DID IT SUCK? | Doctor Who [73 YARDS REVIEW] 

I don’t think it’s a dream at all

How on earth did you come to the conclusion this was a dream.

Take a shot every time geezer wrongly asserts this is a dream

The dream idea really holds this review back, I don't think this is the main/proper interpretation, it's an alternative timeline not a dream.

This is the weirdest interpretation of the episode I have seen since the episode aired. How did you get the to the idea that it was all a dreamstate and Ruby was just dreaming?

Pretty sure it wasn’t a dream. That would also require Ruby to dream that her and the Doctor would be arriving on a cliff in Wales, and that the fairy circle existed prior to her having any knowledge of it. Definitely wibbly wobbly timey wimey shenanigans.

I like how despite the episode leaving it open enough for interpretation, nearly all the comments are in agreement thag this was not a dream.

There isn't a dream episode. because Ruby's memory is altered after the event is resolved.

You never actually explain why you think it’s a dream

I'm really not sure how, even after Kate Stewart (a character Ruby has never met or heard of) talks about *this* timeline, you still think it's a dream? In this, the show about time travel and timey-wimey stuff, your default answer is it was a dream. Come on, my brother ahahaha.

It wasn't a dream, but a separate time line

I'm not sure where you're insistence that it is a dream comes from. In my understanding this season of doctor who as gone into a more fantasy route since the doctor spilt the salt at the edge of the universe. To me it seemed like the fairy circle was powerful in its own way and banished the doctor with ruby taking all this time to get back and warn herself by seeing the figure (herself) before they break the fairy circle. I think that also ties into the PM plotline as the power that they both have is the power people believe they have.

I interpreted it as an alternate timeline forged by a schism in reality seen as black magic rather than a dream. Interesting take still.

It’s not a dream, it’s an alternate timeline. Also in response to people claiming Ruby didn’t stop Roger Ap Gwilliam due to the time reversal, she did. The Doctor mentioning Roger toward the end of the episode happens when future Ruby is still haunting young Ruby, before she tells the doctor not to step on the fairy circle. Once young Ruby changes time by getting the doctor to not step on the fairy circle, Roger Ap Gwilliam is never mentioned again. He was stopped and Mad Jack remains sealed in the circle.

How did you manage to make 73 Yards more confusing than it already was?

Here's my interpretation of what happened: The Circle has a self defense mechanism, a way of stopping itself from ever getting broken. It does this by creating a splintered timeline around the breaker of the circle with the absolute worst life they could ever imagine with all their fears coming true. For Ruby its her fear of abandonement and people leaving her for seemingly no reason. It gives her this life and then at the end of her life has her go back and stop herself from ever breaking the circle. The reason we never know why people run is to feed Ruby's trauma of not knowing why she was left as a baby. The reasons we cant see the old womans face even through cameras is because its Ruby's only companion in life and its "always distant" feeding her loneliness even more. The reason the Doctor disappeared and the tardis didn't is because as another breaker of the circle he also went through his own 73 yards storyline where even the tardis abandoned him. One of the best episodes of the show ever. Up there with Blink, Midnight, Turn Left, Heaven Sent.

The whole 'dream' reading feels a little too certain on your part.

I've never heard someone refer to a paradox time loop/stream as a dream so frequently before...

I’m pretty sure this was not a dream. More like what happened in Turn Left

I mostly enjoyed this episode because The Doctor and Ruby both touched grass after stepping out of the TARDIS!!! ❤

Wow, you didn't understand the episode at all.

"I think this timeline might be suspended along your event." This line *alone* means it's not a dream. It's a parallel timeline. She stepped on a fairy circle, and they punished her. She earned her freedom by preventing Mad Jack from rising to power. I'm actually curious where Harry got the dream idea from.

what gave you the impression that this all occurred in a dream? it's an alternate timeline surely?

So glad all the comments are what they are, I was lost watching this review and was thinking am I seriously the only person who understands this episode and how good it actually was? Thankfully all the comments agree hahaha

Did nobody on patreon tell you how insanely wrong your dream interpretation was? Like you got through three stages of production, script, audio, and video and not one person was like "hey dude, you're misinterpreting the core of the episode"

This was more of a Turn Left scenario than anything else, not a dream.

Was it ever stated that this was a dream? I thought its a parallel timeline like Donna's in Turn Left mixed with a Curse like Clyde's in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Then again, I suppose this could be one of those episodes like Midnight where folks could to their own separate conclusions. ☺️

I never viewed it as a dream sequence, not that it makes much sense as reality, doctor steps on a fairy circle and is fine until he's just gone, then ruby is followed by a future version of herself, uses this 'supernatural' being to stop a nuke happy prime minister, gets old, goes back in time to become the woman in the distance, but also present day ruby now has a little bit of sub concious knowledge of whats gonna happen.... is roger still stopped, did just her conciousness get put into the future, is his a dream or an alternate timeline (which is what i'd say based on some things like kate being unknown to ruby), but i'd say the episode was great until the timeskipping started happening, and then was good until we got to old woman ruby

I saw this episode as a paradox timeline where - because the conversation that the doctor had at the start changed due to ruby’s interference in the future essentially created a loop with 2 outcomes.

You're honestly the first person I've seen that thinks that this whole episode was a dream - no idea how you even got to that conclusion and ran with it for an entire review, but okay 🤷‍♀

Don’t know where you’ve got the idea that it’s a dream from, but the impression I got was it’s an alternate timeline - hence why unit and Kate featuring makes sense

I fear you may be the only one who interpreted it as a dream. To me it's just another timeline, akin to Turn Left.

It’s not a dream, it’s a closed time loop

yep, you have to be a really eagle-eyed viewer to notice there was no title sequence this time. only the biggest brains notice that.

It's not being presented as a dream. Also we don't know how many adventures Millie has had with the Doctor by this time so it is possible she's met Kate before. There is a Unit story upcoming. We shall get a good idea then.

I don’t think it’s all a dream, and I also don’t think the old woman was ruby all along They were even portrayed by differed people

I don’t think it’s really implied that it’s a dream as much as it’s a timeloop/branching timeline, which unfortunately makes those underdeveloped elements shallow as a result of poor writing imo

Not gonna lie - the first half of this episode with the whole pub having laugh at Ruby genuinely made me hyped for the rest of this season. It was scary, it built-up so much tension, it felt extremely British (strong accents were also helping), it also made you wonder if Ruby wasn't suddenly locked in past before mobile transactions and she was making a time-travelling faux-pax. Like that whole build up - single-handedly almost wiped out the whole Chibnail's run out of my head. It probably would have been the best episode we had in like a decade. Vibe wise - akin to standalone stories like Blink or Midnight, similar to Turn Left as well. It showed the aura RTD gave us in season 4 and I fully enjoyed that part. If only not for the very abrupt, fast-paced and unexplained ending to the story, with so much stuff not addressed. Like, I hope this isn't really just one of those surreal one-offs - but that this actually has some impact and relevance in the final plot for Ruby and her whole character arc. Then I could easily give this 10/10 (would have been like 12/10, if this was a two-parter with fleshed out disturbing finale to it). I think it's still a solid 8 or 9, just for how good the build up is for it. 2:00 It was very SCP/Black Mirror-esque episode tbh. I did kinda laugh, when she straight up used her monster of the week to do politics... Especially ironic with how Rishi Sunak called for the elections in the UK. Almost feels like a conspiracy... Yeah he totally did it, because Doctor Who is actually real and he talked to an old woman SCP. 12:20 It is kinda maybe a reference to the goblins from the Christmas special? They also used ropes to do their machinations. Maybe it's akin to how the witches used magic like technology, but this time with knots and stuff. We are totally in the state of those godly villains like Toymaker. For all we know - this could have been a trap made by Trickster or someone like that.

Honestly the butterfly in episode 1 and this here - I have a theory the different worlds and timelines are converging into one or something… not fully fleshed out yet but it’s an idea

Why are you saying it's a dream? It's an alternate timeline This is just like your Heaven sent review when you didn't pay attention and was confused about the Doctor's mind palace

I didnt take it like a dream more like a turn left situation, the doctor steps on the shrine, ruby has a life of loneliness then when she dies she becomes this enity, but instead of haunting and looming like the death she repersents she clings to young ruby and eventually changes her fate by stopping the priminister thats why kate is in the episode, becausee this universe is real its only when ghost ruby scares the president do we go back to the original universe

I also think it's a real alternate timeline. The dreaminess is just a stylistic choice imo, since it fits the folklore tone. I do think one really cool idea is that the old woman approaches Ruby on her deathbed because that's what it would look like if she was moving away but backwards in time. Like watching someone walk away from you but played in reverse so it looks like they're walking towards you.

It's less of a dream and more of an acid trip.

hang on, why have you gone into this episode assuming it’s a dream? you’re talking about it as if it’s a given, but i’ve never heard anyone suggest it was a dream before. and the plot holes you brought up about her not knowing kate are only plot holes if this is a dream. edit: it’s definitely “dream-like” but i never interpreted it as literally being a dream.

I was going to only comment "Wasn't a dream" or something along those lines, but seems like everyone else has already hit the nail on the head. So I'll elaborate. Your review hinges on the idea that this was a dream, but the odds that is right are really really low. This isn't the doctor who we're used to, it almost certainly wasn't a psychokinetic dream state. It was magic. We've established magic exists, whether it was the fairy circle being broken or something to do with ruby's bloodline due to the traumatic event of the doctor's disappearance, it probably was just another closed loop timeline. My interpretation as well of her asking the hiker if she had seen her before would be because she had repeated this before already in another loop where she had failed to warn the doctor. We've done this type of episode in the past, just usually with a more scientific explanation.

99% of the comments: it wasn't a dream 1% of the comments: doesn't exist

Where did the dream bit come into it? Is Doctor Who about supposed ' magic' now, rather that plausible science. If now we are told magic is real then that is an easy get out for any problem. That episode treats its viewers as brain dead. On a more positive note at least the Doctor was absent. Probably running away from something and crying.

I don't know why people are saying it's an alternate timeline, but it definitely isn't a dream. I've seen two very good takes on what this episode actually is- The literal meaning, and the metaphorical meaning. The literal meaning is simply what actually happened in the Episode. The Doctor steps on the circle and Ruby Read the letters within the circle that is supposed to respect someone who is dead. This means that, whether intentionally or not, both The Doctor and Ruby had disrespected the meaning behind the circle, which, thanks to The Fourteenth Doctor having sprinkled salt at the end of the universe in Wild Blue Yonder, allowed the vengeful spirits to creep in. Since The Doctor technically did the greater disrespect for breaking the circle, he gets erased from existence as his punishment, while Ruby is doomed to be stalked by the spirit who makes her greatest fear, that of being abandoned, to be a reality. When Ruby uses this against Roger, who mentioned Mad Jack by pure coincidence which triggered Ruby to remember what The Doctor said about Roger back then, is Ruby using the spirit to do something good, and since she doesn't do anything bad throughout the rest of her life, the spirit decides to forgive her and send her back in time to give a second chance to her younger self and The Doctor. It's really messed up, but apparently this is what happened. The metaphorical meaning behind it is that the spirit is a manifestation of Ruby's greatest insecurities. It's a sad truth of life that when someone opens up about their innermost insecurities, it can often lead people to run away from them, even if they were interested in learning more about them. Thus, when people go to talk to the woman, it's a representation of them talking to Ruby's innermost insecurities, which chases them away, no-matter how attached they were to her before.

Bro is desperate for the episode to be a dream

Been watching this series for 7 years now, super surreal to see my name scroll past at the end 😂

Actually really liked it loved the creepy vibe & thought it was really well written & great acting by Millie. I need to watch it again though because lots was shot in my hometown & it takes me out of the episodes. Being Welsh we used to make protection rings as kids

I dont think it was a dream because if it was she wouldnt have been able to go back in time and interfire with what the doctor did.

1:48 this location reminded me of 60s who the moment I saw it. Specially Enemy of The World and The Abominable Snowman takes place in a very similar looking hilly snow mountains.

Harry was on the strong stuff with this one, we must forgive him and pretend it was a dream

Hot take (it seems?) but Harry having his own interpretation of it being a dream isn’t an “incorrect” interpretation. The whole point of the episode is spelled out when Kate says “we see something inexplicable and invent the rules to make it work.” I don’t personally think it’s a dream, I think it’s a punishment / purgatory in the form of a time loop, the time loop itself being a fairy circle (since a loop is a circle). If you disagree with either of us, I think that’s literally the point, it’s vague enough you can create any rules that work best for you to understand the episode. Personally I love the dream interpretation, even if it’s not my interpretation

"LOOK AT THAT TREE" 🤣

Harry buddy, it wasn’t a dream it was an alternate universe, a bit like in turn left 😭😭

It gave me much more Left Turn vibe than a dream one. Like an alternate timeline.

I didn't think it was a dream at all? That's why Kate can appear etc shes introducing herself to Ruby so she's never met, so she wouldn't be able to dream about her

Harry, what have you done? 😂😂😂

Where did you get the idea it was a dream? The episode never said anything to make you think that…

I don’t think it was established as a dream at all.

I think they should have ordered the episodes differently. Having two Doctor-lite episodes in a row really lessens Ncuti's impact on the role so far, and having a reduced episode count means we have even fewer moments to explore his range as the Doctor. Also, Devil's chord was definitely meant to air later, considering the Maestro's final warning.

I feel like this review is kinda hampered by Harry being so convinced it's supposed to be a dream despite multiple hints that's it's just not

This episode being a 'dream' is one of more out-there theories, not sure how one can reach this conclusion 😅

This is the first time I've heard the theory of it being a dream, but Harry seems pretty certain of it... However, he spends a bit of time questioning why and how certain things could happen in this dream, not even considering that the theory might just be wrong in the first place.

I suppose we can all interpret the episode differently as the episode left a lot of questions, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a dream. I thought she was just a time travelling ghost.

( 6:31 ) UNIT technically did in Turn Left with Capt. Erisa Magambo and Rose. 👍🏻

I am strangely starting to believe dream theory. What, if Ruby is just a dying infant that got full-blown life and adventures, by Doctor as a sort of fairy tale, told to her akin to the Girl with the Matches. And her seeing and creating the snow is nothing more than reality peeking through. Maybe a paradox being - not ever really existing, but at the same time actually having a full-blown life that impacted the world, through a twisted Time Lord technology. Or maybe she is being pushed into that by one of the Trickster's Brigade entities? This feels like Turn Left all over again. Is her existence a ploy for Trickster to come into the world all altogether? Now that actually would be good plot-twist.

I think this is my favourite episode of the season so far. It has an incredible grasp od mystery and horror and a great start for a doctor lite episode. I can’t say I agree with your dream idea as I think that this is all happening in a new timeline created when the doctor broke the circle. The penance for the crime of firstly breaking it but then reading the notes is that she must attone in a life time of her biggest fear of abandonment and isolation. The notes are spells that she inadvertently casts. I also think that the lack of explanation can be fine because it created the mystery of what has happened all the stronger. I think with the toy makers introduction this idea of mysticism will be much bigger aswell.

I don't think it's a dream, i think it's a time loop.

wait it just hit me, the old woman that has appeared in the Christmas special and the same old woman hiking in Wales is Ruby's long lost mother, this is just a hunch and theory that I just thought on the spot right now

It wasn’t a dream, more of a alternate timeline

0:56 Dark ages!? Metric wasn’t taught in schools until 1974, that’s only 50 years; hardly an ancient practice known only to the elders and lost to mists of time. 🙄🙄 Tut, tut, young whippersnapper. Just popping to the shops to buy some bread and 568ml of milk. 😁😁😉😉

Its interesting that you interpreted it as a dream. I was under the impression that it was an alternate timeline, like Turn Left?

Ngl i actually like the idea of the dream aspect as a split second of her realising what might happen in her subconcious if the circle is broken, flashing all the way back to the start, allmost like the 12 days of christine, although im not sure why it would continue on once the "problem" is solved. Also that and i thought it was pretty well executed that this was an alternate or split timeline event, despite the episode having vague or unanaswered questions, imo that was definitely one that felt justified in its answer.

Weird I never got the idea that it was a dream at all. But this episode is so empty of answers, I suppose we are filling the gaps, just like Kate said.

I'm mostly disappointed with this review because it didn't really analyse the episode in a way that respected it for what it was: a highly interpretable piece of avant-garde storytelling. I love the interpretation that this episode is a dream of Ruby's, but you don't really delve into why you think that. There are so many interpretations as to what the monster is supposed to represent, and I feel like "it could have been a lot better" needs more evidence from your part to fully justify. A lot of interpretations I've seen, for example, hinge on the idea that Ruby's isolation actually becomes a non-issue by the end of the episode - she learns to live with her fear of abandonment. While I wish her character arc could have been made a little more explicit, the theme of isolation is reinforced constantly throughout the episode. To say that the latter half could have used more of it kind of makes no sense.

Why would you think it's a dream? Like at all?

It’s okay guys, I think we’ve told him enough times it’s not a dream……does this count as one of those times?

L take after L take. bro has no media literacy - so he'll probably have a successful youtube career as a professional nitpicker

£5 for a Coke was the scariest thing in this episode 😛 However, as everyone else is saying, this wasn't a dream.

I watched so many reviews from you now I can literally tell the point you give before you do.

While there are some loose ends which aren’t unambiguously explained, here’s my take on the meaning of the episode, of which, there seem to be multiple meanings. I feel, there is a deceptively deep, almost philosophical meaning to this episode. I felt as perplexed as everyone else after my viewing of it, but a comment by someone in another thread provided the key to the meaning of the mysterious woman for me. Which I expand on below. That mysterious woman is Ruby’s future ghost, haunting her living self within this alternate time-line created by the Doctor's clumsy disturbance of the Fairy Circle. The woman also represents something much more terrifying than that. She is death, personified. At least, she personifies Ruby’s death. So, she unintentionally (I believe) scares away everyone who tries to speak to her. Her purpose in the episode is primarily as a metaphor for the eventual death which awaits us all. Stalks us our entire lives, just as it stalks Ruby in the form of the woman. While our own death is rarely at the forefront of daily awareness, neither is it ever far away. You might say, that death is always 73 yards away. Close enough to be visible, but not so close as to be clearly so. The best that we can do is to ignore our self-knowledge that it is always there. Always waiting, and that we will one day, die. Soon, living Ruby simply accepts the woman as an inevitable part of her daily existence. Realizing, that there’s nothing she can do about her anyway, Ruby decides to do something meaningful with her life. Utilizing the mystery woman for an extremely constructive purpose in that endeavor. Until, finally, Ruby is at the end of her life, and the mystery woman manifests closely in her room. Ruby’s death is closely approaching her. In the last moment of life, when the medical monitor in her room that had been reassuringly making a regular beeping sound suddenly starts making that dreadful flatline tone, the woman turns to face Ruby. As she does, Ruby loses all anxiety, and embraces her death with outstretched arms, and a smile of relief. Ruby passes, and then becomes the ghost which had been haunting her. Chills. Throughout life, Ruby has felt abandoned and isolated. Alone. Which is sad enough, but she also ends up dying alone, as well. A feeling, and an ending, for too many of us. Davies appears to touch on that. The episode’s main fault is that it’s too ambitious for a one-hour. Further complicating matters is the ‘Mad-Jack’ sub-episode. 73 Yards could have, and probably should have been made into a two-part episode. As for the time-paradoxes, such as how Ruby’s future ghost could haunt her living self, those have been explained by Tenant in the famous ‘Blink’ episode, Wibbly-Wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. In other words, don’t let paradoxes interfere with the message of the story. Mad-Jack, seems to be a destructive spirit/entity which corruptly influences a young Gwilliam, once it is unbound from the Fairy Circle when the Doctor disturbs it. A disturbance which then launches the alternate time-line centered on Ruby, and which Kate, of U.N.I.T., cryptically asserts has happened. That alternate time-line is erased when Ruby’s ghost, whispering “don’t step”, warns young Ruby in time to prevent the Doctor from disturbing the Fairy Circle in the first place. BTW, apparently, ghost Ruby is repeatedly signing; “bless you, thank you”.

I think Harry dreamt that this was a dream episode 😅 Please rewatch it with some more context and I think you’ll love it, you can tell he wants too. A video by dwfan91 gives a great understanding of this episode and shows it is truly a bulletproof script. If you understand what it’s doing then it’s literally a 10/10 for 73 Yards!

The assertion that it's a dream sequence is interesting. I assert that this is more of a cosmic horror story, where old Ruby had to spend a life of misery in order to return the Mad Jack entity back into the string trap.( After defeating his bid to do whatever function his god-like deal is. I also like to think that the string trap and the TARDIS were working together to keep another fantasy being from the universe.)

This episode reminded me of the curse of clyde from the Sarah Jane adventures

Anyone else notice Susan Twist was wearing the same trousers and boots as the Doctor?

73 yards sucked so much it almost was classified as a black hole

Is Ruby dating Rishi Sunak in that scene? He looks like so sad, like he’s just lost an election😂

cracking video - but you seem very certain this was a dream, and I disagree. More of an alternative timeline situation

Somebody is a fan of Katan the Van I see.

I’ve been waiting a week for this knowing how much this guy liked turn left

The 15th doctor is really walking the line between "the fashion doctor" the "youngster doctor" and "doesnt watch his step ever doctor"

6:25 I think they saying when the doctor gets a new companion, it forks their reality and makes a new timeline. UNIT realized they were in a reality where the doctors companion didn’t return. To me that means they go they whole lives knowing its… a lie? In a way? Bit weird but not to bad

its interesting you took it as a dream, i took it as real world

Where did you get the idea this was a dream of Ruby’s? Did I somehow watch a different version of the episode?

MORAL OF THE STORY: DO NOT GO TO WALES!!!!

Man, am I getting tired of these Trump allegories. Mr. Saxon was a unique character based on a “what if?”, not a real person. I know there are people here who want the Trump = bad message, but can’t they base the big bad man on Putin, Hussein or Ping? Isn’t it getting boring Trump = bad and they never base anyone on Biden? None of these politicoids are good people.

I agree with some comments, I don't think it was a dream at all. But anyway, I still love your videos, always smart, class and funny... Man, you are SO british, in a good way 😂 Love it