Oh, no.

After the excellent first part, The Legend of Ruby Sunday, this was extremely disappointing. Firstly, I feel that if the whole universe was going to be wiped out, this should have been the cliffhanger. Not only did having this in the opening of the second half mean that there was no real impact (seeing the extent of it, it was obviously going to be reversed, so having it as the cliffhanger would add a 'how is the Doctor going to resolve this?' pull to watch part 2), but it would actually provide new viewers, or more casual fans, with context as to who Sutekh is. I was enticed by Sutekh, being a massive Doctor Who fan. I saw many fans who haven't seen Classic Who, which, may I remind you is the majority of the fan base, react confused because... Who? What? Even casual fans (who are, in my experience, more likely to also be Classic fans), were confused, because not everyone remembers every villain from every story. Especially if they've seen them once or twice.

Secondly, the episode feels like a first draft. Sutekh's been there all the time, creating Susan Twists? Oh, please, this didn't work with Clara, and it's not going to start now. Not to mention, there was a glaringly obvious point at which Sutekh could get attached to the TARDIS - At the edge of the universe when Fourteen sprinkled the salt. Rubies birth mum was pointing at a sign? The sign wasn't there. Nor was the post. And finally, why the heck does the god of death need to know who a woman is? Russell, do another draft, please.

I can't understand the perspective of someone who was adopted or fostered, but it felt kinda strange having Ruby, who, whilst finding knowing who her mum was important, had previously been shown to consider Carla her 'real' mum (see the end of Space Babies), suddenly seem to consider her birth mum her real mum. Also, why is a teenage mum in the early 2000s wearing a medieval cloak? I know RTD said that it's because it brings mystery or something to that effect, but mysteries need to be satisfyingly resolved, even if they are bait-and-switches, on rewatch you should be able to go 'Oh, I see where that was going now!'

Something else that kinda rubbed me up the wrong way was the line about the Osirans culturally appropriating Egyptian culture. There's no denying that the creation of the Osirans was... Not great, given that it falls into the trope of white westerners going 'Oh, these foreign gods are really aliens', but we already know that they weren't basing their culture on Egypt, Egyptians worshipped them as gods. That ship has sailed, and Russell, you didn't need to choose to bring them back, if you felt that strongly about it. It worked with the Toymaker because the character plays games, playing around as negative aspects drawn from humanity, like racism, makes sense. It didn't work here.

Unfortunately, I'm kind of expecting that sort of thing throughout RTD2. This is the third time this has happened, actually, what with RTD stating that he doesn't think Davros should be shown post-accident any more, to the great annoyance of a lot of disabled people, myself included. What's the next villain going to be? Weng-Chiang, but the Doctor shakes his head and says, 'That's racist'? You want to fight racism in Doctor Who? How about you diversify the writer's room?

There were some good bits. Mel on the Vespa, the memory TARDIS... I would say the continued set up for a mystery in the next series with Mrs Flood, but Russell has since said that she just does that, and it won't be answered, so that's just a waste of time. Her scenes are only minutes at most, but that time could be spent on fleshing out the important characters. Compare the characterisation and development between this and Eccleston's series. We don't know these characters half as much as we did Rose, Jackie, and Mickey. And 13/2 is less than 9.

Very disappointing.