‘THE LEGEND OF RUBY SUNDAY’/’EMPIRE OF DEATH’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Sutekh with the Fifteenth Doctor, Ruby, Mel and U.N.I.T.

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‘THE LEGEND OF RUBY SUNDAY’ (Part One)

And thus, we come to the two-part finale in Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series – ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ by Russell T. Davies! 🙂 Now, at the time of seeing this two-part finale in 2024, I saw it twice. Sort of, depending on how you look at it.

In the first week, I saw the first episode ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ at home on TV via BBC iPlayer. The week after that, I saw both ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ and ‘Empire of Death’ at Showcase Cinema in Nantgarw close to where I live in Cardiff. Yeah, no joke! 😀

The two-part finale of Series 14 was shown for a limited release at cinemas in the week that ‘Empire of Death’ was to be shown. This has happened with ‘Doctor Who’ before where stories like ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘Deep Breath’ were released at cinemas. 🙂

Having missed out on those occasions at the time in 2013 and 2014, I decided not to miss out on this one. I wanted to see the two-part finale featuring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday on the big screen. I’m very pleased I did that. 🙂

There was a problem though. It was a midnight screening. Yeah, my Mum and I went to Showcase Cinema rather late for a 10:35pm performance to see ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’. 😐 This was tie-in with the Disney+ release of ‘Empire of Death’.

I’ll talk more about ‘the BBC iPlayer/Disney+ release of the Series 14 episodes at midnight in the UK’ later on, but the release of ‘Empire of Death’ on BBC iPlayer coincided with its release on Disney+ in whatever non-UK parts of the world it was on and whatever times they were.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen the next year when ‘Wish World’/’The Reality of War’ was released at cinemas in May 2025. That story was shown at 6pm in the evening instead of late at night. All the same, it was a huge ask for fans to see this two-part finale at midnight.

And quite exciting as well! I was keen to see how the two-part finale would resolve in the final episode after having seen the first episode the week before. It was also nice to see a message from Millie Gibson in the intermission between the two episodes on the night. 🙂

In all fairness, seeing the two-part finale on the big screen was worthwhile. Unlike ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘Deep Breath’, which had multiple screen times when shown in 2013 and 2014, this story was shown only once at cinemas, and you couldn’t see it again.

You could see it again on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ of course, but you couldn’t check it out on the big screen for a second or a third time. The Series 14 and 15 two-part finales being shown at cinemas was something you couldn’t miss out on. I’m glad I did it both times. 🙂

With that said…(sighs)…the Series 14 two-part finale leaves a lot to be desired. 😦 I recall when coming out of the cinema after having seen the Series 14 two-part finale, there were audience members who didn’t regard the finale very highly, which is a real shame indeed.

And that’s not just from people who saw the two-part finale at the cinema. This was also from reading news articles on the Internet. I hoped ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ would be epic and enjoyable like previous RTD-era season finales have been. 😐

But it didn’t turn out like that. Instead of resolving a story arc that we had been following with the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby since it began with ‘The Church on Ruby Road’, there were more questions raised on certain plot elements that happened in the two-part finale.

And this is ironic, considering RTD had assured viewers via previews on the ‘Doctor Who’ YouTube channel that the questions we’d been asking about Series 14 would be answered in the two-part finale. And I don’t think that it worked out the way he intended.

I’ll do my best to explain what I mean by that as we go through this in-depth review on the Series 14 two-part finale. But make no mistake, this is a season finale that doesn’t entirely work. And it’s a shame considering when you compare it to RTD’s previous efforts.

Anyway, let’s start by talking about the first episode of this two-part finale – ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’. We begin with the TARDIS flying through the sky of London. It turns out Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and her team at U.N.I.T. HQ are preparing for the Doctor’s arrival.

How they knew he was coming is never explained. I mean, I assume the Doctor gave Kate a quick phone call to tell her that he and Ruby were on their way to U.N.I.T. HQ. It’s never shown. Perhaps this is something that the Target novelization can clarify once I’ve read it.

As soon as Kate and her team prepare for the Doctor’s arrival, we then have one of the stupidest moments ever to feature in this story! Yeah! Didn’t take long, did it? The TARDIS arrives in U.N.I.T. HQ…by flying through the helipad doors and into the command room! 😐

The TARDIS skids its way into the command room before stopping and parking in front of the screens on the bridge. Yeah, I don’t care if this was meant to top up the Fourteenth Doctor’s arrival at U.N.I.T. HQ in ‘The Giggle’. 😐 I still consider it a pretty stupid thing to do.

For one thing, why did the Doctor need to arrive by flying the TARDIS into U.N.I.T. HQ? Kate and her team didn’t need to open the helipad doors to let him in. All the Doctor needed to do was to materialise as normal. Fade in, fade out. Surely, it’s not a difficult thing to do.

For another thing, flying the TARDIS in like that is dangerous. What if someone who wasn’t aware of the Doctor’s arrival accidentally came in on the bridge and they found themselves crushed by the TARDIS on impact as it arrived. The family won’t be very happy.

Also, considering the Doctor’s not a very good pilot, he was lucky to fly the TARDIS in and land on the spot where he wanted the old girl to be on the bridge. What if he crashed into one of the decks and ended up hurting people in the process? Wasn’t safety considered?

Clearly not, as it’s evident the Doctor is showing off by this point. Granted, that would be keeping with his character at this stage in the TV series, but you don’t need to arrive in a dramatic fashion by flying in. Materialising as normal would be enough and far more epic.

In fact, wouldn’t it have been better to start off with the U.N.I.T. team preparing for the Doctor’s arrival and they open the helipad doors, only to find that he’s gone and the TARDIS ended up materialising on the bridge instead to surprise them? 😐 That’d be better!

We don’t need to have CGI effects to prove that the TARDIS can land inside U.N.I.T. HQ via the method of flying in. In fact, CGI is a recurring problem for this two-part finale, especially concerning the big villain, but we’ll get to him eventually. Back to this episode.

The Doctor emerges from the TARDIS with Ruby joining him.

Doctor: GIVE ME THE LOVING!!!!!

“Hi, everyone! Missed me?” That’s what I would have said. I mean, what kind of a greeting is that? Does no-one start off with “Hello” anymore? Apparently, “Give me the loving” typically acts as this demand or a request to receive affection, care or romantic attention.

Well, that’s what clearly happens when Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble runs over to greet the Doctor and give him a hug. And yes! Yasmin Finney as Rose, Donna Noble’s daughter, is back in the TV series! It’s nice to see her again. And apparently, she’s working for U.N.I.T.

Err…hang on, wait a second! Wasn’t Donna offered a job to work for U.N.I.T. by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in ‘The Giggle’? Wasn’t Kate impressed by Donna in finding out the musical notes of the titular Giggle that she offered her the chance to work at U.N.I.T. HQ?

Kate: If we survive this, you should think about joining UNIT.
Donna: How much per year?
Kate: 60,000.
Donna: 120 plus five weeks’ holiday.
Kate: Done.

So, basically, what that meant was, “I’ll give the job to my daughter Rose, and she can work for you instead of me?” Or maybe Donna did end up working for U.N.I.T. but in a different section? Or maybe she and her family went on that 5-week holiday, I don’t know.

Also, how did Rose know Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor when she greeted him? Rose never met the Fifteenth Doctor in ‘The Giggle’. She appeared in the last scene of that story with Donna, the Fourteenth Doctor, Sylvia, Shaun and Mel for that big family dinner at the end.

Did Donna and the Fourteenth Doctor show a picture to Rose to let her know she might end up meeting Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor at some point whilst working for U.N.I.T. Is there a story where Rose met the Fifteenth Doctor for the first time, hence why she knows him now?

I don’t know, these things aren’t explained. And it’s so frustrating when RTD is expecting you to go along with it. Again, these are issues that I’ll explain later in the review, especially to sum up RTD’s neo-era so far, but we’ll come to that when we get to it later. 😐

The Doctor asks Rose how her mum and his uncle is. Rose’s ‘uncle’ means, of course, they’re talking about the Fourteenth Doctor. A shame that he doesn’t appear in this story. I was hoping he’d might make a guest appearance at some point in this TV story. Sadly not.

There’s also no asking about how Rose’s great-grandad Wilfred Mott is on the Fifteenth Doctor’s part. I suppose you could say he died in-universe by this point, but it’s left to speculation, and quite frankly, I don’t want to think of Wilfred dying too soon by this point.

The Doctor introduces Ruby to Rose and vice versa and is then greeted by Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge Stewart. The Doctor also introduces Kate to Ruby. And this is actually the first time that Kate and Ruby meet each other in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series.

Kate and Ruby did meet in ’73 Yards’, but that doesn’t count in this case since that story took place in an alternative continuity. The Doctor also says hello to the Vlinx, played by Aidan Cook and voiced by Nicholas Briggs. 🙂 Apparently, the Vlinx has had an upgrade. 🙂

Vlinx: Hot metal, Doctor.

And we still don’t know where the Vlinx came from by this stage in the TV series nor how U.N.I.T. got it in the first place. I mean, it wasn’t explained in ‘The Giggle’, it’s not explained in this two-part TV story, nor in ‘Lucky Day’, and not in ‘Wish World’/’The Reality War’ either.

I was hoping there would be a point where the Vlinx’s origins would be revealed in the series, particularly in Ncuti Gatwa’s era. Sadly, that’s not happened and I’m wondering if we’re ever going to get an explanation for where the Vlinx came from. Perhaps. Maybe not.

Incidentally, in revisiting this two-part story, I’ve noticed that the Vlinx’s ‘hot metal’ upgrade is almost similar to when the Mandalorian got his beskar metal upgrade in Season 1 of ‘The Mandalorian’. It might be a coincidence, or it could be the Disney influence here.

The Doctor also reunites with Alexander Devrient as Colonel Christofer Ibrahim and… Yikes, he’s taller than Ncuti Gatwa in the series! 😀 I quite like the idea of Colonel Ibrahim being a gentle giant in U.N.I.T. Thankfully, he doesn’t get killed off in this ‘Doctor Who’ story.

Yes, yes, I know, I shouldn’t reveal that in this review for this two-part story, but the memory of what’s to happen in ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’ still hurts. 😀 The Doctor also meets Genesis Lynea as Harriet. She’s the Head of the Archive at U.N.I.T., apparently.

And the Doctor meets Lenny Rush as Morris Gibbons, U.N.I.T.’s new scientific advisor. Aww, what happened to Shirley Anne Bingham from the 60th anniversary TV specials? Was Ruth Madeley unavailable to make a return appearance in this two-part finale? Shame. 😦

Fun fact: Lenny Rush was originally meant to be the voice of Baby Eric in the episode ‘Space Babies’. He was actually at the read-through for ‘Space Babies’ before RTD decided to cast him for a role where he could be seen in the flesh instead of being heard. 🙂

I knew nothing about Lenny Rush before seeing him in this two-part story, but apparently, he’s a young actor with a medical condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, which affects his growth, resulting in dwarfism. He’s done plenty in his career.

This includes being in the comedy-drama TV series ‘Am I Being Unreasonable?’ and he won a British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance for being in that. He’s also been in CBBC drama TV shows like ‘Dodger’ and ‘The Dumping Ground’.

Okay, I want to sidetrack for a bit and talk about the U.N.I.T. set-up that’s in the neo-RTD era. Now, it’s very clear that RTD is a huge fan of U.N.I.T. He’s attempting to recreate ‘the U.N.I.T. family’ feel that was in Jon Pertwee’s era of ‘Doctor Who’ for Ncuti Gatwa’s TV era.

Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as we have seen various iterations of U.N.I.T. over the years. Some better than others. In fact, many U.N.I.T. characters, including Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, have gone on to be in the ‘U.N.I.T.’ spin-off audio stories by Big Finish.

However, there’s an issue with this. You see, when talking about ‘the U.N.I.T. family’ in Jon Pertwee’s era of ‘Doctor Who’, it was at a time when the Third Doctor was stuck on Earth. Most of his stories were earthbound. Thus, it meant having to interact with U.N.I.T. people.

Through most of the Jon Pertwee era, we got to know many of the U.N.I.T. characters like the Brigadier, Jo Grant, Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton. They had their journeys in being part of ‘the U.N.I.T. family’. We, as audiences, appreciated them every time we saw them.

Over time, that sort-of dwindled a bit because the Doctor’s exile was lifted and U.N.I.T. wasn’t so important as soon as he left Earth to travel in Space and Time again. U.N.I.T. keeps coming back, but we don’t have that regular U.N.I.T. set-up like it was in Jon Pertwee’s era.

You could say it happened with Kate and Osgood, but there wasn’t a regular consistency, as U.N.I.T. wasn’t featured in every story of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor eras. Thankfully, we have the ‘U.N.I.T.’ spin-off audios by Big Finish to enjoy a regular consistency.

So, if RTD wants to create that ‘U.N.I.T. family’ feel in his neo-era of ‘Doctor Who’, then he needs to maintain a sense of consistency with every character he’s introduced so that we can identify with them. And quite frankly, I don’t think he does that very well in my opinion.

You see, when we had ‘The Giggle’, we had five significant U.N.I.T. members set up for that ‘family’, including Kate, Mel, Shirley, Colonel Ibrahim and the Vlinx. Now if you want us to appreciate these characters in a consistent manner, they’d need to keep coming back. 😐

You can’t leave one of them out and except us to go with a new character to take their place. Because you’re likely to confuse audiences who may not be into U.N.I.T. or ‘Doctor Who’ so much and they’re probably wondering what’s happened to a certain character. 😐

Personally, I think it would’ve been better to have included Shirley Bingham in this story. Not have her on an assignment in Geneva, according to RTD. Because we know who she is and it’s no good introducing a new character that audiences wouldn’t be familiar with.

Case in point: Morris Gibbons. Who is he? Yeah, we know he’s U.N.I.T.’s scientific advisor, is 13 years old, and is an accelerated genius, thanks to a passing asteroid. But who is he? We don’t know anything about him beforehand and this is like his only appearance so far.

Yeah, no joke. Morris Gibbons is only in this TV story in the Ncuti Gatwa era. Maybe he’ll return for a future story, I don’t know. It’d be nice if he did. But at this point, I’m guessing Morris Gibbons was originally supposed to be Shirley Bingham instead for this two-parter.

Maybe RTD had Shirley Bingham in mind when he wrote ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’, but since Ruth Madeley wasn’t available, he had to create a new character who essentially said Shirley’s lines. 😦 And the character became Morris. 😐

It’d make sense, considering Shirley is in ‘Lucky Day’ and ‘Wish World’/’The Reality War’ for the next season. I think it’s a shame that Shirley isn’t in every U.N.I.T. story. If she had been in ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’, the consistency would be kept. 😐

Yes, U.N.I.T. tends to change staff every once and while. We had different captains in Season 7 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series with Jon Pertwee in stories like ‘Spearhead From Space’ and ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’. But it doesn’t help connecting to them.

I can’t really connect to a new U.N.I.T. character like Morris Gibbons when he’s so hurriedly introduced and we’re not given a proper explanation of how he got to be in U.N.I.T. in the first place. There’s not much time to explore Morris’ character in this TV story.

Also, how does a 13-year-old get to be U.N.I.T.’s scientific advisor so easily? 😐 I don’t think that’s how employment works, even if Morris Gibbons is a genius. 😐 You can’t expect us to go along with the idea that a 13-year-old can work in U.N.I.T. It doesn’t work like that. 😐

Maybe on a small scale you can have a job at 13 in a shop or something, but in a high-tech, high-security organisation like U.N.I.T., it’s a bit of a huge ask to suspend our disbelief. 😐 Maybe the Target novelization will clarify things on how Morris got to be in U.N.I.T.

Again, we’re not given any background to this character as to who he is, where he came from and how he ended up in U.N.I.T. We’re just told to go along with it and not ask questions. Except I would like to know who this boy is and how he’s working for U.N.I.T. 😦

Maybe instead of having him be the scientific advisor, he could work under Shirley Bingham on a work placement. Perhaps he’d be on a trial run to see how he capable he is in the U.N.I.T. scientific division. Because Kate was curious about him on first finding him.

If you want audiences to be introduced to Morris properly, you’d need to do more than just give us a hurried explanation that he became ‘an accelerated genius, thanks to an asteroid’. Having him work under Shirley on a work experience placement is a lot credible.

Because by the time we get to the next U.N.I.T. story, we would already know who Morris Gibbons is since he was introduced in the previous story when doing a work experience placement with Shirley. Him without Shirley next time wouldn’t be a surprise.

I’m actually surprised that Morris wasn’t introduced in ’73 Yards’ to establish the fact that he’s U.N.I.T.’s new scientific advisor to fill in Shirley’s absence. That would have helped to not be too surprised by his appearance in this two-part finale once we got to it in the season.

I might not be explaining myself properly when it comes to talking about Morris Gibbons. But I think the lack of character development on his part is so frustrating, especially when you’re having to cram a lot into one story and you don’t get to explore other characters. 😐

I would have preferred Shirley Bingham being in this U.N.I.T. story in the new ‘Doctor Who’ series instead of her being replaced by a newbie who doesn’t get a proper introduction in the series. 😦 It’s a rush when being introduced to him in the first scene he has with the Doctor.

I don’t doubt Lenny Rush’s abilities as an actor. I’m sure he’s very good and he’s had a lot of success in recent years. But you don’t just give a character role to someone and not enhance it whilst you’re progressing through the story. I would’ve expected more from RTD. 😦

Anyway, back on track. The Doctor explains to everyone why he’s visiting U.N.I.T. HQ.

Okay, so, just to backtrack a bit. As well as the images of Susan Twist as a comms officer at Pacifico del Rio in ‘Space Babies’, an ambulance on Kastarion 3 in ‘Boom’, Lindy’s mum in ‘Dot and Bubble’ and a portrait in ‘Rogue’, there are two others we haven’t come across.

There’s her as a Sloogma from the planet Sloog, and…is it me or does she look like a Borg drone from ‘Star Trek’? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s where RTD got his inspiration from. That he wanted Susan Twist to be dressed up like a Borg from ‘Star Trek’ in the story.

We also see Susan Twist as a Griffin from the planet Varsitay. Again, I don’t know if this is me, but from the way she’s designed in terms of image, she looks like Hela from the ‘MCU’ film ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. At least when Hela looks like she has spikes on her head. 😀

There’s also Susan Twist being a Bleet from the Fivefold Configuration, but we never see an image of that to know what she looks like. This does tie-in to an issue I have with Series 14 regarding how the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby’s journey in ‘Doctor Who’ is portrayed.

I’ll explain more on that towards the end of the review, but this is where we have a missed opportunity of showcasing more adventures featuring the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby on TV compared to what we have in the season itself. Again, I’ll be readdressing this later on.

But, yeah, as depicted in the video clip, the woman that the Doctor and Ruby keep seeing on their travels happens to be someone called Susan Triad, once again played by Susan Twist. Isn’t it funny Susan Twist has a very easy job in playing a character called Susan? 😀

Susan Triad is the owner of Triad Technology (or S Traid Technology, as it’s now called). Apparently, Triad Technology was mentioned before in the 60th anniversary special ‘The Giggle’. 🙂 Mel told Donna it was Triad technology that U.N.I.T. was using in that adventure.

Donna: Mel, is this static or dynamic?
Mel: Dynamic. We’re using Triad.

It turns out Kate and her team have been tracking Susan Triad for some time and she’s preparing to make a formal announcement to the United Nations that she will unveil the new technology around the world and intends to give it for free. Sounds quite nice that. 🙂

The Doctor then makes the deduction that ‘S Traid’ happens to be an anagram for TARDIS. But Kate and her group reveal that they figured that out already. Yeah, of course, you did. No doubt everything that U.N.I.T. does needs to be connected to the Doctor in some form. 😐

It’s then pointed out by Ruby that Susan Triad’s first name has some significance. Kate is puzzled by this and when she asks what this means, the Doctor explains that ‘Susan’ is the name of his granddaughter. Does this mean Carole Ann Ford is going to be in this story?

Err, no. Sadly not. 😦 The impression is given that Susan Twist playing Susan Triad might actually end up being the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan. Gosh, I wrote a lot of Susans there. 😀 Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded that if they went with that approach in this story.

After the opening credits – Yes, I’ve spent quite a lot of time writing this review and we hadn’t passed the opening credits until now. 😀 – Kate and the U.N.I.T. team share more details about Susan Triad and how she’s influenced the world with her S Triad technology.

Apparently, Susan Triad was a reader for ‘Bedtime Stories’ on CBeebies. Not ‘Book at Bedtime’, as that’s a radio series for BBC Radio 4. I’m surprised RTD mucked that one up. 😀 Didn’t David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor do a ‘Bedtime Stories’ on CBeebies? 😐

All the research that U.N.I.T. has done on Susan Triad has come to nothing, as the software is clean. No secret alien signals of any kind. This does tie-in to the fantasy element for this neo-RTD era of ‘Doctor Who’ concerning the villain of this story, but more on that later on.

Ruby is then confused, as she asks the Doctor how he doesn’t recognise Susan Triad as being possibly his granddaughter. The Doctor gradually explains to Ruby about the fact that Time Lords can regenerate and change their faces when dying or maybe to hide away.

I’m surprised the Doctor didn’t share this with Ruby until this now in the series, especially as they’ve presumably spent a lot of time together in their TARDIS travels. But then, things do get busy for them when they’re travelling, so, perhaps it just slipped the Doctor’s mind.

Ruby seems okay with the fact that the Doctor, as a Time Lord, can change his face.

Ruby: Just don’t go changing yours, okay?
Doctor: Oh, no. I’m keeping this one for a long, long time.

Donna: YOU LAIR!!!

And yes, I know. This story was made way before Ncuti Gatwa decided to leave ‘Doctor Who’ after doing two seasons. But looking back on what the Doctor said to Ruby about keeping his face ‘for a long, long time’, it’s irresistible to make a joke out of it in this review.

Morris makes a quip that the situation seems to have a 95% probability to be a trap for the Doctor. Quite frankly, I think the Doctor would have worked it out by himself that it was all a trap, even if Susan Triad possibly being his granddaughter wasn’t considered. 😐

It then turns out that what the Doctor and Ruby have been watching on the big monitor screens at U.N.I.T. HQ is a rehearsal for Susan Triad making her speech to the world. Her HQ – Triad HQ – is one mile west of U.N.I.T. HQ. She’ll be going live at 15:00 to the world.

It also turns out that Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush has been sent in by Kate to go as an undercover agent on the media team to monitor Susan. It’s really good to see Bonnie Langford back as Mel in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, especially after having seen her in ‘The Giggle’.

You see, I thought this was where Mel was going to make her grand return in ‘Doctor Who’ after having seen a behind-the-scenes photo of Bonnie Langford on a motorcycle with Ncuti Gatwa. 🙂 That’s for a scene later on in the two-parter, but we’ll get to that eventually.

Doctor: Oh, that’s Mel! That’s my mate, Mel. Oh, you would love Mel – bonkers.

That’s not a very nice thing to say, Doctor. Calling your friend Mel ‘bonkers’. 😀 Apparently, Mel hasn’t found anything extraterrestrial about Susan Twist in her time as an undercover agent, and it transpires Susan Traid is ‘really nice’, according to Kate, which is fascinating.

Mind you, very often in storytelling, it’s the ‘really nice’ ones that can be deceptive when they’re a part of something evil. I mean, I know that’s the case for this story when uncovering more about Susan Triad as a character, but it’s interesting it keeps happening.

Anyway, enough on Susan Triad. 😀 The Doctor then reveals another mystery to the U.N.I.T. team and it concerns the unknown identity of Ruby’s birth mother. The only point in time he encountered her was on Christmas Eve in 2004 when he saved Ruby as a baby.

That was from the Goblin King and the goblins in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. Kate reveals they already know about this – Quick on the mark, aren’t you, U.N.I.T.? 😀 – and apparently, Ruby made headline news for two days once she was found as a baby in 2004.

Ruby shares how she attempted to find her mother, especially with help from Davina McCall in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’, but it didn’t work. When Rose suggests that they go back in time to try and see Ruby’s birth mother again, the Doctor explains he can’t do this.

This is because he went in the TARDIS once before to save Ruby as a baby and he time-locked himself from the event. They need a different way to avoid crossing the Doctor’s timeline. He also explains Ruby’s recalling of the event causes it to snow mysteriously. 😐

Which means the moment in history is a vulnerable one. Harriet – the Head of the Archive at U.N.I.T – then suggests that they use the CCTV footage that was captured 66 metres from the church. Not 73 yards, Russell? 😀 No, no, though that does come up later on in this.

Ruby reveals she has one of the original VHS tapes containing the CCTV footage, as she and her family acquired it years ago. Ruby later confirms they watch it every Christmas Eve on her birthday, but were unable to work out what her birth mum’s face looked like. 😐

Morris suggests that they use U.N.I.T.’s technology to enhance the video imagery so that they can identify who Ruby’s birth mum is. Excited, Ruby heads off to return to her flat to collect the VHS tape from her adoptive mum – Carla Sunday. Rose accompanies her too.

And goodness me, Rose is taller than Ruby! 😀 It’s not just Colonel Ibrahim being taller than the Doctor, it’s Rose Noble being taller than Ruby Sunday too. It’s an interesting pattern I’m seeing. And it’s very nice to see Ruby and Rose getting on well with each other.

Also, it’s quite ironic that Yasmin Finney is a year older than Millie Gibson and yet she’s playing a 15-year-old in ‘Doctor Who’. Well, 16, if we assume this story takes place a year after ‘The Giggle’. 😐 Either way, Rose’s age in ‘Doctor Who’ is still a matter for debate here.

Back at Triad HQ, Susan Triad continues to practice her speech whilst rewriting parts of its middle section with her PA – Fela Lufadeju as Bailey Sinclair. Mel joins them, praising Susan’s efforts and saying she’ll do well before wishing her luck and shaking her hand. 🙂

Of course, this was so Mel could use U.N.I.T. technology to take a DNA sample from her when shaking her hand to check whether she’s really human. Having acquired the sample, Mel departs the scene on her orange motorcycle and heads back for U.N.I.T. HQ.

Some might call it a moped, some might call it a scooter. Honestly, motorcycle is better and it’s intriguing to see Mel have her own motorcycle in ‘Doctor Who’. She didn’t ride one in the classic TV series. The Seventh Doctor did in ‘Delta and the Bannermen’, but not her.

And you’re not fooling me, Mel, when you make out that you’re driving in London back to U.N.I.T. HQ. That’s clearly in Cardiff, as I recognise the Wales Millennium Stadium in certain London shots. Yeah, I know it’s called Principality Stadium nowadays, but still. 😀

Meanwhile, Ruby and Rose are in the Sundays flat to collect the VHS tape containing the CCTV footage of her birth mum. Michelle Greenidge as Carla, Ruby’s adoptive mum, is impressed that Ruby may have found a way to find out who her birth mother actually is. 🙂

Also, upon hearing Rose’s mum, Donna, works for U.N.I.T. – Well, at least they’ve established Donna Noble works for U.N.I.T. What capacity, I don’t know, as it’s not explained – Carla decides to join Ruby and Rose on the journey back to ‘the Nitwit Tower’.

Yes, that’s what Carla called it. ‘The Nitwit Tower’! Not U.N.I.T. HQ. 😀 She also tells Ruby to go and fetch Anita Dobson as Mrs. Flood to come round and look after her mother Angela Wynter as Cherry Sunday whilst they’re away. 🙂 I’m sure things will be fine on that.

Mrs. Flood: Oh, leave her to me. I nursed my old mum through diabetes and a hip operation. She died of an ulcer. But that was when I wasn’t looking.

Weren’t there any other neighbours that Carla could have thought of to look after her mum? Granted, we don’t get to know who Mrs. Flood is in this season, but knowing what’s to happen in Series 15, the idea of her being a reliable caretaker isn’t reassuring, frankly.

Also, I’m not sure whether Mrs. Flood was telling the truth about having an ‘old mum’ or not, especially considering who she turns out to be in Series 15. Maybe she did have an ‘old mum’ or someone that she looked after, I don’t know. That never gets expanded upon. 😐

Mrs. Flood: Aren’t you a beauty?
Rose: Thank you.
Mrs. Flood: You too, Ruby. Still hoping for that growth spurt?

Growth spurt? Who says that? And what did Mrs. Flood mean by that? I mean, it’s not Ruby’s fault that she’s not as tall as Rose. Does she expect Ruby to shoot in height as she’s growing up? I don’t think that happens quite frankly, unless I’m missing something.

Carla tells her mum Cherry where she’s going and that Mrs. Flood will look after her. She also tells her to take her pills whilst Cherry tells her not to chase after the Doctor as she suspects him to be trouble. 😐 Deciding to cause trouble herself, Carla departs with Ruby and Rose.

Once Carla and the two girls have gone, Cherry asks Mrs. Flood to make her a cup of tea.

Cherry: I would love a cup of tea.

Well, I say ‘asks’ very loosely. I mean, magic word, Cherry! You forgot to say the magic word. Please! “Please, can I have a cup of tea?” Or “Would you make me a cup of tea please?” And I know Cherry is obsessed with having cups of tea whilst in bed, but still. 😀

Mrs. Flood: Would you, sweetheart? Well, we’d all like a lot of things… that aren’t going to happen.
Cherry: What that supposed to mean?
Mrs. Flood: I’d be very careful, Mrs. Sunday. There’s a storm coming in.

Mrs. Flood, she just wanted a cup of tea. Was that too much to ask? Well, okay, Cherry didn’t really ask, as I’ve established, but you get my drift. Why would Mrs. Flood say that to her? She could’ve just done what Cherry requested and provided her a cup of tea then.

Clearly, Mrs. Flood isn’t doing herself any favours by not concealing her identity and the fact that she might be a villain. I mean, okay, she is a villain in the next season, but at this point in the series, Mrs. Flood shouldn’t be giving the game away. She should be secretive.

I know RTD is trying to leave us some hints as to who Mrs. Flood might be, but it’d be better for us as an audience to keep guessing as to whether she’s good or bad instead of giving the impression she’s a villain. I would’ve rewritten that scene between Mrs. Flood and Cherry.

From the way Mrs. Flood interacted with Cherry, it was almost like she was going to kill her. I know that doesn’t happen in the story, but she could’ve easily done it if she wanted to. I also wonder if RTD had any clue as to who Mrs. Flood was at this point in the TV show.

Also, is it me or is Mrs. Flood dressed as Clara? You know, the look Clara had in ‘Face the Raven’ with the blue top and a white shirt underneath. I know Mrs. Flood is wearing a more pink-like top compared to what Clara wore in her last three TV stories in Series 9, but still.

Mrs. Flood: He waits no more.

How do you know that? Did you find that information about the One who Waits where you live or something? It’s never explained in this story, and it’s not explained in the next season either. Also, is Mrs. Flood breaking the fourth wall again as she says those words?

Clearly, yes! And as Mrs. Flood rightly points out, there is a storm coming, as it begins to appear in the distance from U.N.I.T. HQ. Did our big bad villain create that storm from where he is? I don’t know. Again, this is something that doesn’t get explained in this story.

Back at U.N.I.T. HQ, the Doctor reads through information about Susan Triad before Kate joins him. She shares how her father – Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart – used to tell her stories of the adventures he shared with the Doctor when working at U.N.I.T. in the 1970s.

Doctor: Or was it the ’80s?

Yet, the Doctor never mentioned to the Brigadier that he had a granddaughter. Smiling, the Doctor remarks that he was a different Doctor before his time with U.N.I.T. Kate is pretty astonished that the Doctor has children as well, although there’s a bit of confusion.

You see, the Doctor implies that it’s not as straightforward as it sounds, considering he’s a time traveller and a Time Lord, and family is tough to track and have. Meaning the Doctor probably didn’t have children or grandchildren whilst he was William Hartnell as the Doctor.

He probably had children at some point in the future, if that makes any sense. This is a bit of an unnecessary addition to the mythos concerning the Doctor and what children and grandchildren he had. It also sort-of contradicts what’s been established in other media.

I mean, I’ve not read stories like ‘Lungbarrow’, but from what I’ve gathered, the history of Gallifrey, including the looms concept, is quite different and more complex compared to what RTD is establishing in this story. I will need somebody to clarify those details for me.

Also, I believe this is to set-up something that’s to happen in Series 15 of ‘Doctor Who’, especially – spoiler alert – when we have Carole Ann Ford’s return as Susan in certain stories. But I don’t think it happened like RTD had intended, but that’s for another time. 😐

In all fairness, this scene between the Fifteenth Doctor and Kate where they discover the possibility of finding his granddaughter Susan again is very good. I like the interaction that Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor has with Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart.

We’ve not had a scene quite like this since ‘The Power of Three’ when Matt Smith’s Doctor interacted with Kate and discovered she was the Brigadier’s daughter. In-between that and this story, it’s all been rush-rush with plenty to sort out in the adventures they’ve had.

Kate wonders whether the Doctor would recognise Susan if he saw her again, and the Doctor firmly states he would. He also reflects on the fact that it’s still a trap concerning Susan Triad, meaning that she might not end up being his granddaughter as he’d hope. 😦

He also wonders what would happen if he ever saw his granddaughter again and whether he’d ruin her life upon seeing her again, since he brings disaster in the lives he touches. Um, not wishing to be nitpicky here, but…Doctor! You have reunited with Susan already!!!

Yeah, clearly, this two-part story is ignoring the Big Finish audios that happened when the Eighth Doctor reunited with Susan, as played by Carole Ann Ford, in ‘An Earthly Child’ onwards. How could RTD not make a reference to that part of the Eighth Doctor’s life here.

Granted, RTD is probably implying about what would happen if the Doctor reunited with Susan after escaping the Time War and such. But judging from the way the new TV series doesn’t acknowledge the Big Finish audios’ continuity, I don’t think I should be hopeful. 😐

Kate consoles the Doctor by giving him a hug. I think it’s rare that Kate would give a hug to anyone, considering she’s in charge of U.N.I.T. But hey, she did hug the Fourteenth Doctor in ‘The Giggle’. Thus, it’s fair she would give the Fifteenth Doctor a hug in this two-part story.

As Kate hugs the Doctor, Mel has arrived. The Doctor enthusiastically welcomes Mel and hugs her too. I know Mel made her return to ‘Doctor Who’ in ‘The Power of the Doctor’ and ‘The Giggle’, but it’s always nice to see these reunions between the Doctor and friends. 🙂

At her computer, Mel shows the Doctor and Kate the DNA sample that she got from Susan Triad. It still comes up as human. Kate meanwhile is going by her chrysalis theory, since ‘just because Susan Triad is nice doesn’t mean she can’t change’. That is a fair argument.

On cue, Ruby and Rose come running in with the VHS tape. Meanwhile, Carla is stuck in a room downstairs. She hasn’t been given clearance. Despite Kate’s concern, the Doctor insists that Carla can come up, using his sonic screwdriver to grant her Level 1 clearance.

With the VHS tape in hand, the Doctor asks Kate if they can utilise U.N.I.T.’s time window to project the tape’s memory of the past so that they can see the image of the night that Ruby’s birth mum had left her as a baby on the Church of Ruby Road as if they were there.

Kate tries to deny that they’ve tampered with time travel technology, which the Doctor warned them not to do in the 1970s…or ’80s. But the Doctor seems to know that they do have time travel technology. And it happens to be ten floors down where they are.

Hmm. Interesting the Doctor seems casual about it. I mean, if it was Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker, I’m sure they’d be furious that U.N.I.T. was dealing with time travel technology. Also, how did they acquire it? It sounds more like a Torchwood thing than a U.N.I.T. thing.

Eventually, the Doctor and group proceed to Floor 45 of U.N.I.T. HQ where a large open space with chronon windows, high-tech desks and reflectors is situated. And, maybe it’s just me, but this does look like an empty grid-like outline of a holodeck from ‘Star Trek’. 🙂

Or the Danger Room from ‘X-Men’ – ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ comes to mind. In fact, there’s quite a lot of ‘Star Trek’ elements featured in this story. This includes Susan Twist looking a Borg drone in a couple of shots and U.N.I.T.’s time window being like a holodeck.

And of course, Colonel Ibrahim said this line at the beginning of the story:

Ibrahim: Doctor on the bridge.

You get it? As in Captain on the Bridge, said in the original TV series with Captain Kirk and ‘The Next Generation’ with Captain Picard? I wonder if that was deliberate on RTD’s part. That he wanted to include ‘Star Trek’ references in ‘Doctor Who’. Not that I’d mind that. 🙂

Also, I will give credit to the production team in that this is an actual set used for U.N.I.T.’s time window. This wasn’t filmed on a green screen, according to the ‘Behind the Scenes’ featurette and the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’. Yay!

There was a combination of practical effects and CGI effects used to make the U.N.I.T. time window work. Sometimes that doesn’t always happen in modern productions, whether it’s film or TV. 😐 But on this occasion, they did it mainly for real and I applaud that.

As the Doctor observes the area, he soon bursts out laughing, joking at the primitiveness of U.N.I.T.’s time travel efforts compared to his own. Again, to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting U.N.I.T. to have time travel technology such as this. It does seem all too unreal.

Despite that, the Doctor takes charge and he leads Ruby into the time window. They meet the Head of Security for the time window – Tachia Newall as Colonel Winston Chidozie. Apparently, Chidozie is from Manchester, as Ruby discovers that from hearing his accent.

Chidozie is from the Cheetham Hill side of Manchester whilst Ruby is from Tameside. Hmm. Who knew there was more to Manchester in having multiple boroughs. And it’s no surprise Ruby happens to be from the same borough that Millie Gibson also comes from.

Carla then arrives, surprised by the technology she’s witnessing when entering the time window area. Morris meanwhile sets up the VHS tape and the Doctor orders everyone, except himself, Ruby and Chidozie as their security man, to depart the time window area.

Kate, Rose, Mel and Carla obey, and they watch the Doctor and Ruby make their way to stand in the centre of the room. The Doctor gradually asks Ruby to tell him again about the story of her abandonment. As Ruby does so, snow begins to fall within the window. 😐

This astounds Kate, Mel and Morris, since the time window hasn’t been activated yet. Eventually, the Doctor tells them to switch on the machine so that it can blaze into action. Well… (sighs) Telling them to switch it on is an understatement when viewing this story. 😐

You see, this is the issue I have. What the Doctor is asking Kate and her team to do is…rather dangerous. The Doctor is risking the usage of U.N.I.T.’s time window technology to recreate what happened in the past in order to see what Ruby’s birth mother looks like.

Now, if I was writing this story and if I was directing it, I would apply more caution to what the Doctor, Ruby and the U.N.I.T. team are about to do. That they should be mindful of the consequences of utilising time window technology, should anything bad were to happen.

You can still be excited about the prospect of using this technology, yes, but I would expect the Doctor, Ruby and the U.N.I.T. team to be nervous too. They would hope they’d be successful in their endeavours, but they should not be careless being excited about it.

The point I’m making is, in terms of the writing and direction of this scene where the Doctor tells Kate and her team to switch on the time window, you shouldn’t have it be so over-the-top and you shouldn’t have the Doctor be so happy and joyous when it happens.

Because…that actually does happen in the story! 😐 The Doctor shouts loudly at the top of his voice when he and Ruby demand that the 24th of December 2004 be brought back to the time window in the present. And it’s done in a very, very, VERY over-the-top manner!

Doctor: (yells; excitedly) December the 24th, bring it back!
Ruby: (yells; excitedly) Bring it back!
Doctor: (yells; excitedly) BRING IT BA-A-A-CK!!!!!

I don’t like how this is presented in the story. It’s so silly! And it’s unnecessary! You don’t just go into a dangerous situation like this and expect everything to turn out alright. Because chances are it’s not going to be alright when the time window is being utilised. 😐

We don’t need the Doctor and Ruby to be super happy when using the time window technology to find out what Ruby’s birth mum looks like. It doesn’t need to be over-dramatic. I feel that this should have been toned down in the presentation of the moment.

Maybe it’s just me feeling like that, and I’m sure there are people who would disagree with me on this and I’m being nitpicky. If you’re happy with the way this moment turned out in the story, that’s fine. You’re entitled to your opinion on how you viewed this certain scene.

But speaking personally, I wouldn’t have written nor directed this scene in the way it’s given to us. I would’ve had the Doctor and Ruby being excited and nervous at the same time, but I wouldn’t have them shout very loudly when summoning December 24th, 2004.

The moment itself is very cringy and it doesn’t need to be. I would have expected more from RTD than this. The Doctor and Ruby shouting their heads off ruins the rest of the story a bit, which is a shame. The tension could’ve been maintained if it hadn’t been included.

Anyway, back to the story. A lifelike projection of Christmas Eve, 2004 appears with Ruby and the Doctor in the middle of it. It’s not a great projection and could easily be considered holographic. And bear in mind, this is a VHS tape that’s being utilised here. 😐

The projection even produces the sound of the ‘Carol of the Bells’ song coming from the church. The more I hear that song, the more I think about ‘Home Alone’. 😀 The Doctor explains that Ruby’s story and the VHS tape is powering the time window with memory. 🙂

Doctor: We have given it the greatest power of all – memory. Time is remembered. Memory is time.

So, time is embodying the memory to bring it to life. Not sure how exactly that works and I’m not sure how that’s even possible, considering the technology that U.N.I.T. has. I mean, the Doctor just mocked U.N.I.T.’s time window by saying it’d been ‘lashed’ together.

As they progress further with this endeavour, the Doctor narrates how events turn out. With Ruby’s abandonment and her mother leaving the church yard. Very soon, the Doctor and Ruby see the hooded figure, who is Ruby’s birth mum, walking right towards them. 😐

The Doctor and Ruby try to get a good look at her as well as Kate and the others, but just as she’s about to reach them, she glitches (or as the Doctor would say, ‘she’s shadowed’) past them. Ruby tries to reach out to her mum, but the Doctor holds her back in doing so.

He tells her that they can’t risk changing the timeline. So, this would indicate that this not just a holographic projection but actual time happening, which is interesting. That even in a time window in the present day, the past could easily be rewritten if it were tampered.

It’s a shame as well as fascinating that Kate, Mel and everyone else outside the time window didn’t see what Ruby’s mum looked like either. Eventually, the woman stops. Carla can see that the woman’s seemingly crying, which she’s very sympathetic about. 🙂

Very soon, the TARDIS appears and this is where we see the past Doctor arriving and going off to save baby Ruby from the Goblins, as depicted in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. The Doctor observes the TARDIS, and it happens to appear solid compared to everything else.

As though it was actually there with them, which is impossible, right? 😐 The Doctor gets concerned about this, as he wonders what reviving the memory of a time machine would do in a time window. This is something that will resurface in the ‘Empire of Death’ episode.

Going back to the woman, the Doctor soon senses that his memory of the event keeps changing, since the latest memory reveals that the woman is pointing at his past self, just as he returned from defeating the Goblins. I double-checked with ‘Space Babies’ on this.

That is what happened in the story when the Doctor relived that experience of seeing Ruby’s birth mum who seemingly pointed at him, which didn’t happen in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. We’ll readdress more about Ruby’s birth mum pointing at the Doctor later on.

However, I should point out that what’s different with Ruby’s birth mum pointing at the Doctor in ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ compared to ‘Space Babies’ is that it’s lasting longer than before. Almost as if the timeline is changing again and without explanation. 😐

The Doctor and everyone else wonders why the woman is pointing at him.

Chidozie: There’s nothing behind you, Doctor

Except there clearly is. You know? The TARDIS! The TARDIS is standing behind the past Doctor. How come no-one mentioned that in the episode? This could’ve led to people speculating that the woman was pointing at the TARDIS for some reason in that instance.

That there was something wrong with the TARDIS and the Doctor and party needed to be alerted to it. Sadly, that’s not what happens in the story and I’m surprised RTD didn’t match the script to what’s happening in the actual episode, which I find really frustrating.

Anyway, the Doctor deduces that maybe the woman isn’t pointing at his past self but at something else. Against Kate’s wishes, the Doctor tells Chidozie to wander around the time window to see past the TARDIS. Chidozie does so, but he struggles to see very much.

Eventually, he goes behind the past TARDIS to see if he can get a better view. He’s told to be careful, but as he goes behind the past TARDIS, he says he can’t see anything – Not even a flicker. The Doctor becomes concerned, wondering why the woman pointed at him.

Whilst nobody can’t see anything about what the woman was pointing at, whether it was the Doctor or not, they soon see the hooded woman having turned away before vanishing. This devastates Ruby. They still don’t know her identity and are back to square one. 😐

You know, I think it would have worked better if U.N.I.T. actually had a holodeck instead of a time window. That way they could replay the events of the VHS tape over and over again so that they can freeze-frame and see the woman’s face more properly. Just saying.

Back on schedule, the past Doctor returns to the TARDIS, and it dematerialises, returning to December 2023, as depicted in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. The Doctor comforts Ruby, as she’s upset in losing the chance to see what her birth mum looked like.

Morris then interrupts them, as he points out that’s something behind them. The Doctor and Ruby turn around, and they see a horrible twister of black sand and orange particles appearing before them. 😮 Oh, no! It can’t be that tornado from ‘The Wizard of Oz’, can it?

Kate and everyone else also notices that Chidozie’s not there either. There’s panic, and everyone tries to call out to Chidozie to make sure he’s okay and whether he’s in the twister of black sand or not. Ruby even calls to him by nicknaming him ‘Cheetham Hill’. 🙂

This does work, actually, since he answers them from inside the twister. However, his voice is distorted, and the man says he’s ‘in Hell’ and his soul has been seen. I will say this, the level of tension building in this scene is very good when watching it in the story. 🙂

It’s also a moment where when he’s speaking, everyone is put on edge, as he describes what’s happening, even though he claimed he isn’t inside the twister. He mentions about the one who has waiting for so long and who’s so old, which can’t be a good thing, right?

Kate enquires about whether the twister is in the past or in the present, but the Doctor doesn’t know what it is. I believe it’s in both the past and present, considering what we’re about to uncover concerning the villain and how he was in the past as well as the present.

There’s also this unnerving statement that Carla makes when she sees the twister.

Carla: I know its name. It’s the Beast!

What does she mean by that? And how does she know that? Is this a reference to the Beast that appeared in ‘The Impossible Planet’/’The Satan Pit’? That would make sense considering the connection between the Beast in that story and the villain in this story. 😐

Suddenly, chronon energy spikes to unsustainable levels, despite Morris’ efforts. The time window overloads and the memory explodes into nothingness. The snow vanishes, leaving the Doctor and Ruby in the empty time window room. There’s a tragedy though. 😐

As the Doctor, Ruby and the U.N.I.T. team discover, Chidozie’s body is on the floor and now appears over 100 years old and covered in sand. He’s dead. 🙂 Despite his apologies, Kate glares at the Doctor for making Chidozie go behind the past TARDIS in the first place.

Kate calls for the essential teams to sort out what’s happened to Chidozie and she’s clearly upset by it. Equally distressed by what’s happened, the Doctor turns to Mel and tells her to take him to Susan Triad. Naturally, of course, Mel obliges the Doctor’s request.

So, yeah. What was thought to be a happy excursion to the past in finding out who Ruby’s birth mum really is, it’s ended in disaster and has one U.N.I.T. officer killed. Maybe the Doctor should have been more careful when endeavouring to go through with this idea. 😐

Very soon, the Doctor and Mel arrive at Triad HQ. Mel uses her pass and the Doctor uses his psychic paper to get in. Just before they proceed to meet Susan Triad, the Doctor stops once out of sight of the staff. He begins punching the wall before falling to the floor.

His burst of anger dissipates, but he still feels immense guilt for what happened over Chidozie’s death. Mel firmly assures him that he will fix things and they must carry on with the job, especially as he must find out whether Susan Traid is his granddaughter or not. 😐

This is a very good scene between Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Mel, especially when Mel connects to a recent Doctor in the new TV series compared to how she was in the classic series with her Doctors when there wasn’t much time for that.

It’s one of my favourite moments in the story and it’s a rare occasion, especially as far as Mel is concerned. I would’ve liked it if the scene was a little longer, even though the Doctor and Mel are pressed for time, but for what it’s worth, I’m glad as to how it ends up.

Heading upstairs, Mel soon introduces the Doctor to Susan, who’s about to go on air. The Doctor shakes her hand, but it turns out he’s not feeling any Time Lord essence from her at all. He asks her if they’ve met before, but she says “No”, as she would’ve remembered.

Her PA team intervene and they insist that she makes her announcement to the world at 15:00. Susan remarks that she’s so busy and struggles to sleep. At that, the Doctor asks her what she dreams about when she’s sleeping and he suggests certain people to her. 😐

He asks her whether she dreams about having a daughter named Lindy, or about being on Pacifico del Rio, or about being an ambulance. This does reawaken memories within Susan Triad, but she apologises, saying she’s got to go and leaves for her announcement.

Whilst uncertain about whether she’s her granddaughter or not, the Doctor decides to stay around to monitor Susan Triad, especially when she seems to recall the certain things she’s dreamt about, which is quite a revelation when checking out this two-parter.

Back at U.N.I.T. HQ, it turns out new footage of the twister entity has appeared in the VHS tape when Kate and everyone else analyses it. Ruby stresses that the entity wasn’t in the VHS tape, especially as she and Carla have watched it multiple times over Christmas Eve.

Plus, the entity has appeared 20 metres ahead of where the Doctor’s TARDIS landed the first time. Meaning that time has changed again. This is disturbing and everyone, including me as a viewer ( :D), is wondering how all this is possible and what’s causing it.

Harriet – Head of the Archive at U.N.I.T. – then suggests that they run the tape in reverse to see what happens. They then see that the TARDIS is enveloped within the entity. This disturbs Kate and everyone, as they wonder whether the entity is around the TARDIS now.

Meaning whether it’s around the TARDIS parked in the U.N.I.T. command room. A groan then echoes from the TARDIS. A very slowed down time engine noise. This disturbs everyone. The TARDIS’ low groaning has occurred before, including in ‘The Devil’s Chord’.

Soon, Kate orders all her non-essential U.N.I.T. staff to be evacuated, including Carla. I like how Ruby and Carla make their farewells to each other, despite them not wanting to be parted, and I found it really well-played between Millie Gibson and Michelle Greenidge.

Ruby: Mum, what do you want me to do?
Carla: Come home with me.
Ruby: Then you’re not helping. Which means I love you, thank you, and goodbye.

Ruby needs to stay at U.N.I.T. HQ because she’s very much part of what’s happening concerning the TARDIS. As soon as the non-essential staff and Carla have left, the Vlinx conducts a full-chronon scan and concludes that the entity is indeed around the TARDIS.

The Vlinx also notes that the entity is beginning to manifest in the command room. In contact with the Doctor, he tells Kate to send Ruby back to the time window. Ruby does so whilst Kate and the others confront the entity about to appear in their command room.

Back at Triad HQ, Susan Triad begins her announcement in the studio. It seems to go well on a light-hearted note, but she’s soon overcome by a voice in her head. A voice that sounds familiar. At least to ‘Doctor Who’ fans who know who the villain turned out to be. 😐

Confused, Susan rambles about how she’s had visions and bad dreams, causing her to collapse in pain to the floor. We also see new images of her as the Borg drone and Hela from the start of ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’. Yeah, I do know they have different names.

But honestly, remembering them as the Borg drone and Hela versions of Susan Triad or Susan Twist, depending on how you look at it, is easy for me to remember. Susan’s PA – Bailey – as well as the Doctor and Mel race over to her to find out what’s happened to her.

Back at U.N.I.T. HQ, Kate becomes anxious about how she and her team can combat the TARDIS if the ship’s become hostile. She then demands to whatever’s surrounding the TARDIS to reveal themselves. She’s got the courage of her father, the Brigadier, right there!

It’s then that Harriet – Head of the Archive at U.N.I.T. – interrupts Kate, as she starts to rant away that the God of Death has ‘delighted and seduced’ the ‘vessel’ – the TARDIS, of course. 😐 Kate and everyone else sees clearly that Harriet has somehow been possessed.

Hearing this over the phone line, the Doctor asks Harriet’s full name. Kate tells him that her full name is Harriet Arbinger. As in ‘Harbinger’. Meaning that Harriet is the ‘harbinger’ for the God of Death. 😐 Just like how Henry Arbinger was for Maestro in ‘The Devil’s Chord’.

And I just realised something. ‘Henry Arbinger’ and ‘Harriet Arbinger’. If you take the first letter of their forenames which is ‘H’ and put it with ‘Arbinger’, they both make ‘Harbinger’. Gosh! I’ll give RTD credit. He can form words and phrases in a creative manner. Mostly.

Harriet goes on in her possessed state by rambling off a succession of various other gods, including the Toymaker, the Trickster, the Mara and Maestro. You know, considering something’s surrounding the TARDIS, I’m surprised the Mara wasn’t the big villain of this.

It’d make sense, considering the Mara is a giant snake when we see it in full form in stories like ‘Kinda’ and ‘Snakedance’, and it could coil itself around the TARDIS very easily. That would’ve been a nice opportunity for Nyssa and Tegan to return in this ‘Doctor Who’ story.

Sadly not. Instead, Harriet finishes off the list of gods with ‘the mother and father and other of them all’. As things begin to unravel for the Doctor, we have the reveal of what the anagram of S Triad Technology is. It gets rearranged to form ‘Sue-tech’. Meaning: Sutekh!

Doctor: It was the wrong anagram.

I…hate to nitpick, but it’s not really an anagram. It’s just…words being rearranged to form ‘Sutekh’ for the convenience of the story. A cryptic clue, as someone would put it. I don’t think RTD quite understands how an anagram is supposed to work to justify its existence.

The anagrams to hide Anthony Ainley’s Master in certain ‘Doctor Who’ stories work better than what RTD’s come up with. ‘Tremas’ is a good example of an anagram of ‘Master’. ‘S Triad Technology’ doesn’t form an anagram of ‘Sutekh’, since it’s a very long word, frankly.

But yes! We have a classic ‘Doctor Who’ villain back! It’s Sutekh! From ‘Pyramids of Mars’! 🙂 And he’s voiced again by Gabriel Woolf, the guy who played Sutekh in the original 1975 ‘Doctor Who’ TV story! Gosh! Wow! He ought to be very impressive in this two-part story…

Who the heck is that? What the heck is that? No, seriously, I recall being confused when I saw that for the first time. I was like, “That’s Sutekh? Really? That’s what he looks like now? A giant beast towering on top of the TARDIS when he reveals himself at U.N.I.T. HQ?”

(sighs) I’ll talk more about how I feel about Sutekh in the second episode of this story, but…needless to say, I was very disappointed with this reveal. I’m sure some people were pretty excited by this reveal of Sutekh as the big bad villain of the Series 14 two-part finale.

I wasn’t one of those people, as I was hoping for Sutekh to end up looking like the way he was back in ‘Pyramids of Mars’. This new look he has just doesn’t do it for me. Again, I’ll explain more about why I feel like that when we get onto to talking about ‘Empire of Death’.

Whilst Sutekh reveals himself in his giant dog-like CGI form at U.N.I.T. HQ, Susan Triad transforms into a terrifying undead-like monster. I want to say she looks like how Professor Scarman in ‘Pyramids of Mars’ looked once taken over as the servant of Sutekh.

But frankly, Susan Twist didn’t need to wear a skull-like prosthetic on her forehead to show off that she’d become a monster. Bernard Archard didn’t wear one when he was playing Marcus Scarman as an undead person, so why should Susan Twist do so for this?

As well as other characters who become undead, including Harriet when she reveals herself in U.N.I.T. HQ. And another character, which we’ll get to in ‘Empire of Death’. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of ‘unnecessary things’ in a ‘Pyramids of Mars’ follow-up.

The Doctor warns Mel and Bailey not to touch Susan Triad once she becomes the undead monster. Bailey doesn’t understand, but it’s too late for him. Susan Triad touches him, giving him ‘the gift of death’, and he quickly disintegrates into sand. Really, Russell? Sand?

Why have people turned into sand when they get killed by Susan Triad as the servant of Sutekh? It didn’t happen in ‘Pyramids of Mars’! When Scarman as Sutekh’s servant killed people with ‘the gift of death’, their bodies would burn and smoke would pour out of them!

Scarman: Die. I bring Sutekh’s gift of death to all humanity.

How does turning people into sand make it better? Granted, sometimes when people die, they do get turned into sand, but honestly, seeing someone getting burned up and smoke pouring out of them is far better than disintegrating quickly into sand! 😐 That’s what I think.

Susan Triad soon addresses the Doctor and taunts him, asking him if he really thought she was family. I admit, I was quite disappointed that we didn’t get to meet Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, in this story, since she had been hinted at earlier on in the season.

I did wonder if we were ever going to get a return of Carole Ann Ford in ‘Empire of Death’ whilst watching this story. Like I said earlier, that doesn’t happen until the next season, though the results of Carole Ann Ford’s return as Susan in Series 15 are…questionable. 😐

Meanwhile, Ruby returns to the time window 10 floors down, but as soon as she enters it, the machine activates by itself, sending her back to Christmas Eve in 2004. Jasmine Bayes as Corporal Alice Sullivan accompanies her, but she doesn’t do very much, really.

Whilst in the time window, Ruby soon sees the hooded figure – her birth mum – as she’s walking towards her from the opposite side of the time window. Ruby calls out to her mum as she approaches her, but the hooded figure doesn’t answer, and we can’t see her face.

‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ ends on a cliffhanger, with the Doctor in shock, as he can only stand still with Sutekh having succeeded in his trap for him. Sutekh announces that now that he is free once more, he intends to bring death to the Doctor and everyone else.

Susan + Sutekh: (in unison) I bring Sutekh’s gift of death for you and for all your tiny, vile, incessant universe!

In case you were wondering if I was ever surprised by the reveal of Sutekh being the villain of this story, well…I have to disappoint you and say I actually guessed it was him who was going to be the villain. This was from me reading theories in the build-up to it in the season. 😐

Whilst it wasn’t spoiled beforehand, I did read up information on ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ as soon as the episode came out on BBC iPlayer. Thus, the theories I read turned out to be true and they were confirmed on a TARDIS Fandom page for the episode itself. 😐

But yeah! That was ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’! A fairly decent opening episode to this two-part finale. It had plenty of tension and suspense built up throughout it, especially in the reveal of the big bad villain of this story. There were flaws, but some can be overlooked.

And some can be resolved in a satisfactory manner, provided the second episode of this two-part finale can fulfil fan expectations of what we’d been given hints about on certain characters and plot elements in Series 14. Would the second episode be very satisfying?

Well…(sighs)…let’s put it this way. A lot of hype was built for this two-part finale, especially in seeing it at the cinema. I hoped RTD would provide a satisfying conclusion to this two-parter as before with previous TV season finales of his. The result…well…um…

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‘EMPIRE OF DEATH’ (Part Two)

Let’s talk about the final episode of this two-part finale – ‘Empire of Death’! So, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa visit Earth in the year 1863 where they meet Queen Victoria…oh, sorry. Wrong story. That’s the premise for the ‘Doctor Who’ book adventure ‘Empire of Death’. 🙂

Actually, it’s very amusing to find a ‘Doctor Who’ episode with the title ‘Empire of Death’ whilst there’s been a book called ‘Empire of Death’ beforehand. Granted, that book was published in 2004, but I’m surprised RTD didn’t remember that when he wrote this story.

Yes, he called one of his episodes ‘Tooth and Claw’ whilst another ‘Doctor Who’ story in comic form with the Eighth Doctor and Izzy is also called ‘Tooth and Claw’. But frankly, it just makes me sad that the TV series doesn’t acknowledge the books, audios and comics.

I also enjoyed the book ‘Empire of Death’ featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa more than I enjoyed the TV episode ‘Empire of Death’ that forms the final instalment of this two-part finale. 🙂 I’ve even had my ‘Empire of Death’ book signed by Sarah Sutton at a convention.

Going back to the Series 14 two-part finale, the TV episode ‘Empire of Death’ begins where we left off with Susan Triad, possessed by Sutekh, about to touch the Doctor, only to be saved by Mel. Susan then starts to unleash Sutekh’s Dust of Death on everybody. 😐

Hmm, I wonder if RTD decided to change Sutekh’s ‘gift of death’ to ‘Dust of Death’ whilst writing ‘Empire of Death’, but he forgot to change it in ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’. Just a thought. Honestly, simply sticking to ‘gift of death’ than ‘Dust of Death’ is better for me. 😐

The substance that resembles dust kills on contact with everyone in the studio room at Triad HQ. The Doctor and Mel manage to survive, as they make their way out of the Triad HQ building to return to Mel’s motorcycle. Once there, the Doctor contacts Kate via radio.

He tells her that he and Mel are on their way back and that everyone at U.N.I.T. HQ needs to contain Sutekh until they arrive. I do wonder how the Doctor is expecting Kate and her U.N.I.T. forces to contain Sutekh at U.N.I.T. HQ considering how powerful a being he is. 😐

Back at U.N.I.T HQ, Kate orders her U.N.I.T. soldiers to fire on Sutekh. Even Morris fires on Sutekh, using his high-tech scooter. I found it funny when Rose was calmly taking notes whilst everyone else was firing on Sutekh. 🙂 I’m surprised she’s not freaked out by all this.

Unfortunately, the bullets fired by Kate and her team don’t work. 😐

Kate: Oh, one day!

I quite like that line that Kate says. It reminds me of what the Brigadier said in ‘Robot’.

Brigadier: You know, just once I’d like to meet an alien menace that wasn’t immune to bullets.

It’s good to know that RTD still reuses certain lines said by characters in classic ‘Doctor Who’ stories for his neo-era, especially when it’s Kate, the Brigadier’s daughter, saying a somewhat similar line. A pity it isn’t reflected in the rest of his writing, but there you go. 😐

With Sutekh unaffected by the bullets, he, through his servant Harriet, unleashes more dust into the U.N.I.T. building. Thus, everyone present is killed, including Rose, Morris, Colonel Ibrahim and the Vlinx. 😐 Yikes, even a machine-like being like the Vlinx gets killed.

As Kate contacts the Doctor again whilst he’s with Mel on her motorcycle, she tells him that she hopes he’ll find a way to defeat Sutekh and save everyone before signing off. Very soon, she disintegrates into nothing. 😦 I admit, I found this quite a sad moment to witness.

This is especially when Jemma Redgrave performs so well in that scene where she’s essentially saying goodbye to the Doctor before her life’s taken away by the dust. Even Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor’s reaction to Kate’s death helps to make that scene quite sad.

Once communication with Kate is cut off, Mel is determined to fight on, as she and the Doctor drive away on her motorcycle back to U.N.I.T. HQ. As they drive, a colossal cloud of the deathly dust begins to sweep through London city – or Cardiff, as I can see in shots.

And look, I know the director Jamie Donoughue and his team did everything they could to make certain streets in Cardiff look like London and I applaud them for that. I’ll also even commend the amount of visual effects work used to create the cloud effects in this story.

But it’s very easy to see that this was filmed in Cardiff, particularly when seeing shots of the Principality Stadium, as Mel and the Doctor drive through the chaos whilst escaping the huge dust cloud. 😐 Trust me, I was there lately whilst visiting the Vue Cinema in Cardiff.

It can be quite exhilarating to see Mel and the Doctor on a motorcycle escaping the huge dust cloud in London. But you do wonder whether it was Bonnie Langford and Ncuti Gatwa on that motorcycle or stunt drivers instead. I believe it was a combination of both.

So, essentially, the cloud of dust affects everyone, including Mrs. Flood and Cherry Sunday at the Sundays’ flat. There’s confusion on Cherry’s part, as Mrs. Flood gets cryptic again with her when telling her to pray to her ‘maker’ whilst believing in the power of prayer.

Mrs. Flood: Do you believe in the power of prayer?
Cherry: I most certainly do.
Mrs. Flood: Then tell your maker I will come to storm down his gates of gold and seize his kingdom in my true name.

I assume this is God that Mrs. Flood is talking about. Though depending on how RTD has written this story, I don’t think it’s clearly defined who the ‘maker’ is. But if I was to take that statement, I don’t think Mrs. Flood believes in Heaven in the way you and I may think.

With Cherry confused and asking Mrs. Flood who she is, it isn’t long before they’re both affected by the Dust of Death and they disintegrate. But Mrs. Flood does get to say, “I had such plans…” before she perishes. Now at the time, we didn’t know who Mrs. Flood was.

But with the benefit of hindsight, I do wonder if RTD had any idea himself as to who Mrs. Flood turned out to be in Series 15. I mean, I’m never sure if he had it in mind who Mrs. Flood was at the beginning or whether he was making it up as he went along in his neo-era.

Sadly, Carla Sunday is also a victim of Sutekh’s ‘gift of death’ when she, in a taxi, is stuck in traffic in Central London and she disintegrates instantly when affected. I was quite shocked when I saw that on the big screen at Showcase Cinema in Nantgarw in June 2024.

Oh yeah, don’t forget. I saw this two-part story at the cinema when it was being shown at midnight at the same time ‘Empire of Death’ was being released on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ consecutively. I was very concerned about everyone being killed off in this story.

But then that kind of raises an issue regarding this two-part finale, which I’ll get back to at some point later on in this portion of the review. Needless to say, it ties into the theme of RTD repeating things in his neo-TV era from his original TV era, which can be so frustrating.

Back with Ruby in the time window at U.N.I.T HQ, her birth mother walks past her. Ruby is frustrated she still can’t see what her mum looks like upon seeing her again at the end of the previous episode. The Doctor and Mel return to meet up with Ruby in the time window.

The Doctor tells Corporal Sullivan, who protected Ruby, to leave and go to Bunker 17. Well, she served no purpose. 😐 I made a mistake thinking she’d vanished and whether it was a ‘Earthshock’-like continuity error where a girl mysteriously disappeared and reappeared.

You know, in ‘Part Four’ when one of Lt. Scott’s troopers got captured by a Cyberman before she could get inside the TARDIS and then in the next scene, she happened to be there. Then when she goes out, she’s disappeared completely for the rest of that story. 😀

But as it turns out, it wasn’t the case for this two-parter. Sullivan is present for both the end of ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ and at the beginning of ‘Empire of Death’ when told to look after Ruby in the time window. It just turned out she didn’t have much to do in this.

I had to check both episodes on BBC iPlayer to be sure she hadn’t vanished mysteriously. I mean, what was the point of putting Sullivan in the time window with Ruby if she wasn’t going to do anything. Seemed a pointless character. At least she didn’t get killed off here.

I mean, she could have been killed off judging by how the world’s people are being turned into dust. We don’t know if she made it to Bunker 17. Hopefully, she did. But then, she’s likely to have survived after all, judging by how things turn out for this two-part adventure.

When Ruby tells the Doctor she still can’t see her birth mum in the time window, he tells her they’ve got ‘worse problems’. It also transpires the TARDIS has fully materialised in the time window once again. Thus, the Doctor enters the TARDIS to uncover what it’s like.

Once inside…we see what this TARDIS actually is. And it’s familiar. 🙂 Or at least, it would be familiar to ‘Doctor Who’ fans like me who’ve seen this TARDIS before. This is actually the first time that it’s presented in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, which is very interesting. 🙂

But yes! This happens to be the Remembered TARDIS – or Memory TARDIS, depending on how you look at it. If you’re unfamiliar with this, this is the TARDIS from the spin-off series that’s exclusive to BBC iPlayer called ‘Tales of the TARDIS’, released in November 2023. 🙂

As a series, ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ was part of the 60th anniversary celebrations in 2023. It featured the return of previous Doctors and companions from the classic TV series, as they met up in the Remembered TARDIS and they recalled the many adventures they had.

This included Five and Tegan for ‘Earthshock’, Jamie and Zoe for ‘The Mind Robber’, Six and Peri for ‘Vengeance on Varos’, Jo and Clyde for ‘The Three Doctors’, Vicki and Steven for ‘The Time Meddler’, and Seven and Ace for ‘The Curse of Fenric’. 🙂 A fascinating series.

I’ll share more on ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ as a 60th anniversary spin-off series in a separate review, but originally, the series was six episodes when released in November 2023. In June 2024, a seventh episode was produced in the series to showcase ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

I did wonder why the Remembered TARDIS had been built for the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series and, as it turned out, it was built for the ‘Empire of Death’ episode. My curiosity had also been satisfied on why an episode for ‘Pyramids of Mars’ was produced.

This is especially when Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson are in that ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ episode for ‘Pyramids of Mars’. I wondered how the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby got in that Remembered TARDIS in the first place after checking out ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’. 😐

Also, I assume RTD thought of doing ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ to fulfil fans’ expectations of the 60th anniversary in 2023 at the same time ‘Empire of Death’ was made. It does show, as ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ was very last-minute and isn’t part of the 60th anniversary specials.

In terms of the narrative, the Remembered TARDIS was created by Ruby Sunday in the time window by thinking it into existence. Not sure how that works considering this version of the TARDIS is a memory made real, but we do see where it came from originally.

A pity that this is its only TV appearance in ‘Doctor Who’ so far. I wonder if the Remembered TARDIS will return to ‘Doctor Who’ at some point, whether it’ll be TV, audio, books or comics. No doubt, someone will follow up on the Remembered TARDIS one day.

Anyway, the Doctor exits the Remembered TARDIS and he tells Ruby to give it all the memories she has of it so that it can form fully into existence. This works once the light atop the TARDIS lights up. I’m wondering if other memories helped form it into existence.

I mean, it can’t be Ruby just doing it, as you’d have to consider the various mementos inside the Remembered TARDIS, which I’ll share more on shortly. The Doctor also disconnects this monitor from the time window to keep the Remembered TARDIS stable.

Maybe it’s a combination of the Doctor’s and Ruby’s memories of the TARDIS (and possibly Mel’s) that’s keeping this Remembered TARDIS together, especially when using that tablet device as it connects to the Doctor whilst he’s recollecting ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

It’s never explained. 😐 Anyway, just before the Doctor, Ruby and Mel can enter the Remembered TARDIS, they’re joined by Sutekh who appears behind them along with the Doctor’s TARDIS. Harriet Arbinger, in her possessed state, also steps out from the TARDIS.

And…this is probably a good time to share more thoughts I that have about Sutekh’s new design in this two-part finale. I can’t stress how much I hate this new look for Sutekh. I don’t think this is the way RTD and his production team should’ve gone forward with him.

For one thing, Sutekh is all CGI. Now, I appreciate the amount of time and effort made to create Sutekh in CGI form. This is especially from seeing the ‘Behind the Scenes’ featurette and the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘Empire of Death’. It’s fascinating.

But it’s unnecessary! Why does Sutekh need to be all CGI? The original Sutekh in ‘Pyramids of Mars’ was fine when played by an actor dressed up in a costume. Wouldn’t it have saved money on the CGI side of things to have someone play Sutekh in a costume?

You can still have Gabriel Woolf voicing Sutekh. It’s just a matter of having an actor playing the body of Sutekh before he’s voiced over by Gabriel Woolf. You know, when Dave Prowse played Darth Vader to be voiced later by James Earl Jones in the ‘Star Wars’ films?

Secondly, this new Sutekh looks like nothing like the original Sutekh from ‘Pyramids of Mars’. Granted, he had a dog-like form at the end of that story, but the mask he wore for most of that story was unique and identifiable when seeing the original ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

Why did RTD feel the need to change how he looked? Couldn’t he have given Sutekh his original identifiable look from ‘Pyramids of Mars’ for this two-part finale? He managed that in maintaining Davros’ original design and look for ‘The Stolen Earth’/’Journey’s End’.

Granted, he recently changed Davros’ look entirely in ‘Destination: Skaro’, which is even sadder. But seeing Sutekh as a CGI dog-like being in this Series 14 two-part finale didn’t make me connect him to the original ‘Pyramids of Mars’ TV story, as he’s unrecognizable.

I mean, who would honestly say that this was Sutekh when you saw him in this two-part story when none of the original design aspects of Sutekh are included in his new look? This is just another generic giant CGI monster design that we’ve seen many times before.

Thirdly, Sutekh is huge! Why is he huge? Why does he have to be so ginormous? Wasn’t he intimidating enough in the original ‘Pyramids of Mars’ story being human-sized and having eyes that glowed green when he tortured someone? He doesn’t need to be a giant!

Granted, it’s explained he evolved in the time in-between ‘Pyramids of Mars’ and this story to establish why he’s so huge, which we’ll get onto in a bit. But frankly, did they really need to make him so huge to emphasise he’s a god-like being? 😐 There was no need to do that.

To be fair, him being a giant wouldn’t have been too much of a problem for me if they actually stuck to the original Sutekh design. I mean, wouldn’t a giant version of Sutekh from the 1975 story be better? Wouldn’t that have excited and impressed fans on seeing this?

It certainly would for me, as I’d probably go, “Oh, look, Sutekh’s back! He’s got his original look from ‘Pyramids of Mars’! And they made him giant-sized! Isn’t that amazing?” But I couldn’t react like that for this, since nothing of this new design screamed Sutekh for me.

The irony is that the Big Finish audio sequels featuring Sutekh including ‘Kill the Doctor!’/’The Age of Sutekh’ with the Fourth Doctor and Leela and ‘The Triumph of Sutekh’ with the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Benny used Sutekh’s 1975 look from ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

I’ve not heard those stories yet, but I imagine I’d be visualising Sutekh’s original 1975 look more than the CGI makeover he’s been given in this TV story. Because the version of Sutekh in the Series 14 two-part finale is unimpressive and underwhelming in my opinion.

Also, a thing I’ve noticed about Sutekh in his giant CGI dog-like form is that he never opens his mouth when he talks. When Sutekh speaks, the mouth isn’t opening and closing when speaking. Granted, it probably would have looked very silly if he did open his mouth to speak.

But then, doesn’t that look strange to you when you’re watching him in this story? I mean, if Sutekh talks and he doesn’t open and close his mouth, would you wonder whether somebody else was speaking and not him? It just looks weird when seeing him in this story.

Having him wear the original Sutekh mask, even in giant form, would have been okay, even if it covered his mouth. At least we’d be hearing Gabriel Woolf’s voice speaking through the mask rather than having him speak when his mouth doesn’t open and close.

The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the parody sketch ‘Oh Mummy’, which I first saw on the ‘Pyramids of Mars’ DVD. Because that at least had Sutekh in his original look, Gabriel Woolfe voicing him, and you believe that he was speaking through his mask.

Anyway, let’s get back to the story. The Doctor explains to Ruby and Mel that he cast Sutekh into the time vortex to his death. The monitor he took from the time window also depicts a scene from ‘Pyramids of Mars’ to showcase his memories. More on that shortly.

Sutekh meanwhile explains that instead of being sent to his death, he actually clung onto the Doctor’s TARDIS and hid, travelling with him all that time. So, essentially, Sutekh was stuck on the Doctor’s TARDIS in all that time in-between ‘Pyramids of Mars’ and this story?

Um, okay. I would have to suspend my disbelief on that to comprehend how that would work. This is especially when the Big Finish audios and other Sutekh appearances in other media aren’t referenced, including comics, which I haven’t had the chance to read yet. 😐

But then again, I shouldn’t really be surprised by this point. If RTD’s not going to acknowledge what came before in other mediums like Big Finish audios, which I’m sure have been enjoyed by the fans, why should I be worried about continuity issues anymore?

Whilst Harriet enters the Doctor’s TARDIS to operate a control – and I was hoping the Fourteenth Doctor would return at some point in this two-part story. I mean, he is still around. Or has he, Donna, Sylvia and Shaun been killed off by Sutekh’s dust? 😐 We don’t get to see that.

Anyway, whilst Harriet’s in the Doctor’s TARDIS, Sutekh declares he can bend the TARDIS to his will, calling it the altar to the temple of his ‘Empire of Death’. Ah, you see, there’s the title! I knew RTD called this second part of this two-part finale for a reason. Should’ve realised. 😀

Sutekh tells the Doctor that the TARDIS will never be his again. He tells him he saw many secrets in the TARDIS, including the name of his granddaughter Susan, which he considered the perfect trap for the Doctor. We also get to see a colour image of Susan. 🙂

That’s from the colourised version of the first ‘Daleks’ story, which was released in November 2023, in case you didn’t know. Sutekh also created his angels of death whilst clinging to the TARDIS. Some of them adopted the face of Susan Triad on so many worlds.

This includes when the Doctor and Ruby visited worlds from ‘Space Babies’ to ‘Rogue’. Sutekh deposited those angels of death on the various worlds the Doctor’s visited to spread his deadly dust throughout the universe. Thus, everyone will be destroyed entirely.

Sutekh: Every living thing is an abomination. I am come to release them into blessed death, and I find that good.

Okay, let’s talk about another problem concerning Sutekh. You see, regardless of whether or not you consider him one of the Doctor’s greatest villains and whether you believe he clung to the Doctor’s TARDIS in all that time since ‘Pyramids of Mars’, there’s an issue with this.

You see, Sutekh, as a ‘Doctor Who’ villain, would’ve had to have had a lasting effect on the TV show’s legacy – both classic and new. And you’d need to appreciate how deadly a threat he is considering he’s the God of Death and what that means for the show’s future.

Unfortunately, Sutekh not looking like what he originally was in the 1975 ‘Pyramids of Mars’ doesn’t help matters. And it’s going to be confusing for newcomers to ‘Doctor Who’ to understand who Sutekh is and what he’s about to appreciate how lethal a threat he is.

Now for some ‘Doctor Who’ fans, that might not be a problem, considering they might know who Sutekh is already. But I’d argue that even for both hardcore and non-hardcore fans, Sutekh as a threat in this ‘Doctor Who’ story isn’t well-handled in terms of the writing.

And it’s not helped when Sutekh hasn’t had many appearances in the TV series, both classic and new. Like I put it to you: the Daleks have had a lasting impact on ‘Doctor Who’, as they’ve had plenty of ‘Doctor Who’ appearances over the years, both TV and non-TV. 🙂

The same can be said for the Cybermen, the Master and the Sontarans, who have had plenty of appearances in ‘Doctor Who’ over the years. With the Daleks, Cybermen, the Master and the Sontarans, they’re easily identifiable because of their many appearances.

How many stories has Sutekh had in ‘Doctor Who’ on TV? One! One story! And whilst it’s a well-known story and considered a fan favourite, I don’t think many new ‘Doctor Who’ fans will appreciate Sutekh in this two-parter, whether they saw ‘Pyramids of Mars’ or not.

And the impression I’m getting with this two-part finale for Series 14 of new ‘Doctor Who’ is that it’s relying on you to have seen ‘Pyramids of Mars’ to appreciate the threat Sutekh has, whether you’ve seen the classic story on its own or in its ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ episode.

The clips we see of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane and Sutekh from ‘Pyramids of Mars’ in the monitor that the Fifteenth Doctor uses don’t help us to appreciate Sutekh as a deadly force, because we’re processing a lot of information on what’s happening in this TV story.

And there are other things getting in the way of this plot like Ruby’s storyline of finding her birth mum, which stops us appreciating this as a follow-up to ‘Pyramids of Mars’. Maybe having some of this set in Egypt would have helped, which doesn’t happen, sadly.

Also, why not have the robot mummies from ‘Pyramids of Mars’ be in this two-part finale? Wouldn’t that help to add more recognition to the 1975 story in this two-part finale, especially considering they were just as deadly as Sutekh’s minions as well as Sutekh himself?

It’s just as well I included the robot mummies from ‘Pyramids of Mars’ in my epic ‘Doctor Who’ 60th anniversary story ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. I think it would be amazing to see those guys in a story in the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. A real shame they’re not in this story.

The fact that this two-part finale expects you to know ‘Pyramids of Mars’ inside-out to appreciate how deadly Sutekh is isn’t a good way to get newcomers more interested in ‘Doctor Who’. And it kind of alienates many audience members unfamiliar with the show.

And look, I can’t claim to know ‘Pyramids of Mars’ inside-out like I do with ‘Black Orchid’ and ‘City of Death’. But even I acknowledge that there needs to be familiar elements from ‘Pyramids of Mars’ for this two-part finale to consider it a worthy sequel to the 1975 story.

You shouldn’t expect viewers to go along with Sutekh being the big bad villain of this story and know what ‘Pyramids of Mars’ is all about. It’s likely not everyone will have seen ‘Pyramids of Mars’ between ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ and ‘Empire of Death’ episodes.

Because not everyone is a fully-fledged ‘Doctor Who’ fan and you would need to introduce Sutekh properly as a villain in the new TV series for the uninitiated. I would’ve expected RTD to know this when introducing classic ‘Doctor Who’ foes for the new show.

Meanwhile, the Doctor damns Sutekh and tells him he will defeat him and turn back death. He also wonders why he’s still alive and what’s stopping Sutekh from killing him. The Doctor asks about the doubt Sutekh has. How he feels alive and whether it’s good. 😐

At this, Sutekh lunges at him. 😮 The Doctors shouts at Ruby and Mel to run and they enter the Remembered TARDIS. Once inside, he explains the Remembered TARDIS has bits and pieces of every TARDIS there ever was. 🙂 He then flips a switch to set it to take off and up.

Just to talk more about the Remembered TARDIS. You’d think it would be an exciting thing to see in ‘Empire of Death’ and the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series. This is especially when the Remembered TARDIS contains so many mementos from the Doctor’s past in it.

This is from both the classic and new eras of the TV series. And I suppose for a young ‘Doctor Who’ fan, they’d be excited by this. I’m sure if I saw this story fifteen years ago as a teen, I’d be super-excited to see a TARDIS like this with many ‘Doctor Who’ items in it. 🙂

However, there are issues concerning the Remembered TARDIS, considering its limited appearances in both ‘Empire of Death’ and the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ series. For one thing, the interior of the Remembered TARDIS is so small, isn’t it? Don’t understand why that is.

Why can’t the Remembered TARDIS be bigger on the inside as much as the regular TARDIS we’ve grown to love over the years is? Also, why clutter it with so many mementos from the Doctor’s past if we’re not going to get to see them one at a time? It’s really bizarre.

You’d have to freeze-frame every shot in the Remembered TARDIS scenes, both for ‘Empire of Death’ and the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ series, to identify what’s on every shelf and in every corner of the confined space that our heroes are in, which is quite challenging. 😐

You’d also have to watch the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘Empire of Death’ as well as Bonnie Langford’s set tour of the Remembered TARDIS with script editor Scott Handcock to appreciate all the various items that are on display in this certain set design.

I know I share a lot of photos of me with ‘Doctor Who’ stars as well as DVD covers, Blu-ray covers, CD covers, book covers, etc of various stories, both film and TV, when updating my ‘Bradley’s Basement’ wallpaper. But I try to make them as visible as possible.

I also have a full photo of a new ‘Bradley’s Basement’ wallpaper in a separate gallery for it to be seen in a Happy New Year post. I can’t fully appreciate the Remembered TARDIS interior with all the various items in it if we don’t get to see what each of them in turn is. 😦

Also, this sort-of fan service provided by RTD and his team doesn’t really excite me, even as a ‘Doctor Who’ fan. Like, I wouldn’t be that super-excited to see a variety of TARDIS consoles and items from ‘Doctor Who’s past cluttered together for a single TARDIS setup.

I’d be super excited to see more past ‘Doctor Who’ characters returning to the new TV series like Nyssa and Tegan, as I’m more into character development rather than mementos from the show’s past. I’m sure this excited a lot of people, but it didn’t for me.

With that said, I quite liked it when Mel saw the Sixth Doctor’s multi-coloured coat and she held one of its sleeves in her hands, recalling happy memories of travelling with the Sixth Doctor in the TARDIS. It’s a sweet and touching moment and I’m glad it’s in this story.

Later in the story, Mel gets to cuddle the Seventh Doctor’s question mark pullover whilst with Ruby and the Fifteenth Doctor in the Remembered TARDIS, which I really appreciate. It’s those little moments that matter to me whilst connecting to a well-loved character. 🙂

As the Remembered TARDIS leaves Earth, various bits of equipment short out and items tumble about the place. The Doctor has Ruby and Mel help him to tie objects down. Mel warns the Doctor the TARDIS is on fire and he puts it out. Fortunately, everything is sorted.

The Remembered TARDIS is fully stabilised, and the Doctor explains that the rope he used to tie things down is intelligent rope. Just like the intelligent gloves he used when he first met Ruby in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. Maybe I should get some intelligent rope one day. 😀

Also, the monitor screen that the Doctor took from the time window is holding the Remembered TARDIS together. Now, I didn’t pick up on this information immediately, as so much was happening that I didn’t have time to process everything going on in the story.

It’s only now that I’m reviewing this story that I’ve been able to make sense of how the Doctor, Ruby and Mel are able to travel in the Remembered TARDIS. At the time of this seeing this story for the first time, I was quite baffled, which shouldn’t have been the case.

Ruby clarifies with the Doctor about whether the women with Susan Triad’s face were real or not and the Doctor confirms that they were, as Sutekh took advantage of the TARDIS’ perception filter when the ship landed in the many times and places that they’d visited. 😐

The Doctor also says that the TARDIS’ perception filter casts a field at 66.7 metres. Ruby recognises it as equivalent to 73 yards. The Doctor asks how she knows this, but Ruby answers she doesn’t know how. Remember this point. We’ll return to it later in the review.

Mel points out that the TARDIS has landed on Earth over 100 times and the Doctor stresses that this is why Susan Triad ended up being so important. He also clarifies that every time the TARDIS landed, Susan Triad gets reborn as a new person in every new time.

When Ruby asks what Susan has done to be in many places in the universe, the Doctor opens the TARDIS doors to show them. They look out to see that Sutekh’s dust has taken over Earth and that there’s nothing they can do. Ruby is very upset her mum Carla is dead.

And this isn’t just happening with Earth. It’s happening throughout Space and Time and every world that he’s visited. Mel enquires whether there’s any world he’s not visited where they’ll be safe, but the Doctor says that those worlds will be just part of the pattern.

Many various worlds being destroyed by Sutekh’s dust are named, including Venus, Telos, Karn, the Ood Sphere and Skaro. Mel is astonished the Daleks are dead. Well, at least RTD confirms Big Finish audios like ‘The Juggernauts’ and ‘We Are The Daleks’ happened.

Those are Dalek audio stories featuring Mel in case you were wondering, since Mel never faced the Daleks on TV when she was with Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy’s Doctors. Meanwhile, Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor blames himself for causing this death and destruction.

Ruby and Mel try to reassure him he’s not responsible for this, but the Doctor contradicts them. He also reflects that he thought he was having fun when he visited those worlds in Space and Time. He soon screams in the void whilst Ruby and Mel attempt to comfort him.

I admit, this is a very sad moment and Ncuti Gatwa performs it well when he as the Doctor screams in rage and remorse at the fact that the universe has come to a stop. It’s something I wouldn’t want to dismiss, as I consider it a well-handled moment in the story.

However, there is a problem regarding how it all gets resolved. You see, despite this being an apocalyptic end for Earth and the universe with Sutekh killing everyone and everything, it’s pretty predictable we know the Doctor is going to end up defeating Sutekh in this story.

You may think that the Doctor is not going to be able to reverse what’s happened, but with these two-part finales being somewhat predictable where the Doctor must win, I’m surprised that RTD didn’t do something different with this approach for his neo-era on TV.

The Doctor could have failed by the end of this story and this season by not bringing back everyone from the dead. That he would still need to find a way to defeat Sutekh who had managed to get what he wanted by stopping the universe completely with his deadly dust.

We could have had a season where the Fifteenth Doctor, Ruby and Mel had to find a way to put everything back to what it was before Sutekh decimated the universe entirely. I would like it if Big Finish produced that season of audio stories in the Fifteenth Doctor’s era.

Sadly, we don’t get that, and it ties into the problem of how the seasons of Ncuti Gatwa’s era of ‘Doctor Who’ are structured, but that’s something to talk about at the end of this review. Bottom line: we know what the outcome of this two-part finale is going to be here.

We know the Doctor is going to reverse what Sutekh has done to stop the universe entirely. And it means that Sutekh’s level of threat as a villain isn’t well-presented in this story and I think this should’ve gone beyond this season to emphasise how deadly he is. 😐

Now some of you may think that’s too dark and depressing for the new TV series to do, and whilst it is, I would expect it to be something that RTD would employ in his neo-era. That he wouldn’t be repeating things from his original TV era in his neo-era with this finale.

But of course, RTD didn’t do that, as he has to end his season finales on a triumphant note. That the Doctor must win regardless of how deadly his enemies are in each season finale. 😐 Now the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master and Davros were truly worthy of that.

In the RTD-season finales that featured them, they were able to be intimidating because RTD wrote them so well and he wrote his season finales very well around that. Here, with Sutekh, I get the impression that RTD is struggling to write him as an intimidating villain. 😐

This is something I’ll address again when we come to the end of this two-part finale and how Sutekh is defeated. But I iterate, the resolution of Sutekh’s defeat and the Doctor reversing what he did to put the universe back on track is so underwhelming when viewing it.

Back on a devastated Earth with Sutekh and his minions at U.N.I.T. HQ in London, including Susan Triad, he remarks about how the universe has been silenced to death. Yet there is one thing that’s still living, and it’s something greater than the Doctor himself.

That happens to be Ruby and the secret she carries with her. He intends to find them. So, it’s Ruby that’s stopping Sutekh from killing the Doctor, is it? This is clearly RTD trying to blend the storylines of Sutekh and of Ruby seeking her true parentage in this two-part finale.

I’ll share more thoughts later on how I feel about how RTD resolves Ruby’s discovery of the truth of her birth mother and how it ties into Sutekh’s attempt to establish everlasting death in the universe. But I will say, it’s not very fulfilling and satisfying as you would think.

Incidentally, I assume some time has passed since the Doctor, Ruby and Mel’s escape from Earth when it was devastated by Sutekh. I mean, a lot of time would’ve had to have taken place for everything on Earth and the universe to get decimated by that deadly dust.

Meanwhile, we see the Doctor end up on a desolate planet where he meets this woman in a makeshift marquee-type tent. The woman is played by Sian Clifford, best-known for playing Claire in ‘Fleabag’. 🙂 She’s also been in the 2024 film ‘Young Woman and the Sea’.

We don’t know what this woman’s name is, as it’s not revealed in ‘Empire of Death’ the TV episode, nor in the Target novelization for this two-part finale. We do find out later that the desolate planet happens to be Agua Santina, as claimed by the Doctor in this story. 🙂

The kind woman is struggling to remember what the name of the planet she’s on is. She offers the Doctor chaffee – that’s coffee with matcha, in case you were wondering. The Doctor says that’s very kind of her but only to provide him one so long as she’s got enough.

The woman asks the Doctor where he came from, and he says he got a ‘bit lost’.

Doctor: It’s been a very, very long time.

That would seem to confirm that the Doctor, Ruby and Mel have been travelling in the Remembered TARDIS for quite some time. Not sure why Ruby and Mel didn’t join the Doctor out on the desolate planet’s surface, since it never gets explained in this episode.

The woman tells the Doctor that she hasn’t seen anyone in weeks. She hushes a baby in a cradle nearby and tells the Doctor that she thinks she may have called the child Brindle Dee, but that memory is dying. She also can’t recall her husband’s name, which is sad. 😦

She recalled he was tall though. 🙂 She also recalls an opera house and wonders whether she worked there as a singer or not. The woman also recalls how people used to come to the planet ‘with lights’, ‘their diamonds’ and ‘all sorts of things’, and it happened to be ‘lovely’.

This is actually a very good scene in this episode and in the two-part finale, as the Doctor gets to interact with someone who managed to survive Sutekh’s wave of death. It’s also a sad scene where the woman can’t recall her family, as her memory of them is dying away.

The Doctor asks the woman if she can provide him with any metal she has. Despite saying metal is ‘precious’ – I think Gollum would agree. 😀 – the kind woman provides the Doctor with a spoon. I don’t think that’s the Twelfth Doctor’s spoon from ‘Robot of Sherwood’. 😀

As shown in the above video, the Doctor expresses gratitude and tells the kind woman he might save the universe when given the spoon. The woman says ‘that would be nice’ before she starts to feel pain. The Doctor asks her if she’s okay and she soon laments her baby daughter died.

She thinks she forgot that happened. 😦 The Doctor sorrowfully confirms this when the cradle seems empty and quiet. The woman informs him that the death wave can travel down the family line and it can even travel backwards, from child to mother, which is sad.

In all fairness, this is where RTD’s writing can be at its best. Because this is a very quiet and tender scene where the woman reflects on all the people she’s lost because of Sutekh. It might possibly be the very best scene in the entire two-part finale for Series 14.

The scene ends with the Doctor seeing the poor kind woman being turned to dust before his eyes. The Doctor makes a promise to the dear woman’s remains, hoping to use the spoon to find a way to reverse what’s been done and stop Sutekh’s evil once and for all. 🙂

And I can see from watching this scene on BBC iPlayer that the Doctor is in tears when he witnessed the poor woman dying. I’ll share more about the Fifteenth Doctor crying in his era later when I get to sum up his character so far in my summary for Series 14 at the end.

Returning to the Remembered TARDIS, the Doctor tells Ruby and Mel that they need something real as well as memories to fuel the ship whilst traveling the universe. He inserts the spoon into the monitor, as it keeps displaying images from ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

It also displays an image of Sutekth as he once was. Or rather him with CGI effects in the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ episode for ‘Pyramids of Mars’. Yeah, some shots of Sutekh from ‘Pyramids of Mars’ were updated with CGI effects for its ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ counterpart.

I’ve not seen the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ episode for ‘Pyramids of Mars’ properly yet (I will soon after sharing this review). But from what I’ve seen, I believe that the CGI effects in the new ‘Pyramids of Mars’ are better than what the Series 14 two-part finale came up with.

It’s also interesting when Ruby asks who the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane are in ‘Pyramids of Mars’, the Doctor says, “They just… travelled in the TARDIS.” I’m sure there was more discussed between Ruby and the Doctor in the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ episode. 😐

Ruby then asks what changed with Sutekh, as he’d been hidden for years and it’s only just now that he’s going on with the attack across the entire universe. With the time window still connected to the Remembered TARDIS, the monitor that the Doctor acquired answers.

Or at least it responds to Ruby’s query. It shows the cloaked form of Ruby’s birth mum, and the Doctor speculates that Sutekh saw, via the time window, the one thing that is beyond his comprehension – Ruby’s birth mum. Apparently, this drove Sutekh quite crazy.

That he was able to see the whole of Space and Time and yet he couldn’t see what this mysterious woman is about. We’ll get to how it’s resolved later in the story and why the truth of Ruby’s birth mum as a mystery doesn’t really work in the grand scheme of things.

But yeah, this is what’s keeping the Doctor, Ruby and Mel alive. That Sutekh expects them to go and find out what the mystery of Ruby’s birth mum is all about and to resolve it for him so that he can destroy the entirety of the universe in Space and Time once and for all.

Ruby gets anxious, as she wonders what she is if her mother happens to be very big and mysterious. The Doctor assures Ruby that she’s definitely human. Again, this leads to a let-down concerning fans’ expectations, mine included, of who Ruby’s birth mum truly is.

Whilst Ruby wonders who her birth mum could be and why she’s important, Mel, who’s exhausted, starts to nod off before she hears Sutekh’s voice whispering her name. She also hears Susan Triad, who declares they can find the living through time, space and family. 😐

I became anxious for Mel then, as I hoped nothing bad would happen to her whilst Sutekh and his minion in Susan Triad were attempting to get through to her. I wondered what would happen to Mel and whether she’d resist the voices talking to her inside her head. 😐

The time window monitor then shows a scene of the Welsh Prime Minister – Aneurin Barnard as Roger ap Gwilliam from ’73 Yards’ – doing an interview with Amol Rajan. Whilst campaigning to be Prime Minister of the UK, ap Gwilliam also proposes a nationwide DNA database in place.

Seeing this, the Doctor wonders why the monitor would be showing Ruby this, since she’s never been to the year 2046. At least, the prime version of Ruby hasn’t. The Doctor doesn’t know anything about the parallel reality Ruby ended up in for the ’73 Yards’ story.

Regardless, this is their answer. The DNA database came to be in 2046 and thus, Ruby’s birth mum would be in it if she was still alive. And bear in mind, the DNA database is compulsory. Ruby’s birth mum’s DNA records would have to be in the database legally. 🙂

This was a problem that Davina McCall had when Ruby’s birth mum couldn’t be found in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. Ruby wonders how they can visit 2046 when it’s not there anymore, but the Doctor explains him having visited 2046 before means it’s a fixed point.

So, yeah. That’s the follow-up to ’73 Yards’ in this two-part finale. RTD wanted to connect that episode to this season finale by having the Doctor, Ruby and Mel go to the year 2046 so that they can find DNA records of Ruby’s birth mum to find out who and what she is. 😐

It’s not really a bad connection between the two stories. Frankly, if this two-part finale was very good, I would’ve appreciated ’73 Yards’ more. But in terms of how it resolves the mystery concerning Ruby’s birth mum…well, let’s just say I didn’t find it so fulfilling, sadly.

(sighs) Maybe it’s because I’ve found the whole approach to Series 14 by RTD very underwhelming. Honestly, my feelings for this season are that it’s reasonably okay in certain areas, but in others, you can’t get past the frustration of the weak elements it has.

Again, we’ll be addressing the resolution of how Ruby’s birth mum’s identity is revealed shortly, especially when it comes to talking about how the two-part finale and Series 14 concluded. But the tie-in to ’73 Yards’, which I also found frustrating, doesn’t really help.

As the Doctor makes to set the Remembered TARDIS to go to Earth in the year 2046, a roundel bursts open and a load of whistles fall out from it. The Doctor picks up one whistle with a red lanyard and puts on a cheerful smile, as he intends to make use of it. 🙂

Doctor: Oh… Handy! Love a whistle.

We’ll get back to the whistle part shortly, especially concerning a deleted scene featured in a YouTube video compilation of deleted scenes for the 60th anniversary specials and Series 14. Whether it damaged the two-part finale or not, we’ll find this out in due course.

Meanwhile, Mel hears Sutekh whispering to her again, as he says he sees the Doctor and Ruby since every living thing contains dead cells. 😐 Um, shouldn’t that be ‘living cells’, Sutekh? Not ‘dead cells’? I mean, cells aren’t really dead if they happen to be living, right?

Susan Triad on behalf of Sutekh urges Mel to ‘bring’ herself, the Doctor and Ruby to him. Now, it’d be easy to assume that Sutekh is now in the year 2046, waiting for the Doctor, Ruby and Mel to return. I’ll explain what I mean by this as we progress further in the review.

Eventually, the Doctor, Ruby and Mel arrive via Remembered TARDIS on Earth in the year 2046. They happen to end up inside Cardiff City Hall. Although, from the previous shot, it’s clearly meant to be London, but we aren’t informed what the name of the building is. 😐

The Doctor does say that the building was once the Department of Health and he was there for ap Gwilliam’s overthrow. Not sure which incarnation that was, but it’s interesting that the Doctor was there to see ap Gwilliam’s overthrow when he was the Prime Minister.

There’s a deleted scene of the Remembered TARDIS disappearing once the Doctor, Mel and Ruby vacated. I don’t know why that scene wasn’t included in the final edit, as it would’ve helped to establish what became of the Remembered TARDIS when they left it.

I mean, if it wasn’t for that deleted scene, we could’ve easily assumed the Remembered TARDIS is still standing in the year 2046 once the Doctor, Ruby and Mel ended up back in 2024. Was it not worth keeping the scene in? ‘Empire of Death’ is 54 minutes long as it is.

In that deleted scene the Doctor said the Remembered TARDIS disappeared because the memories of it has died. I don’t see how that can be, since I would’ve assumed the Remembered TARDIS went on its way to star in the rest of the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ series.

Then again, maybe that’s why it was cut from the final edit, as maybe RTD wanted to create a sense of mystery concerning the Remembered TARDIS as to whether it stayed in 2046 or not. I don’t know, it just feels odd to not include the Remembered TARDIS leaving.

You could’ve easily redubbed dialogue for Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor to say that the memory of the Remembered TARDIS is sadly dying and maybe it’s gone off into Space and Time to find ways to keep herself alive. Hence the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ spin-off series. Just saying.

As the Doctor, Ruby and Mel explore the building, they end up in a room where they find an access terminal to the DNA database. Apparently, the database had top security. It’s implied the Doctor was the one who invented the database’s security, which is intriguing.

Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor succeeds in accessing the DNA database. He tells Mel to keep watch. Mel tells the Doctor not to worry about her and to find the name of Ruby’s birth mum. When touching her hand, the Doctor notices something off with her.

Mel goes outside to keep watch and she leans up against a wall, utterly exhausted. She then hears Sutekh’s voice, telling her to submit to his will. I really felt for Mel here, hoping that she’d be able to resist Sutekh and not adhere to his commands whilst keeping watch.

Back with the Doctor and Ruby, he takes a blood sample from her finger and submits it into the DNA database. He tells her to use the search engine on the database where, hopefully, Ruby’s birth mother’s name will come up, and they can use it to defeat Sutekh.

As the search progresses, the ‘Carol of the Bells’ begins to play in the background and, like before, it starts to snow. This affects Mel when keeping watch outside, as she shivers in the snow 😐 She also struggles to keep her sanity, as Sutekh keeps on whispering to her.

Eventually, the database confirms a DNA match. Ruby sees it for herself and is completely baffled by what she sees. As she turns to ask the Doctor, Ruby sees Mel has come back in with her outstretched hand towards the Doctor. 😐 Mel’s face is also ghastly.

It’s the skull-like look that Susan Triad and Harriet Arbinger have when they became Sutekh’s minions. I was really shocked when I saw that moment at the cinema, and I truly felt for Mel then, thinking that this was probably the end for her in ‘Doctor Who’ forever. 😦

This is because, knowing what happened to Professor Scarman in ‘Pyramids of Mars’, I thought there was no way back for Mel to be alive and be her normal self again. Just like with Susan Triad and Harriet Arbinger when they became Sutekh’s servants in this story. 😐

But, as it turned out, that didn’t end up being the case. I’ll explain when we get to it. It turns out Mel died and the Doctor’s sorry, since he loved Mel very much. In that awful voice of Sutekh’s minions, Mel asks what ‘good’ love did and when had it ever helped him.

Mel demands that Ruby give Sutekh the name of her birth mother, but Ruby insists that she be told what the meaning behind her birth mum’s identity is. Eventually, Sutekh demands the Doctor and Ruby be brought to him. Thus, Harriet uses the TARDIS teleport.

Yeah, apparently, the TARDIS can do that. Teleport someone out from one place to another. Who would’ve thought it? Now I know it’s established there’s been a matter transporter in the TARDIS, but I think somebody new would be baffled by it being a thing.

Also, when Harriet teleports the Doctor, Ruby and Mel to Sutekh to U.N.I.T. HQ, Mel is wearing a black robe. Um, I feel like we missed some scenes where Mel had to don that black robe. Did that occur when Harriet teleported the three of them back to the TARDIS?

I’m assuming that’s the case since Harriet teleported the Doctor, Ruby and Mel out of 2046 to directly return to U.N.I.T. HQ in 2024. I think those scenes should’ve been shown, as the jarring moments before and after ending up at U.N.I.T. HQ should’ve been avoided.

And this is what I meant about it being easy to assume that Sutekh is now in the year 2046, since when the Doctor, Ruby and Mel visit Earth in 2046, it looks nothing different compared to when we were with Sutekh in 2024. 😐 Frankly, it looks more or less the same.

Wouldn’t it have been better to set the 2046 scenes with the Doctor, Ruby and Mel at night instead of daytime where Sutekh’s 2024 scenes take place. I was confused on whether Sutekth’s U.N.I.T. HQ scenes happened simultaneously as the Doctor, Ruby and Mel’s. 😐

I mean, the final confrontation between the Doctor and Ruby against Sutekh needs to take place in 2024, since Mel needs to be in 2024 and not 2046 where things are restored to normal. I’m risking spoilers saying that, but we need to progress further with the review.

Mel tells Sutekh that she’s brought him a gift, describing the Doctor and Ruby as the last two creatures about to die at his hand. Mel and Susan Triad in their death-like states also declare that Sutekh can end their wretched half-lives once he’s finished his use for them.

Sutekh demands that Ruby show him the name of her birth mum on the time window monitor she has in her hands. The Doctor pleads with Sutekh as he approaches him, saying that he will worship him. Unfortunately, Sutekh isn’t moved by the Doctor’s words.

He manipulates the Doctor by causing him to shimmer green (how that’s happening, I don’t know) and collapse to the floor. Sutekh tells the Doctor that he has lived far too long and is intent on killing him here and now, now that Ruby has found out her birth mum’s identity.

You know, on a sidenote, I’m surprised RTD didn’t have Sutekh say to Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor, “Kneel before the might of Sutekh!” like he did to Tom Baker’s Doctor in ‘Pyramids of Mars’. It would’ve been obvious, but I would like more connections to the original TV story.

Ruby rushes forward, shouting that she’ll give Sutekh the name of her birth mum so long as he lets the Doctor go. The Doctor tells her to stop, but Ruby doesn’t listen. She tells Sutekh that she doesn’t understand what her mum’s identity is and she wishes she could.

She says that maybe Sutekh will understand as she holds out the monitor screen to him, claiming that maybe it’s for him. Just the Doctor rises and Sutekh’s about to see what Ruby’s birth mother’s identity truly is, Ruby drops the monitor screen to the floor, shattering it. 😮

Ruby: You great big god of nothing!

This was all part of a trap to catch Sutekh off guard. I must admit, I was quite baffled by what was going on by this point in the story, since everything was happening all at once. Not sure I’m explaining myself well in this review either, but at least I’m giving it a fair shot.

Ruby takes out and fastens one end of what looks like a long bungee cord to Sutekh’s collar. She gives the other end to the Doctor, who clips it to his belt. In actual fact, it’s the intelligent rope from the Remembered TARDIS. It’s red after all, since it looked like that earlier.

The Doctor and Ruby snare Sutekh with the intelligent rope like a leash. They pull it tight and the Doctor uses his intelligent gloves. He tells Sutekh he knew about Mel being taken over by him since she was too cold. Hence, why he noticed something off with her earlier.

In a flashback scene, the Doctor confided in Ruby on a plan he had in mind to thwart Sutekh once he realised Mel was too cold. I assume they had to work fast on putting this plan together and make it work, especially considering the Doctor works in a fast manner.

Mel and Susan step forward and Sutekh declares out loud, “Die at the hand of Sutekh!”, before the Doctor uses the whistle with the red lanyard, which he acquired earlier from the Remembered TARDIS. Blowing the whistle, the TARDIS is summoned by the Doctor. 🙂

The levers in the TARDIS power up and blast Harriet, who was in the ship, out with energy. The TARDIS rockets forward and the Doctor and Ruby enter the ship. The Doctor secures the intelligent rope to the TARDIS console unit, and he pulls a lever for the ship to take off.

The Doctor and Ruby soon travel in the TARDIS, as they head off into the time vortex, taking Sutekh with him. Sutekh is pulled along with them in the slipstream. We see him struggling and screaming away whilst he’s being dragged in the time vortex by the TARDIS.

There was meant to be a scene, which got deleted, that explained how the Doctor got the whistle with the red lanyard in the Remembered TARDIS, which he used to summon the TARDIS out of Sutekh’s clutches. In that scene, the Doctor gave the whistle…to himself. 😐

Yeah, if you’re confused by that, I don’t blame you. But somehow, the Doctor was able to give the whistle to himself from the past…where he was in another TARDIS? A TARDIS that was created from memories? 😐 And the Remembered TARDIS was…in the prime TARDIS?

Initially, when I saw that deleted scene in the YouTube compilation containing deleted scenes for the 60th anniversary specials and Series 14, I thought it was a mistake to not include that scene where the Doctor gives the whistle to himself from the past in the story.

But thinking about it, maybe it was for the best that scene wasn’t included in the final edit of ‘Empire of Death’. Having the scene in the final edit of the episode would’ve made things a lot more confusing than they already are. 😐 Perhaps it’s in the Target novelization.

At least we don’t have to hear the ‘There’s Always a Twist at the End’ song from ‘The Devil’s Chord’ in that deleted scene for ‘Empire of Death’. The less I hear that song being played over and over again the better, even though, sometimes, it’s a catchy song to listen to. 😀

After instructing Ruby to hold a lever down, the Doctor goes to the TARDIS doors, opens them and defies Sutekh whilst standing in the doorway. He challenges Sutekh and this is where the Jesus aspect of the Doctor comes into play again, as written by RTD himself. 😐

Doctor: You saw all of Time and Space with me, Sutekh! So, I thought, “What if you see it again?” What happens if you bring death to death? You bring life!

At that, Sutekh’s right claw rips through the time vortex, causing grey skies to turn blue. Thus, we see the Earth being restored to life, including in the year 2024. Everyone we know and love returns to normal, as we have a montage of everything being brought back to life.

There’s everyone at U.N.I.T. being brought back to life, including Mel (Thank goodness!), Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Morris Gibbons, Rose Noble, Colonel Ibrahim, ‘Cheetham Hill’ Chidozie and the Vlinx. Susan Triad is restored to life too as well as her PA – Bailey Sinclair.

Carla Sunday is restored to life and at the Sundays’ flat, Mrs. Flood and Cherry are back to normal too. Mrs. Flood and Cherry cry and laugh in joy, hugging each other, as the dust vanishes completely in all corners of planet Earth. Hopefully, no-one needs to clean it up.

Mrs. Flood: Oh, that clever boy! That clever boy!

I’m sure many people, including myself, were thinking Mrs. Flood might possibly be Clara Oswald, especially when she used to say, “Run, you clever boy, and remember me”. Sadly, it didn’t turn out that way, and, as established, we’ll uncover more about her next season.

Incidentally, when we see Mel with the rest of the U.N.I.T. team standing on the helipad, she’s back in her costume from the end of ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’. She was in a different costume earlier. 😐 That was in a black robe when she was the servant of Sutekh.

Same goes for Susan Triad and she’s back in her outfit from the end of ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ before she got taken over. This…this doesn’t make any sense! Is there no consistency in RTD’s neo-era ‘Doctor Who’ stories concerning the clothes people wear?!

There is a moment that I didn’t notice when seeing ‘Empire of Death’ for the first time, even when at the cinema. Apparently, Kate and Ibrahim held hands whilst standing on the helipad and she smiled up at him. Foreshadowing for the next season? Hmm. It could be.

Incidentally, with everyone being restored to life on Earth and everywhere else in the universe, I feel sorry for Professor Scarman who got killed after being a servant of Sutekh in ‘Pyramids of Mars’. 😐 Was he ever restored to life, thanks to the Doctor? 😐 Probably not.

And that’s not just Professor Marcus Scarman, as played by Bernard Archard, but also Laurence Scarman, as played by Michael Sheard, who got killed by his brother. It seems unfair when everybody is restored to life in ‘Empire of Death’, yet not in ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

I know ‘Pyramids of Mars’ was made in a different time in 1975 compared to ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ made in 2024. But it seems very selective when people are restored to life in 2024 and not those in other time zones like the Scarmans in 1911. 😐

Or maybe they are restored to life, and we’re not granted to see them being restored to life, I don’t know. Maybe we’re supposed to speculate on this rather than be shown it? Maybe it’s clarified more in the Target novelization of this two-part story, but I doubt it.

Back in the time vortex, Sutekh is still being dragged by the TARDIS. The Doctor declares they’re bringing death to death everywhere. When rejoining Ruby inside the TARDIS and she asks what’s happening, the Doctor tells her they’re bringing life to the whole universe.

He then lists off some of the many planets that were decimated and have now been restored, including Vortis, Tigella, Vox, Messaline, Calufrax, Spiridon, Telos, Shan Shen, the Ood Sphere and Agua Satina, the desolated planet that the Doctor had visited earlier.

We even see the kind woman the Doctor received the spoon from earlier restored to life on the planet Agua Satina along with her baby whom she raises with joy. I’m glad that nice woman managed to survive in the end. A shame we didn’t get to know her name though.

Back in the TARDIS, whilst the Doctor is relieved that they fought a monster to restore the universe to life, he then tells Ruby that he now needs to become a monster. And thus, he goes to stand in the doorway again and give his last words to Sutekh before releasing him.

Doctor: Sutekh the Destroyer! The Lord God of Death itself! You win! Because I pride myself… I pride myself that I am better than you. Because if you’re death… then I must represent life. Surely, that’s what I am – life! And that’s how you win, Sutekh. Because you’ve turned me into this. I am the one that brings death.

And thus, as Sutekh growls “No!” – You know, I’d welcome an epic Darth Vader screaming “NO!!!!!” from ‘Revenge of the Sith’ for Sutekh by this point in the story 😀 – and lunges for the TARDIS, the Doctor closes the door, severing the rope and casting him into the vortex.

Sutekh ends up spiralling in the time vortex for a bit before he disintegrates. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor drops to the floor, shattered, whilst Ruby goes over to sit by him and comfort him. Thus, our heroes have finally defeated the God of Death forever and ever. 😐

(sighs) Okay, so, I’ve tried my best to get my head around what I think about concerning the defeat of Sutekh in this two-part finale and why it doesn’t really work for me. There are many factors involved, so please try and bear with me as I explain myself in the review. 😐

Going back to the Jesus aspect of the Doctor I mentioned earlier, it’s clear that RTD is going for the Messiah approach when it comes to defining the Doctor as a character. Because he sees the Doctor as a saviour for every living thing in the universe in his travels.

Now there’s nothing with that. I’ve done that myself when using the theme of faith in describing how the Doctor is as a character in the lives they touch, including their friends, as depicted in my epic 60th anniversary story ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’. It’s not uncommon.

The problem with it being used in this story is that it’s been done lots of times by RTD over the years. This is especially in season finales like ‘Last of the Time Lords’ where the Tenth Doctor is restored to life when people start chanting his name and he glows like an angel.

Once again, this is another thing that RTD repeats from his original TV era in his neo-TV era by having the Doctor appear very saviour-like and angel-like, especially when he defeats Sutekh by making him bring death to death. 😐 Thus, life is restored in the universe.

It has echoes of Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins, meaning that death is dead so that new life can be given to us. It’s not a bad approach on RTD’s part, but I don’t think it’s done in a very subtle manner, and I think it’s done rather over-the-top in my mind.

Also, I feel that the incidental music by Murray Gold has a part to play in that regard concerning the Sutekh’s defeat being over-the-top. Because it’s loud and noisy, making it sound like an opera when it shouldn’t need to be. It should be subtle in the soundtrack. 😐

I’ve mentioned how I feel about Murray Gold lately in my review for ‘The Star Beast’, but I want to add to that by saying that I feel he’s overused in certain areas concerning the incidental music. The music needs to be toned down in places. Not to be ‘too triumphant’.

And if you’re wondering why I think the incidental music sounds ‘too triumphant’ in places, it’s because I don’t feel there’s any jeopardy in the Doctor defeating Sutekh. If anything, the climax of this story seems to have the Doctor defeating Sutekh too easily. 😐

And that’s not what Sutekh is about here. Sutekh is supposed to be this powerful god-like being who can be very difficult to defeat, as depicted in ‘Pyramids of Mars’. And yet he’s defeated quite easily after the Doctor and Ruby managed to trick him in that trap of theirs.

This is why I think it would have been better to stretch out Sutekh as a villain beyond a two-part story. That he’d be the villain at the end of a season as well as the majority for the next season. Because his status as this deadly threat would be justified in that regard.

Having Sutekh be the villain in only two episodes – one episode and a bit considering he appeared at the end of ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ – is not enough for us to appreciate him as a villain. Especially when he’s defeated very easily for the Doctor to win at the end.

And I get what’s going on. The Doctor usually wins at the end of a season. It’s what audiences usually expect to find when watching a TV show like ‘Doctor Who’. But sometimes, I’m wondering what it would be like if the Doctor failed at the end of a season.

It’d be shocking and no doubt upsetting for many people, but at least it would be new and something different that ‘Doctor Who’ had never done before. That he would need to find a way to resolve a defeat at the end of a season and be successful in the following season.

The point I’m getting at is that Sutekh’s defeat at the end of ‘Empire of Death’ is rather quickly resolved and doesn’t feel that epic as RTD intended it to be. And it’s not helped by writing the Doctor in that saviour-like manner, which RTD clearly likes to employ in his stories.

It’s also not helped by the overuse of music and the lack of jeopardy when the Doctor and Ruby get to defeat him. And it’s definitely not helped when we see Sutekh as a giant CGI monster when perhaps a traditional human-sized opponent in classic style would be fine.

I usually try my best to give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to a new approach in a classic ‘Doctor Who’ villain being updated for the new TV series. But with Sutekh, I’m struggling to do that, since RTD doesn’t utilise the very recognisable aspects Sutekh has.

Not just in terms of him being CGI and all, but also because we’re not given enough time to get to know him as a villain. RTD is expecting us to rely on ‘Pyramids of Mars’ to know how deadly a threat Sutekh is when we should be properly introduced to him in this story.

Also, having Sutekh stretched beyond two episodes would have been better, as it would have helped to illustrate how lethal a threat is. Not just to show off he can kill people with a dust of death, which is reversed once the Doctor and Ruby manage to outwit him easily.

(sighs) Anyway, time to talk about the story’s closing section and the resolution of Ruby’s birth mum. Back at U.N.I.T. HQ on Earth in 2024, the Doctor and Ruby reunite with everyone, including Mel, Kate, Morris, Rose, Ibrahim and the Vlinx, in the command room.

Susan Triad is also there, as the Doctor has summarised the nature of her existence to everyone. Susan notes that she still has the memories of herself and of her family and she wonders whether it’s still all true. The Doctor assures Susan that it’s ‘absolutely’ true.

Mel seconds that, as she claims the God of Death created life. Kate also mentions that Sutekh gave Susan ‘a very good brain’, suggesting that she works for U.N.I.T. Susan seems very willing to do anything to help and even suggests that she makes the tea for everyone.

Ibrahim: Did you make this tea?
Susan: I did, yes.
Ibrahim: Don’t make the tea.

A bit harsh, but whatever. 😀 Carla Sunday is also there at U.N.I.T. HQ, sharing what happened to her when she walked home, only to be told off by her mum Cherry for not dusting. 😀 Carla thanks the Doctor for bringing Ruby safely home after defeating Sutekh.

Kate also thanks the Doctor for bringing them all back to life. When Ruby asks whether they remembered what happened, Kate claims they only remember echoes. Makes sense. I mean, when has anybody recalled being killed off after being brought back to life?

And then a computer chimes and we have the reveal that we’ve all been waiting for since we began Ruby’s story in ‘Doctor Who’. The Vlinx reports that the DNA retrieval the Doctor and Ruby brought back from 2046 is 100%, and thus, Ruby’s birth mother has been found.

Photographs of a woman appear on the main screen…and it happens to be someone called Louise Alison Miller. She’s currently 35 years old and was 15 when she gave birth to Ruby. Yes! This is Ruby’s birth mum. Ruby’s birth mum…is an ordinary person. 😐 Not a cosmic being.

She’s not even Susan – the Doctor’s granddaughter. Not Mrs. Flood, not even Nyssa (as I was hoping she might have been). Ruby’s birth mum…is an ordinary woman from Earth. More gets revealed as the story progresses, but it doesn’t make it fulfilling nor satisfying.

Apparently, Louise’s stepfather was trouble, so she hid the pregnancy and gave her up for adoption. Kate believes this to have been the right choice, concerning the records on the stepfather. I can only imagine Louise’s household being full of domestic abuse back then.

Ruby’s birth father is also identified, as he happens to be someone called William Benjamin Garnet, who was also 15 at the time of Ruby’s birth. It’s also revealed Louise moved to Coventry and got a degree before becoming a nurse when she was grown-up. 🙂

This…leads to an issue that I’m sure many fans were wondering at the time, as Ruby voices certain questions about her birth mum. She wonders why Louise is so ordinary and how she could’ve defeated Sutekh when there’s nothing that extraordinary about her.

Doctor: She was important… because we think she’s important. That’s how everything happens, every war, every religion, every love story. We invest things with significance. So, while the whole of creation was turning around her, it made her sheer existence more powerful than Time Lords and gods. In the end, the most important person in the universe… was the most ordinary. A scared little girl… making her baby safe.

This makes no sense. I’ll explain what I mean by that shortly, but there’s more to tell. Mel and Rose rightly point out they thought Louise was pointing at the Doctor. But it turns out she wasn’t. After clearing up the VHS tape, it turns out she was pointing at a lamppost. 😐

Or a signpost with a sign for Ruby Road on it. Which means, apparently, Ruby’s birth mum chose the name for her daughter based on the sign. So, I assume that means…somebody was taking that into account when Louise was pointing at the signpost on that very night?

That someone saw Louise point at the sign, and they told either the vicar or Carla that the baby’s name was Ruby. I’m speculating that because, how else would someone know the baby’s name was Ruby when Louise pointed at the signpost on Christmas Eve in 2004? 😐

Granted, Ruby said she thought she was called that because the social workers or the paramedics chose the name for her, but…which one was it? Was it the social workers or the paramedics who received that information from Ruby’s birth mum on that certain night?

Again, this makes no sense! 😐 I can’t believe I’m saying this about an RTD-penned ‘Doctor Who’ story, but this is one of these occasions where he needed to ‘show, not tell’ when explaining a plot point like that. And to show more for us as audiences to understand this.

Now before I go any further, I want to make something clear. I don’t have any objection to Ruby’s birth mum being ordinary. Far from it. If RTD wanted that to be the case and to not have Ruby’s birth mum being some extraordinary person, that’s fine. I can go along with that.

What I object to is how it’s presented in the story. And how it’s explained why Sutekh thought Ruby’s birth mum was somebody powerful. Because…everyone, including the Doctor, U.N.I.T. and…maybe us as audiences, were making out that she was someone important.

That it created a false perception for Sutekh into thinking that we had made her so important…? Yeah, I don’t know how that works. Even in the narrative sense! I’m sorry if I don’t sound sentimental about this, but, frankly, it just reeks of lazy writing on RTD’s part.

And this kind of leads to another issue concerning Ruby as a character. Now you see, I really like Ruby as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion. I think she’s a lovely character and Millie Gibson plays her so well in the series. 🙂 But, in this story, she’s used more as a plot device.

Not as a character. And the reason why I say that is because the mystery of Ruby’s birth mum means Ruby, as a character, fits in the plotline of a ‘mystery box’. Meaning that her character is developed because we have to unravel a mystery about her in the season. 😐

This is something that’s been done before in ‘Doctor Who’ with characters like Amy Pond and Clara Oswald, where the Doctor had to solve mysteries about them in their initial seasons. Here, with Ruby Sunday, I feel the ‘mystery box’ plotline for her is badly-handled.

For one thing, why were we given the impression that Ruby’s mum was very important when it turned out she wasn’t that extraordinary and turned out to be ordinary? All Series 14 could have been about was Ruby trying to find her mum with the Doctor helping her. 🙂

That would have been fine. But no! RTD felt the need to create this mystery about her, even though there wasn’t anything mysterious about her. The snow happening out of nowhere feels rather pointless now since that snow probably didn’t need to happen at all.

Now if this was because of the thing that happened in the 60th anniversary specials where the Fourteenth Doctor unwittingly released the Toymaker into our universe and all sense of reality was being broken because of that, e.g., causing snow to fall, I would’ve taken it.

It wouldn’t have made sense, but I would’ve bought that as an explanation. But the thing is, RTD doesn’t explain it. Heck, I’m surprised RTD didn’t have it explained why the snow was falling when Ruby recalled her birth mum. I think he forgot to explain that part in the story.

Also, by building up the notion that Ruby’s birth mum was actually important to audiences and fans before telling us that she wasn’t that extraordinary sort of lets those audiences and fans down. Because you’ve ruined their expectations on what Ruby’s true parentage is. 😐

In fact, wait! Ruby’s mum being built up to be very important but turning out not to be that important and she was just ordinary all this time? Wait a second, that’s…that’s Rey from ‘Star Wars’! Yeah! RTD took inspiration from that when he wrote Ruby’s story in the series!

Oh, my goodness! RTD took inspiration from ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ – the most divisive ‘Star Wars’ movie ever! And yeah, I’m sure there’s a fanbase for that film, but…I wouldn’t have used ‘The Last Jedi’ as inspiration whilst writing Ruby’s story about her birth mother.

And whilst I appreciate the Doctor saying that Ruby’s mum was ‘important’ instead of what Kylo Ren said to Rey by saying her parents were ‘nothing’, it still feels clumsily handled in terms of the reveal of Ruby’s mum and how Sutekh was defeated from that. 😐

I know I said I would’ve preferred it someone like Nyssa ended up being Ruby’s birth mum instead, but that’s not really what the problem is. What I have issue with is how it’s unveiled Ruby’s birth mum is so ordinary and that we were wrong about her this whole time. 😐

I wish everything that had been built up about Ruby’s birth mum wasn’t done if it was going to lead us into a false perception of things. The ‘mystery box’ element for Ruby isn’t needed, as it felt unnecessary and it made things underwhelming in terms of the storytelling.

Again, I don’t have any objection to Ruby’s birth mum being ordinary. That’s fine. It’s just the way it’s presented in the story that gets me. I wish things could’ve been handled differently in how the reveal got handled, as it’s now hurt Ruby’s character in the process.

Going back to the story, sometime later, the Doctor and Ruby stand in front of the TARDIS, parked on a street in front of a café. They see Ruby’s birth mum, Louise – played by Faye McKeever – inside. The Doctor tells Ruby that Louise is happy whilst they’re observing her.

She has a flat, a man named Mike, and is going to Spain in three weeks. The Doctor tells Ruby that Louise had plenty of time to find her but never did. Ruby reminds him that she found her, but the Doctor also reminds her that it was with a time machine she found her.

Asking if that’s fair, the Doctor then suggests to Ruby that they should leave Louise alone since she made her choices. Ruby, however, steps forwards and enters the café, going over to the counter to order an oat cappuccino. She then sits down across from Louise. 😐

After an awkward silence with Louise looking at her phone whilst Ruby stares at her, the man behind the counter calls Ruby’s name, telling her that her oat cappuccino is ready. At that, Ruby tells Louise that she was named after a road and was left by her at a church.

As Louise realises who she is, Ruby tells her she wanted to thank her for leaving her somewhere safe. Overcome with emotion, Louise and Ruby hug each other whilst the Doctor observes, smiling. 🙂 In all honesty, this is a lovely scene between Ruby and Louise.

Despite the criticisms I’ve made about the reveal of Ruby’s birth mum, it’s nice to see Ruby reunited with her. The scene is well-performed by the two actresses – Millie Gibson and Faye McKeever. 🙂 It’s also a nice scene where the mother doesn’t reject the daughter.

It could have easily gone that way. But the fact that Ruby’s birth mum, Louise, is so happy to see her daughter and to see her grown-up is refreshing and it reminds us that she didn’t leave Ruby out of any spite or rejection. The scene alone is one of the best in this story. 🙂

Returning to the Sundays’ flat, Louise meets Carla and Cherry for the first time. She explains that she always thought of getting in touch with Ruby every Christmas, but was worried she might hate her. Cherry reassures Louise that there’s no hate in their home. 🙂

Carla offers to show photographs of Ruby to Louise, which she has 500 prints of. 🙂 Whilst Louise is keen to see the photographs, Ruby gets up and goes to the TARDIS. Which is parked inside the Sundays’ flat! You know? As before when he parked it in ‘Space Babies’?

Why couldn’t he park the TARDIS outside? The Ninth and Tenth Doctors didn’t park the TARDIS inside Jackie Tyler’s flat when they brought Rose home. So, why should the Fifteenth Doctor park the TARDIS in the Sundays’ flat where a lot of mess could be made?

Entering the TARDIS, Ruby tells the Doctor that she won’t be long, as she’s just going to have a catch-up with Louise, Carla and Cherry, and then they can head off. The Doctor knows however that Ruby’s not planning on continuing her travels with him in the TARDIS.

This is confirmed when she receives a message on her phone to say her dad’s been found, as Louise told him about her. And this is one of the letdowns of Series 14 for me. Because this two-part story…is Millie Gibson’s final regular appearance as Ruby in ‘Doctor Who’. 😦

Why?! Why is Ruby leaving the Doctor? And yes, I know, it’s because she wants to be with her family, now that she’s found her birth mum. But…why?! Why did RTD have to conclude Series 14 on that note? He could’ve finished Series 14 differently to his previous seasons!

I’ll address more on the issues I have concerning the structure of Series 14 as well as the two seasons of Ncuti Gatwa’s era in the summary portion of this review. But I really feel that RTD didn’t need to end this season with Ruby leaving the Doctor and the TARDIS. 😐

For the simple reason that we’ve barely known Ruby as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion for one season! Why couldn’t Ruby have been with the Doctor for two seasons? We know that the next season is coming up and that Millie Gibson as Ruby will be in that season. 😐

Yeah, I know some people were saddened by the fact that Ruby had left the Doctor at the end of Series 14. But the thing is, Ruby’s departure isn’t really that worth getting upset about when we know that she’s going to be returning in some episodes of the next season.

Even RTD himself said that Ruby’s story was ‘on pause’ by the time we got to end of Series 14. Therefore, we shouldn’t worry about not seeing Ruby again, as Millie Gibson would be coming back. So, why write her out when she and the Fifteenth Doctor were doing fine? 😐

We could’ve easily had two seasons of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby in 2024 and 2025. I would’ve loved that. I would’ve loved to have finished Series 14 on a note where we know we would be seeing Fifteen and Ruby again and have more thrilling adventures with them.

But, of course, RTD can’t do that, because – and, here we go again!!! – this is another thing where he’s repeating something from his original TV era in his neo-era. That a main character for the regular line-up of ‘Doctor Who’ characters leaves at the end of a season.

And I’m not just talking about Rose leaving at the end of Series 2, Martha leaving at the end of Series 3 and Donna leaving at the end of Series 4. Christopher Eccleston left at the end of Series 1 and David Tennant left at the end of the 2009-2010 Specials! Those count!

RTD could’ve easily broken this pattern of his where he doesn’t have to end a season with a main character leaving. He could’ve done two seasons of Ruby and the Fifteenth Doctor travelling together in the TARDIS for us to enjoy them more whilst watching his neo-era. 😐

But for some reason, RTD doesn’t seem to want to do that. And it’s very frustrating when seeing a companion like Ruby leave the Doctor at the end of a season, knowing it’s been done many times as far as RTD is concerned. He could’ve done something very different.

And look, I know we’ve had companions like Amy, Rory, Clara, Graham, Ryan and Yaz in-between the original and neo-RTD TV eras who have stayed on in the TARDIS beyond one season. But this is the thing: They were characters created by two different showrunners.

Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall! This is Russell T. Davies we’re talking about! Whilst I’ve criticised Steven Moffat and Chris Chibnall in terms of being ‘Doctor Who’ showrunners, at least, in their eras, they kept their companions in the TARDIS for more than one season.

RTD’s method in being a ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner is to redo what he did in previous seasons and not have much variety in terms of structure. And it feels like he’s cramming in a lot of stuff to match what he did in his previous seasons for his neo-‘Doctor Who’ era.

The fact that Ruby leaves at the end of Series 14 is a huge let-down for me, as I want to get to know more about her and her friendship with the Doctor. But we can’t, as we haven’t had enough episodes to appreciate them both when Series 14 is about eight episodes in total.

Nine if you count ‘The Church of Ruby Road’. This is a contrast compared to experiencing the original RTD era where there are 13 episodes in total for each season. If RTD had more episodes in each season of Ncuti Gatwa’s era, I’m sure we’d enjoy Fifteen and Ruby more.

It’s really sad how this has turned out in Series 14 because I really like Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby, and I would’ve liked to have explored more of their characters beyond nine episodes. A big pity that was denied to us in the viewing process.

In the TARDIS, Ruby is sorry about leaving, but the Doctor reassures her and gives her a hug to say goodbye. The Doctor tells Ruby that her life is out there beyond the TARDIS and her adventure is just beginning. Ruby tells the Doctor he could come along to see her dad.

But, of course, the Doctor doesn’t do that. Incidentally, we, as an audience, never get to see Ruby’s dad in this story. I hoped that would be saved for Series 15 when we see Ruby again, but sadly, that didn’t happen. A shame. I would’ve liked to have seen Ruby’s dad.

Ruby asks the Doctor if she’ll ever see him again, and the Doctor says, “Of course you will” twice. Not three times! 😀 Ruby then points out that he never went back for his granddaughter. The Doctor admits this to be true and considers it was his own mistake. 😐

Doctor: Maybe I’ll find her again, one day.

Really, Russell? You’re willing to acknowledge Mel met the Daleks in the Big Finish audios, but not acknowledge the Doctor as Paul McGann met Susan in his audio stories? As well as her son Alex Campbell? (sighs) Look, we’re nearly finished with this story, never mind.

As the Doctor says goodbye to Ruby, he tells her she taught him about family and that she changed him. He tells her that she made his life bigger and better. He starts up the TARDIS, just as Ruby walks away, about to head out, rejoin her family and begin a new life.

Ruby: I love you.

I think we can take it as read that Ruby wasn’t saying “I love you” to the Doctor in a romantic way. That she said she loved him as a friend. At least that’s one thing that RTD didn’t repeat where the Doctor’s companion fell in love with him like Rose and Martha. 🙂

As Ruby leaves, the Doctor is in tears whilst standing at the TARDIS console. I’ll share more on how I feel about the Fifteenth Doctor’s tendency to cry in the summary portion of the review, but…yeah, this is where I could see his tendency to cry is rather noticeable.

Once outside, Ruby sees the TARDIS dematerialise and she’s joined by Louise, Carla and Cherry who also watch the TARDIS leave. Let’s hope the Doctor parks his TARDIS outside the Sundays’ flat next time. Not inside! 😀 Carla will have more repair bills if that happens.

And so, this two-part finale and Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series ends with Ruby rejoining her family in the Sundays’ flat living room, as they’re about to look through a photo album. No doubt, containing all the photos Carla was going to show Louise of Ruby.

And then we hear this narration to close off the story.

Mrs. Flood: And that’s how the story of the Church on Ruby Road comes to an end…with a very happy ending for little Ruby Sunday.

Donna: YOU LAIR!!!

Trust me, there’s more to that narration being read by Mrs. Flood once we get to Series 15. 😐

Mrs. Flood: But life goes on, doesn’t it? Ruthlessly! And what happens, you might wonder… Oh, what happens to that mysterious traveller in time and space known as the Doctor? I’m sorry to say his story ends in absolute terror. Night, night!

Err, why is Mrs. Flood dressed like Romana? The first Romana, as played by Mary Tamm? Actually, my dad thought she was dressed up to be like Cruella de Vil. Also, somebody said she was like Mary Poppins? Is the Disney influence working its way again? 😐 Could be. 😀

At the time of seeing this story at the cinema, I did wonder who Mrs. Flood was, as she remained a mystery by the end of Series 14. Now that I know who she is, I wonder if she’s talking to us following the end of Series 15, especially when narrating about the Doctor. 😐

The DVD/Blu-ray special features for ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ are as follows. On Disc 5 of the Series 14/Season One DVD/Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’, there’s a behind-the-scenes featurette on ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ and a behind-the-scenes featurette on ‘Empire of Death’. There’s ‘Jemma Redgrave’s U.N.I.T. Set Tour’, a ‘Villain Reveal’ behind-the-scenes item about Sutekh, ‘Who is Susan Traid’ and ‘Get to Know ‘Doctor Who’ – With Lenny Rush’. There’s an in-vision commentary on ‘Empire of Death’ with Bonnie Langford, executive producer Russell T. Davies and producer Vicki Delow. There’s a scene breakdown on ‘Empire of Death’ with director Jamie Donoughue, ‘Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson’s Favourite Memories’, ‘Genesis Lynea in the TARDIS’, ‘Bonnie Langford’s Remembered TARDIS Tour’ with script editor Scott Handcock, an ‘Epilogue’ behind-the-scenes item and ‘Empire of Death’ – Script to Screen’. On Disc 7 of the Series 14/Season One DVD/Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’, there’s the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ and the ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode for ‘Empire of Death’. There’s a ‘Doctor Who Unleashed’ episode on the ‘Unseen’ behind-the-scenes footage of Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, and the ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ episode on ‘Pyramids of Mars’ with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson.

Wow! I’ve said a lot, haven’t I? 😀 ‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ isn’t a fantastic two-part season finale in Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’ compared to previous season finales penned by Russell T. Davies in his original TV era, which I think is a shame.

The two-part finale suffers in terms of resolving every aspect of the season altogether. You’d think that wouldn’t be the case when comparing it to previous efforts by RTD in season finales for his original era. Was I wrong about those season finales being great? 😐

Whilst the return of Sutekh as a ‘Doctor Who’ villain is welcome, it isn’t what I would’ve expected from seeing him in the original 1975 TV story ‘Pyramids of Mars’ with Tom Baker. Frankly, the CGI makeover and making him so unrecognisable as Suetkh is disappointing.

I would’ve preferred it if RTD and his production team kept Sutekh in his original unique look compared to the oversized CGI dog-like giant he became in this story. Also, his defeat at the story’s end is rather rushed and badly-handled after revisiting it for this review.

Had Sutekh lasted longer as a villain beyond this two-parter and if the Fifteenth Doctor got to defeat him in the second season, maybe his position as a lethal threat would’ve been justified. As is, Sutekh didn’t have the same impact as he had in ‘Pyramids of Mars’.

Mind you, it’s nice Gabriel Woolf got to voice Sutekh again for this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure in the new TV series, especially at 91. However, this shouldn’t be a surprise, considering that Gabriel Woolf voiced the Beast in ‘The Impossible Planet’/’The Satan Pit’ in Series 2.

I would have liked it if some of this two-part story was set in Egypt and then we could’ve had more Egyptian influences to connect to ‘Pyramids of Mars’. The absence of the Osrian robot mummies is a shame, as it would’ve been nice to see them as Sutekh’s slaves. 😐

Sometimes, I wonder if RTD thought it through with having Sutekh back in ‘Doctor Who’ without including the Egyptian influences and the Osrian robot mummies to connect to ‘Pyramids of Mars’ more. At least, the robot mummies are in my ‘Thirteen+ Doctors’ story.

Regarding the resolution of who Ruby’s birth mum is in Series 14, I also found that disappointing. Whilst I appreciate the down-to-earth approach by RTD concerning Ruby’s birth mum, I’m not happy with how it’s presented in the two-part story to resolve Series 14.

I wouldn’t have done the ‘mystery box’ thing concerning Ruby and her birth mother. Or at least, if I did, I wouldn’t have done it by not resolving certain plot elements that would’ve left fans confused. This includes the snow appearing out of nowhere throughout Series 14. 😐

Fans could be forgiven if they were expecting it to be Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, that ended up being Ruby’s birth number. Or, in my case, Nyssa, as it would have provided an otherworldly aspect to Ruby and would’ve resolved the mystery elements satisfyingly.

But then, that’s not really the issue, as the blending of Sutekh as the villain of this story and the revelation of Ruby’s parentage don’t entirely match with each other. I think RTD tried too hard with making the season finale of Series 14 very epic than it needed to be. 😐

Again, I don’t have an issue with Ruby’s mum turning out to be ordinary instead of extraordinary. It’s just it could have done without the villains of Series 14, including Sutekh and Maestro, think that she was extraordinary, whereas it turned out she wasn’t.

I know the way I’m describing it doesn’t make me sound very sentimental, but if you’re going to build up that Ruby’s mum was important and very extraordinary, you need to live up to that. Not go down a route where this appears to be another version of ‘The Last Jedi’.

Because, like I said, that movie was very divisive in terms of the concepts it introduced, including the notion that someone’s parents aren’t extraordinary as one would expect. I think more thought should have been applied into how Ruby’s parentage was resolved. 😐

In terms of Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series in general, I still stand by my statement that I think it’s fine. Not great, just fine. It’s hard to identify what sums up this season as a whole and what I consider as the most significant problem that it overall has.

Generally, I’d say that the season suffers in terms of being 8 episodes. Or maybe it’s the way RTD structured this season from start to finish, because I think he would’ve preferred it if had 13 episodes instead of 8 to map out the story of Ruby and the Fifteenth Doctor. 😐

And I do appreciate that. Telling a story in a season can be tricky to tell in eight episodes. I think ‘Call the Midwife’ has it easy with telling their stories in eight-episode seasons. But this is ‘Doctor Who’, where it’s technically a sci-fi show and it has more going for it. 😐

But as I’ve indicated earlier, it probably would’ve been better to tell the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby’s story across two seasons instead of one. That way you’d get 16 episodes, plus two Christmas Specials, to tell the story you want to tell rather than just have 9 episodes.

Yes, it probably would have sacrificed the Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda story that happens in Series 15, and there’s no guarantee that Disney would continue their partnership with the BBC after two seasons if Fifteen and Ruby featured in both seasons.

But at least it would have saved the story of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby by having it being fleshed out and not restricted to just within one season. Because we need to have that character development fleshed out, since it will allow us to appreciate them more. 🙂

Series 14 felt like the first half of a season as opposed to being a complete one, especially since the filming of Series 15 was already underway before Series 14 was released on TV, BBC iPlayer and Disney+. 😐 We’ll get more into the issues concerning Series 15 next time.

I didn’t really have that many high expectations about Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, especially after coming off from the 60th anniversary TV specials in 2023. This is because there wasn’t that much to get excited about with what to expect in Series 14.

There was U.N.I.T., Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Melanie Bush to look forward to in the season finale, but aside from that, the season felt quite underwhelming. Which isn’t what I expect to find in an RTD-led season. In the past, his seasons have been exciting. 😐

Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten older and I’m not the same ‘Doctor Who’ fan that I was back from 2005 to 2010. Even if that is the case, the approach by RTD in his neo-era is somewhat off-putting, especially as politics and real-world issues kept getting in the way.

I don’t like talking about recent political elements in ‘Doctor Who’ stories, unless I really have to, but it’s quite noticeable when watching some of the stories in Series 14. And it’s difficult to avoid coming across those on the Internet that say there’s political messaging.

’73 Yards’ is a good example of why I feel recent political elements get in way of recent ‘Doctor Who’ storytelling. I wouldn’t have minded ’73 Yards’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ story if it wasn’t about an evil UK – and Welsh for that matter – Prime Minister that Ruby had to defeat.

I get the impression that RTD wanted to have a go at UK prime ministers and UK politics in general, which he didn’t need to. But then, RTD included politics in his ‘Doctor Who’ stories before such as ‘Aliens of London’/’World War Three’ and ‘The Christmas Invasion’. 😐

Personally, I prefer it when ‘Doctor Who’ storytelling doesn’t necessarily require real world politics, as you’d want to escape the real world, especially the one we’re currently living in. I’d like ‘Doctor Who’ stories to be fun and adventurous. 🙂 Not to get people down.

I know I’m not explaining myself very well in this regard, but the fact there’s less ‘Doctor Whoey’ elements to get excited about in each story of Series 14 when political elements get in the way makes it so underwhelming. Both before and after checking out the season.

I also think it was a mistake to have the episodes available on BBC iPlayer first before showing them on BBC One afterwards in the weeks from May to June 2024, even though it was to tie-in to the release of the episodes on Disney+ in the non-UK areas of the world.

Whilst it was okay for me to check out the episodes at any time of the day I wanted on BBC iPlayer, as it helped me to get my spoiler-free reactions on the Series 14 episodes sorted, I think it hurt the TV series in the long-run, especially in how the ratings turned out.

The ratings for Series 14 weren’t great, ranging from 4 million to 3 million, if Wikipedia is to be believed. By sharing the episodes first on BBC iPlayer, you risk losing audience figures via BBC One when most viewers are viewing the episodes on BBC iPlayer instead.

Now I’m not an expert on this and I’m not sure if the BBC iPlayer viewers rank more compared to BBC One viewers. But it’s a clear indicator ‘Doctor Who’ isn’t doing well on the BBC One front. 😐 Traditionally, the ‘Doctor Who’ episodes are shown via BBC One first.

Then after an hour, the episodes become available on BBC iPlayer. It’s what I’ve experienced when checking out the new TV series eras from 2005 to 2022 as well as the 60th anniversary specials and ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. Sadly, it wasn’t for Series 14. 😦

I know the release of the episodes on BBC iPlayer first got better in the next season with the Series 15 episodes released at 08:00 instead of 00:00. But the damage had been done and I don’t think it helped with improving the viewing figures for Series 15 via BBC One. 😐

There are good ideas featured in Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’ and for the most part, I’ve enjoyed checking out each episode because of that. However, I feel the episodes did suffer in terms of rushed endings and not having enough time to process the resolutions.

In doing my in-depth reviews on the Series 14 episodes of ‘Doctor Who’, I feel like I’ve got better in understanding what the episodes were trying to achieve. But on first viewing the episodes, I felt unsatisfied by how they were wrapped up, particularly in being fast-paced.

It might be because I don’t process information quickly compared to others, but then, I do feel that the fast-paced approach to storytelling in ‘Doctor Who’ is rather tired by this point. And you need to allow audiences to process information without it being really fast.

It’s a shame we didn’t have more variety in terms of writers in this ‘Doctor Who’ season, as most of the episodes were by Russell T. Davies. We only had Steven Moffat for ‘Boom’ and we had Kate Herron and Briony Redmon for ‘Rogue’. That’s about it in terms of writers.

If RTD just wrote the two first episodes of Series 14 (or perhaps just the first episode) as well as the two-part finale – or perhaps just the first and last episodes of Series 14 – maybe more variety and flexibility of writers in this season would have been permitted. 😐

I’m glad we had more writers in Series 15 of ‘Doctor Who’ in 2025, but it’s a shame we didn’t have more names in the writers’ list for Series 14. Maybe this was from Series 14 being done in a rush and RTD had to come up with episodes of his own to save some time.

I can’t say Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’ is awful, as there have been some enjoyable things to take away from this season. Most especially are the performances of Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as Ruby. They, for me, were a highlight in Series 14.

If it wasn’t for those two performers doing so well in playing their characters in Series 14, I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed the season as much as I’ve been able to enjoy it, especially when the storytelling comes across as flawed whilst analysing and evaluating.

Millie Gibson has become one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ people and Ruby Sunday is one of my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companions. I’m very lucky that I’ve met Millie Gibson at four conventions over the years and I’ve had some very pleasant encounters with Millie.

I didn’t expect to meet Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa so soon at a convention in London in November 2024 – about five months after Series 14 ended. And it’s clear from seeing and meeting them that they’re enthusiastic about being in ‘Doctor Who’, which is terrific.

I’m saddened that Ruby didn’t get to be in all two seasons of Ncuti Gatwa’s era of ‘Doctor Who’. I would have liked it if Ruby was kept on for Series 15 as the Fifteenth Doctor’s travelling companion, since I do find Millie Gibson really likeable when she’s playing Ruby.

I don’t like it when the Doctor, in certain incarnations, particularly in the two RTD eras, are on their own again and at the end of every season again. That’s been done too many times in original RTD era with David Tennant and often in some seasons of Steven Moffat’s eras.

I honestly don’t think Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson are bad in their performances as the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby for Series 14. Far from it! I believe they fare quite well in this season. 🙂 What lets them down is that the stories don’t allow their characters to develop.

That the stories themselves don’t allow them to express the potential they have when playing their characters. Because nine stories spread across from the 2023 Christmas Special to Series 14 from May to June 2024 isn’t enough for them, which is a huge shame.

Many people criticise Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and for the wrong reasons, in my humble opinion. People have said that he was miscast in the role as the Doctor, whether because he was a black man playing him or not. But to be quite honest, he’s fine.

I wouldn’t say he ranks in my top favourite Doctors, including Peter Davison, David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker, but I honestly don’t mind seeing him when he plays the Doctor in the new TV series. Like I said, he’s clearly enthusiastic when playing the role. 🙂

What lets it down for me concerning the Fifteenth Doctor is how he’s written as a character. And…I’m not sure if there’s a definite thing that I can say about his Doctor apart from the fact that he’s a very happy go-lucky Doctor and that he tends to flirt with people.

Him being a happy go-lucky Doctor isn’t really a bad thing, as I prefer that over a grumpy Doctor like Peter Capaldi. Him flirting with anyone might be an issue, especially when his emotions sometime get the better of him and he needs to keep them in check at times. 😐

Maybe that’s why some people don’t find appeal in his Doctor, because he doesn’t act like how previous Doctors behaved when they kept their emotions in check. But then again, the actors that we’ve had over the years have portrayed the Doctor in various ways.

Patrick Troughton didn’t impersonate William Hartnell’s Doctor and David Tennant didn’t impersonate Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor, so why should Ncuti Gatwa be playing the Doctor in a similar approach to previous Doctors like Jodie Whittaker and David Tennant?

This, for me, is just a different take on how an actor plays the Doctor compared to previous actors. And I’m not bothered by the fact that it’s a black man playing the Doctor this time. Lenny Henry and Jo Martin have played the Doctor in the past, so why shouldn’t Ncuti? 😐

The Fifteenth Doctor’s constant tendency to burst into tears is a criticism that people make when talking about the Ncuti Gatwa era, and I can see what they’re getting at. It’s kind of noticeable after a while when you see Ncuti’s Doctor get upset and he cries a lot.

But honestly, this is nothing new. David Tennant’s Doctor got emotional when something upset him. Same for Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and Jodie Whittaker. So, why shouldn’t Ncuti’s Doctor be upset when bad things happen for him, even if he does burst into tears?

People criticise Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of Peter Parker in the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy when he tended to burst into tears and cry. But honestly, that didn’t bother me when I saw that. I assumed it was part of the course when his character got developed. 🙂

It’s probably down to perspective and I suppose it’s so easy to make fun of the fact that Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor does tend to burst into tears a lot when crying and getting upset. But it isn’t something I’d hold against Ncuti for. He’s playing the character as he sees it. 😐

And as he should. Every actor who plays the Doctor plays it as they see it, regardless of whether people warm to it or not. Honestly, I think he plays it fine, even if he does tend to cry a lot in the stories he’s in, I wouldn’t say it was a problem in the performances he gives.

Another thing that people have criticised the Fifteenth Doctor for is that he changes outfits a lot in the stories he’s in. In the past, the Doctor has always worn one costume, whether it’s something acceptable or something very absurd like the Sixth Doctor’s outfit.

The fact that Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor is in different outfits every time we see him is not a big deal for me. Honestly, I think this is a good change in how RTD tells his stories in his neo-era. The Doctor doesn’t have to be restricted to one outfit and I’m sure Ncuti enjoyed that.

Yeah, it takes away from the traditional look that the Doctor has, as you’d always recall Peter Davison for being in the cricket outfit. Or you always recall Sylvester McCoy with the Panama hat, white or brown jacket, question-mark pullover and question-mark umbrella.

I’m quite glad that Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor’s traditional look, so far, is the orange leather jacket that he wore in ‘The Church of Ruby Road’. And he wore that jacket in some of ‘Space Babies’, at the end of ‘Empire of Death’ and for the majority of ‘Joy to the World’. 🙂

Yeah, it’s a shame he didn’t wear that outfit all the time, but frankly, if RTD wants to create this situation where Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor doesn’t always wear the same outfit every time he goes out for an adventure in Space and Time, I’m all for that. I don’t find that irritating.

So long as it doesn’t hurt the story a writer tries to tell in a ‘Doctor Who’ season, I’m okay with Ncuti Gatwa wearing different outfits whenever his Doctor visits a different time and place. I prefer him in the orange leather outfit, but I can go with the other outfits he wears.

One of the behind-the-scenes issues I have with Series 14 is the fact that Ncuti Gatwa had to go off to film Series 4 of ‘Sex Education’ before coming to join filming Series 14 of new ‘Doctor Who’. That, in a sense, is why Series 14 doesn’t quite work for me as a viewer.

Because there’s not enough of Ncuti Gatwa to enjoy as the Doctor in Series 14. I was looking forward to seeing more of his Doctor in Series 15 and I hoped he wouldn’t be absent much, like in ’73 Yards’ and ‘Dot and Bubble’, which were filmed early in Series 14.

I can’t help but get the impression that Series 14 was put in a rush and RTD didn’t have enough time to put this season together compared to what he put together in his original TV era. Ncuti Gatwa’s absence in the Doctor-lite Series 14 episodes didn’t help matters.

I will say this: The “I’ll just have a Coke” Ruby moment from ’73 Yards’ is something I’m always going to take away fondly from watching Series 14. And my Mum thinks of ‘Dot and Bubble’ whenever we see people walking with mobile phones, which is quite amusing. 😀

I suppose that’s a good sign on how the impact of Series 14 has on me generally. And the fact I’ve met Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa in real-life is proof of that. So, I’m not going to forget Series 14 in a hurry, despite whether it’s considered so highly by everyone or not.

When I purchased the Series 14 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’ at HMV in Cardiff, the guy behind the counter said he thought the writing of the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series had greatly improved for him. And that’s his opinion. I respect that and I’m glad he enjoyed Series 14.

The themes in the Series 14 stories, particularly the mature ones, are good in principle, but are poorly executed in the final output when seeing the episodes from start to finish. Hopefully, on rewatches, I have been able to gain a better understanding of those themes.

It would’ve been nice if I appreciated them more whilst viewing the episodes for the first time, especially as some of the episodes are fast-paced and the endings are very rushed. But that’s the way it is. I’m glad I’ve uncovered more in my revisits than on first viewings.

So, yeah. I enjoyed Series 14 of the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. I can’t say it’s great because it suffers in having so many rushed endings in every episode. And there aren’t many exciting things to enjoy in the season when it’s underwhelming, which is a huge pity.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t regret seeing Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’. I’m glad I got to see the first seven episodes on BBC iPlayer and I’m glad I saw the two-part season finale at the cinema. I cherish very fond memories in watching Series 14 from May to June 2024. 🙂

It was also worthwhile for me in doing my spoiler-free reactions on every episode on Series 14 of ‘Doctor Who’ via my blog and via YouTube. And I’m very pleased that, at last, I’ve been able to break down my thoughts on Series 14 in my in-depth reviews for 2026. 🙂

Where would the neo-Russell T. Davies era of ‘Doctor Who’ go next though? I had no idea what to expect when it came to checking out the next season – Series 15 – in 2025. Would things be improved by the time we got to Series 15, or would they be just about the same?

That’s what I hoped to find out when it came to checking out Series 15 in 2025. But first, we had the 2024 Christmas Special to look forward to. Would that be something worthwhile? Would I consider in achieving to share, as the title implied, ‘Joy to the World’?

As of March 2026, I’ve had my Series 14/Season One Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’ signed by Millie Gibson and Susan Twist at ‘Collectormania Milton Keynes’ in May 2025, and by Ncuti Gatwa, Jemma Redgrave and Michelle Greenidge at ‘London Comic Con Spring’ in March 2026. I’m thrilled that I’ve had my Series 14/Season One Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’ signed by these people and I’m very pleased to have met them at conventions, including Millie Gibson and Ncuti Gatwa. 🙂

‘The Legend of Ruby Sunday’/’Empire of Death’ rating – 7/10

‘Doctor Who’ Series 14 rating – 5/10

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The previous story For the Fifteenth Doctor was ‘Everyone Must Go!’ (Comic) ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ (TV) For Ruby was ‘Everyone Must Go!’ (Comic) ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ (TV) For Mel was ‘The Giggle’ (TV)	The next story For the Fifteenth Doctor is ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ (TV) ‘Bad Music’ (TV) For Ruby is ‘Tales of the TARDIS’ (TV) ‘Joy to the World’ (TV) For Mel is ‘Corruption of the Daleks’ (Comic)
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