The Church on Ruby Road - Complete analysis

Next comes the opening credits, which I personally love. They’re beautiful, dynamic, and really fun to watch. But I know not everyone feels the same way.

Then we see Ruby being interviewed by Davina McCall, whom I didn’t know before, and I find the scene pretty meh. It’s a long exposition through dialogue about Ruby’s main issue. At least it’s clear, but maybe introducing her with friends, colleagues, or someone else would have shown more about who she is. During the scene, a gremlin, of which we only see the arm, tries to kill Ruby by dropping a spotlight on her, unsuccessfully. The evil Christmas goblin vibe is nicely established.

Later, we see Ruby playing the piano with friends in a band at a bar. We don’t learn much about them. But we do see the Doctor, acting really odd, stalking her from afar. The next day, he’s near her again, this time at a nightclub, dancing really well while she sips a strawberry soda. As the gremlin tries to break her glass, the Doctor suddenly appears out of nowhere to help. Time out: I don’t get it. The Doctor is suddenly some sort of Flash type character who moves faster than light? And the scene and the characters’ dialogue make it clear that’s what’s happening. And why does he show the psychic paper just to make a joke? Why does Ruby find him nice when he’s acting really weird with his strange paper? Okay, fine, but this scene is pretty unclear.

Outside, the gremlin tries to attack Ruby’s cab by dropping a Christmas decoration on it from a building, which lands on the Doctor’s head, but he’s fine. Phew. Then he gets stopped by a cop and predicts the cop’s fiancée will say yes when he proposes, making a weak Sherlock Holmes-style deduction. He also tells him he could have bought the ring on sale… And then, the TARDIS disappears in front of the cop, who…doesn’t care. Right, I don’t get that lack of reaction…

At least, the Doctor is presented very well here: his way of speaking, his slightly dark side hidden behind a wonderful smile. That’s the big advantage of this sequence.

The next day (again, we get another title card with the date, which could have just been shown it in the scene, but whatever), Ruby goes home, and we meet her mom, Carla, and her grandmother, Cherry, who’s the best character! Cherry wants to be served tea in bed, which she never leaves, just like Charlie’s grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Carla receives a baby, Lulubelle, as a foster mother on Christmas Eve, just like Ruby back in the day (though, it wasn’t actually Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day, right?). Davina McCall calls Ruby to deliver bad news—because why not ruin both Christmas and her birthday. Poor Davina then suffers a terrible fate…I don’t really get it. The goblins are targeting Ruby, so why does Davina, days after talking to Ruby, gets attacked? Wouldn’t that happen to lots of people then? Maybe I misunderstood.

Anyway, the mystery deepens: neither her father nor her mother shows up in any records. Could Ruby be a divine child born on Christmas with no parents, left like a nativity Jesus in front of a church, because she’s as important as some divine child? Who knows…

After Davina tells her she’s bad luck (nice), Ruby discovers the baby has been captured by a goblin who took a selfie like an idiot. But at least he’s got style, since he’s wearing a Christmas hat. Ruby doesn’t seem too fazed about finding goblins on her roof and clings to a rope ladder before seeing the Doctor who makes a dramatic entrance running across the rooftops. He’s really cool here!

Together, they end up on the goblins’ flying ship and get captured and tied up. But the Doctor knows how to undo his bonds, and off they go to save the baby. After a goblin pop song (maybe it would have been cooler if the song was more “goblin” than a pop cover, but at least it’s catchy and well-paced) they save the baby from the Goblin King who wanted to eat it, because he feeds on good coincidences.

However, the Doctor learns aboard the ship that Ruby was born on Christmas. SO, that means he hasn’t yet experienced the scene from the beginning. And he’s a pretty bad investigator since he follows her everywhere and knows lots about her, but not that she was born on Christmas.

Detail: the sound of the new ugly sonic screwdriver is actually really cool. The idea of the knots in the ship is also great. The “language of luck” is super fun too. The Doctor and Ruby singing together is awesome and could almost become a running thing that gives the show a whole new vibe—will it? (Rhetorical question, because no.)

Back at Carla’s, they awkwardly avoid saying what happened. And Carla accepts this guy she doesn’t know into her house, just like the cop accepted the TARDIS earlier on. The Doctor says he’s adopted, the ceiling creaks because…well, it creaks. And the goblins seem to vanish! Awesome! But Ruby is gone too! Not awesome! Carla doesn’t remember her! So the Doctor decides to go back in time to see what happened. And the neighbor, Mrs. Flood, is super surprised to see the TARDIS disappear. More so than the cop at the beginning, at least.

He arrives at the moment we saw at the start of the episode, and now I’m lost with the timing and setting of this scene. Actually, the opening sequence should have just happened here without a voice-over. Discovering at that moment that she was left at the church by a mysterious figure would have made it much stronger. There’s a real editing problem, and the voice-over in the first sequence feels almost like it wasn’t planned that way.

What’s certain is that the Doctor defeats the goblins and saves Ruby. The sets are amazing, the visuals are great, the SFX and puppets are cool, but the problem is it all serves a pretty unremarkable staging. In the end, it’s the Doctor who leaves Ruby in front of the church, so…was the opening scene not real? Or is the editing just making it all confusing?

And then, the Doctor waits to see Ruby’s mysterious mother. So he knew? So he came before? Is it the same scene as at the beginning or not?????

Anyway, the Doctor finds Carla and Ruby at home, everyone’s fine, and then suddenly, mid-sentence, he realizes something and lights up. WOW, what is he going to do???? He runs out, dashes to his TARDIS, disappears in front of Mrs. Flood (who this time thinks it’s cool and not surprising). And he…saves Davina McCall in the past? But…what? Why did the previous dialogue lead to that conclusion? Now I’m really lost…

In the end, he has an interesting interaction with Mrs. Flood, then Ruby discovers the TARDIS and decides to leave with him. The final twist shows Mrs. Flood addressing the viewers directly, saying, “Never seen a TARDIS before?” Which is certainly impactful, but after dissecting the episode, is pretty confusing, since people’s reactions are rarely the same.

Overall, it’s a very entertaining episode with some nice moments and a pretty cool plot built around a strong and original concept. There are some major flaws and plenty of gray areas for me, but a lot of that is subjective. The upside remains the characters and the main storyline that’s set up in an effective and original way. A pretty solid start for a season that’s definitely not easy to launch!