How Ncuti Gatwa Made His True Debut in ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special

[This story contains spoilers from the Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.”]

For the first time since 2017, The Doctor and his TARDIS land on Christmas Day. It’s an important date in the Time Lord’s calendar, racking up 14 special-length episodes for Doctor Who since its 2005 revival.

And this time, there’s time-riding, baby-eating Goblins to deal with.

Russell T Davies, the showrunner who has returned to helm the iconic BBC series (now streaming on Disney+) after over a decade away, had also introduced the concept of “the Christmas Special” in 2005 — with a 60-minute installment that would lean heavily into festive fun and snowy shenanigans.

After a six-year break, Davies has brought the much-loved event back. Fans around the world enjoyed “The Church on Ruby Road” on Christmas Day, which saw the full-episode debut for the Fifteenth
Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, and introduced new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).

The story centers around Ruby, who was abandoned as a baby on Christmas Eve and adopted by Carla Sunday (Michelle Greenidge). Jump forward to the present day where Ruby is featured on a genealogy television show that wants to track down her parents. She then begins to run into a heap of bad luck and meets a handsome new stranger, The Doctor.

After their initial dalliance in a club, the two meet up again in hot pursuit of a baby-stealing Goblin (a baby that Ruby was looking after). This leads the pair to the Goblin Ship (a rather impressive CG affair) and the Goblin King, who is about to eat said baby. Unsurprisingly, and perhaps thankfully, Christmas does not result in the horrific death of a baby on Disney+. The Doctor swashbuckles in and brings home the baby.

However, this leads to further problems as he discovers these Goblins can ride time, and they do just that resulting in the change of the present — with Ruby removed from the established timeline and her family with no memory of her.

The levity and brightness of the episode evaporates almost immediately. Loving, lively and caring Carla, who had fostered 33 children, turns in an instant to a woman beaten down by life who only takes in babies, or “little brats” as she calls them, from time to time; and only for the money. She’s dead behind those once vivacious eyes.

It’s a terrific performance from Greenidge (Ricky Gervais’ Netflix comedy After Life and Russell T Davies’ It’s a Sin), who handles both versions of her character so well that her dramatic volte-face is shocking and deeply affecting. Her return to form in the denouement was heartening and a relief.

Similarly, Gatwa’s debut is one to remember. The Rwandan-Scot brings an urgency and sexiness to the role, handling the lighter moments (such as the line, “I am learning the vocabulary of rope!”) just as stoutly as the action scenes. His joy at meeting the Goblins, who most assuredly want to eat him, and simply beaming with a gorgeous smile, “Hiya!”, is a very Doctory thing to do. The knowing arrogance when he proclaims, “Time travelers are great!” is also very Doctorish.

Anyway, it’s Christmas and we know The Doctor will save the day and, of course, he does. Popping back in time, he thwarts the Goblins’ plans and offs them in an unexpected style.

Now, we have some questions…

* Will the identity of Ruby’s mother be revealed?
Much was made of the woman who abandoned Ruby on the steps of a church and those who were expecting an end-of-episode reveal were left disappointed. We did learn that no DNA traces of her parents were available on any database — a most unusual situation. Could her parents not be of this Earth? For the time being, her identity remains unknown. But, this being Doctor Who, we have a feeling this particular question won’t remain unanswered.

* Is there a musical episode to come?
Music has been such an integral part of Doctor Who and here we have the ultimate moment: The Doctor himself actually singing in an all-out showstopper.

Yes, we’ve had characters dance and mime along to pop hits (usually, The Master) and we’ve even witnessed original songs performed by characters, such as: “The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon” in the First Doctor serial, The Gunfighters (1966); “My Angel Put the Devil in Me” in Tenth Doctor outing Daleks In Manhattan (2007); and “Long Song” in The Rings of Akhaten (2013) featuring Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor.

But, here we have The Doctor and Ruby both joining in with Janis Goblin (no, really) in the original composition, “The Goblin Song.” Composed by the show’s maestro Murray Gold with lyrics by Davies, it’s a stand-out moment and can’t help but evoke memories of another fantasy classic, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986). It’s already gone down well with fandom so, could this encourage the production team to embark on a musical episode?

Musical episodes have become very much a thing nowadays with Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Once More, With Feeling” starting a renaissance of the genre in 2001 with shows like Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy and Schitt’s Creek following the trend. Most recently, Star Trek spinoff Strange New Worlds indulged its audience with some crazy cosmic crooning in 2023’s, “Subspace Rhapsody.”

Curiously, Davies revealed in Doctor Who Magazine that the second episode in the new season will be titled, “The Devil’s Chord” (which is a bona fide musical term — if you’ve heard the opening bars of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” you’ll be familiar with the discordant sound). Perhaps this could be it? We do also know that The Beatles and their recording studio Abbey Road will be making an appearance in 2024. A Whosical featuring The Beatles? Sounds like the fans would come together for that one.

* Who is Mrs. Flood?

Initially, Mrs. Flood would appear to be just a normal neighbor. Nothing unusual about her, until we see her sitting down to enjoy the TARDIS dematerializing. Something that most humans would balk at.

However, not for Mrs. Flood. In fact, at the end of the episode, she says to her understandably shocked neighbor (who also witnessed The Doctor’s ship disappearing), “Never seen a TARDIS before?”

And, if this wasn’t enough, she looks directly down the camera and winks. Mrs. Flood is clearly someone to be reckoned with, and undoubtedly will make a return. But is she a familiar character in the Whoniverse? (Time Lords change their appearance quite regularly.) Or, is this a new friend/foe for The Doctor? Names have often hinted at deeper connections and meanings in Doctor Who (see Melody Pond and River Song, for example) — is there a clue here?

Mrs. Flood is played by Anita Dobson, who will be known to many in the U.K. as she made a name for herself as alcoholic landlady Angie Watts in the BBC’s long-running soap, Eastenders. An accomplished stage actress, Dobson is also married to Brian May, guitarist for rock outfit Queen (who’ve had a number of songs feature memorably in Doctor Who, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Don’t Stop Me Now”).

* Can we see more of the “Disco” Doctor, please?
More of a request than a query to be honest, but the vest and kilt combo is a fashion choice that Barbie would approve of.

For The Fans:
• This episode opens with narration from The Doctor himself. Very unusual but not unheard of: see 1976’s The Deadly Assassin (starring Tom Baker in the lead role) and the 1996 TV movie co-produced with Universal Studios (with Paul McGann behind the dials of the TARDIS).

• Davina McCall previously lent her voice to Doctor Who in “Bad Wolf,” the penultimate episode of the 2005 season. She played a deadly robot version of herself far in Earth’s future (the year 200,100 to be precise) though still presenting reality show Big Brother. Davina uttered the immortal line, “The Doctor, please leave the Big Brother house,” to Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor.

• The Psychic Paper is back! First introduced in the 2005 episode “The End of the World” (though, was referred to as just “slightly psychic” back then), this handy bit of paraphernalia acts, usually, as an ID and lets whoever sees it see what its owner wants them to see.

• There’s a new Sonic in town. Or, to give its full title, the Sonic Screwdriver. It’s not uncommon for the incumbent Doctor to have their own unique version of the device which has helped out the Time Lord on so many occasions through the years (except when it can’t if the script calls for it). It’s been a staple of Doctor Who since its debut in 1968 with the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton). Eschewing its classic “screwdriver” style, the Fifteenth Doctor’s Sonic is a more slick and circular affair. If you can translate the Gallifreyan writing, you’ll spot that the inscription says, “the sharpness of the tongue defeats the sharpness of the warrior.” This is a proverb from Gatwa’s country of birth, Rwanda.

• While The Doctor was dealing with a deadly, falling snowman, eagle-eyed Whovians will have noticed a store named “Howell’s” in the background. It was first seen in the introductory episode of the 2005 revival, also written by current showrunne Davies. Ninth Doctor companion Rose was employed in the store.

• Mavity returns. In the second of the 60th anniversary specials, “Wild Blue Yonder,” we saw history changed when the Doctor and Donna inadvertently caused Isaac Newton to discover “mavity” instead of “gravity.” While introducing the concept of his Super Gloves to new companion Ruby, the Doctor states they contain all the, “mass and density and mavity.”

• The Goblin King is killed in a similar fashion to the Great One / King Vampire in the Fourth Doctor adventure, State Of Decay (1980). The former is pierced through his chest by a church spire, whereas the latter is pierced in the heart by a spaceship, which isn’t dissimilar in appearance to a church spire.

• The Doctor tells Ruby he recently found out that, just like her, he was adopted. In the 12th season finale, “The Timeless Children,” viewers discovered that the Doctor was abandoned on a remote planet and adopted by a Gallifreyan scientist. However, Whovians will remember two things:

1. The Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), in the 60th anniversary special “The Giggle,” stated he’d made a “jigsaw” out of the Doctor’s history. So perhaps this is part of the puzzle. Could it simply be a fabrication?

2. Doctor Who is notable for the numerous times the show has disregarded its own history and contradicted itself, so let’s just see how this flies for the time being.

***

Doctor Who is produced by Bad Wolf with BBC Studios, for BBC and Disney Branded Television. Executive producers include Davies (writer and showrunner), Jane Tranter, Julie Gardner, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson.

“The Church on Ruby Road” is currently available to stream on Disney+ (excluding U.K. and Ireland). New episodes of Doctor Who will be available in the spring of 2024 and will stream globally on Disney+.