Doctor Who: 73 Yards (14x04)

I categorically refuse to call this "season one" of Doctor Who (2023) so just jot that down, Disney.

Anyway. I think I really liked this episode but also... huh? What is happening here?

Cons:

This is maybe the epitome of amazing setup, disappointing payoff. I was riveted the whole way through the run-time trying to figure out what was going to happen. I was scared of the creepy lady, I was intrigued by the Mad Jack story, I was waiting with baited breath for the big reveal. And then, the second the episode was over, I sat there thinking...

But wait. What? Does any of this make any sense at all? So, as far as I can tell, creepy old woman was Ruby as an old lady getting sent back and stuck in time somehow, sent to warn young Ruby to stop the Doctor from stepping on the fairy circle and breaking it, thus preventing her lifetime of loneliness as everyone she ever meets leaves her.

But... okay, what? What did the old Ruby say to everyone who came close to her to talk to her, that made them all run away in fear? And it wasn't just fear in the moment: Ruby's mother ran and then shunned her entirely and wouldn't ever speak to her again for the rest of her life. Why? What was said? We get no answer about this whatsoever. And was the Mad Jack thing just a coincidence? Did the circle that the Doctor broke actually have something to do with it? Why would that name be on the scrolls if it was something from the future? Did older Ruby... leave that message there? But that doesn't make any sense either, does it? How much agency did older Ruby have over what she was doing? Not much, it seems, since she just stood there and repeated the same series of gestures again and again. What was the circle, actually? Magically speaking? Did it send the Doctor somewhere specific? Just blip him out of existence?

 The thing about this show is, I don't really care if the sci-fi or supernatural elements "make sense". You know? It's fine if it's all hand-waved away and purely vibes-based. And that's what I was feeling during the entirety of watching this episode. But... the whole time, you're waiting with bated breath to find out what's making everyone so afraid. What's sending them all screaming away from the old woman. The fact that that basic question is not answered is a serious detriment to the episode's overall quality. I don't want to be scratching my head and confused about the actual logic of what happened here, I want to be able to let it go. But the episode itself wants you to be hooked on the mystery, doesn't it? So I don't know. I found that quite odd.

Pros:

But as I said, all of these qualms about the episode honestly only hit after I was done watching. The experience of watching this episode, like, while it was happening? Definitely best of the season so far, in my opinion. Just very exquisitely done horror. The atmosphere building, Ruby's evolving relationship with her constant shadow, the way the Doctor kind of haunts the edges of the story but really Ruby only knew him for a little while so she has this whole life that has nothing to do with him... Kate coming in and that moment where you think "oh good, everything will be okay now," but then nope, Ruby is abandoned again... it was all so excellently rendered. The pacing, the build, the creepy creepy sight of the old woman in the distance, it never stopped giving me chills whenever we panned back to her. I spent the whole episode worried about the pattern breaking, worried about Ruby turning around to see the woman right beside her. And in the end, in the hospital, when that finally did happen, my heart was in my throat.

It was nice to have a Ruby-focused episode that wasn't just about her mysterious origins, but we still do get the hints here. She talks about how she's been abandoned by everyone her whole life. Her foster mother says that awful thing on the phone about how even her real mother didn't want her. She mentions to the caretaker at the end that she used to be able to make it snow. I do wonder if whatever the old woman was saying to everyone throughout the episode was something about what or who Ruby really is. It doesn't quite make sense and it's still not satisfying to me that we don't get answers within this episode, but I do suspect we're being set up for something there.

I really enjoyed the way Ruby framed this whole situation not in terms of the Doctor, but in terms of just... being her own person with her own unique challenge going on? She really was only with the Doctor for a short time, and while that relationship was super important to her, it also doesn't form the frame of how she proceeds with her situation. When I realized Ruby was just going to... get on a train and go home, I was at first really startled. But then delighted. Because... yeah! This isn't a story about Ruby sitting around waiting for the Doctor to show up and fix whatever has happened. It's not even a story about her trying to rescue the Doctor; she doesn't understand if he needs rescuing or not. She's got a strange thing happening in her own life, and she's trying to figure it out, and that's what the episode is about.

So many little details I really loved: the sinister evil of Jack as a politician, Ruby's slow infiltration, biding her time, then the moment where she takes her one shot to get rid of him. Using her constant horrible shadow as a tool to save the world. What a cool concept. I loved the rotating unsuccessful dates with various men, I loved them putting glasses on this actress's face and that being all they did to age her up into her forties. I loved the Welsh townsfolk in the tavern, the way they pull a collective group prank on her. The blend of harshness and yet care they show her at first, and then the dawning horror of knowing she won't be able to stay. Every haven she finds for herself must be temporary.

So yeah, I feel like this episode is going to be really hard to pin down in terms of my rating. On the one hand, while watching it I was thoroughly hooked, and I definitely think it's the best of the four episodes we have so far this season. On the other, it falls apart under even the slightest amount of scrutiny. I'm still looking forward to seeing what else they have in store for us down the line, though!

7/10