Evaluation: Catching up with Physician Who and Ncuti Gatwa’s stellar freshman season

Is now in its 61st year, featuring a succession of talented British actors each bringing their own unique interpretation to the iconic role over the past dozen years. So Ncuti Gatwa faced immense pressure in taking over as the Fifteenth Doctor. Gatwa’s conclusion has been met with acclaim, as he brings a radiant energy, captivating charm, and an exceptional grasp of nuance to his role. As he takes centre stage, his charismatic persona is matched by that of winsome newcomer Ruby Sunday, delightfully portrayed by Millie Gibson. The duo exhibits outstanding on-screen rapport, while Davies’ masterful storytelling skills truly shine through. The brand-new season exudes a modern and dynamic energy from start to finish, leaving me eager for more.

The benefits of more recent seasons include? That is Russell T. Davies’ second tenure as showrunner began in 2005 after reviving the series. Upon resuming his role as lead protagonist, he wasted little time in incorporating several innovative elements. When the time came for Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor to regenerate, fans had anticipated Russell T Davies’ new choice would be announced.

David Tennant, former Tenth Doctor, reprised his role as the Fourteenth Doctor in three specials, teaming up once again with Catherine Tate’s iconic companion Donna Noble.

The third peculiarity was referred to as “That.” As an alternative to standard regeneration, the Fourteenth Doctor “began anew” instead, resulting in two distinct entities: the new Fourteenth Doctor and the Fifteenth Doctor’s physical form, a separate being from Gatwa. While Tennant’s Doctor slipped into a contented retirement alongside Donna, her family, and the familiar rhythms of domestic life, Gatwa’s freshly minted physician hurtled forward into a vibrant tapestry of modern-day escapades.

During the festive Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Highway,” the Doctor’s new friend was introduced: Ruby Sunday, a young girl abandoned at a church on Christmas Eve who found solace in her foster mother’s care. Rumours of a mystical kingdom had long fascinated the villagers, but none could have anticipated the terror that unfolded when goblins, notorious for their cruel whimsy, kidnapped the newly arrived foster child, Lulubelle, with the intention of offering her to the Goblin King in a gruesome ritual sacrifice – a dark ceremony marked by an unsettling degree of foolishness. Ruby and the physician formed an unlikely alliance to protect her from being squandered. As Ruby’s sense of adventure was piqued by their brief encounter with the Time Lord, she made up her mind to accompany the Doctor on a couple more journeys through time and space within the TARDIS. Learn from your insightful interview with Davies, Gatwa, and Gibson.

Physicians Ruby and The, kick-starting their adventure, rescue a group of “infants” with speaking abilities at an abandoned child farm area station, where they had been terrorized by a monstrous Bogeyman, seemingly created from the precise “bogies,” or nasal secretions. Despite its intriguing premise, the concept remains disjointed and fails to cohere effectively, with the novelty of babies in motorized strollers executing Rube-Goldberg-esque tasks struggling to compensate for the underlying lack of cohesion? This dish serves as a tantalizing precursor to the main event.

In stark contrast, “The Satan’s Chord” unfolds like a classic Whovian odyssey, where the enigmatic Physician and the inimitable Ruby must join forces to save the world from Maestro (Jinkx Monsoon), a formidable being who serves as the diminutive apprentice of the Toymaker – a notorious arch-villain from “The Giggle”. Summoned unwittingly by a pianist indulging in the sweet melody of 1925, Maestro has been draining the universe of its harmonious essence, with an unyielding resolve to leave not a single note untouched. In June 1963, Physician and Ruby burst into a Beatles recording session, only to be underwhelmed by the Fab Four’s rendition of a song inspired by Paul McCartney’s dog, rather than an early draft of one of their iconic hits like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” or “She Loves You”. The seemingly flawless episode is elevated by Monsoon’s unnerving laughter, coupled with the show-stopping ensembles, which also cleverly nod to the album artwork. The added value lies in the abundance of music at the conclusion, expertly utilizing Gatwa’s and Gibson’s inherent talents to maximum effect.

References go rogue in this delightful romp, as the Doctor and Ruby travel to Regency England, only to discover that shapeshifting alien cosplayers have infiltrated the same soiree. The Chuldren manipulate and eliminate anyone they deem necessary to “play” their game, assimilating their identities in the process. Meanwhile, they’re abetted by Rogue (Jonathan Groff), a futuristic bounty hunter who shares a fleeting romantic connection with the Physician, only to selflessly sacrifice himself to spare Ruby’s fate, banishing her to an obscure alternate dimension alongside the Chuldren.

“Growth” transports the duo to a ravaged planet where human losses are meticulously controlled by a corporation’s algorithm, in stark contrast to “Dot and Bubble,” where Physician and Ruby struggle to rescue a group of affluent young white individuals from a deadly threat: carnivorous slugs that remain hidden due to the children’s existence being shrouded in an online bubble. As the sun set over the horizon, her heart sank like a stone in the darkness. Here’s a revised version: Despite its absurdity, watching Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke) struggle to navigate the surface world without the aid of a digital arrow guiding her every step is surprisingly entertaining.

Gatwa’s debut season overlapped with the final season of , resulting in two “Physician-Lite” episodes where his screen time was limited: “Dot and Bubble” and the Ruby-centric “73 Yards,” which was the first episode Gatwa filmed and one of the most ingenious episodes recently. Drawing inspiration from Welsh folklore’s darker traditions, Davies masterfully infused his haunting ghost story with subtle hints of fantasy, expertly weaving them into the sci-fi narrative’s fabric. As The Physician and Ruby arrived on the windswept Welsh coast, The Physician’s carelessness led him to stumble upon a long-abandoned fairy circle, whereupon he vanished into thin air with no explanation, leaving Ruby bewildered and disoriented. Meanwhile, from a distant bluff, a mysterious girl stood out, her gesticulating hands and urgent whispers carrying across the windless expanse, although Ruby strained in vain to decipher what she was saying.

The ethereal entity doggedly pursues Ruby as she navigates the urban landscape, maintaining a steady distance of precisely 73 yards. As others approach the lady, their expressions shift when Ruby asks them to investigate; they glance at her before fleeing in terror, vehemently denying any involvement with Ruby again. The issue persists over a prolonged period of time. The Time Lord’s TARDIS remains isolated on the desolate Welsh cliffside, devoid of any sign or indication of the Doctor’s presence. Throughout her entire life, Ruby is tormented by the ghostly presence, causing her to become increasingly isolated from everyone she reaches out to for help, including her own foster mother and the enigmatic UNIT. Despite her initial reservations, she ultimately determines the best course of action to harness the apparition’s power and prevent a catastrophic nuclear disaster. As the ghostly girl drew her final breath, she finally gained a sense of clarity – and Ruby was whisked back in time to that fateful day on the windswept Welsh coast, where she once again found herself standing beside the Physician as he revealed the mystery to her youthful self? As Younger Ruby’s determination grows, she prepares to intercept the Physician and prevent him from disrupting the fairy circle, ultimately restoring balance to the intricate harmony.

The utter bewilderment and distress experienced by certain devotees of the matter at hand is hardly exaggerated. Davies is content to leave all the major questions unanswered. Who’s the lady? What’s she saying? While we can’t confirm it definitively, I inferred that the ghostly apparition was actually Old Ruby returning through time at the end of her life to caution her younger self and the Doctor against disrupting the fairy circle, thus rectifying the situation? The deliberately unclear narrative threads between the Ruby character and her ghostly doppelganger, brought to life by distinct actresses, contribute significantly to the episode’s lingering impact.

When the enigmatic figure known as Davies was confronted by “that one thing profane”, his world was turned upside down, forcing him into a lifelong quest for redemption and seeking to perform that singular act of goodness that would bring closure to the fragmented narrative. He declared that under no circumstances would he divulge what the woman was uttering, as this was the very source of the terror. “It’s up to each of us to imagine the unthinkable: What could someone possibly say that would drive a mother to abandon her own child forever?” When you embark on this endeavour, you venture into a chilling reality, confronting the eerie concerns that unfold. The 73 yards mark the point where a distant figure becomes “a blur yet not a blur,” a threshold traversed by the notion as it filters through the labyrinthine corridors of the TARDIS.

While we finally receive an answer to the mystery surrounding Ruby’s heritage, the next two episodes also revisit cherished Whovian moments. Throughout the seasons, inexplicable events surround Ruby – an eerie phenomenon that commenced on the very night she was abandoned as a child, accompanied by the haunting melody of “Carol of the Bells”. The physician turned to UNIT’s expertise in assisting with the analysis of the grainy VHS safety footage from that fateful night.

The appearance of The One Who Waits, as discussed in “The Giggle”, marks the emergence of the God of Demise. Sutekh, the arch-nemesis, met his demise at the hands of the Fourth Doctor in a 1975 storyline.

Within the narrative of “Empire of Demise,” it is explored how Sutekh managed to establish a profound connection with the TARDIS, thereby allowing him to accompany the Doctor across multiple timelines and incarnations throughout their shared journey through time. As his final moments tick away, he decides to slaughter everyone in sight, except for the Physician, Ruby, and Bonnie Langford, who had accompanied the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, primarily because Sutekh seeks knowledge about Ruby’s parentage, convinced that her birth mother holds the key to defeating him.

The joke’s on Sutekh – literally. The unexpected paternity of Ruby by a seemingly ordinary couple means Sutekh’s perception of her importance is what imbues her with significance, thereby triggering the bizarre occurrences that follow. As Davies was incensed by Star Wars’ misleading narrative surrounding Rey’s parentage, he made the call – his frustration boiling over due to the prequels’ promise of insignificant revelations that ultimately revealed Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter in . The Physician triumphs once more over Sutekh, and those reduced to mud are restored by some inexplicable magical force. Ruby encounters her birth mother and chooses to search for her biological father, leaving the physician behind.

It’s a fittingly fantastic finale to an outstanding season, effectively scoring a hat-trick of triumph. What’s subsequent for Gatwa’s Physician? While details are still uncertain, Gibson’s potential return for the next season offers hope – Davies’ narrative is far from over, with more to come. Meanwhile, Varada Sethu brings another compelling chapter to the table. It was reasonable to expect that more of the Toymaker’s offspring would follow in his footsteps. And Ruby’s quirky neighbor, Mrs. The enigmatic Flood, played by Anita Dobson, subverts expectations by addressing the audience directly at the end of the finale, foreshadowing an unsettling conclusion for the Physician’s narrative: a descent into “absolute terror.” We’re right here for that.

All 20 episodes of The Simpsons’ fourteenth season are currently available to stream on Disney+.