73 Yards

I came into this season expecting it to be playing a safer, broader set of stories to appeal to a greater international audience. And while the first few episodes were "safer" episodes of Doctor Who, I never thought we'd get something quite as 'moody' as 73 Yards.

RTD adds another episode to his list of cracking "experimental" episodes following on from the likes of Midnight and Wild Blue Yonder.

A fascinating story that follows in the footsteps of Years and Years, Turn Left and even Sound of Drums to create an episode quite unlike any other.

This won't be for everyone, but it butters my toast!

It was an ok episode, but I have a complaint. I think it was a bad decision to have two side to side episode where the main plot unravels because the doctor put his foot on something without looking at it. So, I want to shout him "watch your step, Doctor!" As I still have room, I will say that I found the ending of the episode a little lacking but I liked most of it and I was glad to see a familiar face again. And the scenes in Wales were amazing. The mixture of creepy and hilarity, I think it was the best part of the episode. And the idea itself was a very good one. Next episode looks like a Black Mirror one.

Following Moffat's great Episode 3 "Boom", Russell T Davies once again takes the helm in Episode 4 "73 Yards". This is a Doctor-lite episode due to Ncuti's Sex Education filming at the time so the lead goes to The Doctor's companion: Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson and finally, she's able to showcase her incredible ability as an actor.

This episode is one of the more unique storylines in the Doctor Who universe, akin to stories like 'Midnight', 'Listen', 'Turn Left' and 'Wild Blue Yonder'. The episode incorporates elements of creepy horror, political thriller, paradoxical time-travel and witchy fantasy all in one without failure. Much like some of RTD's best work like 'The End of Time', you can go from smiling and chuckling to being stone cold still and glued to your screen.

Criticisms? Perhaps a longer run time to flesh out the ending and make it clearer for the audience, as that seems to be the main and only issue most people can really string out about this episode. But much like RTD's previously experimental episodes, it leaves you with questions - as intended.

There's been a little history with Doctor Who Episodes which dont feature our titular Hero. From "Love and Monsters" to "Don't Blink" ( Which introduced us to one of the best Monsters ever). These are always some kind of hit or miss Episodes.

This one is clearly a big hit. It feels like watching a short story from Stephen King, not shying away from giving the watcher a feeling of confusion and utter hopelessness. Although I'm having a mixed feeling, knowing that the best Episode so far, doesnt use the doctor. To be honest, this didnt even need to be a Doctor Who Story at all, as it could've been used as a short Horror Story in any kind of format.

Nevertheless it shows theres much hope for the Doctor Who Writing-Team.

This could've easly got 10 Stars, if there would've been just a little more of an explanation at the end. Not that i dont like the mistery, but this newly introduced "villain" ( If you can even call it that) seems to interesting to leave it at this point. But you'll never now, you can just hope it will be featured again in another episode.

Started well and kept me hooked the whole way through but I just don't understand the ending? There was too many unanswered questions.

What was the reveal? Like what actually happened? Why did everyone run away from the woman? The Doctor knew about that prime minister so is that still going to happen? Was there a curse and if so what actually was it? Who is Mad Jack? Was he dead and came back? Or did he just not exist and breaking the circle created him and created that timeline?

I'm glad RTD is stepping into the supernatural though instead of always keeping the reveal "oh it was this random alien."

Too many unanswered questions to be a 10/10 but honestly such a solid episode.