Doctor Who: Review & Analysis For The "73 Yards" Episode

[@TardisTalks]

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[@stephaniepage4334]

This video is awesome

[@philosotree5876]

13:44 Huh? The Doctor obviously vanished from existence.

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

@@philosotree5876 Yes...but where, how ,why. Some people cant just accept that thigns just happen ..just because

[@philosotree5876]

@@charg1nmalaz0r51 IDK but he didn't move.

[@georgeharrington6396]

My theory: The woman is Ruby's "ghost" who was able to return to the moment of the circle breaking, because of the significance of the location, from the moment of Ruby's death. Everyone can't handle interacting with the woman because they realise that Ruby is both alive and dead simultaneously; a paradox. It's fear on some primal, subconscious level and because the woman is a complicated space time event, they can't disrupt her as it would break the timeline, the time loop needs to complete itself.

[@SallyLovejoy]

I've been a Doctor Who fan since 1963. (I'm not quite as old as Ruby.) I loved this episode! When the Doctor disappeared, I imagined he was "in the space between the land and the sea", as described by the pub locals. As per RTD's explanation, 73 yards is the distance where someone's face becomes a blur, with 20/20 vision. (Hence Ruby's glasses when she's older, possibly?) At the beginning the Doctor said that Roger Ap Gwillam only "Brought us to the brink of Nuclear War", not that he caused it. That's what actually happened when 40 year old Ruby caused the old woman to chase him off. I know you think the old woman didn't look like an older version of Ruby, but the woman was wearing her white hair loose. Regarding what the old woman said to people to chase them off - I have no idea, but after 60 years, I always find the answer to such questions to be - Because it's Doctor Who! 😂😂😂 I've subscribed to your channel, thank you!

[@TardisTalks]

I loved your thoughts on this episode 💭, yeah because it's doctor who literally is the only thing you can say most of the time 😂 as 12 says how did I get a cup of tea "I'm the doctor just accept it" 😂 Thank you for subscribing it is so appreciated.

[@polgarauk5606]

My interpretation/view of the episode. When the Doctor broke the cotton on the fairy circle he cursed himself and then Ruby read the first scroll which said I miss you. It was at that point the Doctor vanished. I think that the Fae/Fairy who created the circle took the Doctor as a punishment (we learn from Kate later he had never appeared in the year that had passed so he didn't just run from Ruby. The next thing was Ruby reading the scroll saying RIP mad Jack, this was the final breaking of the Fairy circle that released mad Jack into the world (again?). Ruby's punishment/curse from the Fae was to have to live her life alone until a) she had defeated mad Jack b) completed her life circle but living her greatest fear complete abandonment by everyone she knows or will ever know. The people in the pub probably know about the folklore surrounding mad Jack but being a modern society don't believe it apart from messing with Ruby's head because she made assumptions about them to start with. What the woman says to people I don't know but I am not so sure it was Ruby at those points I don't think she became Ruby until the very end. To go decades with the woman following her and not go mad takes great strength of character. She overcomes all adversity and becomes stronger for it. The politician being the spirit of mad Jack and wanting to Nuke everything is umm well kind of bang on the nose for some politicians that are out there. This was more a commentary on how right wing politics has/is becoming and how dangerous it is. Your theory on mad Jack having to be born etc makes a lot of sense. The solution to mad Jack was quite amusing in a way taking her curse and using it as a good weapon. Defeating the Politician was never going to break the curse for Ruby only allow it to fully end once her current life had ended. When she becomes so ill she is hospitalised she is already matter of fact and accepting of people abandoning her. When she wakes up in the dark with the woman finally at the bottom of her bed. This is when she dies, the woman/Fae/Fairy then takes her back to the moment of their arrival to allow her to stop it happening and break the curse and reset their reality. Ok well that's my theory/view. Do I think it's a great episode then to be honest no, do I think it is a good episode then yes because I was gripped by it, I didn't get bored BUT to start I was left feeling a little bit confused. I spent the day going over it in my head and the above is my personal conclusion. It's creepy, psychological and borderline horror a lot like Midnight with a dash of Turn Left and the Clive episode from SJA's. I love Turn Left but not a fan of Midnight which I suspect is why I am not a big fan of this episode. I respect it as I respect Midnight but I am meh about it and may need to rewatch and see if I can enjoy it again. I did that with Midnight the episode was ok on first watch but kinda boring on second. Well written etc etc IF you like that kind of thing. Anyway I will shut up now I do tend to ramble and am generally a bit of a gobshitee😂😂😂 ETA no I didn't notice the missing opening credits at the time either oops 😳😳

[@TardisTalks]

I love this.. Great comment and thoughts on the episode, made me think about it a little more, I had to give in last night on making this video and go to bed where as usually I'd have it all done and sorted.. This Episode messed with my head that much I literally had to switch off 😂 I really think the really intention russell had for this is for us all to just be like.. What?😂

[@verity231]

I'm getting from this episode exactly what you're getting

[@smelisi]

I think your conclusions are spot on. The episode was a winner in my opinion and I loved the experience but I didn’t want to dig in to the whys for fear I’d ruin it. But I had to. That the old woman is the Fairy owner of the circle makes sense and not that she was Ruby all along. Only at the bitter end. Because Fae can do what they can do. And breaking a fairy circle requires punishment of some kind. The extent of it seems unnecessarily cruel to Ruby but that’s Faerie. Tolkien called it the Perilous Realm for a reason. Why 73 yards? Eh arbitrary distance. What does she say? Does it matter? She is Fae and thus can say and do what she wants to keep people away from Ruby which is the point. Where was the Doctor this whole time? He was surely in his own fairy spell that kept him distant as well. He just didn’t know since he only stepped while Ruby broke. More to digest but thank for your assessment because I see the episode much better now.

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

I can tell you you are wrong straight away. Ncutis doctor brings up the evil welsh politician wanting to fire nukes before he stepped on the circle (start of the episode), and before he didnt step on the circle (end of the episode). Therefore the guy did this stuff both when your supposed mad jack spirit got released and when he did not get released.

[@ODISeth]

This genuinely felt more like an episode of Black Mirror than an episode of Doctor Who. I loved it, it was a wild episode, but it was very different from the usual vibe haha

[@TardisTalks]

I think I agree, it was a nice change of pace giving us something different, just think it will take a bit of getting used to as its so far from doctor who as we know it 😂

[@ODISeth]

@@TardisTalks difference is often good! We’ll get used to it eventually

[@TardisTalks]

100% Agree Keeps things fresh!

[@toabrony]

It's something like the episode [turn left] in which there is no doctor in that episode either

[@robo3007]

RTD had a Doctor-lite episode in every series of his original run, although the one in series 1 was Father's Day which still featured the Doctor quite a bit

[@New-tu3mn]

A comment in another thread offered the best take I’ve yet read on the meaning of the mysterious ghost woman. Yes, the ghost woman is an older (deceased) Ruby, but she also is 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 all of Ruby’s life, in the form of the woman. While death is rarely in the forefront of our awareness, neither is it ever far away. You might say, that it, metaphorically, remains 73 yards away from us. Which it literally does Ruby throughout the episode. All that we can do is learn to live with knowledge of our eventual death. It, constantly lurking near-by. Ruby simply accepts the ever-present mysterious old woman as part of her own daily reality. Recognizing that there’s nothing she can do to escape her presence. That is, until Ruby is near the end of her life, and then mysterious woman comes closer, and closer to her. In the last moment of life, no longer afraid, Ruby embraces the woman in her nursing home room. Sadly, Ruby spends much of her life feeling alone, finally, dying alone. As do, and as will, too many of us. Contrary to the suggestion of some haters that this episode is pointless, it rather, contains so many worthwhile ideas that its main fault is that it’s too ambitious for a one-hour TV program. Leaving too many plot holes, primarily being time paradoxes, unexplained. Davies sprinkles plot clues throughout the episode, but those are easy to miss on first viewing, and are difficult to coherently piece together even once observed. I just chalk them up as, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff, and don’t allow them get in the way of my enjoyment of the story.

[@TardisTalks]

Love this take on the story, there is literally so many different ones now and I really think that's what RTD wanted to give us.. an episode we would all continue to talk about.

[@New-tu3mn]

@@TardisTalks Reminds me a bit of Kubrick’s, ‘2001 A Space Odyssey’ in that way.

[@productjoe4069]

This episode has shaken me very deeply. A lot of that is because of the unanswered questions, rather than in spite of them. My reading is that this is mainly a story about rejection and abandonment and the self-fulfilling prophecy that fear of abandonment creates. At the end of the episode we only know what Ruby learnt. She never really realises the loop she’s in (in plot and allegorically). She never actually conquers the abandonment, except by breaking the cycle. She is alone, and uses that to accomplish something, but that doesn’t ultimately give purpose to her loneliness. I think for this allegory to work it is vital that she never knows why people abandon her. If you’ve been abandoned, you rarely get any sensible explanation even if you get the chance to ask for one. It makes you paranoid and fearful and you believe (rightly or wrongly) there is something fundamentally bad about you. You’re always wrong footed and feel the butt of a joke everyone else is in on. And to hit it home, being like that makes it easier to be exploited by monsters like ‘Mad Jack’ which feeds into the feeling that you deserve to be alone.

[@TardisTalks]

Now this comment is Gold, this isn't even something I thought to much about.. But your right, Ruby would of course have a fear of abandonment, this Episode is slowly starting to make more and more sense.. We gonna need the whole fandom to solve this one episode 😂

[@productjoe4069]

@@TardisTalks Yeah, it's a very dense episode in spite of how empty and bleak the cinematography, editing, and score is. It felt like the director picked up some notes (set dressing, colour grading, sound design, etc.) from various adaptations of MR James' stories that spooked me as a kid, and it worked so effectively. I love these sorts of character pieces though. The plot is not only ultimately irrelevant, but having a plot would have sabotaged the meaning. I understand why RTD views this as his best script. It's going to stay with me for a very long time.

[@Thetoon25]

Still dont understand the following:??? 1. Why did the doctor dissappear? 2. What was the woman/ruby saying to all those people? 3. What was the sign language all about? 4. Given she re-set the time line, does that PM now set off nuclear war?.....??

[@TardisTalks]

1. Why did the doctor disappear? I took this as I said in the video that he has ran into the tardis away from the woman and ruby and locked himself inside.. god knows why he never flew away but again this is left to viewer interpretation. 2. What was the woman/ruby saying to all those people? We will never know and this is up to your own imagination. 3. What was the sign language all about? This was only done as explained in the video for visual interest and it had no meaning whatsoever. 4. Given she re-set the time line, does that PM now set off nuclear war?.. Because the circle was never broken mad jack was never released so Roger would not become PM.

[@Thetoon25]

@@TardisTalks cheers, but for point 4. The doctor still referenced him st the end of the ep as one of the most dangerous Welsh people. So it still happens.

[@TaweretSekhmet]

#5 Why does everyone run screaming every time they talked to the old woman.

[@henchtoes]

⁠@@TardisTalksbut Roger should become PM because the doctor talks about him like he is a fix point in time to before the circle is even broken. So that he well set off the nukes, I think it going to be like long game where it going to mean a lot more later on.

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

1. He was contractually obligated to finish sex ed 2. She told them there are 4 more episodes left 3. "I Have been kidnapped by RTD, Send help" 4 yes 🤣

[@angerydestroyer]

If the doctor was affected by old ruby like the others did the tardis get affected too? The tardis just sat there like itDID die without a hint of even a hum or light

[@paulshorney3465]

American werewolf in London homage when ruby entered the pub? The only bit I could follow! Lol

[@PrecariousPorcupine]

The Mad Jack thing couldn’t come at a better time for the US. Politicians are getting more far right, and it’s worrisome. I just heard that about 50% of the Republican Party supports Christian Nationalism

[@TardisTalks]

Russell really is a powerful writer and it is one of the things I do love most about him, He is never afraid to just write it how it is and say exactly how it is within story based episode, His writing is phenomenal.

[@BayAreaJaybo]

On a behind the scenes video, one of the producers said this was shot in Tenby.

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

I need someone to answer this for me, people keep saying old ruby breaks the loop at the end and i would like to know how exactly. There is no reason given that anything changed from the previous loop. She didnt achieve anything this time through her life and she became the old woman again, so why can she now whisper to ruby and why did the events change this time?

[@TardisTalks]

Ruby broke the loop because this time round she noticed the old woman and by doing so she heard the whisper of the old lady saying "don't step" and this is why the old lady disappears in turn this made her look to the ground and stopped the doctor from stepping on the fairy circle and breaking it, because the fairy circle isn't broken ruby never reads the scrolls and the events that would have taken place didn't need to so that time line no longer exists.

[@charg1nmalaz0r51]

@@TardisTalks Yes i get that part but why can she see her now, theres nothing to indicate she did anything different this time around in the loop. Like in entirety of her life, she didnt achieve anything that changed her fate of becoming the old woman, so nothing could have been different this time

[@TardisTalks]

@@charg1nmalaz0r51 she did by stopping the circle being broken this is what stops her having to become the old woman because the old woman was there to make Ruby fix the circle, and because the circle was not broken this stopped that whole time line from ever existing so ruby would not become the old lady again.

[@ftumschk]

8:10 Y Pren Marw ("The Dead Tree"), pronounced "Uh Pren MAR-oo"

[@TardisTalks]

Thank you 😊

[@CulturePhilter]

Ooo you called her “Rubes” she wouldn’t like that 😂😂

[@TardisTalks]

Hopefully she isn't a real person and the in a tv show theory isn't true 😂📺 she would slap me 😂😂

[@herbivarsawus4359]

As the Devil's Chord already gave us a TEN MINUTE cold open, I just thought that was a new feature of the season. I kept expecting the longest pre-titles in the show's history until maybe 15-20 minutes in, when it was clear from the scenes that it wasn't gonna happen - and nearly halfway would be ridiculous! Annoying for me, as I normally have my meal basically ready and plan to run back to the kitchen during the into, a habit I developed for DS9. Anyway, this is the 4th ever episode not to feature opening titles, after Sleep No More, The Woman Who Fell to Earth and Resolution.

[@TardisTalks]

Yeah it was weird I hadn't even noticed to be honest 😂

[@stephaniepage4334]

I'd like to see harry Edward melling or ty tennant play next doctor because they are grandchildren of peter davison and patrick troughtion after ncuti leave the show & I'd like to see jenna ortega as next campantion?

[@adammarshall9077]

This was a good one

[@halcroj]

I can't believe you only gave it 6.5 out of 10, but then I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Dr Who fan. As a piece of television I felt this was nearer 9.5 out of 10.

[@TardisTalks]

It is a funny old thing having so much of Doctor Who in your brain and knowing previous stories and the history of the show and its capability, it really does as a die-hard fan really make your view on an episode a lot harder than it would for the casual viewer. This is why I wanted people like yourself to comment and let me know your thoughts as it allows me to see how a wider audience is seeing it.. as I did say this 6.5 Score is for now and I will rewatch the episode and reevaluate all my scores for every episode in the final overall series review and episode list rankings which from what I have listed so far could be sooo different when I revisit that after the last episode Empire of Death :)

[@robo3007]

I'd rate it closer to an 8.5 because the ending had multiple issues. Boom was a 9.5.

[@garfar912]

Good analysis... but completely wrong.

[@andrewglasson4583]

Brilliant episode. Going back to the butterfly effect. Only this time it was the Doctor who stood on something to change time. There must be some reason why everyone ran away from old Ruby when they got up close and then ostracised Ruby afterwards. Russell T Davies must have some idea about it as he wrote it. Something to do with her birth, where she came from?

[@TardisTalks]

It could be something that is revealed or revisited in The Legend of Ruby Sunday...

[@reachforthesky1576]

It was utter crud

[@leanneray815]

The doctor disappeared and took his music with him. No doctor, no theme tune....again music acting like a character in the episode. On rewatching I noticed what mrs flood said. "Talking to your mother on a street" except Ruby was talking to her mother on the phone, unless Mrs flood was referring to herself? Bringing Anita Dobson in for such a throw away line would not be cheap. I used to work with her when I worked at radio 4.

[@TardisTalks]

Good observations.. Gives me something to think about..

[@charlesmento5968]

1/10