This thread contains open SPOILERS for the Legend of Ruby Sunday, and any previous episodes. Please only discuss this episode here, use the other threads for discussions about future episodes.
Seventh episode of this season is “Legend of Ruby Sunday”! If you want to discuss the others, head to their respective threads.
There’s a trailer here:
This’ll be posted a few hours before the episode, so you can speculate and such before it comes out here. You can reference earlier episodes, but the main discussion in this thread should be for The Legend of Ruby Sunday.
The episodes should be on iPlayer and Disney+ at midnight BST, or 4 pm PST/7 pm EST in the US.
Just for fun, add your rating here (after you’ve watched it):
Without spoiling anything, the fandom wiki page for this story has a nice, and kinda ironically funny list of various individuals who could be revealed to be “The One Who Waits”.
Wow! That was… intense. Those last ten-fifteen minutes were… wow. Definitely a trap… for the fans too. Now I have the desire to rewatch Pyramids of Mars over the weekend. I may need to rewatch this one to get my thoughts straight.
Well… that was certainly the first part of a finale. Not exactly a bad thing but the story itself isn’t really the main thing to be excited about.
So let’s get this out of the way. YA BOY SUTEKH THE DESTROYER IS BACK BABYYYYYY!!! That definitely made scream in excitement.
I’m gonna wait for Empire of Death to fully get my thoughts out but I’m ready to see what insanity RTD has cooked up because his finales are usually always insane.
That was a lot. Honestly I am sure this will be only a first impression because there are so many factors in play when it comes to a two-parter, will the second one live up to what we got in the first? Who knows, judging it so far, yeah there is a lot to unpack:
The Acting was great, especially Susan Twist did a excellent job, same with Ncuti. The Directing was pretty nice, not as good as some of the other Episodes we got this Series, but it was pretty good for what it was going for and overall I think I enjoyed it, I usually enjoy the first Part of the big RTD Finale, so we will see how I feel about Empire of Death.
Now to the spoiler bits: I am both LOVE and HATE the way RTD went with Susan, I’d love the Idea of Susan changing and the Doctor being confronted by it and yet I know it wasnt it the Moment we went into the Opening. Classic RTD, both very good (simply because I want to see Carol as Susan again before any new Actress can take up the role) and bad (because I really badly want susan to come back to the show, because there is a lot of Potential, even if you will and cant please everybody with it). That being said: SUTEKH is brought back is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. I am glad they brought back my Boy Gabriel, he is too perfect of a casting for the Character. And overall while it´s a lot of setting up, I really enjoy a lot of the small moments, the one with Kate and 15 was great, I really like how Mel got used, and the Time Window Idea is cool, even if I am not sure if I love it. The Moments with Susan Triad were pretty wonderful and overall while I may not be in love with everything and it really depends on the payoff, I think I enjoyed it overall a bunch. All I have to say is: Please be excellent empire of death, please please please.
Also not to be nitpicky but I am still unsure with the Music, Golds Music is very much hit and miss in the context of the Episode, this one sometimes had moments where I felt it didnt quite worked. Shame, especially since he impressed me with some of his work this Series.
But yeah there is a lot I could go into, lots to love, some stuff I dont think too highly about and some stuff I still have to think. One thing that this Episode made me want to do is to revisit PoM again. Also random thought (no pun inteded) but Sutekh might actually be a perfect Baddie for 15, if I think about it, one of the selling points of PoM for me at least was to see 4 being actually scared of this God, I wonder how it will go with a much more open Doctor, when it comes to Emotion.
Historically, I was always left cold by RTD finales. Written as BIG with very basic stories underneath when the surface is scratched and they always came across as smoke and mirrors to some degree, with the exception of Parting of the Ways.
And, unfortunately, the same is true with this one. I’m reluctant to wade in on half a story which is yet to be fully told ans I do know full well that there’s more to come which can recontextualise and alter my feelings.
But boy was I frustrated watching this. It started really strongly but the first Time Window scene began feeling like it was dragging and then when I noticed that I couldn’t stop feeling it. The reveal of Sutekh seems to rely on stuff other than actual story for it to land successfully and so (and I hate that I’m feeling this way) it left me distinctly underwhelmed.
It felt very much like the story was going, “OMG OMG OMG OMG it’s Sutekh!” without me actually feeling like that which made me feel utterly and completely detached.
It also felt like it built up for far too long to the climax. Maybe a silly statement when it’s an exercise in generating tension to build up to a cliffhanger, except I felt like this one thought it was being cleverer than it was and I was feeling myself willing it to get on with itself. Such a crushing shame to have felt like this after having enjoyed this season far more than I expected to.
I really do hope next week brings me back around and I’ll sleep on it tonight and maybe rewatch it with breakfast on the off chance I’m just in a grumpy mood but as it stands at the moment I thought it was all noise with very little substance, making for my least favourite episode of the season so far.
Yeah there was definitely a lot of smoke & mirrors here. There was a lot to love about it - I was on the edge of my seat towards the end & and the reveal was great - but there was still too much RTD deus ex machina for me. How on Earth did Unit manage to get the technology to create something like the Time Window, it makes absolutely no sense! How did Ncuti project those scenes of ST on the screen at the beginning?
Maybe I just analyse stuff too much but I have always felt that way about RTD’s finales. Still a great episode though & Ncuti finally felt like he was playing The Doctor.
Big fan of this one. Lots of great tension and an ending that felt really chaotic in a nice way. Glad that Susan Tried being the Susan was a fakeout. Will hold off on rating it until part 2 next week, but it’s got potential to be my favorite RTD finale
You just saved me a lot of typing That is essentially how I feel about this episode.
Also there were just too many people in it, and can we please keep a single scientific advisor for a while? Where is Shirley? And please can I have the Osgoods back What was the point of having Rose Noble in it and why is she essential staff if her job is catching petty thieves and the like?
And I kind of don’t know how to feel about Ruby’s reactions to her birth mother, I am not adopted but still I would buy it a bit more if she just once went “Why the bleedin’ heck did you abandon me you piece of?”.
The best little moment in it was absolutely Mel just telling 15 to get his s**t together, Bonnie Langford is great!
Also Mrs. Flood just got way more interesting
Yeah overall this felt like it was too muddled. I would love it if the second part would be a bit like The Big Bang where the focus is just on a handful of characters instead of giving a load of characters very little to do.
Initial rating is probably at 2,5/5 with only The Devil’s Chord below it in 15’s era.
This was my biggest problem with this episode. I
Also thought that this was the weakest of all the modern scientific advisors. Really did not like the whole 95% chance of a trap thing. But I am generally not a fan of the child acting like an adult thing. I had more problems with this than I had with the talking babies in episode 1.
Absolutely this.
Also we got The Vlinx that is so undefined and then throw a “genetically engineered child genius” on top? Just bring back Mr. Smith, Luke Smith and Sky instead
Twice we’ve got the H. Arbinger “misdirect”, and I don’t think it is quite as clever as RTD clearly thinks it is
Nice touch with the camera being 66 meters away ~ 73 Yards.
That is essentially how I feel about this episode.
with only The Devil’s Chord below it in 15’s era.