#ruby road to boom is just one long showcase for his doctor

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

Just bonkers to me that some think we should've missed out entirely on having years of Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor rather than suffer the minor inconvenience of having to watch two Doctor-lite episodes in one season.

[orpheuslookingback]

Okay I think this is my ultimate ranking of episodes this season (from least favorite to favorite) (including the Christmas special but not the 60th specials)

(under the read more because it got long lol)

9. Space Babies: Ultimately was the weakest in the season imo. It's not an absolutely awful episode but its not particularly good either.

8. The Church on Ruby Road: More fun/exciting parts than Space Babies but overall just an okay story. The thing working most in its favor is that it did do a really good job of immediately showing how good Ncuti Gatwa is in the role though, like his charisma and personality were instantly apparent in his first full episode. Though tbh that's less the episode ultimately and more just how well suited he is for the part

7. The Devil's Chord: The first three of the season (including the special) were ultimately the weakest imo, but of them I liked this one the most. Loved Jinx, thought they absolutely killed it in the part. Thought the sequence where everything was silent for a bit was really cool. But mostly another "just ok" story. The episode being solved by the The Beatles stopping an ancient entity through the power of friendship kind of made me giggle too, lol.

6. Empire of Death: Started strong for me but ultimately was a bit disappointing. I still don't totally hate the reveal that Ruby's mom is just a normal person (if that ends up remaining that case and there isn't some further secret that's being hidden from us), but I do wish there was a better explanation as to why weird things were happening around her, or at least that the explanation we got had felt better set up by the narrative itself (I agree w/ people who are saying it works basically okay thematically but it just doesn't feel like it should work in-universe based on everything we've seen and were told). Ultimately I guess my issue is that I prefer fair-play mysteries and this ended up not feeling like one. I don't want to be given a bunch of clues and then basically be told "and none of them actually mattered". Like introducing red herrings is one thing but saying that there was actually no real mystery at all- unless you've set that up in a super thoughtful and clever way- is ultimately just frustrating. If it had turned out the mother herself was a normal person but that there was actually Something Else going on with Ruby that was causing things or Something Else actively causing weirdness surrounding her mother despite the mother herself being normal, it would have worked better than some hand wavey "she was important because you thought she was important" thing. Again though for all I know there's still something else to be learned there and this ending was a bit of a mislead. But I don't know that it feels like that's what's being set up at this stage.

5. Boom- A good solid stand alone story. Like I wrote in a post after it aired I think Moffat's a pretty good writer most of the time, just a not very good showrunner- he can introduce concepts but is not good at sustaining them- and his stand alone episodes consistently range from pretty good to great. This one was on the "pretty good" end. But was another good showcase episode for Ncuti Gatwa in that he was able to really sell the role in an episode where he was literally standing in one spot the whole time for 90% of it.

4. 73 Yards- Does it ultimately make a ton of sense? Not really. But it was still a compelling episode to watch. I do like getting the occasional Doctor-lite episode, it can be a good way to shake up the formula a bit and/or deepen our understanding of a Companion character. I think this did the former more than it did the latter (we did get some development for Ruby here but ultimately I do think as a character on the whole she suffered from being kind of more a plot point than a fully rounded person and the way this episode worked didn't totally help that. Also why ultimately having the mystery surrounding her not really mean anything was kind of frustrating. I don't know that she was a strong enough character on the whole to have earned that). Still- I really enjoyed this episode and I thought the basic concept behind it was compelling.

3. The Legend of Ruby Sunday- Maybe I should drop this one in my ranking a little because the payoff ended up being just okay but even so. The excitement and execution of the ending of the episode itself was so fun to watch live that it still sits pretty high in my ranking, even though I didn't love the second part that much.

2. Dot and Bubble- I wasn't disliking this episode at any point but it's the ending that really elevates the whole thing and ties it together. If it were just a very basic shallow "phones and social media are bad" message it would've been just mediocre but using that as a semi-misdirect and then making you realize at the end that everything has been about racism and privilege and how those are also exacerbated by things like social media was really well executed. Honestly the kind of "we're setting you up to focus on one thing but then making you realize there's been the evidence for a different thing to be true right in front of you all along" that the finale could have used! So the fact that they pulled it off for a stand alone episode but couldn't for the season arc was a little frustrating. Anyway. Very good episode. Also Ncuti Gatwa's performance in the final scene. Once again. Sooooo good. I love 15.

Rogue- It's fun, it's gay, Jonathon Groff is in it, idk what else to say lol. It was such an enjoyable episode to me and I hope we see Groff's character again (it felt like they were implying we would at some point. I think. I hope). Also kind of good proof though that they need to be bringing in new writers consistently and not having every episode be penned by the same three people. Not that I dislike all the other episodes (I didn't) but it's just good to have new people bringing ideas in too.

Overall: Ruby was an okay companion for me; Millie Gibson gave a really good performance but the writing for the character was a little weak imo. As I already wrote above I think her role as a plot point/ongoing mystery ended up dominating her presence in the season and she wasn't given that much of a clear, rounded personality outside of it, and when you tie so much of a character up in a mystery that ends up meaning basically nothing...I feel like the character as a whole doesn't work great. This version of The Doctor, on the other hand, I loved. Not only is Ncuti Gatwa absolutely killing it in the role, but I really like the way 15 is being written as a character overall, too.

I would call this a basically middle of the pack season for me? Though probably at the upper end of the middle. No absolute clunkers but also the majority of the episodes ranged from "pretty good" to "okay". I enjoyed Rogue the most but I feel like Dot and Bubble was probably the closest to a "signature" episode for the season.

I do look forward to what's to come. I am happy to have RTD back and thought this was a better season on the whole than any of 13's seasons (I'm so sad about how weak they were because I think Jodie Whittaker was literally doing everything she could with her performance and was just getting so little to work with in terms of writing. She deserved way better), and even better than some of the Moffat seasons (namely 11's last season which I just. Do not like.) but not as good as any of the seasons of his original run. I don't mind him staying on as showrunner for another season or two but after that I kind of hope they bring in someone totally new with no or very little prior connection to previous showrunners. A really fresh voice might be good for the show.