Spoilers for the first three episodes of Doctor Who’s first season with Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor are ahead. If you haven’t seen them, you can stream them with a Disney+ subscription.
Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa And Millie Gibson Told Me The Wild And Heartfelt Story Behind The Scene Where The Doctor Gives Ruby The Key To The TARDIS
A new era of Doctor Who is in full swing on the 2024 TV schedule, which means the legendary timelord is taking us on tons of unexpected adventures and bringing us along as he solves new mind-boggling mysteries. While I obviously have questions about the Pantheon of villains and at one point we were theorizing about if the Maestro was The Master, arguably the biggest mystery this season that’s worth theorizing about surrounds the snow that has fallen around Ruby in every episode so far.
So, when I had the chance to talk to showrunner Russell T. Davies about the series, I had to ask him about the origins of the snow, and what we should expect from it as the season continues.
First of all, I won’t leave you hanging and neither will Russell. When I asked him about the snow, he immediately told me we would get answers to it this season, which is exciting! In his words:
I mean, there is a meaning, there is a significance, it will be explained. It’s not going to be one of those annoying mysteries that at the end of the season, we go, ‘Ahh, keep watching. We will continue this mystery.’ There’s a definite answer. It is meant to be a mystery.
Now, while he wouldn’t give away the details behind the snow and the greater meaning it has, the showrunner did explain how he came up with the idea and teased what’s to come as the new season of Doctor Who continues to air.
Russell T. Davies Explains How He Came Up With The Snow
If you’ve seen the first three episodes that feature Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson as the leads of the Doctor Who cast, then you know that snow has fallen around Ruby and The Doctor in moments when the companion is in grave danger. Seemingly, the snow is connected to the day she was found on Ruby Road, and Davies emphasized that point, saying:
I can actually remember the moment I thought of it. I wanted the memories of Ruby’s birth to keep breaking through as a child. She’s abandoned as a foundling on a church doorstep in the snow at midnight.
Davies went on to tell me that in the episode “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” – which airs on June 14 – someone explains the mystery of the snow as “a bit Dickensian.” Continuing, he said that this element of the story adds a “romantic fairytale quality” to the show, which I love.
The showrunner then told me that the idea for the snow came when he realized he wanted something to happen whenever Ruby’s childhood was brought up, which typically comes during life-threatening moments too. Speaking to this and the questions it raises, Davies said:
Simply one day I just had the idea of ‘What she keeps remembering? What if the snow keeps breaking through with her into her present day and every time she remembers her childhood snow breaks?’ Well, then every time The Doctor talks about her childhood snow breaks through.
It’s become obvious that the snow is somehow connected to Ruby’s birth and where she came from. At the moment, even The Doctor is confounded by his companion and her origins, and Davies explained that this mystery is amazing and worth the wait.
Russell T. Davies Promises That The Mystery Of The Snow ‘Delivers And More’
While Russell T. Davies couldn’t give me specifics about the snow and why it’s featured heavily in the show – as he understandably said he doesn’t want to give any spoilers away – there is a “terrible threat coming” that’s connected to it. We’ve seen that ominous cloaked figure on the road Ruby was left on, and the snow keeps appearing at very pivotal moments. With all that in mind, the showrunner explained:
I will say that gets more and more and more ominous. And you’ve already started to see the memories changing, where we’re getting glimpses of Ruby’s mother, or is it Ruby’s mother? It’s certainly the person who leaves the baby on the doorstep, it looks like. Who is that? What’s the mystery of that? And it’s a huge spine for Ruby. And I can promise you, it’s my job to hype this stuff. But I can genuinely promise you absolute satisfaction with that story. It delivers and more.
So, we can expect the snow to have dark origins, and it sounds like The Doctor and Ruby have a very intense journey ahead of them. However, as the showrunner confirmed, we will know why the snow follows the timelord’s companion by the end of this season.
To see how this snow mystery gets solved, you can stream new episodes of Doctor Who every Friday on Disney+ at 7 p.m. ET.