Sometimes, you need a bit of baby stealing musical goblins on Christmas Day. Doctor Who is back – and better than ever! A back to basics approach, sure – but fresh from the convolution in the aims of appealing to new audiences as well as catering to those who might have given up at some point. This time we’re in fantasy more than science fiction, as the show grapples with found families, coincidence and myth: and we get another Cardiff and Bristol being used as a stand-in for London.
Ruby Sunday born on Christmas Day finds herself caught in the middle of a spree of bad luck; but of course this is Doctor Who so not only does the bad luck end up affecting her but it also ends up affecting Davina McCall, because sure, Davina McCall is there as herself because this is Doctor Who so why wouldn’t Davina McCall be there playing herself? We’re faced with multiple questions about who Ruby is and who her parents are – and this seems to be the big mystery the series deals with: she doesn’t know them. They don’t exist, no record on any history book. Millie Gibson plays the anguish at finding out that there is no record brilliantly – and the joy of a found family is so very Russell T Davies, echoing that of It’s a Sin and his companions of the past. This is the fifth time he’s had the chance to write a pilot for Doctor Who and he delivers with gutso – keeping the focus on the companion, first and The Doctor second… but wow, what a Doctor we have.
Ncuti Gatwa is a force of nature – charisma for spades. This is a cool Doctor. He’s still dorky in places, but he’s got enough of the quirks of the past Doctors, just as much as Ruby feels comparable to Clara. Gatwa and Gibson singing shows their chemistry is there in spades – and Gatwa’s performance is so well-rounded he’s such an easy sell on the audience. That look! that grin when he’s stepping out of the TARDIS back in the present. This is just the start… May can’t come quickly enough.
Doctor Who but Gay is exactly what we’re here for and magic as a lost form of physics may be a tired approach but you trust Russell T. Davies to introduce a new spin on it. the Goblins are a creepy, unsettling alien and they work so well – I’ll have that song in my head for days – and it’s the perfect blend of chaos and time travel shenanigans with such a triumphant theme song for Ruby’s introduction to the TARDIS that it’s hard not to get swept up in the joy and the hints of what to come. Not too Christmassy and not too grand – just the right amount of understated perfection, it’s more Rose than The Eleventh Hour and all the better for it.
