'The Church on Ruby Road' (Story Code 13.12) by Russell T Davies

“These goblins are time-riders. They can surf the waves of time. And they spotted the chance of coincidence and they went back and wove you in.” - The Doctor

Long ago on Christmas Eve, a stranger left a newborn baby girl on the snowy steps of the church on Ruby Road. The child was taken in and named Ruby, but the mother was never seen again - although her departure was witnessed by the Doctor…

December 1st 2023: a grown-up Ruby is interviewed by Davina McCall on a television programme that helps orphans find their long-lost families. But the shoot is sabotaged by what appear to be goblins, and Ruby narrowly avoids being badly injured…

December 22nd 2023: Ruby plays keyboards with her band at a pub gig. As the goblins cause trouble again, the Doctor watches from nearby…

December 23rd 2023: Visiting a nightclub, Ruby’s eye is caught by the Doctor, dancing flamboyantly amongst the crowd below. A goblin tricks Ruby into knocking over her G&T, but the Doctor catches it instead. Later that night, the goblins try dropping a huge inflatable snowman onto the cab carrying Ruby and her bandmates home. The Doctor intervenes, saving the band, but he gets caught under the hollow snowman in the process.

December 24th 2023: Ruby returns home on her birthday, arriving outside her attic flat as her neighbours Abdul and Mrs Flood argue about the police box that has mysteriously appeared on the street. After the goblins tear her shopping bag, Ruby carries the groceries inside and greets her adopted mother, Carla, and her bed-ridden grandmother, Cherry. Carla is taking in another newborn, a girl named Lulubelle, and she leaves Ruby in charge while she goes to buy more nappies. Davina calls Ruby with the disappointing news that the production team could find no trace of Ruby’s parents; Davina also reveals that she has been having bad luck ever since meeting Ruby, experiencing several accidents that have left her recovering in a wheelchair. The goblins are nearby - and they drop a Christmas tree on poor Davina… Hearing strange voices on the baby monitor, Ruby rushes to Lulubelle’s cot; but the baby has gone, and all that is left is a polaroid of a goblin’s face. Spotting an open skylight, Ruby grabs a ladder and climbs onto the roof, where she sees a gang of goblins hoisting the baby’s crib on a rope leading up into the sky. As the hideous creatures scramble up a rope ladder, Ruby jumps on too, then clings on for dear life as it moves off down the street. The Doctor appears, racing across the rooftops before jumping onto the ladder too. After introducing himself, the Doctor gives Ruby one of his ‘intelligent gloves’, which allow them both to hold on with mavity-defying ease as the ladder is drawn up through the clouds and into the goblins’ huge wooden skyship! Captured by the goblin crew, the Doctor and Ruby are tied-up and left together. The Doctor explains that the goblins use bad luck and coincidence to draw their victims into their clutches: and two babies celebrating their birthdays on Christmas Eve is ideal fodder. The Doctor frees himself and Ruby from their bonds, then works out the precise control rope and knot that activates their prison door. Crawling through the skyskip’s equivalent of a ventilation shaft, the duo hears the goblins singing an unpleasant-but-catchy song about eating babies; looking through the gaps in the floorboards, the Doctor and Ruby are horrified to see Lulubelle lying in her cots as it is carried along a moving conveyor belt towards the waiting, hungry maw of the gigantic Goblin King! Falling onto the conveyor belt too, the Doctor and Ruby grab Lulubelle and then join in with the song; with the goblins distracted, the Doctor grabs the ship’s control master-knot, then reverses his gloves to make himself and Ruby heavy. As the Goblin King looks on, the duo plummet through the floor, clinging hold of the rope as it drops them all the way back down to Ruby’s attic roof. They are just in time, returning the baby to her crib just before Carla returns. Having checked the place for goblin traps, the Doctor is amazed to see all the photos of Carla’s other foster children. When he remarks that he recently found out he was adopted too, Carla remarks on the coincidence: outside, ominous black clouds bring thunder and lightning, and a giant crack races across the flat’s ceiling! The clouds quickly calm, causing the Doctor to think the goblins were just saying goodbye - until he realises that Ruby has gone missing. But Ruby hasn’t just vanished: Carla and Cherry have never heard of her; Carla has become bitter, and has only ever taken in a few children just to bring her money. With the ceiling crack gone and the goblin photo now blank, the Doctor weeps, knowing that the goblins have gone back in time and stolen Ruby as a baby. Racing to the TARDIS - which dematerialises before a surprised Mrs Flood - the Doctor arrives at the church on Ruby Road in time to see the goblins snatching Ruby. Rushing to the roof, the Doctor uses his gloves to grab the rope ladder and start pulling down the skyship, making good progress until the gloves’ power starts to give out; without a second’s thought, the Doctor jumps off the roof, pulling the ship down further so that it - and the Goblin King within - are impaled on the church spire. As the King dies, the ship fades out of existence, causing Ruby to drop neatly into the Doctor’s waiting arms. After leaving the baby to be found at the church door at the stroke of midnight, the Doctor spots Ruby’s real mother walking away; wrestling with decision, the Doctor decides to depart in the TARDIS instead. Returning to Ruby’s home, the Doctor is elated to see things are back to normal: Ruby is back, her family are ok, and even the ceiling crack is there again. The Doctor starts to tell Ruby how he saved her, but then suddenly realises he has one more thing to do; dashing off, he then saves Davina from being impaled on the falling Christmas tree! Returning to the street outside Ruby’s again, the Doctor stops and wonders if he is the bad luck, before choosing to return to his ship. Inside the flat, the Doctor’s words sink into Ruby’s overwhelmed mind, and she realises that he really must be a time traveller. Grabbing her coat, Ruby rushes outside, where she sees the open TARDIS door waiting for her. Ruby goes inside, ready to start her new adventures with her new best friend…

Back on the street, Adbul is astonished at the disappearing police box. But Mrs Flood is unfazed, knowing it is a TARDIS…


Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday), Michelle Greenidge (Carla Sunday), Angela Wynter (Cherry Sunday), Anita Dobson (Mrs Flood), Bobby Bradley (Denzel), Mary Malone (Trudy), Hemi Yeroham (Abdul), Gemma Arrowsmith (Ruth Lyons), Davina McCall (Herself), Susan Twist (Audience Member)++
++Uncredited

Directed by Mark Tonderai

Produced by Chris May
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson
A Bad Wolf / BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
25th December 2023 @ 5.55 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Fifteenth Doctor, and introducing Ruby Sunday

*This special is fifty-five minutes long

*Second appearance of actress Susan Twist, this time as a member of the pub audience...

*The end-credits are accompanied by a slightly reworked version of the theme tune; the credits are also interrupted midway by the final sequence with Abdul and Mrs Flood; after this, they resume with the rest of the production team’s credits

*This special was also made available in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) on the BBC's iPlayer, and streamed on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland on the same day

*In the lead-up to transmission, ‘The Goblin Song’ was released as a novelty song, and even reached Number 1 in the iTunes charts!

*Other music heard in the episode: the Doctor dances to ‘Touch’ by Hybrid Minds, and various carols are heard throughout