Last week’s Doctor Who episode, ’73 Yards’, achieved something remarkable: it genuinely unsettled viewers, even those typically unfazed by the show’s scares. While Doctor Who often aims for a level of fright more suited for children, ’73 Yards’ resonated with adults in a way the series hasn’t in years. The episode has garnered widespread praise, earning glowing five-star reviews and top marks from dedicated fan communities.
However, this episode’s strength – its ambiguity – has also proven divisive. Some viewers find the lack of clear explanations frustrating, even offensive. The silence of the woman stalking Ruby Sunday and the episode’s opaque conclusion have left some feeling maddened. This split reaction is understandable; ’73 Yards’, by its very nature, is designed to be more challenging and thought-provoking than a typical monster-of-the-week adventure.
“She looks like what she is”
Millie Gibson as Ruby in
The core of the issue, it seems, lies in a misunderstanding of the episode’s true intentions. ’73 Yards’ isn’t trying to be a puzzle box mystery in the vein of typical detective shows, nor is it teasing out answers to a grand, overarching mythology like some science fiction series. Instead, ’73 Yards’ taps into a far older and more primal form of storytelling: the ghost story.
Think of the ‘British Library Tales of the Weird’ series, collections of unsettling and often inexplicable tales from masters like Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen. These stories thrive on uncanny imagery and a dreamlike logic that defies rational explanation. ’73 Yards’ shares this DNA, echoing the unsettling atmosphere of BBC’s ‘A Ghost Story for Christmas’ adaptations, the recent film Enys Men, and even David Lynch’s surreal masterpiece, Twin Peaks: The Return. This is not about solving a puzzle; it’s about immersing you in a feeling of unease and the unknown.
In ’73 Yards’, a chain of events, however loosely defined, unfolds after the Doctor and Ruby step out of the TARDIS. Disturbing a faerie ring appears to trigger the Doctor’s vanishing and Ruby’s subsequent haunting by a silent apparition that shadows her throughout her life, seemingly merging with her at its very end. Then, something shifts. Perhaps the entity, potentially Mad Jack, grants Ruby a chance to alter the past, preventing the Doctor’s initial misstep and breaking the cycle. Crucially, the mechanics of this are never fully explained, nor is the precise nature of the relationship between Ruby and her stalker. The episode intentionally withholds definitive answers, fostering a sense of lingering mystery.
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The ending has sparked debate, with some interpreting the silent woman as Ruby herself all along. While intriguing, this theory feels somewhat tenuous, especially considering the apparition and elderly Ruby are portrayed by different actresses, Amanda Walker and Hilary Hobson respectively, with distinct appearances. However, the beauty of ’73 Yards’ lies in its deliberate ambiguity, leaving room for multiple interpretations and fostering post-episode discussion.
Semper distans
Aneurin Barnard as Roger ap Gwilliam
’73 Yards’ actively subverts the established rules of long-running series from its opening moments, dispensing with the iconic title sequence and theme music – as if spirited away by the very faeries at the episode’s heart. It establishes familiar patterns only to disrupt them: the cliché of a creepy village pub filled with odd locals is flipped when Ruby finds the villagers to be ordinary people simply weary of prejudiced assumptions. Ruby’s attempt to confront Roger ap Gwilliam initially seems to steer the episode into a more conventional sci-fi parallel world narrative, but this expectation is brutally overturned by the “40 years later” title card, highlighting the futility of her actions.
Millie Gibson as Ruby in
Perhaps Ruby’s confrontation with Gwilliam was significant, or perhaps it was utterly meaningless. The episode offers no definitive answer. Instead, it reinforces Kate Lethbridge-Stewart’s earlier observation: “That’s what we do, all of us. We see something inexplicable and invent the rules to make it work.” The apparition itself remains perpetually out of focus, both literally and figuratively.
The silence of the stalking woman in ‘Doctor Who 73 Yards’ and the reasons behind people’s terrified reactions to Ruby are intentionally withheld. This is not a flaw, but a deliberate choice. The episode’s primary aim is to immerse the viewer in Ruby’s experience, to evoke her confusion, frustration, fear, and profound isolation. Elderly Ruby’s poignant line, “Everyone has abandoned me my whole life,” resonates deeply because the circumstances of her life have been so relentlessly inexplicable and isolating.
’73 Yards’ is a Doctor Who episode that fully embraces the show’s renewed commitment to supernatural storytelling. It grapples with the true, unsettling nature of the unexplained, moving beyond simple monster scares to explore genuine existential dread. It presents a mystery that resists easy answers, inviting viewers to engage their imaginations and confront the unsettling power of the unknown. This makes ‘Doctor Who 73 Yards’ not just a good episode, but an essential and uniquely haunting entry in the Doctor Who canon.
Doctor Who is currently streaming weekly on BBC iPlayer in the UK and Disney Plus in the US. Check out the Doctor Who release schedule for more.
