Doctor Who - Empire Of Death

Sutekh And
The Banshees

Doctor Who -
Empire Of Death
Airdate: 22nd June 2024
BBC 1

Warning: More spoilers.

Well that was... okay. Better than the set up episode and not a real clunker like a fair few in this season of Doctor Who have been. Empire of Death is the second of a two part season finale, carrying directly on from last week’s The Legend Of Ruby Sunday (reviewed here). It has a lot to do but the exposition is fairly light handed and it does have time to go off and explore other story ideas as it sets about mostly resolving questions and threads brought up in the current series. There’s also a big problem right from the outset here but I’ll get into it that in a moment.

Okay, so this episode sees The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) and former Sixth/Seventh Doctor companion Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) on the run from Sutekh and his gift of death. They are on their own in the universe now because almost everything is now dead worlds and dead suns (Earth and all life on it is destroyed very early on in the episode... and therein lies the problem) but they find someone who has a bit of metal they need to get their ‘get out of jail free’ gadget back, so they can regain the upper hand and set to putting things right.

Which they do... and then we finally find out who Ruby’s mum is... who turns out to be nobody of any importance (which, in Marvel comics terms, would be the equivalent of what Steve Dikto wanted to do with the reveal on the Green Goblin, as opposed to what Stan Lee actually did, causing the rift between them). Which is a bit of a let down in some ways but, I like the idea that this simple matter of identity, which is the only reason Sutekh has allowed these three fugitives from death to live, has become important because of the way certain life forms value things and people... and so that’s what they become. Which is a nice idea and, yeah, almost certainly true.

So most of the mysteries are tied up and The Doctor and Ruby Sunday part company (although I suspect she may be back to guest star in the odd UNIT episode or two at some part in the next series). If Disney don’t decide to just write off the already completed next series as a tax loss, that is. However we still have the mystery of next door neighbour Mrs. Flood and the way Anita Dobson is scripted and plays the character makes me think that I was on the right track thinking she’s an important villain from some point in the Doctor Who universe... especially when she breaks the fourth wall again at the end of the episode to tell the audience that The Doctor’s story ends in terror.

And I thought the episode played pretty well and the memory TARDIS from the, not so good I’d have to say, Tales From The TARDIS streaming show is given a practical use, of sorts, in this episode (although everybody kind of recognised the background of a memory TARDIS through the open doors in a shot in the early trailers for the series so... no real surprise there).

The big problem for me with the episode was that, most of the regular characters, UNIT or otherwise, die near the start of the episode (as does all life on Earth) so, you kind of know there’s going to be a huge ‘reset button’ of a resolution to the story, to get everybody back to life again, at some point. So The Doctor trapping Sutekh in the time vortex to bring death to death (which, by the way, would mean everybody in the universe should now be immortal... so that would be a huge problem in itself) seems a bit of a cop out ending, to be honest. Still, it got the story back to where it needed to be and although this new incarnation of The Doctor kept crying again (as he has in every bloody episode this season, I think)... it was an okay end of season finale and I totally didn’t mind it.

Not much more to say about Empire Of Death. Murray Gold’s score was great, it was nice seeing Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen in footage from The Pyramids Of Mars on the viewer as part of the story and I’m still looking forward to seeing this year’s Christmas special, I’m pleased to say. Unfortunately, I’m not expecting the producers to learn anything much from the reception of the show in the next season because, well, they’ve already shot it before the first series aired, I believe.

Here’s my ranking of the episodes in this year’s series, from worst to best, if anybody wants to know (because that’s what people seem to be doing these days, it seems... personal rankings) now that I’ve had time to reevaluate them (click on the titles for the corresponding review)...

8. Rogue
7. Space Babies
6. The Devil’s Chord
5. The Legend Of Ruby Sunday
4. Empire Of Death
3. Boom
2. 73 Yards
1. Dot And Bubble

Doctor Who - The Legend Of Ruby Sunday

 

Triad-itional Celebration

Doctor Who -
The Legend Of Ruby Sunday
Airdate: 15th June 2024
BBC 1

Warning: Spoilers aplenty.

Okay... well I have to say I am not feeling much love for this first instalment of the two part season finale of the new series of Doctor Who. I certainly didn’t hate it and it was put together well but... I dunno, I feel kind of underwhelmed, to be honest.

So the brief plot set up is that The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) visit UNIT HQ to try and figure out two things... firstly, who is the mysterious woman they keep seeing cropping up in their adventures (as played by actress Susan Twist, every week as a different character) and, also, the answer to the question... “Who is Ruby Sunday’s mum who left her on the church steps on Christmas Eve 2004?

Well, the woman is Susan Triad, about to give the world her new technology (and who has dreams about the things her characters would have seen in each episode)... not knowing she’s the victim of this week’s returning villain. Yeah, so Russel T. Davies said they wouldn’t be bringing any old villains back this series and so, what did he do? He brought an old villain back. Meanwhile, looking through a time window to recreate the night that Ruby was left on the doorstep of the church, they bring more death and the villain manifests itself in our time.

Okay... so I’ve seen many theories on what could be happening over the last month on the internet and, subsequently... as far as we are in the story by the end of this episode... they’ve all been speculated successfully so that, yeah, there are no real story surprises in this episode at all (but, not to worry, some more suprises may be coming next week, one hopes). Debut character Harriet’s second name being Arbinger, for example. So, H. Arbinger or Harbinger. People were pretty sure that would be the case and so it goes (to quote someone who once found themselves unstuck in time... I’m pitching to you, Kurt Vonnegut fans).

So we all knew that Susan Twist’s character this week, Susan Triad or S Triad, was an anagram of TARDIS (where the manifestation of an ancient God was hiding). And, yes, many people had already figured out the ‘Sue Tech’ idea as meaning it could well be an appearance of the God Sutekh from the 1975 Tom Baker era story The Pyramids Of Mars. And it is, it would seem. I think that’s what most disappointed me about the episode and, if there was any surprise for me, then it was that they’d bothered brining this enemy back in this form. I mean, really?

Two reasons for that disappointment. One, the great thing about The Pyramids Of Mars storyline was not Sutekh but his large, robot mummy henchmen, who were iconic monsters of the era (despite only appearing in that story). So I’d much rather have the cool mummies back than Sutekh, to be honest. Secondly, I guess I am a little curious as to why they decided to bring back a monster who is not going to be familiar to any modern era audiences, unless they’ve gone back to look at the classic stories. I mean... yeah, it’s  only really going to mean something to fans of old. Nothing against that personally but... maybe not the smartest move considering you’re trying to hook new viewers into the show for the Disney fatherland.

And, yeah, it was an unsatisfying cliffhanger, to be honest. I’m not really buying into it. But there are still some surprises yet, I suspect. Firstly, since they keep invoking The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan all through the episode, I’m not completely ruling out that she’ll put in an appearance at some point in next week’s episode. Maybe by way of an epilogue, The Doctor could revisit her where he left her in Earth’s far future, after the Dalek Invasion Of Earth (although how The Five Doctors fits into that, I can’t really remember).

Secondly... Mrs. Flood’s return, as played by Anita Dobson. Now, okay, she could just be a manifestation of Sutekh (I hope not, that’s boring) and she’s certainly presenting as a villain. But... she’s not immediately aggressive with it and so, maybe she’s another old returning villain (such as The Rani) waiting to pitch in and help The Doctor against a common enemy. Who knows? Well, not me I can assure you but all the audiences who went to the 12.01 cinematic showing of the final two episodes this morning will already know the answer to that one. As for the likes of me (who is not near a cinema playing it), I’ll have to wait until next Saturday, alas.

I’ve not got that much else to say other than that, I think... other than well done to returning companion Mel in the form of Bonnie Langford. She did some good work here. Way too much hugging going on again in this episdoe though. The Legend Of Ruby Sunday is an excellent title for an episode but, yeah, I was seriously underwhelmed on this one, it has to be said. Keeping my fingers crossed for next week’s concluding episode, Empire Of Death. We’ll see how that goes, I guess.