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timeagainreviews · 6 months ago

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Doctor Who isn't Dead Yet

Last month “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” made headlines for having the lowest box office numbers on Memorial Day weekend. This is in spite of also being number one at the box office, just beating out “The Garfield Movie.” The movie was a certified flop, which is a shame because it’s stupendous (seriously, watch it sometime if you haven’t.) I saw it a week after its release and already it had been relegated to the smallest theatre in the complex with only two screenings on a Friday. This small theatre had maybe eight people in attendance. To look at it, you would have to agree with those who say cinema is dying. It’s ironic then that Sutekh’s gift of death is what appears to have breathed a lot of life into my local cinema over the weekend.

To celebrate the Doctor Who season one finale, the BBC opted to show it in theatres across the UK. The screening began at eleven o’clock with “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” and followed into midnight with “Empire of Death.” As we arrived, I saw many happy Whovians in cosplay buzzing with excited energy. The lobby was full of people in Tom Baker scarves and blue TARDIS t-shirts chattering away about their fan theories while they loaded up on snacks. The person dressed like the Fourteenth Doctor sitting in front of me was bouncing in their seat so much that I kept getting glimpses of David Tennant hair in my periphery. Needless to say, people were very excited. I don’t know if it was the fact that it was nearly 1 AM, but I did not see that same energy on the way out. So what happened?

It’s no secret that the overall fan reaction to RTD’s finale episode is one of being very underwhelmed. I even used that exact word to my friends on the way out of the theatre. I chose that word carefully. I didn’t want to imply that I hated it, because I didn’t. But after an entire season of build-up, I expected certain conditions to have been met. I’ve mentioned in the past that one of the benefits of this new midnight release schedule is that I often watch the episodes more than once. I find this helpful because the second viewing always allows me the opportunity to view the story divorced from my own expectations. But I have to ask- were my expectations so unfounded to begin with? Where did they come from if not the show itself?

Recently in an interview, Russell T Davies stated that he has been writing Doctor Who in such a way that it would generate a buzz on the internet. If people were talking about it, then maybe people would start watching it. While I am sure this method can increase engagement, it also has its shortcomings. Trickling information is all well in good, but when is it not enough? There is a point where teasing becomes more tedious than tantalising. Just look at Steven Moffat and Trenzalore- a concept that got so dragged out that by the time we finally got there, it was hard to care. Another downside is that it also raises people’s expectations to such a degree that it can be hard to meet said expectations.

Had this episode been written by Steven Moffat, we wouldn’t have picked up right back where we had left off. We’d have probably begun the episode on Agua Santina with the Doctor receiving the spoon from the kind woman. But this is more of a classic Doctor Who-style episode where the cliffhanger continues along. Last week I had guessed that Sutekh was a sort of trinity of Susan Triad, his jackal aspect, and Ruby Sunday. But as we learn in this story, not only is Ruby not related to Sutekh, but Susan Triad is no more Sutekh than Harriet Argbinger. That is not to say that she is any less dangerous in this moment. She holds out her hand to spread the dust of death which quickly begins to envelop London, then the world, and eventually, the universe, or at least the places where the Doctor has visited.

I rather liked the getaway scene with the Doctor and Mel. It was great to see Mel taking control of the situation. The Doctor almost feels like the companion following her away from danger. Her “Come on, cowboy!” line was so good. Once again, I really like what they’re doing with Mel in this season. The fact that she could have been this person in classic Doctor Who really annoys me that she wasn’t. While I grew to appreciate classic Mel in her own right, I’ll take modern-day UNIT Mel over screaming Mel any day. Bonnie Langford is coming here to Glasgow Film and Comic Con in August and I fully expect her line to be longer than when I saw her in 2015. She has been a highlight of this season and I fully did not expect to love her return as much as I have.

As the dust spreads through London, UNIT is still reacting to the presence of Sutekh wrapped around the TARDIS. Last week my friend said to me about Morris’ segway “How much do you want to bet that thing shoots lasers?” And sure enough, it shoots something. The UNIT team unload holy hell on Sutekh and Harriet, but nothing lands. Before getting in a little reference to her father, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and her team are reduced to dust. Even the Vlinx’s head pops off, so not even robots are safe. Once again, the RTD2 era has borrowed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As Sutekh’s dust of death spread across the globe causing people to disintegrate, I leaned over to my wife and said “Mister Stark, I don’t feel so good,” in reference to the Thanos snap. Whatever. Marvel doesn’t own disintegration.

We see Mrs Flood and Cherry get swept up in the dust. Before she dies, Mrs Flood delivers some cryptic words that lead me to think she’s more than just a Time Lord but something far more powerful. However, she’s not so powerful as to avoid Sutekh’s gift. It’s hard to say just what is happening there, so I am not even going to attempt it. The Doctor and Mel find their way through the dust back to UNIT HQ where Ruby is still standing in the time window. Last week I mentioned that the memory of a TARDIS could become the Memory TARDIS from “Tales of the TARDIS,” and boy was I right. I love being right, especially after being wrong all season. I still want someone to be the Rani. At this point, they’re just messing with me.

Before we move along, I do want to call out an aspect of the dust scene that bothers me, and that’s Carla. Last week we saw Ruby tell Carla that she needed to either help or get out of the way. Historically, this would be where someone like Jackie Tyler would find some way to be helpful. I half expected a moment where it feels like all is lost until Carla comes out of nowhere like Ric Flair with a steel chair, saving our heroes from certain doom. It could have even been a self-sacrifice moment where she is still turned to dust. It would have been tragic and fuelled the Doctor and Ruby’s resolve. Instead, we see her in a cab on her way home after having witnessed her daughter's memories invoke the devil. What was even the point of her saying “Well, if your mother's part of it then, Ruby, you can tell her your mother is too,” if they do nothing with it? It felt so out of character for her to up and leave Ruby behind like that, and I feel like that lies solely at Davies’ feet.

It’s funny to me that in the lead-up to “Empire of Death,” people were saying “I hope they explain how Sutekh escaped the time vortex.” Mostly because it hardly matters, but also because they rarely explain how the Master or Davros escape death time and time again. Why is Sutekh any different? What is funny is that Sutekh escapes dying of old age in the time vortex by hitching a ride through the time vortex for thousands of years. Instead of dying, this just makes him stronger. He goes from an Osiran to a full-blown Titan. Sutekh reveals to the Doctor that Susan Triad was an aspect of the Doctor’s granddaughter who he had learned about while integrating himself with the TARDIS. He peppers these aspects of Susan throughout the universe wherever the Doctor lands. However, other than sharing a name, I don’t understand what Susan Triad has to do with Susan Foreman. They’re both brilliant and kind, but is this implying that Susan Triad is what the Doctor’s granddaughter might regenerate into? It’s a bit confusing.

After using Ruby’s memory to fully materialise the Memory TARDIS, the Doctor and his two companions escape Sutekh’s grasp, but even the Doctor senses that maybe Sutekh is keeping them alive. The visual of Sutekh sitting atop the TARDIS in his silent empire of death is an arresting one. I appreciated the sound design allowing the audience to really feel that silence. No music. No people. Nothing. Though on a scientific level, it does strike me as a bit odd that the entire universe is now dead. The Doctor may have had thousands of adventures across time and space, but I have to imagine there are countless planets out there which remained untouched by Sutekh’s dust. But I’m willing to suspend disbelief in this instance.

After tying the Memory TARDIS together with intelligent rope, the Doctor, Ruby, and Mel, drift aimlessly in the Memory TARDIS. It’s uncertain how long they travel this way, but they manage to fit a costume change for the Doctor and an entire episode of “Tales of the TARDIS,” in there. Carrying a television screen still linked with the time window, we learn that the time window is still obeying Ruby’s commands as it had last week. Originally I had suspected this was because she was some sort of aspect of Sutekh, but as we have now learned, it’s simply Sutekh aiding Ruby’s search for her mother. After using the screen to explain to Ruby who and what Sutekh is, the screen also begins to show the Doctor and Ruby a way forward in the form of Roger ap Gwilliam. Meanwhile, Mel is being tracked by Sutekh through the dead cells in her body.

The scene on Agua Santina with the Doctor and the Kind Woman played by Sian Clifford was one of the strongest moments in the episode for me. We had watched the death wave spread across the earth, but this was a way to see how it affected people on an individual basis. Because the death wave happened at multiple points in time, we were able to see how it manifests from multiple angles. Having established the analogous relationship between time and memory, we can see how memory may begin to fade before life. People may still exist, but they won’t remember the name of their birth city because the person who would have named it died before they were able. But even more chilling is how the death wave doesn’t just travel up through bloodlines, but backwards as well. There’s an undeniable cruelty to making a woman have to experience losing her child before experiencing the same fate. It’s evil for evil’s sake and proof that Sutekh isn’t just an arbiter of death, but a demon as well.

The Kind Woman gifts the Doctor a spoon which he promises her he will use to save the universe. Fans of the Twelfth Doctor will have gotten excited by this promise as we’ve seen what the Doctor can do with a spoon. Instead, the Doctor uses it for metal, and possibly not even for metal, but for the memories within the metal. I found this all very weird as they literally showed Mel holding the Thirteenth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver which is not only made of metal, but several spoons. Was there really nothing on the Memory TARDIS with enough memory to jam into that TV screen? It’s a weird series of events punctuated by yet another weird occurrence when the Memory TARDIS gifts the Doctor with a whistle like we’re supposed to know why it’s significant. Nothing in the history of Doctor Who has been controlled by a whistle other than K9. Yet the Doctor puts it around his neck like it makes total sense and isn’t just some non-sequitur moment.

I said last week that I was waiting for “Empire of Death,” before I could fully know how I felt about “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.” Sometimes, a follow-up episode can enrich the experience of a previous story, while other times it can sully it a bit. You can imagine then my surprise when the episode that was sullied wasn’t “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” but rather “73 Yards,” instead. My takeaway from “73 Yards,” was that the Doctor stepped on the fairy ring, releasing Mad Jack and setting the events of the story into motion. Ruby would then use the semper distans woman to scare away Roger ap Gwilliam and then again to save the Doctor. The Doctor doesn’t stand on the fairy circle, and Mad Jack never escapes. So if Roger ap Gwilliam still exists in the future, what was the point of any of of “73 Yards”? This doesn’t feel “wibbly wobbly, timey wimey,” as much as it feels “wibbly wobbly, shitty witty.” It just feels messy.

The Doctor tells Ruby and Mel that in 2046, DNA cataloguing became compulsory to anyone living in the UK. It feels on brand with Roger ap Gwilliam’s xenophobic platform, so no problems there. Meanwhile, Mel is being used like a spy, but the Doctor has been wary of her since she started appearing exhausted on the Memory TARDIS. The Doctor takes a blood sample from Ruby but just as they get a match on the DNA database, Evil Mel takes the wheel and transports them back to UNIT HQ leaving the Memory TARDIS behind. Finally, Sutekh has the information he needs to learn the name of Ruby’s mother. He will now learn how this unknown person has been able to thwart his gift of death and avoid detection.

What happens next is probably the weakest part of the entire episode. The Doctor and Ruby manage to fool Sutekh into thinking they are about to tell him Ruby’s mother’s identity, but it’s only so Ruby can get close enough to slap some intelligent rope around his collar. Why this feels weak to me is that it means somehow the Doctor and Ruby managed to squirrel away intelligent rope before exiting the Memory TARDIS. This means they would have had to do this without Mel noticing. And while I get that it’s intelligent rope, they basically pull it out of their asses because it’s nowhere to be seen. The fact that intelligent rope is a McGuffin that’s a callback to a pair of gloves many of us will have forgotten since the Christmas episode makes this moment all the weaker. The Doctor then uses his whistle in yet another McGuffin moment that allows him to control the TARDIS and shoot Harriet out the door. With the TARDIS finally back in the Doctor’s control, it’s time to take doggo for walkies!

The Doctor drags Sutekh through the Time Vortex bringing death to death, which causes life. Miraculously, if not luckily, people who we had watched die to the dust are now alive again. Colonel Chidozie is back. The Vlinx’s head is reattached somehow. And Cherry whose final memory of Mrs Flood was of her being cryptic and creepy is so happy to be alive again that she’s hugging the creepy old freak regardless. Cool. Not weird at all. Just people acting like real people. I don’t understand Cherry. She thinks the Doctor is trouble, but Mrs Flood is totally normal. What is it with these last two episodes and getting both Carla and Cherry’s characters so wrong? What gives, Russell?

The Doctor then does the right thing and cuts the intelligent rope, causing Sutekh to burn away in the Time Vortex. I guess this time it’s deadly because he’s not integrated with the TARDIS. That’s my best bet. I’m also willing to bet that the reason it snowed around Ruby and played Christmas music in her presence was due to Sutekh’s influence. He wanted to know the answer so badly that the memory manifested around her any time she got close to it. This is just speculation on my behalf, but it makes enough sense.

Speaking of Ruby’s birth mother (and not her real mother as they kept calling her) UNIT is able to find out who Ruby’s mother is, and she’s just some lady. I know some people were mad about this and I guess I can see why. There was so much emphasis on who her mother was that for it to be nobody special must have been a disappointment. Personally, I thought it was the least interesting mystery of the entire season. I get that she wanted to know who her birth mother was, but I was never emotionally invested in the storyline. The only thing that made it sort of interesting was the idea that there was a reason it was a big deal. You can’t feign surprise when audiences expect something to be big when it’s you who told us to feel that way.

What I find strangest about Ruby’s mother is the way she points at the sign that says Ruby Road. First of all, why the hell was she standing like that? As body language goes, she looks less like she’s naming her child, and more like she’s marking the Doctor for death. Furthermore, why is she dressed like she’s about to hitch a ride on Shai-Hulud? But even weirder is how Ruby even ended up with the name Ruby. Ruby says “I always thought I was called Ruby because the social workers chose it or the paramedics or whatever. But, no, it was her.” But literally the only person who would have seen her pointing was the Doctor, and he left immediately after. So it really was the social workers who chose it or the paramedics or whatever. It feels less like she was pointing to name Ruby, and more like she was pointing to get the internet rumour mill buzzing. It worked, but at what cost?

Ruby finally meets her birth mother in a coffee shop. She’s a nice woman named Louise Miller who looks a lot like Lucie Miller, but I’ve learned my lesson this season with getting my hopes up. While Ruby and Louise embrace for the first time, the Doctor looks on remembering the granddaughter he left behind. Divorced from the hype, I’m fine with Ruby’s mum being nobody special. While I wasn’t a huge fan of Rian Johnson’s “The Last Jedi,” one aspect I really enjoyed was that Rey’s parents were just a couple of nobodies. It reinforced the idea that a Jedi can come from anywhere. Ruby doesn’t have to be anyone special for us to care about her. Unfortunately, so much of her story was tied up in this because ultimately, it did hurt her character development. I’d like to think that this is all part of the growing pains in finding a new equilibrium of fan excitement and good storytelling.

The Doctor knows he and Ruby must part ways. She has a whole new chapter of her life to explore and he would only get in the way. I mentioned after “Rogue” that Ruby was reminding the Doctor to embrace his human side, and here it is all over again. She has reminded him of the importance of family. He lets Ruby go because he can see that her need for a place to belong is greater than his need to have a travelling companion. Even if Ruby can’t see it right away, the Doctor is right. Their time together has come to an end. While Ruby has left the TARDIS, you do get the impression that we’ll see her again. There have been rumours that Millie Gibson has filmed some of season two, so don’t be surprised if we do see more of Ruby Sunday.

On a second viewing, I liked this episode a lot more than the first time. Like I said, divorced from my own expectations, I could see the episode for what it is. But the audience’s underwhelmed reaction is partly the fault of Davies’ machinations to get the internet talking about Doctor Who. He spends an entire season talking about the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, but the only time we see Carole Ann Ford is in a flashback of her face with zero dialogue. We’re led to believe Mrs Flood is going to be something, but every time we feel like she is about to reveal some more information, she gives us more of the same tired bullshit she’s been doing since the first time we saw her. It begins to feel like television done in the same model as live service games. Keep subscribing. Stick around for additional content. Things trickle out over a gruelling pace. They gave us answers, but it feels like they could have given us more. Who was the Boss the Meep referred to? Is it the same Boss as the one giving Rogue so much paperwork? Will Susan actually appear at some point? Who is Mrs Flood and why is she always dressing like the Doctor’s companions? Instead, we learned who Ruby’s birth mother was, which, as I said, was the least interesting mystery of them all.

I do hope that these are just Davies and Co. finding their footing. The previous first season with Christopher Eccleston had a lot of experimentation as well. I somewhat wish that they had waited to see fan reactions before filming so much of season two. It might have done them some good to see people’s reactions to some of their big changes. I’m as rainy day a fan as rainy day fans get and even I felt they missed the mark on occasion. I think in trying to court a younger audience they lost a little of the essence of what made the show so appealing in the first place. Good writing and unique situations are the bedrock of Doctor Who. It doesn’t need to be Star Wars or Marvel. The fact that Doctor Who isn’t those things is why I love it so much. I can’t be alone in that.

The Christmas special is next. Followed by season two. After that, who knows? While Doctor Who has been number five in streaming drama, it hasn’t quite done the numbers Disney and Davies were hoping for. The show haemorrhaged viewers during the Chibnall era and even more when culture war pissants cried foul over trans actors and Davros redesigns. But it’s also just a symptom of the times we live in. Television is changing. People prefer short-form videos in portrait mode. The glut of streaming services is pushing away consumers while AI threatens to replace writers and artists alike. I’m reminded of Alan Moore when he said “I believe that our culture is turning to steam.” It’s important now more than ever that we continue consuming art made by real people. Regardless of whether you felt underwhelmed with the finale, keep watching Doctor Who. Show it to your friends. Host watch parties. Go see it when they play it in the theatres. Rewatch it when you’re feeling blue. Keep making fan art. Keep writing fanfic. Keep voicing your reactions, good and bad. Get over petty fandom squabbles. Because there may come a day soon when there is no new Doctor Who to get upset over.

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