'73 Yards' (Story Code 14.04) by Russell T Davies

“Seventy-three yards. I’ve measured it a hundred times. I’ve measured it a thousand times. It’s seventy-three yards.” - Ruby

The TARDIS arrives on a clifftop in west Wales. Ruby remarks that she’s been to Wales twice, while the Doctor ruminates on an infamous Welshman, Roger ap Gwilliam, the most dangerous prime minister in history, who led the country to the brink of war in the not-too-distant future. After the Doctor steps on a web of string, charms, and trinkets laid out on the ground, Ruby reads aloud a message on a scroll, ‘Rest in peace, Mad Jack’ - and when Ruby looks up, the Doctor has vanished... Unable to find her friend, and with the TARDIS locked from the inside, Ruby looks around and sees an old woman standing in the distance; strangely, the woman always stays ahead of Ruby, whether she moves towards her or away. As the light goes and snow falls, Ruby makes for the nearby village, Glyngatwg; on the way she meets a hiker, a woman she thinks she’s met before. The hiker agrees to talk to the old woman following Ruby - but as soon as she does so, the hiker looks back at Ruby and then runs away screaming in terror. Ruby runs to the village, the lady still following her, and makes for the safety of the local pub, ‘Y Pren Marw’. The landlady and her patrons are less than welcoming, but Ruby elects to buy a room for the night. Hearing about the mysterious old woman following Ruby, one of the locals, Josh, goes out to talk to her; as Ruby watches from a window, Josh listens to the woman, glances back at Ruby, then flees screaming in fear. When Ruby mentions her lost friend, the circle of charms, and the message she read out, the locals warn that she broke the fairy circle that bound the soul of Mad Jack - now he is unbound, and the old woman heralds his return. At the sudden sound of knocking on the door everyone panics - until Ruby opens the door and finds it’s just the village butcher with pasties. Realising she is being wound up, Ruby ignores everyone’s laughter, staring instead at the woman still standing in the dark outside… Ruby stays at the pub for a few days, returning to the TARDIS to wait in vain for the Doctor. With Josh refusing to return to the pub while Ruby stays there, the landlady decides to throw her out. Ruby says goodbye to the TARDIS, and then takes a train back to London; along the journey she looks out of the window and sees the old woman standing in streets and fields, following her home... Ruby returns to the safety of her foster mother Carla and grandmother Cherry. Seeing the woman in the street outside, Carla decides to speak to her while on a call to Ruby, so her daughter can hear what the lady says; but the plan goes badly wrong: after speaking to the lady, Carla glances at Ruby and then runs off, taking takes a cab to get away from her daughter… Ruby leaves unreturned voicemails for her mother; then returns home to finds that Carla is back, but has changed the locks to keep her out. After telling Ruby that she has disowned her, Carla takes out a court injunction... A year later, Ruby meets with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, who offers UNIT’s help the missing Doctor’s former companion. Noting the old woman nearby, Ruby explains how she always remains seventy-three yards away from her. Kate sends her agents to talk to the old woman, monitoring their progress via her ear-piece; but to Ruby’s horror, they all listen to the lady, turn to look at Ruby, then flee in terror - even Kate... Years pass, and Ruby continues to see the old woman standing in the street outside her flat. Her twentieth, thirtieth and fortieth birthdays come and go, along with several boyfriends, all driven off by Ruby’s preoccupation with the old woman. But then Ruby sees a television interview with upcoming radical politician Roger ap Gwilliam, whose nickname is ‘Mad Jack’; recalling the Doctor’s words, Ruby gets a new lease on life, a purpose at last… Ruby volunteers to join the Albion Party’s campaign to elect Roger Prime Minister. She helps by holding coats while Roger gives a television interview for ‘Election 46’: Roger pledges to make Britain great again, and alarmingly reveals that he is in favour of nuclear armament… Roger is successfully voted in as Prime Minister; but while his party celebrates the victory, Ruby remains concerned for the future, especially as one of his assistants calls him a monster… Ruby accompanies Roger and his team to the Albion-sponsored Cardiff City Stadium, as preparations are made for the PM’s appearance at an important press event. Ruby is worried, as Roger is about to purchase a nuclear arsenal from Pakistan and then declare independence from NATO. Seeing the old woman standing amongst the seating, Ruby breaks protocol and strides out onto the pitch. Ignoring the police and armed soldiers ordering her off the grass, Ruby uses her phone to measure up seventy-three yards away from Roger. When the old woman appears next to him, Roger listens to her words, glances at Ruby, and then runs away in sheer terror… Fifty minutes later, news reports come in that Roger has inexplicably resigned as Prime Minister; as the country breaths a sigh of relief, Ruby hopes that the old woman will finally leave her alone… Forty years later, an elderly Ruby is taken by her carer to lay flowers by the TARDIS; the ship’s sides are now covered in moss, bunches of flowers surrounding it as it stands forlornly on the Welsh clifftop. Ruby waits a while, but the Doctor doesn’t return; in the distance behind Ruby stands the old woman… Forty more years pass, and Ruby is now bed-ridden in a care home. The old woman has been with her for sixty-five years. Ruby goes to sleep, but wakes at something in her room; she sees the old woman in a corner - but this time, as the lights flicker, the woman gets closer and closer. As the woman starts to turn around, Ruby sees her life flashing past her eyes, rewinding through the years - then she finds herself standing on the clifftop in Wales, watching her younger self arrive in the TARDIS with the Doctor. She watches as Ruby stops the Doctor standing on the fairy circle, and he in turn stops her from reading the message, out of respect to the shrine. Standing up from the circle, Ruby thinks she saw an old woman in the distance, but the lady has gone now. After remarking that this is her third visit to Wales, Ruby sets off with the Doctor to explore the clifftops…


Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday), Hilary Hobson (The Woman), Susan Twist (Hiker), Maxine Evans (Lowri Palin), Siân Phillips (Enid Meadows), Sion Pritchard (Joshua Steele), Gwion Morris Jones (Ifor Jones), Elan Davies (Thin Lucy), Glyn Pritchard (Eddie Jones), Michelle Greenridge (Carla Sunday), Angela Wynter (Cherry Sunday), Anita Dobson (Mrs Flood), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Lethbridge-Stewart), Graham Butler (Frank Hinchey), Ali Ariaie (Sanjay Miah), Albey Brookes (Rufus Bray), Aneurin Barnard (Roger ap Gwilliam), Miles Yekinni (Craig Deloach), Amol Rajan (Himself), Sophie Ablett (Marti Bridges), Shane David-Joseph (Akhim Patil), Jason May (Groundsman), Dylan Baldwin (Security Officer), David Constant (Armed Policeman), Deeivya Meir (Newsreader), Amanda Walker (Old Ruby), Rhyanna Alexander-Davis (Elizabeth Campbell), Vee Vimolmal (Nurse)

Directed by Dylan Holmes Williams

Produced by Vicki Delow
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson
A Bad Wolf / BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
25th May 2024 @ 6.50 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby, with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT

*This episode is forty-seven minutes long

*There is no pre-tile scene, or opening title sequence; Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson’s credits appear on screen over the first few seconds of the story

*There’s Always a Twist at the End: Actress Susan Twist appears again, this time as the hiker

*The episode premiered in the UK on the BBC's iPlayer in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) at midnight on 25th May 2024, and simultaneously streamed on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland