Season 1 (Series 14); Episode 4 --- "73 Yards" by Russell T. Davies

Leading up to the airing of Season One, if I had to give the one episode I was the most excited for, it would be 73 Yards. The few images we got and the absolute refusal to say anything about it, reflecting the build up to the magnificent Wild Blue Yonder, along with RTD stating it was one of the best scripts he'd ever written utterly peaked my interest and now that it's out, I have to say that it lived up to all my expectations. A mind bending, spiralling thriller of massive proportion that never ceased to amaze me and finally gave me an episode to actually dwell on, to actually think about. It didn't feel like family friendly prime time TV, it felt like a story with something to say. And it'll probably end up being one of my favourites of this whole era - if it comes back in some way.

After disturbing a circle of charms in the Welsh Highlands, Ruby finds herself lost without the Doctor and stalked by a woman who is constantly following her, always exactly 73 yards away. Alone, scared and forced to adjust to a new way of life, Ruby desperately tries to find an explanation to the presence that has attached itself to her.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

It's been a while since I've thought this hard about an episode of Doctor Who. I'm really not surprised RTD considers this one of his best episodes. It has all the political commentary, and sudden in your face brilliance his writing seems to contain, where he'll go from a toned down, happy go lucky adventure to one of the most intense hours of TV you've ever seen. It's inexplicably haunting, it hangs over you, following you like The Woman follows Ruby. It's got so little peppy score, it's draped in realism almost completely alien to its fellow episodes, the cinematography is especially fantastic here, claustrophobic when with Ruby and long and haunting when focusing on The Woman. The reality this episode presents, Ruby being consistently isolated from everyone around her just injects this episode with so much utter dread, watching it feels like getting cursed. I have to reiterate just how different this episode is; all the previous episodes before this had a forced joke here or there, a line that felt obviously scripted, a direction that leaned a little too far but in 73 Yards you're just stuck with Ruby as she is forced into a nightmare reality, never breaking away from her or her pain, just letting the episode breath and ruminate and it gives everything this brilliant, realistic feeling, everything feels feasible, like it could happen if this situation was real. Speaking of Ruby, she is also a massive highlight, Gibson gives the performance of a lifetime and it's what really sells this episode, you truly feel stuck with Ruby as her life crumbles.

And that is all why it pains me to not call this episode perfect. There is a difference between ambiguity and just not explaining something. Ambiguity has an answer, we just don't know it, there may be hints or conclusions we can make on our own but if you think ambiguity is just not answering open ended questions, then you're simply wrong. If this episode doesn't somehow tie into the season arc, answering some of its many (at the moment) plot holes, then that it instantly harms it: What is the circle? Why does is it cause the Doctor to disappear? Why does everybody abandon Ruby when they speak to The Woman? Why 73 yards in particular? What does Gwilliam have to do with anything? For that last question, if the explanation is it didn't, then that simply adds another negative, since it makes the second half of this episode completely padding. Another problem I have is, for all this episodes brilliantly slow pace, it still moves on too quickly from pretty big things that happen. Because of the jumps in time, we never really get to see what effect losing her mother to The Woman has on Ruby. It's implied Ruby turned away from the sexual assault of a colleague because she had to make sure Gwilliam would go nuclear like the Doctor said before she could act, which is a little f**ked up and never brought up. I wish this episode gave its ideas some time to settle before moving onto the next ones because it's so nearly perfect.

A stylish, haunting folk tale that sells you Ruby and leaves you with this bleak, empty feeling inside you, being one of the most interesting and thought provoking episodes in recent memory, is unfortunately harmed by its obsession with never giving you any hints as to what's going on, turning what could be an ambiguous and eerie story into a series of cool ideas RTD had. I might have to redo this review if the episode comes back in any kind of way but, until then, 73 Yards is still astounding.

9/10

Pros:

+ Has an immaculately constructed bleak and haunting tone

+ Grounded in realism all previous episodes were missing (at times, it doesn't even feel like the same show it's so much better tonally)

+ Ruby is incredible here and Gibson sells her performance so well; if an even better episode doesn't come around, this might be Ruby's Turn Left

+ The cinematography is top notch and really sells the horror aspect of the episode

+ The Woman is such a cool idea and such an eerie visual

+ Genuinely could not tell where it was going, and I've been wanting something a step above unformulaic for years now

Cons:

- If left as is, completely unanswered, it will turn an ambiguous masterpiece into a series of good ideas with no depth tying them together

- A lot of things happen to Ruby that should have a massive impact on her but we never see them have any effect

- The political storyline feels almost entirely separate from the stuff with The Woman (although, again, this is entirely liable to change if the season revisits the episode)