Doctor Who Teases The Hidden Reason Season 14's First Episode Is Really About Space Babies

Summary The Doctor and Ruby land on a space station filled with intelligent space babies in season 14 of Doctor Who.

Ruby's connection to saving babies seems more than just a coincidence and may be linked to her mysterious origins.

Ruby's hidden powers and potential connection to the Timeless Child storyline hint at a larger role in the Doctor Who universe.

The first episode of Doctor Who season 14 is all about space babies, and the show has already teased viewers as to why that is. Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday recently returned to TV screens for a brand-new run, and the first two episodes wasted no time in setting up fresh Doctor Who mysteries for season 14 and beyond. For instance, the opening installment centered on a group of babies whose involvement in the series might have greater meaning than many initially thought.

Fittingly entitled "Space Babies", the first episode of Doctor Who season 14 sees the Doctor and Ruby landing on a space station that acts as a baby breeding farm. Unexpectedly, the station is run by a nursery of intelligent babies. The space babies brought a lot of fun and cuteness to the opening episode, but the show has already hinted that their inclusion in the new season might be a smaller piece of a bigger puzzle.

Related Doctor Who Underlines Ruby Sunday's Rose Tyler Comparisons With 2 Massive 2005 Callbacks Billie Piper's iconic Doctor Who character set the bar for future companions, and Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday shares many similarities.

The Doctor Is Right - Ruby Is Being Drawn To Saving Babies

It's Too Much Of A Coincidence Not To Mean Something

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Ruby Sunday made her first appearance in the 2023 Christmas special, "The Church on Ruby Road", meaning that she has now appeared in three episodes. Amazingly, two of those episodes - "The Church on Ruby Road" and "Space Babies" - involve the Doctor and Ruby saving babies from certain doom. This could be dismissed as pure coincidence, or simply showrunner Russell T. Davies running out of ideas. On the other hand, it could point to something deeper.

In "Space Babies", the Doctor even points out the unlikely pattern, musing about how big a coincidence it is that Ruby, an orphan abandoned as a baby, finds herself at the center of two adventures that involve rescuing babies. Indeed, Ruby seems to be the link. After all, it was Ruby's foster sister, Lulubelle, who was kidnapped by the Goblins in "The Church on Ruby Road." It was also Ruby who was responsible for her and the Doctor encountering the space babies.

The space babies shown in the Doctor Who season 14 episode, "Space Babies" were portrayed by a mixture of real babies, young children, and animatronics.

At the top of the episode, the Doctor asks Ruby to give him a random five-digit number to decide their next destination. Ruby, who seemingly plucks numbers out of thin air, goes with 21506. After the TARDIS takes off, the pair land aboard the space station that serves as the home of the space babies. Luckily for the space babies, the Doctor and Ruby arrive just in time to save them. However, it may not have been luck that drew the Doctor and Ruby to the space babies, but something else entirely.

How Did Ruby Know The Space Babies Needed Help?

She's More Powerful Than Meets The Eye

There's certainly a case to be made that Ruby, consciously or not, chose those digits because she knew the space babies were in danger. Indeed, in the few adventures viewers have had with her, Ruby has been established as somewhat of an enigma. On the face of it, she is an ordinary 20-year-old woman who leads a life of partying and fun. Nonetheless, as shown in "The Church on Ruby Road", Ruby Sunday's origins are a mystery, with the identity of her parents being something even she is not aware of.

The extent of Ruby's abilities is not yet known and will surely become clearer as the season progresses.

Furthermore, the first two episodes of season 14 demonstrated that Ruby is capable of immense power. In "Space Babies", Ruby has a flashback to the day she was abandoned as a baby in the snow. As she reminisces, snow begins to fall around both her and the Doctor despite both of them still being aboard the space station. At the end of the episode, the Doctor secretly scans Ruby's DNA as snow falls in the TARDIS. In the following episode, "The Devil's Chord", Maestro - one of the pantheon of gods - hints that Ruby isn't entirely human.

Ruby is likely far more powerful than even she realizes. It's possible, therefore, that something deep within Ruby prompted her to say the correct numbers that led both her and the Doctor to the space babies. The extent of Ruby's abilities is not yet known and will surely become clearer as the season progresses. There's a good chance, however, that her special skills will be used to save more people in the future.

Ruby's Coincidence In Doctor Who Season 14 May Be Connected To The Timeless Child

The Controversial Story Arc Isn't Going Away Any Time Soon

During their Thirteenth incarnation, the Doctor discovered that they were something known as the Timeless Child, a child from another dimension who served as the foundation of Time Lord society. Like Ruby, the Doctor is an orphan in the dark about his true origins. Again, it feels like far too much of a coincidence that Ruby Sunday should meet the Doctor not long after he made this discovery. The babies that Ruby rescued in her first two episodes also didn't have parents. Perhaps she has some sort of sixth sense that draws her towards fellow orphans.

If that is the case, it's possible that Ruby's purpose, whether she is aware of it or not, is to save the Doctor, either on one crucial occasion or over time. If that is the case, Ruby would serve a function similar to that of Clara Oswald, who similarly existed in her early appearances to turn all the Doctor's defeats into wins. Many of Doctor Who's modern companions have almost been imbued with a "most important woman in the universe" quality, and regardless of the specifics of Ruby's story, that looks set to be the case once again.