Spoilers 73 Yards grade and discussion thread

[jaime]

What are you referring to?
Well, it had the original 1963 opening, so that counts.

The Doctor was gone, hence no ‘Doctor Who’. At least I presume that was the thematic reason for dropping the credits.
As opposed to them giving more time to story — of which the whole ‘ he drank here, he’s coming to get meeeee!’ Was a bunch of minutes that gave what people now call ‘vibes’ but didn’t actually go anywhere or do anything but give a spooky couple of minutes, and the punchline to the Little Britain joke.

Did it use the whole 63 opening, or just the title card dissolve? It’s been a while since I watched it.

 

[jaime]

Speaking of Chibnall, this story reminds me what I actually thought what we might've gotten out of Chibnall, back when his series was about to start. Sort of a show with more urban and folk mystery behind it, a lot of psychological horror but with a modern twist. Obviously we didn't get that, but I will say this episode is refreshing in that it instills a genuine sense of dread and sorrow for what Ruby's going through.

It's decidedly arty, isn't it? Of course there's a lot of questions, many mentioned by everyone, but the chief one is, WHERE IS THE DOCTOR? But you know, once you accept the inevitability of the horror wherein (that Ruby's destined to be alone when anyone near her talks to that person 73 yards away), it becomes a study of endurance and a test for Ruby, and Millie Gibson admirably carries herself in the part, and indeed carries the show throughout the runtime admirably.

Basically, I loved it, and enjoyed every moment, but I won't deny any of criticism stacked against it. I can understand not liking it, but I genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere and mood, so may kudos to the director as well, brilliant work. The emotional pay-off is kinda missing, perhaps a result of the decidedly distant storytelling that posits Ruby afar from the reaction she seeks. Maybe its intentional, but it is apparent.

Still. I'd say this is a good episode, a winner in a row. 8.5/10

‘It was alright, good or great in places, but rushed the ending and left some things that should have been clearer unsatisfactorily unexplained — and remixes stories from before’ is both this and Boom in a nutshell.

 

[Stuart Wilson]

Not sure what some of you were watching but that's one of the best Who stories I've ever seen. As far as explanations go it doesn't need one, call it a curse, or witchcraft. Magic is part of the world of Doctor Who now and that's the only explanation we need. I think it's going to go down as a classic. In fact, I can't believe they crammed it all into 45 mins without it ever feeling rushed.

The first two this year were OK. Last weeks was good. This one was excellent.

Stuart

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Did it use the whole 63 opening, or just the title card dissolve? It’s been a while since I watched it.

The opening as it was, just widescreen.

‘It was alright, good or great in places, but rushed the ending and left some things that should have been clearer unsatisfactorily unexplained — and remixes stories from before’ is both this and Boom in a nutshell.

See, I don't tnink the ending was rushed. I think it was decidedly ambiguous and austere in its lack of explaining. I presume, like Nth Doctor mentioned, the finale would add resonance and more meaning to it, but as it stands, the story is mysterious and odd and that's why I liked it.

 

[Rich Watson]

While I neither expect, nor want, Doctor Who to be hard SF, I do kinda need some explanation that makes sense, even if it's just explicitly stating that Ruby has reality warping powers.

I'm assuming at this point that one or both of her parents are part of the Pantheon of Gods that the Toymaker and Maestro are from.

 

[jaime]

The opening as it was, just widescreen.
See, I don't tnink the ending was rushed. I think it was decidedly ambiguous and austere in its lack of explaining. I presume, like Nth Doctor mentioned, the finale would add resonance and more meaning to it, but as it stands, the story is mysterious and odd and that's why I liked it.

I dunno if it was here or elsewhere I said it, but it’s likely just a partially contained micro version of the entire planned arc starting at Wild Blue Yonder. And something that will fall under ‘I’ll Explain Later’.
We’ve had that before (jacket-free Eleven and Amy when she had an Angel in her eye, followed by the Big Bang…) but it is more…. annoying when a whole episode depends on it. Making a whole episode of an eight episode ‘season’ into something that is utterly dependent on other unseen things to work, isn’t that fun.

The whole thing is basically wish.com Prisoner of Azkaban, including possibly the fact that some of the boring or confusing stuff won’t get pay off until further down the line. I’m not sure it works.

 

[David cgc]

The first Chibnall-era story, The Woman Who Fell to Earth didn't have an opening per se. This is the second one.

"Resolution" also lacked an opening title sequence. "Sleep No More" had nonstandard opening titles, but the words "Doctor Who" did appear on screen in a sort of brief title-sequence.

The "Unleashed" special has a little more information about the mysterious woman, which sheds very little light on things, so it's definitely either deliberately obtuse or there's another shoe to drop. If it's the latter, this must be the initial seed for the revelation, they wouldn't have put it into the making-of if it called back or referenced anything we've already seen in Doctor Who and there was the slightest chance of us figuring something out from it.

Spoiler: The 73 Yards Woman

First of all, it looked that way, and I checked the credits to confirm, but she's played by a different actor than old!Ruby. I thought maybe it might've just been the hair and the clothes, but they're really two different people in real life. I'm not sure what that means about the implication that Ruby became the 73 Yards Woman when she died.

She has a jagged dark line on her face in a half-circle, like a scar or wound, going from the left corner of her mouth, up around her cheek and above her eye, then going along her left eyebrow to its end.

Her movements do have a little patter dialog to go along with them as she cycles.

[Left hand over her heart] "Bless you."

[Both hands to her sides, palms out] "Thank you so much."

[Shrug shoulders] "That's so kind of you."

[Puts hands palms-up as if holding something, then moves her right hand, gently running her fingers over her left palm] "When you gave me that little thing—"

[Clasps hands together to her chest]"—it was just so precious."

[Hands back down to her sides, shakes her head, shrugs]"How am I ever going to repay you?"

[Nods head]"But we'll think of something."​

And then it restarts.

 

[FredH]

Not sure what some of you were watching but that's one of the best Who stories I've ever seen. As far as explanations go it doesn't need one, call it a curse, or witchcraft. Magic is part of the world of Doctor Who now and that's the only explanation we need. I think it's going to go down as a classic. In fact, I can't believe they crammed it all into 45 mins without it ever feeling rushed.

The first two this year were OK. Last weeks was good. This one was excellent.

Stuart

I do kind of wish *Doctor Who* hadn’t decided to declare, “Sorry, ‘The Daemons’, but you were flat-out wrong!”

 

[FredH]

This episode had a lot of misdirects. I remember last year when the stuff about Gwilliam leaked online, making it look like it was something major for the season. Which doesn't appear to be the case now.

Then again, I guess they do need to explain how he gets talked down from starting nuclear war now that Ruby won't be living the next twenty years alone and abandoned on Earth.

I could be wrong, but I think the idea is that since the magic circle imprisoning the (preexisting) Mad Jack entity now isn’t broken, it doesn’t escape into the world to manifest in the Prime Minister, so ap Williams now either never becomes Prime Minister or at least never almost causes WW3. It’s a little shaky, since the Doctor was already mentioning him as they approached the circle, but that feels like where they were going.

 

[jaime]

I do kind of wish *Doctor Who* hadn’t decided to declare, “Sorry, ‘The Daemons’, but you were flat-out wrong!”

Azals bits, or Boks bits, will turn up in the unit basement.

 

[jaime]

I could be wrong, but I think the idea is that since the magic circle imprisoning the (preexisting) Mad Jack entity now isn’t broken, it doesn’t escape into the world to manifest in the Prime Minister, so ap Williams now either never becomes Prime Minister or at least never almost causes WW3. It’s a little shaky, since the Doctor was already mentioning him as they approached the circle, but that feels like where they were going.

Which is part of what makes it a paradox. Or in need of some explanation.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Boring, not particularly interesting, and ultimately unsatisfying.

 

[Rich Watson]

I do kind of wish *Doctor Who* hadn’t decided to declare, “Sorry, ‘The Daemons’, but you were flat-out wrong!”

Leaving aside my own thoughts on whether it's a good or bad idea; it's not something that was just changed out of nowhere.

It's explicitly shown that it's something that the Doctor is directly responsible for, and it wasn't just always the case that magic/the supernatural was real but we never noticed.

So it's certainly not unreasonable to assume the eventual resolution of this overall storyline will be things being put back they way they were before.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I could be wrong, but I think the idea is that since the magic circle imprisoning the (preexisting) Mad Jack entity now isn’t broken, it doesn’t escape into the world to manifest in the Prime Minister, so ap Williams now either never becomes Prime Minister or at least never almost causes WW3. It’s a little shaky, since the Doctor was already mentioning him as they approached the circle, but that feels like where they were going.

See, I looked at it in an entirely different way. I think the guy almost does bring the end times, but I presume the Doctor's gonna be there (or was there in previous incarnations) to stop it. In the episode, Ruby steps up to be the Doctor and prevent it, even sooner than he likely would've.

Remember, its never revealed in the episode officially that he was about to bring the end of the world. And given that that timeline was undone, it means it was still to unfold as it did according to the Doctor's impressions/memory of the events.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

"Resolution" also lacked an opening title sequence. "Sleep No More" had nonstandard opening titles, but the words "Doctor Who" did appear on screen in a sort of brief title-sequence.

Hah. Totally didn't remember that one. Good catch.

 

[jaime]

See, I looked at it in an entirely different way. I think the guy almost does bring the end times, but I presume the Doctor's gonna be there (or was there in previous incarnations) to stop it. In the episode, Ruby steps up to be the Doctor and prevent it, even sooner than he likely would've.

Remember, its never revealed in the episode officially that he was about to bring the end of the world. And given that that timeline was undone, it means it was still to unfold as it did according to the Doctor's impressions/memory of the events.

How does he come to be and ascend to power, if he is still dead and bound by the faerie circle? (Which… isn’t any of how I remember them working in folklore, but maybe they do things differently in wales. Or in RTDs world.)

 

[jaime]

Leaving aside my own thoughts on whether it's a good or bad idea; it's not something that was just changed out of nowhere.

It's explicitly shown that it's something that the Doctor is directly responsible for, and it wasn't just always the case that magic/the supernatural was real but we never noticed.

So it's certainly not unreasonable to assume the eventual resolution of this overall storyline will be things being put back they way they were before.

The supernatural has always been in Doctor Who, and often tied to inter dimensional beings. We’re being told this is new, and it isn’t. See, for example, Battlefield for a very fine example if you look past the production issues. (disco lights and armour that should have skewed a little more sci-fi mostly) Chalk circle, silver bullets…

 

[Captrek]

So, when Ruby is working for the Gwilliams campaign, she’s in her 40’s? Looks like she hasn’t aged a day.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

So, when Ruby is working for the Gwilliams campaign, she’s in her 40’s? Looks like she hasn’t aged a day.

Didn't you knotice the slightly more mature hairstyle and glasses?

 

[Mr Awe]

I didn't get it - so there is a nuclear war in Ruby's timeline because of the changes or alternatively the Doctor telling Ruby about the future triggers her reality warping powers and the story is very simple - it is just her reshaping the future.

Also Kate has a blink and miss it line about Ruby's timeline that is likely important later.

I wasn't clear on that aspect either. On the one hand, it seemed like them originally breaking the string circle and reading the stuff is what released Mad Jack. And, Ruby's actions later diverted the nuclear war. On the other hand, the 2nd cycle, they don't break the circle and hence Mad Jack rests in peace? Never does his stuff? Not sure.

Perhaps the answer is that by preventing the nuclear war, Ruby lives to an old age to become Distant Ruby who prevents them from breaking the circle. It's only by surviving that she can prevent them from breaking it. So, in a sense, the whole Mad Jack and nuclear war is just something she needs to survive to change history.

Perhaps?!