There’s only one way to start a review of this episode and it’s to praise actress Millie Gibson.  She carries the entire story from start to finish.  I don’t love the idea of it, because I’m watching a show called Doctor Who not “The Missing Main Character” and with only 8 episodes to a season, I could have used more of the main attraction (who is gone within the first 2 minutes of the episode), but Millie carries the story and she’s beautiful to boot!  I don’t think the director realizes how pretty she is though because he felt that putting glasses on her was all that it took to make her look 40.  Thanks?  News flash: her face was still that of a 25 year old, even if her hair was also made longer.

But what the hell was that episode?  I’ve watched it twice because it didn’t make a lick of sense to me the first time, and I pride myself in weird fiction.  This was senseless.  Make no mistake: it’s a terrific horror story.  It’s heartbreaking and terrifying in almost equal measure.  Something that has Ruby’s own mother abandon her is unbearably sad.  Kate Lethbridge-Stewart even turns on her.  And the look on their respective faces is a gut punch.  Mom specifically looks like she’s viewing the most horrible serial killer on the planet, not her own daughter.  So I had to watch it a second time and I think it makes some kind of weird sense…

My first question was why Ruby is tortured with the old woman and not the Doctor – you know, the man who stepped on and broke the fairy circle.  Accepting that being wiped out of existence is enough of a punishment for him, what did Ruby do to deserve the misery?  Well, she read the notes and one was “Rest in peace, mad jack”.  But Mad Jack comes to power in her future, so who wanted him to “rest in peace” at the time the circle was broken?  And why does the Doctor get so excited about Wales before mentioning Roger ap Gwilliam; there was no reason to bring up a random political figure to illustrate how bad the Welsh can be.  Hell, had he said something about Gwen Cooper it would have made more sense, but it’s almost like Ruby is being lead to Roger ap Gwilliam even though the Doctor has no idea what’s coming.  That also fails when you consider that she finally does “beat” Gwilliam, and yet even then she’s followed by the old woman, so the “object” clearly wasn’t solely to beat Mad Jack.

Then there’s the question that’s plaguing us: who is the old woman?  I actually thought it could be Ruby in the future, but I decided against that because of two things: why does she seem to be using sign language the whole time and why doesn’t she ever go for a nap, a wee, or to get food?  The latter only makes sense if you accept that she’s a ghost, but why was she a ghost haunting herself yet everyone could see her?  Why is it that whenever someone is close to her, they freak out?  If she’s just haunting herself, why bother?  And when she becomes her older self, now looking back at her younger self, how come we hear the “don’t stare” comment repeated over and over?  How does staring change the outcome?  And why didn’t Ruby ever ask for someone to try to translate the sign language anyway?

Kate gives a “sort of” answer to some of this when she tells Ruby that they handle “more and more, the supernatural” and we can write that off to the Toymaker changing the rules of the universe.  I can get behind that but then I have to ask if the scene in the bar is just the locals having a laugh at Ruby or if it’s something else.  If you listen to them, they say a lot of odd things.  It seems to all be the result of a gag they are all in on, but what if it’s more than that?  What if they are possessed?  “He walks through the gaps, the spiteful one.”  Who could that be?  The Toymaker?  Maestro?  The One Who Waits?  Or was it just part of the prank?  How about: “Mad Jack is unbound.”  Since Mad Jack isn’t a political figure yet, why would that be something anyone would say?  Just to tease Ruby?  That might offer a clue if Jack were also supernatural, but he appears to be human – if a monstrous one – from beginning to end.  But if we accept that time is wibbly wobbly, maybe ghostly Ruby has to endure everything she does so she can go back to the beginning and stop the Doctor stepping on the string to begin with so Mad Jack remains “bound”… but who made that wish to begin with because it entailed knowledge of the future.  And is that something that will ever get clarity?

“Have I walked into something?”  As I said, this episode is an episode chock full of questions and absolutely no answers.  The inclusion of Susan Twist doesn’t help.  My hope is waning that this could potentially be Susan, the Doctor’s Granddaughter.  She’s scared away by the old woman, which I suppose could still be a very Susan-thing, but when Ruby asks if she could find out from the ghostly woman if she knows “The Doctor”, the unnamed Susan Twist turns and asks if Ruby needs a doctor.  Granted it would be decades since she’s heard anyone talk about her grandfather, so that doesn’t rule it out entirely, but it does seem less likely now.  However, it was a nice touch that Ruby recognized her.  “I haven’t met you before?”

There’s also more questions around things we’re seeing onscreen.  When it snows, I couldn’t help but wonder if that was regular snow in Wales, or Ruby-induced snow.  Then the Doctor asks Ruby, “What year are you?”  Again, there’s indication that Ruby is not with him all the time.  She says, somewhat surprised, “2024!”  After he goes missing, Ruby says to the TARDIS, “I haven’t even known you that long anyway…”  So there’s a wibbly wobbly-ness to Ruby’s time with the Doctor too.  And then we get the first return of Mrs. Flood who decides it’s “nothing to do with me” and walks offscreen.

The visuals for this episode are wonderful.  The image of the TARDIS covered in moss and flowers is a glorious sight.  I have postcards of the TARDIS in different locations and it’s amazing how beautiful a blue box can look when done right.  Ruby looks amazing throughout her life even if there was no change in her from 25-40.  The music is fantastic, especially as Ruby walks across the field.  Again I detected hints of RTD’s other work, Years and Years.  And I love that the Doctor is equated with Hope.  That means a lot to me personally too.

This has been a good season so far, and I can see RTD working to rope in the kids who like a scary story.  We sacrifice logic to the gods of good storytelling and I do think we have a solid horror story on our hands with 73 Yards, but I can’t say I loved it.  I do like those little, clever things that you have to be attentive to notice though.  At the very opening, Ruby says she’s been to Wales 2 times, but at the end, that’s changed to three times.  She struggles to remember the 3rd and concludes it must be right now with the Doctor, but it seems clear she has a fading memory of her alternate timeline.  Is that because of who her mother is?  Does that matter at all?

All I do know is that we’re halfway through the season and there are no answers.  I don’t think we’re ever going to fully understand the warped message that was 73 Yards, but I do think it will play into the final mystery and that may be enough. I just won’t know how I feel about it until the season ends and that’s going to come too soon, while paradoxically it’ll take forever to get here.  I guess the paradoxes have escaped into the real world now too.   ML