Ncuti Gatwa ’s first season has offered some of the Doctor Who ’s best moments and heartfelt episodes, but there’s a flaw at the heart of it that is impossible to ignore. The new era, helmed by returning showrunner Russell T Davies , stars Ncuti as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday. While the pair have been traversing time and space battling terrible monsters, they have also noticed strange happenings.
From the same face (Susan Twist) popping up wherever they go, as an AI ambulance to Lindy Pepper-Bean’s mother, to snow from the night Ruby was abandoned outside a church as a newborn sporadically starting to fall. In the first part of the season finale, fans discovered this was all connected to the return of 1975 Classic Who villain Sutekh aka the God of Death. But exactly how Ruby’s mysterious birth connects to Sutekh remains to be seen.
However, as we come to the season’s dramatic conclusion I’m disappointed to admit I am struggling to care. For all the new season’s merits – including Ncuti’s powerhouse acting and a historic gay romance – it has one fundamental failing. The Doctor and Ruby’s connection feels forced and shallow.
Since the start of the show in 1963, the relationship between the Doctor and their companion has formed the heart of the show. And this has only become more important since the 2005 reboot. Early companion Rose Tyler’s (Billie Piper) expulsion into a parallel universe in the season two finale.
