Why Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor Disappears In Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 4 (2024)

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who season 14, episode 4, "73 Yards."

Doctor Who season 14, episode 4, "73 Yards," is among a rare group of stories within the show to use the Doctor incredibly sparingly, but there's a good reason why Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday led the installment. "73 Yards" places Gibson even more at the heart of the Doctor Who season 14 cast as Ruby traverses an increasingly solo adventure. The first figure to abandon her is Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor, whose vanishing act is largely unexplained by the episode. However, there is a reason he is absent for almost the entirety of the runtime of "73 Yards."

Ncuti Gatwa has been present for every episode since the end of the Doctor Who 60th-anniversary specials, but "73 Yards" gives him even less to do than in his debut alongside David Tennant's Fourteenth Doctor. Returning showrunner Russell T Davies has teased in interviews the canonical reason for the Doctor's absence in the cerebral quasi-time loop story, and it adds some context to why Gatwa wasn't the focal point.

Breaking The Fairy Circle Made The Doctor Disappear In Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 4

The circle's magic in Doctor Who is more than superstition

Russell T Davies' second stint as Doctor Who showrunner has brought with it several elements of the fantasy genre, steering the franchise slightly away from its sci-fi traditions. Ever since the Fourteenth Doctor invoked the salt superstition in "Wild Blue Yonder," more and more things attributed to magical goings-on have been taking place. The fairy circle in "73 Yards" is yet another example of this shift in Doctor Who's formula. When the Doctor breaks the circle during the episode's opening minutes, he vanishes shortly after - specifically, immediately after Ruby reads a scroll with the words: "I miss you."

Usually, a full explanation of an event like this would be delivered in a technobabble-filled monologue from the Doctor as he broke down the events for his companion to understand. Unfortunately, the Doctor has no memory of ever being scrubbed from the timeline. This is because, thanks to the eventual intervention of Old Ruby, the Doctor never vanished. So, Gatwa's character has nothing out of the ordinary to remember, and therefore nothing to explain.

Although most of the events of "73 Yards" technically never happened by the end of the episode, Ruby seems to hold onto a vague memory of the alternate timeline in some way. At the end of Doctor Who season 14, episode 4, during her conversation with the Doctor, Ruby tells him that she's only been to Wales three times before. However, she can't quite remember when the third time was. During the same sequence at the beginning, Ruby says it's only her second trip to Wales.

The Fairy Circle May Have Been Enhanced By The TARDIS

The UNIT leader voiced this thought in "73 Yards"

Although the fairy circle may have held some power of its own before the TARDIS landed nearby, the blue box's perception filter could have made the circle's effects on reality even more pronounced. This is the theory given by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart during her meeting with Ruby Sunday in "73 Yards." Speaking with Ruby, the UNIT leader suggests that "landing a perception filter on top of that circle has affected things."

The fairy circle is a good example of the manner of issues UNIT is being forced to handle, with the perception filter theory being reinforced by the fact that Old Ruby also has a perception filter. While the episode never fully proves or disproves Kate's hypothesis, it does make sense. The interaction between the power of the fairy circle and the technological edge of the perception filter may have led to the unprecedented side effect of the Doctor's disappearance.

Doctor Who's Toymaker Is To Blame For "73 Yards"

The Fourteenth Doctor unknowingly allowed the Toymaker to cross the boundary between realities

Kate also acknowledges that UNIT is being increasingly tasked with handling supernatural events, rather than the extraterrestrial threats they're more accustomed to. This all goes back to Fourteen's actions in "Wild Blue Yonder," with a common theory being that Tennant's Doctor using the superstitious salt gambit to hold back his and Donna's doppelgängers is the cause for the Toymaker's crossing into the universe.

The salt ploy is carried out so close to the edge of the known universe that the barriers between realities are much thinner, so a fantastical action like invoking a superstition meant Neil Patrick Harris' character could break into the Doctor's reality. The Toymaker is the first major manifestation of this new wave of threats, with Jinkx Monsoon's Maestro being another. The fairy circle in "73 Yards" could easily be another symptom of the rules of reality changing - a process that began when the Toymaker crossed into the main Doctor Who universe.

Source: Radio Times

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Originally premiered in 1963, Doctor Who is a sci-fi series that follows a powerful being known as a Time Lord, referred to as the Doctor. Using an interdimensional time-traveling ship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor travels time and space with various companions as they solve multiple problems and help avert catastrophe as much as they almost cause it. Though the Doctor is always the same character, they experience regenerations, allowing them to be recast every few seasons as a unique immortal being with new personality traits.

Cast

Jenna Coleman , Jodie Whittaker , Alex Kingston , David Tennant , Matt Smith , Peter Capaldi , Ncuti Gatwa , Millie Gibson

Release Date

November 23, 1963

Seasons

14