The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)

The Church on Ruby Road

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The Church on Ruby Road
Novelised as:	The Church on Ruby Road
Doctor:	Fifteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Ruby
Main enemy:	The Goblin King
Main setting:	Manchester 2004, Notting Hill Christmas Day
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies
Director:	Mark Tonderai
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Story number:	304
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	25 December 2023
Premiere networks:	BBC One, Disney+
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Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	The Giggle
Next →	The Devil's Chord
Christmas Specials
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Festive Specials
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The Church on Ruby Road was the 2023 Christmas Special and opening episode of series 14 of Doctor Who broadcast on 25 December 2023.

It was the first full episode to feature the Fifteenth Doctor, as played by Ncuti Gatwa, and introduce audiences to Ruby Sunday, the new companion, played by Millie Gibson, concluding the sixtieth anniversary year with the start of a brand new era, officialising the reboot of the series number.

This is the second time since the 2005 relaunch of Doctor Who that a Doctor's first full post-regeneration story was a Christmas Special, following the Tenth Doctor in that year's The Christmas Invasion ^[+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"].

The story marked the return of the Christmas Specials to televised Doctor Who, having been absent since 2017's Twice Upon a Time ^[+]Loading...["Twice Upon a Time (TV story)"].

Synopsis

Long ago on Christmas Eve, a baby was abandoned in the snow. Today, Ruby Sunday meets the Doctor, stolen babies, goblins and perhaps the secret of her birth...

Plot

Stand well clear, Jo!

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On the 1st of December 2023, a series of accidents - caused by tiny, unseen creatures - plagues Ruby Sunday’s interview with Davina McCall for a television show. Davina is offering to help her find her birth parents, since she was discovered as a foundling outside a church on Ruby Road. A light nearly falls on Ruby, ending the interview early.

On the 23rd of December, Ruby suffers more accidents at a gig played by her band, and then when she is driving home a large Christmas decoration nearly falls on her taxi - all caused by the same creatures. The Doctor see these incidents and saves her by altering a traffic light with his new sonic screwdriver. He also goes dancing in a night club where he briefly meets Ruby, telling her she’s not clumsy before disappearing.

On Christmas Eve, Ruby’s adoptive mother Carla fosters a baby, Lulubelle, which she leaves in Ruby’s care while she goes to the shops. Ruby gets a phonecall from Davina McCall with the news that they couldn’t find any trace of her parents, but Davina also asks if she’s been having bad luck, as she’s been plagued by it since the interview. Her call is cut off as a Christmas tree falls on her. Meanwhile Lulubelle is kidnapped from Ruby’s flat by the creatures, which turn out to be goblins. Ruby chases after them, climbing onto her roof and grabbing a ladder floating in midair as it drifts away from the house. The Doctor bounds over rooftops and chats to her. Then, he leaps and grabs the ladder, joining her. He reveals some black gloves that light up yellow, which enable one to convert all their mass and weight (mavitational field strength multiplied by mass) into the gloves. The pair ride the ladder up to its point of origin - a huge flying airship.

Inside, they crawl through some wooden vents and discover a horde of goblins. The baby is on a wooden conveyor belt, being carried towards a goblin king with a humongous tongue. The goblins sing about eating the baby. The Doctor uses his newly-determined dexterity with ropes to cut the ground beneath him and Ruby, making them plunge onto the conveyor belt, which ceases to move henceforth. There, the Doctor and his new companion have a song, which the goblins find interesting, and the Doctor explains his plan via his lyrics, referring to a master knot.

Escaping from the goblin horde, the Doctor and Ruby return to the flat, baby safely recovered. Then, Ruby disappears. The Doctor returns to the fridge, seeing that the entire life of Ruby has vanished. Many of the Christmas lights have been removed from the flat and there is a generally unhappy atmosphere to the place.

The Doctor travels in time and arrives at a church. He climbs to the roof and grabs a ladder, dangling off an airship. Using his powerful magnetic gloves, he hoists the airship down, causing the spire to slice through the goblin king. Having saved the baby, the Doctor takes off in the TARDIS to return to the present to find all is well.

Ruby ascertains that the Doctor can travel through time via his reference to the often-mentioned Houdini, and rushes downstairs and out of the house. She finds the TARDIS and enters. She then leaves, walks around it and returns, to find the Doctor, leaning on a rail a little higher than the console. He claims his title true.

Soon after the pair depart, Mrs. Flood breaks the fourth wall and remarks "Never seen a TARDIS before?"

Cast

• The Doctor - Ncuti Gatwa
• Ruby Sunday - Millie Gibson
• Davina McCall - Herself
• Denzel - Bobby Bradley
• Trudy - Mary Malone
• Woman with Pram - Belinda Owusu
• Policeman - Barney Wilkinson
• Mrs Flood - Anita Dobson
• Abdul - Hemi Yeroham
• Carla Sunday - Michelle Greenidge
• Cherry Sunday - Angela Wynter
• Ruth Lyons - Gemma Arrowsmith
• Goblin 1 - Rachelle Beinart
• Goblin 2 - Jess Judge
• Goblin 3 - Dilu Miah
• Goblin 4 - Giuseppe Lentini
• Goblin 5 - Andrew Francis
• Goblin 6 - Lukas DiSparrow

Uncredited cast

• Baby Ruby Sunday - TBA
• Ruby Sunday's mother - TBA
• Lulubelle - TBA

Crew

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Joel Collins and Phil Collinson

Series Producer   Vicki Delow

Written by Russell T Davies	Produced by Chris May	Directed by Mark Tonderai	Director of Photography Miroslaw Baszak	Production Designer Phil Sims	Visual Effects Automatik VFX
Make-up Designer Claire Williams	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Pam Downe	Edited by Rebecca Trotman BFE	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  Title sequence by Painting Practice & Realtime Visualisation  Music conducted by Alastair King  •  Music performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales

General production staff Executive Producer for the BBC - Rebecca Ferguson Production Executive - Steffan Morris Co-producer - Ellen Marsh Line Producer - Mark Devlin Production Manager - Adrian Devane Supervising Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Manager - Baljinder Sidhu Assistant Location Manager - Alex Moore Production Co-ordinator - Sandra Cosfeld Script department Script Editor - Scott Handcock Assistant Script Editor - Rasheed Bello Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Gareth Tandy 2nd Assistant Director - Lauren Pate 3rd Assistant Director - Jennifer Day	Art department Costume department	Make-up and prosthetics Movement Stunt Co-ordinator - Derek Lea Stunt Performers - Jessica Barfoot, Nikita Mitchell, Paul Joseph General post-production staff On-line Editor - Christine Kelly Special and visual effects Additional VFX - Egg VFX, BBC Wales Graphics Sound

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

Worldbuilding

Ruby Sunday

• Ruby plays a GO:PIANO88 musical keyboard and is in a band.
• Ruby was born on Christmas Eve, almost 19 years ago, probably around 2PM.
• Ruby declined going out with Bobby McGeever.
• Ruby has a good relationship with her mysterious neigbour Mrs. Flood. Another neighbour is Abdul.
• Ruby lives in a flat with her adoptive mother, Carla; and Carla's elderly mother, Cherry.
• Over the years, Carla has managed to foster 33 children and still keeps in touch with some of them.

The Doctor

• The Doctor has invented "Intelligent Gloves" because he spends a lot of time hanging off things. They do need to be recharged after usage.
• The Doctor jokes he wishes he was called Lulubelle because it is a brilliant name.
• The Doctor quickly learns the language of the Goblins, and he already knows how to "speak" the rope language.
• The Doctor has once spend a "long, hot summer" with Harry Houdini, who taught the Doctor how to untie himself.

Notes

"Season's Streamings" promo image providing the story's title.

• The title of the story was officially announced by the official Disney+ Twitter account in a "Season's Streamings" promotional image on 6 November 2023, ahead of any BBC announcements.
  • This marks the return of the Christmas Specials; in the installment of Russell T Davies's column Letter from the Showrunner printed in DWM 585, Davies had stated that a "Christmas Special" would be returning as the format of the first full episode of the Fifteenth Doctor's tenure, although clarifying that he considered the term to be synonymous with the Festive Specials. The Disney+ announcement clarified that The Church on Ruby Road will be a traditional Christmas Special.
  • The first BBC acknowledgement of the title came in a press release on doctorwho.tv on 30 November 2023, revealing minor plot and casting details.
• The preview of this episode released in DWM 598 revealed a teaser of the plot and a snippet of dialogue between the Doctor and Ruby.
  • This preview also revealed Ruby would be part of a band.
  • Davies's A Letter from the Showrunner column printed in DWM 598, styled as a Doctor Who-themed "The Twelve Days of Christmas", revealed that scene eleven's stage directions began inside the TARDIS control room.
  • The interview with Michelle Greenidge and Angela Wynter in that issue contained further details about Ruby: she is a keyboardist; she is homesick for Manchester, having recently moved into Cherry's flat in Notting Hill with her mother Carla; and that she was a day old when she was abandoned on Christmas Eve.
• Parts of the script of this episode were used in auditions for Ruby Sunday; the script for self-tapes from potential actors were truncated from the scripts of this episode and the next, and the longer script for in-person auditions in London was adapted solely from this episode.
• The non-fiction feature The Next Doctor ^[+]Loading...["The Next Doctor (feature)"] — published in Doctor Who The Official Annual 2024 on 7 September 2023 — teased the casting of Dobson and Greenidge; the feature also hinted that the doors in the promotional images may have significance.
• The Church on Ruby Road will be the first time in the revived series that a Doctor's first Christmas special does not include "Christmas" in the title, following The Christmas Invasion ^[+]Loading...["The Christmas Invasion (TV story)"], A Christmas Carol ^[+]Loading...["A Christmas Carol (TV story)"], and Last Christmas ^[+]Loading...["Last Christmas (TV story)"].
• At sixteen days, The Church on Ruby Road will mark the third shortest gap between a regeneration story and its followup, behind The Power of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["The Power of the Daleks (TV story)"] at seven days and The Twin Dilemma ^[+]Loading...["The Twin Dilemma (TV story)"] at six days.
• "The Goblin Song" is an original song for this episode. It was released ahead of the episode on 11 December 2023 with proceeds going to Children in Need.
  • The short story A Message from Janis Goblin ^[+]Loading...["A Message from Janis Goblin (short story)"] was released by BBC Studios on 14 December 2023 to celebrate success of the song in the charts, also revealing the name of the singing goblin as Janis Goblin, a play on Janis Joplin.
  • The episode will also contain a rendition of "Carol of the Bells".
    • Davies clarified on Instagram that the goblin would be named "Janice" by the Doctor, as she resembles Janice from The Muppet Show.
  • Pixie Not is a pun on pop singer Pixie Lott, Ralph McTelf is a pun on folk singer-songwriter Ralph McTell, Bryan Fairy is a pun on pop-rock singer Bryan Ferry, and Gob Dylan is a pun on singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.
  • While other original songs have been released with actors in character as the Doctor (MUSIC: Who is the Doctor?), this episode marks the first time both an incarnation of the Doctor and a companion have performed a musical number onscreen.
• Davies felt inspired by the door opened by the inclusion of the Toymaker in the preceding episode The Giggle ^[+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"] — as he deemed the Toymaker to be a fantasy character — so decided to include goblins, a traditional element of fantasy stories. He also sent the script to former showrunner Steven Moffat, who had a surprised realisation about the unused potential of the species within Doctor Who.
• This is the first episode that does not credit a white male performer as a regular cast member. Although William Hartnell was absent from Mission to the Unknown, he still received credit for contractual reasons.
• This is the first episode since Village of the Angels to include a mid-credits scene, and the first Christmas special since Last Christmas to include one too.

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

• Notting Hill - Clifton, Bristol
  • Minto Road - Frederick Place, Bristol
  • Forbridge Street - Wetherell Place

Ratings

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• Ruby Sunday was first mentioned in the short story First Day of the Doctor ^[+]Loading...["First Day of the Doctor (short story)"], a story which contained a tantalisingly obscured snippet of the Fifteenth Doctor's diary.
• This is not the first story to depict a companion written by Russell T Davies being part of a band; Mickey Smith was part of the band No Hot Ashes, as revealed in his novelisation ^[+]Loading...{"noital":"1","1":"Rose (novelisation)","2":"novelisation"} of Rose ^[+]Loading...["Rose (TV story)"], although this connection was not present in the original episode.
• The Doctor is shown using psychic paper, which debuted in The End of the World ^[+]Loading...["The End of the World (TV story)"], and a new sonic screwdriver, which debuted in The World Tree ^[+]Loading...["The World Tree (audio story)"].
• Ruby remarks that the Doctor appears to move so fast that he has teleported. The Twelfth Doctor similarly displayed a seemingly magical ability to teleport, as seen in TV: Listen ^[+]Loading...["Listen (TV story)"].
• This story marks the first time the Doctor is seen wearing his new clothes, as he only wore part of the Fourteenth Doctor's clothing earlier when last seen in The Giggle ^[+]Loading...["The Giggle (TV story)"].
• The Doctor recalls how he is still learning the "new science" that Ruby claims is magic, recalling how the Fourteenth Doctor accidentally made previously mythical occurrences and creatures, like the goblin's existence and ability to time travel, possible when he cast a superstition at the edge of the universe during the events of TV: Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"].
• "Mavity" is still a word instead of "gravity", as revealed when the Doctor explains his new gloves. The Fourteenth Doctor accidentally caused the title mavity to replace gravity in TV: Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"].
• The Doctor mentions learning he was abandoned, as shown in TV: The Timeless Children ^[+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"]. He remarks that he was also adopted, indicating his connection to Tecteun, who was seen in Survivors of the Flux ^[+]Loading...["Survivors of the Flux (TV story)"].
• Minto Road isn't original to this episode, as it was first mentioned by Mickey Smith in 2005's The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]. The pizza place mentioned by Mickey in that episode is even indirectly seen, as Cherry has a flyer for it on her fridge.
• The Doctor once again mentions meeting Harry Houdini, having claimed to have met and learned escapology from him before in TV: The Highlanders ^[+]Loading...["The Highlanders (TV story)"], Planet of the Spiders ^[+]Loading...["Planet of the Spiders (TV story)"], Revenge of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Revenge of the Cybermen (TV story)"], Planet of the Ood ^[+]Loading...["Planet of the Ood (TV story)"] and The Witchfinders ^[+]Loading...["The Witchfinders (TV story)"].
• When Ruby is erased from reality, the Doctor displays an ability to remember her despite others seemingly forgetting her. The Eleventh Doctor displayed this ability when Rory Williams was erased from existence in TV: Cold Blood ^[+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"]. He once remarked this was because he was a complicated space time event that granted him unique immunity to such effects so long as it did not affect his own timeline in Flesh and Stone ^[+]Loading...["Flesh and Stone (TV story)"]. Similarly, Carol cries when the Doctor tries to make her remember Ruby; Amy Pond also forgot Rory, but still had a residual awareness of him that caused her to cry upon the Doctor and Rory's Auton form pointing it out to her as displayed in TV: The Pandorica Opens ^[+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"].

Home media releases

to be added

Gallery

Main article: The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)/Gallery

External links

• Official The Church on Ruby Road page on doctorwho.tv