Ruby Sunday
Ruby Sunday was a companion of the Fifteenth Doctor.
Abandoned as a baby by her mother, Ruby was soon fostered, and then adopted by Carla Sunday and raised alongside other children that she fostered, developing a protective personality and changing the lives of Carla and Cherry — her grandmother — for the better. Upon her nineteenth birthday, she and the Doctor defeated the Goblin King and his goblins, preventing them from continuing to abduct and eat any more babies. She then joined the Doctor in the TARDIS.
Biography
Early life
Ruby was believed to be born around 2PM on 24 December 2004. Within the next few hours, her mother travelled to the church on Ruby Road, abandoning her outside the snowy building. The Fifteenth Doctor then arrived in his TARDIS, having travelled back from exactly nineteen years in the future to negate a cracked timeline where the Goblins stole Ruby before she could be found and ate her. The Fifteenth Doctor was successful, and left baby Ruby to be found by the priest, restoring the original timeline.
She was named Ruby after the road the church was located on. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Growing up
Ruby was raised in Manchester and adopted by Carla, who often took in other children to simultaneously foster. Ruby did her A levels, but her results were negatively affected by moving from Manchester to London, into the flat belonging to Cherry Sunday because of her declining health and refusal to move to Manchester herself. Ruby considered this to have been "tricky" and "expensive". (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Meeting the Doctor
More specific names and dates should be added into this section, and her motivations should be touched upon.
On 1 December 2023, Ruby, having wanted to find the truth about her parentage, she ended up on a television series presented by Davina McCall which attempted to reunite "foundlings" like Ruby with their families; while an interview was being filmed, Davina told Ruby about how there was no guarantee her family could be found and Ruby told her about her adoptive family, however filming was cut short when a heavy studio light nearly fell on Ruby and an electrical plug ricocheted against the back of Davina's head, as the goblins began to weave bad luck into Ruby's life, having sensed a "chance of coincidence".
Later, on 22 December, while playing in her band, her musical keyboard stopped working, halting their performance. The next day, she nearly dropped her drink at a nightclub, only for the Doctor to arrive and catch it for her. Then, unknowingly, an inflatable snowman nearly fell on her and her friend's taxi ride home — again saved by the Doctor.
On Christmas Eve, her birthday, Ruby learned Carla was fostering a new baby, Lulubelle. While Carla went out to buy items for her, Ruby received a phone call from Davina giving her the news that they’d not been able to trace her birth mother or father, or any relatives. The goblins arrived to steal the baby from Ruby. Ruby chased them to the roof, grabbing the ladder that was suspended from their ship to follow them. As it drifted away from the house, the Doctor bounded over and leapt onto the ladder with her. He gifted her intelligent gloves to help her hold on. However, the goblins captured and tied them up once aboard. While tied up, the Doctor informed her the goblins were time riders, "bimbling" on Ruby's timeline to create seemingly coincidences to then capture Lulubelle and eat her. Working together, the pair escaped and freed Lulubelle, returning her to the house before Carla returned.
However, the goblins then "bimbled" back to 2004 to steal Ruby as a baby instead, the Doctor intervening to prevent this occurring. He returned to the present to ensure she was okay then returned to his blue box. Realising he was a time traveler, Ruby left Carla and entered the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Legacy
After their first adventure together, the Fifteenth Doctor mentioned Ruby in his diary, as he recounted his early exploits. (PROSE: First Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...{"page":"31","1":"First Day of the Doctor (short story)"})
Psychological profile
Personality
Ruby was protective of the children Carla fostered, acting as a supportive sibling figure. She instinctually sought to protect Lulubelle after the goblins kidnapped her, even when faced with precarious and life-threatening obstacles.
She was also comfortable with her abandonment, embracing the term "foundling" upon Davina McCall's usage of it. However, she did seek out her biological mother and father, if only to understand the truth behind it all. However, when Davina's search for Ruby's family was in vain, Ruby expressed disappointment in having no other relatives.
Upon moving to London, Ruby felt stranded and that she was waiting for her life to begin. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Skills
Ruby owned a GO:PIANO88 musical keyboard and played it in her band. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes
- Ruby was first mentioned in First Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["First Day of the Doctor (short story)"], however her surname was obscured.
- Ruby, and/or Carla and Cherry Sunday, is potentially vegan, as a bottle of Heinz Vegan Mayonnaise is seen in their fridge; however, as Ruby was seen bringing eggs home amongst her shopping, it seems that at least one of the Sundays is vegetarian.
- Ruby possesses a scar cutting through her right eyebrow; this is a real scar actress Millie Gibson received as a child.
- Davina McCall, in The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"], tells Ruby that no matches for her DNA sample were found in the available databases. While some have speculated online that this means Ruby is alien or from another point in time, it should be noted that the United Kingdom National DNA Database, for example, uses only samples from convicted criminals.
- In the real world, there have actually been cases highly comparable to Ruby Sunday's, where "foundlings" on Long Lost Family (the television series implied in The Church on Ruby Road to be the one Davina presents) have been abandoned at hospitals and churches, thus leaving their parentage unknown and untraceable.[1] Despite DNA searching being a powerful tool in the recent special Born Without Trace, this relied on DNA samples being matched to a relative of a parent who have consentingly added their DNA to an online database, with further detective work be required to find a parent;[2] if the parents have no relatives, or those relatives haven't submitted their DNA to an online database, then DNA searching obviously won't work, as shown in The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"].
Merchandise
- Titan Merchandise, for MCM Comic Con, released an exclusive t-shirt, sweatshirt, cup and coaster using a promotional picture of Ruby Sunday. These were later sold by Forbidden Planet.
- A poster of Ruby was included with Doctor Who Magazine #598.
Other matters
- A clip of Millie Gibson as Ruby was used in the Whoniverse ident released on 31 October 2023.
- Various pieces of fan art of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby were shared by the Official Doctor Who Twitter account under the #FanArtFriday and #DWFanArt hashtags.
- The baby who played baby Ruby in The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"] was uncredited.
Footnotes
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