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Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Re-writing Season 1 of Disney Who
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Published:
2026-06-13
Updated:
2026-08-07
Words:
13,131
Chapters:
20/23
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1
Kudos:
41
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Take Me to Church, Ruby

Summary:

Re-work of the script for the Doctor Who 2023 Christmas Special "The Church on Ruby Road". Cutting out unnecessary or conflicting parts, increasing Ruby's agency as a companion and grounding the story a little more where necessary.
This is setting up for a complete re-work of the 2 seasons of Disney Who with new plot twists and endings that hopefully make more sense and are ultimately more satisfying than the episodes we got.

Notes:

Fine, I'll do it myself. The latest seasons of Doctor Who had a lot of potential, but ultimately couldn't quite stick the landing. Despite never writing a script before, I've decided to rework the scripts of The 15th Doctor's seasons to generate more satisfying stories, starting with the 2023 Christmas Special. Especially now that we have entered another hiatus, I want to provide an example of the types of stories fans actually want to see and what elements have been missing from the show that could easily be brought back.
No shade is meant at any of the original writers, and it's definitely easier re-writing an existing script than having to come up with everything under time pressure and budget constraints etc... . This was just a fun little project for me, hope some others get some entertainment out of it as well! :)

Script Abbreviations:
EXT. - Exterior
INT. - Interior
CU - Close Up

Chapter 1: Scene 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Take Me to Church, Ruby (aka The Church on Ruby Road - DOUBLE BLUE REVISION)

 

SOUNDTRACK: Carol of the Bells. Home Alone soundtrack by John Williams.

EXT. THE CHURCH ON RUBY ROAD - NIGHT

WINTER. SNOW. Heavy flakes in the yellow glow of a streetlight or two. Houses far-off in the background.

And a WOMAN.

She’s wrapped up against the cold, carrying a BUNDLE. She walks towards THE CHURCH. It’s a beautiful, simple, classic church, WINDOWS glowing with LIGHT. A TALL SPIRE with a CROSS on top. A village church, a small CEMETERY.

From inside: CHORALS, Carol of the Bells, that haunting song.

She lays down, THE BABY. Wrapped in a blanket.

Then the woman hurries away.

CU CHURCH CLOCK, in the snow. The minute hand goes to 12.

The CHIMES OF MIDNIGHT sound, as...

Shaft of LIGHT as the CHURCH DOOR OPENS, the CHOIR reaching a crescendo. The VICAR looks out, sees the child.

Picks her up. Looks out into the night. No one to be seen.

He takes her inside. Out on Ruby Road, the WOMAN walks away.

Suddenly, she looks back.

That wasn’t there a moment ago.

WIDE SHOT: Light spilling out from the POLICE BOX windows. And THE DOCTOR walks up to the box and watches her turn and run away.

CU on the Doctor. His face catches the light.

CU on the Street Sign ‘Ruby Road’

CUT TO:

Notes:

Changes I've made;
- Removed The Doctor's narration because I think the scene is beautiful and atmospheric without it
- Also builds the mystery without the narration, who is this woman? Why is she leaving her child? Where is she going? Gets the audience asking questions
- Those who know the Doctor and The TARDIS know that this is Doctor Who and want to know what the Doctor is doing at the Church, and those who don't know are still clued into the fact that this person and box are something important to the story and want to know what is going on with them