As the end credits rolled on “73 Yards” all I could think was “this was written by the same guy who wrote Space Babies…?” Yes, this episode is something of a marvel, a really great and creepy story that is also one of RTD’s beloved “Doctor-lite” episodes he used to do. This season of Doctor Who is on a hell of a hot streak now, it makes me even more confused about what episode they chose to open it with! Let’s take a look…
The story opens as the TARDIS lands on the coast of Wales, but shortly after The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) references a “Roger ap Gwilliam” as an evil Welsh despot from the 2040s who nuked a bunch of places he steps on a fairy circle and feels guilty about it as Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) reads out some of the offerings from the circle, including one about a “Mad Jack”. As she stops reading though The Doctor vanishes, the TARDIS locks her out and a mysterious old woman (Hilary Hobson) in the distance seems to be trying to talk to her. Eventually Ruby heads down towards the nearby village and meets a hiker, who she gets to ask the mysterious woman why she seems to be following her at a distance, but when she does the hiker looks back at Ruby with disgust and then runs in a panic. Ruby then makes it to a local pub and after being poked fun at by the locals she sends one of the regulars out to talk to the woman, who is outside the pub again at a similar distance, and he also looks towards her through the window with the same look and then runs in a panic. Soon Ruby has no choice but to return home to London but on the train she notices the woman outside the train as its moving constantly at the same distance somehow keeping up with the train speed.
The Doctor in one of his brief appearances…
Things only get worse as when at home Ruby’s own mother (Michelle Greenidge) heads out to talk to her on her daughter’s behalf and SHE ends up looking disgusted at her own daughter and then flees, and any attempt Ruby makes to talk to her own mother is met with silence or insults. A year later and Ruby finds UNIT and Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and she sends her men to capture the mysterious woman, who Ruby says is always exactly 73 yards away from her wherever she is, but as her men close in on her Kate turns to Ruby with a look a disgust and UNIT leaves the area in a hurry. Completely out of options Ruby settles into a regular life, we see her at 25, 30, 40 years old, always looking out of the window of her flat and giving a wave to the woman always outside, until one day in a pub she sees a Roger ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard) is running for office saying that he was once comically called “Mad Jack” by his local friends and suddenly she thinks she know what she has to do to break the curse…
It’s such a brilliant episode, the idea of this woman always looking at you and gesturing something but you’re never able to actually approach her is a frightening concept and it’s done excellently here. Millie Gibson really knocked it out of the park as well, she showed acting chops way above her age.
The Continuity:
There were some good gags in this pub scene, but they didn’t ruin the tension running throughout the episode. That takes some doing!
There isn’t anything that directly connects this to another story, unless you want to just talk about “Doctor-lite” episodes in general. If you do then this resembles 10th Doctor story “Turn Left” the most due to focusing on a companion going through a harrowing experience without The Doctor, whereas the others don’t feature The Doctor or a companion for much of their runtime.
Overall Thoughts:
Everyone give her a wave!
“73 Yards” comes out of nowhere to become the first proper likely-to-be-a-classic Doctor Who episode since the Twelfth Doctor’s “Heaven Sent”. A genuinely creepy concept perfectly played out with a really strong central performance by Millie Gibson, “73 Yards” is the strongest Doctor Who episode in many years, and just a really strong TV episode in general.
Ruby joins Roger’s campaign as a volunteer assistant and watches as the future PM talks on TV interviews about how NATO doesn’t have the guts to use nuclear weapons and how he wants to increase the nuclear arm budget and she thinks she’s right but keeps watching as he’s elected and treats people around him like crap. At the setting up of a big celebration event she hears that Roger is buying a large supply of nuclear weapons and will sign the deed on Saturday and she now thinks this is definitely it: her purpose has been to stop him, so she walks onto the field against all security and nearby staff’s orders and takes exactly 73 yards worth of steps away from Roger, causing the mysterious woman to appear next to him, Roger talks with her, looks at Ruby and then legs it in terror, later resigning from his position as Prime Minister, only saying “Ask her!!” as the reason why.
A complete bastard getting elected because he speaks a good game? Doctor Who really is fantasy… OH WAIT! (That’s as political as I’m willing to go on this site…)
The world saved from nuclear catastrophe Ruby lives the rest of her life content, right up to her 80s, still followed by the mysterious woman until one day the woman actually walks into her room and approaches her and she finds out the old woman was her as she is now, and she soon gets zapped back to the coast in 2024 where it all started and begins to beckon to her younger self, but in this case manages to get young Ruby to stop The Doctor from stepping on the chain, and therefore vanishes, leaving The Doctor and Ruby completely unaware of what this alternate Ruby went through, or even if it still happened at all…
Hogan Reviews 