NCUTI GATWA'S DOCTOR WHO SEASON HAS ONE MAJOR FLAW I CAN'T GET OVER

Ncuti Gatwa’s first season has offered some of the Doctor Who’s best moments and heartfelt episodes, but there’s a flaw at the heart of it that is impossible to ignore. 

The new era, helmed by returning showrunner Russell T Davies, stars Ncuti as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday. While the pair have been traversing time and space battling terrible monsters, they have also noticed strange happenings. 

From the same face (Susan Twist) popping up wherever they go, as an AI ambulance to Lindy Pepper-Bean’s mother, to snow from the night Ruby was abandoned outside a church as a newborn sporadically starting to fall.

In the first part of the season finale, fans discovered this was all connected to the return of 1975 Classic Who villain Sutekh aka the God of Death. But exactly how Ruby’s mysterious birth connects to Sutekh remains to be seen. 

However, as we come to the season’s dramatic conclusion I’m disappointed to admit I am struggling to care.

For all the new season’s merits – including Ncuti’s powerhouse acting and a historic gay romance – it has one fundamental failing.

The Doctor and Ruby’s connection feels forced and shallow. 

Since the start of the show in 1963, the relationship between the Doctor and their companion has formed the heart of the show. And this has only become more important since the 2005 reboot. 

Early companion Rose Tyler’s (Billie Piper) expulsion into a parallel universe in the season two finale with the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) is only gut-wrenching because we have had the time to become invested in the romantic connection between the pair. 

Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams’ (Arthur Darvill) sudden death through a Weeping Angel in season five is soul-destroying because the show has spent plenty of time making us believe they are truly the Eleventh Doctor’s (Matt Smith) family.

And Donna Noble’s (Catherine Tate) return on the 60th anniversary where she finally retrieves her memories of her time with the Doctor is all the more special because of the chemistry the two shared on screen.

These pivotal Doctor-companion friendships all worked because (over multiple episodes) we got plenty of domestic interludes in the TARDIS and quiet moments away from the core episode plot to build their dynamic outside of life-and-death scenarios. 

But that is bafflingly lacking this season. 

The Christmas special, The Church on Ruby Road, starts well with the Doctor and Ruby connecting over their shared lack of identity (the Doctor being adopted and Ruby being a foundling).

But since then the show has completely abandoned any attempt to nurture their bond. Instead they jumped from strangers to best friends in the blink of an eye when the full season kicked off in April. 

The lack of character investment was made painstakingly clear in episode six, Rogue, when the Doctor spent more time building a witty rapport with the titular bounty hunter (Jonathan Groff) than he had with Ruby. 

Even the end of the episode feels rushed and abrupt, with no time to stop and reflect in the TARDIS post-adventure. 

This is in stark contrast to the end of season two episode, The Girl in the Fireplace (another heartbreaking period romance) in which Rose and the Doctor get plenty of time to process after the main villain is vanquished.

Now it almost feels laughable when the Doctor refers to Ruby as the closest person in his life, when we have little evidence aside from his regular proclamations. 

What’s more, the constricted number of episodes (13 reduced down to eight) has rushed the finale before we have had time to become fully invested in Ruby’s arc. 

It is well-known that Ncuti’s Doctor Who shooting schedule overlapped with filming for Sex Education’s final season and that is woefully clear on screen. The TARDIS skids into a new destination as the show begins and it ends moments after they both barely escape with their lives. 

In essence, the finale came out of nowhere. 

One moment the Doctor and Ruby are leaving 19th century England, the next they are in UNIT urgently trying to get to the bottom of the recurring face with no explanation as to why. 

It’s a shame as I want nothing more than to be fully invested in the season finale, and terrified at the idea of losing Ruby for good. But beyond the fact she is adopted and a musician, there is not much more to go on. Who is she as a person, and why does the Doctor care?

Maybe we’ll never know. 

Doctor Who airs this Saturday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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