After the umpteenth appearance of David Tennant as the Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa has, at last, taken the wheel. In the final 20 minutes of the third Doctor Who 60th anniversary special, The Giggle, the first Black and queer actor to take on the mantle makes his debut in the most unexpected of ways, and quickly establishes himself as a Doctor who has such a light to him, and also brings a lot of empathy for others.
As he journeyed off in his own TARDIS with goodbyes given, the question remained: Would the Sex Education alum be able to carry a full episode of the long-running, British sci-fi series on his own?
The answer is yes, as the first Christmas special in six years, The Church on Ruby Road, shows the 15th Doctor further establish himself per tradition of his previous incarnations: going head-to-head with out-of-this-world creatures with questionable morals, and in the process, meets a new companion in Ruby Sunday (played by Millie Gibson).
The light and empathy on display in his debut continues on in this episode: the light in being able to let himself go in a dance club, with Ruby looking on with a grin; the empathy serving as a driving force for action in some of the darker moments of the episode. While there’s no one way of being the Doctor, he/she/they do have to bear the intelligence to navigate time and space. Gatwa’s performance of that aspect of his character, combined with the writing of showrunner Russell T. Davies, is just as thoughtful in delivery as his overall charm.
Gatwa is already making the role his own, and the only setback about this episode is really that we don’t get to see more of him doing so, without focus being pulled away from him and onto Ruby. While it’s understandable in that this is the first episode she’s in, about a third of the time is spent establishing her and her mysterious history — which, more or less, is likely going to be a recurring arc throughout the season — before action is set in motion upon joining forces with the Doctor. It could have been better paced, to say the very least, and depending on the direction that Davies is setting with her character, already feels like a page out of the playbook of former showrunner, Steven Moffat.
As for Gibson’s performance as Ruby, she does a strong job of bringing a balance to her character. On one hand, she has the maturity of that of someone who has been through a lot, and upon learning of Ruby’s background, it’s clear why. At the same time, she’s a young adult, establishing herself as her own person in the world.
The story overall is pretty simple, and that is when you remove the sci-fi whimsies that Doctor Who is known for. At the core of it is two young people who’ve both experienced loss of sorts, and connect with each other through time and space. It feels appropriately timed as Davies hits a reset button on the series, echoing the first time the Doctor and Rose Tyler met at the beginning of the 2005 reboot.
At the same time, it’s a new era for Doctor Who, and that is already reflective in both seeing actors old enough to have grown up with the reboot as the leads, and also in the inclusiveness of the casting. Bearing that in mind, Gatwa’s Doctor and Gibson’s Ruby have the combined potential to bring a type of compassion on their adventures that the universe at large needs, especially as of late.
The Church of Ruby Road makes for a defining start in what already looks to be an incredible ride, with new episodes coming to Disney+ internationally this spring.
