DOCTOR WHO EP4 - 73 YARDS

 This afternoon, we watched Doctor Who Episode 4 - "73 Yards" on BBC iPlayer.

This was one of those Doctor-Lite stories, with Ncuti Gatwa only making a brief appearance at the beginning and the end of the episode.

Millie Gibson's "Ruby Sunday" takes centre stage in what was in fact her first episode she filmed for Doctor Who, before the 2023 Christmas Special and she was only 18 yrs old at the time. This was filmed at the end of 2022/beginning of 2023.

The story itself was badly written by RTD, and he left so many unanswered questions and situations that was never resolved by the end of the episode that Candy and I spent quite a while discussing it and complaining about it.

I was hoping the initial idea of the Doctor disappearing after entering a Fairy Circle and being followed by a mysterious stranger that is always 73 yards away from her would be more supernatural-esque and the talk of the sinister folk monster "Mad Jack" would be more interesting. But alas, it was not. Nothing really happens, Ruby spends the next 46 years alone, being haunted by the mysterious woman that makes everybody scream and run away in fear when confronted by them, including Ruby's mum and Kate from U.N.I.T. without any explanation on what was said. RTD has mentioned that you can imagine yourself what was said by the mysterious woman. (Bad Writing!!!)

Anyway, Ruby remembers something that the Doctor tells her before he disappears that the new UK PM from 2046 named Roger ap Gwilliam will cause a Nuclear War and Britain will be devastated. She manages to stop him by positioning the mysterious woman next to the PM by standing 73 yards away. He speaks to the mysterious woman and runs away in fear and resigns straight away.

After that, 20 more years pass by and Ruby is still followed by the mysterious woman as she ages into an old woman. in the end, Ruby is in a hospital bed near her end time when the mysterious woman appears again and it's Ruby all along! and then the old Ruby appears back in the past of 2024 and she watches her younger self and the Doctor depart from the TARDIS and she sends her young self a psychic message to stop the Doctor from stepping into the Fairy Circle and then she disappears for good and Ruby has no memories of anything as the episode does a Star Trek and presses the reset button and nothing that has happened has actually happened!

Sigh, this was a good episode in the way that it did not feature that prancing Ncuti Gatwa ruining it, and there was no wokeness or Gay-Agenda in the story. But Millie Gibson did a decent job with what she was given and at her young age.

The story had potential and I could have written it far better then RTD did.

The ratings for this episode was 2.6 million, slightly better then last weeks episode and the best (so far) of this season, but still a shit episode.

It was great to see Kate and U.N.I.T. and it's interesting that the Earth has not had any Alien invasions or any Apocalyptic threats with the Doctor not being around for the last 86+ years as they did not need him to help.

I shall rate this a score of 4/10.

RTD needs to go back to writing school as he is rubbish and very lazy!