I didn't keep track of the episode length while watching cause I felt super invested in the episode. All around classic as far as I'm concerned though.
@@Joe_Brennan_ true, though I guess it did give her access to her money to build off of for the rough parts at the start, but as time went on it mattered less and less
When she asked if she could pay with her phone and the landlady acted confused, I thought for a second maybe she was in the recent past. Before phone payment technology / online banking was a common thing
Have been watching this new era with my girlfriend who is new to Who and while she has definitely enjoyed the rest of the show this was the first episode that really caught her attention and had her speculating!
I really liked 73 Yards! I thought it was really well done and wonderfully creepy. Also I don't usually notice this but I thought the direction this episode was just perfect. I think thematically and in terms of Ruby's character it's a really rich episode. The woman being effectively a manifestation of Ruby's fear that everyone will eventually abandon her, caused by the trauma of growing up knowing even the person who brought her into this world didn't want her. But also because she is Ruby she also manifests as the effect of that, always maintaining distance and in that way actually pushing people out of her life. I find that sort of richness of character and themes much more relevant than knowing the exact mechanics of what's going on. It's clearly a very supernatural thing, caused by the breaking of something magical that once might not have necessarily been, so I think rather than it being a case of "I wonder what she said" to me it's more that it doesn't really matter what she said. Cause even if it's a manifestation of Ruby, it's also clearly not the same Ruby we know, at least not until the second time around. "Why did the Doctor disappear? Because he broke the fairy circle." is a perfectly reasonable explanation to me, especially with the supernatural elements that are constantly being accentuated. I do wish the whole thing Roger ap Gwilliam was done with more depth though. I feel like politically he's just a guy who really wants to launch nukes and doesn't even make that much of an effort to conceal it. There's nothing showing society's decline in such a way that it'd so majorly accept such a man like there was in Turn Left, for example. It just doesn't feel like Russell was meeting his own standard of political commentary there, for something that felt like a major part of the episode. As with every episode, I feel the short runtime is seriously hampering the ability of stories to be firing on all cylinders. Also one more closing thought, I think I liked Boom more and compared to it I think this is further from RTD's best than Boom was from Moffat's best.
I thought this episode was absolutley amazing. It really explores the darker implications of travelling with the doctor, and i thought the fact that this horrible life that old ruby lived is now just gone and completely over was a complete gut punch, that we really don't see enough of in who.
I was gripped throughout and I think all involved did a fantastic job. I'd say it worked brilliantly as a study of exclusion and learning to accept one's limitations. I would have liked a little more explanation as to how/why end-of-life Ruby did what she did... in connection with her younger self. On the other hand, I'm happy that they left what the woman was actually saying... as an unknown. Straight after watching (Sat morn for me), for some reason I googled, rather than heading to Twitter... and was happy to see the Independent describe the episode as a "five-star knockout" and the Guardian label it a "stone-cold classic".
This episode actually really reminded me of mark gatiss' m.r. james ghost story for Christmas things. I'm not sure what exactly it is but it really feels like exactly that kind of vibe
Definitely! It's not one of the Mark Gatiss adaptations, but I was weirdly reminded of the 2010 Whistle and I'll Come to You film (which of course is M.R. James too)
I got strong MR James vibes too, particularly at the start. There was something about the colour grading and shot choice that made me remember the 70s and 80s adaptations.
I absolutely loved 73 Yards. It's the first episode this season to entirely sell me, though I loved The Devil's Chord and enjoyed Space Babies, but this was just everything I wanted from a Doctor Who episode, and is the only episode since Davies took back over to honestly nail the ending, as controversial as that take seems to be.
I saw the episode as being largely about the power of the human mind to effect reality beyond the inside of our minds. Ruby's creation of "the rules" that put her in this situation restrict her more than anything. She strands herself in the country and doesn't help Marti because she's waiting for the moment. The woman for me was a manifestation of self-doubt and other intrusive things in our minds who stops her from living a full and happy life. She even constructs this idea of getting rid of Gwilliam will stop her which reminds me of that nagging feeling "If I do this, then I'll be happy" It never goes away, her doubt allows follows which impacts her life drastically. Gwilliam needs people to believe him, to buy into his message. Influenced minds impacting reality as he makes that powergrab. It really hit me, the whole way through. The layers, the interpretation, the way Russell nicked my exact fears both rational and irrational and plastered them on my tv screen in the dark at midnight. 10/10
I’d given up on the show in season 11, I was so disappointed. I picked up again with these specials and wild blue yonder was definitely the one which reminded me of what I used to love about the show. I couldn’t sit through space babies and started losing trust again but boom brought it back and now with 73 yards I couldn’t believe I was actually leaning forward towards my screen in anticipation. Not only do I feel trust in a companion again, but I am actively engaging in thinking about this episode days after seeing it. 73 yards is a gem!
Maybe it’s the guilt of letting Gwilliam prey upon and continually assault that woman that makes Ruby punish herself into a life of isolation from those she cares about. That’s just a guess as to why Russel included it. Millie Gibson did say in Unleashed that the thing she imagines the Woman saying is “I’m sorry.”
I agree 100% with you that we always try to ascribe meaning to things, even those that are not meant to make sense. I do have an interpretation of what went on. The magic ward was put there in that liminal space (between land and sea, past and future, multiple realities) by a person (or fairies?) who "divinated" roger ap william coming into existence. The ward was meant to prevent that. The doctor - being a time traveller who often crosses multiple timelines - did know about roger ap william, but william's rise to power in the episode's timeline came as a consequence of the ward being disturbed. Ghost lady is old ruby stuck in a loop trying to tell ruby to not disturb the ward, and all the stuff that happens to people that try to get close to ghost lady are part of the spell / ward locking ruby into place until the ward is restored.
I guess if she didn't stop him, she'd have died in the Nucelar disaster too, so wouldn't have made the end of the loop? Something was up with Mrs Flood, I was sure she was distracting Ruby at a key moment as her mum walked to the woman
I almost felt like it was a reminder that Mrs Flood existed but not in a way that made her involved. She even goes “nothing to do with me!” in what I thought was a fun meta moment signalling us that it’s not her time yet
@@Joe_Brennan_ Possible, I took it as the opposite, her saying she's not involved to hint in reality, she was somehow aware of and maybe even controlling the whole thing. Half a season to go so I hope we get something from her.
@@joshbarkley4403 that was my thoughts too. I thought everyone would be speculating about this line after watching the episode but this so the first time I’m seeing literally anyone else talk about it lol
I think the doctor messing up with the time Ruby is from is going to be important later. because in the devils chord he had to ask Ruby for the specific month, this time he messed up even the year. I think this is setting up a reveal later and the doctor's memory is getting worse or is meddled with somehow.
I dunno, the Doctor being absent minded and forgetful is pretty par for the course. The audio ‘Caerdroia’ even argues that it’s one of his defining aspects, as when the Doctor gets split into three different people, one of the Doctors is just a personification of that “head in the clouds, zero awareness of danger” side of him.
According the pub sign, Y Pren Mawr was established in 1863 - the same year Welsh politician and future U.K. prime minister David Lloyd George was born. It’s a neat nod from writer Davies, given the episode features a future Welsh politician who becomes PM (Roger ap Gwilliam). U.S. This was the same year Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address - a moment that was watched by the First Doctor and his companions on the TARDIS’ Time-Space Visualizer during the 1965 adventure, “The Chase.”
For me, the most affecting part of 73 Yards was the feeling of isolation and background dread it created. Most doctor who episodes are have some monster or villian, but in this episode the villian is just kind of the mundane dread of everyday life whilst living with your trauma. It's one of the most grounded and honest doctor who episodes in my opinion. It was a rare and beautiful thing for a show that is usually heightened (especially in this era) to do an episode this straight and grounded. Excellent stuff.
Excellent critique Joe. At first I just consumed this story as an allegory of mission - that Ruby’s experience with The Doctor has somehow prepared her with the capacity to face the circumstance that she was in - and win. But the feeling at the end seemed not quite resolved, which is both delicious, and frustrating. Its that liminal thing. It is beginning to dawn on me that RTD is perhaps weaving a thread that will become part of the denouement he has planned. I suspect that Ruby is indeed of huge significance in this Doctor’s universe. She arrived in the world with no known origin, and is as daring and challenging as Clara ever was, she even conjures snow... so seemingly unknowingly - she may well represent a clear and present danger. The only negative to all that, is that once more, RTD attributes a lot of importance to The Doctor’s companion’s back story - a bit of a trope in modern Who, we’d all agree. Donna, Amy, Clara... they all carried the universe’s baggage that would become a challenge and be central to the arc. Is there a danger that RTD and Moffat are too ready to recycle these characteristics? Maybe I am wrong. I am guilty of weaving my own theories too early in a run - and in the past have picked up throw away lines as if they carried huge significance. RTD lays false trails for viewers like me, but this new season has layers - he’s said as much. The complications that I can sense in much of this world building must surely utilise some of 73 Yards’ complex narrative. There is something big afoot. The episode does indeed invite interpretation as a stand alone, and is worthy of that. I am believer in the Beholder’s Share. Good art invites the beholder to allow themselves to contribute their own meaning to the work. This is true of visual art, theatre, music - and more. So we ourselves are able to inhabit the creative space that RTD has opened up. It’s generous, exciting, and a little mind-blowing. Am I being pretentious? (I am reminded of John Cleese and Eleanor Bron discussing the TARDIS as an artwork in City of Death) Surely we will learn more of Ruby’s story in a month or so. As I write, I believe more and more that this is the case. I am convinced of one thing, the fantasy element is not a permanent aspect. I think it will be expunged from the Whoniverse soon. RTD may well enjoy drawing parallels between fantasy and fake news and it's alternative facts, - as the Toymaker’s mischief is packed away,....for the time being...
I figured out the woman was at the beginning of the episode was older Ruby but it didn’t deter my enjoyment of the rest. I absolutely loved this episode! It’s funny the whole pub scene felt like a little tribute nod to Midnight with the archetypes being similar (including a goth guy in both) and the knocking so I didn’t really expect Ruby to stay there. The political aspect could have been explored more but I thought it served its purpose. I agree about how I hope they don’t answer too much about what went on in this episode although I would like to know about the snow. It’s a ghost story it’s meant to be ambiguous. I’m a bit nervous about next week’s episode especially if the Reddit leak is true.
@@TheCagedCorvidpotential spoilers……….. The leak for dot and bubble was that in the end all the townspeople in Finetime are all revealed to be racists and are angry that the Doctor is black so 15 and Ruby leave in disgust.
100% agree. This is Ruby’s story. Will she save the world or surrender to her own greatest fear being abandoned by everyone? Unlike space babies opener with Ruby inadvertently stepping on a butterfly straight out of a ray Bradbury novel, it is the great and powerful all knowing doctor that breaks the sacred fairie circle. And within seconds, Ruby is on her greatest adventure without the doctor.
Great episode, you cant really see the twist coming up until the last moment which really demonstrates how strong the story really is. After some very silly eps to start the season (some good, some not so good) these last 2 have course-corrected and brought some variation. 73 yards was top, top class.
I absolutely loved the episode and love that I am still think and puzzle over. I thought I was frustrated for a moment about the lack of answers but what it is that is frustrating is not having someone to sit down with and talk through it with! Loved your similar insights and take on the episode instead of some of the negativity.
I can't think of a single other story that quite does what this one does. It doesn't wrap the mysteries up at the end. Really seems like it will really pay to rewatch.
I think it all hinges on the gamble of the Pasty Man. If you were dead set on this being a dark, welsh folklore horror episode, then the pasty man will probably make you feel insulted in the way that Luke throwing away the lightsaber in TLJ seemed to rub people up the wrong way. The subversion of expectations is so jarring for some people. I really got on board with everything that was happening and I was totally along for the ride, but I wasn't surprised some people were annoyed. Knowing this was the first stuff Millie G filmed as well is just crazy to me, she's so good, so confident in the role, you almost don't miss Ncuti because she commands the episode so deftly. It was a real triumph. I watched it twice and loved it even more the second time. I've said it before (in a comment on this channel, I believe) but it's so nice to be excited for Doctor Who every week again. Even if they're not all smash hits like this and "Boom!" - Doctor Who is fun and pulpy in a way it hadn't felt for a little while... naming no names. And I get a jboi vid the day after to boot. What more could a guy want?
@joe_brennan_ Dear friend, If you're looking for a reason to hate the prime minister character, I think you're overlooking the obvious... He was literally british donald trump. We still have this guy in court for almost a hundred crimes, and he's still running with a good chance of being president again 🙄 I wish I was Canadian 😢
I have this idea that in this episode Ruby is the fixed point in time at a super position of both 73 yards and 73 years. So she can change something that normally would be a fixed point because relative to it, she’s more stable. But to be that stable point, anyone that gets close to seeing the truth of her gets propelled back at an emotional version of the quantum level.
I love closed alternate loop SF/F. Mad Jack was trapped in the loop as soon as Ruby broke it, and that seems to be the thing most aren't snuffling out. Genesis of the Daleks and Blink still exist, so this isn't the best ever story, but it's breathing down the neck of Tomb of the Cybermen.
you know when Millie is talking to the TARDIS and she says "but if i could see you again I'd just- I'd absolutely love it" it felt so genuine and real and it just made her so adorable. she has the same accent as me, and usually when that's the case I'm really picky about the acting, but Millie absolutely killed it and i bought every second of her performance. When her mother abandoned her and changed the locks it really broke my heart. I'm constantly suprised by how this series manages to keep getting better, holy hell, surely it can't get any better than this?!
Easily my favorite this season and one of my favorite episodes of doctor who ever. And my greatest hope is that they never go out of their way to explain any of it or tell us how it all works
I've been thinking a lot about how to explain why I'm bothered by the lack of explanation in this episode, and I think it's two things. Before I explain, though, I should clarify that when I say "explanation" I mean things in the episode that indicate a fairly definite answer to most of the mysteries, not necessarily the verbal info dump that the Doctor or another character may do at times. e.g. If the reason the Old Ruby Lady was 73 yards away was so that young Ruby didn't recognise her and there was none of that crossing your own timeline drama, then having issues with meeting your past/future self being mentioned earlier in the episode would have been enough for people to make that connection once they knew the old woman was somehow Ruby, and be fairly certain about why, and not have it throw up more questions. That's what I mean by "explanation" - the episode explains it even if no character "spells it out" or "spoon feeds" it (although luckily I don't have an allergy to things sometimes being stated outright! 😏 haha just teasing people, don't mind it). Ok. The two reasons are related/pretty similar. The first reason was that the main focus and drive for the episode was the mystery. A lot of DW episodes involve mysteries in one way or another and not all of them are completely solved, but in those episodes the main focus, the main drive is not the mystery but something else such as surviving an immediate threat, saving someone, stopping the destruction of the world etc. So long as enough of the unknown aspects are discovered for that to be achieved, we feel relief and satisfaction at the end, even if we're left with some things to wonder about. Midnight, which many people have compared 73 Yards to in one way or another, is not about the mystery, it's about surving/escaping the threat of the Midnight creature. The mysteries are central to the plot, but they are not the point, they're not the main reason we're on the edge of our seat wanting to know what happens next. And so when we get to the resolution, we feel relief and satisfaction because they have managed to free themselves from the danger. They figured out just enough of the mystery to achieve this, and we don't feel dissatisfied that we are left with unanswered questions because they weren't the point of the episode and the main issues we were eagerly waiting to be resolved. For 73 Yards, the mysteries were the point of the episode. Although there were other things such as Ruby being alone or issues such as the Doctor disappearing and the dangerous PM, the main focus was always on the mysteries, the point was to make us feel confused and wonder, and the mysteries were what kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to see what happened next. Like an Agatha Christie novel where all the clues don't make sense and so you keep reading to get to that clever and perfect solution at the end. The main relief in the resolution of a story like this doesn't come from Ruby finally getting out of her situation, but from the mysteries finally being explained. The clues that didn't make sense finally coming together in a clever and neat solution. It's Doctor Who, so it doesn't even need to answer every little thing, but the main mysteries that the episode spent so much time on need to have enough of a reason indicated that there's the sense of relief and satisfaction. I get that not everyone "needed" this, but if you intentionally set the focus of an episode on mysteries, you are setting up a large chunk of your audience with the delightful anticipation of a satisfying solution. People are going to be left feeling unnecessarily empty. If you're a clever and careful enough writer, you can still have your unanswered mysteries, you just tweak the episode so that explaining the mysteries is not the core thing people are eagerly and tensely waiting for, even though they can still be highly important. Or you provide at least the minimum explanation to give people waiting for it a sense of a satisfying solution. The second reason is largely similar. It is simply that if you tease and emphasise a mystery to the audience, is there a point if you are never going to give an answer, or is it just bait with no other narrative point? I think for the people who are sincerely baffled that people "don't get" that this episode is supposed to be artistic and experimental and allow you to enjoy speculating (or think those people just can't see the possible solutions for things), the issue isn't about understanding, it's about what a writer sets you up to expect and what their intention is. I didn't personally enjoy that I was set up to expect the mysteries to be resolved but then they weren't, but I can understand that others enjoyed this (happy for them, it's nice to see). The fact remains that mysteries are typically used in writing to keep you hanging around for the solution. They don't always have to, but it is the most common reason writers use them. So, if we get to the final episode of this season say goodbye to Ruby, and never find out who her parents were and why she was abandoned, is that still acceptable? There are already enough hints for us to imagine a mutitude of explanation that might be possible or plausible, is it OK to leave it at that? Because this is the same as 73 Yards but at a whole-season level. It is important to acknowledge that if mysteries are presented and continually touched upon or emphasised as significant, it is reasonable to expect a somewhat full and concrete solution after all of the teasing. If RTD never solves the Ruby puzzle for us, maybe some people will love that open ending, but I don't think anyone would fail to understand why others would feel dissatisfied. Anyway, for anyone who has been feeling frustrated at why some people have been feeling so negative about an episode that you loved and critical of aspects of an episode that you enjoyed, maybe this will help you to understand the other perspective a little better. Personally, I enjoyed 99% of this episode, and after listening to people like Joe, I can appreciate why some people weren't disappointed by not having a proper answer to almost everything. Hopefully this helps explain why it was reasonable for some people to react with disappointment to the ending, and that it wasn't an issue of not being able to understand.
Honestly i didnt like my first watch but i am terribly ill. But after sitting on it and watching again i cannot stop thinking about it and even got dragged into a 3 hr rabbit hole of writeing down my thoughts on every scene and every possibility of what i think could be happening until i came to a sort of conclusion that felt right and ment somthing to me (and i love reading everyones interpretations. Amazing episode to fire up the brain and pretend i understand whats truely going on )
Love your interpretation of old Ruby's actions. We always expect some clear motivation. But actually, having complicated emotional background, processing traumatic experience, one not always acts logically, or even understands what they are doing and why. Self-sabotaging is something that happens quite often to emotionally vulnerable people
73 Yards Ruby is another example of “The Watcher”! She’s a ghost-zombie on the edge of life and death already, and doesn’t have thoughts or words or know what gestures she’s doing, but her “thoughts” or “words” are just strong emotions. It’s entirely possible the people who “talk” to her are receiving ghastly mind-melds, witnessing long moments of Armageddon and feeling the fires of hell. All they know is that Ruby must be left alone to avoid this future. It doesn’t make sense to ask what she was saying, since it’s not even proven that she has a face.
The scariest thing in this episode was the fact that there’s a monster that can make your own mother disown you. I mean, for people with good relationships with their parents, that is truly terrifying. It’s scary because healthy parents tell their kids that nothing could make them leave them; but according to this episode there is in fact a secret code of words that can make that happen. Which, let’s be realistic, is probably true irl My personal theory is the Woman said a different thing to each person. If it was established that she was psychic (unsure), then she’d know each person’s deepest secret fears. Also the whole episode I was low-key pleading for the Doctor to come back and fix all this. But he didn’t! He only came back because the mistake that “killed” him was undone. It was reassuring when Kate and UNIT turned up, to break the whole nightmare down with logic. But even that failed. 9/10 episode Missing a point because I don’t think it’s rewatchable. It’s honestly too glum and claustrophobic for me to watch regularly with snacks
This episode was an absolute gem! I was completely absorbed into the horror of this episode immediately (and I KNOW Ruby's initial outfit HAS to be a reference to Resident Evil 4 / Silent Hill 3 because this episode had those horror vibes). I definitely think this episode will tie into Ruby's overall arc, but I don't expect it to be directly referenced. More like we gain information that we can piece together as an explanation behind the ending of this episode.
I feel like the woman manifesting on the circle with the perception filter is what makes her what she is. I agree with the idea of her pushing the abandonment feeling into others and manifesting and creating her fears. I also feel it could be the woman actively changes how Ruby is perceived. She’s not invisible like the TARDIS, but she’s hyper visible, they see Ruby’s true face and that makes people run and hide
After watching this episode, I had a long discussion with my friend. She was firmly of the belief that leaving it so open was poor writing and the episodes conclusion should have tied up more loose threads, or at least given us more clues to figure out what happened ourselves. But I love the ambiguity, and I'm so happy you do too! I think it's brilliant that there isn't one definition of "this is what happened and why." It's so random and non sensical that you're forced to make your own hazy conclusions, which could differ greatly from someone else's. The open-endedness of it all made me much more engaged and fascinated long after the episode was over, causing me to seek others opinions online. Very happy to find someone like you sharing their opinions on the episode's conclusion that I actually agree with!
Tell me ALLLLLL your 73 Yards thoughts! (also I promise next week's video will be a little shorter, they just keep giving me too much to talk about)
I was struck by how everyone who approached the semper distans Ruby could only run away. Reminded me of what the Toymaker said he did when he met The One Who Waits. Makes me wonder if there's a connection, though like you, I would be satisfied or even find it preferable if this was unrelated.
dw about making it shorter bro, you could review it for like an hour and I'd still love listening
Didn't watch it and never will. As a long time fan of the show Ncuti, RTD and whatever that screeching guy in a dress from episode two is called all told me it was no longer aimed at me, I needn't watch and should "go touch grass"
The terms were acceptable to me and millions of other fans and now the show is dying in ratings. Good.
@@UranusMcVitieFish-yd7oq most obvious troll award
@@UranusMcVitieFish-yd7oq Why are you even here, buddy? There's no grass to touch in this comments section for a show you have no interest in anymore, it seems like you're a bit lost.
This episode gives us not enough information to understand exactly what’s happening but just enough information to make our own blurry conclusions. Kind of like trying to make out how a person looks 73 yards away…
I really like how the lack of a conclusive explanation seems to be the central theme of the episode, with Kate's line about people seeing something that makes no sense and trying to apply rules to it, as well as Elderly Ruby's reflection on how she never learned what happened to Carla and never found her birth mother. Connecting that back to the woman being close enough to see her but not close enough to make out many specific details just hits it home further for me.
Exactly! What a brilliant way to define the episode
The episode also calls back to Wild Blue Yonder (Susan Twist’s first episode) where the Doctor talks about the Tardis going to an outcrop by the sea & slowly decaying as people come and lay tributes around it. There’s a lot of stepping in this season. - Ruby steps on a butterfly, the Doctor steps on a mine, then steps on a Fairy circle (& Susan Twist’s hiker asks Ruby if she has stepped into something)
Wesley Crusher in a flowerbed, his eyes uncovered
Nice observation. I hadn't seen that. I *have* noticed that they've all been interconnected thematically, like a paper clip chain.
@@ChristyAbbeyI reckon Susan is the “storyteller” like a cosmos writer hence all the references to themes and stuff and narrators occasionally can incorporate themselves
@@The-Busy-Beeeee I can see that. Nice job!
@@ChristyAbbey thank you haha
Also the subtext is quite strong in this episode to. I mean think about it, your loved ones are told something that would make them fear and reject you, leaving you isolated, but then the thing that causes others to reject you, you take it and embrace it... I see what you did there Russell.
ohhhh I get it!!!
It's so moving! Taking power back from something that has hurt you is also very queer. Reclamation and focusing our pain into something good.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!
I came into this comment section to talk about how it was a mixed bag for me, how i loved the first half (and I mean like all time G.O.A.T episodes) but found the lack of answers frustrating (although I wasn’t looking for EVERYTHING to be answered).
And then I saw this…and I think I’ve changed my mind.
I actually feel very silly that I didn’t pick up that subtext at all.
Bravo! No notes!
@@60wattmoon not just something that hurt you, but something that hurt you that is “a part of you”
@@danthomassolo Exaclty! Yes! I should have been clearer, but I'm glad you clarified my point, haha.
I very much enjoyed Turn Left 2: Turn Harder
A sequel to Turn Left that understands the true horror isn’t apocalyptic events, it’s a bored, isolated existence
2 Turn 2 Left. lol
@@Joe_Brennan_it’s very Japanese in that way. I think Yahtzee said it best a long time ago when talking about Silent Hill that the Japanese approach to horror is being totally alone with something that hates you in a very passive aggressive way.
2 turn or not to turn... Oh, that's quite good
You should write that down
Turn Left 2: Continue forward for 73 yeards
Really love that Ruby doesn’t desperately wish the doctor was back or wait for him. Very soon into the episode she feels she has to come to terms that he’s gone and even assumes he’s left her. She’s not pleading for him to come out, she says she would really love it if he came back, but she doesn’t feel like she’s earned that from him. It’s a great insight into her. I feel like most companions would investigate why he’s gone, try to get him back. Be angry. But the tragedy of this which also ties into the episode generally is while Ruby is sad he’s gone, shes not very shocked. She’s never seen the tardis dematerialise so she might just assume the box shell stays for a while but he’s away on adventures. Her thinking is very sad. Someone’s left her again, and why shouldn’t they?
its such a minor thing but ruby asking "that woman can you see her" to people makes me adore her like in her head shes already processed this could be alien and she could be alone and her adapting her language from "can you ask if shes seen the doctor" to "can you ask if shes seen my friend black guy 5'10" since she doesn't want the extra questions of "do you need a doctor" i dont know its so good you can see her mind working and adapting to her situation, shes very capable. the roger plotline could've had more.
I really like this observation, that’s a sharp bit of writing from RTD. He’s very good at thinking of things that may not occur naturally to a writer but really go towards realising a wonderful human character.
I’ve seen some say that the ending was disappointing because Ruby didn’t get to keep all those years of character development but I don’t think that was the point. We the audience got to see what she is capable of. That’s great character development! I love, love, love Ruby after this episode and can’t wait to see where they take her character now.
I think the fact that she remembered having been to Wales sort of implies that she maybe has some residual memory of it.
Why did the prime minister resign?
@@ginjamuthashe also seems to remember the time subconsciously! At the end she says she’s been to wales 3 times but she’s technically only been twice, unless she remembers the last time this time happened
This one didn't feel like a doctor who episode and felt way more like an A24 supernatural horror
I absolutely loved it and it's now up there as one of my favourite episodes
I’m so glad to hear it
It reminds me of Bo is Afraid in a way
Idk, I like that Roger ap Gwilliam is just some arrogant playboy who blunders his way through his lack of knowledge or skill with a cheeky grin and a shrug, it's very Trumpian in just how absurd it is. I know it doesn't feel real, but that seems to be politics MO as of late
I suppose that works
@@Joe_Brennan_ I mean, yeah, I don't blame you, I felt the same way, literally "really Russel, you can't think of a better fascism allegory than literally wanting to fire a nuke?" but, is it that crazy? People seem up in arms when some politicians even mildly suggest we get rid of our nuclear arsenal, and I've heard some MP's say some exceptionally dumb things on television without even being prompted, like that Tory who asked a question time viewer if Rwanda and the Congo are different countries.
I saw a review that refused to give their political party but lamented the fact that using red, white, and blue and the phrase Albion linked him directly to the current Tory party and wanted them to use a fake political party. Also said Doctor Who shouldn't be getting political. These people obviously have no idea what Doctor Who is about.
The way you describe him feels more Boris Johnson than Donald Trump.
To me, he feels like a combination of Johnson’s skill for deceit and narcissism along with Trump’s nefarious sociopathy.
The whole "No more" speech also felt very Brexit.
I find it interesting, that Russel told us that Susan Twist is not really relevant to the plot and they just ran out of actors, but in this episode Ruby remembers seeing her before, when she meets her hiking. So I think he either lied or he's just teasing us with something that won't have any meaning in the future, just because he can
Lol I think he obviously lied
Rule one:- The showrunner lies... 😂
That was very obviously a lie lmao
That wasn’t even a lie - he was just playing around
What if it wasn't a lie? What if the Doctor and Ruby are stuck in a TV show? And Susan Twist's various characters are a sign of that.
This might not be a popular take, but I liked the stuff with Marti and the implication that she was sexually abused by Mad Jack, even if that subplot was a bit clunky. I'm a survivor of sexual abuse myself and it's led to a lot of both internal and external isolation. It's part of why I resonated so much with Ruby in this episode, so for her to sit down with someone who's also been through that and have that moment of connection with her, it felt very right. I wouldn't judge anyone for finding it tasteless but it meant a lot to me
i completely agree! And the joy Marti felt when he ran off the stage felt so rewarding, knowing the hopelessness she felt so deeply before. I appreciated it, personally.
Even if that's true it was very badly done. All we know is she says he is a and as other reviewers have said why didn't she walk away leave the job or go to the police. And when she sees him run away she gave this really crazy insane laugh. If this was about sexual abuse it was handled really badly and insensitively.
@@CyberSlammer2024 The reason she didn't leave the job or go to the police is pretty obvious if you think about it for a minute. She didn't leave the job because she thought stopping Roger was part of the curse. She didn't go to the cops because she didn't have any concrete proof and these things are notoriously difficult to prove even when the abuser isn't highly influential. Plus Marti herself didn't tell Ruby to do anything. Going to the cops when you've been sexually abused is really fucking hard and retraumatising, so Ruby going there on Marti's behalf would've been even worse.
I much prefer SA stories like this over stories that make a graphic spectacle of the abuse and then don't bother to show the full emotional aftermath. The entire episode was about the emotional experience of something happening to you that you don't understand, that isolates you and sticks in the back of your mind whatever you do, and having to live the rest of your life with that instead of "defeating" it. It puts people in the head of someone who has to live with that trauma better than most media I've seen that deals with it, and it did it without showing the abuse actually happening. It made me feel seen and understood on a visceral level so I just don't understand the critique that it's insensitive
@@mirawest8510 I actually meant that the victim could have left the situation Or gone to the police. I'm not saying it would have been easy but a very sensitive subject like this was handled quite badly.
@@mirawest8510 I agree with what you're saying in principle, however I disagree that this was what was showed in the episode.
All we saw about Marty was that she was liked by the politician, the next thing we know she's calling him a monster.
When I first saw it I thought he was going to be revealed as a zygon or something. ( A real monster)
Calling someone a monster doesn't mean it's sexual abuse, it could have been all manner of things but it wasn't explored or explicitly explained.
So rather than leave the situation or go to the police she stays. No explanation was given for that either.
We didn't see much more of her other than at the football stadium behaving really weirdly and laughing like a maniac when the politician ran off.
There was nothing further about her character or how she felt or what happened to her after, it was literally about four naff scenes.
I agree with what you're saying principle but the character was very badly written and the situation was so obtuse that it made no real sense.
Victims should be heard yes, and listened to, of course but people are assuming that he sexually abused her, just because she called him a monster.
For all we know she might have fallen in love and kept begging him to marry her and he told her to fuck off and in her mind that was him being a monster.
We have never see any real interaction between the two of them, we have no idea what went on, people make unfounded assumptions.
I'm sorry to hear you have been the victim of sexual abuse, I hope you are recovering from it and thank you for sharing your thoughts on the situation even though we may disagree! :)
I’m sure others have posted or said this better.. So, as I’ve read elsewhere, the sign language translation is “bless you, thank you for the gift. It is precious. I hope to think of a way to repay you” (something like that). When she dies, the gift Old Ruby receives is to witness herself when she’s young and happy. She says something in the ep at the end that it’s so great to see herself “look how young I am”. And the gift Old Ruby gives to Young Ruby is that message “Dont step” saving Young Ruby from the timeline where she loses her family and stays alone and never discovers her birth mother, etc. … just some thoughts 10/10 episode
still no explanation for HOW everything happened
Whyd you read it?
@@skeleton819supernatural shit doesn't need an explanation tbh especially ghosts as we know nothing really about it irl
@@The-Busy-Beeeee other things were eventually explained in doctor who like the silence
@@The-Busy-Beeeee in that case you might as well just write any old crap with stuff happening and no explanation. If the excuse for it is going to be It's supernatural then what's the point watching it's just going to be pointless nonsense.
Something that's really solidifying for me is that this season is probably the wildest and most creative season we've ever had? We're halfway through now and we've had goblins singing a song about eating babies, one traditional adventure with an extremely bizarre premise, an episode that pretends to be a historical and becomes a confrontation with a god for the fate of the world, a bottle episode where the Doctor can't move, and now a lifetime spanning supernatural horror where the Doctor is erased immediately and most of the mysteries get no explanation (For the better, in my opinion. This story would not be better if you knew what the woman said to people, for instance). And next week looks like it might be doing something along the lines of Blink but in a more sci-fi setting, we'll see how accurate that impression actually is?
TLDR: Any fears I had that we were just going to go back to making the show feel like it did in 2008 with nothing new brought to the table have all but vanished by this point. I genuinely have no idea what to expect from the remaining episodes and that's the most exciting feeling.
The baby story is about stories which is inherently normal but is about truth coming from a bedtime story
So true. Knowing the titles but not having a clue what to expect from the remaining serials is almost addictive. For the first time in what has got to be a full decade now, I'm struggling to wait a week to just get into the next story. Its so satisfying to feel this show back on the rise!
@@brandonwinchester4564 True! My point is more that it's the most traditional "yep that's a Doctor Who adventure" setup in the season (at least so far), and the premise is "space station run by talking babies". It's like, the least normal normal episode possible and I have a lot of respect for it for that.
How so? The majority of the episodes are just reused concepts, scenes and plots lol
@@charg1nmalaz0r51 that’s all art basically
If anything I'm terrified of Ruby. She also defiled the circle. Whatever happened quite happily removed the doctor from the universe, and we've seen what happens when people try that, but this time the universe went on. However whatever happened didn't or maybe even couldn't remove ruby the same way, which ended up being it's downfall
It simply removed Ruby's POV reality from the Doctors. I assume she is special somehow. It is entirely possible the circle has nothing to do with it and it was all caused by Ruby.
RTD in the BTS vid says Ruby and the Doctor broke the circle carelessly and because it was a sacred thing they are punished - he gets deleted and she goes thru a penitence purgatory thing to make it all right again.
Wot if Ruby went on a rollercoaster that went up really high? would the woman just get chucked around?
This is the kind of question that the terrible hack fraud RTD should have addressed
@@Joe_Brennan_ really hope someone got fired for that blunder
@@Joe_Brennan_i like that the episode addressed these kinds of questions by having ruby say that she was worried something could happen if she went somewhere the woman would be unable to follow, like on a plane
She seems to teleport or something rather than walk, so best guess, she'd probably keep popping up on park architecture at 73 yards from wherever Ruby happens to see her
She seems to teleport or something rather than walk, so bust guess, she'd probably keep popping up on park architecture at 73 yards from wherever Ruby happens to see her
It might be initial hype, but i genuinely rank this with Blink. People have been asking so many questions, but its ambiguity is part of its beauty. Not all of Doctor Who needs to be explained with an exposition dump at the end.
I'd rank it in my top 4, I reckon: Blink, Midnight, 73 Yards and Heaven Sent. Not sure what order I'd put those in.
@@ChristianTamblyna man of taste I see. All of those episodes certainly belong in the same group of episodes. All very experimental with the usual format.
Its not ambigous because its clever though, its ambiguous because its full of plotholes that people are desperately trying to patch away
@@charg1nmalaz0r51 explaining all of the magic tricks after the show doesn't make the show better. Fill in the details yourself. It's more fun that way anyway.
What if Doctor Who was called freaky who and it was about the doctor going around getting freaky?
Show wouldn’t be that different
freaky who was the pitch for torchwood
I thought it was pretty wild how one of the strongest episodes of the series didn't even have The Doctor in :')
It's sometimes the way!
@@Joe_Brennan_ Like Blink, for example! Series 3 was amazing but oh man the run of episodes from Human Nature to The Last of the Timelords were pure bangers!!!
@@RobTFilmsthe Doctor Lite episodes are often some of my favourites. Turn Left is a masterpiece and incidentally part of one of the greatest running streaks on Doctor Who - the back half of series 4 from Silence In The Library to Journey’s End is unassailably good.
@@danthomassolo How the Daleks are defeated in Journey's End is always far too silly for how dramatic the rest of the story is
You’ve echoed my sentiments. I came away saying, “This is ‘Black Mirror’ good.” The sense of dread I felt was palpable and awful, and I immediately went from “What is she saying?” …to a more internal… “What are you (me) afraid someone could say about you that would make people shun you? What do you keep secret?” It all clicked from there, and I knew, instinctually, we weren’t getting an answer. Nothing Davies could’ve written could satisfy that feeling of dread and horror.
This episode reminded me of Black Mirror in so many ways
My take on how shallow Roger ap Gwilliam is as a character is that its... kinda the point? The fairy trap was holding the Mad Jack entity in check, and once it was released, it manifested in Roger (who would have been a baby at the start of the story) and then set out to do what it does, which is apparently cause so much harm that reality would warp itself fundamentally to defend itself by creating this curse. Ruby suffers in a closed loop so that she can get the opportunity to avert the suffering and death of millions or billions.
Of course, I'm just a human, seeing something that doesn't make sense, and applying rules to it. So what do I know?
Great time watching, as usual Joe!
That episode reminded me that fairies are canon in the DW universe since the first season of Torchwood. They’re mean, wrathful creatures who can time travel. Wonder if it’s gonna come back again.
I do hope so I rather liked the fairies in that episode
73 Yards is so far my favourite episode of the series, I absolutely loved the psychological thriller feel to it, with great suspense. I love the little paradoxical loop of this timeline that both must always be and will never be, with it (sort of) closing itself off at the end. I felt like it all tied together well and it had 100% of my attention the entire time through. However I've found most people I know were left confused by what they just watched without any explanation at the end.
This is the first episode of Doctor Who in a very long time that I have literally been non stop thinking about almost 2 days after watching. The more I think the more I get from the episode. It's really bigger on the inside. I feel like it will only get better with time and will become a cult classic
Genuinely, I think this is gonna stay in my top 5 stories for Doctor Who. I love that we didn't get answers for everything, loved how immediately intriguing and creepy it was and Millie was absolutely perfect.
I’m glad I’m not alone in thinking of this so positively
I think the reason gwilliam was so cartoonishly evil is because he was born when the doctor broke the circle so he was possessed by the spirit of mad jack which set him on his path
As I commented on another video, this one has properly shaken me in a deep and indelible way. As you seem to agree, this perfectly captured the feeling of abandonment trauma for me, and how it becomes a self-perpetuating thing. People leave you with no sensible reason, and you know it’s because of you but not necessarily the right reason that it is you. You try to find reason and purpose in that, but ultimately it is meaningless. The lack of answers and the emotional effect of leaving you with a sense of trepidation waiting for the next shoe to drop are features not bugs. That’s how abandonment trauma feels. You never get answers there, and you have to come to terms with that.
It is kind of crazy how seemingly out of the way people are going to dislike this episode
Even crazier is that they believe that the majority of people who watch DW are with them. Their delusion is insane.
It’s not going out of the way to understand that the episode has no point in existing. Nothing gets stopped, nothing is learned, and there is no meaningful impact on the characters. So many of the unanswered questions we’re left with are ones that are vital to the plot.
What happened to the Doctor, and why? Who’s going to deal with Roger now that Ruby isn’t there to oppose him? Why was Ruby only taken back in time near the end of her life? _Why_ was she taken back? How did old Ruby suddenly gain the power to make others abandon her younger self, and what did she say to make that happen?
Other, slightly less important questions include: Why didn’t UNIT recover the TARDIS? How are there going to be any high-stakes episodes set on Earth when we now know that nothing bad happens for the next _60 years?_ What were all of old Ruby’s hand gestures for? What was stopping Ruby from having a normal life after Roger when all she had to do was _not_ mention the woman to anyone?
If an episode leaves you with so many important questions that don’t get even a _hint_ of an answer, then that means that someone, somewhere, has failed to make a coherent story.
I'm surprised that people had a problem with Ruby's ageing. I guess they could have done a little more to make her look more 40, but ageing make-up is so easy to do badly that I think I'd always prefer the alternative. I was definitely relieved when I saw that they just used a different actress for her as an 80 year old!
I thought it was a little odd that Ruby didn’t seem to age much for those first 20 years. But at the same time in defense of that, I’m also in my mid-30s and still look like I did when I was in high school.
Wearing a pair of glasses does not make you older - Ruby looked like a 20+ old woman wearing glasses and not a 40 year old Ruby.
Also it would legit very funny if Susan Twist turns out to be nothing. Just a genuinely reused actor in several unrelated roles, and RTD is just having fun.
Would be great, hasn’t detracted from anything at all
I might be way off, but I was under the impression that "Mad Jack" was some kind of malevolent entity that got released from the fairy circle. So Roger ap Gwilliam (sp?) being a bit cartoonishly destructive kind of made sense to me.
Yeah that's what I thought too, maybe he was some kind of demonic figure that fed on death or destruction and that's why he wanted to set off a nuke. I would have liked a little more of that in the episode, even if it's just an implication.
@@stanley5745I don't think this aspect of the story isn't quite over yet as the "knot" theme keeps coming back ans also consequences for a seemingly small action (the stepping)
@@The-Busy-Beeeee You might be right! I kind of hope this story is self-contained, but there is a lot of recurring themes and I have no idea where they're going with it .
@@stanley5745 same tbh who knows maybe the main theme is literally tying the story up again, I have a theory that Susan is actually like the god of stories or something, and ruby has ties with or is the spirit of chrismas
It's not just "what could she say to turn people on her", it's "what gave her so much power to make them believe that no matter what." They spelled out that UNIT soldiers "with full psychic training" still fell under her "spell". And it is a spell-like level of power. And sure, I see both sides of either needing or not needing answers, but I don't think it would've taken much more for the ending to do *something* to satisfy why whatever she said had such absolute power. Still good, I just think it's kind of a "mystery box" episode without enough thought put into what's in that box.
I don't think she said anything, I think she was just terrifying, then people made the connection that it's actually Ruby so they become afraid of her too
The whole thing is part of a weird supernatural curse so the sudden powers feel fairly handwaveable
@@Joe_Brennan_Kate iirc did say something about maybe the fairy circle being in some sense "boosted" by the Tardis' perception filter. As far as I'm concerned that's sufficient Sci fi handwave
@@TheCagedCorvidI don't even think it's that. I think she just pours pure unadulterated cosmic horror directly into people's brains and rewires them. "ASK HER!"
@@Joe_Brennan_ Yeah, I think the fay circle was just punishing Ruby with her worst fears.
My reaction to this episode in real-time as I watched it was gushing over how much I loved it, and realizing I could honestly consider this a peer to Blink & Turn Left, a new addition to the greats of Doctor-lite stories
You forgot Love and Monsters
@Joe_Brennan_ True, as much as I love it, it has a different enough vibe it didn't come to mind as a contemporary in the moment, but that shouldn't exclude it from the list
@@Joe_Brennan_ I can't tell if this is tongue in cheek or not (this is the first video of yours I've seen) but I am an unironic Love and Monsters fan
in dr who unleashed they say the woman is doing sign language saying something along the lines of thank you for giving me something precious how will i ever repay you so i kind of like the thought she is reaching out to herself to thank the woman/herself for not abandoning her. like near the end of the episode i think she says something about never being alone bc the woman was always there
One of the best Doctor lite stories in my view.
It’s joined a strong group that’s for sure
So to summarize: As I understand it , the Doctor breaks the circle. Ruby is shunted into a time loop where somehow she is haunted by her future self. She uses her unique relationship with herself to stop Mad Jack (Roger ap Gwillian) from escaping the loop into the real world. Then she has to live through the loop until the end/beginning comes round again so she can warn herself and prevent the circle from being broken. It is a sort of bootstrap paradox.
As for the running away, I think there is a perception filter on Ruby. Whatever she is, getting close to the old lady version of her turns off the filter on the young version (like the filter can’t exist on both simultaneously). The old lady never actually looks at or says anything to the people. They look back and then freak. Whatever people see when they look back at the young version terrifies them, so they run away. There is this hypothesis running around that she is the Trickster’s daughter from Sarah Jane Adventures. Maybe she is? Or something even worse?
I love your point about the people in the pub being in with her on the supernatural fear and then, when it's revealed they're joking, that she's left all on her own again. Really adds to the themes of abandonment.
As for the episode overall, I adored it the first time through until the ending, when I found there were so many loose ends and things that didn't quite make sense or were narratively unsatisfying. Then I watched it again, hoping that those wouldn't matter on second viewing, and thankfully they didn't. I enjoyed it just as much as the first time through, and this time I had already worked out and voiced my annoyances, so I was able to just love this episode for everything it did character and atmosphere-wise.
This is easily one of my all-time favorite Doctor Who episodes: a plot that explores the characters more than whatever nebulous Sci-fi/cosmic horror is operating as the vehicle.
Honestly, I feel like all the RTD juice was poured into 73 Yards and Wild Blue Yonder (hopefully at least one more this season), because everything that bothers me about the other episodes is absent, and what it shares with the Great Episodes it has in spades.
The laser focus on Ruby makes this episode shine, because aside from thinking she’s hopeful, kind, and takes no shit, Ruby has mostly been kind of… “meh” for me. I like that she can take most of the Doctor-related shenanigans in stride, but that does often slide into plot-convenience rather than actual character development.
73 Yards does a marvelous job of taking those scant attributes and blooming them into a beautiful character.
Ruby, seemingly abandoned and certainly followed, stumbles her way towards what she hopes are answers and is only met with stories and jokes and, then, more abandonment and isolation. She holds out for as long as she can before deciding that maybe there are no answers to be had, only home to return to.
Then Ruby is haunted by the horror of the absolute: she IS being followed, and she WILL be abandoned because of it.
Enter Kate Stewart and UNIT, the experts, the people that take care of EVERYTHING because they can piece together enough of an answer to help. The only breath of fresh air Ruby gets before she has to go under again. Because UNIT isn’t immune, for all their preparations, all their answers, they cannot give her answer, will not because they abandon her too.
Years slip by, people slide in and out of Ruby’s life. And then a familiar name calls Ruby from the reverie of the things that keeps everybody at a distance. The name of certain danger.
He’s the Everyman, and people call him “mad”, a badge he wears with honor. But he has ideas, dangerous ideas that will hurt people; but he doesn’t care because he’ll get what he wants. And no one else cares either, because they’re more than happy to give him the keys to the castle if it means that maybe they can get what they want.
And Ruby holds his coat.
It’s where she needs to be, at a distance, close enough to see and be seen, but not close enough to be taken in. Semperdistans.
Because Ruby needs to be certain, she’ll stand by and let Mad Jack’s colors be shown before she takes that most decisive action, a future balanced on the edge of a knife and easily tipped one way or the other. Because of something you see in the distance, something you don’t even fully understand.
And then Ruby goes on until the end of her life, always abandoned, never alone, but no longer haunted by the absolute. She didn’t have answers in the end, but she did have hope. And from the distance, she keeps another Ruby from walking in her footsteps. Semperdistans.
The start reminded me of an episode in welsh folklore when a man on a horse is trying to catch up to a woman on the road and she just walks away from him no matter how fast the horse gallops. Its such a cool idea. I love that the show can still reinvent itself endlessly to surprise us. Folklore cool bring it on lets slip more of that in for a while I'll take it all with a pinch of salt.
this episode was actually so good but in a brilliantly dreadful way, watching it at 1am on my own was totally wild
it was a horrible episode of just "totally break the audience surrogate", at least in the start of it. it does a fantastic job of building this intense and almost suffocating sense of dread, even with roger ap gwilliam - even in the later acts it still held its ground
i loved how there was no concrete ending, i loved how strange it was
some part of me wanted it to be 60m, but then it sort of sunk in that we don't need a total explanation for everything. the ending looking back i thought was great, just the right amount of surreal. if ruby questions things then why shouldn't we, the audience, do the same?
loved it so much
I also watched it at 1am on my own so it’s clearly the way to experience it
It really is man. Glad you liked it cuz the reception's been insane.
I say it in the video but I was SHOCKED to learn the extent of the division here
BUT WE DIDN'T GET ANSWERS AND MY TINY BRAIN NEEDS AN EXPLANATION FOR THE LORE!
@@alexrobertssingsThis kind of belittling is the type of thing Joe calls out in the video. Wanting an explanation for why the plot of the episode happens isn't exactly unreasonably pedantic. Totally get how people can enjoy the episode without that, but there's no need to demean those who like more explanation.
@@Fff99901 I get that but a lot of people that are demanding an explanation are falling back to insulting the episode for lazy writing and not spoon feeding them the answer to them immediately. I understand wanting an explanation but the episode isn't bad or lazy because you didn't get one.
@alexrobertssings hot take but getting an explanation would spoil the episode would ruin it.
This is probably my favourite episode since like Demons of the Punjab (proper good episode that one is). I don't think that 73 Yards woman was ALWAYS Ruby I think she was something entirely different and was only partly Ruby at the end of the episode. The pub scene was amazing and I do need a full episode exactly like that but I still love the rest of the episode. Phenomenal 47 minutes of television.
A dangerous right wing extremist politician rose to power and prominence in the UK - oh that happened in Doctor Who too.
On an unrelated note Joe along with Ben Shapiro it’s also your fault I now know Laurence Fox exists.
I just need to stop mentioning bad people
Ironically enough, the PM resigned on the same week that 73 yards aired. Almost like he also saw the woman/ghost
@@Lucien_M I mean he didn't exactly resign but with every day that passes it definitely seems that way
unless the old people have their way
It would be nice to have all knowledge of Laurence Fox disappear from my brain.
@@regnadkcin6702 I really liked "Lewis" though. Sucks that I can't bear to look at him.
the scene in the hospice is probably the most scared i've ever been by a doctor who episode, the atmosphere this episode builds is insanely good
I was very confused at the end of the episode, but I still was very uncomfortable and honestly scared the whole episode
Honestly I just wish the ending was a little less abrupt. After all that the episode did, I didn't feel like it gave enough closure. But I really liked the rest of the episode, and the concept itself was amazing.
Also i think the confused continuity of the season as a whole added to my confusion of this episode in particular.
I think maybe it could’ve done with a bit more time on the ending but I was still okay with it
felt like a combo of turn left and curse of clyde langer
Two phenomenal things to copy
@@Joe_Brennan_ true never said that was a bad thing just was saying
This was the first episode that Millie Gibson acted in. Such a mature performance for an 18 year old. Awesome.
Generally, I enjoyed "73 Yards" immensely. The spooky tone that builds and builds until Ruby "figures out" what she's meant to do about Roger ap Gwilliam, at which point it feels more like a standard DW outing but with a supernatural solution. Seeing Kate turn up as a friend and potential savior, only to lose her like all the rest who approached the Woman was a beautiful twist. I can see where the ending lost some people, but RTD has conditioned me to realize that not every standout episode requires spelling out every last detail.
On a humorous note, I firmly believe RTD must have seen _An American Werewolf in London_ shortly before writing this. The creepy pub scene with the disturbing patrons was a mild clue, but when Aneurin Barnard turns up looking like a modern-day Griffin Dunne, we were well past the point of coincidence. Your Mileage May Vary.
I think there's a disappointing aversion to ambiguity that exists in a lot of Doctor Who fans that, I'm going to be honest, makes me sad. 99% of episodes explain themselves entirely and give you all the answers; Can we really not hold space for ONE EPISODE that's actually this bold, artistic, and experimental? Is the universe and potential of sci-fi and fantasy so limited that it must be fully understood by humans on a literal level on first viewing? It makes me feel like some people don't want Doctor Who to be more than people being chased down corridors by scary monsters. I honestly wish Doctor Who could be this strange and artsy more often, because it's such a special show, with such a weird concept already. Why not lean in and just make cool art sometimes?
"Blink" is a really experimental episode for Doctor Who, and the ambiguity of the Weeping Angels made them something truly special, and then what happens? We get five more stories with the Angels and they lose all of their sparkle. They die thematically. They become just another alien. I've even read comments in the past of people wanting the creature from "Midnight" to return so we can know what it was. Why? Whyyyyyy would you want that? And it's the same with "73 Yards." We got something beautiful, something personal and dreamy and abstract, and it seems like a lot of people either want to flatten it to an easily digestible form or get angry that it asks a little more of the audience than the typical episode. It's a 10/10.
Mostly agree with this take. I was surprised to find out it wasn’t universally liked bbl, for me this is probably my new second favourite episode after heaven sent. I think people are putting too much emphasis on questions that could have many plausible answers that would make total sense. Also I really liked the Gwilliams subplot since I felt like the actor managed to act in a way that is so reminiscent of some politicians, especially during that interview scene, where he is able to act charming and put together and twisting arguments towards the topics he is interested in, all while keeping an air of menace to the viewer wherever he goes. And I don’t think his motives are as flat as everyone seems to be saying, to me it didn’t feel like his motivation was to just launch a nuke, more like he was willing to launch should he find some reason to do so (even if he reason is small relative to the degree of the response) and knowing his character he was likely to launch at some point.
*liked by people (idk why TH-cam is refusing to let me edit this comment)
I dunno how I feel about it, but the thought occured that Mr Evil Welshman is the Minister of War that got mentioned in Before the Flood
Mr evil welshman is my favourite
Honestly, I think you may be onto something here.I have the feeling we'll be seeing more of Mr Evil Welshman
I agree with basically everything you said. 10/10 for me and it honestly might crack my top 10 of all Doctor Who episodes ever. I feel like not getting every answer you want is part of what makes the episode intriguing. You also described basically how I felt watching the whole episode which was pretty much that it kept getting better and better as it went on. I didn't keep track of the episode length while watching cause I felt super invested in the episode. All around classic as far as I'm concerned though.
Really lucky she ended up in her current day
I suppose it didn’t give her a huge advantage really. For the first bit she had a home to go back to, but she lost it fairly quickly
@@Joe_Brennan_ true, though I guess it did give her access to her money to build off of for the rough parts at the start, but as time went on it mattered less and less
When she asked if she could pay with her phone and the landlady acted confused, I thought for a second maybe she was in the recent past. Before phone payment technology / online banking was a common thing
Have been watching this new era with my girlfriend who is new to Who and while she has definitely enjoyed the rest of the show this was the first episode that really caught her attention and had her speculating!
She's a keeper 😊
I really liked 73 Yards! I thought it was really well done and wonderfully creepy. Also I don't usually notice this but I thought the direction this episode was just perfect. I think thematically and in terms of Ruby's character it's a really rich episode. The woman being effectively a manifestation of Ruby's fear that everyone will eventually abandon her, caused by the trauma of growing up knowing even the person who brought her into this world didn't want her. But also because she is Ruby she also manifests as the effect of that, always maintaining distance and in that way actually pushing people out of her life.
I find that sort of richness of character and themes much more relevant than knowing the exact mechanics of what's going on. It's clearly a very supernatural thing, caused by the breaking of something magical that once might not have necessarily been, so I think rather than it being a case of "I wonder what she said" to me it's more that it doesn't really matter what she said. Cause even if it's a manifestation of Ruby, it's also clearly not the same Ruby we know, at least not until the second time around. "Why did the Doctor disappear? Because he broke the fairy circle." is a perfectly reasonable explanation to me, especially with the supernatural elements that are constantly being accentuated.
I do wish the whole thing Roger ap Gwilliam was done with more depth though. I feel like politically he's just a guy who really wants to launch nukes and doesn't even make that much of an effort to conceal it. There's nothing showing society's decline in such a way that it'd so majorly accept such a man like there was in Turn Left, for example. It just doesn't feel like Russell was meeting his own standard of political commentary there, for something that felt like a major part of the episode. As with every episode, I feel the short runtime is seriously hampering the ability of stories to be firing on all cylinders.
Also one more closing thought, I think I liked Boom more and compared to it I think this is further from RTD's best than Boom was from Moffat's best.
I thought this episode was absolutley amazing. It really explores the darker implications of travelling with the doctor, and i thought the fact that this horrible life that old ruby lived is now just gone and completely over was a complete gut punch, that we really don't see enough of in who.
I was gripped throughout and I think all involved did a fantastic job. I'd say it worked brilliantly as a study of exclusion and learning to accept one's limitations. I would have liked a little more explanation as to how/why end-of-life Ruby did what she did... in connection with her younger self. On the other hand, I'm happy that they left what the woman was actually saying... as an unknown.
Straight after watching (Sat morn for me), for some reason I googled, rather than heading to Twitter... and was happy to see the Independent describe the episode as a "five-star knockout" and the Guardian label it a "stone-cold classic".
This episode actually really reminded me of mark gatiss' m.r. james ghost story for Christmas things. I'm not sure what exactly it is but it really feels like exactly that kind of vibe
Definitely! It's not one of the Mark Gatiss adaptations, but I was weirdly reminded of the 2010 Whistle and I'll Come to You film (which of course is M.R. James too)
I’d love to see a historical episode with M R James, like a Christmas special.
I got strong MR James vibes too, particularly at the start. There was something about the colour grading and shot choice that made me remember the 70s and 80s adaptations.
I absolutely loved 73 Yards. It's the first episode this season to entirely sell me, though I loved The Devil's Chord and enjoyed Space Babies, but this was just everything I wanted from a Doctor Who episode, and is the only episode since Davies took back over to honestly nail the ending, as controversial as that take seems to be.
Next week looks like a fun, light-hearted episode before we really dig into the lore of Ruby Sunday.
I hope it delivers on the fun
I saw the episode as being largely about the power of the human mind to effect reality beyond the inside of our minds. Ruby's creation of "the rules" that put her in this situation restrict her more than anything. She strands herself in the country and doesn't help Marti because she's waiting for the moment. The woman for me was a manifestation of self-doubt and other intrusive things in our minds who stops her from living a full and happy life. She even constructs this idea of getting rid of Gwilliam will stop her which reminds me of that nagging feeling "If I do this, then I'll be happy" It never goes away, her doubt allows follows which impacts her life drastically.
Gwilliam needs people to believe him, to buy into his message. Influenced minds impacting reality as he makes that powergrab. It really hit me, the whole way through. The layers, the interpretation, the way Russell nicked my exact fears both rational and irrational and plastered them on my tv screen in the dark at midnight. 10/10
I’d given up on the show in season 11, I was so disappointed. I picked up again with these specials and wild blue yonder was definitely the one which reminded me of what I used to love about the show. I couldn’t sit through space babies and started losing trust again but boom brought it back and now with 73 yards I couldn’t believe I was actually leaning forward towards my screen in anticipation.
Not only do I feel trust in a companion again, but I am actively engaging in thinking about this episode days after seeing it. 73 yards is a gem!
Maybe it’s the guilt of letting Gwilliam prey upon and continually assault that woman that makes Ruby punish herself into a life of isolation from those she cares about.
That’s just a guess as to why Russel included it. Millie Gibson did say in Unleashed that the thing she imagines the Woman saying is “I’m sorry.”
Just for the record I agree with you on this episode. Absolutely outstanding.
Glad to hear I’m not alone!
I agree 100% with you that we always try to ascribe meaning to things, even those that are not meant to make sense.
I do have an interpretation of what went on. The magic ward was put there in that liminal space (between land and sea, past and future, multiple realities) by a person (or fairies?) who "divinated" roger ap william coming into existence. The ward was meant to prevent that. The doctor - being a time traveller who often crosses multiple timelines - did know about roger ap william, but william's rise to power in the episode's timeline came as a consequence of the ward being disturbed. Ghost lady is old ruby stuck in a loop trying to tell ruby to not disturb the ward, and all the stuff that happens to people that try to get close to ghost lady are part of the spell / ward locking ruby into place until the ward is restored.
I guess if she didn't stop him, she'd have died in the Nucelar disaster too, so wouldn't have made the end of the loop? Something was up with Mrs Flood, I was sure she was distracting Ruby at a key moment as her mum walked to the woman
I almost felt like it was a reminder that Mrs Flood existed but not in a way that made her involved. She even goes “nothing to do with me!” in what I thought was a fun meta moment signalling us that it’s not her time yet
@@Joe_Brennan_ Possible, I took it as the opposite, her saying she's not involved to hint in reality, she was somehow aware of and maybe even controlling the whole thing. Half a season to go so I hope we get something from her.
@@joshbarkley4403 that was my thoughts too. I thought everyone would be speculating about this line after watching the episode but this so the first time I’m seeing literally anyone else talk about it lol
I think the doctor messing up with the time Ruby is from is going to be important later. because in the devils chord he had to ask Ruby for the specific month, this time he messed up even the year. I think this is setting up a reveal later and the doctor's memory is getting worse or is meddled with somehow.
I dunno, the Doctor being absent minded and forgetful is pretty par for the course. The audio ‘Caerdroia’ even argues that it’s one of his defining aspects, as when the Doctor gets split into three different people, one of the Doctors is just a personification of that “head in the clouds, zero awareness of danger” side of him.
According the pub sign, Y Pren Mawr was established in 1863 - the same year Welsh politician and future U.K. prime minister David Lloyd George was born. It’s a neat nod from writer Davies, given the episode features a future Welsh politician who becomes PM (Roger ap Gwilliam). U.S. This was the same year Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address - a moment that was watched by the First Doctor and his companions on the TARDIS’ Time-Space Visualizer during the 1965 adventure, “The Chase.”
For me, the most affecting part of 73 Yards was the feeling of isolation and background dread it created. Most doctor who episodes are have some monster or villian, but in this episode the villian is just kind of the mundane dread of everyday life whilst living with your trauma. It's one of the most grounded and honest doctor who episodes in my opinion. It was a rare and beautiful thing for a show that is usually heightened (especially in this era) to do an episode this straight and grounded. Excellent stuff.
Excellent critique Joe.
At first I just consumed this story as an allegory of mission - that Ruby’s experience with The Doctor has somehow prepared her with the capacity to face the circumstance that she was in - and win. But the feeling at the end seemed not quite resolved, which is both delicious, and frustrating. Its that liminal thing.
It is beginning to dawn on me that RTD is perhaps weaving a thread that will become part of the denouement he has planned. I suspect that Ruby is indeed of huge significance in this Doctor’s universe. She arrived in the world with no known origin, and is as daring and challenging as Clara ever was, she even conjures snow... so seemingly unknowingly - she may well represent a clear and present danger.
The only negative to all that, is that once more, RTD attributes a lot of importance to The Doctor’s companion’s back story - a bit of a trope in modern Who, we’d all agree. Donna, Amy, Clara... they all carried the universe’s baggage that would become a challenge and be central to the arc. Is there a danger that RTD and Moffat are too ready to recycle these characteristics?
Maybe I am wrong. I am guilty of weaving my own theories too early in a run - and in the past have picked up throw away lines as if they carried huge significance. RTD lays false trails for viewers like me, but this new season has layers - he’s said as much. The complications that I can sense in much of this world building must surely utilise some of 73 Yards’ complex narrative. There is something big afoot.
The episode does indeed invite interpretation as a stand alone, and is worthy of that. I am believer in the Beholder’s Share. Good art invites the beholder to allow themselves to contribute their own meaning to the work. This is true of visual art, theatre, music - and more. So we ourselves are able to inhabit the creative space that RTD has opened up.
It’s generous, exciting, and a little mind-blowing. Am I being pretentious? (I am reminded of John Cleese and Eleanor Bron discussing the TARDIS as an artwork in City of Death)
Surely we will learn more of Ruby’s story in a month or so. As I write, I believe more and more that this is the case.
I am convinced of one thing, the fantasy element is not a permanent aspect. I think it will be expunged from the Whoniverse soon. RTD may well enjoy drawing parallels between fantasy and fake news and it's alternative facts, - as the Toymaker’s mischief is packed away,....for the time being...
I figured out the woman was at the beginning of the episode was older Ruby but it didn’t deter my enjoyment of the rest. I absolutely loved this episode! It’s funny the whole pub scene felt like a little tribute nod to Midnight with the archetypes being similar (including a goth guy in both) and the knocking so I didn’t really expect Ruby to stay there. The political aspect could have been explored more but I thought it served its purpose. I agree about how I hope they don’t answer too much about what went on in this episode although I would like to know about the snow. It’s a ghost story it’s meant to be ambiguous.
I’m a bit nervous about next week’s episode especially if the Reddit leak is true.
What's the reddit leak?
@@TheCagedCorvidpotential spoilers………..
The leak for dot and bubble was that in the end all the townspeople in Finetime are all revealed to be racists and are angry that the Doctor is black so 15 and Ruby leave in disgust.
Yes! Let the mystery stand! Great episode & review!
Thank you!
Erm what the (theta) sigma
i wasn't sure at first but this being 15's catchphrase is growing on me
100% agree. This is Ruby’s story. Will she save the world or surrender to her own greatest fear being abandoned by everyone? Unlike space babies opener with Ruby inadvertently stepping on a butterfly straight out of a ray Bradbury novel, it is the great and powerful all knowing doctor that breaks the sacred fairie circle. And within seconds, Ruby is on her greatest adventure without the doctor.
Great episode, you cant really see the twist coming up until the last moment which really demonstrates how strong the story really is. After some very silly eps to start the season (some good, some not so good) these last 2 have course-corrected and brought some variation. 73 yards was top, top class.
I absolutely loved the episode and love that I am still think and puzzle over. I thought I was frustrated for a moment about the lack of answers but what it is that is frustrating is not having someone to sit down with and talk through it with!
Loved your similar insights and take on the episode instead of some of the negativity.
I can't think of a single other story that quite does what this one does. It doesn't wrap the mysteries up at the end.
Really seems like it will really pay to rewatch.
I think it all hinges on the gamble of the Pasty Man. If you were dead set on this being a dark, welsh folklore horror episode, then the pasty man will probably make you feel insulted in the way that Luke throwing away the lightsaber in TLJ seemed to rub people up the wrong way. The subversion of expectations is so jarring for some people. I really got on board with everything that was happening and I was totally along for the ride, but I wasn't surprised some people were annoyed. Knowing this was the first stuff Millie G filmed as well is just crazy to me, she's so good, so confident in the role, you almost don't miss Ncuti because she commands the episode so deftly. It was a real triumph. I watched it twice and loved it even more the second time. I've said it before (in a comment on this channel, I believe) but it's so nice to be excited for Doctor Who every week again. Even if they're not all smash hits like this and "Boom!" - Doctor Who is fun and pulpy in a way it hadn't felt for a little while... naming no names. And I get a jboi vid the day after to boot. What more could a guy want?
@joe_brennan_
Dear friend,
If you're looking for a reason to hate the prime minister character, I think you're overlooking the obvious...
He was literally british donald trump.
We still have this guy in court for almost a hundred crimes, and he's still running with a good chance of being president again 🙄
I wish I was Canadian 😢
I like how her curse can be interpreted in many different ways from being socially different to having a medical disability.
I have this idea that in this episode Ruby is the fixed point in time at a super position of both 73 yards and 73 years. So she can change something that normally would be a fixed point because relative to it, she’s more stable. But to be that stable point, anyone that gets close to seeing the truth of her gets propelled back at an emotional version of the quantum level.
on one hand, this is just turn left again, on the other hand I love turn left with all my heart
I like the little 2001 reference when she's reaching out to the "timeless object" (lady) on her deathbed
73 yards bis probably the best doctor who episide iv ever watched genuinly
I love closed alternate loop SF/F. Mad Jack was trapped in the loop as soon as Ruby broke it, and that seems to be the thing most aren't snuffling out.
Genesis of the Daleks and Blink still exist, so this isn't the best ever story, but it's breathing down the neck of Tomb of the Cybermen.
you know when Millie is talking to the TARDIS and she says "but if i could see you again I'd just- I'd absolutely love it" it felt so genuine and real and it just made her so adorable. she has the same accent as me, and usually when that's the case I'm really picky about the acting, but Millie absolutely killed it and i bought every second of her performance. When her mother abandoned her and changed the locks it really broke my heart.
I'm constantly suprised by how this series manages to keep getting better, holy hell, surely it can't get any better than this?!
Thoroughly enjoyed your take. Time will be kind to this episode - it’s superb.
Easily my favorite this season and one of my favorite episodes of doctor who ever. And my greatest hope is that they never go out of their way to explain any of it or tell us how it all works
I LOVED IT, finally a decent episode, real emotion and things NOT overly explained.
I've been thinking a lot about how to explain why I'm bothered by the lack of explanation in this episode, and I think it's two things. Before I explain, though, I should clarify that when I say "explanation" I mean things in the episode that indicate a fairly definite answer to most of the mysteries, not necessarily the verbal info dump that the Doctor or another character may do at times. e.g. If the reason the Old Ruby Lady was 73 yards away was so that young Ruby didn't recognise her and there was none of that crossing your own timeline drama, then having issues with meeting your past/future self being mentioned earlier in the episode would have been enough for people to make that connection once they knew the old woman was somehow Ruby, and be fairly certain about why, and not have it throw up more questions. That's what I mean by "explanation" - the episode explains it even if no character "spells it out" or "spoon feeds" it (although luckily I don't have an allergy to things sometimes being stated outright! 😏 haha just teasing people, don't mind it).
Ok. The two reasons are related/pretty similar.
The first reason was that the main focus and drive for the episode was the mystery. A lot of DW episodes involve mysteries in one way or another and not all of them are completely solved, but in those episodes the main focus, the main drive is not the mystery but something else such as surviving an immediate threat, saving someone, stopping the destruction of the world etc. So long as enough of the unknown aspects are discovered for that to be achieved, we feel relief and satisfaction at the end, even if we're left with some things to wonder about. Midnight, which many people have compared 73 Yards to in one way or another, is not about the mystery, it's about surving/escaping the threat of the Midnight creature. The mysteries are central to the plot, but they are not the point, they're not the main reason we're on the edge of our seat wanting to know what happens next. And so when we get to the resolution, we feel relief and satisfaction because they have managed to free themselves from the danger. They figured out just enough of the mystery to achieve this, and we don't feel dissatisfied that we are left with unanswered questions because they weren't the point of the episode and the main issues we were eagerly waiting to be resolved.
For 73 Yards, the mysteries were the point of the episode. Although there were other things such as Ruby being alone or issues such as the Doctor disappearing and the dangerous PM, the main focus was always on the mysteries, the point was to make us feel confused and wonder, and the mysteries were what kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting to see what happened next. Like an Agatha Christie novel where all the clues don't make sense and so you keep reading to get to that clever and perfect solution at the end. The main relief in the resolution of a story like this doesn't come from Ruby finally getting out of her situation, but from the mysteries finally being explained. The clues that didn't make sense finally coming together in a clever and neat solution. It's Doctor Who, so it doesn't even need to answer every little thing, but the main mysteries that the episode spent so much time on need to have enough of a reason indicated that there's the sense of relief and satisfaction. I get that not everyone "needed" this, but if you intentionally set the focus of an episode on mysteries, you are setting up a large chunk of your audience with the delightful anticipation of a satisfying solution. People are going to be left feeling unnecessarily empty. If you're a clever and careful enough writer, you can still have your unanswered mysteries, you just tweak the episode so that explaining the mysteries is not the core thing people are eagerly and tensely waiting for, even though they can still be highly important. Or you provide at least the minimum explanation to give people waiting for it a sense of a satisfying solution.
The second reason is largely similar. It is simply that if you tease and emphasise a mystery to the audience, is there a point if you are never going to give an answer, or is it just bait with no other narrative point? I think for the people who are sincerely baffled that people "don't get" that this episode is supposed to be artistic and experimental and allow you to enjoy speculating (or think those people just can't see the possible solutions for things), the issue isn't about understanding, it's about what a writer sets you up to expect and what their intention is. I didn't personally enjoy that I was set up to expect the mysteries to be resolved but then they weren't, but I can understand that others enjoyed this (happy for them, it's nice to see). The fact remains that mysteries are typically used in writing to keep you hanging around for the solution. They don't always have to, but it is the most common reason writers use them.
So, if we get to the final episode of this season say goodbye to Ruby, and never find out who her parents were and why she was abandoned, is that still acceptable? There are already enough hints for us to imagine a mutitude of explanation that might be possible or plausible, is it OK to leave it at that? Because this is the same as 73 Yards but at a whole-season level. It is important to acknowledge that if mysteries are presented and continually touched upon or emphasised as significant, it is reasonable to expect a somewhat full and concrete solution after all of the teasing. If RTD never solves the Ruby puzzle for us, maybe some people will love that open ending, but I don't think anyone would fail to understand why others would feel dissatisfied.
Anyway, for anyone who has been feeling frustrated at why some people have been feeling so negative about an episode that you loved and critical of aspects of an episode that you enjoyed, maybe this will help you to understand the other perspective a little better.
Personally, I enjoyed 99% of this episode, and after listening to people like Joe, I can appreciate why some people weren't disappointed by not having a proper answer to almost everything. Hopefully this helps explain why it was reasonable for some people to react with disappointment to the ending, and that it wasn't an issue of not being able to understand.
Honestly i didnt like my first watch but i am terribly ill. But after sitting on it and watching again i cannot stop thinking about it and even got dragged into a 3 hr rabbit hole of writeing down my thoughts on every scene and every possibility of what i think could be happening until i came to a sort of conclusion that felt right and ment somthing to me (and i love reading everyones interpretations. Amazing episode to fire up the brain and pretend i understand whats truely going on )
Tbh the first watch I was just having a hissy fit because I couldn't understand a single thing 😂
I'm the same. Lots of unanswered questions, but I liked that. Really really worked for me. Fantastic episode.
Love your interpretation of old Ruby's actions. We always expect some clear motivation. But actually, having complicated emotional background, processing traumatic experience, one not always acts logically, or even understands what they are doing and why. Self-sabotaging is something that happens quite often to emotionally vulnerable people
73 Yards Ruby is another example of “The Watcher”! She’s a ghost-zombie on the edge of life and death already, and doesn’t have thoughts or words or know what gestures she’s doing, but her “thoughts” or “words” are just strong emotions. It’s entirely possible the people who “talk” to her are receiving ghastly mind-melds, witnessing long moments of Armageddon and feeling the fires of hell. All they know is that Ruby must be left alone to avoid this future. It doesn’t make sense to ask what she was saying, since it’s not even proven that she has a face.
The scariest thing in this episode was the fact that there’s a monster that can make your own mother disown you. I mean, for people with good relationships with their parents, that is truly terrifying. It’s scary because healthy parents tell their kids that nothing could make them leave them; but according to this episode there is in fact a secret code of words that can make that happen. Which, let’s be realistic, is probably true irl
My personal theory is the Woman said a different thing to each person. If it was established that she was psychic (unsure), then she’d know each person’s deepest secret fears.
Also the whole episode I was low-key pleading for the Doctor to come back and fix all this. But he didn’t! He only came back because the mistake that “killed” him was undone.
It was reassuring when Kate and UNIT turned up, to break the whole nightmare down with logic. But even that failed. 9/10 episode
Missing a point because I don’t think it’s rewatchable. It’s honestly too glum and claustrophobic for me to watch regularly with snacks
This episode was an absolute gem! I was completely absorbed into the horror of this episode immediately (and I KNOW Ruby's initial outfit HAS to be a reference to Resident Evil 4 / Silent Hill 3 because this episode had those horror vibes). I definitely think this episode will tie into Ruby's overall arc, but I don't expect it to be directly referenced. More like we gain information that we can piece together as an explanation behind the ending of this episode.
I feel like the woman manifesting on the circle with the perception filter is what makes her what she is. I agree with the idea of her pushing the abandonment feeling into others and manifesting and creating her fears. I also feel it could be the woman actively changes how Ruby is perceived. She’s not invisible like the TARDIS, but she’s hyper visible, they see Ruby’s true face and that makes people run and hide
I love your take on this episode and wholeheartedly agree. You’ve got a new subscriber.
After watching this episode, I had a long discussion with my friend. She was firmly of the belief that leaving it so open was poor writing and the episodes conclusion should have tied up more loose threads, or at least given us more clues to figure out what happened ourselves. But I love the ambiguity, and I'm so happy you do too! I think it's brilliant that there isn't one definition of "this is what happened and why." It's so random and non sensical that you're forced to make your own hazy conclusions, which could differ greatly from someone else's.
The open-endedness of it all made me much more engaged and fascinated long after the episode was over, causing me to seek others opinions online. Very happy to find someone like you sharing their opinions on the episode's conclusion that I actually agree with!
73 Brennans