REACTION: 73 Yards - Doctor Who
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- čas přidán 30. 05. 2024
- Reaction to Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson in S1E4 - 73 Yards
also known as S14E4
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BBC iPlayer episode description: 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.
You're watching The Shallow Proclamation. Doctor Who fans Paul (who's seen all the episodes) and Thomas (who's been watching from Christopher Eccleston onwards) are working their way through all the Doctor Who content.
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Also it’s been confirmed that Ruby isn’t leaving she’s has been officially confirmed as being in season 2 and she was seen filming on location a few weeks ago
Watching it a second time Kate Stewart gave the most clues as to what was happening. She mentions that less than 73 yards is the most distance that a face can be seen with the unaided eyes, also she said this was happening on this particular timeline. Things diverged when the Doctor broke the circle so I'm also guessing the Tardis had something to do with it. Great episode.
Yes that makes sense.
As an older fan who experienced the hiatus etc of the 80s I understand fans who worry about the future of the series. However like Hadoke I enjoy some stories more from that era now because you know how it all fits in the timeline. These days i take the modern era series and stories for what they are and on their own merits. I don’t worry what other people will think, I don’t build up my expectations only to have anticipointment and I don’t knock stories back because they didn’t do what I thought they should. I certainly didn’t have as hard a time as others have with the Chibnall era. Future reviews of that era will be very interesting Fans had similar heated debates in the 70s on the Hinchcliffe and Williams eras and in the 80s the later JNT seasons. the more things change, the more they stay the same. 😉
The whole set up on the Welsh coast and when Ruby goes to the pub is so strong that for me, when we follow Ruby home the switch is SO jarring that it spoils the whole episode.
The Doctor (before his disappearance) has mentioned the said worst PM in history is Welsh so why not build that into this world that they spent half the episode building?
Also, has The Doctor become dis-associated with time?
In The Devil's Chord he asks Ruby current time (june/july she replies). here he asks what year she's from (2024) - Doesn't the TARDIS have a time sensor to tell him? I've found both these exchanges really weird.
I really liked this episode - in fact, I thought it was probably the best thing the show has done since World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, and it has made me much more invested in the season than I was before, especially after The Devil's Chord. It was beautifully directed, mysterious and creepy in tone, with nods to the ghost stories of M.R. James and, as you mentioned, films like An American Werewolf in London. Millie acquitted herself well, and I feel we know Ruby a lot better now, which was important after her rather broad characterisation in the last few episodes. It did seem a bit early in Ncuti’s era for the Doctor to go AWOL, but the episode was compelling enough for him not to be missed. Nice also to see the great Sian Phillips, of I Claudius fame, playing the old woman in the pub.
My take on why old Ruby was scaring people away was so that her younger self would realise what she needed to do to stop Roger ap Gwilliam - perhaps the fact that old Ruby can manifest as some kind of ghost is a clue that Ruby herself is not entirely human in origin. In any case, I have a feeling the events of this episode will be revisited later on, and I have a sneaking suspicion we haven’t seen the last of Roger/Mad Jack...
Apparently this was the first thing they filmed and Ncuti was wrapping up his work with 'Sex Education', therefore a Doctor lite episode.
The Doctor really needs to start watching where he puts his foot, first a Mine, now a Fairy Circle ,I dread to think what's next 😅
Not to mention Ruby and the butterfly.
Great review (again) guys, really hope this channel blows up (in a good way). 🎉
Thanks. We appreciate your kind words.
I actually think this is the best episode since Heaven Sent. Or definitely since Doctor Falls. There is so much to talk about and have discussions. I know it's not for everyone and shouldn't be done in Doctor Who on daily basis - and it would have worked better in Twilight Zone or Inside no. 9. Even Black Mirror did a similar episode last year. But this was just amazing, and please Russell, don't explain what or why it was happening, it would spoil the episode.
That’s the strength of the show. You can have episodes like this every now and again and they work, but if it was every week it would probably get a bit wearing.
I'm enjoying how Paul is a young grumpy old man lately. Props on your early start! ;)
😂 Channeling my inner Victor Meldrew. Don’t tell Thomas. He probably doesn’t know who that is anyway!
Favourite episode of the season so far.
I agree with Paul. I really liked this one up until the end when there were tons of questions that were never answered.
I suspect that the Ruby ghost was blurry, unphotographable, and always 73 yards away so that we couldn't possibly identify her as Ruby, which makes all RTD's decisions for these things meta, which makes it seem like the usual thing where RTD never thinks things fully through. He's very much repeating himself IMO. The structure of this episode is *very* similar to "Turn Left".
So true. RTD is historically great. But, he just doesn't think anything 100% through. He's a talented writer, but fundementally lazy.
@@foxyfox5 Certainly as an SFF writer, he is. I think he's a very talented drama writer and does great work developing characters. I'm just not so sure about his SFF chops.
I appreciate that you are doing this. Since the Doctor went to Disney Plus here in America, I have not seen a single episode. Just a principle that I won't pay into any "plus" service. So when it comes out to the public again, I'll see it, but you gentlemen are keeping me informed as to what to expect.
“My constant companion death” cheeky reference there
Wondered if anyone would pick up on that.
There's always a twist at the end
I think the Mad Jack thing has been blown out of proportion. Personally, I just think it's a coincidence; the name Mad Jack triggers the memory of the Doctor mentioning Roger ap Gwilliam, which prompts her to try and prevent nuclear armageddon. In short, Gwilliam isn't the Mad Jack resting in peace. It's more of a Proustian thing - a Madeleine moment - than anything concrete or tangible. That's my interpretation of it, anyway.
It may also be relevant that Gwilliam is born and bred in Swansea, and Swansea people are known colloquially as "Jacks". RTD is a Jack himself.
This has definitely been my favourite episode in years. I think that the woman is the embodiment of her abandonment and makes everyone go mad and hate her (just my personal take.) I think where the doctor went and what she ‘said’ are better not being answered because the mystery will always be better than the answer. I do agree that I don’t really understand how she gets back to the beginning but I have seen people suggest it’s a loop and she is returning to the beginning but I’m still unsure maybe that part will be explained by what ever rubys ‘powers’ are
I get Fury from the Deep vibes with the Doctor’s outfit.
I agree with you that having the Doctor change costumes every episode is making it feel that it’s not the Doctor. Add to that the fact the Doctors behaving very human and emotional it’s not really helping me feel it’s still the same man. I think Russell T Davis has said that this Doctor is no longer the aloof alien character and so it would explain why he’s not really working for me but if others like him that’s fine. It did have a great creepy vibe this episode but there were too many things that didn’t quite add up. Great reaction.
I love the fact this Doctor doesn’t have a standard outfit or uniform like other Doctors. It’s fresh and let’s be honest he can get away with a lot of unusual outfits
10/10 atmospheric unnerving and a great turn from Millie given this was her first episode and not even Ncuti to support as he was still filming Sex Education. I put it all down to the supernatural and as Kate so neatly says “we see something inexplicable and invent the rules to make it work ”. I can’t credit this solution which I have read and like a lot. It’s not a time loop or a reset. When the Doctor breaks the circle, there is a young Ruby at one fractured end and Old Ruby at the other and it takes her lifetime to come back together. Old Ruby definitely dies at the end you hear her flatline. And the sound effect of the Woman in her room is the same as the vision the Doctor has when Ruby's mother turns and points at him in The Devils Chord. I love not knowing and I don’t need any more answers to have thoroughly enjoyed this episode.
While there are some loose ends which aren’t unambiguously explained, here’s my take on the meaning of the episode, of which, there seem to be multiple meanings. I feel, there is a deceptively deep, almost philosophical meaning to this episode. I felt as perplexed as everyone else after my viewing of it, but a comment by someone in another thread provided the key to the meaning of the mysterious woman for me. Which I expand on below.
That mysterious woman is Ruby’s future ghost, haunting her living self within this alternate time-line created by the Doctor's clumsy disturbance of the Fairy Circle. The woman also represents something much more terrifying than that. She is death, personified. At least, she personifies Ruby’s death. So, she unintentionally (I believe) scares away everyone who tries to speak to her. Her purpose in the episode is primarily as a metaphor for the eventual death which awaits us all. Stalks us our entire lives, just as it stalks Ruby in the form of the woman. While our own death is rarely at the forefront of daily awareness, neither is it ever far away. You might say, that death is always 73 yards away. Close enough to be visible, but not so close as to be clearly so. The best that we can do is to ignore our self-knowledge that it is always there. Always waiting, and that we will one day, die.
Soon, living Ruby simply accepts the woman as an inevitable part of her daily existence. Realizing, that there’s nothing she can do about her anyway, Ruby decides to do something meaningful with her life. Utilizing the mystery woman for an extremely constructive purpose in that endeavor. Until, finally, Ruby is at the end of her life, and the mystery woman manifests closely in her room. Ruby’s death is closely approaching her. In the last moment of life, when the medical monitor in her room that had been reassuringly making a regular beeping sound suddenly starts making that dreadful flatline tone, the woman turns to face Ruby. As she does, Ruby loses all anxiety, and embraces her death with outstretched arms, and a smile of relief. Ruby passes, and then becomes the ghost which had been haunting her. Chills. Throughout life, Ruby has felt abandoned, and isolated. Which is sad enough, but she also ends up dying alone, as well. A feeling, and an ending, for too many of us. Davies appears to touch on that.
The episode’s main fault is that it’s too ambitious for one-hour. Further complicating matters is the ‘Mad-Jack’ sub-episode. 73 Yards could have, and probably should have been made into a two-part episode. As for the time-paradoxes, such as how Ruby’s future ghost could haunt her living self, those have been explained by Tenant in the famous ‘Blink’ episode, Wibbly-Wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. In other words, don’t let paradoxes interfere with the message of the story.
Mad-Jack, seems to be a destructive spirit/entity which corruptly influences a young Gwilliam, once it is unbound from the Fairy Circle when the Doctor disturbs it. A disturbance which then launches the alternate time-line centered on Ruby, and which Kate, of U.N.I.T., cryptically asserts has happened. That alternate time-line is erased when Ruby’s ghost, whispering “don’t step”, warns young Ruby in time to prevent the Doctor from disturbing the Fairy Circle in the first place. BTW, apparently, ghost Ruby is repeatedly signing; “bless you, thank you”.
I'll keep it short(ish haha) and sweet. Bets bit of tv I've seen jn ages, never mind being Doctor Who.
Folk horror meets political warning , all in an election campaign!
Astonishing. Gorgeous cinematography , soundtrack, I really clicked with Ruby now, as she smashed that glass at the bar in emotion, I was with her.
This has haunted me and stayed with me, thinking over the mysteries.
It's really stayed with me this one. I can't remember last time I was so affected by an episode.
I love it. Proper love it.
This was much better. There’s shades of Midnight, Turn Left and Blink in there. Not entirely sure what it was all about but I liked it.
Anyone want to know what Future Ruby says to her victims? Two words. “Barrowmans back”😂
"BARROWMAN!* 👊 (shakes fist)
Paul, I don’t know enough about Ncuti the actor to say he is playing himself but he wouldn’t be the first actor to say that. Both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker have said they played themselves so Ncuti is in good company if he is.
It’s a 10 out of 10 for me. Great creepy vibe. Superb performance from Millie.
I didn’t need everything to be always neatly wrapped up or explained. Leave it to be scary and mysterious. However we might find out in the future when we find out more about Ruby. The fairy circle might have been some sort of trap from the one who waits.
This episode reminds me of some Twilight Zone episodes.
Like the one where the woman is haunted by a mad woman on a horse who keeps chasing her and trying to shout something at her ...
Yes, but the mystery in the Twilight Zone was always resolved. TZ was tightly written, a whole story with a beginning, a middle, and an end packed into half an hour. This was all over the place.
I dont know about the woman's hand gestures and why exactly 73 yards, but i do have other theories.
Where did the doctor go: he was the one who broke the fairy circle, so his disappearance from existance was a type of punishment. And why didnt Ruby disappear? She was the one who took the scroll about Mad Jack and read it, so taking down the PM had become her mission alone, although she didnt know it yet.
Why did the woman make everyone hate Ruby: I feel like it was a defence mechanism, coz nothing should hamper Ruby's mission of dethroning the PM. If Unit, for example, successfully intervened and captured the woman, Ruby would have never been able to deal with the PM. So, its like: you try to approach her or talk to her, then you are repelled by her and driven away from Ruby, so that Ruby's mission can be completed without impediments or distractions. Nobody tried to approach the woman after Ruby dealt with the PM, so we don't know if this theory holds.
Unfortunately the PM took advantage of Marti, and Ruby feels guilty coz she introduced them. This adds to his villany and why we are motivated to see him dethroned. So Marti is esctatic when the PM runs away and resigns.
There is no loop or paradox. The episode occured in an alternate timeline, like Kate told Ruby. And in that timeline, Ruby stopped the PM from leading the "the world to the brink of nuclear war", to quote the Doctor. So there is no actual nuclear war. When the timeline is reset in the final scene, Ruby does not live a life where she will stop the PM, so it isnt a paradox. Her original timeline is restored when she dies in her deathbed and united with the old woman. In the final scene, the doctor again tells Ruby about the dangerous PM. It is a fixed event in time that cannot be changed. Going by the exact words of the Doctor, the PM will indeed come to power in 2046, but clearly doesn't do any catastrophic damage. He simply acquires the weapons for symbolism and leads the world to the "brink" of nuclear war.
This entire episode was in an alternate timeline and trying to be all meta coz in this alternate timeline, Doctor Who does not have a title sequence.
When are you going to launch the patreon I for one would support it.
The whole episode seemed recycled - and that's not a bad thing. Recycling 'Turn Left', 'Midnight' (inside the pub) & RTD's mini-series 'Years & Years' as well as a few moments/lines from other Who stories made this perhaps the best story in over a decade.
You don't need an explanation of everything that happens as it happens on screen. We had no idea what "Bad Wolf' or 'The Sound of Drums' or "Knock Four Times' meant until much later in a series.
I also liked that 'Mad Jack PM' was played by the actor who played Cilla Black's husband in the mini-series that starred a Who companion to Paul McGann - Sheridan Smith - as Cilla 12 or so years back.
It is weird how she says they’ve just met ruby and the doc but the 1st and second episode had six months gap and this episode she has the same outfit as the chromosome episode so you know it’s all out of order.
The episode looked great, was atmospheric, and creepy in parts. But the excellent 'Wicker Man'/'American Warewolf...' vibe in the pub was thrown away as a joke; and the whole 'Albion' party thing seemed incredibly rushed. That felt like a different story that should have been fleshed out into an episode in and of itself. I've watched 73 Yards twice, and enjoyed it, but nothing was resolved, so it ultimately left me deeply unsatisfied. It was much less than the sum of its individual parts, and in the end, none of it happened anyway, it was just one possible reality, if the Doctor broke the fairy circle thing, which he didn't. It might as well have concluded 'And then she woke up and it had all ben a dream.' Maybe all will become clear at the end of the season, but I doubt it. I think RTD wants to transform Doctor Who from a Science Fiction show into one where the supernatural and Fantasy are dominant, which means no resolution or explanation is ever necessary, because it's magic, in'it? Millie was good though, especially considering this was the first episode she filmed, and she was only eighteen years' old at the time.