Baby-eating goblins distract from a pairing with stellar chemistry
Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road
As a launchpad for a new series, Russell T Davies’s first outing for Ncuti Gatwa in the Tardis was a stinking success. As a standalone episode, however, it flailed and dithered.
The problem was not with the new Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, and his companion Ruby (Millie Gibson), but with the adventure they were sent on.
The enforced jeopardy that brought the Doctor and Ruby together came in the form of an army of goblins that started out causing minor inconveniences – interrupting the filming of an episode of a Long Lost Family-style programme, for example, as well as nearly killing Davina Mccall – before graduating to snatching babies to feed to their goblin king. (Was Davina not toothsome enough?)
With Christmas films on repeat on most channels, however, you couldn’t ignore that the goblins looked like Gremlins and the king was a dead ringer for Jabba the Hut. To ape one 1980s classic may be regarded as misfortune; to knock off a couple looks like carelessness.
And there was a sense that Davies was indeed playing fast and loose with plot and monsters in a bid to get back to what he knew was the most fertile ground – any scene with Gatwa and Gibson sparking off one another and revelling in their chemistry. It led to some moments that were downright bizarre, such as a mid-episode musical number as a baby in a cot on a goblin ship in the sky went on a conveyor belt towards Jabba the Goblin’s dribbling maw during a rave. If you were a few eggnogs to the wind, you’d have thought someone spiked the punch.
None of this could conceal that the story had spiralled off like a loose firework. The goblins, the Doctor explained, were “time riders” causing accidents that, collectively, “weave you into the day”. But they were also child snatchers, feeding off coincidences. And babies. And then suddenly they all disappeared again, going back in time to snatch Ruby as a newborn.
This led to something of a climax as the Doctor worked out what was happening (easy for him: he had the scripts) and nipped back in time himself to save his future companion.
Whatever had gone before, by the end of the hour the new series was primed and ready. The takeaway was that Gatwa can more than carry the role, that Ruby is a great companion and that Davies is going to take them every which where in every which way. Wild times lie ahead, for sure – unfortunately, the Christmas Special felt like a prelude, not the main event.