Ruby Sunday

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Ruby Sunday
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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 her adopted grandmother, Cherry, for the better. Upon her nineteenth birthday, she and the Doctor defeated the Goblin King and his Goblins, preventing them from continuing to abduct the babies of the world. She then joined the Doctor in his travels, as things took an increasingly strange turn for her, both unsure of her origins before the night she was abandoned at the church on Ruby Road, and of the snow that followed her throughout space and time. Her travels with the Doctor soon culminated in Ruby finally being reunited with her birth mother. The Doctor left her with her family, promising that he would return for her.

In addition to the mystery of her birth, Ruby was also notably the subject of many alternate timelines, beginning with the timeline that was formed by the Goblins by travelling back in time and stealing her as a baby, and persisting with incidents ranging from an instance of the butterfly effect turning her into Rubathon Blue, to a timeline where the Doctor went missing and a mysterious woman would go on to follow her for the rest of her life after trespassing on a fairy circle.

Biography

Early life

The Fifteenth Doctor holds Ruby after saving her life. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])

Ruby was believed to be born around 2PM on 24 December 2004. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) Both of Ruby's parents, Louise Miller and Will Garnet, were fifteen years old at the time of her birth. Louise hid her pregnancy from an abusive stepfather, and did not tell Will that he had become a father. (TV: Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"]) Within the next few hours after Ruby's birth, her mother travelled to the church on Ruby Road, abandoning her outside in the snow. The Fifteenth Doctor then arrived in his TARDIS, having travelled back from 2023 to negate a cracked timeline where the Goblins stole Ruby before she could be found and ate her. The Doctor was successful in saving her, and left Ruby to be found by the vicar, 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)"])

The Doctor's memory of his visit to Ruby's birth changed on multiple occasions (TV: Space Babies [+]Loading...["Space Babies (TV story)"], The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]). He told Ruby "this fixed point on Christmas Eve is the wildest I have ever seen," and said "that night is so raw and so open, the last thing that I should do is take a time machine back there." (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

Growing up

Ruby was raised in Manchester, (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) specifically in Tameside, (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"]) and fostered by Carla Sunday, who often took in other children to simultaneously foster, but Ruby would be the only one she adopted. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) Around 2014, when Ruby would return from school, Carla and her girlfriend Clare played Clare's collection of Beatles albums. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])

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. Ruby considered the move to have been "tricky" and "expensive". (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) Ruby and her family lived through the pandemic, the recession and the Giggle together. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"])

At some point, when her friend Trudy's heart was broken by a girl, Ruby wrote a piece of sorrowful music for her. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])

Meeting the Doctor

On 1 December 2023, Ruby, having wanted to find the truth about her parentage, ended up on a television series presented by Davina McCall which attempted to reunite "foundlings" like Ruby with their families. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) Before going on the show, Carla told Ruby to not let anyone tell her story for her. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"]) While an interview for the show 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, (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) but found it was too personal to speak about how much she appreciated Carla. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"]) 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".

Following the interview, Ruby was befell by a long series of bad luck, such as losing £20, losing a job, breaking something and her heel, falling over in front of a "fit dentist", and having Bobby McGeever ask her out, causing Ruby to believe she was the centre of "a whirlwind of bad luck". On 22 December, she and her band played a gig at (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) the King's Arms. They performed "One More Sleep" (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"]) and "Winter Wonderland" until her musical keyboard stopped working, halting their performance. The next day, she nearly dropped her drink at a nightclub, only for the Fifteenth Doctor to arrive and catch it for her. She later left the club in a taxi, where her friends playfully called her a jinx.

On Christmas Eve, which was also her nineteenth 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 had not been able to trace her birth family. The Goblins then arrived to steal Lulubelle 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 gave her one of his intelligent gloves to help her hold on to the ladder. 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 feed her to the Goblin King. 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, but the Doctor managed to save her and kill the Goblin King, causing the Goblins to fade away. The Doctor then returned to 2023 to ensure Ruby had returned, and then went back to his TARDIS. Realising he was a time traveller, Ruby left Carla and entered the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])

Early travels

Her first trip in the TARDIS was 150 million years in the past of Earth, where she was worried about the Butterfly effect. This did briefly effect her, before the Doctor undid the effect and switched on the Butterfly compensation switch. The Doctor then asked her for a set of numbers, which he used as coordinates to travel to 21506. Here they discovered a space station piloted by babies. She told the babies a story whilst the Doctor investigated. She learnt from Jocelyn Sancerre that the babies where abandoned on space station, because there was a funding cut, but by law they couldn't turn off the parthenogenesis machine, which disturbed her as the future wasn't much different to her own. Trying to work out more about the Bogeyman, she was horrified that her story inspired one of the babies, Eric to be brave and try and stop the monster. She went to stop Jocelyn from evacuating the Bogeyman from the ship, removing The Doctor's sonic screwdriver from the controls. (TV: Space Babies [+]Loading...["Space Babies (TV story)"])

The Care Force arrests the Doctor and Ruby. (COMIC: Mancopolis (part one) [+]Loading...{"part":"One","1":"Mancopolis (comic story)"})

Arriving atop the Jason Orange Plaza in Mancopolis 2424, the Doctor and Ruby dodged being run over by a tram, only to be arrested by the Care Force for being "tram raiders". A weather orb, noticing they weren't smiling, began raining on them. After stopping the orb, the mayor of the city, Mary Mulberry, communicated to them via the windows of a tower which also functioned as screens, believing them to be auditors sent by the Galactic Central Exchange; she ordered Zhi, one of the Care Force, to bring them to her, and, on the journey to the Mancopolis City Hall, she explained to them how Mayor Mulberry saved the city and its population after the 2399 Event.

Entering the Mayor's office, the Mayor vocalised her belief that they had been a deliberate distraction to enable the Exchange to sneak an assault ship into the city, which she promptly had destroyed. She offered a negotiation, but, after realising they weren't non-humans since they weren't going shift into another form, she threatened to dismember one of them. As they tried to escape through a lift, she had the duo teleported to a dark space filled with "massive people-eating silkworms". (COMIC: Mancopolis [+]Loading...["Mancopolis (comic story)"])

Ruby in Wonder Central. (GAME: Wonder Chase [+]Loading...["Wonder Chase (video game)"])

The Doctor and Ruby travelled to Wonder Central, where they introduced themselves to an individual outside a shop and the portal to the Deep Space Zone. If the individual travelled to the zone, the Doctor and Ruby would be waiting, ready to help the individual search for stickers.

One such sticker depicted Ruby in front of the TARDIS, captioned "Time Will Tell". (GAME: Wonder Chase [+]Loading...["Wonder Chase (video game)"])

Ruby and the Doctor followed a noise through the Time Vortex, leading them to Dick Turpin’s execution in 1739. As Dick was attempting to escape, Ruby was mistaken for a co-conspirator but local guards but was freed after the Doctor used psychic paper to convince them she was undercover royalty. (COMIC: Untitled [+]Loading...["Untitled (FCBD2024 comic story)"])

Ruby asked the Doctor to take her to see The Beatles record their first album, as she had grown up listening to them due to one of her mother's girlfriends. She was disheartened to discover that the Beatles were making bad music, and learnt that all music was bad listening to Cilla Black and an orchestra record. She helped the Doctor investigate by interviewing John Lennon. The Doctor asked her to play one of her songs to give music to the world but this attracted the attention of Maestro. Ruby didn't believe their power, but was proved this when the Doctor showed her a ruined 2024. She was snatched by Maestro, who was hopping to take her music for their own consumption, however they weren't able to as the Carol of the Bells rang stopping this. Maestro sensed an old power of the Oldest One in her. Ruby then helped the Doctor in the music battle against them, but was trapped inside a cello. After Maestro was banished with the help of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Ruby joined the Doctor in singing and dancing with the locals. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]Loading...["The Devil's Chord (TV story)"])

Hearing the Doctor singing The Skye Boat Song, she left the TARDIS to find him only to discover him having stepped on a landmine. He asked her to find something heavy to help him balance on the landmine better and trick its sensors. After being slightly distracted at this new planet, she found what she thought was an urn. They discovered that it contained the remains of John Francis Vater. They listen to his AI hologram, before his daughter, Splice Alison Vater came wanting to see where her father was. Ruby physically tried to stop her getting to close to the Doctor due to the danger, pulling her to the ground. When an ambulance came to assess the situation, sensing combat she took Mundy Flynn's gun and started firing it indiscriminately. Mundy later asked her to shoot her on a low setting, but was shot fatally by Canterbury James Olliphant who miss-assessed the situation. The ambulance went to treat her, but discovering that Ruby wasn't ordained stopped treatment. Olliphant tried to overwrite the systems to allow her to be treated. She was eventually treated when the AI of Vater stopped the war, and forced the Ambulance to treat her. (TV: Boom [+]Loading...["Boom (TV story)"])

The Doctor landed the TARDIS on the South Wales coast, and was delighted that he was in Wales. He started to tell Ruby that he loved the Welsh but started to warn her about Roger ap Gwilliam, before realising it was a spoiler for her immediate future. Not paying attention he nearly walked into a fairy circle but Ruby stopped him. He then told her to not interfere with it as to be respectful. (TV: 73 Yards [+]Loading...["73 Yards (TV story)"])

She helped the Doctor investigate the man-traps in Finetime. She was able to get through to Lindy Pepper-Bean, and understanding social media more than the Doctor, knew how to talk to Lindy. She managed to persuade her to turn off the system briefly to show the danger she was in. (TV: Dot and Bubble [+]Loading...["Dot and Bubble (TV story)"])

The Doctor and Ruby attended a party organised by the Duchess of Pemberton. He gave her a pair of psychic earrings to help her be proficient at the dances performed at the ball. She attracted the attention of the Duchess due to her manor. After initially finding Barton attractive, she pushed of his advances finding them rude and off-putting. Ruby followed him and Emily Beckett watching their conversation, before accidentally attracting their attention. She consoled Emily after Barton telling her that there was more to life than getting married. She helped in the Doctor's and Rogue's investigations. Emily tried to cosplay as her, but Ruby fought her off with dancing, agility, and books in the library. Ruby then played along with the farce the Chuldur family was doing, but this lead to the Doctor thinking she was dead. After she was caught in his trap for the Chuldur, she convinced the Doctor that she was still her which stopped him from activating the trap. She was rescued from the trap by Rogue, after seeing the Doctor kiss Rogue. She then asked the Doctor if he would be able to find Rogue in the dimension he was in. (TV: Rogue [+]Loading...["Rogue (TV story)"])

She went with the Doctor to UNIT HQ, City of London to find more information about a woman they had seen through their travels. After Kate Stewart and Morris Gibbons told them about Susan Triad, she wondered if she might be Susan Foreman. She went with Rose Noble to collect a video tape of a CCTV footage from Ruby Road. Using UNIT's time window they observed the events around Ruby's mother to see if there was between connection to Susan and her mother. They weren't able to see her mothers face due to a glitch, but saw a strange cloud surround Colonel Winston Chidozie. She remained in UNIT when the Doctor went to confront Susan, but was told by the Doctor to return to the Time Window to protect her from the Manifestation of Sutekh. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])

She kept watching the window projection until the Doctor and Mel returned. The Doctor asked her to remember the TARDIS to help the Remembered TARDIS solidify. She then escaped with Mel and the Doctor in the Remembered TARDIS, helping them to stabilise it. She then asked about Sutekh and the Doctor's previous encounter. The Time Window then showed her memories of an alternate timeline upon hearing that the perception field was 73 yards, including the interview between Amol Rajan and Roger ap Gwilliam. This helped the Doctor realise that they could use his DNA programme to find Ruby's mother. She had the data with it on the screen from the remembered TARDIS, when Sutekh brought them back to UNIT HQ. She tricked him by smashing the screen stopping him from learning the identity of one of the people he couldn't kill. UNIT was able to to find out that Ruby's mother was Louise Miller, and the Doctor helped her meet her. She started to form a bond with her and UNIT gave her the information on her father. The Doctor left her behind so that she could learn more, promising to return. (TV: Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (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)"})

Other realities

Main article: Ruby Sunday/Other realities

A version of Ruby Sunday existed in the Daft Dimension. (COMIC: The Daft Dimension 600 [+]Loading...["The Daft Dimension (DWM 600 comic story)","''The Daft Dimension'' 600"])

Alternative life-paths for Ruby were also repeatedly spawned by various forms of time travel. In a "cracked" version of history, she was eaten by the Goblins as a baby, and consequently didn't exist in the 2020s; (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) In one version of history created by a literal butterfly effect, her equivalent was a reptilian individual known as Rubathon Blue. (TV: Space Babies [+]Loading...["Space Babies (TV story)"]) In one sequence of events, she lived out her life in the shadow of a woman standing exactly 73 yards away from her at all times, and brought an end to Roger ap Gwilliam's political career as Prime Minister. At the end of her life, she took the place of the woman, and appeared to subconsciously tell the main timeline's Ruby to warn the Doctor to avoid the fairy circle, averting this entire chain of events. (TV: 73 Yards)

Psychological profile

Personality

Ruby had an uplifting, bubbly and energetic personality and held a desire for adventure. (TV: Space Babies [+], Rogue [+]) 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 why they left her. However, when Davina's search for Ruby's family was in vain, Ruby expressed disappointment in having no other relatives. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]) During the interview with McCall, Ruby thought to herself about how, without Carla, she would have been lost, and that she loved her adopted mother "more than anything", but found it was too personal to speak about to Davina on-camera. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]) Upon moving to London, Ruby felt stranded and that she was waiting for her life to begin. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]) This contributed to her wanting to learn her birth mother's identity, with her thoughts on her abandonment as a baby weighing deeply on her. She was disheartened when the Doctor informed her he wouldn't take her back to the night her mother abandoned her. (TV: Space Babies [+]) Above all, she wanted to let her mother know that she was enjoying living life. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+])

Ruby was pleasantly surprised to discover that 2424 Manchester still used trams, but was less pleased when a living cloud began raining on her and the Doctor, as that too was familiar to her. (COMIC: Mancopolis [+]Loading...["Mancopolis (comic story)"])

Ruby became so close with the Doctor, she even took up a weapon and risked her own life to ensure he was freed. (TV: Boom [+]) She was visibly disgusted that the citizens of Finetime refused the Doctor's help because he did not fit in with their society, and she was appalled by their bigoted and arrogant attitude. (TV: Dot and Bubble [+]) She would even express this to men who belittled her, such as dismissing Lord Barton as a mere "stiltson" for his flowery comments about her appearance. (TV: Rogue [+]) She also had a compassionate side, feeling empathy and a desire to care for the lonely babies on Baby Station Beta, (TV: Space Babies [+]) also sought to comfort Emily Beckett when she was upset, (TV: Rogue [+]) and even risked losing her chance to find her mother so she can help defeat Sutekh for the good of all life including those not her kind. (TV: Empire of Death) She was protective of the children Carla Sunday fostered, acting as a supportive sibling figure. She instinctively sought to protect Lulubelle after the Goblins kidnapped her, even when faced with precarious and life-threatening obstacles. She also sassily confronted the Goblin King even though he mighta had her executed. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+])

Music was a core part of Ruby's personality. She enjoyed playing her keyboard and was in a band, expressing herself by writing and playing music for people. This ranged from public performances (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]) to more thoughtful instrumentals, reflecting her deep thinking and expressive emotions she conveyed through her songs. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]) She also loved Regency era music, expressing utter joy at being able to dance to it, especially in the Bridgerton esque setting. (TV: Rogue [+]) She used music to support people, whether with her friends overcoming heartbreak or to provide them a sense of joy. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]) She also saw dancing as a way to help her get over romantic failures, (TV: Rogue [+]) and partook in group numbers for the sheer joy of it. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+])

Skills

Ruby could play a GO:PIANO88 musical keyboard, and was the keyboardist in her band. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]) Her musical talent stretched to songwriting, Ruby able to compose a composition to help her friend Trudy get over her break up. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]) Despite some initial difficulty, she also proved able to improvise a song on the spot. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]) Ruby also had a good sense of rhythm, (TV: Boom [+]) able to sing and dance alongside Cilla Black (TV: The Devil's Chord [+]) and with various people at a ball in 1813. (TV: Rogue [+])

Ruby also had a connection to snow, which the Doctor surmised came from her birth. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]) When Ruby was in danger, snow would appear in the area, even in environments where snow was typically unable to form (TV: Boom [+]) Aware that she had this ability, (TV: 73 Yards [+]) Ruby could also instinctively summon the snow when frightened (TV: Space Babies [+]) or when talking about the night she was left on Ruby Road. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]) According to Maestro, her ability to summon the snow came from a hidden song within her heart, and prevented the entity from absorbing her musical spirit. (TV: The Devil's Chord [+])

Behind the scenes

Ruby Sunday in the Whoniverse ident.
  • Ruby was first mentioned in First Day of the Doctor [+]Loading...["First Day of the Doctor (short story)"], but her surname was obscured, having her name recorded as "Ruby S".
  • Ruby possesses a scar cutting through her right eyebrow, which 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's, where "foundlings", who have been abandoned at locations such as hospitals and churches, have had their parentage unknown and untraceable.[1] Long Lost Family (the television series implied in The Church on Ruby Road to be the one Davina presents) makes use of DNA searching, particularly in the special Born Without Trace, where DNA samples have been matched to relatives of a parent who have consentingly added their DNA sample to an online database, with further detective work afterwards being 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 doesn't work, just like in The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"].
    • Furthermore, the Doctor's scan of Ruby in Space Babies [+]Loading...["Space Babies (TV story)"] confirms she is human. Similarly, in the same episode, her stepping on a butterfly resulting in her existence being rewritten implies that her descent indeed originates from Earth.
    • Indeed, Ruby's parents being ordinary humans was explicitly confirmed in Empire of Death [+]Loading...["Empire of Death (TV story)"].

Merchandise

Other matters

External links

Footnotes

Sources

  1. ↑ Long Lost Family Press Release: ‘Born Without Trace’ on arielbruce.com
  2. ↑ Long Lost Family Special: Born Without Trace on itv.com via the Wayback Machine
v • e
Companions of the Fifteenth Doctor
Original to television
Multi-story
Single-adventure
Narratively ambiguous
If a medium is not mentioned, then this incarnation did not have companions who were original to that medium; it does not mean that this Doctor failed to appear in that medium.
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