"The Church on Ruby Road" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Ncuti Gatwa makes his first regular appearance as the Fifteenth Doctor and the episode introduces Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday.

Following an interview with Davina McCall (playing a fictional version of herself), the two begin experiencing bad luck wherever they go, because of the antics of goblins, who eventually kidnap a new foster baby.

"The Church on Ruby Road" was filmed along with the fourteenth series with production on the special taking place across Wales in January and February 2023.

With the aid of a pair of intelligent gloves that can bear a much greater weight than the user, they climb on to the goblins' flying ship.

The Doctor realises the goblins feed on coincidence and accidents, and travel through time to find babies to eat.

The Doctor leaves Ruby on the church's doorstep to ensure the parson finds her, and sees a woman walking off into the night.

He briefly departs in the TARDIS to rescue Davina from being killed by the goblins, then reluctantly decides to leave Ruby behind.

[4] Davies also said that when creating the goblins he wanted to lean more into the supernatural and unexplainable side of Doctor Who the programme was not able to previously explore.

[6] The unnamed television programme Ruby appears on was inspired by Long Lost Family, which is also hosted by McCall.

The Long Lost Family production team assisted in its depiction in "The Church on Ruby Road".

Disney tested the episode and asked Russell T Davies to add an extra scene in the beginning so that the Doctor could be introduced sooner.

The production team continuously changed their outfits and relocated them around the set to make the number appear larger.

The website's consensus reads: "A welcome sugar rush of festive adventure, 'The Church on Ruby Road' sees Ncuti Gatwa's tenure as the Doctor off to a merry start.

"[32] In a more mixed review for the Daily Telegraph, Benji Wilson felt the special to be a "muddled story that flew off in all directions".

[35] A novelisation of the episode, written by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, was released in hardback on 25 January 2024 as part of the Target Collection.