In which the TARDIS materialises on a bleak, windswept headland on the Welsh coast. It is the present day, and on leaving the ship the Doctor and Ruby spot something unusual on the ground - a pattern of string and various oddments known as a "fairy ring".
The Doctor tells Ruby of a particularly dangerous Welshman named Roger ap Gwilliam who, as Prime Minister in 2046, would bring the world to the brink of nuclear war. He declines to say any more as this is in his companion's future.
Ruby is reading some notes attached to the ring, including one referencing a "Mad Jack". The Doctor accidentally disturbs the ring, and Ruby suddenly finds herself alone on the clifftop. She is unable to get back inside the TARDIS.
On the horizon she spots a female figure who appears to be speaking and gesticulating towards her, though she is too far away to hear. As she approaches, the woman always seems to be the same distance away from her.
Deciding to go in search of the Doctor and seek shelter, she finds that the woman is following her - but always at a distance.
A hiker then appears, who acknowledges the woman. Ruby asks her to speak to the figure and find out what she wants. She then sees the hiker approach the woman - and run off as if she has seen or heard something horrifying, first staring back at Ruby.
Ruby eventually comes to a small village and goes to the inn to spend the night - despite the locals being far from welcoming. They too can see the woman, now standing in a lane near the inn. Ruby tells them that she fears that by disturbing the ring she has unleashed some supernatural power - that of "Mad Jack" - and is horrified when they agree with her. However, it quickly transpires that they are simply pulling her leg. One of the customers, Josh, goes to speak with the woman - and he too rushes away in a panic after turning to stare at Ruby.
The next day Ruby returns to London by train, and continues to see the woman along the journey. The figure follows her home. Her mother, Carla, goes to confront the woman - but suffers the same reaction as the hiker and Josh. She refuses any further contact with Ruby.
She decides to call upon UNIT for help and arranges a meeting with Kate Stewart to tell her of what has been happening. UNIT troops surround the figure and Kate approaches - and she too appears horrified by what she sees and hears. She immediately withdraws her personnel and leaves.
The years pass and Ruby has to live with the figure constantly in attendance, always the same distance away from her. She has worked this out as exactly 73 yards.
She then spots a news item about an up-coming populist politician - Roger ap Gwilliam, of the Albion Party. Recalling how the Doctor had mentioned him just before vanishing, she realises that he may be the key to what has been happening and determines to get to know more about him. Her suspicions are confirmed when he mentions in an interview that he used to have the nickname "Mad Jack", as when younger he was regarded as a jack-of-all-trades.
Ruby is able to become a volunteer on his election campaign team, and sees immediately that he has extreme right-wing views. She also learns that he sexually exploits some of the female members of his team. He wins the 2046 election by a landslide and becomes Prime Minister, and arranges a huge press event at Cardiff Stadium. Knowing of future events, Ruby has a way of stopping him. At the stadium she positions herself exactly 73 yards away from Roger, so that the woman is standing right beside him. He flees in terror, and the next day it is announced that he has resigned - his party collapsing in his absence.
Forty years later, the elderly Ruby revisits the TARDIS landing site - the mysterious woman still 73 yards away as she leaves flowers beside the abandoned Police Box.
In 2089, Ruby is in hospital nearing the end of her life. One night she is awoken by whispering and sees the woman now standing in the room. She approaches closer and as she does so Ruby dies - only to find herself back in 2024 and observing events from the viewpoint of the woman.
The Doctor identifies the fairy ring as something to be respected and advises Ruby not to read any of the notes people have left at it.
This time they do not disturb it - and the mysterious woman vanishes from the horizon...
73 Yards was written by Russell T Davies and was first broadcast on Saturday 24th May 2024.
On being cast as the Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa already had commitments to the TV series Sex Education and so it was known that at least one of the eight new episodes would have to be "Doctor-lite" - a set-up which had been common practice ever since 2006, when a regular Christmas Special was added to the annual production schedule. These episodes allowed the companion to take centre stage so had a narrative usefulness as well as a practical side. The Doctor would appear at some point - usually just topping and tailing the instalment as they were trapped, or off somewhere else for the majority of the running time. Often the Doctor-lite episode was planned to allow for an episode which featured the lead actor prominently, and this time the companion might not feature much.
Bearing in mind that he had spent the previous episode stuck on a landmine, unable to do more than talk, there was some concern that having a Doctor-lite episode so early in his first run - one of only eight episodes - might be damaging towards getting Gatwa established. In hindsight this concern proved to be well-founded, as the Doctor would have very little input into the next episode as well, featuring only briefly until a major scene at the conclusion.
So, it is very much Millie Gibson's episode this one, and starts off as a nice bit of "folk horror". This genre has seen an upsurge of popularity in recent years after a boom in the 1970's - the "Haunted Generation as
Fortean Times calls it - though it has its modern roots in the works of MR James amongst others. There is a rural setting, and generally some ancient superstition unique to a small community, with events often triggered by some incomer to the area, ignorant of local ways. A trio of movies are said to epitomise the genre -
Witchfinder General,
Blood on Satan's Claw, and
The Wicker Man.
On TV we had The Children of the Stones and the Ghost Stories For Christmas.
Back in 1970's Doctor Who we were presented with some stereotypical renditions of regional locations - especially in stories such as The Green Death and Terror of the Zygons.
Here, a Welshman presents us with a less than charming representation of the rural Welsh. The staff and customers of the inn are rude and sarcastic and make fun of the visiting Londoner. The locals do point out that they are not village idiots, but Ruby isn't assuming that they are - and do they have to behave in such a negative fashion?
Apart from potential damage to the Welsh tourism industry, this is also where the episode begins to go awry. Had it remained a good, spooky folk horror, it might have gone down a lot better - but instead it suddenly dog-legs into a political thriller which is more than a little derivative of Stephen King's The Dead Zone (1979). This features someone who has future knowledge that a politician will go on to cause a nuclear war and so sets out to stop them before this can come to pass. Instead of assassinating ap Gwilliam, Ruby simply sets her spectre on them by cleverly positioning herself 73 yards away from him.
There are two big Welsh actors in the episode, though by splitting the narrative in two and having each in only their half, they come across as somewhat underused - especially Sian Phillips who plays Enid Meadows, a customer of the inn who at first appears to be knowledgeable about Mad Jack and the fairy ring. This proves to be little more than a cameo for Phillips, who is probably best known for her portrayal of the Empress Livia in
I, Claudius.
Having a bit more to do is Aneurin Barnard as Roger ap Gwilliam. RTD2 is clearly having a go at the rise of populist politicians on either side of the Atlantic, who exploit societal fault-lines to advance extremist, usually right-wing, policies.
Barnard had played Richard III in the TV drama The White Queen, and portrayed photographer David bailey, opposite Karen Gillan as model Jean Shrimpton in We'll Take Manhattan (2012).
Jemma Redgrave makes another appearance as Kate Stewart of UNIT, and also returning briefly are Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood, Michelle Greenidge as Carla, and Angela Wynter as Ruby's grandma Cherry.
The BBC's Amol Rajan, who currently hosts University Challenge, plays himself. interviewing ap Gwilliam for Newsnight.
Susan Twist plays the hiker, and for the first time Ruby acknowledges that she has seen this woman's face before.
Overall, it was very popular - but I would have preferred it to have either been a folk-horror story throughout, or a political thriller (preferably the former) and not attempted to smash the two genres together. Did Davies have two story idea that he simply couldn't develop into full episodes? That's how it feels.
Things you might like to know:
- Exactly what the woman says or does to terrify people is never explained, and RTD2 said he wouldn't be telling. All we know is that magic is involved as the fairy ring's disturbance is the cause of the Doctor's disappearance, and Ruby then has to live her life full circle to bring him back.
- Some prehistoric structures such as roundhouses or barrows had been thought of as fairy circles in the past, though the most common form is a natural one - a ring of fungi. The ring here appears to be inspired more by The Blair Witch Project (1999).
- We will later learn that 73 yards just happens to be the extent of a TARDIS perception filter's effects. People don't seem to notice the strange woman until Ruby points her out to them.
- Kate Stewart states that this is now an alternate timeline, one in which magic exists and more supernatural events take place. UNIT troops are said to carry both salt and silver as defences against witchcraft.
- When Ruby approaches UNIT for help, Kate states that the organisation is now actively recruiting former companions of the Doctor.
- This was the first episode of the 14th series to be recorded, and the very first scene shot was one of a 30 year old Ruby.
- At one point Ruby thinks that the "Mad Jack" mentioned in a poem on the note might be a dog. Davies later admitted that it was, but the reference was enough to trigger her memory of the warning the Doctor had given about ap Gwilliam.
- This is the fourth episode to launch directly into the narrative and dispense with opening titles / music.
- There is a Virgin New Adventures reference for fans of those books. One of the inn customers drinks a beer called Llanfer Ceiriog. This was the name of a Welsh village which appeared in the novel Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark (Andrew Hunt, 1992).
- Sian Phillips is the daughter-in-law of actor Leonard Sachs, best known as the Master of Ceremonies of music hall variety show The Good Old Days, but who also played Admiral de Coligny in The Massacre, and President Borusa in Arc of Infinity.
