| Cherry Sunday | Talk |
Cherry Sunday was the mother of Carla Sunday, and the adopted grandmother of Ruby Sunday. As noted by herself and the Fifteenth Doctor, her name sounded like that of a "tasty treat".
Biography[]
Early life[]
Cherry lived in a flat at 3 Minto Road in London and had a daughter, Carla, who lived in Manchester with her adoptive daughter, Ruby. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).) Cherry lived through the pandemic and the recession. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, adapted from The Church on Ruby Road (Russell T Davies), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 2024).) She once accused a doctor of trying to murder her.
As Cherry got older, she needed help with day-to-day life, but her family were unable to afford professional care for her and she refused to relocate to the north of England to be with Carla and Ruby, necessitating them to move in with Cherry to take care of her by 2023. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).) Shortly after the November 2023 UFO incident, (PROSE: The Star Beast [+]Gary Russell, adapted from The Star Beast (Russell T Davies), 60th Anniversary Novels (Target Books, 2023).) Cherry and her family lived through the Giggle. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, adapted from The Church on Ruby Road (Russell T Davies), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 2024).)
Meeting the Doctor[]
On 24 December 2023, Carla started to foster Lulubelle, whose presence in the flat Cherry said would ruin Christmas with her dirty nappies and crying at night. She was annoyed by Ruby and Carla neglecting to provide her with a cup of tea, having let the last one go cold, and was charmed by the Fifteenth Doctor when he visited, although she initially warned him to keep away because of her distrust of doctors. As Ruby left to join the Doctor in his TARDIS, Cherry was finally supplied with a cup of tea by Carla. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)
A few days later, Cherry and Carla were having food together when the Doctor materialised his TARDIS in their kitchen. The pair stood in shock as Ruby exited the TARDIS, explaining about her adventures in space and time. The Doctor soon emerged as well to finally fully explain who he really was to the pair. (TV: Space Babies [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
In 2024, when Ruby returned to collect the VHS tape from Carla, she learned that Rose Noble and her mother worked for UNIT. Upon hearing this, Carla insisted she was going with them to the headquarters. She left Cherry in the care of Mrs Flood, a nearby neighbour. The others then left and Cherry asked Mrs Flood to make her a cup of tea. However, Mrs Flood denied her request and moved to the window, saying she must prepare as the One Who Waits was waiting no more. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
As Cherry and Mrs Flood listened to music on BBC Radio 1, an emergency broadcast played reporting an incident in central London and urging the immediate evacuation of everyone in the city. Mrs Flood asked Cherry if she believed in the power of prayer. When she told her that she did, she told her tell her maker that she would come to storm down his gates of gold and seize his kingdom in her true name. Cherry asked what she was talking about and just who she was. Mrs Flood, however, only put her arm around her, telling her that she was sorry this was how it ended, that she has such plans. The two of them were then overtaken by Sutekh's Dust of Death and crumbled to dust, dying, like everyone else on Earth, save the Doctor, Ruby and Melanie Bush, who managed to escape.
After those three succeeded in defeating Sutekh, everyone affected by the Dust of Death was restored to life. Mrs Flood laughed and hugged Cherry, calling the Doctor a "clever boy." Cherry, however, seemed to have little to no recollection of what had actually happened, nor Mrs Flood's oddly portentous statements. When Carla arrived home, she chastised her for not dusting, blaming her neglect of this chore for the lingering dust. Cherry was later present when Ruby returned home with her biological mother, Louise Miller. When Louise expressed that she had wanted to try to find Ruby before, but was worried that she might hate her, Cherry told her that there was no hatred in their household, to which Carla added that they did have was photographs, nearly 500 of Ruby that she had printed out. Cherry watched as the Doctor departed in his TARDIS, then joined the group to look at photo albums. (TV: Empire of Death [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 14 (BBC One and Disney+, 2024).)
Personality[]
Cherry enjoyed drinking tea, becoming cantankerous the longer she had to wait for a cup. Because her cranky attitude persisted even during Christmastime, Carla cheekily compared her to Ebenezer Scrooge, even giving her a bag of humbugs to cheer her up. When Cherry met the Fifteenth Doctor, she playfully told him to stay away from her, believing the last doctor she saw "tried to murder me", but was equally enamoured by him. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023 (BBC One and Disney+, 2023).)
