Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday review: What legend?

The next comprises spoilers for “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”

In an episode filled with misdirection, the most important one needs to be its name, given we’ve discovered little or no about what Ruby Sunday’s legend in truth is. As an alternative, the primary a part of the collection’ two phase finale is basically an hour to construct a way of dread that spills over in its ultimate moments. I may just cheat and say “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is simply “” — the primary part of the 2006 season’s finale — with a larger price range. Aside from the massive unhealthy that finds itself on the finish is a villain from a a long way deeper minimize than the standard corners of Physician Who’s historical past.

The Physician and Ruby arrive at UNIT HQ to invite concerning the mysterious girl — Susan Twist — following them across the universe. UNIT, in the meantime, has been tracking somebody named Susan Triad, a British tech billionaire who will announce her reward to humanity later that day. Even the goofballs at UNIT figure out that S.TRIAD is an anagram of TARDIS and the Physician thinks Triad, or the mysterious girl extra in most cases, might be his granddaughter.

However there’s additionally the subject of Ruby’s parentage to discover, giving the Physician a explanation why to not simply confront Triad. The Physician, Ruby and a UNIT soldier input the time window — a low-grade holodeck — to take a look at and spot who left Ruby at the steps of the church. However the historical past’s somewhat wonky, and Ruby’s faceless mom — in contrast to what we noticed in “The Church on Ruby Road” — turns and ominously issues towards the TARDIS. Now not lengthy after, the TARDIS is engulfed in a black cloud of swirling evil that no person’s positive what to do about.

The Physician then meets Triad simply prior to she will get on degree, prompting her to bear in mind all of her different selves. Every time Triad desires, she’s someway acutely aware of the ones myriad change selves. And whilst she takes to the degree, the Physician asks the workforce at UNIT HQ to scan the TARDIS. It is in a similar fashion engulfed in an invisible cloud of malevolent stuff that’s threatening everybody within the space.

[ASIDE: This is the . And this is the second time that they’ve totally misunderstood how to stage one that looks even remotely evocative of what they’re parodying. I know the conventions of the tech keynote have mutated since the Steve Jobs era, but they’re not even trying.]

A UNIT staffer, Harriet Arbinger (Wait… ) begins muttering a couple of darkish prophecy whilst Triad is going off script. The Physician, status shut through, watches as she turns right into a skeleton monster whilst the TARDIS is menaced through an enormous animal head surrounded through Egyptian iconography. Seems Susan isn’t the Physician’s granddaughter, or perhaps a key element of the tale, however an blameless. An blameless who has been co-opted through Sutekh, an omnipotent Egyptian God we first noticed in 1975’s “” Cue the credit.

It’s a slim synopsis, most commonly as a result of those scenes are performed slowly as the stress ratchets up. “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” takes its time, letting the screw flip gently till you’re virtually glad when the massive disclose occurs. It’s a gripping experience on a primary watch, even supposing I consider it’ll now not have an excessive amount of worth while you return to it a 3rd or fourth time. However, on the other hand, that’s regularly been a subject with episodes penned through Russell T. Davies. It’s additionally a great way to juice bookings for subsequent week’s finale .

Was once it simple to wager that we’d be getting Sutekh again after his one day trip in “Pyramids of Mars?” The rumor mill indisputably pulled in that path over the past month or so, and it’s now not as though we didn’t get a clue or two alongside the best way. Longtime Davies enthusiasts will recall that Vince watches the phase one cliffhanger on the finish of the primary episode of Queer as Folks. And we’ve already had a complete scene from “Pyramids of Mars” lifted — the soar right into a ruined long term — in “The Devil’s Chord.”

In case you are unfamiliar, “Pyramids of Mars” is a vintage, and every other blockbuster from the pen of the collection’ very best twentieth century creator, Robert Holmes. On the time, Holmes was once the collection’ script editor and had commissioned a tale from creator Lewis Griefer. However Griefer’s subject matter was once so deficient that Holmes and manufacturer Philip Hinchcliffe made up our minds a alternative was once wanted. So Holmes was once tasked with writing a complete new episode in a tiny period of time. The completed episode was once credited to pseudonym Stephen Harris, nevertheless it’s all Holmes underneath the hood. Unfortunately, on account of more than a few regulations round writing credit, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” finish credit in truth give credit score to Lewis Griefer as Sutekh’s author and fail to remember Holmes, which feels lovely tough.

However that one minor injustice apart, let’s convey at the finale.

Susan Twist Nook

• Neatly, looks like we’ve got our resolution that Susan Twist was once one thing of a misdirect.

• Gabriel Woolf, who voiced Sutekh in 1975, is again to present voice to him now.

• When Mrs. Flood was once left to seem after Cherry, she was once obviously acutely aware of Sutekh’s go back and gave the impression thrilled through it. However she didn’t seem to be a harbinger, so it’s most likely she’s representing every other, other malevolent personality from the collection’ previous.