“Ruby Sunday Is A Time Lord”: Doctor Who Theory Gets A Big Boost After Season 14, Episode 4
SUMMARY
- Ruby Sunday’s mysterious powers suggest she may be linked to the Time Lords.
- Ruby’s ability to see through perception filters indicates a connection to Time Lord technology.
- Possible ties to the Rani, Timeless Child, or Doctor’s granddaughter Susan suggest a deeper Time Lord connection.
A recent episode of Doctor Who gives a significant boost to one theory about Ruby Sunday’s origins. Season 14 has focused on the mystery of new companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson)’s birth parents. Ruby was abandoned on the church doorstep the Christmas Eve she was born, and she has been searching for her birth mother since before she met the Doctor. Each new adventure she goes on includes clues as to her origin, but she has made little progress toward her goal of identifying her birth mother or understanding why she was abandoned at birth.
Ruby’s birth story might lead to one of the best Doctor Who episodes of all time, considering the way it’s playing out. Doctor Whoseason 14, episode 4 featured Ruby being followed by a mysterious apparition that made everyone who came in contact with it reject her, even her devoted adoptive mother, Carla. The Doctor Who cast for this story included only Ruby and the people she interacted with, with Ncuti Gatwa making cameo appearances as the Doctor at the beginning and end. This exclusive focus offered insight into who Ruby really is.
The Perception Filter Is Associated with Time Lord Technology
When Ruby met with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, who explained Doctor Who’s UNIT supported former companions and attempted to help her with the apparition, Kate said that the apparition had a perception filter. This explained why most people couldn’t see it — the apparition used the filter to blend in with the surroundings so that most people did not notice its existence. Perception filters are Time Lord technology that is often associated with TARDISes. This technology explains why people often don’t notice the Doctor’s TARDIS despite the police box exterior not matching the period or other items in the background.
Ruby’s ability to see the apparition may be because traveling in the TARDIS has changed her abilities, but it’s more likely that she is a Time Lord…
Ruby was able to see the apparition despite the perception filter, which suggests that she has some relation to the Time Lords. Humans are not able to see through the perception filter in most cases, as this would defeat the purpose of having the filter in the first place. Ruby’s ability to see the apparition may be because traveling in the TARDIS has changed her abilities, but it’s more likely that she is a Time Lord or is related to them, given other evidence that she has alien powers.
Kate and other members of UNIT might be an exception to this rule because of their advanced knowledge of Time Lord technology.
Ruby Sunday Being Connected To Doctor Who’s Time Lords Would Make Sense
It Would Explain All the Other Strange Occurrences Surrounding Her
Ruby’s mysterious powers make sense if she is connected to the Time Lords. Ruby is drawn to situations involving abandoned children, which is similar to the way the TARDIS often takes the Doctor to places he is needed even if they are far off from the course he plotted before taking off. She also appears to be able to bend time, as the snowfall from the evening of her birth keeps appearing in other places, especially when someone threatens Ruby. Her power is also strong enough that otherwise omnipotent beings like the Maestro back off.
| All of Ruby Sunday’s Mysterious Powers | |
|---|---|
| Description | Episode it First Appeared In |
| Ability to draw the Doctor to situations involving abandoned children | “Christmas on Ruby Road” |
| Ability to attract the Doctor to her | “Christmas on Ruby Road” |
| Ability to use music to weaken enemies’ power | “Christmas on Ruby Road” |
| Ability to bring the snowfall from her birth to other situations | “Space Babies” |
| Ability to scare away evil creatures | “Devil’s Chord” |
| Ability to survive seemingly certain death | “Boom” |
| Ability to see through perception filters | “73 Yards” |
| Ability to exist in the same time and space as future or past selves | “73 Yards” |
| Ability to recognize Susan Twist’s character as someone she’d seen before | “73 Yards” |
Ruby’s meeting the Doctor in the first place might not be a coincidence, which could be related to the Time Lords. Time Lords are often drawn to one another’s energy, and if other Time Lords are not quite as dead as the Doctor thinks, they could also have engineered the meeting between the Doctor and Ruby. Furthermore, the events of “73 Yards” make it clear that Ruby needs the Doctor’s help to be able to understand her origins, as the 85-year-old Ruby in the alternate timeline remarks to her nurse that she never found out who her birth mother was.
Time Lords usually can regenerate after death, which Ruby did not do, but her revival after death in “Boom” could be considered a regeneration.
Ruby’s ability to co-exist with the apparition is a strong piece of evidence that she is connected to the Time Lords somehow. It has long been part of Doctor Who canon that humans cannot exist in the same space as their previous or future selves without causing dangerous time paradoxes. However, Ruby’ suffered no ill effects from being in the same vicinity as her future self. This ability suggests Time Lord influence, as the Doctor previously told Ruby he couldn’t take her directly to the moment she was abandoned at the church without causing a paradox.
How Ruby Sunday Could Be Linked To The Time Lords
She Could Be Another Time Lord Or a Time Lord/Human Hybrid
There are several possibilities for how Ruby is related to the Time Lords. One intriguing possibility involves the Rani, an enemy of the Doctor’s who has not yet appeared in the modern Doctor Who series. The Rani is an amoral scientist who experiments on humans and other sentient creatures without regard for their safety or freedom. Thus, she might have implanted a human embryo into herself to see what type of being such an action would create or experimented with splicing human and Time Lord genes in test tubes. After creating a baby in this manner, the Rani might have abandoned it on Earth to see what happened next.
Ruby could also be related to the Timeless Child, which was the Doctor’s original identity before he was adopted. It’s possible that Ruby is a future or past version of the Doctor and that they are both the Timeless Child, though that would likely cause a time paradox. She might also be the Doctor’s long-lost granddaughter, Susan, who was mentioned recently, or be another refugee created during the Time War and lost in time and space. Finally, her neighbor, Mrs. Flood, could be related to River Song, suggesting that Ruby has some connection to the Time Lords through her.
Doctor Who has created an intriguing mystery around Ruby Sunday’s origins. The fourth episode of the newest season provided several clues that she is related to the Time Lords, though it remains to be seen exactly who she is. Ruby’s abilities make it clear that she is not human, and her connection to the Doctor provides even stronger evidence that she is related to the supposedly dead race of people he belongs to.
