We know we're getting a new companion next season, and that Ruby Sunday's story seems to be at an end now.
But Ruby is apparently returning.
I wonder what sort of role she'll have. Just sort of reduced?
According to the reporting, Verada Sethu is joining as a second companion rather than a new or replacement companion.
Everything I've read strongly indicates that Gibson will continue to be a full-time member of the cast and that there will be a three-person Tardis crew next year.
For example, this article: https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/varada-sethu-joins-the-fifteenth-doctor-and-ruby-sunday-in-season-two.
For another example, this tweet from the official Doctor Who Twitter account: https://x.com/bbcdoctorwho/status/1778860653828038954
Now, you may be thinking something like 'Oh, but wouldn't Ruby Sunday sticking around as a full-time companion rather undermine the emotional impact of that goodbye at the end of the season?'
And I would say Well, yes. Yes, it would. But the show has form for this kind of thing. We've had fake departures for Amy, for Rory, arguably for Rose (although that was a little different), and several for Clara.
Unfortunately, the show has a habit of hitting these emotionally manipulative beats and then it turning out that they are of no real consequence.
All that said, the reporting may be wrong or misleading and Ruby may turn up more in a Martha Jones role next season, as an ex-companion calling on The Doctor for assistance.
I wouldn't say the ending was an ending in the sense that Ruby was leaving. She even asks the doctor to come back, she just needs time with her mother
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If Ruby were merely taking a break, she could just tell him to time travel forwards six months and pick her back up.
Instead, it was given the dramatic and narrative weight. With tears and emotions and apologies and reassurances and platitudes about 'Your journey is just beginning.' And it even had Mrs Flood putting a full-stop on it by announcing that this is how the story ends.
It was written as a departure -- from the Tardis, if not necessarily the show.
Yes, she tells him to come back. But so did Martha. And he did come back to Martha. But she didn't just pick up again as a permanent companion.
Clearly, Gibson isn't leaving. But if she's just back on the Tardis next year, rather than working for UNIT or whatever, that ending won't have any dramaturgical integrity. It'll just be an expedient way to end an episode on an emotional beat.
I mean this is the same episode that wanted us to feel for people dying that we knew would be undone so it doesn't surprise me
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Yeah. You're right. That's what I mean. In my first post, I said the show has form for it. I think -- even though I prefer Moffat's Who to RTD's -- Steven is guiltier than Russell for this kind of thing. Dramatic moments -- deaths or departures -- that just get quickly reversed, like they want that emotional beat but they don't want to deal with the consequences of it.
I'm used to it by now, but it is a flaw.
Oh definitely.
I would have preferred if Donna hadn't have came back in the 60th specials as it ruined her ending, made wise by the cheap confusing solution
There has been a bit more come out in recent days:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/bbc-doctor-whos-millie-gibson-33091032
24 Jun 2024
Sources told the Mirror that Millie’s 2025 scenes will be minimal. One insider said: In next year’s series there is a big standalone episode featuring Ruby reminiscing about her time with the Doctor, as a flashback. And then the story about her and her family members is wrapped up in the season finale. But it’s more about them than her.