Review: Doctor Who, “73 Yards” | Season 14, Episodes 4
Doctor Who delivers one of its boldest, scariest episodes ever
Holy shit. It’s rare for Doctor Who to follow up what feels like it’s going to be a defining episode of the season with an episode that feels like it’s going to be a defining episode of an entire era. But if “Boom” set an early high-water mark for Ncuti Gatwa’s run, “73 Yards” leap frogs it by, well, at least 73 yards—a feat that’s even more impressive when you consider Gatwa is barely in it.
If “Space Babies” and “The Devil's Chord” recalled the goofiest episodes Russell T. Davies used to pen back in his original run of the series (think farting aliens and reality TV parodies), “73 Yards” is here to remind you that he’s also the man who wrote “Midnight” and “The Waters of Mars.” Davies can deliver a singular episode when he wants to. But while in a surface-level way you can compare “73 Yards” to previous standout Who episodes like the alt universe intensity of “Turn Left” or the genre-defying thrills of “Listen,” what really makes it work is that it doesn’t …