There are few things on TV that feel as good as meeting a new doctor and knowing it will be great. Doctor who's 21st century run a lot of of ups and downs so far, but playing the titular role has never been one of them. Ncuti Gatwa, the Fifteenth Doctor, is no different: immediately charming, charismatic and strange. In his first full-length adventure, 'The Church on Ruby Road', Gatwa shows shades of doctors who have come before, while putting his own strong stamp on the role; at once hospitable and enigmatic, he's the kind of person you'd love to follow anywhere, but who clearly doesn't tell you everything.
And in “The Church on Ruby Road,” we finally meet Fifteen's companion for the coming season: Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), an orphan in a period of great bad luck. The ensuing episode is a fine holiday romp, the kind that will sell you on both this new Doctor and Ruby Sunday in no time, a feat so tricky you might forget how easy it is to pull off. mess it up. Doctor who is good at choosing doctors. The hardest part is choosing the companion.
Modern Doctor who has put a lot of weight on the Doctor's sidekick, often to the detriment of the show. The role is perhaps more important for Doctor who to be right than the lead – a good companion (or in some cases, companions) must be both the audience's surrogate and the base force for the Doctor. Before showrunner Russell T. Davies left WHO first in 2009, his then final series of specials highlighted that bad things happen when the Doctor is alone, lingering in his ancient mind as he travels through time and space and confronts the horrors within.
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Where Doctor who has run into trouble in the past is when the writers decide to make his companion even more than this. Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) became a love interest for the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant), which you may object to or not (I personally believe that the relationship between Doctor and companion should always be platonic, but flirting is fine). Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) almost had her tenure as companion ruined thanks to the decision to make her fall in love with the Doctor, forever unrequited because she used to be'T Rose.
The worst mistake Doctor whoHowever, the writers of the series can work with a companion to create a puzzle for the Doctor to solve. This was the height of the Steven Moffat era WHO, where long-running plots revolve around “The Girl Who Waited” (Karen Gillan as Amy Pond) or “The Impossible Girl” (Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald). Again, it's hard enough being the companion. Also make it a plot device? That's a lot!
“The Church on Ruby Road” seems as if things are headed this way, as Ruby Sunday seems to be the intersection of multiple unnatural coincidences that pile on top of each other as the special progresses. Fortunately, Davies sidesteps that idea by simply using it as a means to introduce this episode's monster: little baby-eating goblins who navigate the universe by chance and also like to sing.
Image: Disney Plus
It is in such circumstances that the audience learns what kind of companion Ruby Sunday will be: a young woman who can match the Doctor blow for blow in whatever it takes to get out of a bizarre situation, even if that means singing and dancing in front of some baby-eating goblins. Ruby Sunday is an orphan who wishes she knew more about her past, but isn't afraid to run into the future – a future that includes a time-traveling alien who loves adventure and desperately needs the company. It sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale.
What, simply put, is what Doctor who feels like its best.