The following incorporates spoilers for “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”
In an episode full of misdirection, the most important one must be its title, given we’ve realized little or no about what Ruby Sunday’s legend really is. Instead, the primary half of the collection’ two half finale is actually an hour to construct a way of dread that spills over in its closing moments. I might cheat and say “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is simply “” — the primary half of the 2006 season’s finale — with an even bigger price range. Except the massive dangerous that reveals itself on the finish is a villain from a far deeper lower than the standard corners of Doctor Who’s historical past.
The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT HQ to ask in regards to the mysterious girl — Susan Twist — following them across the universe. UNIT, in the meantime, has been monitoring somebody named Susan Triad, a British tech billionaire who will announce her present to humanity later that day. Even the goofballs at UNIT work out that S.TRIAD is an anagram of TARDIS and the Doctor thinks Triad, or the mysterious girl extra usually, could possibly be his granddaughter.
But there’s additionally the matter of Ruby’s parentage to uncover, giving the Doctor a cause to not simply confront Triad. The Doctor, Ruby and a UNIT soldier enter the time window — a low-grade holodeck — to try to see who left Ruby on the steps of the church. But the historical past’s a bit wonky, and Ruby’s faceless mom — not like what we noticed in “The Church on Ruby Road” — turns and ominously factors towards the TARDIS. Not lengthy after, the TARDIS is engulfed in a black cloud of swirling evil that no person’s positive what to do about.
The Doctor then meets Triad simply earlier than she will get on stage, prompting her to recollect all of her different selves. Whenever Triad goals, she’s someway conscious of these myriad alternate selves. And whereas she takes to the stage, the Doctor asks the crew at UNIT HQ to scan the TARDIS. It is equally engulfed in an invisible cloud of malevolent stuff that’s threatening everybody within the space.
[ASIDE: This is the . And this is the second time that they’ve totally misunderstood how to stage one that looks even remotely evocative of what they’re parodying. I know the conventions of the tech keynote have mutated since the Steve Jobs era, but they’re not even trying.]
A UNIT staffer, Harriet Arbinger (Wait… ) begins muttering a couple of darkish prophecy whereas Triad goes off script. The Doctor, standing shut by, watches as she turns right into a skeleton monster whereas the TARDIS is menaced by an enormous animal head surrounded by Egyptian iconography. Turns out Susan isn’t the Doctor’s granddaughter, or perhaps a key element of the story, however an harmless. An harmless who has been co-opted by Sutekh, an omnipotent Egyptian God we first noticed in 1975’s “” Cue the credit.
It’s a slender synopsis, largely as a result of these scenes are performed slowly as the stress ratchets up. “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” takes its time, letting the screw flip gently till you’re virtually pleased when the massive reveal occurs. It’s a gripping trip on a primary watch, though I think about it’ll not have an excessive amount of worth if you return to it a 3rd or fourth time. But, then once more, that’s usually been a difficulty with episodes penned by Russell T. Davies. It’s additionally a great way to juice bookings for subsequent week’s finale .
Was it straightforward to guess that we’d be getting Sutekh again after his one outing in “Pyramids of Mars?” The rumor mill actually pulled in that route during the last month or so, and it’s not as if we didn’t get a clue or two alongside the best way. Longtime Davies followers will recall that Vince watches the half one cliffhanger on the finish of the primary episode of Queer as Folk. And we’ve already had an entire scene from “Pyramids of Mars” lifted — the bounce right into a ruined future — in “The Devil’s Chord.”
If you’re unfamiliar, “Pyramids of Mars” is a traditional, and one other blockbuster from the pen of the collection’ greatest twentieth century author, Robert Holmes. At the time, Holmes was the collection’ script editor and had commissioned a narrative from author Lewis Griefer. But Griefer’s materials was so poor that Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe determined a substitute was wanted. So Holmes was tasked with writing an entire new episode in a tiny quantity of time. The completed episode was credited to pseudonym Stephen Harris, nevertheless it’s all Holmes below the hood. Sadly, as a result of of numerous guidelines round writing credit, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” finish credit really give credit score to Lewis Griefer as Sutekh’s creator and omit Holmes, which feels fairly tough.
But that one minor injustice apart, let’s carry on the finale.
Susan Twist Corner
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Well, seems to be as if we’ve got our reply that Susan Twist was one thing of a misdirect.
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Gabriel Woolf, who voiced Sutekh in 1975, is again to present voice to him now.
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When Mrs. Flood was left to take care of Cherry, she was clearly conscious of Sutekh’s return and appeared delighted by it. But she didn’t look like a harbinger, so it’s doubtless she’s representing one other, completely different malevolent character from the collection’ previous.