Doctor Who Season 14 Episode 4

Here we are, already halfway through the latest season of Doctor Who and things seem to be gearing up for something big, leaving us with a lot of unanswered questions. Who is this random recurring elderly lady in this season? What’s the deal with Ruby Sunday? You would think we would get some closure on that last question, with this week’s episode being all about Ruby. Spoiler alert… we did not. We did certainly see some interesting development in this weeks episode though.

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The Review

Image by BBC Studios Production

73 Yards starts off with The Doctor and Ruby landing on a familiar landscape in a familiar time, Wales 2024. All of space and time at their fingertips and they choose Wales? Since The Doctor has a habit of letting his companion choose the location, Ruby is probably to blame here – come on Rubes, there are much more exciting places to go. All seems to be in order, until The Doctor stands on a fairy circle and suddenly vanishes. 

This is where it becomes very clear that this is not a Doctor episode, this is Ruby’s time to shine, and god does she shine, though not without flaws. It seems very strange for the show to focus only on Ruby this early in, we still have yet to build a relationship with The Doctor, and yet here we are watching Ruby live out her life post Doctor whilst being stalked by a very creepy old lady.

Image by BBC Studios Production

The old lady in 73 yards seems to be some sort of witch, with undertones of witchcraft throughout this episode it certainly fits with the story. She seems to have the ability to turn people against Ruby, most who talk to ‘the witch’ runaway in fear. We even see the locals teasing Ruby about witchcraft when she tells them of the lady who’s following her. However, as the episode comes to an end we realise she may not be a witch after all, so what had she even been saying to make them flee? Unfortunately we don’t actually find out. It’s weird, and not in a good way.

This episode see’s the return of a familiar face, the ambulance lady from Boom, the tea lady from The Devil’s Chord and the crew member from Space Baby – yes this is all the same person, but who is she? When we first noticed this recurring face during episode 2, my wife and I would joke saying they blew their budget on special effects and can only pay one extra, but there seems to be more to this character and this episode confirms it. Every time this lady has popped up, it’s only been us (the viewer) to notice, this time however was different. When Ruby approaches this lady and asks her if she’s seen her friend, she stops in a moment of realisation and asks “I haven’t met you before, have I?”. The lady of course brushes this off leaving us with nothing, but this interaction has made me excited to see what happens the next time they meet.

This episode felt like an echo of The Family of Blood in which David Tennant’s Doctor opts for a human life, although 73 yards is not as heart warming. Instead of seeing Ruby happy, we see her break up with countless boyfriends and live alone since the old lady scares everyone away she talks to. Ruby’s caring nature shines in this episode with her purposely going out her way to not hurt the stranger and even raise a glass to her on special occasions – if you have a stalker in real life, please don’t do this as it’ll probably reaffirm their deluded thoughts of what you two are!

Image by BBC Studios Production

Without spoiling anything, this episode ends in a way which sort of renders the whole thing pointless. However, this story does point to some sort of alternate dimensions which could end up being a bigger plotline, you know like the one Rose is in, maybe Ruby is the biological daughter of Rose Tyler? The biggest takeaway from this episode is the reoccurring ambulance/tea/crew mate/hiker lady. Who is she, and why does she seem to be a different person every time they meet?

With all I have said in this article, you probably think I hated it. I actually thought it was good, not great, but good. It was nice to see Ruby develop as a character, but the fact it ended the way it ended just left a lot of unanswered questions and made it feel like a filler episode.

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Where to Watch Doctor Who Season 14?

Image by BBC Studios Production

Doctor Who season 14 can be watched live on BBC One or streamed on the BBC IPlayer for UK residents and Disney Plus for non UK residents, with new episodes releasing weekly.

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