For some dads, the stereotypical lawn chair and beer is not their happy place. They prefer movement to comfort, crushing goals over taking it easy. If the dad in your life doesn’t stop moving, gift him some gadgets to propel his training forward. This is workout gear we’ve tested and approve of, with smartwatches for tracking workouts, earbuds that stay put during serious training, helpful cycling add-ons and tools to help with recovery.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-fitness-gifts-for-fathers-day-120019056.html?src=rss
A long time ago I watched a video about John Nese, owner of the iconic Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in LA, and one thing that stuck with me was his response after being asked how much soda he drinks. Nese said that even though he’ll have one or two a day, what it really boils down to is that he “just likes the bubbles.” However, as much as I enjoy hunting down special flavors in stores, nothing beats the convenience of making your own sparkling concoctions at home. So when I heard that Breville was releasing a carbonated beverage maker with a feature not available from rivals like SodaStream I knew I wanted to test it out. And in just a few short weeks, the Infizz Fusion has quickly become one of my favorite and most-used kitchen gadgets.
Design — Expectedly upscale
At $250, the InFizz Fusion costs a lot more than basic soda water makers, which can go for $100 or less. However, it’s clear Breville is using that extra money to create a premium design including a stainless body with a die-cast lever and a magnetic drip tray. This means it’s closer to more premium rivals than plasticky alternatives like almost all of SodaStream’s offerings. And while your taste may vary, the InFizz and Aarke’s line or Carbonators are probably the only two that look good enough to live on my counter full-time instead of being hidden away when not in use. That said, I wish Breville would release an optional glass bottle, as currently the InFizz Fusion is restricted to plastic 0.6- and 1-liter containers. And because its bottles use a proprietary connector, you can’t swap in canisters from competitors.
Operation — The easiest bubbles you’ve ever made
Gassing up liquids with the InFizz is incredibly straightforward. First, you screw a one-pound CO2 tank into the hole on the boom. The InFizz comes with one Breville-branded canister, though you can use generic replacements from Sodastream and others. You just need to remember to buy tanks with threaded tops instead of ones with quick-connect fittings. Then you pour water into the bottle (the colder the better), attach Breville’s FusionCap and then twist the whole setup into the machine itself. From there, you just press the lever on top for a second or two and that’s it. There’s no need for power or to plug a cord, so you have tons of flexibility about where it’ll live in your kitchen.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
When attaching the FusionCap to the bottle or the bottle to the machine, there’s a very obvious and satisfying thunk that lets you know when each component is seated properly. I only had one blowout when I first started using the InFizz and after I learned from my mistake, it never happened again. I found the routine that worked best for me was to fill the bottle and then stash it in the fridge overnight, which made it a cinch to get crisp, chilled seltzer first thing in the morning in less than 30 seconds. It’s really that easy. Sometimes, I saw tiny ice cubes while I was carbonating, which I took as a sign that the water was cold enough. That said, it’s important not to add ice intentionally, as that can damage the machine.
One note is that before you use it, you will want to give it a rinse. After unboxing it, I noticed the InFizz Fusion’s bottle had an oily smell. Thankfully, alongside the InFizz itself, Breville includes a funnel, a strainer and a brush, the latter of which helped erase the odor after a quick wash.
How it tastes - Bubbles, bubbles everywhere
Like a lot of carbonated water makers, you have the freedom to hold the lever down a bit longer, in case you’re like me and you like big bodacious bubbles (similar to what you get in Pepsi) as opposed to the finer effervescence you get in something like Perrier. But the InFizz Fusion’s secret party trick is that it carbonates more than just water. You can add bubbles to cider for a refreshing twist on a fall treat. Or you can give new life to soda that’s gone flat. You can even uplift wine to create your own sparkling alternative in your kitchen. Pretty much any liquid you’d want to drink, the InFizz Fusion can inject with bubbles. And right now, there’s only one other home soda maker that can do this – the Drinkmate – which puts Breville’s machine in a more rarified crowd.
To add bubbles, all you have to do is attach Breville's FusionCap to the included bottle, hook that up to the machine itself and hold down on the lever for a second or two.
Photo by Sam Rutherford
Now this might not sound like a big deal, but as we get closer to summer, you know what’s even more refreshing than lemonade? An icy cold glass of sparkling lemonade. Alternatively, you can add bubbles to OJ, which is essentially a homemade version of Orangina, and I’d argue it tastes even better because it hasn’t been languishing in a bottle for the past few months. With the InFizz Fusion, there’s an entire world of things you can seltzerize.
At this point, you might be wondering why you can’t make lemonade from seltzer. And you can. However, if you make sparkling water first and then stir in lemon juice and sugar, you tend to knock a lot of bubbles out in the process. And for stuff like OJ, unless you’re making things from a concentrate, there may not be a way to start with pure water. The one thing you have to watch out for though is that when carbonating drinks that are more than just water, you may run into extra bubbles. But that’s where the red tab on the FusionCap comes in, as it allows you to release pressure slowly so your concoction doesn’t erupt and make a mess.
Breville's clever FusionCap is what allows the InFizz to carbonate almost any drink you can think of. It can handle drinks like orange juice or lemonade with ease without getting the inside of the machine dirty.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
That said, some drinks work better than others. Milk-based beverages are pretty much a no-go, as the carbonation process curdles the dairy, resulting in a product that just tastes off. And while you can add bubbles to coffee, the CO2 adds an extra dimension of sourness that probably isn’t what you want. After all, there’s a reason effervescent java is usually injected with nitrogen instead of carbon dioxide.
My one suggestion is that in addition to the one-liter bottle that comes with the machine, if you’re into making all sorts of bubbly beverages, you may want to pick up a spare 0.6-liter container too, because as tasty as stuff like sparkling OJ or cider are, they’re typically better consumed in smaller doses lest you end up drinking too many empty calories.
Wrap-up
There are few things more refreshing than a glass of sparkling lemonade on a hot summer day.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Look, if all you want is a machine for making seltzer, you’ll probably be better off with a basic SodaStream. Alternatively, if you just want a more premium bubble machine that comes with the bonus of having optional glass bottles, Aarke’s Carbonator Pro makes for a solid upgrade pick. Or you could go with the InFizz Aqua, which is the same basic device as the Fusion except that it can only carbonate water. But if you want a device that can turn almost any drink into a sparkling treat while also sporting an upscale design, Breville’s InFizz Fusion is where it’s at.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/breville-infizz-fusion-review-the-bubble-master-173216954.html?src=rss
It's Friday, which means it's time for another curated roundup of the week's best tech deals. This week's selection is highlighted by a new low on Apple's entry-level iPad, which is down to $300 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. That's about $50 less than buying direct from Apple. Beyond that, a new PlayStation sale has cut $50 off the PlayStation 5 — and if you already subscribe to Sony's PlayStation Plus service, you can get a year of Netflix thrown in on top. We're also seeing discounts on year-long Peacock memberships, various Sonos speakers, the newest MacBook Air and Roku's Streaming Stick 4K, among other gadgets we recommend. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still buy today.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-10th-gen-apple-ipad-hits-a-low-of-300-plus-the-rest-of-the-weeks-best-tech-deals-170101188.html?src=rss
If you're on the hunt for an Apple Watch Ultra 2 deal, now is a good time to take the plunge — and not only because the wearable can be used as a dive watch. The device has dropped by $85 to $714 at Amazon. That's a discount of 11 percent, fact fans. The deal only applies to one certain variant, which has a titanium case and green/grey Trail Loop band, and only in a small/medium size (the larger option is $740). Still, that's a record low price for this particular option.
This is our pick for the best Apple Watch for adventurers. As noted, the rugged Apple Watch Ultra 2 can be used in the water, where it measures the temperature, dive duration and gauge up to 40 meters of depth. On terra firma, dual-frequency GPS support means that you should see more accurate pace calculations and route tracking than with other Apple wearables. When you're out in the wild, you can set waypoints in the Compass app to help you find your way back to your starting point, while an onboard siren could help others find you if you need help.
Meanwhile, you can set up the action button to carry out more or less any function you want when you push it. The battery should run for around 36 hours before it needs to be recharged and the low-power mode can help extend that timeframe. As with the Apple Watch Series 9, the S9 SiP (system in package) supports on-device Siri processing and the double tap function for hands-free use.
Last week, Sony published a seemingly innocuous round of interviews that centered the company’s nebulous “creative entertainment vision”. Neil Druckmann, head of the Sony-owned game studio Naughty Dog, was one of those — but his interview wasn’t quite what it seemed.
Druckmann, who headed the team behind The Last of Us series, was apparently wildly misquoted by his own employers. A few days after the interviews were published, he took to X and said, “This is not quite what I said.” He even posted a section of the original interview transcript, which was hugely different.
Sony has since pulled the interview and issued an apology on the old page, saying the article had significant errors and inaccuracies, encompassing “animation, writing, technology, AI and future projects.” So, if all that was inaccurate, what was accurate?
Japan’s hit virtual pet, Punirunes, comes to the US this summer. A play on puni-puni, which means ‘squishy’ in Japanese, it’s a slightly different kind of digital pet. There’s a doughy button at the center of the device that simulates physical contact with your Punirunes. When you pet it, your finger even appears on the device’s screen. Punirunes makes its US debut in August for $40.
Amazon is permanently offering free Grubhub+ restaurant delivery as part of its Prime subscription. If you pay $139 per year for a Prime subscription and are up for spending more to eat, you’ll pay no fee for eligible GrubHub orders over $12. You’ll also see lower service fees, 5 percent credit back on pickup orders and, apparently, exclusive offers. Unlimited grocery delivery from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh still costs an additional $10 per month.
The attacks have knocked the site offline a few times.
If you couldn’t access the Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine over the past few days, it’s because the website has been under attack. The nonprofit organization has announced it’s in its “third day of warding off an intermittent DDoS cyber-attack.”
The Internet Archive has yet to identify the source of the attacks, but it did talk about how libraries and similar institutions are being targeted more frequently these days. One institution it mentioned was the British Library, whose online information system was held hostage for ransom by a hacker group last year.
The headset is slated to gain PC support this year.
After teasing PC compatibility earlier this year, Sony has apparently created a PC adapter for the PS VR2, according to a Korean filing unearthed by VR and mixed-reality enthusiast Brad Lynch. There are no details on how the adapter works, what it looks like or how much it will cost, but it lends credence to previous evidence that the headset would have a wired PC connection. The company will be hoping that PC support will drive sales of its headset, which hasn’t exactly set the world alight.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-sony-apologizes-for-fabricated-interview-with-last-of-us-studio-head-111549333.html?src=rss
Last week, Sony published a seemingly innocuous round of interviews that centered the company’s nebulous “creative entertainment vision”. Neil Druckmann, head of the Sony-owned game studio Naughty Dog, was one of those — but his interview wasn’t quite what it seemed.
Druckmann, who headed the team behind The Last of Us series, was apparently wildly misquoted by his own employers. A few days after the interviews were published, he took to X and said, “This is not quite what I said.” He even posted a section of the original interview transcript, which was hugely different.
Sony has since pulled the interview and issued an apology on the old page, saying the article had significant errors and inaccuracies, encompassing “animation, writing, technology, AI and future projects.” So, if all that was inaccurate, what was accurate?
Japan’s hit virtual pet, Punirunes, comes to the US this summer. A play on puni-puni, which means ‘squishy’ in Japanese, it’s a slightly different kind of digital pet. There’s a doughy button at the center of the device that simulates physical contact with your Punirunes. When you pet it, your finger even appears on the device’s screen. Punirunes makes its US debut in August for $40.
Amazon is permanently offering free Grubhub+ restaurant delivery as part of its Prime subscription. If you pay $139 per year for a Prime subscription and are up for spending more to eat, you’ll pay no fee for eligible GrubHub orders over $12. You’ll also see lower service fees, 5 percent credit back on pickup orders and, apparently, exclusive offers. Unlimited grocery delivery from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh still costs an additional $10 per month.
The attacks have knocked the site offline a few times.
If you couldn’t access the Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine over the past few days, it’s because the website has been under attack. The nonprofit organization has announced it’s in its “third day of warding off an intermittent DDoS cyber-attack.”
The Internet Archive has yet to identify the source of the attacks, but it did talk about how libraries and similar institutions are being targeted more frequently these days. One institution it mentioned was the British Library, whose online information system was held hostage for ransom by a hacker group last year.
The headset is slated to gain PC support this year.
After teasing PC compatibility earlier this year, Sony has apparently created a PC adapter for the PS VR2, according to a Korean filing unearthed by VR and mixed-reality enthusiast Brad Lynch. There are no details on how the adapter works, what it looks like or how much it will cost, but it lends credence to previous evidence that the headset would have a wired PC connection. The company will be hoping that PC support will drive sales of its headset, which hasn’t exactly set the world alight.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-sony-apologizes-for-fabricated-interview-with-head-of-last-of-us-studio-111549910.html?src=rss
Last week, Sony published a seemingly innocuous bit of fluff, touting its long-term "creative entertainment vision" in broad terms, along with some interviews of key employees. Neil Druckmann, studio head of Sony's Naughty Dog, was one of those — and his interview made waves in the game world. According to the interview, Druckmann said AI could "create nuanced dialogues and characters" and also said that the new game Naughty Dog was developing (but hasn't officially announced) "could redefine mainstream perceptions of gaming." Some mighty strong and potentially controversial statements from the head of a studio beloved for its The Last of Us and Uncharted franchises.
Problem is, Druckmann was wildly misquoted by his own employers. A few days after Sony published its interview, Druckmann took to X and said "this is not quite what I said." He then went full Ellie-in-revenge-mode on Sony, posting a section of the original interview transcript. (He was actually pretty polite if we're being honest — even the powerful can only bite the hand that feeds so hard.) Regardless, things here do not add up.
In editing my rambling answers in my recent interview with SONY, some of my words, context, and intent were unfortunately lost. Well, here's the full long rambling answer for the final question about our future game... pic.twitter.com/tVuxX3LYJF
Gaming reporter Stephen Totilo shared his own comparison of what Druckmann said and what Sony published, bolding the words in Sony's answer that Druckmann never said — and those words were the majority of the quote. Sony basically put words in his mouth and published them, kicking off a classic gamer freakout.
To be fair, if I was Druckmann, I'd be pretty pissed too. Look at this butchery!
If you're curious (about what he said; and how I spend a Friday night when my wife and kids are away), here's a comparison of the original answer and the edited one.
Many changes
No surprise, this was cut: "Not because games need to be movies, or they need to be TV shows" pic.twitter.com/FkxNkqQPY2
Now, five days later, Sony has removed the interview from its site entirely. However, they didn't just delete the page — they left it up with an apology to Neil and the Naughty Dog team "for any negative impact this interview might have caused."
My favorite bit is easily this:
In re-reviewing our recent interview with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, we have found several significant errors and inaccuracies that don't represent his perspective and values (including topics such as animation, writing, technology, AI, and future projects).Sony
So everything he said about animation, writing, technology, AI and future projects had errors. Hey, at least they nailed his name and title.
For the morbidly curious, you can still read the "interview" on archive.org.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sony-pulls-fabricated-interview-with-naughty-dog-head-neil-druckmann-210340146.html?src=rss
Apple's 10th-gen iPad has become a much better value after a permanent $100 price cut earlier this month, and now a new discount has made it even more affordable. The 10.9-inch tablet is on sale for $300 at Amazon, which is the lowest price we've seen to date. Just note that you'll need to clip an on-page coupon to see the full discount, and that the deal only applies to the blue and silver finishes as of this writing. For reference, Apple sells the slate for $349, though we previously saw it drop around $330 a couple weeks back.
Be aware that this deal is for models with 64GB of storage; if you need more space, 256GB versions are also $49 off and down to a low of $450. Again, just clip the on-page coupon to get the final price. All of these offers are available at Costco as well, but only for subscribers to that retailer's membership plan. (Amazon's deals are likely price matches.) Costco's listing says the sale will run through May 31.
We gave the 10th-gen iPad a review score of 85 back in October 2022, and it's now the budget pick in our iPad buying guide. The latter is somewhat by default, since this is the only iPad available for less than $350. Still, it's a great tablet for the money. It has a similar design as the more expensive iPad Air, with a crisp display, a clean aluminum frame, thin bezels, a Touch ID reader and a USB-C port. Its battery life is about the same at 10-ish hours, and its A14 Bionic chip remains plenty fast for the things most people do with an iPad, be it streaming Netflix, playing the occasional game or doing basic work. Like Apple's pricier tablets, its front camera is located on its long edge, which is a more natural location for group FaceTime calls.
To be clear, if you can afford one of the new iPad Airs, we think it's worth it. Those are available in 11- and 13-inch sizes and include a host of upgrades that add up to a more pleasing experience. Those include a faster and more futureproof M2 chip, double the RAM and default storage and a laminated display (which means there's no visible "gap" between the front glass and the display itself). The Air is also compatible with better accessories, such as the new Pencil Pro stylus. Here, you're limited to the cheaper USB-C Pencil, which lacks pressure sensitivity, or the old first-gen Pencil, which requires a mess of adapters to charge. If you can find a last-gen iPad Air for cheap before it goes fully out of stock, that should remain a better value as well. Still, if you just want a tablet for the essentials and are looking to spend as little as possible, the entry-level model gets you the core iPad experience at a good price. This deal only furthers that.
Here’s an open secret: Every cheap streaming stick kind of sucks. Yes, it’s great that people can access so many shows and movies with devices that cost less than $50. It’s great that the best of them no longer force you to suffer through constant lag and performance hiccups, too. But over time, the Faustian bargain we make with these things becomes increasingly obvious. We save cash upfront, then we repay our debt through a shoddy user experience.
I’ve been thinking about this since buying Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max a couple of months ago. It’s a good example of that handshake: It’s been on sale for $40 for most of the past few months, and at that price, its hardware is a tremendous bargain. It’s fast, it works with the major HDR formats and Dolby Atmos and it supports all the requisite apps.
But Amazon’s Fire OS is shamelessly bloated. Big honking ads dominate the UI, most of which put Amazon services like Freevee or MGM+ or Prime Video — still the Blockbuster bargain bin of streaming services — front and center. Some ads straight up promote products you can shop on Amazon. Friend, you have not seen the dystopian future until the top third of your 55-inch TV suggests you buy a KitchenAid espresso machine. Once I’m actually streaming something, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is great. But I have to resist all the ads it peddles to me, to mentally block parts of the device I bought with my own money, to get the most out of it.
So why did I still buy one? Mainly because I’m not using it the way Amazon intends. Instead, I’m using it to emulate old video games, which is forever the easiest path to my heart. It’s possible to run retro games on just about anything today, of course — a PC, an iPhone, a million different handhelds, a fridge and more. You can do this kind of thing with other Android streamers such as the Google Chromecast or Amazon’s cheaper Fire TV Stick 4K as well. The Delta emulator was newly allowed on iOS, and you can also get at it with an Apple TV too, albeit over AirPlay instead of a native connection. I settled on the 4K Max simply because it seems to have more of a performance safety net than most other low-cost streamers. And it’s much cheaper than a higher-end box like the Apple TV or NVIDIA Shield.
Regardless, having a dedicated device for TVs is convenient in a way those non-streaming sticks aren’t. I’m not lugging a giant gaming PC from my desk to my living room, and I’m not paying extra for a mini PC when I can spend so much less on a dongle that emulates well enough. Official consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 have plenty of retro games in their libraries, but far from everything. And while I’m a collector who has spent way too much on consoles and games from decades past, the process of getting that original hardware to run decently on a modern TV is famously laborious. Sometimes I just want to play a half-hour of NHL ‘94, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball or Chrono Trigger without having to pull out the SNES (or Genesis), upscaler and heap of cables from my closet. (Related: I’d also like a bigger apartment, but c’est la vie in NYC.) Emulating on the Fire TV Stick isn’t as faithful as the real thing in terms of image quality, but it’s certainly playable and generally less of a hassle to just turn on and use.
After you get it set up, that is. Turning a Fire TV Stick into a retro game center isn’t especially complicated but requires a little prep. There are plenty of tutorials out there that’ll walk you through the full process, but here’s how I got it to work. First, I needed a few accessories: a Bluetooth controller, some sort of USB thumb drive (any older USB 2.0 model will do) and an OTG adapter with a microUSB connector that can power the Fire TV while connecting that external storage. I’ve been using this old SNES-style 8BitDo controller, just to get a more period-appropriate feel, though a PS4 or PS5 gamepad would also work. The USB drive holds the ROM and BIOS files for the games and systems I want to emulate. This is where I remind you that Engadget does not condone piracy, and while emulators are perfectly legal, sharing ROMs on the internet is not, so tread lightly. But backing up files of old games I’ve already bought, for personal use only, is at least fuzzier.
After formatting my thumb drive and loading it up with my games, it was simply matter of downloading the popular frontend RetroArch from Amazon’s app store, downloading the “cores” for each console I wanted to emulate within RetroArch, pointing the app toward the right folders on the USB drive and configuring my gamepad’s controls. I’ve done this on dozens of devices over the past couple years as I’ve sunk deeper into the retro-gaming rabbit hole, so the whole process took me well under an hour. Demystifying RetroArch would take me another 1,000 words, so I’ll direct you to this superb video tutorial from Retro Game Corps. It’s long, but this stuff always requires a little pain upfront, and I think it’s worth it. Turning a device like this into something completely different feels like I’m getting away with something. It’s exciting, even if it means I end up sounding like this guy.
As for what’s actually playable on this thing, I’ve found the 4K Max to work best emulating consoles up to the original PlayStation. Games from the PS1, NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, Genesis and old arcade machines have been consistently smooth. It’s technically possible to run stuff from the N64, Dreamcast, PSP or Nintendo DS, but those are more hit-or-miss, so I wouldn’t bank on them unless you’re the kind of sadist who enjoys futzing with resolution scaling and cycling between emulators. Still, this leaves me with hundreds of games to enjoy. Some are essential (Donkey Kong), some have been lost to time (U.N. Squadron), some make me want to self-defenestrate (Ecco the Dolphin) and none are live-service dross designed to disrespect my time.
I understand that this is a weird, niche pursuit. Emulators are daunting at first, and many old games feel like relics for a reason. Yet, in a small way, turning this ad-riddled, data-sucking streamer into a mini retro console has felt like reclaiming ownership of the gadget I paid for. The ads are still there, and my home screen will continue to badger me to watch Anne Hathaway’s latest rom-com on Prime Video. (My wife and I caved; it was fine.) But with a little trickery, I’ve bent it to show more of what I want to see — and gained an easier way to engage in some nostalgic fun in the process.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-fire-tv-stick-4k-max-is-better-as-a-retro-gaming-device-than-a-streamer-160022685.html?src=rss
Russell T. Davies admits his writing eschews narrative formalism in favor of things that just feel right. Two decades ago, his critics pointed to his use of deus ex machina endings as a stick to beat his reputation with. But we’re in a different era now, where vibes matter just as much as logic — both inside the show’s new more fantastic skew, and in the real world. “73 Yards” is the vibiest episode of new Doctor Who so far, but I even found it easy to sit back and enjoy what it was doing.
Doctor Who is a complicated show to make, and some series have started production on Day 1 a week or more behind schedule. To combat this, the show started making “-lite” episodes that didn’t need the leads to be as involved. There are “Doctor-lite” episodes like “Love and Monsters” and “Blink,” and even “companion-lite” episodes like “Midnight.” This production process enables the star, or stars, to be off shooting Episode A while a guest cast takes the spotlight for the bulk of Episode B.
Production of the new series began while star Ncuti Gatwa was still finishing the last of his work on Netflix’s Sex Education. So while he appears in the opening and closing moments of "73 Yards", he’s otherwise absent as the Doctor has been erased from history. It gives us the chance to see what a modern companion would do if left stranded in uncertain territory without her alien ally. The episode takes hard turns from folk and rural horror to kitchen-sink drama before becoming a light homage to Taxi Driver. Suffice to say, this is another episode you wouldn’t watch with small kids.
Bad Wolf / BBC Studios
The TARDIS lands on a cliff edge in Wales, with the Doctor pointing out it’s another liminal space where magic is allowed to creep in. He even mentions the war between the “land and the sea,” name-checking a rumored spin-off fans discovered after scouring production documents. The Doctor talks about how great a country Wales is, except for Roger ap Gwillam, a Welsh politician who, two decades hence, will lead the UK to the brink of nuclear armageddon. He then steps into a fairy ring, disturbing its web, and disappears while Ruby reads the paper notes tied to it. The notes mention a Mad Jack, a scary figure that sounds like a villain from folklore.
Suddenly, Ruby is alone on the cliff but can now see the blurry figure of an old woman waving her arms at her in the distance. Ruby tries to approach her but the figure remains the same distance away (the titular 73 yards) no matter where she goes. Believing the Doctor has ghosted her, she tries to solve the quandary of this figure on her own. Ruby approaches a hiker (Susan Twist) and tries to work out where she’s seen her before (every episode thus far), but can’t quite put her finger on it. She asks the hiker if she’d be willing to speak to the old woman who is following her, but when the hitchhiker gets there, whatever she says is so horrifying that she sprints away from the scene in terror.
Ruby heads to a pub in the nearby town where the locals mock her — mistaking her hesitancy for condescension. She asks one of the patrons to go speak to the woman and, when he does, the same thing happens. Ruby gets home and asks her mum to try, this time holding a phone so Ruby can hear what she’s saying. But the phone call is disrupted and her mum is similarly horrified by what she hears — locking Ruby out of her home soon after. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT are next to offer aid, right up until they encounter the woman, when they all abandon her.
Bad Wolf / BBC Studios
All the time, the old woman remains 73 yards away from wherever Ruby is, unnoticed by everyone else unless Ruby directs their attention to her. She can’t photograph the woman's face — it's blurry — and can’t get close enough to hear her ominous warning. In fact, even to the end of the episode, there’s a lot of unknowns that are never resolved.
Ruby’s strangely resilient, and once she’s gotten beyond the abandonment, she looks to build a new life for herself. She treats her stalker as a friend, wishing her well as we cycle through a montage of the next chapter of Ruby’s life. She gets a job, moves into her own flat and goes through a series of breakups as she gently ages past 30, and then 40. Then, on the TV, she sees Roger ap Gwillam on the TV, who even mentions Mad Jack, and remembers both the Doctor’s warning and the messages in the fairy ring. It takes Ruby no time at all to be sure that her purpose in life is to save the world, and to avert Gwillam’s nuclear catastrophe.
She signs up to Gwillam’s fascist political party as a volunteer and eventually reaches a position where she’s close to the top. Gwillam’s rise is quick and it’s not long before he’s promising to secede from NATO and put his itchy trigger finger on the UK’s nuclear arsenal, ready to wage war on the rest of the world. Gwillam’s inauguration will take place at Cardiff City Stadium, while Ruby follows the politician along, lurking in the crowd.
Bad Wolf / BBC Studios
Ruby then starts to approach Gwillam, walking across the off-limits pitch at the stadium, and you expect her to pull out a weapon. But instead, she whips out her phone and starts measuring the distance between her and Roger until she reaches 73 yards. When she does, she gestures to the villain to notice the woman, and when he notices her, he hears the horrifying thing she says. The shock is enough to send Gwillam racing out of the stadium, resigning from the role of Prime Minister and preventing nuclear armageddon.
But while Ruby hoped that would be the end of it, the figure remains with her for the rest of her life. It’s only on her deathbed she realizes she can project herself back in time to act as a warning for the Doctor to not step in the fairy ring. She does so, preventing the accident in the first place and paradoxically nullifying the entire time stream in the process. History carries on its merry way and all is well… for now. But given the risks of paradoxes in Doctor Who, and the general sense that history is unraveling, it might not augur too well for what’s going to happen in the future.
Bad Wolf / BBC Studios
“73 Yards” is an exercise in putting your character in a hostile world and seeing what they’ll do to deal with it. It’s an episode that, when written down, doesn’t feel like a lot happens, because so much of its runtime is an exploration of Ruby as a character. Doctor Who thrives when the companion role is occupied by someone who wants to grab a fistful of narrative for themselves. And Ruby Sunday seems almost too perfect in her ability to draw out the logic from what she’s experienced and work within it.
Much as you can draw narrative and thematic parallels between the new series and Davies’ original tenure, this episode pulls from “Turn Left.” Both tell the story of what happens to a companion when the Doctor is withdrawn from the narrative and what they do to fix that wrong. And it’s no surprise both suggest that the UK, without the intervention of the Doctor, is only a few days away from tipping over into fascism.
Ruby’s humanity shines, even to the point where she’s trying to treat her tormentor with care. She refuses to fly, or travel by boat, lest she endanger the life of the apparition that’s following her, despite how much damage it causes to her life. And when she sees Roger ap Gwillam on the TV, she’s certain that her destiny is to prevent the nuclear armageddon the Doctor warned her about. This is another useful thread — the idea that Ruby has an instinctive grasp of the genre she exists in — much as she did in “Space Babies.”
As for the ending, it’s probably best we talk about those “vibes,” or the sort of slightly skewed associations in the show’s logic. Ruby, at the end of her life, realizes that she’s able to travel, or project herself somehow, through time to avert the Doctor’s fall. There’s nothing in the episode that points to it, no hint that the ghostly figure is Ruby, or if this is tied to the snow or anything else. But perhaps, the trick to an episode like this is simply to let yourself relax and enjoy seeing the character evolve, rather than anything more.
Susan Twist Corner
Obviously, Susan Twist plays the hiker that Ruby first encounters after the Doctor disappears and, for the first time, Ruby notices the familiarity. In the materials that Disney sends along that Susan Twist’s character is named the “mystery woman.”
And on the subject of twists, you’ll recall at the end of “Church on Ruby Road” that, in the post-credits, Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) breaks the fourth wall. The annoying neighbor character, who lives next to Ruby’s mum’s flat, turns to the camera and asks if we’ve “Never seen a TARDIS before?” (Given her surprise at seeing it earlier in the episode, it’s clear her history may have been changed during the course of the show.) When Ruby heads back to her mum’s house, Anita Dobson’s Mrs Flood is back sitting on her step with her deckchair out. Interestingly, when she notices the ghostly figure — and Ruby and her Mum’s attempts to deal with it, she declares that it’s “nothing to do with me” and goes inside. Which, again, feels like a hint that Mrs Flood and the mystery woman are separate
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/doctor-who-73-yards-review-dont-stand-so-close-to-me-000018703.html?src=rss
