Follow the Ruby Church Road

Review of The Church on Ruby Road
Warning: This review may contain episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Welcome to the Ncuti Gatwa era proper! In case you haven’t actually watched The Church on Ruby Road before reading this (admittedly unlikely), let me just start with a Content Warning for child endangerment. If “‘Rule #1: Don’t lose the baby.’ Hijinks ensue” is your jam, you’ll probably enjoy that aspect of the episode. However, if that kind of thing cranks up your anxiety (which, until I was watching, I didn’t realize it did for me), it might be nice to know going in.

Aside from the unexpected maternal alarm the episode gave me, though, it was great fun to have a proper Christmas special again. We haven’t had one since Capaldi’s regeneration in 2017’s Twice Upon a Time—though we did have four episodes on New Year’s Day, after the twelve Christmas episodes that opened the modern era. (Anyone else feeling old now that I mention that “new” Who launched nearly nineteen years ago?)

Most of the holiday specials we’ve had over the years have been standalones neither tying off loose ends of a story nor launching a new, series-long plot arc, though there are obviously exceptions. But I think we will likely find in the long run that there is more in The Church on Ruby Road to set the stage for the upcoming series than is immediately obvious.

Perhaps highest on the list of statistically likely elements is the question of Ruby’s parentage. On first viewing, we may think that she simply won’t ever know anything about her birth mother (or at least the woman who left her at the eponymous church, who may or may not be related to her, let’s be honest). But if you go back and listen carefully to that pre-credits voiceover, you’ll hear the Doctor say that “No one ever knew her name until that night a time traveller came to call.” In other words, the Doctor knows her name.

This detail is only one potential hidden clue, though. Another mystery that a friend pointed out immediately after first viewing was, “Who is Mrs. Flood?” Obviously, the neighborhood busybody could be just a random character with no other connection than living next door to Ruby. But given RTD’s track record (and, as that same very clever friend pointed out, “another water name”), it seems unlikely.

I watched carefully for clues to Mrs. Flood’s knowledge of the TARDIS on my second viewing. When we first see her, there’s no indication she knows what it is or who it belongs to, as she’s accusing Abdul of being responsible, and only refers to it as a “police box.” Perhaps also of note, during this encounter, she calls our new Companion “Rubes.”

Later, Mrs. Flood sees the TARDIS disappear and drops her shopping in surprise. Later still, the Doctor salutes a smiling Mrs. Flood as they rush off for another task. When they return, she whistles to attract their attention and the two have a nice chat. None of these imply that Mrs. Flood is anything but an innocent bystander. She even asks the Doctor, “Who are you, anyway?”

But when Ruby rushes out to run away with the Doctor, without saying a word to her mom about it (one of many ways she reminds us of Rose Tyler, for good or for ill), Mrs. Flood is in-the-know enough to nod Ruby toward the TARDIS, which opens her door invitingly to the new Companion. Mrs. Flood calls her “Ruby” before breaking the fourth wall to let us know she knows what a TARDIS is. Did she get filled in while chatting with the Doctor? Or has she had her own adventure—or been replaced by a lookalike—since we last saw her?

There are plenty of little anomalies like those above to keep us guessing. RTD even throws in a reference to “mavity” at one point, to make sure we remember the ridiculous pre-credits scene from Wild Blue Yonder and that it’s not merely a throwaway scene added for humor. I’m eager to see where all of this is headed.

As for what we got that is contained to this specific story, it was mostly positive for me. I’ll admit that the Goblins kind of left me cold—though I thought the idea of rope as technology and coincidence as its own brand of science were interesting concepts. (I’ve seen at least one complaint about that detail online, but it doesn’t bother me. Star Wars is full of space wizards, after all, so it’s not like mixing magic with your “sci fi” is new.) But the creatures themselves were not particularly to may taste.

The cynical part of me wonders if RTD was just looking for a way to use up Disney’s money, since the production values on the Goblin feast were insane. I’d have been happy without it, frankly. And the song gave me serious Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibes, since it doesn’t strike me as a common skill to be able to compose lyrics spontaneously enough to stay in time (and in tune) without warning. (I mean, Ncuti has a nice voice, don’t get me wrong, but… it was just the wrong context for me to enjoy it.)

The only other thing that stuck in my craw about the episode—and I only noticed it on second viewing, so it clearly didn’t impact my initial enjoyment—was the idea that the Doctor could use their intelligent gloves to pull down the Goblin ship. Even if “all the mass and density and mavity exists in the glove,” that’s still only the Doctor’s own mass—clearly not enough to pull down a dirigible. Whatever. It was dramatic, and Ncuti looked good doing it, so I can let it slide.

Speaking of Ncuti looking good, he is killing the Doctor’s wardrobe! He looked especially hot dancing in the club. (I’ve heard that Ncuti has specifically said that is a skirt, not a kilt, but—as someone who has worn a kilt in a pipe band often enough—based on the number of pleats in the back and lack of same in front, I’m still going to call it a kilt.) There is nothing I don’t love about this Doctor, from their fashion choices to their acuity in deciphering interpersonal relationships (like that of the PC who was going to propose to his girlfriend on Christmas) to their indefinable sexuality. (“I spent a long, hot summer with Harry Houdini” is a beautiful double entendre, and it’s vague enough to have plausible deniability for the haters.)

And while our new Companion has a few too many similarities to Rose Tyler for me to be completely comfortable with her (as I’ve said many times before, this show is about change, and I want uniqueness in the Companions, too!), Ruby still has a lot of good qualities. She’s adventurous (grabbing the ladder), credulous (easily drops into the weirdness of the Doctor’s world), compassionate (note her attitude toward both her extended family and her friends [side note: I love that the singer in Ruby’s band is clearly trans, but not a single thing is ever said about it on screen; she just is who she is]), and clever (once she pauses to think about the bonkers day she’s had, she puts two and two together pretty quickly). Those traits should all serve her well in the TARDIS.

I find it interesting that the Doctor never directly asks her to travel with them, but they wait for her to have time to make that choice before leaving. And, as noted above, the TARDIS opened her door invitingly. To me, that’s all further evidence that the Doctor knows something about Ruby’s parentage and that it will become a plot thread throughout the upcoming series.

So while there’s plenty about The Church on Ruby Road that I’ll doubtless forget (or repress) within a matter of months, I think it does an admirable job of both entertaining casual viewers on Christmas and giving fans other things to chew on. And of making me willing to follow Ncuti’s Doctor anywhere.