Fiction Reviews
Doctor Who
The Church on Ruby Road(2024) Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, BBC Books,
£14.99 / Can$31.99 / US$20, hrdbk, 154pp, ISBN 978-1-785-94869-5
The Church on Ruby Road is a fast-moving tale, told over 154 pages, in twenty chapters, plus an epilogue, but when you take off 13 blank pages between the chapters, 141 pages for £14.99 might seem a lot to pay for this tale involving the Fifteenth Doctor. However, the BBC are clearly pushing the boat out for Ncuti Gatwa’s first solo outing as the Doctor by bringing out this adaptation in hardback and as a BBC Book, and not one of their Target paperbacks. No doubt we’ll see some Target versions of some of Gatwa’s first season of stories which are currently being broadcast as I write.
Like the three specials which featured David Tennent and saw him passing the baton to Gatwa, this Christmas 2023 episode was written by Russell T. Davies, and like the episode the book is a lot of fun. One of the reasons for being on the humorous side is the subject matter, which on the face of it is very dark. After all it is about goblins trying to eat babies, and Goblins eating babies is straight out of the fairy tale playbook, and author Jikiemi-Pearson gets into that fairy tale vibe right from the off with her use of “you” on the first page, and the conversational, storytelling style continues giving the reader a sense that we are all gathered around the campfire for a Christmas story, but one that has goblins rather than ghosts.
Yes, it is Christmas Eve as we join the action in Manchester in 2004 as a baby is about to be left on a church doorstep, in fact it is a church on Ruby Road, and wait for it, Ruby might be a good name for a foundling child. Cut to the next chapter and almost, but not quite nineteen years later, where we join Ruby Sunday as she is being interviewed on television by one, Davina McColl, about the circumstances of her birth and who her real parents are. Can they be found? Tests can be run. Databases can be checked, and Ruby hopes that Davina and her production staff can find them. But in the background sinister forces are at work, lurking in the shadows, carrying a sack full of the sort of bad luck that seems to weigh Ruby down. Ruby is being stalked, but other more benevolent forces are also watching her, cue the Doctor and the immortal line. “Health and Safety. Gin and Tonic Division.” Ruby is going to need all the help she can get as her adoptive mother Carla is about to foster another baby, and at Christmas time too, and babies are fun, and giggly and a source of joy, and an even better source of protein if you are a hungry goblin.
Just like The Toymaker was a force of nature, involving play and games and chance, the goblins are masters of mischief and bad luck, generating bad luck by their own mischievous actions which adds to their own power and give them the ability to ride the timelines and change time and history to their advantage.
Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson tells this story with a pretty straight bat and, with the storytelling vibe it will certainly appeal to a younger Who audience in delivering a story that is frantic and fun and even has some singing (and dancing from the Doctor) and great set pieces, and on-screen benefitted on the special effects front from the co-funding from Disney. Russell T. Davies who once headed-up BBC America has always seen the franchise potential of the Doctor Who brand, and in his first tenure being in charge we had Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. With talk of an Eighth Doctor spin-off series who knows how the Whoniverse is going to expand with his return.
Realistically, given that this story was the Christmas special with a full season to follow, we couldn’t really expect Jikiemi-Pearson to reveal anything major. If anything this is Ruby’s story and she gets the spotlight as we get to know her hopes and dreams and relationship with her mother and grandmother, and as the Doctor has to venture into the past to save the present we finally get the answer to why the Doctor just didn’t speak to Ruby’s real mother. Although let’s not forget the Doctor himself, who is open to new feelings, and new experiences, and he even gets to speak rope. We can expect more to follow about Ruby’s mysterious origins, but in the meantime this adventure will have to do, and Jikiemi- Pearson’s adaptation does it pretty well, delivering another essential read for Who fans everywhere, which will look out of place on their bookshelves among the smaller Target books on either side of it.
Ian Hunter
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