Season One (Series 14); Episode Seven - “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” by Russell T. Davies

Well, Russell stepped up his game out of nowhere. This far into the series, I was convinced 73 Yards would be a one off in terms of RTD flexing his writing muscles properly but I am so very glad I was proved immensely wrong. The Legend of Ruby Sunday doesn't seem to be the instant hit I thought it would be online but personally I thought it was a magnificent finale brought down by the recurring trappings of the season but elevated to glorious heights by a masterclass in building tension and an all time great twist.

The Doctor’s back on Earth. A face has been following him throughout the vortex, the same woman, in different times and places and bodies. He’s traced it back to the company S. Triad Technologies and a snowy night in 2004, but a great evil is waiting for him. One that has been waiting a very long time.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

So let’s get the elephant in the room out the way: Sutekh is back! Unfortunately, my involvement in Doctor Who fandom has meant that every single twist in this episode was spoiled for me before it even aired but that final ten minutes is still the best ten minutes in this season so far. Some people might think that replacing the very streamlined Sutekh design with a big CG dog was a massive misstep but personally, I think the CGI is impressive enough and the design scary enough for me to really not care. This whole episode feels like a slowly building pressure, every scene feels like it's introducing a new thing that could explode, helped along by another glorious score from Murray Gold. The Doctor’s really shining here, he’s still not written as alien as I’d like him to be but his general delight at the primitive time travel technology and his genuine affection for Ruby is just delightful. As I hinted at before with the Sutekh effect, this episode is just beautiful. You can tell a pretty substantial amount of the budget went into this episode in particular and it really shows, the whole time window set and the particle effects on the Sutekh cloud is gorgeous to look at and makes the whole episode a treat to the eyes.

However, I don’t have as much to say on this episode as others as it is really the first part to a bigger story. A very large junk of it is set in one location and a lot of the time it can feel drawn out, its scale lands a little short of how big it could’ve been, with only UNIT tower really mattering as a set. UNIT itself is actually pretty dire this time around; I miss the days of old where UNIT was a genuine military outfit with realistic but likeable characters inhabiting its walls and not zany concepts RTD came up with like the wunderkind of the segway. UNIT feels more capable here than ever before and I still can’t take them seriously. Plus, why do they have so many children working there? And why does Ruby so quickly become best friends with Rose after a minute of knowing her? Quickly, I’ll note that a lot of people are unhappy with the retcon of Sutekh now being part of this Pantheon of Gods rather than the Osirian seen in the 70s but frankly, I don’t really care. The change isn’t that big, Sutekh was already a god-like figure before, some of the words in his description just got swapped around and I find the concept of this race of superbeings residing beyond space just really damn cool as an idea, although I think I might be alone on that opinion. Honestly, my biggest problem with the reveal is why would Sutekh hide his name in the Susan Triad Technologies? What is it with world ending deities and the like creating scavenger hunts for the Doctor to find?

The Legend of Ruby Sunday is very much the first part to a bigger story, but I think it’s as brilliant a setup as you can get. Fun, scary, high-octane and fascinating, those final ten minutes alone should sell you on this episode; it’s not exactly the Yana reveal but in terms of wordplay based twists, it’s a contender in my eyes. Anyway, see you all next week in the cinema.

9/10

Pros:

+ Tense as all hell throughout, builds gradually but masterfully

+ The Sutekh reveal is by far the best scene in this season and should go down as an all time great moment

+ Utterly beautiful effects throughout, both practical and visual

+ The Doctor’s genuinely quite fun here and the best execution of him so far that doesn’t stray from his main persona

+ Love the detail that the CCTV camera that caught Ruby’s mother was 66 metres away (or 73 yards).

Cons:

- Very much setup, held back by its status as a first part

- UNIT feels too cartoonish for a clandestine military branch

- Paced weirdly, spends far too long on things that don’t need that long spent on them and zips over the characters