73 Yards

Out of all the episdoes in this series this is the one, that left me wondering the most.

Arriving on the Welsh coast, the Doctor steps on a circle made of string and vanishes. Ruby left on her own unable to get into the TARDIS, sees only a woman who keeps here distance, any anyone who speaks to the woman her runs away never speaks to Ruby again.

Its a 'Doctorlite' story, and these episodes are where the actor playing the Doctor is busy elsewhere, and they're some of the best, and possibly some of the worst (depending on your point of view) that the series produces.

As Ruby make her way back home we see the woman out side the train, always 73 yards away. Its memorable and quite scary.

Its quite distressing to see Ruby's mother disown her after talking to 'the woman' and you really feel for for her. Kate Stewart makes an appearince, and its nice to have her back, though briefly, and is of no help. I do thnk about what if the Doctor wasn't present what would the companion do, how would they solve the problem - or maybe what would I do. This episode shows us that.

I didn't even misss the Doctor! He's only there for a couple of munites and the beginning and end, and the time goes so quickly.

Its not without its flaws, one of the scenes that irritates me most is when Ruby goes into the local pub and asks to pay using her phone, which the woman behind the bar seems confussed by. The first thoughts are maybe its a few years earlier before the technology was invented, No. Turns out its just the locals being morons. Again a few minutes later Ruby obvisously somewhat scared and shaken tells of the circle she found, they then wind her up, really unpleasent, and it just wouldn't happen.

Its the ending that gets me, during the episode Ruby thinks she know what she's got to do, but after doing it the episode carries on. It isn't much of a spoiler, we know the Doctor will be back and everthing will be reset. But there are questions. What the 'woman' says to people isn't important, nothing you say would make everybody react the same, it more like the intent. Again the woman seemed to be trying to say something, but again not so important. For me, with everything reset and undone, what exactly was the point of it all? Anything Ruby achieved didn't happen. Aside from that a pretty good episode.

This one is a really hard episode to form an opinion on. The first half is very strong, creating a chilling atmosphere reminiscent of a Steven Moffat episode (only, in this case, written by Russell T Davies). However, once the story delves into the political narrative, it's not quite as engaging.

The premise, concerning the Doctor and Ruby breaking a fairy circle and unleashing the spirit of 'Mad Jack', as well as a woman who always stays 73 yards away from Ruby, is extremely interesting. It works well in the more supernaturally focused RTD2, and is a genuinely unsettling notion. Imagine how creeped out you'd feel if you noticed a woman was literally stalking you whilst staying a fair distance away. It would be so very uncomfortable.

The first half of the episode makes excellent use of this concept too, particularly whilst Ruby is in the pub. The whole sequence with the banging, and the locals teasing Ruby to open the door, is so well directed that it leaves you feeling uneasy as Ruby answers the door. Whilst it may be a fakeout and not actually 'Mad Jack', it's a brilliantly tense scene until the door is answered.

There are some obvious similarities to The Curse Of Clyde Langer, but unlike with Space Babies and The End Of The World, 73 Yards feels different enough to not feel like a carbon copy. Ruby doesn't end up homeless for one, and there's no totem pole either. I really felt for poor Ruby when her own foster mother turned against her, and the face that even Kate Lethbridge-Stewart wants nothing to do with Ruby does leave me curious as to what the woman stalking Ruby had said. It must have been something serious to make UNIT's leader turn against a companion of the Doctor's. Millie Gibson gives a fantastic performance of an isolated Ruby who refuses to give up despite her setbacks though, and shows that she was absolutely the right choice for the new companion.

As mentioned, the political storyline is where it falls apart for me. Roger ap Gwilliam could have been a great character, showing the danger the country would face if an extreme far-right politician became prime minister, but he feels too cartoony in his execution. This leader of the 'Albion Party' is so off-the-rails that he goes straight to wanting to buy nuclear weapons and leave NATO. It's about as subtle as a sledgehammer, and I'd have preferred something more realistic that feels like something the Tories, or Reform UK would actually do. As bad as both of those parties are, I doubt they would ever resort to buying nuclear weapons, or getting us out of NATO. Leaving the EU is one thing, but leaving NATO wouldn't happen.

It's weird how quickly the Roger ap Gwilliam storyline gets resolved too. He shows up, becomes prime minister, and then Ruby tricks the woman stalking her into facing Roger so that he resigns. I really thought he would be around longer.

I have seen a few criticising the ending, which reveals that Ruby was the woman 73 yards away, and that she then finds herself back in time, where she stops her younger self and the Doctor from breaking the fairy circle. I don't mind it myself, but it does mean that the woman saying something so bad that it causes Carla and Kate to flee, and never speak to her again, makes no sense. Why would Ruby want to punish herself? Is she her own worst enemy?

Overall, I'm unsure whether I'd score the episode a 7/10 or an 8/10. Maybe on first viewing I'd lean towards an 8, but when I rewatch it at a later date, I might change my mind and make it a 7. The 73 yards lady and the pub sequence is excellently written, but the political plot is weak. It's a shame the episode hadn't focused more on the woman stalking Ruby, as then it would have been an easy 10/10.

if doctor who has taught me anything, its that nothing good ever happens in wales

Okay this one is a rewatch to apreciate ep if you where over hyped cause it definitely went from a fine story to a good story on this watch

73 Yards is, I think, going to be one of the episodes regarded up there with Caves of Androzani, Blink, and Heaven Sent. What an episode

Now I like it when horror (because I feel confident in saying 73 Yards was horror) doesn't explain everything; you can have a coherent plot without needing to explain every last mystery, right? And 73 Yards didn't! It's a ghost story and a fairytale both, about making mistakes and the fear of abandonment and someone on tbe production team who thought they could get away with call a 19-year-old in glasses and a wig 40

Was that episode interesting or just confusing? That's the question I'm stuck on thinking about the episode now I'm over the initial “huh???”.

It was certainly an enjoyable episode to get swept up in, I was never bored so I haven't come away hating the episode, but I'm sat here trying to think about it, trying to mull over it in a way beyond the literal plot, but I'm coming up empty.

If you are going to write an episode that doesn't care to make sense that can be great, but I think there should be a reason for it. It should be in service of something, it doesn't necessarily matter what, some theme, some metaphor, some point being made, and I don't think this was. Ultimately I feel as though it was confusing for the sake of it.

What is there to get out of the episode? Underneath the confusion what was 73 Yards about? Surely it should be something more than pointing out nuclear armageddon would be bad.

4.5/5. It was excellent. Genuinely the best episode so far of RTD2.

But it squandered being one of my top episodes of all time, as I have the same grievances as many others seem to. The lack of meaning. Midnight, Blink, both episodes I would compare in vibe, that have similar intense, frightening mysteries that are explored as the episode continues. This episode fails where those ones succeed however, in making it have a meaning.

I have no problem with an episode that gets undone, plenty of timey-wimey reasons for that to happen. But the conclusion left me hollow. I don't need to know every detail of how and why it happened. That's what makes Midnight so great. But there's almost not a single detail that is explained, and, as I doubt the theories of us learning more about this episode later, it likely never will be.

I'm left wondering what happened and what the purpose of it all was, and ultimately, am left frustrated by that. Midnight succeeded where it failed, in that regard.

What I know of this episode can be summed up as such: Ruby is followed around by a woman for her entire life. At her death she suddenly snaps back to the past and becomes the woman.

No reasoning for a single thing in the episode. In Midnight, the question we're left with by the end is "What was the creature?". In 73 Yards, we are left with... everything. Why did the Doctor vanish? Why is she stuck 73 yards away (including with film)? Why does she have a perception filter? Why is everyone so terrified and disgusted by what she says? Why did the time loop occur? Why was it different the 2nd time around? I could go on.

I didn't expect or even want, EVERY question answered. But, all my investment in the episode was banking on learning at least the tiniest bit. I was not given the tiniest shred.

However, this is only my feeling after the episode is over. The experience of watching it is still extremely high on my Doctor Who tier list. But not even close to as high as it could be, if not for making me feel I'm lacking a single bit of awareness of any event that occured.

If I'm wrong and we do get SOME answers later, I will certainly be impressed, and take this back. As it is though, I genuinely loved the episode- but mourn the fact that it could have been at the very peak.

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)

Honestly I wish I could write a long in-depth review of this episode, maybe with time I'll be able to, but all I can really say is it's something you have to watch. I have no idea how to explain it, just that it's good.

This is genuinely one of the best seasons of Doctor Who in years so far and I understand why RTD said this episode is one of the best things he's written.

Wild, crazy, grand, confusing, lovely, impossible, unsolved, amazing, aaaaaaah!
9.5/10

My favourite episode of this new era so far. Yes, there are issues with it, but like all the best Doctor Who episodes (in my opinion) it's much more about the vibes and feel of an episode, rather than the plot or writing, and this episode did that spectacularly.

The on-location filming really enhanced this for me. All three previous episodes were filmed mostly on sets, so getting to see the breathtaking beauty of the Welsh countryside and familiar feel of a European street was a breath of fresh air.

I liked that finally someone in-universe points out the repeat appearance of Suzan Twist. The UNIT cameo was fun, as was seeing Ruby's family again.

I think my favourite bit of cinematography in this episode is something I doubt many people would have noticed: when Kate hears what the woman is saying and Ruby realises she's going to run away, they set the lights in such a way that there were no reflections in Ruby's eyes. Usually, actors have to play the light fading from their eyes (which Millie Gibson did do here, spectacularly so), but this was an extra visual I found very evocative.

I'm not sure I like the woman being Ruby. I think the story works better when she's a fairy. Still, not enough to ruin it for me.

Really, really good, but I am a bit put off by some plot details. In spite of excellent atmosphere and some strong moments, the ending felt a little rushed and unsatisfying. Midnight is a good example of the mystery feeding into the horror, but here, I don’t know, I think we are ought to have a bit better of an explanation.

Here’s my big question I am really struggling with since it is a central point of the episode.  Why did future Ruby scare away anyone who encountered her?  It seems like such an essential part of the episode and we are offered no sense of why. Midnight gives us at least a sense of there being rules to its monster even if we never quite learn its nature. Here, I’m not entirely sure what exactly was going on. It’s not a big deal because it’s a good episode overall. Really strong cinematography, direction, and production that reminded me of a top-tier modern horror like It Follows or Talk to Me.  In spite of my problems it is a cool episode and great creepy fiction even if the plot was a bit jank.  It's a really cool episode for Ruby, too, nicely focusing on her and totally selling me on the character.

I liked this episode a lot. For me, it is quite possibly a 10/10. From the opening moments, I was instantly hooked and remained hooked throughout the entire episode. The pacing was perfect: every one of this episode's 47 minutes were used incredibly well, none wasted.

To be honest, this wasn't what I was expecting from the trailer and other promotional material, and I think that worked in this episode's favour. It subverted my expectations brilliantly, weaving a rich and interesting narrative. Did this episode explain itself fully? No. Did I understand it fully? No. Does it matter? Not to me. I feel like this is an episode that I will be thinking about for a long time to come. When I think of RTD's writing, episodes like this are what come to mind.

In addition to the good writing, the directing is also on point throughout. In the DWM preview, RTD spoke about how the director has previously done short films and so directed this much like a short film, and I have to say I agree and that it works perfectly to create an atmosphere that serves this episode perfectly. To top it all off, there's an appearance from the host of my favourite quiz show. Perfection.

73 Yards is one of those episodes, I feel, that is not suited to everyone's tastes. Luckily for me, it was suited perfectly to mine!

I've always been a fan of episodes that don't condescend you by explaining themselves fully, but instead leave room for the viewer to speculate and form their own relationship to the text, and 73 Yards does this excellently. The tension is kept high throughout the episode as the mystery of The Woman remains unresolved, and as Ruby continues to be abandoned by everyone around her. Even when Ruby herself grows accustomed to the spectre, I found myself tensing whenever I spotted her. The ending, to my mind, was perfect - a broken loop and an unbroken circle, with all of the big questions still hanging in the air.

There were a few burrs in the overall experience: the rather ham-fisted allegory of the 'Mad Jack' presidency, some wonky pacing, and the fact that we are meant to believe that Ruby has aged twenty years just by putting on a pair of glasses... but overall, those are minor details. The focus of the episode was that of a rather personal horror and isolation, and the agony of unanswered questions, and that landed perfectly. Bravo!