When The Doctor stepped into a fairy circle in Doctor Who Season 14, Episode 4, he just disappeared. The TARDIS remained, leading to questions about where he went.
One of the scariest elements of the episode titled “73 Yards” is that we didn’t get many answers. We had an episode set in an alternate timeline. We have no idea what Old Ruby said to people to make them run away from Ruby, and we have no idea what happens now that the timeline has been reset.
We also have no idea where The Doctor went. What happened to him after he stepped inside the circle? Well, we could look at the legend of fairy rings to understand this.
Did the fairies make The Doctor invisible in Doctor Who?
One of the legends is that a person who steps inside a fairy ring is turned invisible. They can be stuck inside the ring, and they could even be pulled into the world of the fae. Never ever mess with the fae!
It does look like the fairies could have made Fifteen simply disappear. Maybe he was wiped out of existence. After all, Kate Stewart hadn’t seen The Doctor. The TARDIS was just left behind, suggesting that The Doctor was nowhere around.
What if he was made invisible, though? What if Ruby wasn’t only followed by her older self? Is it possible that The Doctor was turned invisible to the people of the world, forcing him to walk the world alone as well? Maybe he could see Ruby and he ended up following her; at least, until he went to see Old Ruby and may have ended up having the same thing happen to him—he heard something that caused him to be scared of Ruby.
The Fifteen that we have now won’t remember any of that. He didn’t step inside the circle, and he and Ruby have no memories of the alternate timeline. So, it’s possible that we’ll never find out what happened to The Doctor, but I’d say the fairies did something considering he was the one to step inside the circle and break it. He was the one that disrespected the fae, and you just don’t do that!