******TARDIS-SIZED SPOILERS!******

With new Disney money flowing into this 61-year old series, BBC’s “Doctor Who” just wrapped its 14th series/season—or 40th, if you’re a completist.  A newly bi-generated Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) has a new (temporary) companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Orphan Ruby’s arc was more or less completed at the end of the run. A new companion, played by Varada Sethu (“Star Wars: Andor”), who appeared in this year’s “Boom,” was confirmed in April.  Returning producer Russell T. Davies has infused the new series with a fresh supply of confidence that was largely missing from the shakier Chris Chibnall run. 

For this overview, I’m going to try to keep my analyses of the episodes as brief as possible, and to that end, I’m doing something I used to think was sacrilegious; I’m using the shorter, BBC/Disney+ press kit synopses for the episodes to skip the laborious task of breaking down the plots of all nine episodes.  These ready-made, tagline synopses will allow me to jump right into my reviews of each. 

Allons-y!

“The Church on Ruby Road.”

Long ago on Christmas Eve, a baby was abandoned in the snow. Today, Ruby Sunday meets the Doctor, stolen babies, goblins and perhaps the secret of her birth.

“The Church on Ruby Road” is surprisingly personal-sized for a Christmas Special, ending the long-standing tradition of multiverse-threatening apocalypses at Christmastime, which had become stale.  This newest special definitely feels like a classic Doctor Who story, with mischievous goblins that seem obviously influenced by those other, famously holiday-shattering menaces, the “Gremlins.” Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson have instant chemistry as the Doctor and Ruby Sunday, respectively.  Also appreciated the presence of Michelle Greenridge as Ruby’s earthy adoptive mum, Carla. Angela Winter is equally wonderful as Ruby’s adoptive grandmother, Cherry Sunday (these names sound like desserts).

The goblins’ airship’s inexplicable dimension-jumping capacity offers the closest thing to a serious threat in the entire story, though some may not enjoy the goblins’ admittedly silly musical number, which felt very “Labyrinth,” but I enjoyed it; it only added to the ‘anything goes’ vibe of the episode.  Lots of threads were introduced, too; Ruby’s mysterious abandonment, the creepy Mrs. Flood, etc. which more or less get resolved at the end of this year’s run.  I did an expanded review of the episode here; “The Church on Ruby Road” is a refreshing restart.

“Space Babies.”

Ruby learns the Doctor’s amazing secrets when he takes her to a Baby Farm in the future that’s being run by babies, but threatened by a bogeyman.

After that strong start, we get…“Space Babies.” Without exaggeration, this is one of the worst Doctor Who episodes I’ve seen in awhile. It belongs in the same dung heap as “Orphan 55” and “Time and the Rani.” The CGI lips mapped over real baby mouths reminds me of something you’d see in a crappy, made-for-video Disney family movie, circa 1998. But hey; lip-synching babies, poo-poo, pee-pee and runny noses are funny, right? No, they’re not. It doesn’t help that the episode’s big bad menace is a Boogeyman—not Michael Myers sadly, but a literal collection of baby boogers. None of the supporting cast are terribly memorable either, as they’re upstaged by the talking babies. 

The only saving grace of this otherwise dreadful episode is the prologue sequence where the Doctor and Ruby travel to prehistoric Montana, in the age of dinosaurs, and Ruby commits the cardinal Ray Bradbury sin of accidentally stepping on a butterfly—temporarily changing herself into a dinosaur-humanoid hybrid, before the butterfly’s recovery quickly changes her back before she notices.  If only they could’ve grafted this clever little segment onto a better story.

“The Devil’s Chord.”

When the Doctor and Ruby meet The Beatles, they discover that the all-powerful Maestro is changing history.

“The Devil’s Chord” is one of my personal favorites of the year, and it’s a welcome bounce back from “Space Babies” to the sort of quality that defines the rest of this year’s episodes. The Doctor and Ruby travel back to the when The Beatles (all nicely cast) are about to record “Love Me Do” in October of 1962.  Beatles references are everywhere, including an Abbey Road crossing.  However, the episode’s centerpiece is the wonderfully over-the-top presence of drag artist Jinkx Monsoon as “The Maestro,” a near-omnipotent offspring of “The Celestial Toymaker.” The Maestro has used time travel to retroactively eliminate music from our universe—with devastating consequences. 

The Maestro reminds me very much of the undersea villainous ‘Ursula’ from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” (both steal voices) and Jinkx Monsoon plays the hell out of the character, too. Love the way the Maestro is filmed in the final confrontation against the Doctor; with stark and surreal theatricality, like something out of a nightmare. Adding to the episode’s style is the juxtaposition of music and energy over desolation and stillness, wonderfully illustrating the importance of music to the human experience. This episode gives us the Beatles, beautiful period costumes (Ruby’s 1960s outfit is a delight) and the Maestro. What is not to like?

“Boom.”

Caught in the middle of a devastating war on Kastarion 3, the Doctor is trapped when he steps on a landmine. Can he save himself, Ruby, and the entire planet – without moving?

A memorable story written by former showrunner/writer Stephen Moffat, “Boom” has a lot to say about the runaway military industrial complex, which manufactures villains to keep a thriving war machine operational on the planet Kastarion 3. Even the robotic ambulances are in on this conspiracy; compacting the remains of war dead into nice, neat, dehydrated cylinders—complete with an AI of the deceased for their loves ones to interact with (creepy as hell, that is…).  Some interesting commentary on modern-day forever wars, as well as the militarization of religious fundamentalism (never a good combination). Writer Moffat says the story was inspired by the classic 1975 episode “Genesis of the Daleks,” where the Doctor briefly stepped on a landmine while visiting the Dalek planet of Skaro.

The episode’s best moments come from the Doctor trying to keep absolutely still after stepping on the hi-tech landmine, and smartly using the planet’s sentient AI (as well as the AI of a soldier’s remains) to get to the truth of the war conspiracy. The supporting character of Mundy Flynn (Varada Sethu), an Anglican soldier in the story’s corporate-fueled holy war of colonization, is rumored to be returning as the Doctor’s new companion in the next run of episodes. She certainly makes a memorable enough appearance in this story to justify that notion. Exit Sunday, enter Mundy (hehe). 

“73 Yards.”

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

An atypical episode, which doesn’t use the opening theme or titles, is another of my favorites from this run.  The cliffside in Wales, where the story begins, has a stark “Wicker Man” quality to it; equal parts beauty and desolation. This is aided by the superstitious locals (right out of a 1940s Universal Monster movie), and, of course, the mysterious ‘woman’ (Hilary Hobson) who keeps “73 Yards” away from Ruby at all times, wherever she goes (we learn this woman is a much older Ruby, warning her younger self). All of this happens after the Doctor accidentally steps on a fairy circle and mysteriously disappears (the new Doctor seems partly defined by youthful carelessness, given he already stepped on a landmine in the previous episode). 

Ruby’s self-imposed exile seems to be her older self’s penance for breaking the fairy circle.  With the Doctor mainly absent (save for bookending segments) and even her adoptive family alienated from her, the story puts Ruby’s self-reliance and resolve to the test. The subplot to stop a dangerous future Welsh prime minister named (Aneurin Bernard), as well as the panic caused by those who approach her crone-ish older self are clear setup for remaining episodes. By the end, none of it makes conventional sense, but the oddness and mood it creates are nicely experimental. With Ncuti Gatwa out of the picture, this becomes Millie Gibson’s episode, and she really goes for it, even if her character’s gradual aging isn’t terribly convincing at times.

“Dot and Bubble.”

An awful terror is preying on the citizens of Finetime and it’s up to the Doctor and Ruby to help them save themselves before it’s too late.

This is, as they might’ve titled it on TV’s “Friends”; “The One About Social Media.” This episode has a lot to say, and it’s a little too on-the-nose for most of the time. We see generations of useless, feckless, bigoted young people on Finetime living life entirely through their personal media devices (the sentient “Dots”) and ensconced within media head ‘bubbles’ of their own making—utterly ignoring the world around them (just go anywhere on this planet today, and you see everyone burying their faces into their smartphones). In the end, the lifestyle of these worthless ‘influencers’ literally consumes them. Yeah, we get it.  Point taken.

While subtlety may not be the episode’s strong suit, the performances are certainly effective. Callie Cook’s Lindy Pepper-Bean really seems as though she couldn’t walk ten feet without directions from her Dot, while Tom Rhys Harries as influencer “Ricky September” oscillates between sincere and smarmy (in the end, he’s as rotten as any of them). That the Doctor would even try to stick his neck out for these wastes of skin only reinforces that Ncuti Gatwa is indeed the Doctor of old; “Never cruel, nor cowardly…”

“Rogue.”

A mysterious bounty hunter, Rogue, is about to change the Doctor’s life forever when he and Ruby arrive at an 1813 ball.

The Doctor has his first real gay love affair (however chastely done), and it works. The Doctor’s relationship with the mysterious time-traveling bounty hunter known simply as Rogue (Jonathan Groff) begins with a misunderstanding (as do most TV/movie romances), after Rogue mistakes him for a shapeshifting Chuldur; a species of birdlike time travelers who’ve infiltrated Bath, England in 1813.  These aliens infiltrate the past, because they simply love to cosplay as humans from different time periods. Some may say that is a weak sauce motivation, and they are not entirely wrong, but I think it only adds to their Marie Antoinette-level of decadence that they assume human form and kill the originals just because.

Tears flow once again from the new Doctor during the Sophie’s Choice climax, but this time they feel a bit more personal and earned than in previous outings. Ruby has enough business to keep her busy as well, though the switcheroo between she and her would-be Chuldur imposter in the final act feels a bit too convenient.  Oh well…story’s gotta story, right?  This episode is more about the romance between the Doctor and Rogue anyway, and that’s where its emotional currency is more wisely spent.  Ruby is the means to enforce a tragic end.

“The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”

As the Doctor and UNIT investigate Ruby’s past, horrifying secrets from Christmas Eve are revealed, and the mysterious Triad Technology unleashes the greatest evil of all.

Russell T. Davies puts on a grand cliffhanger (as he has in years past), with the reunion of a classic companion (Bonnie Langford’s “Mel”), a red herring (the teased return of the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan), and the reunion with a classic villain from the classic Tom Baker-era episode “The Pyramids of Mars”; the Egyptian god of death, Sutekh (voiced by Gabriel Wolf). I got a giggle from the Doctor’s throwaway line about Sutekh’s Egyptian trappings being nothing more than “cultural appropriation” (hehe). Yes, this is arguably a patchwork of borrowed elements, but when combined with Ruby Sunday’s origin story, it pays off.  Sutekh hasn’t been used in live-action Doctor Who for almost 50 years (!), so his dramatic return certainly feels fresh enough for newer viewers. The story also nicely redeems Mel, who was one of my least favorite companions in the classic series.

Sutekh was also resurrected nearly ten years ago in comics form by writer Nick Abadzis (a personal friend of mine) for the brilliant Tenth Doctor comic series from Titan Publishing. Both in the books and in this two-part finale, the essence of the character is well-captured. To fans of Sutekh, I would highly recommend seeking out these Titan comic books, either as single volumes (“The Return of Sutekh,” Parts 3 and 4, and “Old Girl: War of Gods,” Part 5), or the entire Tenth Doctor Titan Comics run under the single hardback compendium, “Revolutions in Terror.” The collection is simply terrific, with or without Sutekh, and I enjoyed the Doctor’s new American companions,  Gabby Gonzales and Cindy Wu, as well.

“Empire of Death.”

The Doctor has lost, his ageless enemy reigns supreme, and a shadow is falling over creation. Nothing can stop the devastation … except, perhaps, one woman.

The final episode of the 14th (or 40th) series is a winner.  Providing the kind of universe-ending stakes we saw in Davies’ previous “The End of Time” three-parter but elegantly woven with the simpler story of a young woman desperately wanting to know her birth mother.  In what is perhaps the episode’s weakest bit of deus ex machina plotting, the Doctor literally wills a TARDIS into existence using memory alone (uh huh), but this bogus slight of hand is treated with just enough gravity to make it work, in spite of itself.  After Sutekh is ended (once again) with a punishment nearly equal to his off-the-scale crime against the universe, we deal with Ruby’s story…

Davies fills Ruby’s mother’s story with red herrings—as if learning the secret of her very identity would would simply melt our brains. Turns out she was just a scared teenager who made a mistake, and was trying to make it right.  By giving her baby to that “church on Ruby Road,” young Louise Miller (Faye McKeever) gave Ruby a life beyond her wildest dreams—as well as an extremely loving home with a true mother, Carla Sunday, and a loving grandmother, Cherry.  This story, combined with Sutekh’s conquered universe of decaying dust, feels both intimate and epic.  It checks all the boxes.  The only downside is, of course, saying goodbye to Ruby, with her now resolved arc.  Here’s hoping Mundy Flynn (Varada Sethu) can fill Ruby’s ankle boots…

Summing It Up

Much as Davies did with Rose Tyler and her “Bad Wolf” arc, Ruby had a season-long arc of finding her birth mother and learning just why she was abandoned at that “Church on Ruby Road.” Davies threw in some clever red herrings to make it appear as though there was some cosmically significant reason behind it all, but the truth was refreshingly earthbound. Ruby’s all-too normal origins make her adventures with the Doctor all the more accessible to the show’s audience, particularly younger viewers.  Millie Gibson has a natural sweetness about her that makes her very likable, even if she feels superficially close to Rose Tyler. 

Onto the Doctor himself.  Ncuti Gatwa continues the welcome tradition of more diverse Doctors that began with Jodie Whittaker and the Doctor’s awkwardly retconned origin story; making the Doctor an alien to both humans and Time Lords. I had issues with this revised origin story (S12,E10: “The Timeless Children”), as it reeked of that tired “chosen one” cliché, but I put those reservations aside, as Gatwa brings a fresh energy to the role. As an openly gay Black man, Gatwa brings a new perspective to the character, as every new Doctor should. Showrunner/writer Russell T. Davies, who is openly gay as well, has hinted at at the Doctor’s pansexuality as far back as his interactions with Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman); one of Davies’ most memorable creations (who warranted his own spinoff with “Torchwood”). There was also implicit attraction between the Doctor and Yasmin during the Chibnall era, so a pansexual Doctor isn’t some all-new symptom of ‘wokeness.’ This is what the show has been since Davies brought it back in 2005.  Moving on…

On the minus side, I’m not terribly fond of the latest Doctor’s propensity for excessive tears. To be clear, I’m not against anyone honestly expressing their emotions (quite the opposite, in fact), but tears are usually the top rung of our emotional ladders. There are few places to go beyond tears. They’re the point where our emotions literally override control of our eyes and bodies. Tears should be saved for that one harrowing life-or-death adventure where all seems lost; as we saw with the dying universe of “Empire of Death.” They should not be reduced to an affectation used in every single episode.  After a short while, those tears lose their potency, and they begin to feel like so much melodrama. With that nagging nit out of the way, I love everything else about Ncuti Gatwa’s exuberant new take on the character.

While the Star Trek and Star Wars TV franchises have both run aground in their cosmic voyages of late (“Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Wars: The Acolyte” have both been problematic), the 61-year old “Doctor Who” franchise feels as if it’s come out of a creative coma. I’ve heard rumors of a UNIT spinoff starring Jemma Redgrave’s “Kate Stewart” (daughter of the late Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, played by the late Nicholas Courtney). I feel a certain automatic apprehension regarding cash grabs—I mean, spinoffs, particularly since Disney tends to milk their cash cows dry (Marvel, Star Wars, et al), but BBC’s Doctor Who is certainly no stranger to spinoffs (“The Sarah Jane Adventures,” “Torchwood,” “K-9” etc), so I’m adopting my time honored ‘wait-and-see’ approach.

With its fresh energy, likable new cast, and more confident storytelling (save for the hopeless mess that was “Space Babies”), “Doctor Who” is in a much better place than it was just a few years ago.  If Ncuti Gatwa could save the tears for bigger moments, I think his Doctor has potential to become one of the best.  I’m also looking forward to Verada Sethu’s new companion, ‘Mundy Flynn.’ Interesting that ‘Mundy’ follows Sunday (I see what you did there, Russell). Here’s hoping the higher caliber of writing combined with the show’s near-cinematic production values (a far cry from the creaky videotapes of the old series) continue for the foreseeable future.  This second era of showrunner/writer Russell T. Davies is off to a strong start.

Where to Watch

“Doctor Who” can be streamed/viewed on BBC, Disney+, Britbox, Amazon PrimeVideo and others. Earlier episodes can be purchased on physical media (DVD and Blu-Ray) from Amazon, eBay, Barnes & Noble, and other sources (prices vary by seller).