Kate Stewart is a reoccurring character in Doctor Who and helped the Doctor countless times before. And also helicoptered the Tardis to London several times because he wouldn’t answer his phone. We love Kate lmao

Pretty sure that Roger ap Gwilliam assaulted poor Marti. It was a really good episode. Nctui Gatwa was filming Sex Education at this time.

This was the first story Millie Gibson filmed for Doctor Who.

"I am waiting for the tardis to speak" That episode already happened in the previous iterations, called "The Doctor's Wife" Season 6 episode 4!

"You must all be BAFTA winners or witches...". Dame Siân Phillips, who played the old woman in the bar, is indeed a BAFTA winner, and one of the UK's great actresses of her generation. I actually recognised her voice here before I recognised her face - that smooth purr, with just a hint of threat, is unmistakable.

Small thing to note: Ncuti wasn't on vacation for this episode, this was the very first episode the production team filmed for this season, mostly because Ncuti was filming Sex Education S4 at the time, and they decided to work around that by starting with the Doctor-lite story first.

In Doctor Who Land, these kind of episodes are called Doctor-lite episodes. The most famous one is "Blink" but there are others.

Packed full of Celtic folklore this one. The pub scene winding up the tourist with local ghost stories actually happens all the time, loved that scene. And you still see Fairy Circles undisturbed in the middle of farm fields in Ireland/Scotland/Wales - with dire warnings of what happens to anyone who damages one. Sometimes in the stories the fairy folk imprison the person who broke the circle, steal them into their Otherworld - and might release a soul in return... Kate Stewart is an old friend, her "X Files" military taskforce UNIT go all the way back to the Second Doctor's era in the 60s, they pop up from time to time and we're bound to see them again. Poor Ruby, "even your real mother didn't want you" damn. But Millie was fantastic, carrying this episode by herself.

Kate (the woman who said she could help who was with the army people) has been in Doctor Who before. She is in charge of a defence agency against the supernatural/aliens (stuff to do with the Doctor) called U.N.I.T, they will be back later this season.

Great reaction, thank you! This episode made me cry, but I find it difficult to put my finger on why. Maybe it's that abandonment and loneliness are such horrible things, but in the end, older Ruby kind of made friends with them, and accepted them, not as being right or fair, but simply as being part of herself, and there's a bittersweet beauty in that.

For context: UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce, previously known as United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) are a military organisation created by the United Nations to defend Earth from alien (and more recently, supernatural) threats, they've been in Doctor Who since 1968 and back in the 70s (or 80s depending on who you ask) the Doctor worked for them as a scientific advisor and back then UNIT were led by Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, he eventually retired and in 2011 passed away off screen (due to his actor's passing) and by 2012 UNIT was being led by his daughter Kate Lethbridge-Stewart who has been a recurring character ever since and has met *7* incarnations of the Doctor in that time, Kate initially dropped the Lethbridge and just went by Kate Stewart from 2012 until 2023 as she didn't want favours because of her family connection though she recently took up the Lethbridge once again and UNIT is a lot less hidden than they used to be!

The implication is that Roger was abusing Marti. Ruby apologised for not helping her sooner because she knew about it but HAD to wait for the exact right moment to stop him.

Have you noticed... the first woman who approached Ruby, with the walking stick, has been in every episode so far? Susan Twist... go back and look ...a cameo in every one!

Probably my favorite Doctor Who episode in years, this was fantastic.

THANKS for this!!! Your Patreon and other KZfaq commentators will fill you in about Kate, her father and UNIT. We Whovians cheered when Kate showed up because we thought all was going to be well now.....

tbh it was pretty dang bold of RTD to write another episode like this SO early on into a new era considering it took four whole seasons and the brink of a finale to get there last time! For a clean slate start for new viewers to jump in at, I was really surprised to see an episode like it that soon. Can't imagine what it must be like having this season be your entry point and experiencing Doctor Who at its most experimental and bleak literally four episodes in! Loving your reactions :)

"This timeline might be suspended along your event."

I came here faster than you can say 73 yards 😂

I love how scared you got in the hospital scene 😂 Cause me too, I was terrified to see her face if she turned around

butterflies, landmines, and spells! I wonder what the doctor and ruby will accidentally step on next?

When Ruby went back and warned the doctor not to step through the circle, she closed off that whole time loop and that line of history closed up. But that means that she never went through that whole process of preventing Roger ap Gwilliams from firing the nuke! So when the doctor talks about that event occurring in the future he is correct.

Great reaction! Kate’s father was in charge of UNIT during much of the classic era. Loved, loved, loved the classic fairy story! 💜💜➕🌈🟦

Absolutely adore this one. Doctor Who basically never does stuff like this specifically, but this episode might be my favourite episode of the show of all time (I need to send more time sitting on it to know for sure) It was the first story of the season filmed, while Gatwa was still wrapping up Sex Education.

Watch blink, another doctor lite ep, absolutely brilliant too… Millie’s acting in this was absolutely outstanding… DW, still after all this time can be fresh, scary, funny and just brilliant

Some of the best episodes are "Doctor Lite." Probably the easiest of those as a stand alone episode is "Blink" from Series 3. It was written by the same writer who wrote Boom.

So now I'm thinking. The people in the pub were joking. But they were joking that the local myths are true. But now they are.

You have better observations from this episode than most older Whovian fans. I like to see the perspective of a person that is new to the show. It's fresh because you take things as they are. But also don't overthink the episode. RTD is really known of misdirection so the best thing to do is to focus on stuff we fully understand in the episode. If you don't get some parts it's because the straight answer isn't there.

I don’t think anything that happened in 73 Yards was real. The whole episode was about Ruby and her fear of abandonment. Her life played out with everyone leaving her. It was never about “the thing” the old woman said to everyone. We often never hear the things that other people say to our loved ones that make them abandon us. It was also about her fear about never finding the answer to the question of her life. The confusion at the end where we the audience don’t get any answers and we have to create our own is a very important lesson about life. Abandonment is confusing, especially to the person who’s being abandoned. The episode conveyed that very well. Many times we wait our whole lives for answers that never come, and whether we like it or not, we have to find a way to be okay with that.

episodes with very little of the doctor have definitely happened before! they're called doctor-lite episodes, and there are a few episodes from rtd's original 4 seasons back in 2005-2009 with a similar premise. in reality they end up happening because of scheduling conflicts afaik? and they're almost always some of the best episodes of the show (apart from one notable exception in series 2 lol) and that likely comes from the fact that they give the companion, or sometimes other new characters, a chance to shine, and tell and a complex and interesting story that doesn't necessarily involve much of the doctor. there have also been a couple of companion-lite episodes, that focus on a story with just the doctor. one of the episodes often considered the best ever episode of doctor who by many fans is a doctor-lite (and companion-lite) episode from series 3, written by moffat, the same guy who wrote boom!

Loving your reactions so far! Especially because you offer a unique perspective as a completely new viewer.

😮 "Oh, bye" "No, no" 😂

THIS IS WHAT DOCTOR WHO IS ABOUT 🗣️

The landscape is indeed gorgeous.

you understood this episode better than i think most Doctor Who fans did lol. we're very used to the show being SciFi so adjusting to the idea of magic existing is still new to us - but I'm loving it. I haven't been this scared by an episode of Doctor Who since 2007 edit: if you get the chance, you should watch a series 3 episode called "Blink". You don't need to have seen any other Doctor Who to understand it and it's another episode where The Doctor is barely in it, it's terrifying

For us that know Kate, for her to be affected too and leave shows how fucked the situation is.

the goth kid, his comment about how he would be the first to go-the dialogue establishes that he's gay, so it was a bit of genre awareness on his part for how things tend to go in horror movies.

I really enjoyed this episode and the longer I sit with it the more I love it. Seeing how some people have interpreted it like JessieGender or a Reddit post from the past few days brought even deeper meaning. About how the Ruby saving the day wasn’t entirely the point, but learning to accept a part of herself and moving forward with her life. That the woman could be a stand in for mental health struggles for people. That what the woman was saying to people wasn’t as important as what happened after; that people fear a hidden part of themselves could drive people away from them. I’ve really enjoyed watching your reactions to and thoughts on the episodes. You’re quick to catch on to things, you seem down for whatever the show has in store for the story, and you genuinely seem to enjoy at least something from every episode without bemoaning the things that you may personally think could been done differently to better suit your tastes. It’s such a fresh viewpoint not only because you’re new to the franchise but because you seem to be having a good time without any harsh/unfair criticisms of the show. So really, compliments to you. An excerpt from the Reddit post I mentioned discussing this episode and mental health: “Sometimes we have things we carry with us for our entire lives, and while we spend time looking for a purpose or solution to it, the answer is to just learn to live with it. It sucks and its unfair, but its a part of you, and even if people come out of your life because of it, life goes on, and you can continue living, and even be happy.”

LMAO. I think my comment got deleted because I posted a link, but I was actually trying to give the credits to the person who made the theory of the episode. I just copied and pasted the theory now, no link, no credit, just feel free to read. To the person, who made this, I tried to give the credit to you, please know that lol. 73 yards spoilers Break a fairy circle, get yoinked by fairies. That’s what happened to the doctor. Yoinked out of the narrative. Everything else is Ruby. She had to make this make sense, she had to create rules to fix it. And she has magic. So she created a time loop and placed herself as the haunted one. She heard the doctor mention a prime minister that nearly started a nuclear war and then 30 seconds later read the name Mad Jack, so she creates that story. She feels abandoned her whole life so she subconsciously “pushes people away”; she’s created her own perception filter that convinces everyone that she is what she fears she is- an unlovable monster. The Woman perhaps was nothing more than that fuzzy filter (Carla says she is who she appears to be), which causes people to look at Ruby and then perceive her differently. But then, in an act of self love, she brings the story home by catching up with the time loop, expressing affection for her young self and seeing herself as she really is. She places her old self a few seconds before everything went wrong. It’s the equivalent of doing something dumb and thinking “man I wish I could turn back the clock 3 seconds” but she has magic so she can. Unfortunately she also has self image issues and she has to overcome them before she can help herself. I’ve connected the dots. I’ve connected them.

My favourite episode in Gatwa Era for now!

There is an over arching, but not readily apparent, very deep meaning to this episode. A comment in another thread offered the best notion I’ve yet read on the meaning of the mysterious old woman. Yes, she is Ruby’s ghost, but she also represents something much more terrifying than that. She is death, personified. Which is why she frightens away everyone who speaks to her. Her purpose for the audience is as a metaphor for the death which stalks us our entire lives. Just as it does Ruby in the form of the ghost woman. While our own death is rarely at the forefront of our daily human awareness, neither is it ever far away. You might say, that death is always 73 yards away. Close, but not so close as to be very clear. The best that any of us can do is to ignore our self-knowledge that we will one day, die. At one point, Ruby simply accepts the ever-present mysterious older woman as an inevitable part of her daily existence. Realizing, that there’s nothing she can do about her anyway. Until, Ruby is at the end of her life, and then that mysterious woman comes closer, and closer to Ruby. While in her last moment of life, in her nursing home bed, Ruby loses her anxiety, and embraces death with outstretched arms. All through life, Ruby feels alone and isolated. Finally, Ruby dies alone, as well. Something which happens to far too many of us. Davies’ screen play touches on that sad fact here.. Contrary to the suggestion by some haters that this episode is pointless, it rather, contains many worthwhile ideas and messages.The episode’s main fault is that it’s too ambitious for a one-hour TV show, which results in unexplained plot elements. For one thing, it is a story, within a story. The Mad-Jack part being the sub-episode. 73 Yards probably could have, and should have been made into a two-part episode. As for the time-paradoxes, those are explained by Tenant in the famous ‘Blink’ episode. Wibbly-Wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. In other words, don’t let such paradoxes interfere with the message of the story.

Congratulations on being one of my new Reaction Channel watches for Doctor Who

I love love loved this episode. So unique and one of the best in a while.

UNIT have been a part of Doctor who since the second Doctor Patrick Troughton in the 1960s when it was Kate Leftbridge-Stuarts Father Brigadier Leftbridge-Stuart who was in charge. He was always a very well loved character. Nicholas Courtney who played him died in 2011. Jemma Redgrave who plays Kate took over in 2012 with Matt Smiths 11th Doctor.

Very much looking forward to your video diving into Who connections and theories!

Kate and the pub gave us all the "hows" we need, it had nothing to do with the supernatural or any witchcraft or spells. Russel T Davies even said so in the behind the scenes. If you must have a practical explanation, landing the TARDIS's perception filter on a fairy circle causing Ruby's perception of herself to come to life and haunt her is plenty. It's the same as the salt between universes from Wild Blue Yonder that caused everything this season, bc like Doc and the old lady in the pub both said, the clifftop is a liminal space between the land and the sea, where the rules don't apply. The episode was somehow still entirely sci-fi, just like past "meta-story" bits like The Bogeyman, and I find that impressive. More importantly, that means we can toss that to the side, bc the only thing that actually matters is what it teaches us about the characters, like with Ruby's fear of abandonment (semperdistans. The Woman keeps everyone away from Ruby because of her own perception of herself, including the Doctor) and what one might do when you never receive the closure you expected. We got plenty of closure with the ending of the episode, people who say otherwise are trolling, the point is that during her journey, Ruby did not. That's why Roger ap Gwilliam is such a simple character who had nothing to do with anything supernatural, and why defeating him didn't stop Ruby's situation. The important thing is that Ruby was convinced it would. That she had a purpose here. (they straight up tell us to our face TWICE that the moment is purely symbolic) This is also why The Woman very explicitly is NOT Old Ruby, they aren't even the same actress. (check the credits or behind the scenes, Old Ruby is Amanda Walker, The Woman is Hilary Hobson) The snap back to the present is the first time Ruby actually reaches out to The Woman instead of chasing her or staying away (i also wonder if the time added up, 66.7 meters = 66.7 years? would be fun) When it comes to potential future threads related to this, i really don't think it makes sense to expect the finale to fully spell out the message and meaning of this episode, that's not necessary at all. But I do think this helps tease a greater context for later, since it seems like they're hinting at The Oldest One being a Pantheon member that's a living story, and has powers based on that, just like Toymaker and Maestro. Given that the memory of that Christmas straight up changed itself during Space Babies, and that the unique musical cue played in that moment was also played here when The Woman finished the circle and allowed Ruby to warn her younger self through her body instead, I wouldn't be surprised if the living story is Doctor himself. It would fit with The Timeless Child and what Toymaker said as well, but that is definitely still a bit more out there. Whatever story they are in could reasonably have given Ruby her powers too. I'm reminded of how tv-static or interference is often referred to as snow, and Ruby makes it snow whenever she starts to think too much about her mysterious origins

I love this ep too. This is one of the better eps in a long while. A lot of stuff is left open for interpretation but perhaps we might get some answers at the end of the season when Ruby’s origin is revealed.

Two potential influences on the plot of this episode that occurred to me are the nature of the villain in Ursula K. Le Guin's novel "A Wizard of Earthsea" and the central concept of the 1895 short story "The Mysterious Card" by Cleveland Moffett (no relation to Steven Moffat). "The Mysterious Card" is available on Moffett's Wikisource page; like "73 Yards," it's the kind of story that will haunt your dreams.

New New Who, new reactor, new subscriber. This long time Whovian is looking forward to going on this journey with you

I will never get tired of watching people getting their minds well and truly blown for the first time by my favorite show of all time 🥹❤️

Kate has met 7 of the doctors on TV, and her father, the brigadier , has met 6 of them (7 depending how you count dimensions in time) on screen

Ugo, I am impressed. you sussed out the strategy Ruby would use to get rid of the bad guy, and you tuned in to the whole thing so well! Your instincts are sharp. I wonder if you would you make a good companion? Hmm. In truth, there are things we are not meant to know about - dreams and mysteries! The writer allows space for us to fill in those spaces, and what really counts here is the courage of Ruby to doing the right thing. The tale is an allegory of good and evil, and Ruby came through. I think it would be a fool’s errand to worry over what was being said to the people that the distant figure met - safe to say, it must have been employing the most disturbing thing that would affect them. Just a brilliant episode. I hope that somehow, Ruby is strengthened by it, even though it seems she won’t remember.

Great reaction, loved it!!🔥❤️

"Everyone's so concerned about the weather". Yep, you get that a lot in Wales.

great reaction - new subscriber as a result!

So, to answer your question about companion agency, it really depends. Sometimes, they get to be fleshed out people who are involved and save the day. Sometimes, they really only exist to get saved and ask questions. It was particularly bad for a bit in the 70s and 80s. Now, though, people are used to companions who can step up in their own right. We've even had ones who could fly the Tardis.

Great reaction mate x

Such a great episode! 😊👍

Since you wanted to do a deepdive and this is such an amazing episode for interpretaion just a quick hint: there are a few parallels to an older episode with a villain that is part of the pantheon (like the toymaker or maestro) so there might be hidden influences from another entity who might or might not have started the timeline with the doctor being gone in the first place. also I just checked and the woman in the bar made an appearance in a dr who spinoff years and years ago. I knew I'd seen her before...

This whole episode I kept waiting for Captain Jack Harkness to be the 'Mad Jack' just cos of the name lol (he's a character who's human but can't die cos Rose, the 9th and 10th Doctor's companion, saved his life using the Tardis energy but she couldn't control it so he's immortal. Even got his own spinoff called Torchwood which is not family friendly like Doctor Who, I love Torchwood)

"We see something inexplicable and invent the rules to make it work." Kate Lethbridge-Stewart

Okay so it was a good episode but it was also creepy even though im used to the creepy stuff the ending cleared that up but hopefully the next episode will be less creepy having seen the little bit at the end of this episode about the next one it looks like fun

It looks like you started on Church on Ruby Road. If you haven't yet, watch the 3 specials that are on Disney+ The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, and The Giggle. They feature the previous Doctor and an old companion but they give some context to what is happening this season.

are you planning to go back and watch any of the older stuff?

Pleeeeease!!!! Watch the specials! You wont miss things like who Kate is (among many other things), don't wait until the end of the season!! 🙏

Not sure you're ready to dive this deep into the rabbit hole of Doctor Who lore & wacky fan theories, but whether RTD intended it or not, this mystery of the Old Woman 73 yards away bears some striking similarities to a similarly frustrating, inadequately explained mystery from the Classic Doctor Who era, namely The Watcher from the Fourth Doctor's last story, Logopolis. Numerous times throughout that story, the Doctor and/or his companions notice an indistinct white figure off in the distance, just watching them. It's just a white human shape that never approaches or does anything until the very end of the story as Four lies dying on the ground, at which point it shows up, approaches (when we can see it doesn't have any features like eyes, mouth, face & in fact looks a bit like a wrapped Egyptian mummy), and actually lays down and merges with The Doctor, at which point he finally starts regenerating into Five. As this is happening one of the companions says "It's The Watcher, it was The Doctor all along!" but there's never any further explanation to this and of course this odd "Watcher" thing features in no other regeneration we've seen before or since. Could this be evidence of the fan theory that Ruby is somehow connected with the Timelords via the doctor's granddaughter Susan, and that it might have even been Susan who left her at the church as an infant? Does it mean that The Watcher merging with the Fourth Doctor at the "end" of Four's life was closing off some other Alternative Time Loop that we never got to see? And as much of a fan of Classic Who as RTD is and as much as The Watcher vaguely resembles the Old Woman here, would RTD really want to intentionally dredge up this weird, not-particularly-well-regarded loose end from ancient Who History and try to re-interpret it into his version of Who mythology when his main goal with this soft reboot and resetting from "Season One" is supposedly to present a new, modern, self-contained version of the show to the wider streaming world for them to jump onto *without* feeling they have to delve into 60 years of idiosyncratic, often self-contradictory lore to understand what's going on? All I know is that trying to connect this story to The Watcher really answers nothing and in fact just leads to a whole host of new questions, now about two entirely different Who stories. And yet the connection seems so tantalizing...

I'd like to see harry Edward melling or ty tennant play next doctor because they are grandchildren of peter davison and patrick troughtion after ncuti leave the show?

Someone in another reaction said something about, the old Ruby didn't say anything, it was just they saw Ruby and noticed something. But I'm not sure. My question is, WHY, why are they just noticing this now. Especially Karla who has had the better part of 18 years with Ruby. and that Echo, "Don't Step" did make it seem like she was actually saying something but what, and if it was old Ruby, WHY does she want to isolate her younger self. Especially when Karla and Cherry are so intagural parts of her life. AND MY FINAL QUESTION. HOW? How did old Ruby time travel? Was it supernatural, does Ruby have an innate ability she doesn't know of yet? Overall, to me, the concept was interesting but I think. it would have made much more sense if they had played it kind of how they did it in the "god Complex" where it was a creature or entity, playing Ruby's fear. Which is where I THOUGHT the episode was going. Now, it could be a "Turn Left" scenario where the Bug actually came from the future and and so does whatever they notice on Ruby..... but even that, in this context, I just don't feel like it works. Also, IF the Doctor was effected, why was the TARDIS not, it just sat there for 80 years.... This was a bottle episode and thats all I will remember it as. A bottle,. throw away episode. I don't want to be harsh, but to me, this was another good example of message vs story "Nuclear War bad." Okay good enough, lets move on.

Please start the 2005 series!! U can’t miss out on that, so many iconic moments, it’s on Max, or bbc I player, And Kate shows up a lot in it starting from series 7, in that series, and SO FAR, that show is FAR better than this one

I didnt like this episode because it has so many plot holes and paradoxes and things that just dont add up. Then i had to remind myself rtd isnt writing science fiction anymore hes writing fantasy and thinks that means that it doesnt need to make sense. But it still doe.

It’s one of those episode that try’s to look smart and wants to get you thinking! But it’s actually just BS writing

It was so crap 💩

9:43 I am sorry, but what the fuck are you blaming Ruby for? SHe did not break it, or anything. My goodness, why is this guy just so annoyed at her everytime?