Doctor Who - The Church on Ruby Road

As the trailer says: Long ago, on Christmas Eve, a baby was abandoned on the snow. Today, Ruby Sunday meets the Doctor, goblins, stolen babies, and perhaps, the secret of her birth...

This episode gets things rolling with lots of fantasy and action and in doing so introduces Ruby Sunday, the new companion of the Doctor. The show opens with the scene of a Church where a woman abandons her baby on the steps of a Church, who later takes her in, naming her Ruby after the road she was found. The show fast forwards to present day where she is being interviewed as part of a show that will go on to try to find her natural birth parents.  In this scene we hear distant cackling and laughing from what are later revealed as goblins who thrive and survive off eating humans. They appear when a cluster of coincidences occur and along with many mischievous accidents allows them entry into the world. However it appears that Ruby has had this "bad luck" and "accidents" over the past few weeks which has caused the Doctor to appear in her life to correct things.  He meets up with her in an episode of action and adventure where they board an alien goblin ship, saving the baby but eventually kidnapping Ruby. The Doctor then goes back in time to save Ruby by killing the Goblin King and destroying the Goblin ship.

Analysis and conjecture

This episode is one of a setup of sorts for the rest of the season and most of the fun of the show is in guessing what will unravel.The introduction of Ncutti Gatwa as the Doctor and his new companion, Ruby Sunday (played by Millie Gibson) as well as the carry through of what seems to be a running gag of "mavity" is established. The shadowy figure of the next door neighbor (Mrs. Flood) is also introduced.

The Doctor and Ruby are amazing dancers and singers! That is quite a twist to the show compared to Doctors of the past. There also seems to be a lot more laxity with social norms in this show: the trans-sexual singer and the doctor having a "hot summer" with Houdini.

Could the older woman living next door, Mrs. Flood, be the mother that dropped off Ruby at the Church and has been living next door, keeping an eye on her ever since?

The polaroid picture that shows the goblin and then doesnt is an interesting plot device that gives vibes similar to Back to the Future when Marty has a picture of his family that slowly disappear from the pic.

Techno gadgets and trivia

• New sonic screwdriver, that looks less like a screwdriver and more like a remote control.
• 800 quid a kid, to foster a child.
• Intelligent gloves - are a kind of super-kinetic transfer of mass. The gloves take all of a persons weight and transfers it to the gloves making you lightweight. All the mass and density and mavity exists in the glove. They can also be reversed which allows you to be heavy rather than lightweight.
• the language of luck - discussed in this episode, as expressed in coincidence, waved together in a tapestry.
  

Characters of note in this episode

• Doctor Who (15th doctor) - His first true episode, we meet a more charming less dark or encumbered Doctor.
• Ruby Sunday - interesting name
• The Goblin King - appears to exist solely to eat human babies.
• Mrs. Flood - she seems much more than just a neighbor.
  

This week's aliens and villains

The goblins, so called because they gobble you up. They work on chance and coincidence and luck. They appear to be a time riders who surf the waves of time to cause accidents so that they have a point to appear to kidnap food.

Lingering mysteries and Unanswered questions

• They are still using the term Mavity, will this be a gag that runs all season but then becomes important in the final episodes?
• Will the wonder of Ruby Sunday's parents be a  theme in the show to be revisited and perhaps spawn episodes dedicated to it?
• Who is the lady who jokes about never seeing a Tardis before at the end of the show?
• Who is the boss from the 1st episode of the 60th anniversary special that the Meep mentioned?
• Who is the one player the Toymaker dares not challenge? is it the boss?
• What legions are coming that the Toymaker refers to?
• In a familiar scene in The Giggle, we see a woman's hand take hold of the tooth that contained the master (it was a ring in previous Doctor who episodes). This certainly suggests we'll see the master again. Will it be this season?