*Ruby-related spoilers*
I’ve held off on writing any Characters/Relationship posts for the Fifteen era. First, I like to do a Character Highlight or Favorite Characters write-up once a Doctor or companion’s time on the show is finished, and after season 1, I wasn’t sure if Ruby was gone-gone or if we’d still be seeing her around—guess we answered that one! And after season 2? I don’t know, maybe I’m still in denial. Especially since things are still kind of up in the air after the series 2 finale and we don’t know how long it’ll take before we get the next season, I guess I’m not ready to accept that anything is finalized. Maybe by the time I finish another round of episode reviews, I’ll be ready for another one of these.
In a way, Ruby follows the templates for companions from RTD’s first run on the show, as well as Moffat’s tenure. She’s an ordinary young woman living in London, and we learn about her home and family along with her. In her introductory episode, we meet Ruby’s mom and grandmother and see pictures of the many foster siblings she’s had over the years. We also learn about her search for her birth parents, which is where the personal/familial RTD side dovetails into the Moffat mystery box side. In Ruby’s case, her birth parents seem supernaturally impossible to track down, and there appears to be something very strange about the way she was left on a church doorstep as a baby. A mysterious robed figure was at the church that night, and when Ruby thinks about her birth mom and her feelings of abandonment, snow begins to fall and she hears “Carol of the Bells.” It all adds up to a big old mystery for her and the Doctor to solve! (But in my opinion, the resolution on that one isn’t very satisfying.)
But even if some of her plotlines don’t fully land, I still like Ruby a lot. She’s a musician who cares a lot for the people in her life, she has a spark of joy at seeing and exploring new things, and she powers through when she’s confronted with something terrifying. I like that she’s been knocked down by a number of things in her life but still finds optimism and good nature—she has a hopeful spirit that’s very fitting for a companion. She also has a good, compassionate heart that wants to help others. And while I’ve heard arguments that the instant-besties dynamic between Ruby and the Doctor is too unrealistic, I enjoy them together too much to have a problem with it. Besides, if I met the Doctor, I’d want to be instant besties with them too!
Ruby has the distinction of being the first former companion to be brought back to star in the season’s Doctor/companion-lite episode, a terrific idea that the show should most definitely use again. It’s really interesting to watch Ruby in her post-TARDIS life. She’s working on moving on and being present where she is on Earth, she’s still involved in investigating alien shenanigans via UNIT, and while she certainly misses the Doctor and traveling with him, she’s also reckoning with the negative parts of that experience. I appreciate that she acknowledges that she thinks she has PTSD—hopefully Mel or Kate have told her about the companion support group! Additionally, Ruby plays a big part in the season 2 finale, and while I like a fair amount of what they do with her there, her appearance ultimately rubs me the wrong way, albeit through no fault of her own. Moreover, it's to do with how Belinda is sidelined while Ruby is given much more to do.
One more gripe, although this isn’t Ruby’s fault either: RTD, stop having Carla disown her daughter in alternate timelines challenge!!! Seriously, what on earth is up with that? I can understand that 1) Ruby’s number-one fear is being abandoned, so it hits her especially hard and 2) it’s supposed to be unsettling because it’s so unlike the Carla we’re introduced to. The trouble is, this extreme plot device is used in an entire third of Carla’s episodes on the show, so every time we turn around, she’s devastating Ruby. And along with that, I feel like RTD didn’t at all consider the dynamics of a young white woman with a Black adoptive family when he was coming up with these numerous cruel “twists.”
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