Clifftop Arrival

The Doctor and his travelling companion Ruby Sunday arrive in the TARDIS on top of a cliff in Wales. On exiting the TARDIS, Ruby mentions her two previous visits to Wales which prompts The Doctor to mention that a Welshman named Roger ap Gwilliam will become Prime Minister in 2046 and who will bring the world to the brink of a nuclear war. Distracted by this discussion, when The Doctor realises that Ruby is from 2024 and so he has revealed something in the future, The Doctor accidentally steps on a fairy circle - breaking a part of it. As Ruby reads some of the notes that were left on it, which reference a ‘Mad Jack’, she suddenly realises that The Doctor has vanished. Unable to see him anywhere nearby, she attempts to re-enter the TARDIS but finds it has sealed itself. Ruby then sees a mysterious woman in the distance. But when Ruby tries approaching The Woman she somehow keeps her distance without seeming to move.

Ruby decides to walk across the cliffs towards a nearby town. On the way she encounters an oddly-familiar looking lady hiking. The lady confirms that she can see The Woman who seems to be following Ruby. Due to Ruby's concern the hiker approaches The Woman. Ruby, watching from a distance, she sees the lady hiker briefly talk to The Woman. But then the hiker stares at Ruby for a few seconds before running away screaming. With The Woman still following her, Ruby soon arrives at a pub called Y Pren Marw (Welsh for ‘The Dead Wood’), where she arranges to get a bed for the night. She then has to endure some ribbing from the locals, who play on her mention of ‘Mad Jack’ and the fact The Doctor disturbed the fairy circle and then she read the notes. Ruby then persuades one of the locals named Josh to approach The Woman to ask her what's going on. Watching from the pub window, Ruby sees Josh approach The Woman, then stare back at Ruby before running away screaming just like what happened earlier with the hiker.

Baffled by this Ruby stays at the pub for a few days, with The Woman still keeping her distance. Ruby spends most of the time waiting at the TARDIS in case The Doctor reappears. However, he never does. She decides to head back home when the pub's landlady kicks her out after Josh tells her he will never return to the pub while Ruby is staying there. As Ruby sits in the London bound train she is horrified to find that she can still see The Woman from the window, constantly present despite the train travelling at high-speed.

Ruby Reading a Fairycircle Note

On returning home, Ruby tells her mother, Carla, what has happened and requests her help. But when Carla talks to The Woman, she flees in terror and a desperate Ruby gives chase. Carla then gets into a taxi and, as it drives past Ruby, Carla stares at Ruby with pure hatred. Carla then disowns Ruby and leaves her on the streets, where Ruby eventually meets up with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, the Head of UNIT, and explains everything that has happened.

Kate reveals that The Doctor has not been seen again after disappearing in Wales, and comments on the increase in magical activity tracked by UNIT of late. She speculates that the TARDIS’s perception filter on the fairy circle may have created the phenomenon. The Woman is still around, maintaining a constant distance of 73 yards from Ruby, yet no-one else seems to be bothered by her constant presence. Kate shows Ruby images that UNIT's sophisticated cameras have been trying to take of The Woman but they are all blurred. She assures Ruby that her team should be able to approach The Woman safely as they have all psychic conditioning as well as many technological and supernatural defences. But when she orders her team to approach The Woman, with strict instructions not to make any kind of contact, things do not go to plan. All the UNIT members turn to look at Ruby, including Kate who while staring furiously at Ruby calls her team off and abruptly depart leaving a very frustrated Ruby.

Where is The Doctor?

Ruby spends the next twenty years alone as she is not able to make any lasting relationships, with The Woman being the only constant in her life. By 2046, while in a bar with her current partner who is about to leave her, Ruby sees on a television a political debate for a forthcoming General Election. This is with Roger ap Gwilliam who is running for Prime Minister and who is representing the Albion Party. In the interview, Roger ap Gwilliam claims his nickname when he was younger was ‘Mad Jack’. Ruby suddenly remembers The Doctor telling her, just before he disappeared, that Roger ap Gwilliam will bring Britain to the brink of nuclear war after he is elected.

Ruby suddenly realises what she must do and heads immediately to the Albion Party headquarters to offer her to help so that she can then find out the truth about Roger ap Gwilliam. During another interview Roger ap Gwilliam's desire for power is evident as he hints that he wants to get his hands on nuclear weapons. The Albion Party win the General Election by a landslide and so Roger ap Gwilliam becomes Prime Minister. Later, his team heads to Cardiff City Stadium to prepare for an upcoming political rally. Ruby listens to Roger ap Gwilliam’s aides and learns that he plans to make a speech to the world where he will announce that Britain is leaving NATO and is buying Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Ruby realises that he is intending to use the weapons to hold the world hostage in an attempt to achieve total domination. Realising this is the time to act Ruby heads down and across the pitch, despite the risk of being shot by security guards. Ruby positions herself exactly 73 yards away from Roger ap Gwilliam leading to him encountering The Woman and, like all those previously, Roger ap Gwilliam runs off in terror.

That night, Ruby watches the news as it is announced that Roger ap Gwilliam has resigned as Prime Minister. On hearing this Ruby smiles and approaches her window, looking down as The Woman, who still stands looking at her. Ruby asks if she has done what it wanted in thwarting Roger ap Gwilliam's plans. Pressing her head on the glass, she asks if The Woman will now leave her alone.

The Woman in the Distance

Forty years later, in 2086, an elderly Ruby returns back to Wales to the site where the TARDIS landed. It is still there, lying derelict and covered in moss. Even now, The Woman still remains by Ruby, exactly 73 yards away. Ruby speaks to TARDIS in the hope that The Doctor can hear her, telling him how she never reconciled with Carla or found her birth mother and that it never snowed again. With the strange Woman still present, and looking no different to when Ruby first saw her decades earlier, Ruby says that after thinking about it for years she thinks she knows who The Woman is, and this is giving her hope.

Three years later Ruby lies in a hospital bed dying of old age, a nurse sees to Ruby and tells she won't be on her own in the night. Ruby responds that while she has been abandoned throughout her life, she has never been alone for the past sixty-five years. During the night, Ruby hears whispers from her bed and turns on the light to see The Woman is now standing closer and has her back to her. The lights start to flicker as The Woman moves closer and closer to Ruby, who realises what is about to happen and joyously holds out her arms.

Suddenly Ruby finds herself standing in Wales back in 2024. It transpires that the figure was Ruby the whole time, as an old woman. This time though, Ruby has arrived earlier, observing as her younger self and The Doctor emerge from the TARDIS. As the younger Ruby mentions to The Doctor that she has been to Wales three times and describes the first two trips, she notices her older self in the distance and tries to point her out to The Doctor. The Woman though vanishes before The Doctor can see her, but a whisper, saying ‘don't step’, in Ruby's ear causes her to notice the fairy circle before The Doctor steps on it. She is therefore able to prevent him from breaking it this time. The Doctor describes what a fairy circle is to Ruby and stops her from reading the notes.

The Doctor and Ruby continue along the cliff top, leaving the circle completely undisturbed so averting the alternate timeline that the old Ruby came from. As they walk, The Doctor asks Ruby about the third time she had been to Wales. Ruby though is not sure why she said it and only replies that she has visited there ‘now’.