Category: Television

This slipped past me when I first saw it…

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

Last we saw the new Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), he'd just 'bi-generated' from the 14th Doctor (David Tennant) atop UNIT Headquarters as they battled the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) together in Special #3: "The Giggle."  With Doctor 14 surviving the split and living in a state of semi-retirement with the Noble family, this 15th Doctor has a 1:1 copy of the TARDIS at his disposal, and is taking off to continue the adventures of his predecessor selves.

In this latest 2023 Christmas Special, "The Church on Ruby Road," the Doctor finds himself in a refreshingly smaller-scale story with a new, mischievous enemy that is more of an irritating annoyance than a universe-ending calamity.

"The Church on Ruby Road"

The story opens with a newborn baby being abandoned by her presumed birth mother at a "church on Ruby Road," on a snowy Christmas Eve of 2004.  Through narration, we learn the baby is named Ruby for the name of the street she was left on. Witnessing this heartbreaking event is the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), with a tear in his eye.

Note: Ncuti Gatwa confidently takes the reins as the Doctor, infusing the role with a youthful vibe and a colorful new wardrobe, while still maintaining continuity as the latest incarnation of a character we've known for 60 years. I liked Gatwa fresh from his bi-generation in "The Giggle," and this Christmas Special sees my faith in the actor well founded.  Ruby's origin story as a foundling abandoned on the steps of a church also adds a bit of a Moses element to this holiday story, as well. 

We then cut to December 1st, 2023, and we see 'baby' Ruby (Millie Gibson), who's 19 years old now, and being interviewed for a TV program on adopted children hosted by real-life British TV personality Davina McCall. The show is hoping to match Ruby with her real-life birth parents or relatives through DNA testing. Davina cautiously advises Ruby on respecting her birth mother's wishes should she not seek contact. Ruby understands. During the taping, a mysterious series of 'accidents' occur, including a disastrous series of pulled electrical plugs leading to crashing lights which prematurely ends the taping.  We also hear a mysterious, almost inaudible giggling following these mishaps (and no, it's not the Toymaker)…

Note:  When I first heard the mischievous giggles of the bad-luck goblins, my first thought was that a Doctor Who Christmas special was finally riffing on director Joe Dante's "Gremlins" (1984). I still remember seeing "Gremlins" theatrically when I was a senior in high school a million or so years ago, and to be honest, it's never exactly been one of my favorites from the 1980s, either. At the time, I thought it was not dark enough to be a true horror film, and not quite funny enough to be a solid dark comedy.  I realize opinions will vary, and the movie has since become a huge Christmas cult classic, so I will shelve my other opinions on "Gremlins" for now, and enjoy this special as a separate experience.

A few weeks later, Ruby is at performing a gig at a dance club with her bandmates, led by Trudy (Mary Malone).  The Doctor is dancing up a storm, wearing an A-shirt and kilt.  We then hear the familiar giggling of the unseen 'bad luck' goblins, as they sabotage sound equipment and screw up the band's performance. The following evening, Ruby encounters the Doctor once more at the club, this time preventing her drink from falling off a table—pushed by the unseen hands of the goblins.  He asks Ruby if she's always had bad luck, and she confirms she's been very unlucky of late.  He tells her it's not a coincidence, and then leaves.  As Ruby later departs into a cab with her bandmates, the Doctor quietly follows her.  Ruby's taxi is nearly smashed by a large falling electric snowman from a nearby building, until the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to tamper with the streetlights and allow the cab's timely escape. The Doctor is then nearly killed by the falling decoration himself.  A young beat cop investigates, and the Doctor manages to slip away into the TARDIS by forecasting a happy ending to the young cop's imminent marriage proposal—the young cop is so thrilled that his bride-to-be will say 'yes' that he ignores the Doctor's dematerializing TARDIS…

Note: Some nice little bits of comedy surrounding the falling snowman, all easily escapable for the Doctor, of course.  His forecasting of the cop's successful marriage proposal reminded me of the Eighth Doctor's odd habit of foretelling the futures of random strangers in "Doctor Who: The TV Movie" (1996), though this time, the Doctor is using Sherlock Holmes-style deductive reasoning instead of…whatever the Eighth Doctor was using (psychic powers, eidetic memory, who knows?).

The following day of Christmas Eve, Ruby returns to her foster home, which is under the loving care of her adoptive mother, Carla Sunday (Michelle Greenidge). Carla and Ruby share the attic apartment with Carla's elderly mother, Cherry Sunday (Angela Wynter), a lovably cantankerous old lady with a sweet smile, who's always craving a nice cuppa tea.  Carla excitedly tells Ruby that they have a brand new foster baby named Lulubelle, a newborn who's staying in their home until she's legally adopted or if/when her real parents are located.

Note: While the character of Ruby is superficially similar to fellow blonde teenager Rose Tyler (another Russell T Davies-created character), she is sufficiently different to make deeper comparisons moot.  Unlike Rose, who lived in a suburban London flat with her mother Jackie, Ruby is an orphan left on a doorstep and living in a foster home.  Ruby also has no boyfriend (that we know of), and presumably less strings attached when she eventually runs off with the Doctor (other than her bandmates, and foster mother Carla, who'll no doubt be worried as to where she's gone).

Carla needs to get groceries for their new arrival Lulubelle, whom Ruby has promised to stay and keep an eye on while Carla's out shopping.  After Carla leaves, Ruby is called by TV show host Davina McCall, who tells Ruby they were unable to locate any DNA trace of her birth mother or relatives—not even cousins.  Davina also tells Ruby that she's had a terrible run of bad luck since their failed attempt at an interview earlier that month; she's broken bones in various freak accidents, including falling off a dry-docked boat.  For some reason, Davina links the strange 'accidents' to her meeting Ruby, who's about to share her own tales of bad luck before a nearby Christmas tree topples over onto the now wheelchair-bound Davina, and the call is terminated.

Note: It's implied that Davina was perhaps killed or at least seriously re-injured by the tree, but that's left to our imaginations, thank goodness.

With the call abruptly ended, Ruby then hears a familiar giggling over the sound of the baby monitor.  Rushing to Lulubelle's room, she finds the crib empty, and sees a creepy little hand pulling the infant through a skylight. Springing into action, Ruby gives chase and follows after the goblins, before she sees the baby's basket being pulled up a rope ladder.  She also gets a closer look at the goblins, who manage to secure the basket somewhere above them before pulling up their ladder.  With no time to think, Ruby jumps onto the ladder.  She then sees the Doctor running after her on rooftops, before he too jumps onto the ladder to join her.  With the ladder having difficulty supporting their weight, the Doctor pulls out a pair of "intelligent gloves," giving one to Ruby and the other for himself.  The gloves use Time Lord technology to shift the mass and weight of the wearer away from their bodies—making them virtually weightless, and much easier to pull up a ladder. They quickly scale the ladder towards a floating wooden air ship, which is manned by the goblins…

Note: The goblins' floating airship has a look right out of a Terry Gilliam movie, like the hot air balloon of "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988) or the wooden vessel belonging to the titular "Time Bandits" (1981).   Also of note, gravity is still being referred to as "mavity"; the result of a botched encounter with Sir Isaac Newton by the Doctor and Donna Noble in the second 2023 Doctor Who special, "Into the Wild Blue Yonder." One assumes that little misstep will have to be corrected at some future date…?

Once aboard the airship, the Doctor and Ruby are (somehow) incapacitated by the goblins and tied up—never mind that they're both lumbering giants compared to the tiny cretins.  During their captivity, the Doctor deduces that goblin technology is based on a complex series of ropes and knots which act like electrical wiring to them, with any one carefully undone knot crippling a part of their ship.  As they talk, the Doctor undoes his bindings and immediately frees Ruby, telling her he learned to slip through knots after a "hot summer" spent with Harry Houdini.

Note: The 'hot summer' spent with Harry Houdini is in keeping with the Doctor's more relaxed sexuality of late. The character's pansexuality makes a lot of sense, since we've seen the Doctor romance humans many times, which would be (to us) like a compassionate zookeeper carrying on a romantic relationship with a particularly bright chimpanzee.

Once freed, the Doctor and Ruby climb into the ship's equivalent of an air duct, through which they see baby Lulubelle's basket, as a group of goblin musicians sing a song about the deliciousness of baby meat!  Lulubelle's basket is on a large wooden conveyor belt, which is slowly carrying it into the massive mouth of "the goblin king," a humongous atrophied blob at the end of the belt with a massive mouth full of sharp teeth. This blubbery creature is the leader of the goblins, and he gets to devour the baby as tribute.  The Doctor then finds the right knot to undo, which drops he and Ruby onto the conveyor belt—their combined weight stopping it just in time.  Using the element of surprise, the Doctor and Ruby quickly improvise their own lyrics to the goblins' song, detailing their plan of escape.  Their escapes involves pulling the right knot to release them and baby Lulabelle's basket from the conveyor belt and through the now-opened underbelly of the ship…

Note: The goblins' song-and-dance number was both unexpected and hilarious, with darkly carnivorous lyrics right out of "Sweeney Todd." The massive 'goblin king,' as well as the goblins' accompanying song, might be a reference to another 1980s cult film, Jim Hensen's "Labyrinth," which also featured a song about a goblin king, as well as a young girl (Jennifer Connelly) who tried to retrieve a baby. However, the goblin king of "Labyrinth" was played by the far more svelte, colorful and talented musical legend David Bowie (1947-2016), who left us far too soon. 

The Doctor then uses his intelligent gloves to make he and Ruby heavier, which quickly lowers them back onto the roof of the Sundays' flat (a bit too conveniently perhaps, but sure), where they disembark with baby Lulabelle, whom they safely return to her bedroom crib—not even waking her up!  Meanwhile, Carla comes home with groceries, and meets Ruby's new 'friend,' the Doctor.  Carla's bedridden mother Cherry has also been charmed by the Doctor as well, still having not gotten her cuppa tea…

Note: The scene of bedridden Cherry subtly flirting with the handsome young 'Doctor' in her house is adorable, as actress Angela Wynter is simply charming. Ncuti Gatwa's interplay with her is similarly priceless. 

Suddenly, the skies outside go dark, and an earthquake-like rattling of the attic flat cracks the ceiling and shatters windows, causing the place to get cold quickly from the winter air outside.  The Doctor senses something is terribly wrong, as the goblin ship has disappeared as well. When the rattling finally stops, the Doctor also realizes that Ruby has disappeared from existence.

Note: I admit to a bit of confusion regarding the exact capabilities of the goblins at this point.  Earlier in the episode, the Doctor took umbrage when Ruby asked him if their captors were time travelers, suggesting they weren't yet developed enough for time travel, yet we see later on that they've done precisely that; snatching Ruby as a baby 19 years earlier. Was the Doctor just wrong about the goblins' technology, or was he being a smidgen speciesist by suggesting such diminutive 'primitive' creatures were incapable of time travel?

Ruby's disappearance from existence has altered the present-day. With Ruby having never come into her life, Carla has become a bitter woman; taking in foster children not for love, but to use their foster funding to keep a roof over her and her mother's heads.  This joyless version of Carla now thinks of baby Lulubelle as a Christmas burden, not a miracle.  With that, the Doctor now sees exactly what he has to do—he needs to return to the exact moment when baby Ruby was abandoned at the church step…which is where the time-traveling goblins have snatched the vulnerable infant.

Note: The darker present with a joyless Carla taking in foster kids as a means to an end reminded me of another famed Christmas film, "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), where a suicidal Jimmy Stewart is shown how much worse life would be in his hometown if he were never born.  Ruby's erasure from existence was the work of goblins not angels, and it also wasn't voluntary on her part, but the effect is similar—Carla has turned into a bitter woman, having never raised Ruby as her adoptive daughter; an effective (and necessary) statement about the value and importance of foster parenting and found families, who can be every bit as loving as any biological family. 

Arriving at the snowy church on Ruby Street in 2004, the Doctor sees Ruby's (presumed) birth mother dropping off the baby basket on the doorstep, which is immediately hoisted into the air by the goblins, whose airship is hovering just above the church spire.  The Doctor races over to the ladder and uses the remaining power in his magnetic intelligent gloves to pull the ladder and airship down—causing it to crash through the church spire, thus impaling the goblin king!  The king's death and the ship's destruction somehow lead to the goblins' own erasure from history.  With that bit of business taken care of, the Doctor gently returns baby Ruby to her predestined drop-off point, where a kindly minister takes her in.  His mission in 2004 completed, the Doctor then returns to multiple points through time where the goblins caused serious harm—including the toppling Christmas tree that now almost crashes into TV host Davina McCall.

Note: This mega-happy ending is refreshing after the darker, more melancholy Chris Chibnall-era of Doctor Who (2018-2022). The return of 2005 reboot showrunner Russell T. Davies has been just about everything I'd hoped for so far; a nice mix of the familiar with the fresh, all given a much-needed dose of optimism. 

In the present, Ruby realizes that this magical Doctor she's met has indeed traveled through time, with his earlier reference to Houdini.  Rushing downstairs, she runs into her neighbor, Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson), who points her in the direction of the TARDIS, which is parked along a sidewalk.  With the door ajar, Ruby looks inside and gets her first glimpse of trans-dimensional Time Lord technology, which allows it to be 'bigger on the inside.' She then sees this mysterious man, proudly standing inside his ship, as he states, "I am the Doctor!" and she rushes in to join him. As they leave 2023, the ship dematerializes from the London sidewalk, making the familiar whooshing sounds, as it vanishes into thin air…

Note: We never actually hear Ruby say "it's bigger on the inside," though we hardly need to hear that said aloud, since the words themselves have become a cliché of the series.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Flood, who seemed mysteriously nonplussed by the arrival and departure of the TARDIS earlier in the episode, breaks the fourth wall by staring directly into the camera and asking, "Never seen a TARDIS before?"

The End.

Note: Okay, I have sooo many questions about Mrs. Flood right now; is she perhaps a forgotten ex-companion of the Doctor's, or is she some kind of alien observer, or has she somehow been allowed to retain memories of Earth's many previous encounters with the Doctor, which humanity always seems to collectively forget from one space-invader apocalypse to the next?  When we first met Mrs. Flood, she seemed like a vaguely racist old biddy, who was accusing another neighbor of placing the TARDIS on the sidewalk. Now I'm thinking that perhaps she mistakenly believed that neighbor to be a Time Lord?  That fourth wall break may have been just a cute wink to the audience, but it could also be something else…as I suspect is also the case regarding Ruby's mysterious lack of genetic relatives anywhere in the world.

Summing It Up

Written by returning series' showrunner Russell T. Davies and nicely directed by Mark Tonderai, "The Church on Ruby Road" is surprisingly personal-sized for a Christmas Special, finally terminating a long-standing tradition of multiverse-threatening apocalypses at Christmastime  that had long 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." The goblins' airship's inexplicable dimension-jumping capacity offers the closest thing to a serious threat in the entire story.

These admittedly silly goblins are no more than a means to an end for this delightfully sweet and breezy meet-story, which is given a major boost by leads Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson, who (along with her character's comic book-sounding name) has an can-do eagerness and vitality that reminds me a bit of Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).   Ncuti Gatwa confidently takes the controls of the TARDIS, slipping right into the character's shoes.  Gatwa's leather coat and minimalist haircut almost suggests the silhouette of Doctor Nine (Christopher Eccleston), but with more color in his fashion sense, and a more playful demeanor.  Like his new magnetic gloves, the lingering heaviness surrounding the character has been shifted, allowing for more of the character's joie de vivre.

Frankly, the show hasn't felt this new since "Rose" (also written and produced by Russell T Davies) first rebooted the series back in 2005. With the Doctor and his companion reimagined as two foundlings off on a grand adventure, I look forward to see where they'll take the TARDIS next…

Where To Watch

Doctor Who is available on BBC in the UK and Ireland, and is streaming globally on Disney+ and Britbox. You can also purchase individual episodes of Doctor Who on iTunes and PrimeVideo. Most of the series is also available on physical media (DVD/BluRay) from BBC Home Video as well.

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