Oh, so we can call people fairies now? I wish I knew that before. Directed by Dylan Holmes Williams and written by Russell T Davies, it is a very Welsh episode from two men with very Welsh names. Williams is probably best known for directing several episodes of an Apple TV show called Servant, starring small-known actors Rupert Grint, Toby Kebbell, and Lauren Ambrose. Davies is best known (clearly) for “writing” an episode of the British game show Cluedo, from 1993. Obviously, Davies has done nothing more important or relevant.

Ruby and the Doctor step out of the TARDIS into a pentagram in medieval times, known as modern Wales. You know, where witches roam, spirits fly, ghosts haunt, and mobile banking is a mystery. It is an odd episode, and quite frankly it feels strange to say I’ve even watched it when it doesn’t feel like something you’ll understand at all on the first viewing, maybe even the second. “73 Yards,” or 219 feet for the Americans, is a continuation of that fantasy/mystery thing we’ve had going on, this time without Ncuti for about 90 percent of the episode.

After Ncuti puts his foot in the pentagram, breaking it, Ruby is left “alone.” From here on out she sees a woman standing, muttering something to herself 73 yards away. We don’t know what she’s doing, we don’t know what she’s saying, it is all designed to confuse and provoke that “something is off” bit of your brain. As an episode, it is a mystery-horror that isn’t finished. It is, but at the same time, it isn’t. The conclusion feels as though nothing actually happened. I’m trying to talk about this without spoiling it, which is difficult given the type of episode it is.

For some I think “73 Yards” will be their “Blink,” but I’ve got a feeling not everyone is sharing that thought at the end of the day. Personally, I love it… Well, until those last 5-10 minutes. It is nothing but a showcase of what Millie Gibson can do as an actor, and supposedly this was one of her first episodes, if not the first. It shows how a solid dialog script can benefit one performer and make them a star. However, it would be nice if the makeup/costume department understood the assignment for such an episode.

“73 Yards” is an episode where the companion is without the Doctor and grows old. We’ve seen those before, such as “The Girl Who Waited,” but nothing to this scale. I remember when Doctor Who had prosthetics and some proper “no, you are going to look older now” sort of makeup and overall design for these things. So how in the wholly living Christ is a teenager wearing hipster glasses and wearing a wig making her look like she’s 40? The same face, the same hair color, the same sweet-sounding voice, and the same everything after being harassed by this woman 73 yards away for 20 years?

I understand aging is more nuanced now than it was 30-40 years ago, but anyone 40+ claiming they look the same as they did in their late teens to early 20s needs to look at the front page of The Mail Online. I take that back, no one should have to look at that hive of scum and villainy degrading women’s bodies simply for aging. Nonetheless that itself proves my point. There are people vain enough to poke at people when they put on a little bit of weight, have a couple of wrinkles, and maybe have a natural grey/gray hair or two.

Stress plays a part in how we react and age, lest we forget this is an episode themed around a core principle of horror, the thing knowingly watching you from afar. I get that it is a more serious episode in the fantasy vein but at the same time I’m not asking for Millie to be given a prosthetic face like David was in “The Sound of Drums” and “Last of the Time Lords.” Parts of the show have aged terribly, but you can still do the Still Game aged look without looking like an old man’s appendage.

Another thing I noticed and maybe it shows my lack of trusting people not to throw their arms up, but Ruby calling Ncuti’s Doctor “the Black Guy” had to get at least a strongly worded tweet, right? Not because of his existence or anything, but the perception in some circles that somehow that’s the wrong thing to say. I’m trying to be very precise because I don’t want to give certain people ammo, but certain people believe there is only one vague (not always accurate) term or way of referring to someone who isn’t White.

It is a tiny part of the episode, but first off, there is no other way to talk about Ncuti as the Doctor when it comes to the most noticeable features. She does go on to mention his coat, but the first thing Susan Twist’s Hiker is going to notice is the Black guy standing around on these Welsh cliffs. Then she’s going to notice the loud coat that he’s wearing. The second point is directed at those “anti-woke” warriors shouting about the percentage of White people in the UK and how the character is ostensibly British. He’s playing a magical alien who has a near-limitless life-span.

These same people bang on about how it would be better with a White actor yet bemoan the writing as if that’s the fault of an actor’s race. He is a humanoid alien with a limitless life span in a science-fantasy-focused show that just so happens to feature a Black actor who is great at his job. Where he was born, where he was raised, and the pigmentation in his skin has nothing to do with the character, but how you react as a viewer (no matter how big or small his role is) says a lot about yours.

With “the Black guy” out of the picture, Ruby is left to figure out what is going on, making the episode as much of a mystery as it is a dark, fantasy horror. That right there is where I feel I’ve dropped off from the episode as a viewer and I think I’ve begun questioning it more than being kept in it. I also think that this is where I’ll be vaguely looking in the direction of spoilers but never directly giving them a full-focus view, thematically enough.

Ruby sends Susan Twist to talk with this woman who’s 73 yards away, in the rural Welsh pub a bloke heads home and talks to her, Ruby heads home and her mother offers to figure this out, and then Kate makes an appearance, and they all run away. They actively never want to be around Ruby, they never want to see her, and they want nothing to do with her. There is a constant uptick in “this is bad.” Ruby is alone and has nothing, she can’t focus on relationships and she can’t get close enough to figure out what is wrong.

There is a line from Kate about how “we see something inexplicable and invent the rules to make it work.” A great line that would almost pull the episode together if it weren’t a mystery as much as it was a horror. Horror allows for the unexplained to work because it is (most of the time) not about what is haunting you but how it is doing it and how it makes you feel. Mystery is all about what exactly is in the corner, what is in the distance, and what is causing this horrible thing to happen. With a mystery, there needs to be a vague explanation.

For the mystery to work for me, there needs to be an explanation and there isn’t really one in the episode. Now, could this be revealed later on down the line in the likes of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” or “Empire of Death?” Absolutely. However, everything else about this episode is fairly contained. Maybe we’ll get to see Roger Ap Gwilliams again, or we’ll vaguely hear about him when we’re in 2046. Otherwise, other than Susan Twist, it doesn’t seem there will be more references back here.

I quite enjoy “73 Yards,” it is a haunting and deeply emotional episode as Ruby is shut out and pushed away not just by Carla (her mum), but also by Kate. However, what I am stuck up on as a viewer is that I don’t think we’ve had anything revealed to us in the grand scheme of the story so far. We are in the same place we were when the episode started as we were when it ended, making me wonder why I should care so much about it in the first place.

This is why it is difficult to review. Neither character nor story seems to have been changed by the events of “73 Yards,” but I enjoy what it does while it is doing it. There is character, a sense of taking The Doctor at face value, and there is a sense of getting to know Ruby more here than we have in the last four episodes. I think what also deflates my opinion is Roger Ap Gwilliams is running for Prime Minister when there is massive inequality, the “cost of living crisis” is still going on, and all he cares about is getting to press the big red button.

As a character, he’s a great idea, an evil Prime Minister (I can get you a Rogue’s gallery of them), but at the end of the day, he’s spoken to. Or maybe rather spoken at? The trouble there is once again everything is a mystery. There are two scenes, one where a young woman called Marti is spoken to and seemingly hired, and the latter where Ruby is apologizing, “I wish I could have helped you. I’m so sorry.” Then there is the woman 73 yards away being brought to him, she says something, and once again the fact we don’t know what is being said.

I don’t want to know what he’s done to Marti. The insinuation is bleak and dark enough, I don’t need or want that clarified. What I do need a bit of clarity on this woman, this thing in the distance and her purpose, the thing that made her appear in the first place. What is her goal at the end of the day and was it achieved? Again, it is the ending or as I’ve said the lack of one that is striking to me. It almost puts me off of the episode by the end.

Ultimately, “73 Yards” is a beautiful character piece that shows off the magnificent prowess of Millie Gibson, which some might already know if they’ve seen Tony Marchant’s Butterfly. A deeply disturbing episode that can have you on edge simply waiting for the opening credits to come, nevermind its great camera work to make it more nerve-wracking. If only that last half wasn’t so quickly paced and we got a proper explanation of the mystery as we got an exploration of the horror.

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Doctor Who "73 Yards"

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Stand up Millie Gibson, you were perfect.
• Such a haunting and nerve-wracking episode.
• Anita Dobson.

Cons

• I'm still waiting for an ending to come around.
• That pacing towards the end.