Episode Discussion: Empire of Death

My first impressions:
There were 2 or 3 strong story beats and superb acting, especially by Ncuti, but the storytelling was fundamentally lacking.
The exposition dump at the beginning of the story took too much momentum out of the narrative. It could probably have been handled better, with less reliance on info-dumping. However, I assume that if I were to binge-watch this episode along with the first part, it would fit better.
The different story beats were not very well interconnected, imho.
In my opinion, there were too many different stories crammed into this one episode. It could probably have been a mini-series on its own (perhaps not quite 8 episodes, but maybe 5 or 6?).
At times, there was just too much pathos, although it was brilliantly acted by Ncuti. This reminded me of comments on the forum suggesting that RTD needs someone to rein him in to truly shine. There was good material amidst the mess; it just wasn’t conveyed effectively.
The resolution to Sutekh’s Empire of Death felt like a letdown. So, a negative multiplied by a negative equals a positive? What?
The resolution to the enigma of Ruby’s Mother was a good message, definitely a typical Doctor Who message.
However, the entire story seemed to build towards something else, and the message wasn’t sufficiently interwoven with the overall narrative. In my opinion, there should be a difference between just shouting out a message and conveying a message through storytelling.
This reminds me of a verse from Ursula K. Le Guin’s interpretation of the Tao Te Ching: ‘That’s why the wise soul does without doing, teaches without talking.’
Brilliant stories often manage to convey a message without explicitly stating it. Good stories at least ease the audience in before spelling out the message.
Guiding the audience to expect one solution and then abruptly spelling out a different message, is not good storytelling and probably doesn’t help the message come across as intended.
All that said, while watching the episode, I was able to mildly enjoy it. At times, I even got drawn into the story, goosebumps and all. :wink:
I do hope that reading the maybe more positive opinions of other people will soften my view, and re-watching the entire RTD run in the coming weeks will make my own view of the episode more positive.
Regardless, I’m still looking forward to the next season, albeit a little more skeptical than at the beginning of RTD’s second run

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