Doctor Who Wish World consolidated 7-day ratings confirmed
Perhaps not the figures they'd have wished for.
While viewers are still recovering from the shocking conclusion to Doctor Who season 15, the seven-day ratings for part one of its finale are now in. Wish World, which saw The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) dive into an alternate reality dreamed up by Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King) and brought to life by The Rani (Archie Panjabi), was the first of a two-parter to conclude the series. Airing on Saturday 24th May 2025 at 6:50pm on BBC One, the show brought in a total of 1.8 million viewers according to the overnight ratings. Now, via Barb, the seven-day ratings for Wish World have been confirmed at 2,856,000 viewers across the week. This represents quite a fall in viewers from the 3,754,000 who watched the previous week's Interstellar Song Contest episode, although it is worth bearing in mind that these were the highest figures across the series thus far. As for why ratings for Wish World may have been lower than earlier episodes in this season, there's a reason for that as well. Wish World, along with the season 15 finale The Reality War, were screened as a double bill in cinemas on 31st May, which may have discouraged many fans from watching it live or on BBC iPlayer. This lower figure was similarly reflected in the overnight viewing figures for The Reality War, which saw Ncuti Gatwa shockingly vacate the TARDIS after weeks of speculation. As it stands, the future of the show is very much up in the air, with a potential season 16 not yet confirmed. Despite this, season 15's finale, which saw Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker make a surprise appearance, certainly set the stage for a new season with revealing the shocking apparent return of Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) as The Doctor's newest regeneration. Doctor Who is available to stream on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ outside of the UK. Dive into our Doctor Who story guide: reviews of every episode since 1963, plus cast & crew listings, production trivia, and exclusive material from the Radio Times archive. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who: Wish World / The Reality War ★★★
It's goodbye Ncuti Gatwa and hello (again) Billie Piper in a convoluted but entertaining finale.
Story 319 Series 15/Series 2 – Episodes 7 & 8 “Once reality is broken on a scale as vast as this, I can see underneath…” – the Rani Storyline In Bavaria 1865, the Rani steals a baby destined to become Desiderium, the god of wishes. The Doctor and Belinda wake up in an alternate-reality version of Earth 2025 as a married couple with a toddler called Poppy. All humanity is now living a lie and in fear of displaying doubt. This Wish World has been willed into existence by the treacherous Conrad, using the baby’s powers, hidden away in the Bone Palace – the base of the two Ranis. It’s part of a grand scheme to magnify the power of doubt and crack reality apart – releasing Omega, the creator of the Time Lords, from the Underverse. The creature is uncontrollable and devours the new Rani. In a battle to get reality back on track, the Doctor restores his UNIT friends to normality and tries to save his new daughter. His actions ultimately trigger another regeneration where his new appearance seems to have the face of Rose Tyler… First UK broadcasts Saturday 24 May 2025 Saturday 31 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa The Doctor – Jodie Whittaker Billie Piper Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson The Rani – Archie Panjabi Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Melanie Bush –Bonnie Langford Anita Benn – Steph de Whalley Susan Foreman – Carole Ann Ford Shirley Bingham – Ruth Madeley Rose Noble – Yasmin Finney Conrad Clark – Jonah Hauer-King Colonel Christofer Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient Susan Triad – Susan Twist Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Rogue – Jonathan Groff Otto Zufall – Atilla Akinci Violett Zufall – Leni Adams Poppy – Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps Lakshmi Chandra – Nila Aalia Devika Babu – Josephine Lloyd-Welcome Val Balham – Hermon Berhane Winnie Petheridge – Sam Lawton Brian Dale – Joshua J Parker The Vlinx – Aidan Cook Voice of Omega – Nicholas Briggs Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Alex Sanjiv Pillai Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern “Oh, hello!” Billie Piper – beaming, radiant, back to blonde, miraculously not looking 20 years older than her debut as Rose Tyler – is the new face of Doctor Who. It’s delightful that this two-decade run comes to a stop – or rather an ellipsis – with the very first face we saw in 2005, who was crucial to the success of the relaunch. On screen Piper is credited under “Introducing” – superfluous for a Doctor Who legend who needs no introduction, and it’s telling in what it does not say. Few failed to notice that “as the Doctor” was carefully omitted from the TV credits and the wording of the BBC publicity blurbs. So, it’s another massive tease (hopefully not as tedious as The Next Doctor red-herring with David Morrissey in 2008) and will keep fans dangling while the future of Doctor Who is thrashed out. Another woman Doctor? Will it all end here? Stay tuned… Much as I love it, what we now call “classic” Doctor Who often looks like a misogynist’s playground, with so few roles for women, beyond the underwritten parts for the Time Lord’s companions. Such was the stale air prevalent in sci-fi (and much other drama) in those far-gone days. Now, it has shifted to the other extreme. Not one but two Ranis. UNIT’s personnel are predominantly female: Kate, Shirley, Mel, Susan Triad. Rose Noble identifies as non-binary; presents as female. There’s a glimpse of ancient granddaughter Susan. The new-daughter-but-not-really Poppy who, frankly, it’s hard to care about. A welcome return for Anita from the Time Hotel. Only women feature in Ruby’s background, and likewise Belinda’s menfolk are not deemed screen-worthy. Even the returning Doctors this season and the “regenerated Doctor” are female. It’s a positive move but, in this bulging finale, results in too many women, too little screen time. Each has their moment, but you just imagine them all waiting around on set for their one line. The corollary is that the programme is in danger of emasculation and echoing the heterophobic mindset of so much modern drama. Whither the ordinary straight man? (I am not among their number.) But this finale offers little more than the twisted, wasted Conrad and UNIT’s underused Colonel Ibrahim. The bigger concerns, perhaps, are that Doctor Who is often just too darn convoluted. The Rani duo’s scheme involving babies, wishes, magical kisses, rupturing reality and releasing an ancient god becomes incomprehensible, or at best indigestible. The reliance on nostalgia, churning up the trappings of the past, is also like watching and waiting for an overloaded spin cycle to finish. Old hits often equal old hat. It should be fan-pleasing, but fans are a fickle crowd – with eruptions on a spectrum from unbridled ecstasy to pyroclastic rage. Generally, I found this muddled two-parter entertaining. I’m peculiarly pleased to see Jodie Whittaker back after three years, engaging with Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. The two Ranis are a comical pair. Impressive Archie Panjabi rocks the vibe of the amoral alien scientist, while Anita Dobson is impeccable, even if I prefer her showing steel to being subservient to her other self. The Panjabi Rani being gobbled by the Omega-ogre is highly amusing, as is the Dobson Rani’s abrupt adieu. “So much for the two Ranis. It’s goodnight from me!” Praise must go to the design work on the Bone Palace. The vast sky-dominating exterior seems to be a homage to Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture Maman, a giant steel spider that was the focus of Tate Modern’s opening in 2000. The interior is gorgeous, with the skeletal detail and the strange “clone-type classiform” Seekers PVC-bonded into their consoles. The Doctor’s skyride on the Rani’s bike is a highlight of this visually stunning production. But it’s goodnight from Gatwa too. He has dazzled with energy and charisma, and brought heightened emotion and a refreshing queer edge to the Time Lord. He’s not the shortest-lived Doctor but has come and gone in under two years. Such a demanding programme, with an uncertain future, cannot hope to retain a thrusting talent who is still building his career. Is it also goodbye to Doctor Who? Surely, it requires a rest and a reset. If and when it returns, it should take from its past what made the series tick in the first place. Doctor Who was avant-garde in concept, sound and design, and was forged by a team of creatives in their 20s and 30s, looking to a weird and wonderful future. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story and the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who overnight ratings revealed for Wish World
We're all set up for next week's season finale.
The first part of Doctor Who season 15's finale, Wish World, has arrived, and now we have the overnight ratings. The episode saw The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) as they dove into an alternate reality dreamed up by the scheming Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King) and made real by The Rani (Archie Panjabi). Wish World's ending left plenty of questions still unanswered, which we'll undoubtedly learn more about in the finale's second act next week. The seventh and penultimate episode of the current season of Doctor Who aired last night (Saturday 24th May 2025) at 6:50 pm on BBC One and brought in an overnight audience of 1.8 million, according to TV Zone. It should be noted that this figure is not consolidated, meaning it does not include BBC iPlayer, where the episode was available to view from 8am on Saturday morning, ahead of its broadcast on BBC One. The 7-day consolidated figures, which will take into account viewers on catch-up and devices, will be published by BARB in the week commencing 2nd June. Despite being the precursor to the series finale, this week's episode marks a fall in overnight viewership from the season high last week of 2.57 million viewers for The Interstellar Song Contest. Read more: Doctor Who archive legend says missing episodes "certainly" exist in private collections David Tennant says he won’t return to Doctor Who again – at least "for a while" The synopsis for next week's episode of Doctor Who, The Reality War, reads: "Battle rages across the skies as the Unholy Trinity unleash their deadly ambition. The Doctor, Belinda and Ruby have to risk everything in the quest to save one innocent life." Wish World and The Reality War will be available to watch in cinemas as a double bill on Saturday 31st May, similarly to season 14's two-part finale. The Reality War is said to be skipping an early BBC iPlayer release in favour of a terrestrial premiere, so there will be no early spoilers! According to showrunner Russell T Davies, the finale is set to "shake up" the lore of Gallifrey, with a climax that is both "very epic" and "very personal." "It takes some unexpected turns… There are some big surprises, from the Doctor and for the Doctor. Some of it shakes up the lore of Gallifrey. Some of it re-contextualises the Doctor, the Rani, and their relationship." The episode may also mark the end of Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor, with speculation about the actor's future on the show reaching fever pitch, though the BBC has yet to confirm his future. We'll have to wait and see what the finale brings. Doctor Who continues on Saturday 31st May 2025 on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer at 6.50pm in the UK. The series is available on Disney+ outside of the UK. Dive into our Doctor Who story guide: reviews of every episode since 1963, plus cast & crew listings, production trivia, and exclusive material from the Radio Times archive. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who: The Interstellar Song Contest ★★★★★
A magnificent spin on Eurovision sprinkled with the stuff of legends.
Story 318 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 6 “Did I just fly through space on a confetti cannon? Camp!” – the Doctor Storyline Welcome to the 803rd Interstellar Song Contest in the year 2925. The Doctor and Belinda are delighted when the Tardis lands in the Harmony Arena space station but, as the entertainment commences, the show is sabotaged and the audience are expelled into space. The hijackers are led by Kid, a vengeful Hellion, whose home world Hellia was pillaged for poppy honey by the corporation promoting the contest. He plans to transmit a delta wave to wipe out the three trillion viewers. The Doctor intercedes with considerable rage, but is having strange visions of his granddaughter Susan. Mrs Flood is revealed to be the Doctor’s Time Lord adversary the Rani. She bi-generates and both incarnations follow the Doctor and Belinda back to Earth... First UK broadcast Saturday 17 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Susan – Carole Ann Ford Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson The Rani – Archie Panjabi Rylan Graham Norton Kid – Freddie Fox Mike Gabbastone – Kadiff Kirwan Gary Gabbastone – Charlie Condou Cora Saint Bavier – Miriam-Teak Lee Sabine – Julie Dray Nina Maxwell – Kiruna Stamell Wynn Aura-Kin – Iona Anderson Len Kazah – Akemnji Ndifornyen Liz Lizardine – Christina Rotondo Jeddy Kine – Abdul Seesay Runner – Imogen Kingsley Smith Crew Writer – Juno Dawson Director – Ben A Williams Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern I can’t stick Rylan, not for love or money. An instant turn-off on air. But he’s actually very good in Doctor Who and it made me like him. That’s how strong and persuasive this episode is. Graham Norton I love, and his hologram form here is a lovely answer to the two occasions when he popped up unwanted (thanks to BBC Presentation) in earlier programmes. Now he’s a harbinger of the cataclysm that befalls Earth in 2025. So far, so Eurovision with these two. I was half expecting the ghosts of Terry Wogan and Katie Boyle to manifest. This futuristic, interstellar spin on Eurovision is simply magnificent. From the epic stadium lightshow to the hordes of squealing fans, to snatches of quirky songs in the final to the soaring anthem that Cora sings. Even if the intercut reactions to the gawping cast edge it towards mawkish, Miriam-Teak Lee belts her song out of the arena. Winner of the 2020 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for & Juliet, she’s great casting here; and perhaps the new songwriting partnership of Russell T Davies, Juno Dawson and Murray Gold should be representing Royaume Uni. The burst of Bucks Fizz’s 1981 winning entry Making Your Mind Up, when the expelled crowds are being saved, is a total hoot. This is a return to peak RTD, channelled through Dawson, who gets sole writing credit. The joy of this episode is that it is, rightly, as camp as… well, Eurovision… but it is also a gripping adventure, simple to follow, with winning and believable characters. Freddie Fox is superb as the fanatical villain “Kid”, a horned beast from the planet Hellia. His motivation and vengeful nature are also clear. Kadiff Kirwan and Charlie Condou are lovely as Mike and Gary, the couple who stop bickering to make a valuable contribution and go weak at the knees in the presence of the Time Lord. Best of all, Ncuti Gatwa really is the Doctor here, fully formed and multi-faceted. Mercurial, in that he’s warm and fun-loving on arrival at the Harmony Arena, but also ice-cold when blasting painful retribution into the squirming Kid. He also dazzles everyone he meets with total conviction. Star quality. This is Gatwa’s finest episode yet. And then we come to Susan. Beautifully filmed, dream-like glimpses of Carole Ann Ford, one of the original stars of Doctor Who in 1963 and 64, now in her 80s. After all the red herrings last year with Susan Twist, how magical to have Susan back in Doctor Who, entering the Doctor’s mind and calling him “Grandfather”. I’ve grown tired of the sausage factory of mystery women in recent times, but Susan is the original enigma at the birth of Doctor Who. The stuff of legends. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Doctor's trip to a Nigerian barber shop is in need of more than just a trim.
Story 317 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 5 “You must tell a story, Doctor. You must feed it. It is always hungry” – the Barber Storyline The Doctor lands in Lagos, Nigeria, 2019 to revisit his old friend Omo who runs a barber shop, but Omo and some of his regular customers have gone missing. The premises have been taken over by a sinister Barber, who is transporting them across space on the back of a giant spider, part of an engine fuelled by storytelling. First UK broadcast Saturday 10 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Omo Esosa – Sule Rimi The Barber – Ariyon Bakare Abena – Michelle Asante Rashid Abubakar – Stefan Adegbola Tunde Adebayo – Jordan Adene Obioma Okoli – Michael Balogun Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Paramedic – Simon Bailey Consultant – Adrian Pang Patient – Tessa Bell-Briggs Market seller – Inua Ellams Security guard – Funmi James Poppy – Sienna Robyn Mavanga-Phipps The Doctor – Jo Martin Crew Writer – Inua Ellams Director – Makalla McPherson Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Doctor Who as experimental theatre. Not a bad idea. You can’t fault the ambition, but the execution... Oh dear. Were this a play put on by one of the more avant-garde playhouses around the country, even the most receptive audience members might start creeping out before the interval. Playwright Inua Ellams had a hit on his hands in 2017 with Barber Shop Chronicles, launched at the National Theatre in London, then remounted around the world to acclaim. The Story & the Engine is a brother to that, in that its action is largely constrained to a barber shop whose customers share stories. The leap is to give it a Doctor Who spin so that the storytelling fuels gods and monsters, with the shop somehow still in Lagos but also on a journey through space on the back of a gigantic spider. Delirious and nonsensical barely cover the spectacle here, and, fatally, it’s hard to fathom what is going on – in actuality or allegory. The contained drama is never for a moment am-dram but it wavers between flaccid and overwrought – despite Murray Gold’s efforts to weave a magical spell. The sense of fable is helped by artistic touches, including shimmering graphics as visual aids. More could have been made of these, displayed full screen. Best is the tale told by Abena about her womenfolk’s cunning strategy of braiding maps into hair to outfox their oppressors. And the Doctor’s new hairdo mapping a maze to reach the heart of the story engine is a clever idea. The glimpses of old Doctors may help snoozing fans twitch back to life, but these are throwaway – even Jo Martin’s in-the-flesh cameo as the “fugitive” Doctor. We were hardly going to get Colin Baker’s Doctor coming into Omo’s for a fresh perm, but she is wasted. A full-on match between Jo Martin and Ncuti Gatwa would be welcome. It is vitally important to have wider racial representation on screen. Ellams’s episode fulfils that aim and hands the Doctor a milieu where he feels he fits in. “It’s the first time I’ve had this Black body... Here in Africa, in that barber shop, I’m accepted,” he tells Belinda. He thrives in the buzz of the bazaar and feels he’s among his people. It’s a delightful moment for Gatwa’s Doctor. It is, however, disingenuous to present Nigeria as some idyll. Significantly, the queer aspect of this incarnation is for once dialled down. He’s not calling any other chaps “Honey” or “Babes” in Lagos. The Sex Education storyline where young Eric (Gatwa) witnessed the difficulties of being gay in Nigeria remains fresh in the memory. The country is no Happy Place for gay, lesbian and trans people. They are criminalised by the state for being who they are, with a maximum penalty of death by stoning. Maybe one message a week is enough for Doctor Who, and there will be gaiety galore in the next episode, but it is a cardinal omission in The Story & the Engine. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ruby Sunday meets a very different kind of monster.
Story 316 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 4 “I think I’m in shock. Like PTSD. Because what happened last year was not normal” – Ruby Storyline Ruby, now 20, is adjusting to life after her Tardis travels. She agrees to talk on a podcast with Conrad Clark, who encountered the Doctor as a child and has been obsessed ever since. He and Ruby start dating, but when they go away for a country break, it transpires that he has been deceiving her. Conrad is the figurehead of Think Tank, an organisation intent on exposing what they see as the lies perpetuated by UNIT about the alien threat to our planet. Kate is tested to the limit and unleashes the monstrous Shreek on him. First UK broadcast Saturday 3 May 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Conrad Clark – Jonah Hauer-King Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Shirley Anne-Bingham – Ruth Madeley Louise Miller – Faye McKeever Col Christofer Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient Moira Clark – Kirsty Hoiles Young Conrad – Benjamin Chivers Jordan Lang – Kareem Alexander Elsa – Madison Stock Sparky – Paddy Stafford Jack – Blake Anderson Michelle – Aoife Gaston Alfie – Paul Jerricho Derek – Michael Woodford Audrey – Tina Gray Trinity Wells – Lachele Carl The Shreek – Gethin Alderman The Vlinx – Aidan Cook Voice of the Vlinx – Nicholas Briggs Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Influencers – Selorm Adonu, Calypso Cragg, James Craven As themselves: Reeta Chakrabarti, Alex Jones, Joel Dommett Crew Writer – Pete McTighe Director – Peter Hoar Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Activism can often be characterised by self-righteousness and delusion – whether we sympathise with a cause or not – and Pete McTighe’s script captures that edge tartly. Fans and regular viewers know the fiction of Doctor Who to be completely true. UNIT has been thwarting alien invasions almost yearly since the 1960s. That is true, isn’t it? So we reject and loathe Conrad Clark and his Think Tank, who are clearly wrong. They are, aren’t they? Lucky Day is another diverting spin on this season’s theme of: what is reality? What is fiction? What in fiction is reality? One thing’s for sure: no one messes with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Only a fool traduces her organisation and insults her Brigadier father’s legacy. It’s another strong performance from Jemma Redgrave, who’s become a series stalwart since her 2012 debut opposite Matt Smith. Millie Gibson demonstrates once again, as in last year’s 73 Yards, that she can hold focus in a story as the companion alone. While Jonah Hauer-King is also excellent as the duplicitous Conrad Clark – he can play wet and adoring podcaster just as convincingly as the deluded, hostile activist. “It has been a chore getting to know you.” He’s vile. Some of Ruby and Conrad’s stumbling courtship conversations don’t quite land, and the Shreek, while well realised, joins the swollen ranks of forgettable monster of the week. But as a holding-pattern episode, presumably shot while Ncuti Gatwa was elsewhere, Lucky Day keeps the season’s momentum ticking along, and the young Conrad’s sighting of the Tardis and subsequent obsession recall Elton Pope (Marc Warren) in another Doctor-lite episode, Love & Monsters. What’s especially rewarding is that when we do see the Doctor, as he materialises his Tardis around Conrad, Gatwa glows with charisma and righteousness (here fighting “cowards who weaponise lies”), while we can only despise Conrad’s unshifting smugness. Surely, we’ve not seen the last of this nasty piece of work. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Rose Ayling-Ellis gives us a riveting, nightmarish Aliss in Terrorland.
Story 315 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 3 “There’s something behind me all the time” – Aliss Storyline Some 500,000 years in the future on the planet 67-67, all contact has been lost with the mining colony of Base 15. The Doctor and Belinda assist the band of troopers investigating the scene. The colonists are found dead, either by gunfire or with their bones shattered – all bar one survivor, Aliss. She is the host of a vile, unseen force that the Doctor encountered long ago when 67-67 was called Midnight. Can Aliss be freed? And why has no one heard of Earth or the human race? First UK broadcast Saturday 26 April 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Aliss Fenly – Rose Ayling-Ellis Shaya Costallion – Caoilfhionn Dunne Cassio Palin-Paleen – Christopher Chung Mo Gilliben – Bethany Antonia Hanno Yeft – Annabel Brook Kai Sabba – Gaz Choudhry Callo Rence – Luke Rhodri Albie Bethick – Gary Pillai Sal Van Hyten – Frankie Lipman Albie Bethick – Gary Pillai Ulric Dazen – Jermaine Dominique Val Vivo – Amy Tyger Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson It Has No Name – Paul Kasey Crew Writers – Russell T Davies, Sharma Angel-Walfall Director – Amanda Brotchie Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Sometimes when Doctor Who echoes itself, it sings. The plunging mineshaft looks like the massive rim into an abyss in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (2006), and the spacesuited troopers being picked off by an unseen menace recalls Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (2008) or, going even further back, Earthshock (1982). Meanwhile, The Well itself is a form of sequel to another highly popular 2008 episode, Midnight – and arguably superior. This is core Doctor Who when everything comes together: a rattling script, from the moment the Doctor and Belinda are jettisoned into space (Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu have fast become an effective and empathic pair leading the show); and taut direction that keeps up the unrelenting pace, creating unease and jump scares. The Well also benefits from grim and grimy design on a cinematic scale, an unusually creepy score from Murray Gold, and quick characterisation matched by sharp casting that helps bring short-lived people to life – a forte of Russell T Davies, collaborating here with Sharma Angel-Walfall. Whether you saw Rose Ayling-Ellis as Frankie in EastEnders between 2020 and 2022, followed her progress to winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2021, or are completely new to her, she delivers an instantly appealing blend of vulnerability and resolve as the sole survivor on planet 67-67. You can’t help but root for her and hope she can free herself of the subliminal horror that lurks behind her at “midnight”. It's one of those Doctor Who concepts that are really very silly, not to say inexpensive, but also nightmarish and riveting when played with conviction. Ayling-Ellis and everyone else are giving us Aliss in Terrorland. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Scooby-Doo meets Sapphire & Steel in this animated adventure.
Story 314 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 2 "We’re going 3D. And remember, whatever you do, don’t make me laugh." – Mr Ring-a-Ding Storyline Miami, 1952: at the Palazzo picture house, cartoon character Mr Ring-a-Ding bursts out of the screen and terrorises the audience, who all subsequently vanish. Months later, the Doctor and Belinda investigate the mystery and discover that Mr Ring-a-Ding is the embodiment of Lux, the god of light, and one of the sinister Pantheon. After he converts the time travellers into cartoons, they must use their wits to break back into reality. First UK broadcast Saturday 19 April 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Mr Ring-a-Ding – Alan Cumming Reginald Pye – Linus Roache Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Tommy Lee – Cassius Hackforth Husband – Ryan Speakman Sunshine Sally – Millie O’Connell Renée Lowenstein – Lucy Thackeray Logan Cheever – Lewis Cornay Helen Pye – Jane Hancock Hassan Chowdry – Samir Arrian Lizzie Abel – Bronté Barbé Robyn Gossage – Steph Lacey Policeman – William Meredith Newsreader – Ian Shaw Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Amanda Brotchie Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Doctor Who is often at its curious best when it transcends dimensions. Week in, week out, we witness that with the Police Box/Tardis, but when the writer’s imagination stretches even further with, say, the Land of Fiction in The Mind Robber (1968) or the dimension-straddling force in Flatline (2014), the Doctor and the viewers are obliged to think beyond the box. Lux achieves this superbly. It takes the trappings of cinema projection and celluloid, and capitalises on Disney funds for lustrous animation (actually delivered by British VFX company Framestore), to create an original and increasingly disturbing threat in Mr Ring-a-Ding. He’s like a mix of the Cat in the Hat and an annoying Doctor we haven’t met yet. The entire middle sequence, where the Time Lord and Belinda are flattened into 2D cartoons but then emote their way back towards their 3D reality, is cleverly realised. The Doctor has long existed in cartoon form on the printed page, but these moments in Lux chime neatly with the variable modern-day attempts to animate the missing 1960s Who episodes. Fourth-wall breaking is tricky territory but Russell T Davies masters it here – several times over. The cartoon Mr Ring-a-Ding emerges from the cinema screen and becomes "real". The Doctor and Belinda manipulate and speed up the film frames that constrain them, eventually pushing through a TV screen into the living room of their "biggest fans". It’s an audacious stroke and wittily self-reflexive. When the Doctor asks, "Go on then, what’s your favourite adventure?", his fans say, "Blink, every time." "Not the one with the Goblins?" "Blink!" they insist. Belinda’s disdain for the basic premise of Steven Moffat's classic is hilarious. Even if the outcome of this "bubble" is mawkish, it sets up the quandary: who is real and what is fiction? A theme we’ll no doubt return to this season. Doctor Who has been getting a lot of stick for raising ISSUES! When handled with subtlety, there should be no objection. So praise for Belinda’s awareness (as a nurse) of the fate that will befall matinee idol Rock Hudson decades later. It should also curl the toes of sentient viewers to realise that, had this adventure not taken place in the dead of night, thanks to racial segregation, the Tardis duo wouldn’t be free agents to visit the diner and cinema in 1950s Miami. There’s joy in the dark in Lux. "Honey, I’m Velma," the Doctor tells Belinda ("Fred") as they channel Scooby-Doo to check up on an old caretaker in a haunted cinema. But as they explore the mysteries of light, alternate dimensions and missing persons trapped on celluloid, the vibe veers more towards ITV’s old supernatural series, Sapphire and Steel. With more such material, Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu could become an elemental pairing. Read more: Episode 1 – The Robot Revolution review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
If you’re up for a bit of flash-bang-wallop cartoonery, then maybe this episode works for you.
Story 313 Series 15/Series 2 – Episode 1 "We need you as our queen" – Robot Storyline In London 2008, Belinda Chandra has a star named after her by her boyfriend Alan. In 2025, robots from Missbelindachandra One, a world orbiting that star, want her as their queen. Before the Doctor can intercede, Belinda is abducted by the robots in a space rocket. He pursues in the Tardis, but a time fracture means he arrives on the planet six months early. A plan is hatched with the subjugated locals, the Missbelindachandrakind, to prevent her becoming the bride of the controlling AI Generator. It contains a golden being who, it transpires, is the robotised remains of her former boyfriend Alan. He is vanquished by the force of the time fracture, and peace is restored between the people and robots. The Doctor promises to return Belinda home but the Tardis is bounced away. Could Earth have been destroyed...? First UK broadcast Saturday 12 April 2025 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Belinda Chandra – Varada Sethu Alan Budd – Jonny Green Manny – Max Parker Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Kirby Blake – Thalía Dudek Stefan Haines – Jeffin Kunjumon Tombo – Tom Storey Sasha 55 – Evelyn Miller Scoley – Caleb Hughes Shago – Nadine Higgin Prime Minister – William Ellis Receptionist – Belinda Owusu Voice of the robots – Nicholas Briggs Robots – Stephen Love, Robert Strange, Charles Sandford, Lucas Edwards Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Peter Hoar Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern If you’re up for a bit of flash-bang-wallop cartoonery, then maybe this episode works for you. A retro rocket reaching a faraway star remarkably quickly… shiny robots vaporising their victims in mid-air… a gorgeously gold-plated semi-human villain… the cute (only mildly annoying) busybody hoover ("Polish! Polish!") that could put a Dyson to shame… juddery time-distortion effects… and vestiges of iconic Earth design (a black cab, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty) tumbling through space… Some beautiful visuals have been created. If, though, you’re looking for something novel and meaty to sink your teeth into, you’ll be disappointed. This season opener – at just eight episodes it’s barely worthy of "season" status – is reminiscent of Smith and Jones from 2007. I know that’s a long time ago, but in both episodes the Doctor’s new companion (trainee doctor Martha then, nurse Belinda now) is seen working in a spotless hospital and is soon abducted by marauding aliens. Lumbering, top-heavy, headless robots have featured several times in Doctor Who in living memory. Belinda is the latest in a long line of "mystery women" that the Doctor will have to unravel. From River Song and Amy Pond, via Clara and Missy, to Ruby and her hooded mother, almost every regular female character has had "enigma" stitched into her upholstery. And yet again our diaries are marked with a dooms-date (this time 24th May 2025) that handily coincides with the transmission of the two-part finale. Varada Sethu is fine as Belinda, even if lacking the immediate Wow! factor of, say, Billie Piper and Catherine Tate as soon as they walked on set. "Bel" may take a few weeks to bed in, but then we only have a few short weeks. In the same vein, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor barely feels like someone we’ve had time to get a handle on. He bounces with energy and wafts charisma but lacks gravitas. He cries – again – but does not communicate the emotion. I’m not sensing Time Lord vibes from Gatwa. His revelation "It’s not AI. It’s AL" thuds on arrival, as does Belinda’s explanation for any cloth-brained viewers of her former boyfriend: "You’ve taken coercive control and made it complete control of the whole planet." Gawd, well, here’s a bad ’un for our times and no mistake. We meet quite a few people in the episode but there are no real persons of interest, unless you count Mrs Flood. Another mystery woman, yes, but anything with Anita Dobson is gold. Even a brief cameo of her standing in a backyard in a housecoat, hair blown wild by rocket engines. I half wish the cameras had followed her indoors. La Flood’s domestic activities are more intriguing than events on other worlds. An abiding image from The Robot Revolution is the x-ray blanket – expensive but thin material revealing big hearts at work but not much else going on internally. Read more: Episode 2 – Lux review Episode 3 – The Well review Episode 4 – Lucky Day review Episode 5 – The Story & the Engine review Episode 6 – The Interstellar Song Contest review Episode 7 – Wish World Episode 8 – The Reality War Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ncuti Gatwa and Nicola Coughlan shine in Steven Moffat's Christmas special – with more than one new star
Story 312 Christmas Special 2024 “A hotel but instead of rooms, time portals? Package deals for all of history’s biggest hits. No wonder there was no room at the inn” – the Doctor Storyline London, Christmas 4042: the Doctor arrives at the Time Hotel, which has portals to hotel rooms and lodgings throughout Earth history. In 2024, a woman called Joy is spending Christmas alone at the Sandringham Hotel in London, but she gets manacled to a deadly suitcase. It contains a star seed that requires millions of years to grow and is key to a plot by the Villengard corporation to destroy Earth. The Time Lord must save Joy but he gets stuck in London for a year, befriending hotel receptionist Anita. Ultimately, after a trip to prehistoric times with the Doctor, Joy is transformed by the energy into a benign star. First UK broadcast Wednesday 25 December 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Joy Almondo – Nicola Coughlan Trev Simpkins –Joel Fry Anita Benn – Steph de Whalley Hotel manager – Jonathan Aris Hilda Flockhart – Julia Watson Basil Flockhart – Peter Benedict Sylvia Trench – Niamh Marie Smith Edmund Hillary – Phil Baxter Tenzing Norgay – Samuel Sherpa-Moore Receptionist – Ruchi Rai Mr Single – Joshua Leese Angela Grace – Fiona Marr Barman – Liam Prince-Donnelly Joy’s mum – Fiona Scott Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Crew Writer – Steven Moffat Director – Alex Sanjiv Pillai Music – Murray Gold Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Steven Moffat RT review by Patrick Mulkern Time really does fly. It wasn’t so long ago that Ncuti Gatwa and Nicola Coughlan were among the stand-out stars in two of Netflix’s biggest hits – Sex Education and Bridgerton – and here they are now, confidently fronting the Doctor Who Christmas special. Though both shine effortlessly as individuals, Steven Moffat’s time-twisting plot doesn’t allow them many moments to sparkle as a duo. Unexpectedly, he lets more chemistry develop between Gatwa’s Doctor and hotel receptionist Anita, played winningly by relative newcomer Steph de Whalley, who escaped all the advance publicity hoopla. She is his true friend and companion in this special. The Time Lord is obliged to spend a whole year with Anita at the Sandringham Hotel, earning his keep and enjoying his sojourn. He admits, “I don’t usually live like this, one day after the other. I always wondered what it would be like.” This Doctor has perhaps forgotten some of his previous Christmas adventures. Matt Smith’s Doctor spent many decades defending the planet Trenzalore in The Time of the Doctor (2013), and Peter Capaldi’s Doctor was shacked up with River Song for 25 years in The Husbands of River Song (2015). No matter: this lengthy hotel booking in 2024 allows Gatwa to show his heart and his flare for comedy. And Anita would be welcome back any time. The sequence where the Doctor taunts Joy, calling her a “sad sack”, forcing her to drop her smile and unbottle her rage is uncomfortable viewing but pointed writing. It culminates by thrusting us back four years to the pandemic, to the point in 2020 when the prospect of spending Christmas together was dangled but then cancelled by the Tory government, when many weren’t able to spend time with their loved ones, whether they were hearty or dying in hospital, as Joy’s mum was. This is the one stand-out, truly emotive scene in this story – in a period of Who when most of the emotion is surface and sound. We’re always on solid ground with Steven Moffat as a storyteller, even as he whisks viewers off their feet for a madcap spectacle, twiddling with time and locales. The heart of Joy to the World, though, is his portrait of four lonely people at Christmas – the Doctor, Anita, Joy and her dying mum. His final flourish – transforming Joy into a benign celestial force, indeed the Star of Bethlehem – is a cheeky, radiant reminder of what Christmas is all about. But maybe Steph de Whalley is another new star too.
Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death ★★★★★
Susan, Sutekh, Bonnie Langford... Russell 'Tease' Davies turbo-blends the Time Lord's rich heritage with Long Lost Family in an eerie and thrilling finale
Story 311 Series 14/Series One – Episodes 7 & 8 “I bring Sutekh’s dust of death” – Susan Triad Storyline The Doctor flies the Tardis into UNIT HQ, determined to solve two mysteries: the identity of Ruby’s mother and the woman whose face keeps popping up in his adventures. The modern version of the latter is tech giant Susan Triad, who is about to launch some world-changing software for free – and Mel has infiltrated her inner circle. Kate allows the Doctor to use UNIT’s time window to re-create the events of Christmas Eve 20 years ago. Wondering if Susan could be his granddaughter and fearing a trap, the Doctor is unprepared to be facing his ancient enemy Sutekh. This god-like being has been waiting aeons for revenge – latched onto and cloaked by the Tardis, evolving, and is now ready to spread his dust of death across every planet the Doctor has visited. As Earth is destroyed across time, the Time Lord, Ruby and Mel flee in the “memory Tardis” to London 2046. The secret of Ruby’s birth is the key to ensnaring Sutekh and hauling him to his demise in the space-time vortex. Finally, on Earth in 2024, Ruby meets her mother and must leave the Doctor. First UK broadcast Saturday 15 June 2024 Saturday 22 June 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Melanie Bush – Bonnie Langford Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Voice of Sutekh – Gabriel Woolf Rose Noble – Yasmin Finney Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Colonel Christofer Ibrahim – Alexander Devrient Susan Triad – Susan Twist Morris Gibbons – Lenny Rush Harriet Arbinger – Genesis Lynea Bailey Sinclair – Fela Lufadeju Colonel Winston Chidozie – Tachia Newall Corporal Alice Sullivan – Jasmine Bayes The Vlinx – Aidan Cook Voice of the Vlinx – Nicholas Briggs Kind woman – Sian Clifford Amol Rajan – himself Roger ap Gwilliam – Aneurin Barnard Louise Miller – Faye McKeever Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Jamie Donoughue Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern This is a clutch-your-cushions finale. True, this season only started seven weeks ago and has flown past in a flash. There’s a sense that it hasn’t yet earned a grand showdown, and that with several Doctor-lite episodes we haven’t shared enough time with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson together. But their story has been running since Christmas 2023, and this two-parter concludes that with a degree of satisfaction. It is also hugely reliant on the programme’s heritage. Susan from the 1960s. Sutekh from the 70s. Mel from the 80s. And UNIT from all those decades. It engenders fan ecstasy for sure, but for new or casual viewers? The showrunner melds it all into a digestible feast and a big-dipper ride. Since Christmas, Russell “Tease” Davies has been dropping hints, feeding red herrings, misdirecting with abandon… breezily generating a vortex of speculation on social media, with some clues so simple (anagrams) that even very young viewers should figure them out. Many are toppled like dominos as the first episode unfolds, but RTD does this generously, amusingly. “S TRIAD spells out… TARDIS,” explains the Doctor, pleased with himself. “Well, obviously,” says Kate, rolling her eyes. “Even I got that,” says Colonel Ibrahim, the 2020s version of 1970s UNIT beefcake Sergeant Benton. The police box’s arrival into UNIT HQ, parking as if it were home, and UNIT’s rise from the ashes are very satisfying. UNIT has been so mucked about with in recent years. Disbanded by Chris Chibnall in Resolution (2019), it was later revived, then razed to the ground by him in The Power of the Doctor (2022). Somehow a “time window” has survived all these events and provides a grainy VHS-quality glimpse of the past. (No one asks if it can handily peep into the future.) It’s a clever device, though, which draws in the viewer as much as the participants on screen, scanning every image, every angle for revelation. It’s beautifully visualised. Episode one an exercise in building tension, drawing us towards a triple cliffhanger, three points of reveal and peril: for the Doctor and Mel at Triad HQ; for Kate in UNIT HQ; and for Ruby in the time window. The snap reveal of Susan Triad’s cadaverous face, the juddering, stealthy approach of the cowled mother figure… the stuff of shivers and nightmares. Full marks for eerie. But for me it doesn’t quite top the exquisite conclusion to World Enough and Time (2017). Not every beat lands in the edit, some of the dialogue isn’t clear. I’m being picky, but I’m vexed by indistinct diction in drama. And it’s not just the usual case of mumbles lost in the mix. I had to replay certain sections and apply subtitles. Otherwise, the casting is extremely strong. Ncuti Gatwa is luminous and magnetic (he could cut down on the blubbing), Millie Gibson totally authentic as the teenage foundling, while Bonnie Langford leaves far behind the rubbishing she received in 1980s Doctor Who with a spirited and subtle performance as Mel, especially when possessed. Jemma Redgrave is commanding but also deeply empathic. Susan Twist has come out of nowhere for me. She’s had to give all these mini-snatches of characters in recent episodes but arrives fully formed as Susan Triad, who’s actually a pleasant human being as tech giants go, innocent of being bait, and she nails that funny Theresa May dance to the podium. For many devotees it’s a total thrill that Sutekh has been revived for the first time on TV since 1975. Pyramids of Mars is a gorgeous Tom Baker-era classic – and can be relished again or anew via Tales of the TARDIS. And in full on BBC iPlayer. How wonderful that Gabriel Woolf, now 91, has revived his most famous, chilling vocal performance. A great actor and broadcaster, his earliest Radio Times credit was for Children’s Hour on the Home Service radio network in 1950. Countless roles and readings followed (including nearly 300 editions of A Book at Bedtime). In 1973, when RT asked readers for their favourite voices, R Shaw of Bolton, Lancashire responded: “The 'golden voice’ on radio or television? There is but one incomparable speaking voice, that of Gabriel Woolf.” This finale is an FX-laden extravaganza. It’s strange that the original jackal head of Sutekh from 1975, though inert and inexpressive, cannot be bettered for pure chills. Our first glimpse of the augmented 2024 version, engulfing the police box, is like a bejewelled, rabid donkey. It fares better in the second episode, given more movement and angles to appreciate how good the CGI is. This evolved Sutekh starts to gain substance. The “dust of death” disintegration of all the Doctor’s allies is excellent too, truly horrifying; as is the realisation that all the planets he’s landed on for fun across time are dying too. You just know it will all unravel and reset – it was ever thus in grandstanding Who finales – and it won’t end well for Sutekh, but it’s clever and actually, to me, very funny how Russell T resolves this. After all his travels with the Doctor, Sutekh has become a Doctor Who fan. This god-like being is reduced to the level of a TV addict, pressing pause on his destructive urges until he too, like us, learns the secret of Ruby’s heritage. And it’s also typical of RTD to wrap up the horror show by the 40-minute mark and make the final act about the Doctor and Ruby. He returns her to where she began last Christmas in a scenario straight out of ITV’s excellent show Long Lost Family, where she finally meets her lovely mum. The ordinary triumphs over the extraordinary. A happy ending indeed. And oh yes, Anita Dobson. A genuine TV goddess. And Mrs Flood. A fairy godmother who sees it all. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Episode 4 – 73 Yards review Episode 5 – Dot and Bubble review Episode 6 – Rogue review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
The Time Lord loses his heart to a starship bounty hunter in the most gloriously gay episode yet. Happy Pride Month!
Story 310 Series 14/Series One – Episode 6 “Some are saying the best of the season. A triumph! A new standard set. But I think the real estimation of an evening is in the matches made” – Duchess of Pemberton Storyline Bath, 1813: the Doctor and Ruby are enjoying the Bridgerton vibe at the Duchess of Pemberton’s ball, but alien shapeshifters are abroad, killing off partygoers and assuming their identities for fun. The cosplaying Chuldur are being observed by bounty hunter Rogue, who catches the Doctor’s eye and his heart. They join forces to round up the aliens and save Ruby from their clutches. First UK broadcast Saturday 8 June 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Rogue – Jonathan Groff The Duchess of Pemberton – Indira Varma Lord Barton – Paul Forman Emily Beckett – Camilla Aiko Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Lord Galpin – Maxim Ays Miss Talbot – Nancy Brabin-Platt Mr Price – David Charles The portrait – Susan Twist Housekeeper – Debra Baker Crew Writers – Kate Herron and Briony Redman Director – Ben Chessell Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Series producer – Vicky Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern What a way to celebrate Pride Month! This is the gayest episode of Doctor Who to date – and that takes some doing after The Devil’s Chord only a few weeks previously. It’s wonderful that under Russell T Davies’s stewardship the programme has the confidence, and yes the balls, to present something this gloriously gay. And under the watchful eye of investor Disney. I wouldn’t want it every week but I quite enjoy it when the usually indifferent Time Lord is sweet on someone. This is nothing new. William Hartnell’s Doctor was smitten with Aztec lady Cameca 60 years ago, Paul McGann’s version kissed Dr Grace in the 1996 TV Movie, David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor fell for Madame de Pompadour in 2006, and River Song captured various Time Lord’s hearts – especially Peter Capaldi’s. They spent a night on Darillium that lasted 24 years. Now with Ncuti Gatwa as the dazzling lead, the show is free to pursue its passion and be truthful to the edge he lends this incarnation. American star Jonathan Groff is suave and mischievous as Rogue and a convincing match for the Doctor. People blither on about all of Groff’s TV credits (which are notable), but to me he’s a Tony-award-laden Broadway star: Spring Awakening, Hamilton and Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. All stunning. Rogue clearly bears many similarities to Captain Jack and River Song. Indeed, there’s a lot here that echoes the past. Not just Who doing Bridgerton, but Who doing Who. The Chuldur family are interchangeable with the Family of Blood from 2007. Watching this, I kept smiling and snorting with mirth, thinking, "This is so Russell." It is, but we must also pause and digest that the writing credits go to Kate Herron and Briony Redman. Just what Doctor Who needs: fresh blood and the "female gaze". It looks beautiful in all departments and plays with zip and energy. The anachronistic music choices are a hoot, from the spot-on pop tracks to the Doctor and Rogue dancing – and shocking society – to Piazzolla’s Libertango (from 1974). But the high point, after a couple of weeks’ starvation, is the chance to see just how well Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson play together as time-travelling best friends, having a high old time. Both are charming and often very funny. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Episode 4 – 73 Yards review Episode 5 – Dot and Bubble review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Slug monsters are harvesting vacuous, tech-dependent humans, but in this intriguing satire do they deserve saving?
Story 309 Series 14/Series One – Episode 5 “I am not lowering my bubble” – Lindy Storyline The young inhabitants of Finetime are dependent on their dot and bubble technology to get through their home and working lives. Interaction is constant but they are unaware that they’re being harvested and eaten by slug-like creatures, until the Doctor and Ruby intercede and try to guide Lindy and her fellows to safety. First UK broadcast Saturday 1 June 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Lindy Pepper-Bean – Callie Cooke Ricky September – Tom Rhys Harries Hoochy Pie – Niamh Lynch Harry Tendency – Aldous Ciokajlo Squire Cooper Mercy – Eilidh Loan Gothic Paul – Pete MacHale Blake Very Blue – Billy Brayshaw Valerie Nook – Millie Kent Dr Pee – Max Boast Rotterdam Twins – Elloise Bennett, Olivia Bennett Penny Pepper-Bean – Susan Twist Alan K Sullivan – Milo Callaghan Weatherman Will – Jack Forsyth-Noble Suzie Pentecost – Ellie-Grace Cashin Brewster Cavendish – Jamie Barnard Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Dylan Holmes Williams Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern We all do it. Walk around in a bubble, glued to our devices. In this intriguing satire, Russell T Davies takes that to an extreme. On Finetime – a city under a bubble dome – people go about their business constantly encased in a literal bubble of interactivity, oblivious to the fact that they and their friends are being harvested by slug-like monsters. He toyed with this idea once before in Years and Years with the “filter mask” worn by young Bethany (Lydia West) who wanted to become a “trans-human”. Diehard fans will also spot the strong debt owed to the 1967 Patrick Troughton story, The Macra Terror, in which a human colony were enslaved by giant crabs they couldn’t see. The technology and set design are gorgeous. The monsters brilliantly, disgustingly realised. And the tone is largely spot on. The vacuity of the young people of Finetime (“No stinky old folk,” says Lindy. “Just people ages 17 to 27”) is perfectly captured in the writing and performances. They are so dependent on their bubbles, they can’t walk without its directions, like the cellphone users of today who cannot put one foot in front of the other without Google Maps. Here, Lindy walks twice into a lamppost. Unfortunately in this short run we have yet another episode in which Ncuti Gatwa’s relatively new Doctor isn’t fully involved. He and Ruby pop up regularly on windows in Lindy’s bubble, steering the action, but display all the presence and allure of daytime TV hosts offering advice to a live caller. We realise before the Doctor and Ruby that they have been facilitating the evacuation of a vacuous moron. Lindy is also revealed to be treacherous in her betrayal of Ricky September, the influencer who is supposedly gorgeous. If you say so… Many viewers should have clocked early on that not only are these youngsters rich, entitled and gormless, like contestants on a reality show, but they are also all white. In the last act, Lindy and her fellow survivors are shown to be racist, rejecting further association with or assistance from the Doctor. They don’t wish to be “contaminated” because “you, sir, are not one of us”. The Tardis is “voodoo”. It’s a strong line, but this final passage is protracted and overwrought, and doesn’t hit quite as hard as it ought to. We’re left with the uncomfortable feeling he should have left them to the slugs. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Episode 4 – 73 Yards review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Millie Gibson impresses in a beautiful tale of enchantment
Story 308 Series 14/Series One – Episode 4 “The clifftops are a boundary between the land and the sea – a liminal space, neither here nor there, where rules are suspended” – Enid Meadows Storyline When the Tardis lands on a clifftop in Wales, the Doctor and Ruby stumble upon a magical "fairy circle". Once interfered with, it creates a timeline in which the Doctor has vanished and Ruby is haunted by the figure of a woman – always present but always at an intangible distance of 73 yards. Anyone who has contact with the woman flees and abandons Ruby, throughout her life, for decades, until in 2046 together they can save the world from a wicked prime minister, Roger ap Gwilliam. Only at Ruby’s death in old age does the woman come close; it is Ruby and now she has the power to reach back through time and stop the Doctor stepping into the circle. First UK broadcast Saturday 25 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Enid Meadows – Siân Phillips Roger ap Gwilliam – Aneurin Barnard Old Ruby – Amanda Walker Kate Lethbridge-Stewart – Jemma Redgrave Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Mrs Flood — Anita Dobson The Woman – Hilary Hobson Hiker – Susan Twist Lowri Palin – Maxine Evans Eddie Jones – Glyn Pritchard Thin Lucy – Elan Davies Ifor Jones – Gwïon Morris Jones Joshua Steele – Sion Pritchard Frank Hinchey Graham Butler Sanjay Miah – Ali Ariaie Rufus Bray – Albey Brookes Craig Deloach – Miles Yekinni Himself – Amol Rajan Marti Bridges – Sophie Ablett Akhim Patil – Shane David-Joseph Groundsman – Jason May Security officer – Dylan Baldwin Armed policeman – David Constant Newsreader – Deeivya Meir Eizabeth Campbell – Rhyanna Alexander-Davis Nurse – Vee Vimolmal Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Dylan Holmes Williams Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern This is ludicrous nonsense and I love it to bits. A cotton-thin premise but written with such skill, played with such conviction and beautifully filmed that it is riveting to watch from start to finish. It’s like being inside someone else’s mind – Ruby’s – and sharing her delirious dream. In a short run of eight, you wouldn’t expect a "Doctor-lite" episode (Ncuti Gatwa had to dash off to Sex Education), but it throws light on Ruby, and the extremely impressive Millie Gibson – only 18 here in her first-filmed episode – carries the story alone. Every emotion, every doubt and every revelation. She’s excellent throughout, even if the ageing process doesn’t entirely convince. But you go with it, as if in a spell, until at last Amanda Walker (in her late 80s with a career stretching back to the 1950s) takes over and gives a similarly poignant and persuasive performance. Russell T Davies’s fast-forward narrative and the pernicious politician, Roger ap Gwilliam, recall the events of RTD’s Years and Years (2019) and PM Vivienne Rook, played by Emma Thompson. In scant screen time, Aneurin Barnard nails "the most dangerous PM in history", eg Mad Jack, and it’s very funny when he freaks out in the stadium, unmanned by the spectral woman. Any drama that powerfully evokes a mystical landscape has me on side. That’s one reason why I enjoyed the forgotten 2017 episode The Eaters of Light by Rona Munro, which imbued the Scottish Highlands with ancient forces. Here it’s Wales, where the clifftops feel like the edge of reality. I love how supernatural elements are creeping in, from the fairy circle that mustn’t be broken, to the mysterious woman, a familiar spirit always at an intangible, unidentifiable 73 yards’ distance. I guessed early on that she was a version of Ruby communicating across time, but the deathbed reveal is still chilling and satisfying. Like the end of 2001: a Space Odyssey. Simultaneously revelatory but opaque, beyond time and explanation. We don’t discover why the Doctor disappears. It's not clear why those who closely encounter the woman flee in fear. It’s as if they’ve seen a ghost, albeit one from the future; but they also succumb to the power of a spell that has Ruby at its heart. They deny her the truth, and of course in narrative terms they could never tell Ruby what or whom they’ve seen or the threads would collapse. The story is Ruby’s, a foundling since birth and now rejected by all."Don’t worry," she says. "Everyone has abandoned me my whole life. But I haven’t been alone for 65 years." In death, she reaches back to her younger self, only just audibly warning, "Don’t step…" to break the spell. I love that 73 Yards doesn’t entirely add up, it doesn’t fully explain itself or need to, and that is part of its magic. Its enchantment keeps working long after the finish. Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Episode 3 – Boom review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Steven Moffat is back in a tense episode about faith, fatherhood and love.
Story 307 Series 14/Series One – Episode 3 “One wrong move and I go BOOM! All food mixer” – the Doctor Storyline In the year 5087, on the war-ravaged Kastarion 3, the Doctor steps on a landmine. Ruby is determined to help but one false move and they will die, as will the ordained Anglican marines deployed in the vicinity. Without moving, the Time Lord must outwit the deadly technology and the so-called Ambulances that are sweeping the battlefield. First UK broadcast Saturday 18 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson John Francis Vater – Joe Anderson Carson – Majid Mehdizadeh-Valoujerdy Splice Alison Vater – Caoilinn Springall Mundy Flynn – Varada Sethu Canterbury James Olliphant – Bhav Joshi Ambulance – Susan Twist Crew Writer – Steven Moffat Director – Julie Anne Robinson Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Anne Robinson, Steven Moffat RT review by Patrick Mulkern After two frantic episodes, Boom offers a welcome gear change. A sophisticated landmine stops Ncuti Gatwa in his tracks, rooting his quicksilver Doctor to the spot almost for the duration. A tense predicament unfolding in real time obliges him and Ruby to catch their breath, and be calm, brave and resourceful. Gatwa and Millie Gibson impress throughout. Fatherhood and blind faith are the themes of the week. The first character seen in close-up personifies both – a sightless Anglican marine and father whose very surname is Vater – "father" in German. To spare our sniggers, this is given an English pronunciation, not the German "farter". Vater will soon be a ghost, an AI hologram, thanks to a so-called "ambulance" that cruelly dispenses death on the battlefield. Its interface offers "Thoughts & Prayers" with all the glibness of politicians and social media types who claim to be "so sad" whenever anyone of note "passes". ("Ambulance" is also the latest guise for Susan Twist, bolstering her increasingly bizarre Who CV.) The Time Lord suggests that faith, especially blind unquestioning faith, has led to most, if not all, conflict in world history. In Boom, humankind has taken it to the stars. Faith in war, faith in technology, and these marines are the Clerics, a militarised religious organisation who first appeared in The Time of Angels (2010). It’s a strong message but interesting that these marines are “ordained Anglican”, a soft target. Imagine substituting any other faith or denomination there and watch that BOOM! It’s great to see Steven Moffat back in the driving seat after a seven-year absence. He still writes with ingenuity, playing with words and tech and, more than anything, tugging the heart. There are three types of love story here. Between father Vater and daughter Splice; between the shy marines Mundy and Canterbury. And yes, as Mundy follows Sunday, this is our first glimpse of Varada Sethu, who’ll join the series as the next companion. The third love is between best friends, the Doctor and Ruby. The little hug they share in the police box doorway right at the end is my favourite moment of the episode. There’s no hint of yearning, no Rose/Martha/Amy doe-eyed attraction. Just deep affection. And a smidgeon of Larkin, slightly misquoted by the Time Lord: "As a sad old man once told me, 'What survives of us is love.'" Read more: Episode 1 – Space Babies review Episode 2 – The Devil's Chord review Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Two Maestros – Russell T Davies at an audacious peak and hilariously OTT Jinkx Monsoon – create musical delirium
Story 306 Series 14/Series One – Episode 2 “My notation is Maestro… I am music” – Maestro Storyline In the 1920s, a music teacher inadvertently opens the gateway for a terrifying creature to enter our universe. The demonic Maestro will rob the world of melody, even of the Beatles’ greatest hits – as the Doctor and Ruby discover when they arrive in London 1963. Who can find the right chord to send Maestro back to oblivion? First UK broadcast Saturday 11 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Maestro – Jinkx Monsoon Timothy Drake – Jeremy Limb Henry Arbinger – Kit Rakusen George Martin – Ed White Paul McCartney – George Caple John Lennon – Chris Mason George Harrison – Philip Davies Ringo Starr – James Hoyles Cilla Black – Josie Sedgwick-Davies Tea trolley lady – Sherinne Kayra Anderson Studio producer – Chan Shoker Tea lady – Susan Twist Vinnie – Simon Jason-Smith Elderly woman – Laura June Hudson Shirley Ballas – Herself Johannes Radebe – Himself Murray Gold – Himself Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Ben Chessell Music – Murray Gold Producer – Chris May Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Released/broadcast/dropped a semi-quaver after the disappointing Space Babies, The Devil’s Chord elevates Doctor Who back into the realms of delirium and genius. No matter that not one note of the Beatles is heard. No matter that this Abbey Road is clearly nowhere near London NW8. No matter that the Fab Four look nothing like the originals but disturbingly like Ann Widdecombe’s discarded love-children. This is peak Russell T Davies. On astonishing top form. Doctor Who at its most audacious and highly entertaining. Maestro is an extraordinary creation – jaw-droppingly OTT, scenery-devouring, a note-perfect performance from Jinkx Monsoon. Hilarious, savage company. A fun night out. A presence that only a Drag Queen Supreme with decades of experience could command. And such are Maestro's metaphysical powers, even the opening theme music can be controlled. Maestro bursts from and recoils into pianos, hunts with a tuning fork, ensnares victims in reams of staves and clamps them in instruments. Maestro sucks music out of the world so that the Beatles and Cilla bleat out abysmal songs, and an orchestra staggers through Three Blind Mice. The simple repetition of the giggle from The Giggle is chilling. If the Toymaker was “a living game”, his child Maestro is “the essence of music itself”, as Russell T Davies establishes a new pantheon of camp superbaddies. It’s vast and intriguing. He's the true maestro at work here. Davies's free-rolling, witty script is well matched by a welter of brilliantly framed, comic-strip shots from director Ben Chessell. Any reservations about the leads lingering from Space Babies evaporate in this episode. Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson skate across the screen. An immensely winning couple with great chemistry. And what a challenge for Murray Gold. To render a world with a dearth of music, write a number of pieces reflecting that, and fighting against it – culminating in a joyful song-and-dance spectacular. There's Always a Twist at the End is like Glee does Sweet Charity – a triumph for all, from costume to choreography, but especially for the composer, who gets a blink-and-you'll-miss cameo at the piano. There are lots of nods to the past. The fact that the 15th Doctor realises his Hartnell incarnation is living across town in Shoreditch at this moment with his granddaughter. We see a sweet cameo for (Laura) June Hudson, now acting, but of course better known among fans as costume designer to Tom Baker. And don't overlook that the actor/musician playing 1920s piano teacher Timothy Drake is Jeremy Limb. He's the son of Roger Limb, who composed music for eight 1980s Who serials, including fan favourite The Caves of Androzani. We carry the past with us, but this re-energised version of Doctor Who is talking to the future. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Ncuti Gatwa sizzles and cute babies talk, but this frenetic season opener fails to excite
Story 305 Series 14/Series One – Episode 1 “If things connect, then you are connecting like crazy” – the Doctor Storyline Ruby Sunday joins the Doctor on his adventures – first stop, prehistory, where she nearly changes evolution. They move on to a space station in orbit above the planet Pacifico del Rio. A baby farm has been abandoned by society and the tiny survivors live in terror of a Bogeyman. First UK broadcast Saturday 11 May 2024 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Jocelyn Sancerre – Golda Rosheuvel Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Eric – Mason McCumskey Voice of Eric – Sami Amber Poppy – Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps Voice of Poppy – Shola Olaitan-Ajiboye Voice of Sandra – Cadence Williams Voice of Marcel – Param Patel Voice of Adjani – Lonnee Archibong Bogeyman – Robert Strange Rico Trieste – Jesús Reyes Ortiz Lucia Colasanto – Yasmine Bouabid Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Julie Anne Robinson Music – Murray Gold Producer – Vicki Delow Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson, Julie Anne Robinson RT review by Patrick Mulkern Sometimes programmes with the naffest titles confound expectations. Space Babies is not among them, sadly. It's a new experience for me to dislike something written by Russell T Davies – whom I greatly admire – but my finger wavered over the one-star button, such is my antipathy to this instalment. Cute babies should tug at your heartstrings. Baby-farmed little 'uns abandoned by an uncaring society, even more so. These babies zip around in pushchairs, run an orbital station, and can even talk (clever effects). They're aging but seem to be in arrested development. Never had a hug. This should bring out one's protective parental instinct but weirdly it all lands flat. There's nothing to feel here. We observe a lot of dashing about, fleeing from a monster and hiding in shadows, but the excitement levels simply don't transmit. The bowels of the space station have generated a literal Bogeyman, a creature composed of bogeys and snot – nine years if not light years from the ludicrous dust monsters created from human eye mucus in Sleep No More (2015). Despite the frenetic chases, it poses little tangible threat and ultimately becomes another “space baby” that the Doctor must save, an only-one-of-its-kind with whom the Last of the Time Lords empathises. In an amusing, again quite literal crap ending, the Doctor “lets rip” six years' worth of nappy methane to propel the station into another orbit. Space Babies is positioned as a soft reset, the launch of supposedly another “season one” in some territories, but offers none of the panache of Rose from 2005. The 15th Doctor gives Ruby the same space-portal vista and phone home moment that the ninth Doctor gave Rose in The End of the World, only with far less impact. As a jumping-on point, perhaps wisely, it eschews timeworn mystification. Within the first few minutes, any newbies, along with Ruby, receive a crash course in the basics of Doctor Who, the workings of the Tardis and the latest holding pattern for Time Lords. (It's lovely to hear Murray Gold revisit a motif from his 2007 theme, This Is Gallifrey.) Ncuti Gatwa – buff, dynamic, crackling with energy – often dances across the screen. He is rarely still but benefits whenever such moments come and the camera lingers in close-up on his piercing gaze. Then, he is the Time Lord. Millie Gibson has a different energy, refreshingly playing her age, but is required to flit from thoughts and responses almost beat by beat in the off-kilter pacing. In this fast 45-minute slot, the duo are constantly reacting. It's snap, snap, snap, in search of a rhythm. RTD is expert at setting up clues and threads. The snow from another time is eerie, while a “mystery woman” never fails to be intriguing and has served Doctor Who well for aeons – from River Song to Madame Kovarian, via Missy and Impossible Girl Clara, right back to Susan Foreman in An Unearthly Child. They are in the DNA of Doctor Who. Ruby, the cowled “mother” figure and the woman that keeps popping up played by Susan Twist (here a comms officer on a monitor) are the latest batch and presumably interlinked. You cannot fault RTD's audacity. Both launch episodes are bold, but each to their own tastes. For me, Space Babies is Diaper Who, whereas The Devil's Chord screams to be loved. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road ★★★★
A spirited reset as Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson encounter mischievous Goblins and Davina McCall
Story 303 2023 Christmas Special “Health and safety – gin and tonic division” – the Doctor Storyline Davina McCall is hoping to help teenage orphan Ruby Sunday trace her parents via DNA records, but in the run-up to Christmas 2023 both women are beset by a spate of increasingly dangerous accidents – caused by mischievous Goblins. Ruby befriends the new Doctor at a London nightclub, while at home her adoptive mother Carla is preparing to foster a baby over Christmas. When this newborn is abducted by the Goblins and taken to their ship in the clouds to be eaten by a Goblin King, the Doctor and Ruby race to the rescue. First UK broadcast Monday 25 December 2023 Cast The Doctor – Ncuti Gatwa Ruby Sunday – Millie Gibson Davina McCall as herself Mrs Flood – Anita Dobson Carla Sunday – Michelle Greenidge Cherry Sunday – Angela Wynter Denzel – Bobby Bradley Trudy – Mary Malone Abdul – Hemi Yeroham Ruth Lyons – Gemma Arrowsmith Goblins – Rachelle Beinart, Jess Judge, Dilu Miah, Giuseppe Lentini, Andrew Francis, Lukas Disparrow Crew Writer – Russell T Davies Director – Mark Tonderai Series producer – Vicki Delow Producer – Chris May Executive producers – Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson, Joel Collins, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter RT review by Patrick Mulkern I’ve never seen Doctor Who as an inherently Christmassy commodity, but others do and I’m delighted that, after a six-year lull, the show has regained its linchpin status in the BBC1 Christmas Day schedule and has the chance of a bigger audience. In The Church on Ruby Road the yuletide trappings are fairly minimal: a countdown to Christmas, a smattering of snow, a new companion born on Christmas Eve, and street decorations and a tree made deadly. Instead of elves toiling for Santa, a band of mischievous Goblins steal babies to feed their monstrous king. More importantly, this episode offers a soft reset, introducing the new pairing who’ll be fronting the series for the foreseeable future. We’ve already had a decent dose of Ncuti Gatwa (in The Giggle), and he is a bright new star – his own cosmos of charisma – while Millie Gibson displays confidence and innocence, a natural talent remarkable for an actor in her late teens. And she is tested in her first scene, a one-to-one with Davina McCall. Scripted interviews always have a whiff of artifice, no matter how off-the-cuff the participants aim to appear, and this is no exception. Filmed many months into the production schedule, The Church on Ruby Road finds Gatwa and Gibson having already established some chemistry, and future episodes should provide a few more sparks. Their initial encounter in a nightclub is certainly novel as Ruby spies the Doctor in a state of euphoria on the dancefloor, gyrating in a kilt to the sound of Touch by Hybrid Minds. You wouldn’t have caught William Hartnell doing that. Matt Smith, yes. It’s a distant echo of a clubbing scene early on in Russell T Davies’s brilliant Queer as Folk (1999). The series of accidents that befall Ruby and Davina provide amusement and a tinge of peril; they don’t add up to a whole lot of sense, and the Doctor’s explanation about a “tapestry” of coincidence somehow benefiting the Goblins is threadbare. The naughty Goblins are brilliantly realised, their baby-feasting antics lending a dark edge, and their much-vaunted song veering towards The Muppet Show. I have no idea what’s real, what’s puppetry and what’s CGI, which is as it should be, and the steer towards fantasy doesn’t bother me. The grounding of Doctor Who in humdrum reality is Russell T Davies’s forte and when Ruby’s foster-home set-up with mum Carla and gran Cherry starts to feel too perfect, too pleased-with-itself cosy, Davies opens a fridge door on their domestic bliss so that time is distorted, Ruby never came into their lives 18 years earlier, and Carla and Cherry’s outlook is much colder and harsher. Ruby joins a very long line of companions unencumbered by parents. Orphans in time and space, from Susan, Vicki, Dodo and Victoria in the 1960s, through to Amy and Clara of more recent times. So Ruby is no exception, although she is on a mission to find her mum and dad, who appear untraceable. It’s a mystery that will play out in weeks to come. Another, it seems, is the sudden uncanny wisdom of Ruby’s neighbour Mrs Flood, who interrupts the credits roll with “Never seen a TARDIS before?” Anita Dobson is a wonderful presence. I’ve adored her ever since her EastEnders heyday. I’ll never forget a moment at Elstree in 1986 when I held the canteen door open for Anita and, in full Walford drag (her not me), she flashed me a devastating smile and thanked me. I’d met Angie Watts! More Mrs Flood soon, please. Catch up on past episodes in the Radio Times Doctor Who Story Guide