The Church on Ruby Road
Herein lie spoilers
Seriously, don’t read this until you’ve watched the episode because I don’t want to care about spoilers ;)
We have a new Doctor, a new companion, and…magic?
Well, not exactly. I heard a rumor this episode went all fantasy, but Doctor Who has never been rigorous science fiction and is at its heart a fairy tale. Which means goblins in an airship showing up? That’s entirely in character.
The goblin technology is based on knot magic, which is a real occult thing. The Doctor implies that all technology is, in fact, a language we speak to the universe.
I like that.
So, now I’m going to enthuse and theorize.
Ncuti Gatwa
When Gatwa promised us the first queer Doctor and came out as “queer” I jumped to the same conclusion a lot of people did.
The Doctor’s getting a boyfriend.
Gatwa made me revise those expectations in five minutes. I don’t know exactly what gender I was watching.
It was not “cisgender male.”
The Fifteenth Doctor is obviously not a man (that’s a male human). But I’m pretty sure he’s not a guy, a dude, a bro…you get the picture. Gatwa bounced from “sissy” to outright femme in his (his? Is that the right pronoun? Gatwa still uses he/him, I checked.
Gatwa plays a Doctor who transcends the human concept of gender. Their gender is “The Doctor.” (And carefully, the Doctor is not referred to by any pronouns for the entire episode). In "The Giggle” we discover the Doctor doesn’t use pronouns, although they don’t seem to object too strongly when humans use pronouns for them.
(New headcanon: Gallifreyan, which we know is a very different language from any human one, doesn’t even have pronouns).
Fifteen is “male” in the sense that they are wearing the body of a man. But Gatwa has managed to bring to the role something that goes beyond this.
Fifteen is not a man. And that is…fabulous.
(Also, they seem to have left their PTSD in their other body).
Ruby Sunday
Oh, Davies. Davies. When he brought the show back, he gave us Rose Tyler, a nineteen-year-old blonde girl from twenty-first century Earth. And since then the companions have all been from twenty-first century Earth.
This has annoyed me as a longer term fan who remembers such delights as Leela, Zoe and, of course, Jamie.
When he comes back to the show, Davies promptly gives us…a nineteen-year-old blonde girl from twenty-first century London.
Millie Gibson is a delight (and her outfit in this episode is going to be resulting in cries of pleasure and torn out hair by cosplayers everywhere). They found her in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street and soap actors tend to have a good range.
Except I think Davies is pulling one on us.
See, Ruby is a foundling. She was found at the church on Ruby Road, which presumably is a “Trinity” or otherwise not named after a female saint.
Side note, the church concerned is High Church Anglican/Anglo-Catholic. How do I know? Because Ruby was abandoned outside the church right before Midnight Mass and found by a priest in full regalia. I can’t imagine it’s a Catholic church, so…yeah. Just a British culture note for you all.
She is fostered by Carla Sunday who decides this is the one child out of them all she’ll keep. Carla Sunday is Black British. (Who said Davies would make things less woke?)
So, the established facts about Ruby Sunday:
She was found abandoned outside a church at midnight on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. She appeared to be a newborn, so her birthday is Christmas Eve.
Her DNA doesn’t match any database. If this wasn’t Doctor Who, I’d say both of her parents were private people who never did 23 And Me. I mean, I’m not in any databases either. This being Doctor Who…
So.
I think Ruby Sunday is not from 21st century Earth.
But here’s a deeper analysis for you.
Ruby is going with the Doctor to find her parents.
Dorothy wears ruby slippers.
I suspect she’s going to realize that regardless of who her genetic parents are, she has a mother and a home…and there’s no place like it.
Mrs Flood
At the start of the episode we see Mrs Flood, one of Carla Sunday’s neighbors. She’s an old white lady who reacts badly to the appearance of the TARDIS. She also goes on about how healthy she is.
But at the end of the episode the same Mrs. Flood is encouraging Ruby into the TARDIS in the manner of somebody who knows how much the Doctor needs a Companion to keep him in line.
My theory: They’re not the same person.
The line about Mrs. Flood’s health isn’t an accident. During the episode, Mrs. Flood dies…of natural causes…and is replaced by an alien.
So, who would be our lead contender?
I’ve seen speculation that she is:
Rory and Amy’s kid (Amy couldn’t have any more kids after River, this was established, but maybe they adopted?).
The Rani. Because every female Time Lord that shows up is the Rani. If I was Davies I’d have them be a villain of the week in a male body just to get people to stop).
The Meddling Monk. What? Just what?
The Master. Nah, we already did this one.
River Song. No, she couldn’t be this…low key…about being around the love of her life.
I’m going to ixnay all of those theories and the other obvious one (Romana. I don’t think so, but it’s not impossible) and go with super obscurity.
Mrs. Flood is K’anpo Rimpoche. A renegade Time Lord living on Earth who uses different names and identities rather than an overall title like “The Doctor.” They are sometimes called the Hermit, but I don’t think this is exactly canon. It would be in character for them to replace a human and…manipulate the Doctor, not in an evil way, but…
(For those who don’t remember or never saw it, K’anpo is one of the Doctor’s favorite instructors from the Academy).
K’anpo has both the ability to manipulate people into seeing what they want (more than the Doctor) and full control over their regenerations.
So, there’s my theory.
Am I a happy fan? 100%!