Doctor: Ncuti Gatwa
Companion: Millie Gibson – Ruby Sunday
Others
Davina McCall – Herself
Bobby Bradley – Denzel
Mary Malone – Trudy
Anita Dobson – Mrs Flood
Hemi Yeroham – Abdul
Michelle Greenidge – Carla Sunday
Angela Wynter – Cherry Sunday
Gemma Arrowsmith – Ruth Lyons
Rachelle Beinart, Jess Judge, Dilu Miah, Giuseppe Lentini, Andrew Francis, Lukas Disparrow – Goblins
Production
Directed by Mark Tonderai
Written by Russell T Davies
Script editor: Scott Handcock
Produced by Chris May
Executive producer(s): Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins, Phil Collinson
Music by Murray Gold
Running time: 55 minutes
First broadcast 25 December 2023
Ruby Sunday, an orphan who lives with her kind and caring foster mother, Carla, and foster grandmother, Cherry, is interviewed by Davina McCall for a television programme that traces its participants' lineage. Ruby was abandoned at a church on Ruby Road, hence her name, and has been trying to find her birth parents.
Following the interview, Ruby, as well as Davina, begin experiencing bad luck wherever they go, with the latter seemingly killed by a falling Christmas tree. The Fifteenth Doctor arrives and starts to investigate.
Carla announces a new foster baby named Lulubelle and immortalises the occasion with a photo she hangs on her fridge, alongside her 32 other foster children. While Carla steps out, Lulubelle is kidnapped by goblins, and Ruby gives chase on the roof.
She is soon joined by the Doctor, who, with the aid of a pair of intelligent gloves that can bear a much greater weight than the user, is able to get himself and Ruby on to the goblins' flying ship. The Doctor reveals the goblins are otherworldly beings who feed on coincidence and accidents, travelling through time to find babies to eat. A musical number ensues, in which the King Goblin tries to eat Lulubelle.
The pair manage to rescue Lulubelle and escape, returning to Carla's flat. A freak storm causes a giant crack to appear in the ceiling and Ruby disappears. The Doctor sees Carla change into a cold and uncaring woman who has only fostered a few children, resents Cherry, and is only concerned with money. Realising the goblins went back in time to take Ruby when she was a baby, the Doctor pursues them in the TARDIS.
The Doctor arrives in the past and witnesses the goblins taking Ruby away. Using the gloves, he pulls the ship onto the church's steeple, impaling the King Goblin and causing the ship to disappear. The Doctor leaves Ruby on the church's doorstep to ensure the parson finds her and sees a woman, presumably Ruby's mother, walking off into the night.
The Doctor returns to the present, where he finds everything returned to normal. He informs Ruby about what has transpired. He departs in the TARDIS, saving Davina from the falling Christmas tree. The Doctor returns, but decides to leave Ruby behind, concluding obliquely that he is a bearer of bad luck. Ruby, however, works out that the Doctor is a time traveller and steps into the TARDIS for the first time.
In a mid-credits scene, after they depart, Ruby's neighbour, Mrs Flood, in monologue, reveals prior knowledge of TARDIS travel.
The Church on Ruby Road