Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies explains how he developed the new companion Ruby Sunday’s (Millie Gibson) backstory. The 2023 seasonal special “The Church on Ruby Sunday” saw Gibson debut as a young girl in search of her true parentage who is suddenly swept up in an adventure against Goblins. Ruby Sunday will join Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor in 2024’s Doctor Who season 14 as well as the currently filming season 15, which is set to air in 2025.
With Ruby stepping aboard the TARDIS in Doctor Who‘s 2023 seasonal special’s ending, Davies revealed during the latest episode of Doctor Who: Unleashed that her backstory had a surprising source. The showrunner stated that he had been inspired by rival network ITV’s documentary series Long Lost Family. The show featured real people raised as foundlings who set out to discover their families. This also contributed to the host, Davina McCall, being cast in the special as herself to host an in-universe version of the show that avoids copyright issues that Ruby signs up for. Check out Davies’ full explanation below:
She does the Long Lost Family show on ITV, and they’ve started doing foundling shows. That’s where I really watched those, and I started to realise that the life of a foundling was changing now. DNA testing – they could find out who their families are. And so that was actually the inspiration, so I thought that it was just fair to sort of pay that back and say “Come on Davina, come and do the show.”
Ruby Sunday’s Mystery Parentage In Doctor Who, Explained
After being left on the doorstep of the titular church in an opening flashback in Doctor Who‘s seasonal special, Ruby was adopted and raised by foster mother Carla Sunday (Michelle Greenidge), and the pair soon moved to London from Manchester to care for grandmother Cherry (Angela Wynter). Despite this, Ruby was still eager to discover the truth behind her parentage, putting her name forward for McCall’s show and partaking in filming an interview segment. But even without the goblin’s sabotage, McCall’s team was unsuccessful in finding her mother, as no one was able to find any records of her parents or find out who left her on the church’s doorstep in 2004.
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While she was unable to find her parents, she found a kindred spirit in the Fifteenth Doctor. Still fresh in the wake of Doctor Who season 12’s Timeless Child revelations of his origins, the Doctor relates to Ruby’s tale, opening up about his experiences with his newest friend. However, when the time-traveling Goblins jump back to 2004 to eat the infant Ruby, the Doctor intervenes, leaving him with the opportunity to discover who left Ruby on the doorstep. However, the Doctor ultimately chooses to make sure that Ruby has returned to existence, leaving the mystery of Ruby’s parentage unsolved.
Davies has often attempted to use his projects to shine a light on unexplored experiences in life, and Ruby’s story is no exception. With the showrunner pulling inspiration from real experiences and tying it into how people raised as foundlings have set out to explore their own parentage, he is aiming to approach the subject carefully. While Ruby may be leaving Earth behind for adventures in her TARDIS, the mystery of her parentage will become the major discussion in Doctor Who season 14.
Doctor Who
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.
