Even though the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) has a new companion in Doctor Who season 2 (or season 15, depending on when you started watching), that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Far from it—Gibson will reprise her role in the upcoming season’s fourth episode, “Lucky Day.”
As reported by RadioTimes.com, Gibson and showrunner Russell T Davies confirmed that “Lucky Day” would explore what it was like for Ruby to return to “civilian” life, as it were, after traveling across space and time with the Doctor. She decided to leave the TARDIS so that she could get to know her long-lost birth mum, but that doesn’t mean she’s just easily slipped back into an Earth-bound routine.
“She’s got a bit of PTSD, I’m not gonna lie! Gibson revealed. “It’s such a cool concept to go back to a companion and see how they’re getting on after that wild ride of being stuffed in a double bass or tackling goblins, or hanging over a rope ladder over London. So it’s like, how are things on Earth after all that? In episode 4, there’s a brilliant storyline of how Ruby’s getting on with her family, and it kind of goes on to the journey of her waiting for the Doctor and still feeling a bit lost. I’m really excited for people to see it, it’s such a cool ep.”
Of course, Ruby Sunday is far from the first companion to return in the NuWho continuity. Most have ended up with an adventurous lifestyle, though. There’s Martha Jones, who ended up working for UNIT and Torchwood, Sarah Jane, who may have remained on Earth but still had wacky adventures with robot dog K9, and Melanie Bush, who also ended up working for UNIT. Of course, there’s also Donna Noble. She didn’t remember her adventures with the Doctor until David Tennant returned to the role, however, so she never really experienced any lasting emotional damage. What Ruby’s going through is something we’ve rarely seen on screen.
Davies agreed with Gibson, saying, “We’ve got an episode coming up with Millie this year, which is the life of Ruby Sunday after she’s chosen to leave the Doctor and stay at home. And it’s an amazing episode, isn’t it? It’s just absolutely stunning—the PTSD that a companion goes through.”
I assume that relatively little time has passed on Earth since Ruby returned home, which is why her trauma is still hitting her so hard. How do you deal with knowing all of the secrets of the universe? How can someone who led a simple life before meeting the Doctor truly process having met an Egyptian god of death, a being who can manipulate music, or seen a war-torn distant planet? Ruby is also one of the Doctor’s youngest companions. How will that affect her as she continues to learn and grow? Was meeting the Doctor a stroke of luck or will she remember her experiences negatively one day?
The Doctor’s companions jump from one adventurous, dangerous situation into another, never stopping to take a breath for fear of everything ending. In some cases, what the Doctor does to their companions is actually sort of unfair and cruel; they’re promising thrills that are impossible to find elsewhere. That’s a high these humans will be chasing forever, one they can never replicate anywhere else. I think it’s about time a Doctor Who story addresses that kind of intense emotional whiplash in depth. Other companions have briefly mentioned that fallout in the past, but the idea that a companion has been left with actual, recognized PTSD from their time in the TARDIS, and we get to see it play out on screen? That feels groundbreaking.
Doctor Who season 2/15 premieres on Disney+, BBC One, and BBC iPlayer on April 12.
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