In Doctor Who's Christmas Special, titled "The Church on Ruby Road," we met the Fifteenth Doctor's new companion, Ruby Sunday. Played by Millie Gibson, the character was first shown searching for answers about her parents, only for Ruby to later learn that there's no record of them.
Following a clash with the Goblin King, the Doctor had to travel back in time to rescue Ruby as a baby after a cloaked figure left her at a church. There's clearly a story to be told there and theories range from that being Ruby herself to the Doctor already knowing who it was that abandoned her.
Talking on Doctor Who: Video Commentaries, showrunner Russell T Davies confirmed Ruby's mysterious origin story will play a key role in the long-running sci-fi series as we head into the show's new season 1.
"The story that we’re kicking off here about the adoption and having been fostered and then adopted and being a foundling actually runs through the entire series," he teased. "This one's quite a fable - the foundling on the church doorstep in the snow."
"That story then continues into the series - we come back to that church," Davies continued. "There's all sorts of things...there were people in those scenes you don't know were there. There's a lot more to come."
Many fans were shocked to see the lengths the Doctor went to to save Ruby, particularly as the Goblin King ended up being impaled on a church spire. When producer Chris May put it to Davies that this was a "vengeful Doctor," the showrunner responded, "It's why he needs a human."
We know the Doctor tends to head down a dark path when he's on his own (a theme Davies explored when the Tenth Doctor declared himself "Time Lord Victorious"), so that would explain why he ended up going back for Ruby after initially deciding to leave her behind.
A new clip from the next batch of episodes has also been released which shows the Doctor and Ruby exploring a spaceship as some sort of alien creature closes in.
Doctor Who is the longest-running action-adventure television series in the world spanning 60 years and winning over 100 awards. This quintessentially British show has a massive global following, with 9.6 million fans across social platforms/channels and 100 million video views on YouTube in the last year alone.
Check out that new clip ahead of Doctor Who's return this May in the X post below.