Warning: I'm so excited so I'm just babbling word that comes from my heart!

SUTEKH LIVES!!!

FFS that was AMAZING! I'm shaking! I was seeing all this theories about him but WOAW! CANNOT BELIVE IT!

Well, first thing first, the episode by itselft is so good, I love UNIT being brought back with such glorious shape, Kate is badass (and is finally having good episodes!), Mel! Oh I love you and I didn't even catch with series 24 yet. Rose is back and is great to see her around. Hearing and Seeing Susan being mentioned and being a plot point is such a win, wishing for Carole to return during this era.

OH THE DOCTOR! Ncuti is fenomenal, he's The Doctor and next week I'm 1000% sure as sugar he'll deliver a powerful finale for us!

AND GOSH! S TRIAD, i was hoping it would be something entirely new, for sure some callbacks, but the way they fooled us in the end AH! (Well, some people were quite sure it was HIM, but well)

ANYWAY! CANNOT WAIT FOR NEXT WEEK!

After first watching this episode when it came out, I made a bunch of notes and said I'd write a final review after the second part, instead of letting my initial trepidation drag down my opinion. Once Empire of Death came out, I just... didn't. My opinion of Legend was dragged down even more by the letdown of the final episode. Now, after a rewatch, I feel it's finally time to write this review.

Starting with: why'd it take so long for them to think of going to UNIT with this, with how friendly the Doctor seems to be with them now? Arriving at UNIT drives us right into the action, and I personally find it a bit of a jarring start to the episode.

On top of that, I don't like this new UNIT. Rose is 15 years old, she should not be working, let alone for a military organization. I can't believe Kate would hire her. I can't believe Donna would let her. It's made all the worse by the fact she doesn't actually have a reason to be there; she spends the entire episode standing around, being part of the background and being told she's pretty. If she was at least vital to the episode I might have been able to ignore it, but as is it's a terrible choice.

Then there's Moris, a 13 year old (though the actor looks even younger to me), yet another child who should definitely not be exposed to this. I don't care how intelligent he is, he should not be at work, let alone somewhere that could get him killed. UNIT is going through scientific advisors faster than the Doctor goes through faces. It doesn't help that Moris also uses a mobility aid (though why a segway is beyond me) with weapons in it.

Speaking of characters that have no reason to be in this episode: Carla. She, like Rose, follows Ruby around for a bit, makes a few comments, and has absolutely no impact on the plot of the story whatsoever. It didn't escape my notice that they're both Black women.

Okay, enough about characters, what about the story? Well...I didn't like it. It would have benefited greatly from picking just one mystery to focus on, rather than trying to tackle both Ruby's mother and Susan Triad at the same time. It jumped between both so it didn't really feel like we were getting anywhere. The two parts feel completely detached from one another.

This isn't to say there's nothing to enjoy about this episode. I do think the Time Window is an interesting idea (though the effects are pretty obviously green-screened - one of the unfortunate side effects of how high quality video is nowadays), and the atmosphere in that scene is good, even if the crying was definitely getting on my nerves at that point.

I also enjoyed the quiet moment in the beginning with Kate and the Doctor reminiscing about the Brigadier. I liked everyone being like "Duh" about the anagram (though in retrospect it feels a little mean-spirited, especially with the anagram twist. Sorry, I just can't seem to be fully positive about this episode). I like the design of Sutekh and his harbingers.

Unfortunately, I don't like Sutekh. I didn't care for him in Pyramids of Mars, and I downright hate him in this. I thought Empire of Death might do something interesting and make bringing back this old villain worthwhile, but it didn't. There is absolutely no reason for the god of death to be Sutekh (and don't even get me started on the other members of this pantheon). It seems to have worked well for first-time viewers, who weren't familiar with the character, but it's just not in keeping with his original depiction. I saw some people predict his return, but it's one of the names that always get thrown around, along with the Rani, the Master, River Song, and plenty of others.

The ending dragged on too long for what tension it had. We weren't given the opportunity to guess Harriet was a harbinger on our own (I initially thought I missed them saying her last name over the excitement of going "Like Harriet Jones???", but no, they just didn't say it), and the Doctor getting that despite never hearing of the harbinger from The Devil's Chord was a bit of a miss. I liked Harriet crying as she was possessed, and some of the lines she said were pretty cool, but man does it drag.

All in all, no matter how much I try, I just have too many issues with this episode to properly enjoy it.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“THE LEGEND OF RUBY SUNDAY: A GOD RETURNS WHEN MYSTERY MEETS MYTHOLOGY”

Serving as the first half of the Doctor Who 2024 season finale, The Legend of Ruby Sunday juggles character introspection, long-running mysteries, and a growing sense of dread as it edges us closer to the grand return of a very familiar god of death. It’s a moody, suspenseful episode that explores identity on multiple levels—both for Ruby and the Doctor—while dropping some of the biggest bombshells of the season.

A SPIN-OFF WAITING TO HAPPEN

Opening with a dazzling new heroic TARDIS materialisation—zipping stylishly into the UNIT control room—the episode wastes no time establishing its ensemble. Kate Stewart is back, joined by Mel Bush and Donna’s daughter Rose (though the latter is sadly underused and completely vanishes by the next episode). We're also introduced to a new cast of UNIT faces, including Ibrahim, the ever-competent Harriet, and most notably, child genius Morris Gibbons. The ethics of UNIT hiring children aside, Lennie Rush is fantastic in the role and radiates charisma. Honestly, the UNIT scenes feel like a backdoor pilot for a spin-off—and that’s not a complaint.

TWO MYSTERIES, ONE DESTINY

The plot builds two major arcs in parallel: the ongoing mystery of Ruby’s origin and the strange ubiquity of Susan Twist, now revealed as Susan Triad, head of S Triad Technologies (an “anagram” of TARDIS… sort of). There’s some cheeky misdirection hinting that Triad might be the Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan—a suggestion that lands uneasily. As a long-time fan, I’d love to see Susan return (ideally played by Carole Ann Ford), but this approach feels a bit too playful for such a momentous comeback.

Still, the dual threads of Ruby and Susan are well-balanced. Ruby’s search for her birth mother dominates the quieter, more emotional half of the episode, while the mystery surrounding Triad slowly transforms into something far more sinister.

A FAITHFUL FRIEND, A FALLEN AGENT

Harriet is an instantly likeable new UNIT recruit, which makes her betrayal sting even more. Her transformation into Harriet Arbinger, a harbinger of Sutekh, is chilling if a little underdeveloped. She doesn’t get quite enough screen time to flesh out her arc, but she still makes for a compelling villain’s proxy, especially when paired with the unnerving presence of Susan Twist.

THE FLOOD RISES AGAIN

The return of Mrs Flood deepens the intrigue, as she continues to behave increasingly bizarrely. Her watchful guardianship over Cherrie masks something darker—she clearly knows more than she’s letting on, and her true identity is becoming one of the show’s most tantalising questions. Meanwhile, Ruby’s mum Carla is supportive but sadly sidelined for most of the action, acting mostly as a passive observer.

THE DOCTOR, QUIETLY BURNING

Ncuti Gatwa continues to impress, this time leaning into a more subdued and reflective portrayal. His Doctor still commands the room, but there’s a softness here, a quiet sorrow—especially in his scene with Kate as they reflect on Susan, the granddaughter the Doctor left behind and never returned to. These are the kinds of intimate moments that give this era emotional depth.

SEEING THROUGH THE TIME WINDOW

The Time Window sequence is a visual and conceptual highlight. The sleek hologram tech looks fantastic, and the whole idea—re-examining the night Ruby was left on the church steps—is both fascinating and haunting. It also cleverly ties into the Tales of the TARDIS spin-off and the existence of the Remembered TARDIS. As the characters pore over the past, slowly realising something isn’t quite right, the tension begins to mount.

Millie Gibson excels as Ruby, showing maturity and quiet heartbreak when the Time Window fails to reveal her mother's identity. Bonnie Langford is equally strong as Mel, offering support and urging the Doctor to keep pushing forward.

SUTEKH RETURNS—AND THE TARDIS TREMBLES

Then comes the twist: the eerie black cloud that’s been lurking on the TARDIS begins to seep into reality, leaving dustified corpses in its wake. The moment when the TARDIS groans unnaturally inside UNIT HQ is deeply unsettling. And just when you think it can’t get creepier, we hear the unmistakable voice of Gabriel Woolf—the legendary tones of Sutekh, finally returning after nearly 50 years.

The final 15 minutes are breathless, with harbingers like Harriet and Susan delivering ominous warnings, and the Sutekh reveal hitting like a hammer. Sure, the “Susan Triad Technologies = Sutekh” anagram is a bit naff (it’s not really an anagram), but the sense of cosmic horror it conjures is undeniable. The slow realisation that the TARDIS has been carrying a god of death around all this time is properly terrifying—and a perfect setup for the finale.

📝VERDICT: 7/10

The Legend of Ruby Sunday is a moody, slow-burn penultimate episode that mixes character drama with eerie foreshadowing and mythic dread. While a few characters are underused (Rose, Carla), and the Susan misdirects are a little heavy-handed, the episode still lands with style and suspense. Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson shine, Gabriel Woolf's return is spine-tingling, and the cliffhanger brings Sutekh roaring back into Doctor Who legend. The path to the Empire of Death has never looked more thrilling.

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

This isn't terrible.  It is unfortunately dampened by the fact that The Legend of Ruby Sunday largely sets up content that becomes supremely disappointed thanks to the outright awful pay-off in the following episode Empire of Death.

And that's a bit of a shame because the pay-off here is pretty cool and a lot of fun.  Sutekh's big return here is well done, even if the Susan fake-out was a bit cheesy.  The way UNIT (I like the UNIT characters here by the way) is able to go back to the day Ruby was abandoned as a baby and they still can't figure out who her mother is was really well done, extra creepy, and an excellent way to ratchet up the tension for the big reveal.  And Mel is back yet again!  She's a lot of fun here and I still was happy to see her even after she has returned a few times for the show now.

All of this is great and it really paints a picture of how empty it all fundamentally is just one episode later.  The mystery of Ruby's mom is actually enticing in The Legend of Ruby Sunday only for it to now feel kind of hollow knowing what's going to happen with it.  Endings matter, and they can affect the larger story quite a bit.  This episode has no real satisfying ending because of that - it ends on a cliffhanger here and Empire of Death is one of the worst series finales in all of Doctor Who.  It kind of sucks, even if I had fun with this episode in isolation of everything else, and I can't help but admire some of the acting and energy of the cast.