#Mrs Flood is Beep the Meep

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Other Whovians: Mrs Flood wearing that white fur coat in Empire of Death means she's the White Guardian

Me, a Who-totellectual: Mrs Flood wearing that white fur coat is actually a hint of THIS

C O N S I D E R

[lorstone]

DOCTOR WHO SPOILER!!!!!

……………………………………………………………..

Let me get this straight: Sutekh is supposed to be The Meep’s boss?! 🤣 🙈

[starleska]

right everyone, place your bets...

[volcanicflowers]

sorry to be like "it's jan grinky from the eighth doctor adventures!!!" but i literally get more convinced that mrs flood is iris wildthyme with every passing episode. i wouldn't even say i'm particularly an iris wildthyme fan, i've only listened to a few of her audios, but it's so iris wildthyme to me. who is especially silly and whimsical? iris wildthyme. who is a fourth wall breaker? iris wildthyme. who has mysterious origins that fit with the "beyond the universe" thing going on? iris wildthyme. who is a funny old woman? iris wildthyme. listen. listen. we already had beep the meep, anything can happen. what if i also think iris left ruby at the church.

[the-patrex]

ok so far the questions we got for the next season(s) are:

-Who is the woman that left Ruby at the Chruch

-Who is Mrs. Flood

-Who took Tooth!Master

-Who is the One who Waits

-Who is Beep the Meep's boss

Am I missing something?

[being-of-rain]

In the days before The Legend of Ruby Sunday, I thought to myself 'RTD did a lot of big bombastic series finales in his day, and always with Classic Who villains. But that was fifteen years ago. Maybe he's mellowed.' Dear readers, he had not.

Here's my thoughts on the episode! But fair warning, they're mostly that it was just okay. I mean it was fine. It was a fun, mindless bit of build-up and spectacle. Of course it was very much a Part One, so a lot of my thoughts are just 'I wonder where this will go next episode.'

Firstly, I don't think I'm a massive fan of RTD's method of story arcs, which is to sprinkle references to something throughout a season that'll be part of the final story without much elaboration. It feels less like a story, and more like a drawn-out teaser for the finale. And continuing a trend that started in RTD's last full season that I'm not crazy about, there was so many arcs and plot hooks too. Before the episode my brother and I listed as many we could think of, and it actually addressed almost all of them, plus one or two we forgot about or thought wouldn't come back. It started to feel like the characters were ticking off a shopping list of questions. And I know that these things basically just exist for fans to speculate about. And I can't pretend I didn't have fun joking and memeing about all the arc elements with other fans. But as someone who both isn't really that interested in genuinely theorising about how a series is going to end (odd for a Dr Who fan, I know) and who really likes story/character arcs that develop over time, I guess I'm just not the target audience. This season the arcs have pricked my curiosity, but not much more than that - except make me wish they did more with the supernatural elements than a few badly-conceived gods and the cool fairy circle episode.

Anyway, Sutekh! In the last few years the TV show has done the Morbius Doctors, Beep the Meep, the Toymaker, the Shalka Doctor... I really shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore, but I still sit in bemused shock when a finale revolves around Susan and Sutekh. And that is pretty fun. We had basically nothing of Sutekh this episode, so I'm very interested what the next episode will do with him.

I'm especially curious how much it'll dip into the Egyptian mythology aspect. Because on one hand, Pyramids of Mars is sorta built on the problematic and awkward trope that aliens at least inspired Egyptian culture. On the other hand, I think the Egypt link & aesthetic is a big part of Sutekh's identity as a villain/monster. I remember being bored when Big Finish tried to divorce him from it in their latest audio with him (but tbh I trust RTD to at least do a more entertaining story than that, even if he's boiling Sutekh down into simply a God of Death). Similarly, I think a really big part of why Sutekh made a big impact on the original Dr Who fandom is how he was a genuine overwhelming threat to the Doctor, something that probably won't be as big of a shock today. But the final part of Sutekh's identity is Gabriel Woolf, and he's absolutely as entertaining as ever.

As for Susan, after all that drama it'd almost be stranger if she didn't appear in some form in the finale. I'm wondering if Mrs Flood is Susan, something that's really weird to say seriously after thinking people were wrong about her being an important character for 6 months. At the very least I really hope they give Carole Ann Ford some kind of cameo, because it'd be such a missed opportunity if the very first companion actress was still alive and they didn't do anything with her.

What else? Mel continues to be lovely, and I continue to wonder if there's any reason it was her in particular who was brought back or if it was just to have a classic Who companion hanging around. Rose continues to be precious, and her instant bonding with Ruby is just adorable. I missed Ruth Madeley's Shirley, I assume it was filming conflicts that led to her being replaced by a preteen? When Harriet was introduced I distinctly remember thinking 'oh she's cute, I hope she sticks around.' And the Vlinx continues to have 1-2 lines and no explanation.

The VHS-powered time window was an extremely cool concept, but I feel like it didn't look as good and distinct as it could have. I'm not totally certain what I'd have done different but I still felt underwhelmed. And I'll say something I've said a lot, but I wish there was at least some vague rules to things like the time window. I don't care about scientific accuracy or real life logic, only narrative logic; if anything can happen with only a bit of poetry to justify it, the stakes and losses and victories aren't nearly as satisfying.

And this might make me sound like someone who looks for anything to complain about, but I feel there's something off about how UNIT is depicted recently. Like it's being glorified and simplified as 'the good guys' maybe more than it has any time before in the TV show's history. And it feels especially awkward when some of the UNIT characters are armed and armoured soldiers. I'm just very not in the mood to heroise someone who I might see committing war crimes on the news, you know. So I'm not really a fan of this version of UNIT and how it's consuming so many past companions.

Anyway!

Mystery Woman 1 (Susan): Sutekh. Mystery Woman 2 (Mrs Flood): Susan? Mystery Woman 3 (Ruby's mum): At this point I have to assume it's the Rani or Iris Wildthyme or Gillian Who or something.

[silvereyedowl]

Current Hanging Plot Threads

Beep the Meep's boss, who is very interested in two-hearted beings. ("The Star Beast")

Beep threatens to escape from jail. ("The Star Beast")

Mavity. The Doctor really ought to fix that... ("Wild Blue Yonder")

The One Who Waits. ("The Giggle")

Susan Twist's character(s), Mrs. Merridew and the woman requesting "Gaudete". The script for "The Church on Ruby Road" confirms there's at least a connection.

Mrs. Flood. How does she know what a TARDIS is? ("The Church on Ruby Road")

Ruby's parentage, which is a clear major arc right now. ("The Church on Ruby Road")

[diddlydumpodcast]

Custom made Doctor Who figures for Mark's game:

15th Doctor, 2. The Ancient One, 3. Asylum Dalek, 4.Beep the Meep, 5. Bessie, 6. Jackie Tyler, 7. Jimbo the Robot, 8. Marshman, 9. Monk, 10. Mrs Flood, 11. Vervoid, 12. Zoe.

[mageless]

Mrs Flood skinned Beep the Meep

Other Whovians: Mrs Flood wearing that white fur coat in Empire of Death means she's the White Guardian

Me, a Who-totellectual: Mrs Flood wearing that white fur coat is actually a hint of THIS

C O N S I D E R

[asongofmeandstuff]

#Mrs Flood is Beep The Meep

oh i thought you meant she made a coat out of Meep fur haha

Other Whovians: Mrs Flood wearing that white fur coat in Empire of Death means she's the White Guardian

Me, a Who-totellectual: Mrs Flood wearing that white fur coat is actually a hint of THIS

C O N S I D E R