Have you ever yelled at the TV because you’re confused about what’s happening on-screen? Well, I may have dropped a few F bombs and resorted to a behind-the-scenes video to make sense of this episode’s ending.
Warning: Spoilers Sweetie!
Landing on the Welsh coast, the Doctor and Ruby embark on the strangest journey of their lives. In a rain-lashed pub, the locals sit in fear of ancient legends coming to life.
Ruby and the Doctor land in sunny Wales but before they get too far our temporal lord accidentally steps on and breaks a circle made of twigs, cotton and bird skulls.
Oops.
Considering superstition and the surreal is in overdrive this season – goblins, booger monster, God of Music and … capitalism – a transgression against fairy kind, for instance, can trigger a powerful response.
Next minute the Doc’s disappeared and Ruby is left to deal with her greatest fear, abandonment.
But she’s not alone. Someone or something is following at and maintaining a distance of precisely 73 yards.
Mad Jack Unbound
Why is Ruby being followed? Where did the Doctor go?
My favourite part of the story is early on when Ruby finds a pub. The mood, the locals, even the sense of time is unclear, and subverts our expectations of a moody ghost story.
Without the Doctor, and locked out of the TARDIS, Ruby heads home.
Mrs Flood makes an appearance on the street and just as quickly retreats to her place. Hmm.
From there things get weird and UNIT try to help.
This is not a ghost story. This is Ruby ‘s life now.
Years pass, boyfriends come and go yet the spectre remains. The pacing and the beats are like a dream or a nightmare. It’s not a spooky adventure but it sure is unnerving.
A quip the Doctor mentioned from the outset about a future nuke-happy PM from Wales seems to be happening. Great memory Ruby! Conveniently, she takes action.
Mutually Assured Destruction Averted
The ending annoyed me because her life-long ordeal is reduced to nothing more than a life she could’ve lived. Classic deus ex machina.
Imagine how epic it would’ve been if the season arc moved forward with an elderly Ruby and all of the consequences still in play? That would’ve been bold.
Thinking about ‘73 Yards’ as a bad dream helps me reconcile my grievances with it though. Well that’s alright then!
I did need Russell T Davies’ commentary to make sense of the ending though:
“Something profane has happened with the disturbance of the fairy circle. There's been a lack of respect. The Doctor, who's very respectful of alien cultures and alien lifeforms and alien mythologies, he's just walked through something very, very powerful.
”So, something has gone wrong and something has just corrected. It's like Ruby has to spend a life of penitence, in which she eventually does something good which brings the whole thing full circle, which kind of forgives them in the end.”
~RTD
I enjoyed ‘73 Yards’ and found it thrilling but given the predictable reset it is a fairly forgettable filler. Another take is to think of the not-ghost as an allegory for depression.
Questions that need answers
What the f*** is going on?
Who is Mrs Flood?
Who is Ruby Sunday?
What happened at the church at that point in time?
What is the Doctor if they are not of Gallifrey origin?
What God/entity/character terrifies the Toymaker aka The One Who Waits?
Why is Susan Twist doing a Bad-Wolf-style cameo in each episode?