*Premise spoilers*
Watching the previews last week, I wondered how the Doctor and Belinda were going to end up with Ruby, since they’re currently having trouble getting the TARDIS near present-day London. Well, I’ve got my answer: they don’t. Doctor/companion-lite episode! But the show has taken a new tack with it this time, centering the story around a former companion who’s still trying to readjust to regular life.
Ruby meets Conrad through his podcast—as he explains, he’s been obsessed with the Doctor since a brief chance encounter with him as a child, and meeting Ruby is his first chance to glimpse what’s behind all the mystery. As Ruby opens up about her experiences and tentatively gets back into dating, she and Conrad face an alien threat without the Doctor there to save the day.
That summary is kind of lacking, but there’s a lot of stuff about this episode that I don’t want to get into yet. I’ll save it for some post-season spoilery writeups. Speaking more generally, I’ll just say that I enjoyed the episode. It takes some good twists and turns, and as with “73 Yards” last season, Millie Gibson does a nice job anchoring the episode (with some assists from the UNIT crew!)
We’ve certainly seen returning companions before, from both classic and new Who, and the notion of a companion struggling to get back into civilian life is a familiar one. It was the main premise of “School Reunion,” which basically kicked off The Sarah Jane Adventures, and “The Power of the Doctor” gives us a full-fledged companion support group. But as I said, a former companion has never been the star of a Doctor/companion-lite episode before, and it’s a great notion—I’m surprised it took us 20 years into new Who to get here!
I adore Belinda, but it’s lovely to see Ruby again too. And while I’m a little disappointed that Ruby doesn’t get to reunite with the Doctor or meet Belinda here, it’s neat to see her more on her own. She’s done a reasonable job getting back into the swing of normalcy—perhaps because she left the TARDIS at a time when amazing things were happening in her regular life—but she’s still had some trouble. She hasn’t had many people she can talk about her travels with, which is part of the reason she’s drawn to Conrad, and while she’s tough and capable when a crisis hits, she realizes that she’s still dealing with lingering trauma from her time with the Doctor. “Every day is like fight-or-flight, and I’m just waiting for something to go wrong,” she admits.
Conrad is played by Jonah Hauer-King, who I loved as Prince Eric in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. A Doctor-obsessed podcaster is certainly a departure from an adventure-seeking Disney prince—between Ariel and Ruby, Ariel gets the better deal! It’s an interesting performance, because I’ve seen how charming and warm Hauer-King can be, and Conrad is almost impressively rizzless. He comes across as an eager nerd who’s comically hapless when it comes to flirting—when he first asks Ruby out, it takes her a second to realize what’s just happened. And of course, the start of their relationship is inextricably tied to the Doctor. While Ruby sort of latches onto Conrad as someone who doesn’t think she’s mad when she talks about the Doctor, Conrad is preoccupied with the role Doctor had in Ruby’s life, wondering if he can do the same.
Good appearance from UNIT. On the sci-fi front, there’s a pretty decent plot, and I also like the way Kate supports Ruby as a former companion. Plus, multiple Brigadier references! In my perpetual state of rewatching Who, I’m currently in the Third Doctor era, and I squeed when I saw the Brigadier’s picture on Kate’s desk.
The Doctor bookends the episode. He’s joined by Belinda in the beginning, and at the end, he drops in to deliver what might be the episode’s best acting, giving us a hell of a speech. I will never stop singing Ncuti Gatwa’s praises for this role, he’s just fantastic!
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