The following contains spoilers for \u201cThe Legend of Ruby Sunday.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In an episode full of misdirection, the biggest one has to be its title, given we\u2019ve learned very little about what Ruby Sunday\u2019s legend actually is. Instead, the first part of the series\u2019 two part finale is essentially an hour to build a sense of dread that spills over in its final moments. I could cheat and say \u201cThe Legend of Ruby Sunday\u201d is just \u201c<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the first half of the 2006 season\u2019s finale \u2014 with a bigger budget. Except the big bad that reveals itself at the end is a villain from a far deeper cut than the usual corners of Doctor Who\u2019s<\/em> history.<\/p>\n The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT HQ to ask about the mysterious woman \u2014 Susan Twist \u2014 following them around the universe. UNIT, meanwhile, has been monitoring someone named Susan Triad, a British tech billionaire who will announce her gift to humanity later that day. Even the goofballs at UNIT work out that S.TRIAD is an anagram of TARDIS and the Doctor thinks Triad, or the mysterious woman more generally, could be his granddaughter.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s also the matter of Ruby\u2019s parentage to uncover, giving the Doctor a reason not to just confront Triad. The Doctor, Ruby and a UNIT soldier enter the time window \u2014 a low-grade holodeck \u2014 to try and see who left Ruby on the steps of the church. But the history\u2019s a bit wonky, and Ruby\u2019s faceless mother \u2014 unlike what we saw in \u201cThe Church on Ruby Road\u201d \u2014 turns and ominously points toward the TARDIS. Not long after, the TARDIS is engulfed in a black cloud of swirling evil that nobody\u2019s sure what to do about.<\/p>\n The Doctor then meets Triad just before she gets on stage, prompting her to remember all of her other selves. Whenever Triad dreams, she\u2019s somehow aware of those myriad alternate selves. And while she takes to the stage, the Doctor asks the team at UNIT HQ to scan the TARDIS. It is similarly engulfed in an invisible cloud of malevolent stuff that\u2019s threatening everyone in the area.<\/p>\n [ASIDE: This is the <\/em><\/a>. And this is the second time that they\u2019ve totally misunderstood how to stage one that looks even remotely evocative of what they\u2019re parodying. I know the conventions of the tech keynote have mutated since the Steve Jobs era, but they\u2019re not even trying.]<\/p>\n A UNIT staffer, Harriet Arbinger (Wait\u2026 <\/a>) starts muttering about a dark prophecy while Triad goes off script. The Doctor, standing close by, watches as she turns into a skeleton monster while the TARDIS is menaced by a giant animal head surrounded by Egyptian iconography. Turns out Susan isn\u2019t the Doctor\u2019s granddaughter, or even a key component of the story, but an innocent. An innocent who has been co-opted by Sutekh, an all-powerful Egyptian God we first saw in 1975\u2019s \u201c<\/a>\u201d Cue the credits.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a slender synopsis, mostly because these scenes are played slowly as the tension ratchets up. \u201cThe Legend of Ruby Sunday\u201d takes its time, letting the screw turn gently until you\u2019re almost happy when the big reveal happens. It\u2019s a gripping ride on a first watch, although I imagine it\u2019ll not have too much value when you go back to it a third or fourth time. But, then again, that\u2019s often been an issue with episodes penned by Russell T. Davies. It\u2019s also a good way to juice bookings for next week\u2019s finale <\/a>.<\/p>\n Was it easy to guess that we\u2019d be getting Sutekh back after his one outing in \u201cPyramids of Mars?\u201d The rumor mill certainly pulled in that direction over the last month or so, and it\u2019s not as if we didn\u2019t get a clue or two along the way. Longtime Davies fans will recall that Vince watches the part one cliffhanger at the end of the first episode of Queer as Folk<\/em>. And we\u2019ve already had a whole scene from \u201cPyramids of Mars\u201d lifted \u2014 the jump into a ruined future \u2014 in \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Chord.\u201d<\/p>\n If you are unfamiliar, \u201cPyramids of Mars\u201d is a classic, and another blockbuster from the pen of the series\u2019 best 20th century writer, Robert Holmes. At the time, Holmes was the series\u2019 script editor and had commissioned a story from writer Lewis Griefer. But Griefer\u2019s material was so poor that Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe decided a replacement was needed. So Holmes was tasked with writing a whole new episode in a tiny amount of time. The finished episode was credited to pseudonym Stephen Harris, but it\u2019s all Holmes under the hood. Sadly, because of various rules around writing credits, \u201cThe Legend of Ruby Sunday\u201d end credits actually give credit to Lewis Griefer as Sutekh\u2019s creator and omit Holmes, which feels pretty rough.<\/p>\n But that one minor injustice aside, let\u2019s bring on the finale.<\/p>\n Susan Twist Corner<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, looks as if we have our answer that Susan Twist was something of a misdirect.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Gabriel Woolf, who voiced Sutekh in 1975, is back to give voice to him now.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n When Mrs. Flood was left to look after Cherry, she was clearly aware of Sutekh\u2019s return and seemed delighted by it. But she didn\u2019t appear to be a harbinger, so it\u2019s likely she\u2019s representing another, different malevolent character from the series’ past.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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