Ruby Sunday

Ruby Sunday is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, created by Russell T Davies and portrayed by Millie Gibson. In the show's fourteenth series, starting with the Christmas special, Ruby serves as the companion to the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), an incarnation of the alien time traveller known as the Doctor.

Ruby Sunday
Doctor Who character
Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday
First appearance	"The Church on Ruby Road" (2023)
Last appearance	"The Reality War" (2025)
Created by	Russell T Davies
Portrayed by	Millie Gibson Amanda Walker (old)
Duration	2023–2025
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Affiliation	Fifteenth Doctor UNIT
Family	Carla Sunday (adoptive mother) Louise Miller (biological mother) William Garnet (biological father) Joe Sunday (adoptive brother)
Relatives	Cherry Sunday (adoptive grandmother)
Origin	Manchester, England
Home era	21st century

Appearances

Television

Ruby Sunday is introduced in the 2023 Christmas special "The Church on Ruby Road". The story depicts Ruby as a baby in the year 2004 being abandoned on the doorstep of a church on Ruby Road by her birth mother. Ruby is taken in and fostered by Carla Sunday, but when the Police’s appeal to find her birth parents fails, she adopts Ruby. Though she enlists the help of Davina McCall to find her birth parents, McCall turns up nothing. Soon after, Goblins arrive and kidnap another foster child being cared for by Ruby's mother Carla, and she teams up with the Fifteenth Doctor to rescue the child. The Goblins travel back in time to kidnap an infant Ruby, leading to the Doctor going back in time to stop them and save Ruby. Ruby subsequently joins the Doctor on his travels.^[1]

Ruby subsequently adventures with the Doctor in the episodes "Space Babies", where she aids the Doctor in solving the mystery of a mysterious Bogeyman aboard a spaceship, "The Devil's Chord", where she helps defeat the God of Music, Maestro, and "Boom", where she helps the Doctor safely get off a landmine which threatens to kill him. In the episode "73 Yards", the Doctor disappears after breaking a fairy circle, leaving her on her own with a mysterious woman who scares off any who interact with the woman. Ruby spends many years alone, eventually thwarting the efforts of Prime Minister Roger ap Gwilliam, who threatens to bring the world to the brink of nuclear war. Ruby eventually dies of old age, at which point the figure approaches her; time resets as it's revealed Ruby was the woman all along, with Ruby preventing the Doctor's disappearance. Ruby subsequently appears in "Dot and Bubble" and "Rogue".

In the two-parter "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" and "Empire of Death", Ruby is aided by military organization UNIT in finding out the identity of her birth mother using a device called a Time Window, which lets Ruby move inside of a reconstructed version of the past. The initial usage fails due to the interruption of the God of Death, Sutekh, but Ruby goes back inside. Sutekh once again interferes, having killed the entire universe, but she, the Doctor, and Mel Bush escape using a TARDIS constructed from Ruby's memories. The group head to future Earth to find information on Ruby's birth mother, as they surmise that it is a key to defeating Sutekh, who seeks the identity of Ruby's mother as well. Sutekh drags the three back to the present, where Ruby helps the Doctor defeat Sutekh by leashing him to the TARDIS and having him reverse the damage he did across time and space. Ruby eventually discovers the identity of her birth mother, revealed to be an ordinary woman named Louise. The two reunite, and Ruby leaves the Doctor to spend time with her.

Ruby re-appears in "Lucky Day", depicting her life after leaving the Doctor. Ruby begins dating a man named Conrad Clark, but Conrad betrays her, revealing he is part of a group that seeks to discredit UNIT and the idea of aliens. Ruby and UNIT are able to discredit Conrad after releasing an alien hunting Conrad called the Shreek, which forces him to admit he lied. Ruby had last seen the Doctor before he regenerates into Rose Tyler-resembling incarnation in "The Reality War".

Other media

In January 2024, a Series 14 tie-in comic strip featuring Ruby Sunday with the Fifteenth Doctor was published in Doctor Who Magazine #599.^[2]

Casting and development

Auditions for the Fifteenth Doctor's companion took place on 24 September 2022.^[3] On 18 November 2022, during Children in Need, Millie Gibson was announced as the new companion Ruby Sunday.^[4]

In November 2023, it was initially reported that Gibson would stay for the fifteenth series, however in January 2024, it was reported that Gibson would be leaving the show, to be replaced by Varada Sethu.^[5][6] The announcement led to the question of whether Gibson's tenure would make an impact with viewers.^[7][8][9] However, in April 2024 it was announced that Gibson and Sethu would appear concurrently throughout the series, with Davies stating that Ruby's character had been conceived around a two-series arc.^[10][11] Gibson is set to appear in the fourth, seventh and eighth episodes, "Lucky Day", "Wish World" and "The Reality War".^[12] This was later confirmed by Gibson herself through interviews following the release of "Lucky Day".^[13]

Gibson stated that series 15 would explore Ruby's life after travelling with the Doctor, which she described as unique to the series and "such a beautiful and clever thing to do".^[14][15]

Reception

Following her introduction, Ruby Sunday was positively received by critics. Empire's Jordan King praised the character's dynamics with Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor and commented that "there's more than enough in Gibson's performance to suggest far greater depths yet for her to explore with the character."^[16] Ed Power from The Independent mentioned that Gibson's performance made her "immediately likeable", calling Ruby "a wonderful new companion".^[17]