TV Review: ‘Doctor Who’ Christmas Special “The Church on Ruby Road” is Fun, But Has Questionable Villains

Rating: 91/100.

Before I get into the specifics of the Doctor Who Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” let’s talk about goblins. Up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t put much thought into the concept of goblins. I knew that Joanne “Wormtail” Rowling’s version of goblins from Harry Potter were accused of being antisemitic and, after thinking about it, that made a lot of sense.

But it wasn’t until goblins were announced as the villains of the Doctor Who Christmas special—with the musical number from the episode called “The Goblin Song” charting in the U.K. ahead of the episode’s premiere—that the historical relationship between the concept of goblins and antisemitism was brought to my attention. Suddenly, a Doctor Who Facebook group I was participating in shut down any discussion of goblins because of concerns about antisemitism, and a Jewish friend of mine explained some of the history of goblins as an antisemitic trope.

Are the very concept of goblins, from 14th century folklore to David Bowie in Labyrinth, always antisemitic? According to Evelyn Frick writing for the Jewish online magazine Hey Alma, that’s a complex question.

Apparently, “goblin” is a catch-all term for a lot of different creatures from a lot of different cultures. The rise of goblins in folklore and the rise of antisemitic tropes roughly coincide, and there’s at least one type of goblin—knockers, or tommyknockers, of the folklore of Cornwall and Devon in England—that was explicitly antisemitic, but Frick argues that context is important in determining which depictions of goblins are and are not antisemitic, and says that calling the entire concept antisemitic as a blanket statement might be going too far.

I have a lot of problems with Russell T. Davies’ writing, but I don’t believe he would knowingly contribute to a harmful trope. I believe it’s more likely that he’s as ignorant of the trope as I was, and I can hardly blame him for that. And, unlike Wormtail Rowling’s goblins, the goblins in “The Church on Ruby Road” don’t look anything like Jewish stereotypes as far as I can tell. But, the goblins in this episode do try to kidnap and eat babies, which I understand has some relationship with the antisemitic history of goblins.

And the timing couldn’t be worse because antisemitism is definitely on the rise following the recent events in Gaza and, while criticism of Israel is certainly valid, blaming all Jewish people for the actions of the Israeli military and government is bigotry, plain and simple. I would hate to see this episode feed into that bigotry because that’s the opposite of what Doctor Who is about.

So, that being addressed, I have to give some credit to Davies for this episode because, in “The Church on Ruby Road,” he managed to avoid some of the biggest pitfalls that I often attribute to his writing. None of the female characters feel like stereotypes; the internal logic of the episode makes sense, and the ending works. I would honestly call this one of the best Christmas specials that Russell T. Davies has ever written.

The episode is our first full episode to meet the new, 15th Doctor, played by queer Rawandan-Scottish actor Ncuti Gatwa, and Ruby Sunday, played by Millie Gibson. Gatwa had already done a remarkably good job of establishing his new Doctor in the recent 60th Anniversary special, “The Giggle,” but in his first full episode he puts in an even stronger performance. While other Doctors have spent their first episode healing from regeneration and trying to find their bearings, Gatwa’s Doctor is confident and embodies the true spirit of the character from the beginning, making it really easy to fall in love with him right away.

As for Ruby Sunday, I haven’t particularly been a fan of the way Davies writes women in the past, but—at least in her first episode—Ruby is one of Davies’ more endearing characters. An orphan left at a church when she was born who was then adopted by her foster mother, Ruby grows up in a house that teaches her love and compassion as her adoptive mother continues to foster over 30 more children. At some point, it seems that Ruby became more of a second parent than a sibling to the many foster children, giving the sense that she’s responsible and strong for her young age, a young girl with wisdom well beyond her years.

Admittedly, the goblins weren’t the most complex villains Doctor Who ever created. There was little more to their plans than finding and eating babies, but then episodes that introduce new Doctors or new companions typically have to keep the villain fairly simple so there’s plenty of room in the narrative to do all the necessary introductions.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t give the episode credit for inserting another trans character, Trudy, the lead singer of Ruby’s band, played by trans actress Mary Malone. One of the things I love about modern Doctor Who is that it normalizes queerness by making both major and minor characters queer. Trudy didn’t have much screen time, but there also weren’t any comments about her being trans. She was just there, existing, like trans people do.

The episode is full of twists and turns, as one would expect from a Doctor Who episode, but none are quite as fascinating as the one that comes in the final moments of the episode. It raised a lot of exciting questions, leading us into the upcoming season of the show, which is apparently due out in May of 2024, contrary to rumors that claimed there would be no new episodes until 2025. So strap in, because there’s a lot more Who to come.

“The Church on Ruby Road” is streaming now on Disney+.

Photo courtesy of James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios