Doctor Who 1.5 "73 Yards"

As if to wash the sugary taste of the early episodes of the series away, this week's installment of Doctor Who, "73 Yards", is perhaps the best of the year, featuring a truly creepy enemy that makes the Weeping Angels look like Hello Kitty. This might be a bit too much for the young ones, so viewer beware.

Soon after landing on a clifftop in Wales, Ruby loses track of the Doctor and finds herself wandering through the landscape, looking for him....and waiting. Years and years of waiting. She also finds herself perpetually followed by a mysterious figure, who for some reason is always 73 yards away from her...no more, no less, so she cannot approach her without her moving. Any help she enlists to send to the woman to ask her why she is doing this (random townspeople, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in a surprising cameo) run away in terror when the woman whispers something in their ear. 

We see Ruby begin to live an entire alternate life as she waits for the Doctor to return, aging from 25 to 30 to 80 and beyond. For her entire life, she is haunted and stalked by this figure. Her friends try to convince (gaslight) her that she is imagining the whole thing. But clearly, she is not. 

The Doctor is gone for the majority of the episode, leaving Ruby to figure out the mystery on her own. When she does finally connect the pieces the resolution is solid and satisfying, despite leaving many details up to the viewer to decide. We see a whole new side to Ruby whose character is fleshed out here, making her seem like her own person rather than simply an amalgam of Clara, Rose and Amy. 

This fits right in the "Doctor-lite" type of episode we tend to get at least once a season. Fortunately, these types of episodes are always classics ("Turn Left", "The Girl Who Waited") and this is as good if not better than any of the previous ones. The complete opposite of the paper thin, watered-down slapstick of the season premiere, and is a thoroughly gripping, well-written hour with an amazing central performance and an ending that actually makes sense without needing to be timey-wimey. My grade: a solid A+.