Careful who you let climb down your chimney.
Short Synopsis
The Fifteenth Doctor meets Ruby Sunday, foils a band of hungry goblins who fancy a baby for dinner, and sets up the start of a brand-new era.
Extended Storyline
We open with Ruby Sunday, who lives up to her name by being bright, charming, and just a bit unlucky. Abandoned as a baby outside a church, she’s grown up with a loving adoptive mum and nan, but there’s always been that lingering mystery about her origins. So far, so wholesome. Until… enter the goblins.
And when I say goblins, I don’t mean cute fairytale ones. I mean ugly, snarling little beasties with a taste for human flesh, specifically baby flesh. Because nothing says “Merry Christmas” like a gang of carnivorous Gremlins singing shanties about eating toddlers.
Luckily, the newly-regenerated Fifteenth Doctor is already strutting onto the scene. And wow, what an entrance. He’s confident, vibrant, and playful — one minute dazzling Ruby with cheeky grins, the next rattling off goblin biology at lightning speed. He’s still recognizably the Doctor, but he radiates an energy that’s fresh, mischievous, and utterly magnetic.
The goblins’ plan? Old-school fairy tale logic. Snatch a baby, sacrifice it to their king, and gain control over fate itself. The Doctor and Ruby chase them across rooftops (in what has to be the most stylish parkour chase the show has ever filmed), eventually ending up on the goblins’ flying ship. Yes, flying ship. With rigging. And songs. Honestly, it’s like Pirates of the Caribbean crashed into Labyrinth.
Ruby proves herself immediately: smart, resourceful, and absolutely fearless. She teams up with the Doctor to outwit the goblins, save the baby, and crash the ship in glorious, fiery fashion. The goblins end up gobsmacked (literally), the child is safe, and Christmas is salvaged once again.
But this isn’t just monster-of-the-week. Russell T Davies is already weaving mystery around Ruby. Strange coincidences, unexplained luck, and a sense that the universe itself has taken an interest in her. The Doctor notices it. We notice it. And the show leaves us with the tantalizing question: who really is Ruby Sunday?
By the end, Ruby has hopped aboard the TARDIS, Christmas lights glitter in the background, and the Fifteenth Doctor is clearly delighted to have a new best mate. It’s festive, spooky, heartwarming, and just the right level of unhinged.