Doctor Who: 73 Yards: Review

When the TARDIS lands in rural Wales, the Doctor and Ruby find a mysterious circle just outside their destination.

Seconds later, the Doctor disappears and Ruby finds herself alone and haunted from a distance by an old woman who appears to be following her everywhere. Holed up in a local pub and waiting on the Doctor's reappearance, Ruby goes back to her old life, trying desperately to work out how to reconnect with her past and solve the mystery.

73 Yards is a terrific tale that manifests mystery at every edge and provides terror and tension throughout. 

But while the suspense is brilliantly articulated in the episode and held together by a mightily impressive performance from Gibson as Ruby Sunday, the Doctor-lite episode seemingly makes little sense upon conclusion.

A puzzle box episode that revels in its vagueries and is all the better for it, 73 Yards feels oblique and oddly unusual as it plays out. Yet the promised answers never reveal themselves and the mysterious edges never quite clear enough to provide definitive resolution.

Conversely though, this is also the show's strength in this particular episode. 

A more fantastical story that benefits from interpretation, the premise is terrifically executed and plays out brilliantly on screen. A story of parallel timelines and of isolation in more ways than one, 73 Yards is haunting as it plays out, but frustrating when examined more closely.

Much like previous Doctor-lite episodes, the show works best as a showcase for Gibson to shine, and like others have done before (most notably, Catherine Tate in Turn Left) she rises to the occasion with ease.

Fascinating, frustrating and frightening, 73 Yards is perhaps the most ambitious Doctor Who has been thus far in its latest iteration; its ambiguous nature and ambivalence to answers will be polarising, but it demonstrates that even 61 years on, this is a show willing to gamble it all on a concept.