The Church on Ruby Road

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@janetteb

September, Sunday, Munday, Tuesday… not really sure. Obviously it means something, or nothing. That is, it’s part of an (extensive) anti spoiler strategy. Make noise! Drown the detail.

No. Not all of it can have meaning.

But…

September 1963: ‘She Loves You’ released in the US. Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed… no more atmospheric tests. Upbeat! Common Sense! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

September 2005: Israeli withdrawal from Gaza!

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@janetteb

@ps1l0v3y0u

on the question of Susan Twist, everyone is focussing on the name Susan, but there is a very famous tale of an abandoned baby by Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist.

He is not abandoned in the same way as Ruby (as he is born in a workhouse, and his mother dies giving birth). But his identity (or evidence of his mother’s identity such as a blanket and a neckless) is stolen.

 

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

OK… returning to an earlier theme… stay with me on this…

Ruby Sunday… references the move of Zchib’s Who to that day of the week.

Munday (Flynn, Boom) & Marti (Bridges, 73 yards) = dies martis, the day of Mars, that is Tuesday… these are the two days of the week to which Doctor 5 was exiled.

Ricky September… I got quite excited by the idea that the autumnal Who series started with Trial of a Timelord followed by 7’s aborted tenure (and the Cartmel masterplan). It turns out Doctors 1, 2 and 4 all featured September stories. Oh well, ignorant as I am of much of 1, we also have Cybermen, The Mind Robber, Zygons, The Mandragora Helix, Rutans, Guardians (boo), Daleks, Foamasi and Argolins (one of my faves actually), or the Valeyard, the Rani (boo again), finally UNIT and all that Arthurian nonsense…??

Take your pick. Obviously, I imagined Russ was going all meta on us, and it was just be the V person. Still, interesting selection.

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@ps1lOv3yOu

Champion bonkerising!

Am I correct in thinking that the length of the Martian day is one earth day plus 37 minutes?

37…73?
Nah, I am sure I am wrong.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@blenkinsopthebrave

You say bonkers…

Sunday, Monday, Mardi/Matedi/Martes… surely no coincidence. This is about the show under attack from the corporation.

Saturday is named for Saturn, the Roman god of time, generation, dissolution, abundance, and periodic renewal. But there are also associations with Saetere a German deity possibly related to… Loki!

Going back to Doc 1, Galaxy 4 is a September story and you could equate the Finetime Flakes with the glamorous Drahvins in that they both subscribe to the fake cutie trope.

All but one episode was wiped but apparently the story was a dog.

 

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

Well, well. Doctor Who meets the Muppets.

The first quarter was definitely Christmassy, goodwill to all, with Doctor Who as a sort of Santa doing good deeds. All the (human) characters were believable and just nice, pleasant people.

Then we’re deep into Muppet territory with the goblins, or maybe it was more reminiscent of Labyrinth, though David Bowie was a far more personable Goblin King than Jabba the Hutt.

The Doctor singing his way out of danger, though – that’s a new one.

I’m fairly neutral about this episode – it didn’t really grab me, didn’t put me off. I could watch happily it again though I don’t really feel motivated to.

Ncuti Gatwa has enough personal magnetism to carry the role of Doctor. And Ruby seems adequate (we’ll see how she develops as a companion), though she doesn’t – so far – have the same level of individual character as (IMO!) Amy or Clara or even Rose 2 in Star Beast.   I notice Ruby did the standard walk-around-the-Tardis almost exactly as Rose (1) did two decades ago, I’m sure that was intentional.

So far so good, we’ll see how Episode 1 goes (The Church on Ruby Road was Episode 0, according to the DVD set).

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

Ok tis the season to get an earful… backward in time through 2nd tier xmas specials.

Church on Ruby Road; the one with the singing goblins.

Thesis… yeah you can have singing goblins. And a singing Doctor. And companion. It’s alright. A bit odd. But Chib had The Master grooving on down to Rasputin. Moff had Katherine Jenkins. Equally odd.

Context. I don’t really think Russ likes Christmas, it was always like a contractural obligation for him. Of course you’re comparing him with Moff, who (mostly) has it sussed. What do people watch at Christmas??

Invasion… the big movie

Voyage… disaster movie

Next… Christmas historical

End… nine lessons and carols??

Bride… undefinable… he hadn’t really established the pattern in 2006.

So Church would appear to ‘do’ the Christmas family musical except, of course, song and dance will reemerge in Devil and Lux. Add the off beat humour of Babies and the Eagle Annual design of Robot Revolution and fans start pointing fingers at Disney. It’s not popular. But curiously Russ gets the blame. It is actually done best here… but then it has the slightly desultory ‘feel’ of the other missteps and the out of control season ends.

Was it written in a rush? Was it hard to get the stars ‘onboard?’ Did Russ even sabotage the hypothetical Disney wish-list? It’s weird. And there is unrelated noise. And Russ, being Russ, is playing to the shouty gallery.

Song, dance, family fun and fantasy is not actually the worst thing about Church. Rather it’s the boring business of establishing the arc. Because this is all about Ruby who is an obvious metaphor for retelling of the main point of Timeless Children. Now, is it in fact Russ saying ‘you can’t DO it like that, Chris!’ Or ‘this was prime Cartmel 2.0 you idiot, and now I have to fix it!’ Though he would never say that for the sake of the show.

I’m not saying it shouldn’t be done… only that Russ doesn’t handle the process very well either. There are longeurs and laborious explanations that can only be there to establish the arc, but this is Christmas Russ! I ate too many nuts before midday and Grandma’s here. Light and frothy please.

Of course, it’s a nine ep series including the special (thank you again Disney). No days off.

It’s alright. Not a Moff special. Gatwa and Gibson may seem a bit awkward but then we’ve seen this process before… is that the source of the awkwardness? Better than Whitaker and Walsh!

The Mrs Flood epilogue is the intriguing part… in particular her reaction to The Tardis. Would grousing to the council official or dropping your shopping be the actual Rani’s reaction to a police box? It seems she IS the Rani (we know that now) but the bigeneration does pose the question, what does happen if you ARE two people? Might one of them be a surprise? Someone we recognise, but not in terms of THAT character?

[janetteB @janetteb]

I have typed out a response twice now and both times neglected to copy before posting and lost the post. Will I never learn.

I was commenting on the strong fantasy element in “church”. Though one could argue that Dr Who is fantasy it is very grounded in a kind of sci fi way. Any fantasy type episodes tend to have a “rational” explanation. RTD does give us the salt and mavity as kind of get out of Jail free cards but is not convincing enough to explain the sudden tilt into full on fantasy in this episode. I find it jarring.

So not my favourite christmas special but there are a lot of good moments so I really should give it another chance.

cheers

Janette

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@janetteb

yes. The only solution is to copy from pages

Anyway… love to read the full version.

I liked it. Xmas specials aren’t really Moff’s thing. Not a great rec for 2026…

[nerys @nerys]

So, the Season 1 DVDs finally arrived via my library, and I just watched “The Church on Ruby Road.” I’m very glad that I’d read the posts here, because I found the song-and-dance segments to be quite jarring. But at least I knew they were coming.

I would not have minded the dance club scene, as that was fairly natural. But to have the goblins singing and dancing, and then Ruby and the Doctor dancing and singing along? Bleh!

There was a lot that seemed to get thrown in to this episode. The best part, for me, was seeing the change in Carla before the Doctor went back in time to ensure that Ruby was, indeed, found at the church. It was sadly convincing as to how one small thing changes everything. This is something a series on time travel has the advantage of portraying.

I thought that Ncuti Gatwa was very good as the Doctor, though it feels like RTD is feeling his way as to who, exactly, this Doctor will be. Millie Gibson was an OK companion, but there didn’t seem to be much chemistry between Ruby and the Doctor. And, as Christmas specials go, this one wasn’t very memorable. That’s unfortunate, since it was part of the 60th anniversary.

On to the next DVD!

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys   Whoo!   You’re racing through the DVD’s, aren’t you?  Up to the Sutekh thing already.

I’ve been out of action (and mostly, contact) the last few days, since I munged my main laptop, the one with the DVD drive and my email client configured.   I’m just sorting a newer one (but I still have to configure the email, for now I just have to use my ISP’s webmail so I’m pretty out of touch).   Plus the water here is lovely (which is insane for November!) so I’m kinda busy.   But I did see a comment from you about 73 yards, so I resolved to binge-watch Season 14 and catch up.   But as you’re up to Sutekh, no chance.   Never mind, I can try to follow closely enough to follow your comments.

Yes, the song-and-dance was bizarre and incongruous.   I did find the change in Carla after Ruby disappeared, very disconcerting.   Overall, I didn’t hate the ep, didn’t love it, there was enough to keep me watching.

Herewith my brief comments –

That Christmas tree that lands on Davina reminds me of the berserk one that menaced Rose’s mum in an early nuWho episode. (Wasn’t that the one with the killer Santas?)

And baby getting abducted by goblins – this is straight out of ‘Labyrinth’. And the flying ship was reminiscent of Captain Shakespear’s lightning-catching schooner cutter in Stardust (though with a far less attractive crew).

I found the song a bit ‘off’. Also bizarrely incongruous (if that has any meaning in an episode like this). Of course the goblin song-and-dance is also out of Labyrinth, but nobody here has the charisma of David Bowie.    So then they sing to Jabba and the goblins sing along and they escape on a convenient rope.

Back in the flat – incredibly slow to notice that Ruby has disappeared. This Doctor is not really very sharp, is he? And it seems somehow Ruby has vanished from existence, could the goblins do that?

So the Doctor zaps back in time to rescue baby Ruby, and his gloves give him the weight to pull the goblin ship down? How? All they do is transfer his weight into one (or two) gloves, he said so.  And then after Jabba gets the jab and the ship disintegrates, the Doctor falls at least 50 feet and lands on his feet, without breaking anything. This is Kill the Moon levels of physical absurdity.

Anyway, we get the classic look-inside-then-walk-all-round the Tardis, just like Rose did.   So, happy ending (probably obligatory at Christmas, but I didn’t mind that).

[nerys @nerys]

@dentarthurdent Overall, I didn’t hate the ep, didn’t love it, there was enough to keep me watching.

Same here. I just felt they were trying to cram too much into one episode. Getting to know this Doctor a bit better, introducing Ruby and her family situation, plus explaining the goblins and the King Goblin … who did look an awful lot like Jabba the Hutt. (Disney owns the Star Wars franchise, so I guess they can get away with that.) And then, the song-and-dance numbers. Like, what am I watching?

Happily, things fell into place with “Boom”!

[Dentarthurdent @dentarthurdent]

@nerys     It just occurred to me that King Goblin (aka Jabba) was an acute case of ‘fat-shaming’.    🙂

‘Boom’ also had a song (though mercifully no dancing, what with landmines around and all…)

I’m pretty sure Who had songs on occasion before.    There was the Dickensian Christmas one with the shark.   And Rings of Akhaten.    And probably many others that I can’t bring to mind.

[ps1l0v3y0u @ps1l0v3y0u]

@dentarthurdent @nerys

Goblin King… NOT the Jagrafess??

Music… it was a thing. Then it went away. It’s as if Russ wasn’t really interested. Contractural obligation? Exhibiting to the Head of Drama the error of his ways? Like it will make a difference.

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