Spoilers ahead for the Doctor Who episode “Space Babies”.
The Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday are officially headed for big adventures. “Space Babies” picks up right where the Christmas special left off. After a quick foray into the past with dinosaurs, the duo ends up on a strange space station full of babies. It's quite an odd adventure, to say the least, showing how this doctor and companion will stand out from his predecessors. Despite this, Doctor Who first season hats off to the Ninth Doctor and Rose in a couple of sweet ways.
These odes to Nine and Rose are hardly shocking given the parallels between them and the Fifteen/Ruby pairing. The first season of Nine and Rose (aka the first season/series) started a new slate and era for the show for new fans to enjoy while referencing the show's rich history. The age of Quinze and Ruby is doing the same, obviously.
Ruby is slightly reminiscent of Rose. Both are 19-year-old blonde girls from working-class neighborhoods who seem down on their personal luck when they begin traveling with the Doctor. The Ninth and Fifteenth Doctors are coming out of some pretty dark times, but they know they don't want to be alone. His first adventures are on Earth while the second takes place on a space station. Therefore, it is only suitable for Doctor Who to call Nine and Rose again.
Like Rose when she was billions of years in the future, Ruby is excited but also saddened by the realization that her mother is dead at the time. The Fifteenth Doctor takes Ruby's phone and boosts the signal so she can call her mother right away, easing her anxiety. This is a direct call back to “The End of the World” when Nine does the same for Rose.
The end of the episode also gives us another Nine and Rose ode. The Doctor takes Ruby to spend Christmas with her mother and grandmother. She invites him over to say hi and he says, “Tell your mom not to slap me.” Of course, this reference “Aliens from London”. In this episode, Nine takes Rose to her mother only to discover that a whole year has passed. Jackie is angry and slaps him really, really hard in response. Luckily, Ruby was gone in no time, but her mother probably wanted to slap her for landing in her kitchen.
We'll see if Fifteen and Ruby's journey mirrors Nine and Rose's adventures in the future.
