That’s fighting talk that is.
(For the record, I thought Church was fairly dull as Christmas specials go).
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I’m going to rewatch the whole season with the new knowledge from the finale and see how I feel about it, but knowing what I know about the resolution to this story arc I think my enjoyment of Church may go down a bit.
Part of what made it exciting was the mystery.
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The arc surrounding Ruby’s Mother has been quite polarising from what I’ve seen, but I personally love that she was revealed to be just an ordinary woman.
One of my biggest issues with companions from the revival is when they are treated like the most important people in creation - the DoctorDonna, Amy and Rory being River’s parents, Clara being scattered through the Doctor’s timeline.
Having Rubes be just this ordinary Mancunian lass with an interesting - but not sci-fi-centric - background story was honestly really refreshing to me.
I think that’s the big issue with a lot of big story arcs, though I can think of a few BigFinish audios which lose some of their sparkle the more familiar you become with them.
This is a good example of that. I went into ‘The Natural History of Fear’ blind and it absolutely blew me away - which seems to be the general consensus.
But once you realise that it’s - and don’t reveal the spoilers if you’ve not heard this story - Doctor Who does 1984, it loses that uniqueness and becomes just another experimental adventure, if that makes sense?
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In the original non-changed version of Ruby’s abandonment shown before the opening titles in The Church on Ruby Road, the Vicar comes out of the Church and finds Ruby before the clock strikes midnight.
But when the Goblins bimble back in time to Ruby Road and kidnap Ruby from the Church doorstep, and after defeating them the Doctor brings her back there and leaves her, the Vicar comes out and finds Ruby after the clock strikes midnight.
What confuses things is the first version pre opening titles, because the Doctor arrives after the clock strikes midnight when Ruby is found and taken in by the Vicar, but I think when the Doctor arrives that was supposed to be a time jump back a few minutes before the events that we’d just seen.
I think the reason that the Vicar comes out of the Church after the clock strikes midnight after time changed, is that off screen when Louise left Ruby, she knocked on the door before walking away so Ruby wouldn’t be left out in the cold to die. But when the Goblins bimbled back in time, they put a sound barrier across the door so no one heard her knocking so they could take Ruby without any trouble. Then when the Goblins were defeated, the sound barrier they had put over the door dropped, and when the Doctor left Ruby, off screen he knocked on the door so again, she wouldn’t freeze to death.
I wish they had shown both Louise and the Doctor knocking on the door, and had Ruby wrapped in multiple blankets with a hot water bottle tucked underneath. It would’ve helped to emphasise that Louise wanted to keep her safe.
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Here’s my work in progress of Ruby thinking about the night she was left, there will be three versions of this. The first version is before any interference, the second version the Goblin ship will be flying towards the Church, and the third version will have the TARDIS on Ruby Road and Sutekh on top, looking at Louise, who’s face is shadowed, and the snow and the musical notes will be falling through into where Ruby is.
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I used the TG randomiser and this story was thrown at me. I almost rejected it because Christmas has been and gone but then I decided that, having just bought the Season One box set with a Christmas present of an Amazon voucher, why not christen the set by watching it.
I was lukewarm to this story on first watch. I immediately warmed to Gatwa and Gibson but the plot left a bit to be desired and I felt it sort of stopped after they rescued Lulubelle from the Goblins.
This rewatch found it hung together much better for me and Ruby’s disappearance and the rescue of her back at the church felt less tacked on than it had first time round.
I was more into the goblins this time too. Their sneaking around and evil little giggles in the opening scenes are effective and I quite like how Ruby breezily dismisses all the weird accidents because it adds to the tension when she finally realises something strange and potentially bad is happening and then finds Lulubelle gone.
I adore Cherry but am still not quite sold on Carla. She’s good but the switch to cynical Carla when Ruby is erased from the timeline just feels ever so slightly forced and too much. That said, I rather liked the lead in to that scene which I hadn’t noticed before. Ruby disappears but everything else in the flat is normal up until the Doctor leaves and re-enters. Suddenly the decorations are gone, the light is dimmer, the colour sapped. It suggests the only thing holding the original timeline together is the Doctor until he steps out and time resets. It’s subtle but very clever. I also like how Cherry becomes much more of an obvious shut-in than she does in the Ruby timeline. The way she is curled up in bed, glassy-eyed is actually much more disconcerting than Carla dismissing the idea that she is a full-time foster mum.
Other bits that hit me better this time include the added scene of the Doctor talking to the policeman which was sweet and a little reminiscent of some of the schtick they gave the Eighth Doctor in the TV Movie and the bit where the Doctor saved Davina McCall which is cheeky and too meta for its own good but Gatwa’s twinkle lets them get away with it.
I also really enjoyed the song bit this time - specifically the Doctor and Ruby’s part. I wish we’d gotten a proper musical episode with those two because I really think they’d have carried it off spectacularly.
Now, the Mrs Flood stuff… Knowing who she is now forces you to reframe those appearances. Do they tally with her being the Rani? (Do I need to spoiler that sort of stuff???) Some bits quite obviously do - the mid credits scene being the most obvious. But what about the one where she is walking back from the shops with bags of shopping that she drops in shock when the TARDIS dematerialises. Why would she do that?
I quite like a new theory I have though that Abdul is her companion but she’s mind-wiped him into being her annoying neighbour.
Overall, I enjoyed that more second time round (which is something I find happens a lot when I rewatch modern episodes) and I upped by rating a smidge from 3 to 3.5. It’s not quite a 4 because I do think the story still runs out of steam a bit after the Lulubelle rescue but Gatwa and Gibson have an instant rapport which is hard to not get caught up in.
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This was why I was always so sure she wasn’t The Rani.
I still think it makes no sense.
I’m pretty sure that’s not who she was originally meant to be!
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