Ranking every episode from Doctor Who season one (2024)

3. The Church on Ruby Road

Following the change in the universe triggered by the 60th-anniversary specials, the Doctor must learn to navigate a universe run by magic, not science. “The Church on Ruby Road” explored this concept through luck, a force used and created by the episode’s villains, the goblins, in their quest to eat babies.

This was the first real episode with Ncuti Gatwa’s version of the Doctor, and it also introduced the first season’s companion, Ruby Sunday. The two have great chemistry, and while it’s a bit of a silly episode, it created plenty of opportunities for the Doctor to be clever and Ruby to be emotionally torn, which are pretty classic character dynamics for the show.

While this was not the best episode ever, it captured a lot of the best elements of RTD’s previous companion introduction episodes. For fans hoping for a return to form, that’s worth a lot. The musical elements have divided the fandom, with some loving “The Goblin Song” and others absolutely hating it. Overall, though, it’s an enjoyable episode that does what it sets out to do, establishing the characters and promising more interesting stories ahead.