Quite a few things are afoot in The Legend Of Ruby Sunday

The Legend Of Ruby Sunday brings us a masterclass in Russell T “I want to give new fans a fresh jumping on point but can’t resist making big swing deep cut callbacks to the series’ lore” Davies’ contrarian, madcap writing which has both blessed and blighted Ncuti Gatwa’s era so far. As is par for the course with his season finales, it’s a messy, indulgent and often frustratingly uneven effort – leaving a lot of heavy lifting for Empire Of Death to do next week to stick the landing.

Doctor Who Spoilers

Tiring of the nagging mystery, The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Millie Gibson) turn to UNIT to see if their database can help track down the woman who seems to be following them through time and space. Thankfully, UNIT are offering a 2 for 1 deal so they’ll look into the mystery surrounding Ruby’s mother too, especially as they’re able to solve the first mystery with barely a keystroke: it’s Susan Triad, famed tech entrepreneur and existing UNIT person of interest. But prying into Ruby’s parentage seems to provoke something more than snow this time and it appears that He Who Waits has finally run out of patience.

There’s a lot to unpack in this messy, tonally uneven episode that flatters itself that it’s paying off a smarter set-up than it has any right to. Where to begin? Where to begin? As usual with Russell’s season finales, there’s a lot going on, and as usual with Russell’s season finales, not all of it works. Its main problem might be that it all feels much too soon. While there’s no doubting his creativity and imagination, it’s clear he hasn’t quite worked out the rhythm of these eight-episode seasons and so the clues and teases and hints that he’s tacked on to every episode haven’t had time to percolate properly. Gatwa’s still very much finding his feet in the TARDIS and while his overtly emotional Time Lord is giving us a take on the character that’s new and refreshing, he’s been swamped by an overabundance of plot in the handful of episodes he’s had, the character frequently playing second fiddle to high concepts or low foreshadowing.

Unless he finds a way to adapt, I don’t think eight episodes is long enough for Davies’ preferred Doctor Who storytelling style. There haven’t been enough season arc episodes, journeyman episodes and standalone classics because there isn’t room for them all. It all feels rushed when there’s no time for a RTDetour or two. At this point, I’d embrace less slick digital production values in favour of a higher episode count with lower budgets.

The episode cast is a little bit overstuffed too, with Jemma Redgrave’s Kate Stewart joined by Bonnie Langford’s Mel, and Yasmin Finney back as Rose who is also now apparently working at UNIT too. Of Of course, Rose Noble is there to prop up the credibility of the concept of continuity through the specials to this season finale without raising the awkward “whatabout…?” questions Donna Noble appearing would. There’s also Lenny Rush as UNIT’s latest scientific advisor, talking over from the unexplainedly absent Shirley Bingham. At this rate, the tenure of a UNIT scientific advisor is strting to look a lot like Chief Engineer on the Enterprise-D in season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  

But let’s turn to the real focus of The Legend Of Ruby Sunday, the character…Susan Triad. The so-called Susan twist is nothing of the kind. Russell T Davies really saw a name on the call sheet for wild blue yonder and just went with it didn’t he? It’s not big and it’s not clever and she’s not even good casting for her biggest role as a tech genius. Her fan-baiting anagrammatical surname is something that should be beneath a writer of Davies’ calibre but the eventual revelation of its true portent is the dumbest fanfiction level writing the series has ever offered us. Not Susan, not an anagram of TARDIS but actually Sue Tech – Sutekh. It’s flat out embarrassing, especially as it’s played as deadly serious as it is. It’s as flat-out bad writing as introducing yet another character called “H-name Arbinger”. There’s just nothing clever about it at all and it makes every other character present look stupid, not deceived.
When the episode does tear itself away from the Sue-pidity (see, I can do it too, Russell) and focus on Ruby’s parentage, The Legend Of Ruby Sunday gains a little traction, even some menace and suspense, as clearly the intention is to save that revelation for the following episode,  so it’s a shame that the episode can’t keep its focus where the meat of the story is as it has an obligation to deliver on, and it’s bringing back Sutekh, last seen in Pyramids Of Mars. Perhaps it’s the callbacks aplenty that inspire Murray Gold to deliver his most retro soundtrack of the new era so far, with the score almost recreating the return of The Master from season three’s Utopia. The other area where the episode succeeds despite its general unevenness is in its occasional zongers. Susan Twist’s B-52s-accompanied entrance mimics Teresa May’s cringe-inducing Dancing Queen era and there’s another throwaway gag at the UK Prime Minister’s expense when discussions turn to UNIT security clearance. At the time this episode was written, the Prime Minister in question was probably Boris Johnson, but the brilliance of the gag is that whether it’s aimed at him, his immediate successor or the current (at time of writing) holder of the office, you still nod wryly in agreement at the dig. The other throwaway gem is the reference to tech entrepreneurs being aliens utilising their technology. Who was RTD skewering, do you think? Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk? My money’s on Zuckerberg – he seems like an alien technologist whereas Musk is just a gigantic manbaby asshole.

Perhaps by next week, The Legend Of Ruby Sunday will feel more cohesive and less chaotic as threads and plotlines resolve and retrospectively make more sense. At the very least, Empire Of Death needs to explain how Sutekh survived the events of Pyramids Of Mars and became a supreme deity, because when he first appeared he wasn’t a god, he was an Osiran, a god-like alien race who, while very long lived, weren’t immortal. It also needs to explain what the point of Susan Twist popping up throughout history was – especially when she appeared in epsodes that looked more fun and interesting than some of the ones we actually got to see (the Twists-not-seen also deepens the nagging sense the season is too damn short). Was it part of Sutekh’s plot? And if so, why?

But finally, maybe most importantly, it needs to explain why the one who has hidden in the howling void, who has hidden within the Tempest, who has braved the storm and the darkness and the pain and whispered to the vessel, all this time whispered and delighted and seduced and the vessel did obey, for none should be more mighty and none should be more wise than the king himself and the Lord of Time was blind and vain and knew nothing, who is the loss, who is the never, who is the night, who is terror, who is, apparently, the God of all Gods, mother and father and other of them all, above The Trickster, Maestro, The Mara (deep cut klaxon) and even The Toymaker, is such a basic, petty bitch that he felt the need to dick around with fucking anagrams instead of just revealing himself and laying waste to the world? Enquiring minds want to know.

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