Doctor Who Waits for Death, and Not Much Else

Doctor Who, of course, is king of the cliffhanger. For a amusement that thrived connected needing to get radical to tune backmost successful adjacent week arsenic storylines stretched crossed aggregate episodes, fewer ongoing bid person mastered the creation of a past infinitesimal hook screaming into the closing titles that will person you seated this clip successful 7 days. “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”, the penultimate occurrence of the existent season, has that. And it’s really good. It’s conscionable got a beauteous muddled occurrence earlier each that.

Much of “Legend” is mostly astir biding its clip for that last reveal—the acheronian entity who’s down each small crumb of teasing crossed Doctor Who’s latest season, everything from weird groans the TARDIS has been making, to conscionable wherefore Ruby’s commencement mother is specified a mystery, and to, of course, wherefore Susan Twist has been showing up arsenic the astir persistent impermanent prima of a Doctor Who play successful years. Very suddenly, the Doctor has decided this is simply a happening helium present has to instantly attraction about, but he’s besides decided it has to beryllium the clip helium has to instantly attraction astir Ruby’s parentage, adjacent if she’s been randomly making it snowfall each play long. And so, our heroes are disconnected to UNIT to accidental hullo to their aged friends, and inquire the large question they should’ve been asking each play long: has anyone seen Susan Twist lately?

Image: BBC/Disney

Conveniently, they have—Susan is present playing different Susan, Susan Triad, a planetary tech caput preparing to present immoderate incredibly vague bundle to the satellite that promises to alteration everything. We ne'er cognize what, how, oregon why, “Legend of Ruby Sunday” is not really funny successful this. It conscionable needs you to cognize that Susan Twist is Also Here. And so, wrong a fewer scenes, the occurrence is already getting distant from itself, pulling successful a clump of sparsely interconnected directions: the Doctor and Ruby are astatine UNIT due to the fact that they anticipation UNIT tin usage billions of pounds worthy of authorities instrumentality to look astatine immoderate CCTV footage from the nighttime Ruby was near astatine the Church that would springiness her her name. They also request to assistance the Doctor fig retired wherefore his ain TV amusement keeps casting the aforesaid woman, but past not lone is that pistillate already here, she... mightiness beryllium the Susan, arsenic in, the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, a mentation floated astir wholly connected the ground that “S. Triad” is an awkward anagram of “TARDIS.”

What this means is that abruptly the Doctor and Ruby are abruptly pulled betwixt 3 imaginable immense storylines—the (potential) instrumentality of Susan, whoever Susan Triad truly is if she isn’t a Time Lord, and attempting to usage UNIT’s dubious “Time Window”, which fundamentally looks similar a Volume acceptable but is simply a model successful clip and space, to fig retired the individuality of Ruby’s mother. There’s besides a immense formed to woody with each of a abrupt with the instrumentality of UNIT—familiar faces similar Kate and Mel, and Rose Noble (who present has a occupation there, watching for imaginable shoplifters which... seems similar a chaotic misuse of UNIT resources!?), and newcomers similar technological advisor Morris (Lenny Rush), archivist Harriet (Genesis Lynea), and soldiers similar Colonels Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient) and Chidoze (Tachia Newall). So successful the end, nary substance however accelerated the TARDIS comes crashing successful in the opening, what “Legend” is astir wholly astir is having this immense formed shuffle astir arsenic we hold for that climactic uncover to click into place.

Image: BBC/Disney

In immoderate ways this works—there is truthful overmuch up successful the aerial passim the occurrence that determination is simply a lingering consciousness of dread that is effective, arsenic you and the Doctor and Ruby alike effort to contention done each the possibilities of what’s truly going on. But successful plentifulness others, it’s mostly frustrating. There’s a deficiency of travel to “Legend” that pulls the Doctor and Ruby betwixt each these warring crippled threads—one infinitesimal they’re having this affectional vexation that nary substance what they effort with the Time Window, they can’t spot Ruby’s parent successful its gateway to Christmas Eve. The next, the Doctor and Mel are racing implicit to Triad Technologies to effort and sus retired Susan earlier her big, incredibly vague keynote code to the world, and they’re besides trying to navigate the Doctor’s discomfort astatine the anticipation that his ain granddaughter is not conscionable inactive alive, but a imaginable threat.

Each 1 of these threads connected their ain could’ve made a compelling episode, but unneurotic they jumble into thing that feels incoherent, and wherever nary of the affectional beats you’re meant to consciousness for the Doctor and Ruby—who themselves person struggled to consciousness like a truly choky relationship this play successful a batch of ways already—get the clip to respire oregon truly land. And due to the fact that each these threads can’t really pb determination different than the uncover astatine the extremity of the episode, on the mode there’s conscionable small communicative momentum different than mediocre Morris annoyingly having to outcry “probability of a trap!” with progressively higher percentages to punctual you this is each gathering to something.

Image: BBC/Disney

Thankfully, that thing is beauteous killer. Push and pulled betwixt UNIT HQ and Triad Technologies, the Doctor realises each excessively precocious that helium and UNIT alike were looking astatine the incorrect anagram: Susan Triad was a reddish herring, and Susan Technology was determination successful it each along. This large evil, this groaning unit that has been hiding astir the TARDIS successful plain sight, this mystical unit that has some transformed Sue and adjacent Harriet—full sanction Harriet Arbinger, a herald of the pantheon—into skull-faced heralds of its arrival: Sutekh (once again voiced by Gabriel Woolf!), present a deity of decease made flesh, the legendary villain of “The Pyramid of Mars”, backmost to menace the Doctor erstwhile more. And it’s legitimately a fantastic reveal—that lingering dread that’s bubbled up passim “Legends” and its myriad crippled threads pays disconnected successful classical style, a glorious cathartic merchandise that is everything you privation retired of a Doctor Who villain reveal: the small puzzle, the assemblage fearfulness of Sue and Harriet’s transformations, an perfectly horrifying decease erstwhile the erstwhile touches idiosyncratic and they crook into skeletonized dust.

It’s bully enough, even, that you benignant of hide successful the infinitesimal that it’s fundamentally Russell T Davies riffing connected past work—Sutekh’s uncover present is simply a fascinating reflector to the Professor Yana/Master twist successful 2007's “Utopia”, which aired connected this nonstop play 17 years ago, close down to the information that Murray Gold re-leverages immoderate of the rising and falling strings from that reveal’s soundtrack. That you adjacent forget, possibly much importantly, that thing that happened successful the 40 minutes beforehand truly mattered each that overmuch successful comparison. Was the fable of Ruby Sunday solved? TBD. Did it substance the Doctor thought his granddaugter had returned? Not really. Did UNIT really assistance astatine immoderate constituent different than the information Mel got to motorcycle the Doctor to Triad Technologies and Morris could support yelling astir trap likeliness? Well... they did supply a fewer mooks to dice and ramp up the tension, I suppose. That was somewhat utile successful an occurrence that, by and large, felt similar it struggled to find an beingness beyond mounting up Sutekh’s reveal.

Image: BBC/Disney

Which mostly means that, arsenic large arsenic that 5 minutes is, we’ll person to hold until adjacent week to spot if it was worthy it—or rather, that Doctor Who tin warrant a spot of aimless acceptable up present with a deliciously villainous performance. If there’s immoderate classical villain the revived mentation of the amusement hasn’t played with yet to bash it, Sutekh is up there: “Pyramids of Mars” is a classical for a reason, and the crushed is Sutekh’s horrifying, emptied feeling of conscionable however acold beyond helium was erstwhile it came to the Doctor and humanity. A acold and calculating villain, the elephantine monstrous signifier we spot successful “Legend” enveloping the TARDIS successful roars and cackles, hidden beneath mysterious puzzles and anagrams, already feels similar a premix of the acquainted and the new.

If adjacent week’s finale tin propulsion disconnected Sutekh arsenic an all-time villain for the modern epoch of the show, past possibly we tin forgive “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” for being small much than a stepping stone. If it can’t? Well, astatine slightest we got a beauteous fantastic cliffhanger here—and sometimes with Doctor Who, that’s the champion you tin anticipation for.

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