Previously, on Doctor Who: The Doctor and Ruby, seeking answers about mysterious women, encountered Sutekh, the God of Death. Sutekh revealed his manipulation through Susan Twist, setting the stage for universal chaos.
This week: Dust reigns supreme as Sutekh unleashes his plan, and the enigma of Ruby’s birth mother finally unravels. Expect spoilers ahead!
The season finale, “Empire of Death,” for the revived Doctor Who series under RTD2, carried immense weight. It had to resolve season-long mysteries, deliver high stakes, and provide satisfying callbacks, all while sustaining the renewed excitement for the franchise. In an era where viewership metrics are shifting, generating significant buzz has become paramount. Doctor Who fans are known for their love of callbacks and their penchant for predicting twists, especially those echoing Classic Who. “Empire of Death” attempted to capitalize on these elements, but ultimately fell short of expectations. Trying to condense the scale of an Infinity War and Endgame into under an hour inevitably leads to a rushed feeling. Furthermore, when you establish a mystery that instills fear even in gods, the payoff needs to be substantial and impactful.
Doctor Who Empire of Death Sutekh's Plan Unveiled
One of the more grounded aspects of “Empire of Death” was the reveal of Ruby’s mother. Depicting her as an ordinary young woman striving to protect her child from a harmful environment resonated well. This aligns with Russell T. Davies’s (RTD) signature style of finding wonder in the mundane and the Doctor’s consistent affirmation of everyone’s inherent worth. It also plays to RTD’s strength in grounding the Doctor within the companion’s relatable, fully realized life. This reveal felt genuine in its emotional core, yet narratively, it felt somewhat unearned. While Millie Gibson’s performance throughout the season, and particularly in this episode, has been exceptional, making her return welcome, the overarching mystery of Ruby’s mother didn’t quite land effectively as a season-long arc. It’s a sentiment likely shared by viewers who, like the reviewer, might have had different theories in mind.
Sutekh’s grand scheme, however, proved to be a source of greater disappointment. After millennia of silently observing from within the TARDIS, absorbing the Doctor’s secrets, and strategically deploying the Susan Twist avatars as harbingers of death, his ultimate plan felt anticlimactic. Activating these avatars to unleash a death wave that obliterates most of the universe, all before attempting to seize the TARDIS with his Harbinger, felt rushed and somewhat simplistic. The initial death wave effectively wipes out almost everyone, including UNIT – save for a single soldier dispatched to a bunker by the Doctor, highlighting a somewhat arbitrary distinction between main and supporting characters in terms of plot armor.
Ruby, positioned within the Time Window, narrowly avoids the first wave, her intense memories solidifying the memory TARDIS. Sutekh, driven by an insatiable curiosity regarding a secret he cannot grasp, allows them to escape. Intriguingly, Sutekh’s obsession mirrors the audience’s: Ruby’s parentage. This shared fixation possibly explains the TARDIS’s reappearance at Ruby Road in the Time Window in the previous episode. It’s plausible Sutekh and Harriet Arbinger were surreptitiously revisiting the scene, intensifying its “raw and open” nature, potentially explaining the spectral “Carol of the Bells” and the mysterious snowfall. However, the episode offers no clear explanation, leaving these elements open to varied fan theories.
The memory TARDIS itself becomes a vessel of Whovian nostalgia, overflowing with Easter eggs and poignant reminders of the Doctor’s past travels. Fifteen is visibly shaken by the realization that his adventures have inadvertently led to the annihilation of life across the universe, a grim consequence likened to a Time Lord’s sneeze spreading deadly dust. This universe-ending event certainly puts a damper on any future intergalactic tours.
A moment of unexpected beauty emerges amidst the chaos when the Doctor encounters a woman on a dying planet, succumbing to the second death wave. Teased in episode blurbs as holding an important object, this object turns out to be a simple spoon. This spoon becomes inexplicably crucial for activating the Time Window tablet within the memory TARDIS. The underwhelming reveal of the spoon raises questions. Is it playful misdirection, a deliberate deflation of fan speculation? Or does it signal a growing disregard for the very speculation the series has actively encouraged? If the latter, it’s a discordant note in otherwise well-crafted scene. Moreover, given the sheer volume of random objects within the memory TARDIS, the lack of an available spoon strains credulity.
Sutekh, through Mel, demands the team’s return to unveil Ruby’s mother’s identity. The Time Window tablet provides cryptic clues, leading them to a timeline where Ruby’s childhood choice creates a dystopian future with mandatory DNA records. In this alternate reality, they could simply hack into a database to uncover the truth. However, this detour proves costly for Mel, who succumbs to Sutekh’s influence, becoming another dust zombie. Ruby, displaying quick wit, outmaneuvers Sutekh by exploiting his obsession with her parentage, effectively trapping him with a “magic dog leash,” allowing them to reclaim the real TARDIS. Fifteen, in a somewhat simplistic solution, decides to eliminate Death itself, dragging Sutekh into the vortex, believing this will restore life. In a deus ex machina moment, everyone is resurrected, and order is seemingly restored, culminating in a celebratory pizza party at UNIT.
Following Ruby’s heartwarming reunion with her mother, and the resolution of her personal arc, the Doctor prepares to depart, choosing to travel alone for now. Ruby, finally at peace and overwhelmed with familial connection, is left to enjoy her newfound happiness. It’s a fitting, albeit slightly abrupt, moment for the Doctor to step back and allow her space.
Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey Observations
Lingering thoughts and humorous takeaways from the episode:
Donna Noble’s reaction to Rose’s (brief) demise is sure to be explosive. One hopes Kate Lethbridge-Stewart is prepared for the inevitable salary demands.
Morris, wielding machine guns on a Segway, raises serious questions about UNIT’s recruitment and armament policies. Kate, some explaining is needed! (Colonel Ibrahim’s competence, however, remains unquestioned).
The sheer volume of Easter eggs in the memory TARDIS is staggering; fan dissection and itemization are eagerly anticipated.
The perception filter’s oddly specific 73-yard radius remains unexplained and, frankly, bizarre.
Fifteen’s sensitivity to Louise’s desire for privacy regarding the reunion with Ruby’s mother hints at a deeper resonance with his own past experiences, perhaps mirroring his relationship with Susan (the original, not the Twist variant).
The universal resurrection begs the question: Does this extend to Gallifrey? Is the Time Lord’s home world restored as well?
Ruby’s father’s surname, Garnet, and Louise’s choice of Ruby Road and the church sign, suggest a possible thematic link to red gemstones and perhaps a planned middle name of Carnelian. However, the season’s overarching narrative strategy seems to discourage deep dives into fan theories, suggesting a deliberate manipulation of audience speculation to generate buzz, potentially leading to more disappointment than reward.
And finally, the burning question: Mrs. Flood… Rani? Missy 2.0? Or perhaps, the Goddess of Sass? The speculation continues.
