Spoilers 73 Yards grade and discussion thread

[Guy Gardener]

I thought she looked like Louise Jameson, I thought for a while it would be Leela somehow.

Surprised so many people didn't like this one.

I loved it. Millie was great, she was 18 when filming this and it was her first episode and she carried the whole thing brilliantly.

No, Leela looks like this...

 

[Sgt. Sacrament]

As the episode went on, I thought, "Wow, this could be a really, really good episode, maybe the first truly great episode in a long time..." and wow, did Millie really carry the episode.

And then the end, with not only no resolution, but no hint that there would even be a resolution later. Maybe they can pull something off, but it would really have to be something to effectively retcon the end of the episode. What a cheat!

 

[jaime]

As the episode went on, I thought, "Wow, this could be a really, really good episode, maybe the first truly great episode in a long time..." and wow, did Millie really carry the episode.

And then the end, with not only no resolution, but no hint that there would even be a resolution later. Maybe they can pull something off, but it would really have to be something to effectively retcon the end of the episode. What a cheat!

She did an amazing job, considering she was what — 18 years old when this was shot?
But yeah, it unravelled by the end, and whilst glossy and full of ‘vibes’ it was also full of recycled and unfinished things.

 

[The Nightmare Doctor]

As the episode went on, I thought, "Wow, this could be a really, really good episode, maybe the first truly great episode in a long time..." and wow, did Millie really carry the episode.

And then the end, with not only no resolution, but no hint that there would even be a resolution later. Maybe they can pull something off, but it would really have to be something to effectively retcon the end of the episode. What a cheat!

I felt and thought the same thing. The atmosphere and acting went a long way into forming that impression but a lackluster ending failed to stick the landing.

 

[JD]

I do think some stories can work where you leave thing unexplained, but that only works for me, when you answer the big questions and the stuff left unexplained is less significant. For example, I love Lost, and while that did leave some mysteries unexplained, it answered enough of the big questions that they had set up over the years, that I was satisfied.
This on the other hand, just left to much unexplained for it to be satisfying. I think really if they had just answered how exactly Old Ruby traveled back in time, where the Doctor went and gave us a little background on Mad Jack, I would have been satisfied.

 

[Marc]

I also experienced another Mandela effect as in my previous timeline, Siân Phillips died two years ago. It's heartening to see she's still around in this one. This also happened for Bill Beaumont and the Duchess of Kent, but not Nelson Mandela, oddly enough.

where as I thought she had been in Doctor Who before but was confused with her Big Finish appearances.

 

[Starkers]

I've been thinking about the episode, specifically the ending. And I think I've figured out a way to make the episode actually make sense, and have it tie in to the larger Ruby storyline in a really direct way.

Ruby is a reality warper. This doesn't come as much of a shock, she can make it spontaneously snow even on space stations or other planets. It may not actually be Ruby herself doing this, it may be a member of the Pantheon hitchhiking inside her and responding to her emotions (which always trigger the reality shifts), but functionally that part doesn't actually matter. Her emotions trigger observable shifts in reality.

What does matter is that the nature of the place, where the land meets the water, and possibly of the fairy circle itself and the implied supernatural factor thereof, somehow enables Ruby's powers to kick into overdrive and have a much larger and more immediate effect.

When the Doctor and Ruby first arrive on the cliffs, and the Doctor breaks the fairy circle, Ruby reads the wishes/notes. The very first one? "I miss you." Something you would say to someone you lost, as Ruby is about to lose the Doctor. In fact, he vanishes without a trace moments later. She also reads the Mad Jack note, which will play into Gwilliam later. At this point, The Woman appears. We know from the ending that this is in fact, and always has been, Ruby herself from her relative future.

What could future Ruby possibly be saying to these people that make them instantly turn on Ruby personally and drive her away? We are never told, but it DOESN'T ACTUALLY MATTER. She could be saying hello and asking them for tea. What's important is that after the Doctor disappears Ruby's fear of abandonment is driving her reality shifting abilities. It isn't actually what is being said to the people that is making them flee. That's just the outward mechanism manifested by Ruby's fear. This is how UNIT soldiers could be affected, how even Kate could suddenly be turned even just "hearing" the words over the comm unit. The words don't matter, all that matters is that Ruby fears being left, and so everyone leaves her.

A quick aside, but there is a bizarre bit of dialogue from Kate in her scene. She mentions that Ruby's timeline might be frozen relative to her event. It's never commented on, expanded upon, or even mentioned again. But there are two ways to interpret the line using this analysis, and both work delightfully, even together. On the one hand, this is a splinter timeline created by Ruby herself and operating basically as a tangent from the actual timeline. On the other, Ruby herself is frozen by "her event," her abandonment as a child. She can't move past it and it dominates her mind.

The Gwilliam stuff is such a weird anticlimax, but that actually makes sense now. It only happens because RUBY BELIEVES IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. She creates the guy and he wins the election and becomes PM because she is basically willing it to happen, subconsciously. She then comes up with the clever use of The Woman to stop him and end his threat, which she does completely on her own without any help. She proves that she is smart enough, strong enough and capable enough to save the world without anyone else there to support her. And, coincidentally, she essentially embraces her true nature and true power for the first time.

This culminates in her approaching death decades later, when she has come to terms with being abandoned, but never alone. She then realizes that The Woman has been her all along. Which is reflective of kind of coming to grips with the fact that the only thing she needs to do is to accept herself, and that she is all she needs to move forward with her life regardless of how anyone else treats her. That even if everybody leaves her, she is still more than capable of living her life and being amazing.

And, with her fear of abandonment now more under control because of the revelations she has had on this journey, she is now able to shape a "different" path. It isn't really, it's the proper timeline simply jumping back on track after she derailed it for an episode. Which is why, at last, Ruby is able to hear The Woman in time to prevent the Doctor from breaking the fairy circle and kicking off the cycle all over again.

Edited to Add: Also, I would point out that they explicitly call out that at some point in Ruby's life, "it never snowed again." As in, she never made it start snowing with her emotional response again. Which comes after Ruby gives up on ever finding her birth mother. Thus, the emotional trigger for the reality shift stops happening.

This is good. I've seen a similar interpretation on Twitter (apologies if that was you as well) in that the entire thing is that after the Doctor breaks the circle Millie compounds their disrespect by reading the messages, which curses her, and given her biggest fear is abandonment that's the form the curse takes. This also explains the Doctor inexplicably vanishing.

 

[Adaptive Manipulator]

where as I thought she had been in Doctor Who before but was confused with her Big Finish appearances.

Yeah, my Mandela effect experience is probably me misremembering. It's impossible to demonstrate otherwise.

 

[Commander Troi]

I've been thinking about the episode, specifically the ending. And I think I've figured out a way to make the episode actually make sense, and have it tie in to the larger Ruby storyline in a really direct way.

Thank you. That was well reasoned and helps me a lot.

I enjoyed the ep while I was watching, loved the Welsh pub folks putting one over on Ruby (and me!), and feel Millie has proved to me she can act.

 

[jaime]

They should have cast her as the Doctor and Ncuti as Companion xD

 

[diankra]

It left lot unanswered questions... for now.

 

[Richard Baker]

I do think she carried the entire show with her performance. The most gripping scene for me was the train ride with Distant Ruby continually appearing along the way. The episode was very well done and it would been one of the best if only they added those missing five minutes and explained wtf was going on...

 

[Starkers]

It left lot unanswered questions... for now.

I half suspect there will be no answers.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I half suspect there will be no answers.

Me turning the pages of my GCSE science exam, 1988

 

[Anson Mount Seleya]

I don't know about no answers at all. IIRC, isn't the finale titled something like The Legend of Ruby Sunday? It'd be hard not to reference this episode at all with that kind of title.

Granted, I doubt everything will be answered and there will likely still be quite a bit of things left vague or open to interpretation. But I'm sure some things from this episode will be addressed, maybe just not satisfactorily.

 

[The Nightmare Doctor]

I don't know about no answers at all. IIRC, isn't the finale titled something like The Legend of Ruby Sunday? It'd be hard not to reference this episode at all with that kind of title.

Granted, I doubt everything will be answered and there will likely still be quite a bit of things left vague or open to interpretation. But I'm sure some things from this episode will be addressed, maybe just not satisfactorily.

But this is the problem: The episode's overall effectiveness shouldn't be dependent on a grand finale that "reveals all (but obviously won't)."

Again, I don't want all of the answers, nor specifically what the old woman said. I wanted the episode to be better constructed, particularly the latter half to better enhance the creepiness and terror of the tale it was telling.

 

[Anson Mount Seleya]

Be that as it may, I still expect something from 73 Yards to be brought up in the finale. Granted, I'm basing that more on how RTD explains his writing process in The Writer's Tale, and who knows, maybe he's throwing a curve ball to catch those of us who think we've figured him out off guard. We'll see either way a month from now.

 

[Captaindemotion]

My favourite reply (well technically a quote-tweet) to the official DW account asking “what do YOU think the woman was saying?” is “I thought she read out Ian Levine’s tweets and open letter.”

 

[Richard Baker]

Didn't RTD say in an interview that he has no intention of ever revealing what Distant Ruby was saying?

 

[Captrek]

Didn't RTD say in an interview that he has no intention of ever revealing what Distant Ruby was saying?

He said something like he wanted the viewers to decide for themselves what she could be saying that would make everybody run away in terror, Ruby’s mother abandon her, and the Prime Minister resign.