‘RUBY RED’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Genetrix in Russia in 1242 with the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby

Tim Bradley’s CD sleeve notes of ‘Ruby Red’ signed by Millie Gibson

Tim Bradley and Millie Gibson at the TARDIS at the ‘London Comic Con Winter 2024’, November 2024

Tim Bradley and Millie Gibson at the ‘London Comic Con Winter 2024’, November 2024

I’ve checked out this ‘Doctor Who’ book/audio adventure sooner than I expected. 🙂

At the time of this review, it’s been a while since I’ve shared my general thoughts on Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Rest assured; I will be doing in-depth reviews on the episodes featured in Series 14 soon. I’ll probably share those reviews in early 2025. 🙂

Regardless, it can’t be denied that Series 14 has divided a lot of fan opinion since it was shown on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ from May to June 2024. The season suffered in terms of its reception as well as how the stories were executed on screen for audiences to enjoy.

I think it would’ve helped if Russell T. Davies had his traditional 13 episodes to play with instead of having 8 episodes for Series 14. Or he could’ve had Series 14 act as the first half of a season with Series 15 as the second half for us to enjoy the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby’s characters. 😐

The concepts featured in the episodes are fascinating when checking them out, but the conclusions for most of those episodes are rather rushed. I know that seems to be a common thing in ‘Doctor Who’ nowadays, but I would’ve liked more time for these stories.

There’s also the argument that ‘woke’ elements got in the way of people’s enjoyment of the episodes, but honestly that’s not a big issue for me. I would’ve preferred it if Series 14 spent more time developing the TARDIS regular characters if more stories were provided.

With the flaws evident in the neo-RTD era so far, the question then becomes: Was there anything about Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’ that I liked…? Yeah, Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. For all the issues I have about Series 14, Ncuti and Millie shone brightly for me. 🙂

I was engaged with their performances as the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby, and the chemistry they shared on screen. It’s a pity the characters weren’t well-realised enough as I’d like them to be, but I could tell Ncuti and Millie enjoyed doing ‘Doctor Who’ for TV. 🙂

Whilst checking out ‘Ruby Red’ as a book and an audiobook, I revisited ‘The Church on Ruby Road’ and Series 14 to see Ncuti and Millie as their characters. I also revisited their ‘Doctor Who’ episodes before seeing them both at ‘London Comic Con Winter 2024’ in November 2024.

Ncuti Gatwa, Tim Bradley and Millie Gibson at the ‘London Comic Con Winter 2024’, November 2024

I’m amazed and thrilled that I’ve actually met the latest Doctor and companion, as of November 2024, in real-life at a convention. It’s something that doesn’t happen to me quite often. I’m pleased I’ve been able to meet, say hello and have quick chats with them.

The photo shoots were good to have too. 🙂 Whether you like the Fifteenth Doctor era/neo-RTD era so far or not, it’s very clear Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson are very enthusiastic about being in ‘Doctor Who’ – on screen, behind-the-scenes, and seeing them in real life.

Whilst Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series may be a disappointment for some people, what does that say about tie-in merchandise such as books, audios and comics featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby. Are they just as flawed as their TV counterparts?

Well, that’s what I endeavoured to find out once I purchased ‘Ruby Red’, the first Fifteenth Doctor original book adventure by the BBC. I purchased the ‘Ruby Red’ book when in Cardiff and I purchased the audiobook read by Millie Gibson via Amazon, which was nice.

I’ve had the sleeve notes of my physical CD copy of the ‘Ruby Red’ audiobook signed by Millie Gibson when I saw her in London recently. I’ve listened the audiobook thrice already. The third time was mostly to help me to get to sleep whilst I stayed in London. 😀

In 2024, three ‘New Series Adventures’ books featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby were released. There’s ‘Ruby Red’ as well as ‘Caged’ and ‘Eden Rebellion’. I didn’t purchase ‘Ruby Red’ as a book and an audio CD to read and hear just to see Millie Gibson. 😀

In the past, I’ve checked out unabridged audiobooks read by ‘Doctor Who’ stars like Sophie Aldred, who read ‘At Childhood’s End’, Anneke Wills, who read ‘The Roundheads’ and Sarah Sutton, who read ‘The Moon Stallion’ novelization, albeit the latter isn’t a ‘Doctor Who’ story.

I’ve not come across many unabridged audiobooks read by more recent regular ‘Doctor Who’ stars. The previous one was Mandip Gill when she read the ‘Combat Magicks’ audiobook. Here, this is the very first time Millie Gibson reads a ‘Doctor Who’ audiobook.

I wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. And after checking out the ‘Ruby Red’ audiobook, I’ve found Millie to be a very good and lovely narrator. I enjoyed reading the ‘Ruby Red’ book along with the audiobook read by Millie. I also twice liked the audiobook without the book.

I could tell from the audiobook how Millie is into playing the characters of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby interacting with each other and with the guest characters. She doesn’t do an exact recreation of Ncuti Gatwa, but she gets the tone of his voice as the Doctor. 🙂

It must come from working with Ncuti in the TV series, which I believe helps enormously to the reading/listening experience. It makes me wish ‘Ruby Red’ was translated into an actual TV adventure, especially as I enjoyed the story and its characters whilst hearing it.

‘Ruby Red’ as a book is divided into 20 chapters with a prologue at the beginning. There’s also an acknowledgements page given at the end of the book by the author Georgia Cook. The audiobook on CD is a 4-disc set, which could make the equivalent of 4 hour-long episodes.

The prologue and the first four chapters are on Disc 1, the fifth to tenth chapters are on Disc 2, the seventh and fifteenth chapters are on Disc 3, and the sixteenth to twentieth chapters are on Disc 4. There’s the acknowledgements and the dedication read by Millie.

Said dedication happens to be to Georgia Cook’s mum and dad and to Lewis and Fio for the ‘ice puns’. I’m not sure who Lewis is, but apparently, according to my research, ‘Fio’ happens to be Fio Trethewey (formerly Sophie Illes, who wrote the story ‘Master Thief’). 🙂

And Georgia Cook happens to be in a relationship with Fio at the time of this review. At least the ice puns featured in ‘Ruby Red’ weren’t cringworthy or stupid as Mr. Freeze’s ice puns were in ‘Batman & Robin’. At least, I don’t recall a bad ice pun featured in this story.

This is the first time I’ve come across Georgia Cook as a ‘Doctor Who’ author. She’s written for Big Finish, including ‘The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles’, ‘The Twelfth Doctor Chronicles’, the ‘Gallifrey’ series, and the ‘Call Me Master’ series with Sacha Dhawan.

I enjoyed Georgia Cook’s writing in ‘Ruby Red’. She delivers a very good interpretation of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby’s characters. I’m guessing she based her writing of them from sample scripts given to her by Russell T. Davies, such as ‘The Church on Ruby Road’.

It’s also clear she’s into history, especially as the story takes place in Russia in April 1242. I’m not very familiar with that period of history, but I could visualise the snow and forests whilst reading and hearing this story, especially when it’s well-read by dear Millie Gibson.

Incidentally, I noticed when the announcement is made at the end of the first three discs that it’s “End of Disc One”, etc, and on the second, third and fourth discs, they start with “Disc Two”, etc, they’re read by Bonnie Langford, not Millie Gibson as I would’ve expected.

I don’t know why Millie Gibson didn’t read those herself and I assume the announcements made by Bonnie Langford come from another audiobook reading. It might be for ‘Caged’ or another ‘Doctor Who’ audiobook that Bonnie read, I’m not so sure.

In ‘Ruby Red’, the Doctor and Ruby respond to a distress call that was sent from medieval Russia. The sender happens to be an alien girl called Ranavere, who’s on the run, as she’s forced to partake in a very barbaric conflict between the armies of Estonia and Novgorod.

And this is on the frozen surface of Lake Peipus. Apparently, according to my research, this happens to be the Battle on the Ice, which took place on the 5th of April 1242. I appreciate this being an introduction to casual readers like me not aware of this event. 🙂

I can’t say I know all the details involved with the Battle on the Ice in 1242, especially with Prince Alexander Nemsky involved. But it’s nice Georgia Cook wrote this in the story to provide us historical educational value, like good ‘Doctor Who’ historical stories should do.

Apparently, according to the Doctor, the end of the Battle of the Ice marked the end of the Northern Crusades and cemented Prince Alexander Nemsky as a national hero. Not that I’m expecting you to know that, but it’s pretty intriguing how it’s unveiled in the story itself.

Whilst the Doctor and Ruby do respond to Ranavere – Ran for short – and her distress call, her warmongering sisters Cellisamere and Helgadane are insistent she partake in the conflict in order to preserve their family tradition in the Rentara family, no matter the cost.

It was fascinating to read and hear the interactions between the Doctor and Ruby, and the Rentara sisters. The Doctor and Ruby defend Ran not wanting to be a warmonger. They tell off Cellisamere and Helgadane for trying to force her to be a fighter against her will. 🙂

I quite prefer how the Rentara sisters are developed in ‘Ruby Red’ compared to how the Starclair sisters were developed in the Big Finish audio story ‘The Great Beyond’ featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. At least Ram is trying to prove that she doesn’t need to be a fighter.

Apparently, the Rentaras are a family of intergalactic mercenaries, and at the age of 16, a Rentara child is sent to a random war on a random planet and is told to survive. I can see why Ran would not want to be involved in the Battle of the Ice conflict, since that’s harsh.

Whilst the human battle is going on, a monstrous entity called the Genetrix is about to emerge with plans of conquest and is growing stronger beneath the icy lake. Will the Doctor, Ruby and the three Rentara sisters get to work together to defeat the evil Genetrix.

Just to say, I did find the Genetrix’s voice provided by Millie Gibson to be soft and quiet compared to what I was expecting from reading the book. Maybe there should have been a voice treatment provided for the Genetrix in order to make them sound deep and deadly.

Not to blame Millie, as I’ve enjoyed her reading of ‘Ruby Red’ very much. But I wonder if maybe she should have spoken in a more monstrous tone than the softer tone that she gave to the Genetrix. I don’t know. Maybe that’s how Georgia Cook wanted them to sound.

I like the touches of Ruby’s character featured in this. This includes the fact she’s never seen wild wolves before. Apparently, these wild wolves happen to have ruby-like red eyes that glow when you encounter them in the snow. And there’s your story’s title: ‘Ruby Red’.

I enjoyed it in Chapter 1 when Ruby is given a cup of coffee by the Doctor, echoing when the Fourteenth Doctor gave a cup of coffee to Donna in ‘The Star Beast’. Thankfully, Ruby didn’t spill her coffee onto the TARDIS like when Donna did at the end of ‘The Star Beast’.

It’s funny when Ruby compared the taste of the coffee from the TARDIS coffee machine to roast potatoes, which must be a very unusual taste. She also remarks on how the Fifteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver doesn’t look like a screwdriver, which I agree with. 🙂

I mean, the Fifteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver often looks like a PC mouse you use at your computer desk, don’t you think? 😀 There is a point in the story – Chapter 2, I believe – where the Doctor, Ruby and Ram cannot get into the TARDIS since it seems to be locked.

The Doctor tries to click his fingers to get back in, but it doesn’t work. I quite like that the Doctor clicking his fingers to open the TARDIS doesn’t work. It was introduced in the ‘Silence in the Library’/’Forest of the Dead’, but used too much in Steven Moffat’s eras. 😐

A thing that really annoys me about ‘Ruby Red’ is the usage of the word ‘mavity’ instead of ‘gravity’. Seriously, I look forward to the day when ‘mavity’ becomes ‘gravity’ again, as youngsters can’t live in a world where it’s all ‘mavity’ and not ‘gravity’ in their everyday lives.

Not only is it said by the Doctor when he explains to Ruby how to navigate across the ice, but it’s used in certain scene descriptions. Surely the Fourth Doctor should’ve told Isaac Newton it’s ‘gravity’, not ‘mavity’ in ‘The Pirate Planet’ by now. It can’t be erased like RTD seems to want to.

There are occasions in the story where Ran uses a perception filter to change Ruby and the Doctor’s clothes into something more modest when trying to blend into medieval Russian society. This concept was used in the Christmas Special ‘The Time of the Doctor’.

You know, when Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor used holographic technology or hologram clothes to cover his and later Clara’s nudity when they visited the Papal Mainframe above Trenzalore. Let’s be thankful the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby weren’t naked in this story. 😀

Incidentally, Millie Gibson shared at the ‘London Comic Con Winter 2024’ that Matt Smith was her Doctor when she was growing up watching the TV series in the 2010s. I hope one day that Millie will get to meet Matt someday. I also hope that I’ll get to meet Matt someday. 🙂

There’s a moment in ‘Ruby Red’ where the Doctor tells Ruby that the TARDIS has been ‘feeling a bit upset lately’. This is in reference to the strange groan emanating from the TARDIS, which apparently occurred in ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, ‘The Devil’s Chord’ and ‘Rogue’.

This is also something to connect to Suketh in the Series 14 two-part finale ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’. If you want to know what my thoughts are on Suketh in the two-part finale, you’ll have to wait for my in-depth review on the story to find out. 😀

I do like the connection made between Ruby and Ran in the story, especially when discussing about not having a home and recalling her foundling origin, which started in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. It makes you aware of where and when the story takes place.

Again, you will have to wait on my thoughts about how Ruby’s parentage is resolved in the two-part finale of Series 14 another time. I wonder if Georgia Cook was surprised by the true revelation of Ruby’s parentage after writing ‘Ruby Red’ set before the Series 14 finale.

The story concludes with the Genetrix defeated and Cellisamere and Helgadane being accepting of who Ran is and finding an alternative for her in the Rentara family. I like how the story closes with the Doctor and Ruby returning to the TARDIS before taking off again.

‘Ruby Red’ has been a pleasant reading and listening experience for me. I enjoyed the story, and it should be noted that I read and listened to ‘Ruby Red’ at a leisurely pace. I read a chapter per day, enjoying Millie’s readings of the chapters thoroughly whilst in bed.

I wouldn’t say ‘Ruby Red’ is spectacular as a ‘Doctor Who’ story, but it was good to take my time checking it out in book and audio form. The ending didn’t feel rushed, although with a book and an audiobook, you’re allowed to process the details more than a TV story.

Millie Gibson was the highlight for me in Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’ and it’s been nice to add to the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby experience by checking out the audiobook for ‘Ruby Red’. She reads so well and does the voices of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby so superbly.

I don’t know if Millie will be asked again to do a future ‘Doctor Who’ audiobook by the BBC or whether she’ll do something for Big Finish. If she does read another ‘Doctor Who’ audiobook for 2025, I’d be glad to check it out to hear the story and to read the book with it.

Compared to checking out Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series on BBC iPlayer, ‘Ruby Red’ has been a satisfying Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby adventure. Georgia Cook writes very well and the audiobook read by Millie Gibson adds to the pleasant experience.

‘Ruby Red’ is a story that makes you forget about the flaws featured in Series 14 of the new TV series. It’s a story that allows you to enjoy the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby and how they work as a TARDIS duo. And with Millie Gibson doing the reading, it makes it worthwhile. 🙂

‘Ruby Red’ rating – 8/10