Ncuti Gatwa Gives Sexy and Earnest New Life to Doctor Who

The Doctor Who Christmas specials were a much celebrated romp until showrunner Chris Chibnall played Grinch and discontinued the festive tradition in 2018, moving these installments to New Year’s Day, by which time there were few traces of the holidays left. Now Russell T. Davies has replaced those lumps of coals with a bonafide stocking stuffer: “The Church on Ruby Road” is a thrilling holiday showcase for new Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and his companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).

“The Church on Ruby Road” recalls the revival’s first episode, 2005’s “Rose,” where the Doctor’s new companion takes almost a starring role while the Doctor appears as a mysterious figure in a badass leather coat. Past showrunners and actors have tried putting more of the “who” back in Doctor Who, often with mixed results.

Davies takes advantage of the fact that viewers had an outsized introduction to this new Doctor in the December 9 special “The Giggle” (a rarity for a regeneration episode). Davies and Gatwa achieve a perfect balance with the new Doctor, who is alien but not off-putting, and who fully embraces his new appearance without any existential questioning.

Gatwa’s predecessor (at least as a full-time Doctor) Jodie Whittaker was often written as shocked by her new form, sometimes even forgetting she wasn’t still a man. When asked about his incarnation of the famous Time Lord, Gatwa said simply, “I would describe the Doctor as a Black man.” And while the Doctor’s race is not skin deep, it’s far from his only interesting trait. He is undeniably the Doctor, while also vastly different from any past incarnation. He’s sexy, earnest, but also far wiser than his apparent years.

Davies’ track record on race wasn’t great in his original run. Mickey (Noel Clarke) was Rose’s boyfriend who was often depicted as being beneath her, which was made worse by the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) calling him an idiot or “Rickey.” Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), the first full-time Black companion, was in love with the Doctor but struggled to escape Rose’s shadow. The Tenth Doctor callously dismissed her concerns about traveling in Elizabethan England as a Black woman, and she was later subjected to casual racism while looking after a human Doctor in 1913 England. Later, her family was dysfunctional and literally enslaved by the Master who made them work as his servants — needless humiliation that didn’t advance the story.

Gatwa’s Doctor is Black but he’s also not the show’s only diverse element. Ruby’s adoptive mother Carla (Michelle Greenidge) and grandmother Cherry (Angela Wynter) are both Black, and it’s a wonderful spin on an old trope of white parents fostering an abandoned minority child. Gibson’s Ruby is a wonderful addition to the show in the tradition of Bill Potts, Amy Pond, Donna Noble, and Rose Tyler. Grounded, scrappy, and normal, while also exceptional with a moral clarity and innate heroism that makes her a perfect fit for the Doctor. Like Stephen Moffat, Davies leans into the Christmas theme with a brief but moving It’s A Wonderful Life riff featuring Ruby as a modern-day George Bailey.

The villains in “The Church on Ruby Road” are delightful camp fun — evil goblins who are cheeky enough to perform a raucous musical number about how much they enjoy eating babies. (“The Goblin Song” is already a chart topper). Best of all, the Doctor and Ruby literally match them note for note. There is no pretense of a sci-fi explanation for the goblins, who are not passed off as merely creepy aliens. In “The Giggle,” the Doctor didn’t even bother with a “super science” explanation for the Toymaker’s god-like abilities, and Davies continues that theme with the goblins.

Time travel also seems to work differently now, as the goblins can just go back in time and kill Ruby as a baby, erasing her from the timeline even though her existence in the present was the only reason the goblins knew she existed. No “timey wimey” explanation is offered or needed. It’s just magic.

The Doctor introduced a superstition at the edge of the universe in “Wild Blue Yonder” and like the word “mavity” replacing “gravity,” it seems as if the fundamental rules of Whoniverse reality have been altered. Bigeneration was once considered a myth, but now there are two Doctors in the current day. “The Goblin Song” declared the Goblin King not just a myth but the real thing.

It’s also clear that Davies’ reference in “Wild Blue Yonder” to the controversial Timeless Child storyline was not an anniversary Easter Egg. He’s taken what was once just a convoluted plot retcon and elevated it to an emotional character hook for the Doctor, who connects with Ruby as a fellow adoptee who was abandoned as a child.

The Doctor is still just as brilliant as ever — this time he wields specially constructed gloves that let him hold on to ropes like Spider-Man — but Gatwa’s charm and openness as the Doctor exists simultaneously with a darker bent. He doesn’t negotiate with the Goblins and their foul king. Instead, he dispatches them permanently and without worry.

Ruby leaves for further adventures with the Doctor, and the preview for Season 14 teases tantalizing mysteries, especially regarding Ruby’s neighbor Ms. Flood (Anita Dobson), who is more than what she seems. Davies seems to be approaching this new season as a full reboot of the series that maintains all the wonder from his first run almost 20 years ago. “The Church on Ruby Road” is an impressive start to this new era.

Doctor Who's "The Church on Ruby Road" is streaming on Disney+. Join the discussion about the show in our forums. 

Stephen Robinson is a political columnist, arts writer, and theatre maker.