73 Yards is Welshiest
Episode of Doctor Who

I've been leaving comments on various places online, and I think its finally time that I put my thoughts to the page in one centralised place. 73 Yards, Episode 4 of the new Series is a masterpiece on its own. In terms of drama alone it has tension and character in spades. But I'm not just here to gush about Dr Who, I am here to gush about Wales.

I am Welsh. I have Welsh family roots and moved to Wales when I was little. I learnt Welsh to fluency in school and was taught the stories and legends. I have written my own (published) stories and fanfiction in Welsh that utilises Welsh culture and folklore. It is a deep part of my identity and cultural outlook. And when I watched 73 Yards, it resonated with me on an equally deep level.

In this post I want to talk about the following topics;

1. What Happened?! Welsh Fae and the Far Away Woman.
2. "Bloody Tourists..." - The Pub Scene
3. Roger Ap Gwiliam, the Welsh Farage
4. So Close Yet So Far - Other Welsh Episodes

What Happened?! Welsh Fae and the Far Away Woman

This is really the meat of post. I see many people being very confused about this episode. Some people seem to get it instinctually, others seem to be utterly befuddled and disappointed - saying it doesn't make sense as a Doctor Who episode. Ultimately, it is up to interpretation, but let me give you one that makes everything clear to me. If you were confused, this part is for you! :)

The "monster" is not an alien, it's a fae.

This is not a scifi episode with technobabble logic. This is an episode steeped in the logic of magic and fae, specifically Welsh fae.

Tywyth Teg is one common name for fae, meaning "fair family". While both parts of the name are open for interpretation, teg in modern Welsh refers fairness and justice (although could mean pretty though the meaning is archaic), and tylwyth is "house people" but I'd suggest that it refers to the fact they are a broad group. They are not a single species or single type of being - but a broad range of beings, many but not all of whom live in Annwn (the otherworld). Some are kind, some are very very dangerous - and in many encounters with fairfolk you must follow or bend the rules to succeed, but breaking them has severe consequences.

The Distant Woman is a trope in Welsh folklore. One story about an encounter with a gwyllion (a "wild fae", often dangerous) is recounted as such;

The Old Woman has also been encountered on Black Mountain in Breconshire. One man reported meeting her there and at the same time found that he had lost his way. Thinking she was human he called out for her to stay but receiving no answer he thought she was deaf. He tried to overtake her but she led him further astray, always out of reach, until he found himself in a marsh. When she uttered a cackling laugh he suspected she might be a gwyll so he drew his knife, whereupon the Old Woman vanished. His suspicions were confirmed for it was well known that Welsh ghosts and fairies were afraid of knives and could be banished by them.

Another famous Distant Woman is the story of Pwyll and Rhiannon that comes from the First branch of the Mabinogion, a large work detailing many centuries old Welsh legends. Whole Story, so here is a fun retelling. I will summarise;

Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed and his men spy a woman riding on a white horse from atop a hill. She is  very beautiful, and he wants to ask her hand in marriage, so he sends his fastest men out on his fastest horses to catch up with her. They each race as fast as their horse can take them, but no matter how fast they are - her horse is always ahead, just around the corner, even when travelling at a leisurely trot. None can, and so eventually he himself goes out - he races for a while but then eventually he tires and stops. He calls out to her and asks her to stop for him - and to his surprise it works, so he can catch up!

The story goes on, but that is the core element. In both stories, there are clearly defined rules - and success is achieved by following them rather than trying to brute force a way through or break the rules.

So, how does this relate to the episode?

Firstly, the inciting incident is Ruby stepping in a fairy circle while in close proximity to the TARDIS. My theory is that the TARDIS amplified and interacted with the myths around the fae, specifically Welsh fae - causing the events of the story. And Kate herself actually acknowledges this theory! 

"I wonder if its connected, if landing a perception filter on top of that circle has affected things."

From that moment forward, Ruby is a fae.

Secondly the question is - what are the rules? I would suggest they are a mixture of fae rules and TARDIS rules;

1. Do Not Approach - Ruby is unable to approach the Woman. [Fae Rule]
2. 73 Yards - Ruby and the Woman are always 73 Yards away from one another, which is revealed in a later episode to be the perception filter distance of the TARDIS. [TARDIS Rule]
3. Do Not Perceive - The Woman is unable to be perceived by others until pointed out [TARDIS Rule]
4. Forward and Back - The Woman is travelling backwards through time, as shown by the scene at the very end of the episode with Ruby in her deathbed becoming the woman who is now facing away from her as she "approaches" (in reality, walking away but backwards through time). [TARDIS Rule]
5. Others May Not Approach - Others may also not approach the Woman, if they do there will be consequences [Fae Rule]
6. Consequences - If she is approached, then hearing the woman sends people mad and thus cannot bear to approach Ruby. In a way its an either-or scenario, both cannot exist together and both be approachable. What would happen if Ruby approached the Woman is not clear, maybe she would also go mad. [Fae Rule]

The Woman is, of course, Ruby from the future. She is also aware she cannot break the rules - as she tries many times - and seems instinctually aware that doing something like getting on a boat or plane would kill the Woman (thus herself);

"If I cut her off, I might die."

Ruby actually succeeds in her goals of stopping Roger Ap Gwiliam by using and perhaps bending (not breaking) the rules - when she positions the woman right behind him where only he can hear her. This seems like it does nothing - but perhaps that is the point, had she not then it is implied he would have ended the world in nuclear annihilation, which in turn would have stopped her from completing the cycle.

And in the end she becomes the woman, who travels back before Ruby steps on the circle. How, precisely, she stops Ruby from stepping on the circle isn't wholly clear. Only Ruby seems to be able to perceive the woman and hears "Don't step! Don't step!" whispered to her. Perhaps Ruby literally hears the woman's message - finally coherent and non-maddening now it has reached its rightful place. Perhaps it is a psychic connection via the TARDIS. Perhaps the Woman took a step forward, nudging Ruby backward.

None of this is meant to be analysed in too much detail. This is supposed to be Magic, not Science - logical, yet still mysterious. Fundamentally weird, yet fair.

"Bloody Tourists..." - The Pub Scene

With all that out of the way, lets get to the pub scene.

I have seen a number of people say that they just felt the pub scene was unreasonably mean to Ruby. And it was... but there is more there.

My English relatives sometimes tell a stories of visiting Wales, and when they went into a shops everyone would maliciously switch to Welsh in order not to talk to them. I have also heard plenty of similar stories from other English folks. I'm not sure how believable I find this, I think it probably has happened, but having seen both sides to this coin I know the English exaggerate it and downplay the microaggressions they make - but there definitely can be a hostility to English people and some folks do clearly treat me better than my English relatives when I switch to Welsh with them.

It also strikes me as a little bit of monolingual entitlement, the concept that you have a right to understand the conversation of everyone in the room. But this is a tangent because its implied to be South Wales, which is majority mono-lingual English speaking anyway.

The pub scene sent me straight back into those anecdotes. Its not a uniquely Welsh thing, "small rural community/pub is hostile to outsiders" is a trope on its own. But its one that has a specific place in the way that English people are hostile to us and that we are hostile back.

Another thing that you may not be aware of is Wales is in many ways a "possession" of England. You could even consider it the first colony in the British Empire, the first place they conquered. Many Welsh folks are resentful of that and many English people often treat us as lesser because of it. We have also been a tourist and retirement home destination for English people since the Victorian era - and those who come here often don't really respect our culture or language - very often mocking us for having a hard language (when its simply their monolingualism on show). Furthermore, we like our legends but we know their place - tourists often make them into something they are not, which must have been how it felt when Ruby walked into the pub asking questions about strange women and fairy circles (which is a miscommunication in her case because she knows it is real).

I am of course making it sound worse than it is. Most English folks are fine. Most Welsh folks are also fine. Most people are in general nice people who want to get along with others and aren't going to needlessly make it a problem. It isn't exactly open hatred on either side, but these tensions do exist.

Making fun of Ruby for assuming they are technologically backward and believing the ghost story they tell all rings true. Had it not been so mean I could genuinely imagine it was a real life interaction. But in reality we would try and get her in on the joke - back and forth more with some banter. At worse they'd shut up and leave her alone, perhaps speak Welsh to have their own ingroup conversations (not really malicious or about her, just private), because if nothing else there are just far too many tourists to bully them all. The open cruelty they show is very exaggerated.

All of this put together makes me believe that Russel is satirising this stereotype. He is taking it to its extreme. He is using the trope to drive his plot while asking the audience to see it for the embellishment. And in a way he is laughing at the people who think this is real - that Welsh people are all scary villagers who can't wait to bully English people.

But I'm not sure how I feel about that because while we Welsh people will get the joke - almost everyone else might miss it and take away a negative association with Wales. Its honestly a little upsetting watching people's worst views being reinforced as they assume that it is a realistic depiction of what it's like

Roger Ap Gwiliam, the Welsh Farage

Roger ap Gwilliam as both a character and as a name represents this a form of Welsh patriotism / nationalism.

As a name it is one you could genuinely see existing - but is comically Welsh. The "ap" is a little archaic and traditional, but only adds to the comic element. Its like calling an English character Barry Smith and making them an avid footie lover who shouts "COME ON INGERLAND!" down the pub. Or having a yank character called Chad Stein who is a Republican and wants to ban everything.

Roger is also definitely the type of person who would have bullied me in school. I would imagine his background to be one of being the relatively rich Welshies, though not necessarily farmers (which in many ways form their own social class in the countryside). Even if not rich rich - rich in social capital - with a high enough place in the community. This is all speculation of course but I think that is what Russel is alluding to.

The choice to make him a British Prime Minister is an interesting one - but works narratively. While Welsh patriotism / nationalism often pits itself against England, the Dr Who universe paints a slightly different picture of him, the Albion Party and Albion TV. This is, of course, the GB News and Reform Party of this universe - but it is one that manages to leverage some form of unified British nationalism, rather than the English centric "British" nationalism of GB News and Reform (although Reform are doing scarily well in the Welsh polls at time of writing).

Thus Roger is a Welsh Farage parody. Charismatic and patriotic, but deeply disturbed and shockingly shallow in terms of actual plans.

So Close Yet So Far - Other Welsh Episodes

This is far from Dr Who's only Welsh episode. Of course, Russel has always been Welsh - and the revival era introduced plenty of Welsh characters and a few episodes in Wales. If you are looking out for it, there are Welshisms throughout the series also in the names of people and the like. Although after the first series, it largely dropped into the background.

The three major episodes I can think of are;

1. The Unquiet Dead
2. Boom Town
3. The Hungry Earth - Cold Blood (two parter)

But these episodes, while set in Wales with Welsh characters, don't make use of Welshness very much. 

The Unquiet Dead has the Welsh maid at the centrepiece and establishes the Cardiff Rift but not much more. One of the main features is Charles Dickins - and Cardiff is implied to be somewhat of a backwater.

Boom Town features, primarily, a Slitheen antagonist hiding in a Welsh identity. She says she has "gone native" when she says "We're in Cardiff, London doesn't care! South Wales could fall into the sea and noone would notice!" - which reflects a real sentiment of being left behind that many Welsh people feel - but the episode is more a moral quandary about what the Dr will do about the baddie he is holding captive than anything about Wales.

The Hungry Earth - Cold Blood is set in a South Wales mining village. Somehow it is still operating but now instead of sending men down the pit, they are sticking a great big drill down there instead. A number of the characters are Welsh, but beyond being Welsh and from the most stereotypically Welsh-mining-village possible - there isn't much more Welshness to this story.

Compare this to... 

1. The Empty Child - The Doctor Dances
2. The Girl in the Fireplace
3. Tooth And Claw
4. The Idiot's Lantern
5. The Shakespear Code
6. Daleks in Manhattan - Evolution of the Daleks
7. Human Nature - Family of Blood
8. Fires of Pompeii
9. The Unicorn and the Wasp
10. The Next Doctor
11. Victory of the Daleks
12. [...]
13. Robot of Sheerwood
14. The Girl Who Died
15. [...]
16. Demons of the Punjab

I cannot list them all but the these are all episodes which meaningfully show a culture, myth or event. Which is what I wanted from a Welsh episode for so so long! And now, with 73 Yard we have it!

My one final hang up is, despite being brilliant, it still spends most of its time in England focused on English characters. Bit of a bummer, but I guess we could say that even that is quite Welshy - because part of the Welsh experience is going to to pursue something of a career England then coming back to your roots to settle down and finish the loop. 

My hope is that we get more Welsh episodes in future! Perhaps an episode about a future space colony speaking Welsh, and the TARDIS translation circuit breaks - and hilarity ensues. Or perhaps we go see the events of the Mabinogion, or meet Owain Glyndŵr! 

That is all for me for now, o pona!