Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road – Stream It or Skip It

When Gatwa utters the immortal words “I’m the Doctor, “ we believe him and want to jump into his time machine for the adventure of a lifetime. Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road is streaming now on iPlayer and Disney+ in the rest of the world.

Doctor Who fans can be a strange breed; they often like to pick fault with the arrival of a new Doctor and find themselves comparing and contrasting an episode against a backdrop of sixty years of glorious TV adventures. It’s one of the pitfalls of a show that has run for so long.

Yet, since Hartnell regenerated into Troughton, Doctor Who’s success, like James Bond’s, has rested on its ability to reinvent itself for each new generation. In the safe hands of showrunner Russel T Davies, David Tennant’s 60th Anniversary Specials paved the way for a new era of Who, delicately reinventing the show for a whole new generation as we were introduced to the fantastic, charismatic and energetic Ncuti Gatwa. And my god, he doesn’t disappoint. 

Gatwa manages to pull off precisely what Eccleston, Tennant and Smith achieved on their arrival as custodians of the TARDIS by injecting the character and the show with newfound energy, humour and imagination. He shakes off the baggage of the past while honouring the show’s history and roots as we are introduced to the fabulous Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). There’s so much to love in this freewheeling, exciting and beautifully written tale of foundlings, baby-munching goblins and wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey adventure; in fact, it is as stuffed as your average Christmas turkey with easter eggs and nuggets of what’s to come in Gatwa and Gibson’s first season.

Throughout Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road, Russell T Davies’s love of the show is intoxicating and infectious. But he also understands the need for regeneration, offering us something fresh and new by embracing fantasy adventure rather than the self-indulgent sci-fi of recent years. And with Gatwa at the helm, the old Doctor Who phrase “Change, my dear… and it seems not a moment too soon.” couldn’t be more apt.

When Gatwa utters the immortal words “I’m the Doctor, “ we believe him and want to jump into his time machine for the adventure of a lifetime. And let’s face it, we haven’t felt like that since Matt Smith took the reins in 2010.

STREAM IT