DOCTOR WHO: '73 YARDS' REVIEW! S1 EP4

I'm very interested to hear what people think about this, I'm still stumped?
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[@saenz7947]

To me, this episode was about dealing with isolation, the feeling of isolation or the fear of losing everyone you care about and sort of dealing with that by realising there is always someone with you, watching you, even protecting you and that is You or your subconscious self which is omnipresent throughout your whole life, so you are never truly alone, ever. At first I thought we were dealing with a Turn Left kind of situation and that it would somehow connect to the wider plot. And even though that is still not out of the question, I would rather it does not connect to anything else. To me it's another Midnight type thing - it's not supposed to be explained, it's not meant to be deciphered or theorised about, I think, but rather to bring out people's fear of loneliness, isolation and abandonment and try to tell us that the only way to deal with such feelings is to resolve it by yourself by looking inward. Accepting the pain that results from rejection and focusing on living your life, on your goals (such as saving the world from nuclear- for example?). I understand why one might dislike it, but it resonated with me strongly, because it was all about the exact same things I deal with on a daily basis. Often even when I'm in a group of people I feel semperdistans just like Ruby did throughout her life, yet she never gave up hope and accepted her scary self and tried to live most happily as possible. That is why I loved this episode. It was one of the most unusual episodes, nuanced and focused on themes and messages that don't resonate with with everyone, but that's okay, not everyone has to love every DW episode, especially when the mood and tone of each episode this season is completely different.

[@New-tu3mn]

A comment in another thread offered the best notion I’ve yet read on the meaning of the mysterious ghost woman. Yes, the ghost woman is an older (deceased?) Ruby, but she also represents something much more terrifying. She is death, personified. Which is why she frightens away everyone who speaks to her. Her purpose for the audience is as a reminder that death stalks us all, our entire lives. Just as it does Ruby all of her life in the form of the woman. While death is rarely in the forefront of our daily human awareness, neither is it ever far away. You might say that it, metaphorically, remains 73 yards from us at all times. Which it literally does from Ruby throughout the episode. All that we can do is learn to live with our knowledge that we will one day die. That truth constantly lurks near us. Ruby simply accepts the ever-present mysterious older woman as an inevitable part of her daily reality. Recognizing, that there’s nothing she can do to escape the anxiety inducing presence 73 yards away. Until finally, Ruby is at the end of her life, and then the mysterious woman comes closer, and closer to Ruby while in the last moment of life. While in her nursing home bed, and no longer afraid, Ruby embraces her death. Sadly, Ruby spends much of her life alone, finally, dying alone. Which happens to far too many of us. Contrary to the suggestion of some haters, that this episode is pointless, it rather, contains so many worthwhile ideas and messages that its main fault is that it’s too ambitious for a one-hour TV program. It probably could have, and should have, been made into a two-part episode.

[@F5ss]

Yeah completely agree didn't really like it that much (First watch I was screaming at my television demanding to know what sort of crap that was no joke)

[@Paul_Ernst]

I understand why people might not like it, but I liked it a lot. Best of the season so far. It’s pure genre, one of those ‘unexplained creepy stories’ that we heard as kids. I think people are now so overthinking tv shows and dr who in particular about theories on everything and everything must be connected that they don’t like it when some things are just never explained. But this is just a stand alone story to make people ask ‘but what was that all about’. It’s a lot like Midnight. But while I think it doesn’t connect to anything specific in a wider storyline, I think this shows more and more that EVERY episode is a separate story. It’s like someone is just telling stories, and this is them. Hence why every episode is set at different times. For example I’m 99% sure that Susan twist is just playing a different character each time, they are not connected, it’s just an inside joke that it’s the same actress and a wink that we are just watching a tv show telling different stories. There’s a line where ruby meets the hiker and she thinks she recognises her but then realises ‘oh no, that was a different ..’ episode? Story? It’s very meta but it doesn’t mean anything more than that. Sorry for the long rant. I enjoyed your thoughts. ❤

[@rayzermaniac5218]

The only good thing from this episode was seeing Ruby with her older hair style. From when she is said to be around 40 (Even if aside from the hair they don't even try to age her at all), but it really suits her. She looked very beautiful with her hair like that.

[@Alfie82-fj9zg]

I'll tell you my theory why doctor who is not making much sense this time around. RTD and the other one, Are telling some AI sofware to write A script based on A miss mash of previous episodes they have written, And are trying it out to see how well it's recieved. Disney is involved and would save A fortune down the line. It's not being recieved very well as the episodes are nonsensicle as they're written by AI.

[@Rhinoskin62]

Reverse this. The Dr. Remains he would do every thing to find her. He has all the knowledge and experience. A machine that travels in time. It was an Emperors new clothes episode.

[@ajay_omega8967]

I really didn't enjoy this - I did for the first half but it started losing me part way through, and I was done with it by the end. It stopped being spooky after she left the pub and the time skips. I don't mind episodes with unanswered questions but this episode didn't answer any of the things it set out. It didn't even give you enough information to work it out yourself. It set up mysteries and didn't answer any of them. I've seen this compared to Midnight but there is only one thing in Midnight that isn't explained, and that's what the entity is. We come to understand how it works, why it chooses the Doctor's voice to steal, and why the people turn on the Doctor. What happened to the Doctor here and why did he disappear? We don't know. No one else in this just vanishes. What was the circle? We don't know. Its set up as a fairy circle thing but then the people at the pub laugh it off as a joke. Why was the woman stuck at 73 yards? We don't know - its so specific and yet entirely arbitrary. What was she saying to people? We don't know. It was about Ruby but thats it. If it was about Ruby, why did it terrify people? We don't know. Why didn't any of the people affected by it tell Ruby what it said? We don't know. If it made people fear/hate Ruby, why did it make the Minister resign? What was she miming? Why did she suddenly come closer when Ruby was dying? Why and how did old Ruby go back in time? Why was new timeline Ruby able to suddenly hear the old lady when original Ruby couldn't? If the woman was always Old Ruby, why was she turning everyone against herself? The growth that Ruby made in this episode is undone. The change she made with the Prime Minister guy will have never happened. 50 minutes I won't get back. This was just... Badly written to me. It seems like RTD had a decent idea that he didn't really know how to execute or resolve, so basically did nothing. "Lets have a random woman stalk Ruby. Why? Who cares. The doctor would solve this so lets make him disappear. Then how do we solve this? Oh, Ruby goes back in time and says "don't step"... Yeah, that'll do..." For me, this gets a 2/10 because I liked the pub scene. That's it.

[@CyberSlammer2024]

You absolutely nailed what's the issues with this episode were. Fundamental mysterious questions it kept hammering home the whole way through it never answered. I don't think Russell T Davies had the answers or even cared he just thought he was being clever. I think the problem is he's got too big for his boots. He now thinks he can write anything and everyone will love it. You still got to write a good story with a middle beginning and end otherwise it's not a story it's an unfinished story or it's just a load of events that look good, but don't mean anything and anyone can write that.

[@kaseyarmstrong9371]

I think that’s why the hair was covering her face. I think it feeds in to the trickster is her theory is correct and she says to everyone that she’s the girl who sent them over but when she turns round to those asking she reveals the trickster face which is why she runs.

[@chrislawley6801]

So Ruby is the trickster !

[@nicka3697]

I liked how it played with Welsh folklore elements like not being able to catch up to another person even though you are moving faster than they are. I like how it explored the fear of rejection. The pub scene was brilliant. I thought the villain was superficial and the pacing uneven. Cool idea, nice timey wimey handling which was well executed so quite easy to follow. I like that it didn't spoon feed explanations. I missed Ncuti's energy and while she is a good actress I don't think Ruby is a very interesting character to hang a whole episode on. I would go somewhere around 7 or 8/10. I preferred Boom personally.

[@Blazing_Ninja]

0:22 I’m with you, it’s not my favourite episode, but I don’t dislike it either. I think there was too much left unexplained, for example: What did old creepy Ruby say to make everyone run away? Why didn’t a paradox happen? If all of this never happened, then doesn’t the 2046 PM start a nuclear war anyway? There was definitely a twist at the end though. DEFINITELY needs a rewatch! 6/10 for me. Oh and dwfan91 said that the Doctor and the 2046 PM swapped places when the Doctor stepped on the -landmine- fairy garden, but then how did the Doctor know about him?!? And he also said that Ruby’s soul was split in half, which kind of explains the ending.

[@KingfisherTalkingPictures]

Thanks. Yeah I was really let down by the end of this episode, and unless there's a ton of call backs later, so much of this was BS waste of time.

[@Zozette27]

I think some of the questions left unanswered will be solved when we learn who actually Ruby is. I don’t think Ruby knows who she is yet, but old Ruby does. Old Ruby has some sort of power, maybe she can break down the filters that are hiding who Young Ruby is. Maybe Ruby is the child of the Toymaker or another of the beings who inhabit the world he is from. I really like this episode simply because the ambiguous ending makes me want to try to solve what is still unanswered.

[@Whatwethinkofit]

Yeah we don’t get the amazing reception like sure it was an interesting concept but so much was left unexplained, and considering all character development from Ruby technically gets reversed because it now never happened or whatever that sorta makes this entire episode seem… pointless? Hoping that’s not the case and it’ll get revisited in the finale or something but yeah still a bit unsure as to what to make of it yet

[@chrislawley6801]

Roger ap Griffiths says he was called mad jack so how did letters on fairy circle say mad jack was dead. How did stepping on it start it all? Why dont people realise that is not what fairy rings look like. Was roger the goth in the pub at the beginning

[@lizsugar1435]

I thought it was awful. There were some moments that gave me feels but the majority was so drab. I really dislike her acting anyway, but I found it incredibly boring. I guess I just didn't get it.

[@JustinI340]

I think that Ruby is The Doctor. A past or future regeneration. It'd explain how old Ruby looked the same when Ruby was 19 and 90. It'd also explain why The Doctor "disappeared" when Ruby's timeline altered. I think that Old Ruby told UNIT that she's The Doctor. It'd explain why they disengaged. It'd also explain why she stood away from young Ruby. She couldn't forcibly alter her own timeline without causing paradoxical chaos. The Doctor would know the ramifications. I'm guessing that Old Ruby was just scaring others away so that others also didn't alert young Ruby to the truth. Now... Why The Doctor hasn't just told Ruby that she's him... I don't know. He must know she's him by now (if she's him). Ruby isn't The Doctor's daughter, or Susan his granddaughter. She's The Doctor. She just doesn't realise it yet.

[@Motion_Brick]

Sorry, but she can't be, because she was a Baby in the crhistmas Special

[@JustinI340]

@@Motion_Brick The Doctor can age - but very slowly. Nothing to say that they can also age normally too.

[@harrynewiss4630]

drab, uninspired

[@sb7984]

This a bad copy of an old Twight Zone episode.

[@SonnyK248]

Typical Doctor Who episode. Something unexplainable happens and there's a mystery to solve. As an audience member you're kind of gripped because you cant figure it out and that's rare these days. But then at the end you realize you couldn't figure it out because the pay off was so dumb. Like who at the beginning would have said "I've got it! Just before she dies, apropos of nothing she will just become that ghost thing only this time for some reason instead of just following her younger self around for 60 years she will just stop them from stepping on that thing and that will make it so the entire thing never happened. Also the people who could see the ghost for some reason and could talk to it and ran off after they did just forget all about that and also forget about the doctor vanishing too while you're at it"