Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) loses the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) in a fairy circle on a clifftop in rural Wales. She is stuck with a stalker — one who stays exactly 73 yards (aka 219 feet) away, just far enough that Ruby can't quite see or hear her — for the rest of her life. That's the premise of "73 Yards," the mind-bending fourth episode of Doctor Who Season 14 , and arguably one of its creepiest horrors since "Blink" introduced the Weeping Angels in 2007.
But just as this simple horror story turns out to be a timey-wimey fight against a future fascist Prime Minister, there are plenty of references hovering just under the surface. It's a cornucopia of references for fans of writer/showrunner Russell T Davies — and we're not just talking Doctor Who Easter eggs. Let's start with an unusual but not entirely unprecedented opening: Right from the beginning, Davies signals "73 Yards" is going to be something different.
This is only the second time in Doctor Who history that an episode has omitted the theme music and title sequence. The first was another horror episode, the Peter Capaldi-era found-footage tale in 2015 called "Sleep No More" — a story that has already been referenced once this season, in " Space Babies ." However, even "Sleep No More" briefly highlighted the words "Doctor Who" within one of its found-footage screens.
"73 Yards" is the first Doctor Who episode in its 60-year history to omit the title altogether, with Davies audaciously assuming that the TARDIS ma.
