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Notes on - Doctor Who: 73 Yards

 

73 Yards notes

The scenery is amazing.  SO beautiful

Back in Wales

The Doctor:  The war between the land and the sea.  It never ends.

They introduce uncertainty about what year it is right from the start

I was so sure that they were in the 90s

Really nice way they pan the Doctor out of frame when Ruby reads the scrolls’But why does the Doctor disappear?  Is he just blocked from this timeline/reality?

Ruby can’t get into the TARDIS

Does she really think he’s pissing around the back side?

The old woman appears now only after the Doctor disappears

This is completely the Millie Gibson showcase

The old woman is clearly repeating a plea

She’s cold

The woman is always that distance away

We kind of always know it’s going to turn out to be her

Snow.  Is it real?  Is it magic Ruby snow?

Susan Twist!  She’s a hiker in this one

Susan Twist: Oh, that’s Glyngatwg if you’ll forgive my pronunciation. Which they don’t

Ruby is finally noticing that Susan Twist keeps appearing

Could Susan see the woman before Ruby pointed her out?

The Doctor is just gone

Is this location?  I think it is

What did the woman say or do to her??

Anyone that talks to her immediately hates Ruby.  Harsh and heartbreaking

I was really convinced they were in the 90s at this point

Can’t catch the Welsh name for the pub

They’ve really convinced me that this is going to be a contained monster story in this time/location

You expect that these five characters are going to be the extras for the episode

They do show the kid with a phone before they raise the question of if she can pay with her phone.  It’s a mini rug pull set up for the big rug pull that it’s not a mad Jack monster episode

They’re really screwing with us about what year this is.  Inflation for the coke

Ruby can’t ask her why because she’s always 73 yards away

‘magic phone’  they’re just mocking her for thinking they’re primitive

***  In Latin it would be Semperdistans.  Always Distant.

Josh is the second to be scared away by the distant woman

See, this is what we expected this to be.  American Werewolf in London, small town, we don’t like foreigners round her kind of thing

And they’re totally selling it

This is EXACTLY what we were expecting this to be

The clifftops are a  boundary between the land and the sea

They’re not giving these people names.  On purpose.

The little scrolls.  They seem offended that she read them.  But they’re just fucking with her.  This is masterful

He was insane and he’s dead!!  That’s so not even at all what is happening, but they’re messing with both her and the viewer at the same time.  That’s so cool

That was worth the entire episode

Morning yogurt and toast

The innkeeper is nice enough still to lend her warm clothes

And now the innkeeper woman has turned on her, even without talking to the stalker woman

So she went back to the TARDIS to say goodbye and then took a train home.  SO it IS her year

But this Ruby is never going to see him again

I was really expecting a twist that when she got home it wasn’t her time

The woman is always the same distance from the train

Cherry Sunday!!

Carla Sunday:  That’s what men do.  They go into their sheds and potter.

It’s a good choice that they’re showing Carla being a good mother and loving Ruby before things turn

Mrs. Flood. – This week doesn’t have anything to do with her so she leaves

What does the woman say to Carla???

Ruby:  Mum!  Don’t do this to me!  Mum!

Carla’s face in the cab when she leaves Ruby is DEVESTATING

Cherry still has Ruby’s back

Ruby still has the apartment

Nope.  All gone.  Locks changed.  What happened to Cherry?

This is so, so sad

Ruby:  I’m you’re daughter.

Carla:  Except you’re not, are you.  Even you’re real mother didn’t want you.

Kate!  A glimmer of hope.  All of the UNIT resources.

It’s been a year since the previous scene?  Carla got a restraining order

They keep underlining that the supernatural keeps coming up

Ruby:  And you work with the Doctor?

Kate:  With him, despite him, against him sometimes.  And I adore him.

So the Doctor has just been gone this whole year?

Is this a branched timeline?

Ruby has a job

Nobody notices the woman

If she went on a plane or a boat, she or Ruby might die.  First mention of them being connection

The woman only registers as the average persons 20/20 eyesight from 73 meters

We have to know that the UNIT troops won’t be immune

And just like that it’s all torn away from Ruby again

I like how vague it’s all left

What the Hell can the woman be saying to people???

We’re rocketing forward in time

Ruby’s 30th birthday

Boyfriend 2:  It’s just, sometimes, I get the impression you’re not really listening.  Drifting off.  Thinking of something else.  Well, like now, to be honest

40th Birthday!

Roger ap Gwilliam – Mad Jack

Ruby:  Semperdistans is the word.  Look, you were sweet.  And this was… ahh… this was nice, yeah? But you were right.  It was never gonna work, and that is my fault.  E-Execept for the bed thing. ‘Cause that… that really was you.

I like that she’s formed a bond with the distant woman

And she’s going to volunteer to go undercover with the Roger ap Gwilliam campaign

She’s carrying the coats.  Literally

Election ’46.  That’s notable

2031 the Great Russian War

He wants to fire nuclear missiles

Ruby totally just gave up Marti to be sexually abused and let it happen

Roger is now elected Prime Minister

Ruby’s been biding her time, knowing he’s a monster.

And Marti confirms it

Marti:  Oh, he is a monster.

Football pitch

Nice.  The yards are so clearly marked

Gwilliam still has everyone fooled into worshipping him

And he wants to rape Marti again at the party

Does she pass as 40?  I don’t even know

They’re about to give all the nuclear codes to Roger to launch

Ruby:  I’m sorry it took so long.  Because I think I’ll only get one chance, and I had to make sure I was right. But I wish I could have helped you.

Walking onto the grass is such an act of strength here

Ruby has control of a monster that only attacks at 73 yards.  That’s such good setup

And Roger runs away like a little bitch

So Ruby just saved the world, so things should end now.

So she asks the woman to be done now and still isn’t let go

40 years later????????

It’s still happening.  Ruby is no longer Millie Gibson

The woman is still 73 yards away

The TARDIS is overgrown

No one ever told her when her mother died.  That’s so sad

**** I think, at the end, I have hope.

It’s stopped snowing for Ruby

Everyone has abandoned her her whole life

That’s much closer thatn 73 yards

As she dies she merges with the woman and becomes her. And now is there at the beginning again to see herself and The Doctor

Old Ruby is saying ‘Don’t Step’

So is the fairy circle magic??  Is it just a symbol??  What’s really true??

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