Ruby Red was the sixty-sixth novel in the BBC New Series Adventures series. It was written by Georgia Cook and featured the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby.

Publisher's summary[]

April, 1242: the Doctor and Ruby answer a distress call sent from medieval Russia. The signal's sender? Ranavere, an alien girl forced to take part in a barbaric conflict between the armies of Estonia and Novgorod on the frozen surface of Lake Peipus.

Ranavere wants to escape, but her distress call has summoned her warmongering sisters, intent on preserving family tradition whatever the cost. And as human battle begins, the Doctor and Ruby must face a more devastating threat — a monstrous entity with plans of conquest, growing stronger beneath the icy lake...

Plot[]

to be added

Characters[]

• Fifteenth Doctor
• Ruby Sunday
• Ranavere Rentara
• Cellisamere
• Helgadane
• Onfim
• The Genetrix
• Prince Alexander Nemsky

Worldbuilding[]

• The TARDIS lands on Lake Peipus in the 1200s. The Doctor claims it to be the fifth largest lake in Europe, with its deepest point being fifteen metres.
• Ruby claims that her green coat makes her look like a "furry sprout".
• The Doctor tells Ruby that Pskov is a city in the south recently taken by the Novgorodian army.
• The Doctor tells Ruby that, having arrived prior to 5 April, they are "days away" from the Battle on the Ice, a huge fight between the Duchy of Estonia and Novgorod Republic, which marked the end of the Northern Crusades in the region, and cementing Prince Alexander Nemsky as a national hero.
• The Rentaras are a family of intergalactic mercenaries. At the age of sixteen, a child of the Rentara's are sent to a random war on a random planet and told to survive.
• Ruby has never seen wild wolves before.
• Ruby compares the taste of the coffee from the TARDIS coffee machine to roast potatoes.
• Ruby remarks on how the Fifteenth Doctor's sonic screwdriver doesn't look like a screwdriver.

Notes[]

to be added

Continuity[]

• Ruby is offered a coffee from the new TARDIS coffee machine. (TV: The Star Beast ^[+]Russell T Davies, adapted from Doctor Who and the Star Beast (Pat Mills and John Wagner), Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)
• When the Doctor gets locked out of his TARDIS, he tries clicking his fingers to get back in. (TV: Forest of the Dead ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
• To explain to her how to navigate across the ice, the Doctor tells Ruby to "move [her] centre of mavity to her feet". (TV: Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)
• Ran uses a perception filter to change Ruby and the Doctor's clothes into something more modest. The Eleventh Doctor similarly used hologram clothes to cover his, and later Clara Oswald's, nudity when visiting the Papal Mainframe. (TV: The Time of the Doctor ^[+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).)
• A similar city of tents by the name of Hooverville was visited by the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones in Central Park, New York City during 1930. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan ^[+]Helen Raynor, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).)
• The Doctor tells Ruby that the TARDIS has been "feeling a bit upset lately", in reference to the strange groan that could be heard emanating from the TARDIS. (TV: Wild Blue Yonder ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who 2023 specials (BBC One and Disney+, 2023)., The Devil's Chord ^[+]Doctor Who (BBC One and Disney+, 2024)., Rogue ^[+]Kate Herron and Briony Redman, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
• Ruby resonates with Ran not having a home, recalling her foundling origin. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road ^[+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)

Additional cover images[]

to be added

Editions published outside Britain[]

to be added

Audiobook[]

• This novel was released as an audiobook on 27 June 2024 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio, with sound design by Oliver Denman and read by Millie Gibson.

Audiobook cover

External links[]

• Official Ruby Red page at Penguin Books

Footnotes[]