This post has been updated since its original publication to include the Blu-ray steelbook, Prom concert and deleted scenes.
Back in 2005 I was one of the millions of people who got hooked on Doctor Who for the first time, thanks to the magnificent relaunch of the series by Russell T Davies. It was exciting to watch, and still is today, so I marked the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who last year by doing in-depth reviews of Series 1, 2, 3 & 4 plus the 2008-10 Specials. I will also be reviewing Series 5 onwards in due course, when Steven Moffat took over as showrunner.
And now, with this latest reboot, a new generation is hopefully experiencing the same thrill that I had back then. It feels special to me, because Russell’s back in charge, Steven’s written and produced one of the episodes, Murray Gold is doing the music again, and Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Phil Collinson & Joel Collins have returned as executive producers. The series is also being co-produced with the Bad Wolf production company, the formation and name of which will make sense to those who saw Russell’s first era, and the BBC have struck a deal to try and grow its global audience by streaming the show on Disney+.
Russell and co set out their stall last year with the fantastic 60th anniversary specials, demonstrating how epic the show can be with the excellent creativity, improved technology and higher budget at their disposal. While it already looked amazing before anyway, the upgrade is still noticeable and welcome, as is the greater recognition and incorporation of diversity. The trilogy also acted as a reset button in some ways, by tying up a few loose ends and granting the Doctor a fresh start, with less of the emotional baggage he once had, while still honouring and retaining the history of the character and the show.
That in turn paved the way for Ncuti Gatwa to step into the Doctor’s shoes, alongside Millie Gibson as his new companion Ruby Sunday. As with most of the actors who have played the Doctors and companions in the modern era, I’ve never watched them in anything else before, so I haven’t seen Ncuti as Eric Effiong in Sex Education or Millie as Kelly Neelan in Coronation Street, to name their most well-known roles. But that’s good really, as it meant I had no expectations and wasn’t distracted by comparisons to their previous work.
And I think Ncuti has been on fire as the Doctor from the get-go, right back to the bi-generation last year. He’s really made the role his own and is having a lot of fun with it, thanks to his wonderful energy and positivity, while also showing himself to be extremely capable in more serious, tense and emotional moments. He’s also unique in the fact that he has different outfits in every episode, rather than having one particular costume that he regularly goes back to, and he looks cool in everything he wears.
Companion Ruby is great as well, and has a very intriguing story arc. It just took a few episodes to get a really good feel for her, and it isn’t until midway through the series that we get to truly appreciate what a superb actress Millie is, especially for someone so young. Ruby and the Doctor have lovely chemistry too, aided by the fact that actors Ncuti and Millie are clearly good friends in real life, as can be seen in the behind the scenes footage and their many interviews.
As for the stories, we’ve had quite a variety this series as usual, so there’s something for everyone. The first couple of episodes are quite silly and light-hearted, to the point of feeling a bit too daft sometimes, as they give a misleading impression of what the series will be like overall, and don’t fully showcase Ncuti and Millie’s capabilities. But they do ease us in before everything shifts into high gear, as we get some very strong stories that are compelling, tense and thought-provoking. And the finale is of course an epic adventure, bringing together the seeds that Russell has been planting from the 60th anniversary specials onwards, and reintroducing a long-lost villain with an incredible cliffhanger. The ending isn’t perfect in some ways but it’s still very enjoyable and well worth watching overall, which can also be said for the series as a whole.
So this is my review of the latest series, looking through each of the episodes in turn (with spoilers in abundance), as well as extra content available online and on the DVD & Blu-ray releases. I’ve also created a Youtube playlist with lots of clips, behind the scenes features, music tracks, reactions, interviews and more. And none of this is sponsored, I’m just a keen fan of the show. So I hope you enjoy!
Contents
Overview
Scheduling & Streaming
The series consists of 9 episodes, most of which are 45-50 minutes each, but the Christmas special and the final episode are each 55 minutes. They’re all available on iPlayer with audio description, subtitles and sign language, continuing their great commitment to accessibility. It’s therefore shorter than most previous series have been in the modern era (apart from the 6 episodes in Series 13), which is rather a shame. But adding in the 60th anniversary trilogy, elements of which have carried over into this series, means we’ve had 12 episodes in the space of 7 months, so that isn’t bad going really. We won’t have that luxury next year though, so Season 2 will just follow the same 9-episode format as Season 1, with the Christmas special standing apart from the rest.
This series is also designed as an on-ramp for new viewers, hence they’ve reset the numbering to Season 1 (presumably at the request of Disney) so that newbies don’t feel alienated or confused by calling it Series 14. It’s strange for existing fans like me, but I can live with it.
Another big change is that the episodes were released globally at the same time, meaning they were dropped on BBC iPlayer at midnight on Saturday, which was 7pm Eastern Time on Friday night when they popped up on Disney+, resulting in quite a long gap before they were broadcast on BBC One in the UK on Saturday evening.
It’s a reflection of the popularity of streaming these days, as well as part of the agreement with Disney, so I can see why they’ve done it. But it also caused understandable disappointment amongst some fans here in the UK, who felt it was unfair and would allow spoilers to be shared online before the episodes were broadcast on TV, which indeed it has done. Russell acknowledged that drawback but he felt that people would adjust to the change.
It also means that you can’t judge the success of the series on the overnight TV ratings alone, as streaming makes it a lot more complicated. It’s inevitable that the live TV viewing figures aren’t anywhere as high as in the past because of that and other factors, so the BBC’s expectations and benchmarks will have adjusted accordingly, just as they’ve already done for their other long-running shows. It simply doesn’t require as much to get into the Top 10 nowadays. So as much as the haters out there gleefully claim the show is in decline – and it’s remarkable that they spend so much time watching and making content about a programme they supposedly despise – I’ve seen a lot of praise and excitement online that suggests it’s doing alright. And ultimately it’s up to the BBC and Disney to decide if it’s working, not trolls who cherry-pick from incomplete information to make their points.
In any case, it’s made no difference to how I personally consume the series. Like many people these days, I watch most TV shows online or via recordings rather than live, as I like the flexibility of watching things when I want to and being able to skip or avoid adverts. And I usually stay up late to watch things at weekends, when I don’t have to be up early the next day, so being able to see a new Doctor Who in the depths of Friday night is actually a great way to end the working week for me, and it ensures I don’t have to worry about avoiding spoilers on social media the next day. I’m always very careful to avoid previews of upcoming episodes as well. So there have been some great surprises and twists this series that I didn’t know were coming, which have undoubtedly enhanced my enjoyment of it.
Russell’s Return
It’s been fantastic to have Russell T Davies back as showrunner, because he’s a huge fan who knows the series inside out. Hence there are countless references to older adventures and characters, especially with talk about the Doctor’s granddaughter, the return of a former companion and the resurrection of a long-lost villain, all from the Classic era, as well as callbacks to more modern stories as well.
It’s therefore abundantly clear to new arrivals, whom this reboot of sorts is aimed at, that the show has an extensive history that they might want to look into. UK viewers can explore a huge amount of content in the Whoniverse on iPlayer, something else Russell was keenly involved with setting up, and I reviewed a lot of its content back in January. You don’t need to know about the old stuff to understand and enjoy the current series, as you’re given the basic exposition you need at appropriate moments. But it definitely encourages you to dig deeper and it does enhance the stories being told here.
For me personally, I don’t have any major experience of the Classic era, other than a few episodes I saw ages ago and have since mostly forgotten, so the Tales Of The Tardis series has given me a nice glimpse into that side of things, including a new episode that’s been released to tie in with this season’s finale. I already know about the old Doctors and companions of course, and naturally have awareness of some other characters and references from that period. But there’s still lots I don’t know. So when something from Classic is mentioned in the modern series, I just quickly look it up online to satisfy my curiosity, as there’s very comprehensive information out there, and long-term fans are very friendly and welcoming to those of us with a desire to learn more.
Anyway, one particular aspect that Russell has been exploring more thoroughly is fantasy and the supernatural, most notably bringing in the Pantheon Of Discord, beginning with the return of the Toymaker in the specials last year. Doctor Who has dabbled in that area on many occasions before, because the show has infinite scope by design, but it’s definitely had more focus this time. It expands the possibilities and the level of threat the Doctor has to deal with very nicely, because it makes perfect sense that there are things beyond our universe that would want to get in and cause chaos. There’s still plenty of sci-fi at the heart of the show, obviously, this is just an extra element alongside it.
Russell has also deliberately fuelled online discussion and speculation about the series through his usual trick of planting seeds throughout the episodes, which build up to the big revelations in the finale. He used the tactic very effectively in his first era, particularly with Bad Wolf, and he’s worked his magic again here, including the identity of Ruby’s mother, the various characters played by actress Susan Twist, the Pantheon as mentioned above, and the fleeting mentions of Triad Technology. Some fans have been disappointed at one or two of the reveals after all the build-up, but that’s inevitable, as it’s impossible to please everyone. And that doesn’t matter. Ultimately, he’s got people talking, and many topics from the show have been trending on social media throughout the series as a result, which has therefore given the show a lot of free publicity and it confirms to Russell what people like to speculate about and hope for. So he’s a clever guy, he knows what he’s doing. He won’t be remotely surprised at any of the reactions, good or bad, that are out there.
Difference & Diversity
The celebration of diversity has always been a core part of the show by its very nature, because the Doctor has spent most of his life encouraging beings of all kinds to live together in peace and harmony. It’s been the underlying message of the character and the programme since day one. It’s also dealt with a lot of social, moral and political issues on a regular basis over the years, as a natural and unavoidable consequence of its many storylines and characters.
Consequently, the show has always moved with the times, regenerating itself as well as its central character. And as such it’s taken some natural steps to be more welcoming, inclusive and relatable to a modern audience with last year’s specials and this new series.
For instance, the Doctor is played by a black and queer actor for the first time, while Donna Noble’s daughter Rose Noble is non-binary and played by transgender actress Yasmin Finney, and the villain Maestro is played by drag queen Jinkx Monsoon. The show has already had some LGBTQI+ representation in the past, including in Russell’s first era, but it makes sense to give it a bit more prominence this time in line with wider society. It shows the audience that it doesn’t do the show any harm, it’s hopefully an uplifting and inspiring thing for members of that community to see, and it breathes new life into the series by adding fresh characters and perspectives into the mix.
Likewise it’s wonderful that UNIT has employed a couple of disabled people as scientific advisors. First we had Ruth Madeley, a wheelchair user, as Shirley Bingham in last year’s specials, and the Tardis was given wheelchair access for the first time, so I hope she returns at a later date. And now in the Season 1 finale we’ve had child actor Lenny Rush, who has a growth condition, playing Morris Gibbons. He was actually upgraded from a different role he was initially hired for in Episode 1, voicing one of the Space Babies, when they saw how talented he was, so well done to him. Disability inclusion in the show isn’t new – Ellie Wallwork played the show’s first blind character in Series 11 for example – but it’s fabulous to see that they’re taking it even more seriously in this era.
So adding more variety to the casting is a welcome move, as it further opens up the possibilities for the series and keeps it moving forward, hopefully attracting and inspiring new audience members along the way. If viewers feel represented by people they can relate to, then that’s a great thing, especially the younger generation for whom it will give reassurance and confidence that they too can be successful in life even if they’re different to others. It may even inspire some of them to get into acting or a career in TV and film production.
Sadly it’s also drawn fire from the predictably abusive bandwagon-jumpers who feel it’s fashionable, and even a content monetisation opportunity, to whine that it’s gone ‘woke’, which they can never provide a decent definition for. It’s just a term they copy from others and hide behind in the false belief that they can’t be called racist, homophobic, ableist, etc. And they only link up with people who share their views, instead of being open-minded and willing to listen to diverse voices who support the show, to at least try and understand why such inclusion is good, important and harmless. So it’s hard to respect their opinions when they’re based on wilful ignorance and a refusal to engage. I’ve occasionally clicked on random videos and skipped to random points out of baffled curiosity when the Youtube algorithm has thrown them up, and without fail I come across remarks that are downright creepy or offensive rather than credible or sensible. Still, by blocking the channels from my recommendations I am seeing less of them.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s totally fine for people not to like particular episodes or certain characters, or the show as a whole, and to give polite and constructive criticism. There are aspects about some episodes in this series that don’t appeal to me, it’s natural. But there’s no excuse for being spiteful and abusive towards those who work on it and the fans who enjoy watching it. If the trolls really hate the show in its current form so much, they can always go back to watch the many older adventures that are available. The show is just moving with the times and trying new things, as it’s always done and should always do. Some of it will work, some of it won’t, and opinions as to which is which will vary widely. There’s nothing bad about that, it’s just evolution.
Effects & Music
In terms of the visual effects, the series already looked amazing before, from Russell’s first era onwards. But the increased budget and ambition has been clear to see from last year’s specials onwards, because the episodes look stunning.
On the one hand you have amazing CGI and incredible technical wizardry, which has come on in leaps and bounds over the years – including the stunning title sequence, which was tweaked for the Christmas special and then edited again for the main series, for the better each time I think (even though they all sync up differently with the music, strangely). But there’s also still extensive use of physical sets, props, prosthetics, explosions, etc, which I’m glad about, as it always helps the performances when things are really there.
It’s fascinating to see how it all comes together in the Unleashed episodes and other behind the scenes features as well. So much hard work and talent has gone into every aspect of the show, so it’s great that they celebrate the people who work on it, all of whom have vital roles. Hopefully it will also tempt some younger viewers to take up careers of that nature, as it certainly looks like fun as well as being very rewarding. I’d give my right arm to work on a show like that if I had the remarkable skills and creative talent that they do. Who wouldn’t?
And as for the music, I’m over the moon that Murray Gold is back, as I wasn’t struck by a lot of Segun Akinola’s output when he took over. I love the new iteration of the title theme – for which we have enough time to hear the middle eight during the credits, yay! – and the catchy theme for the Fifteenth Doctor, and his score throughout the series as a whole has been exceptional. In terms of the songs, the musical number in the festive special doesn’t quite work for me, but the one at the end of The Devil’s Chord is an enjoyable earworm. There are also some nice choices of contemporary and classical music tracks during the series. So he’s given us a real feast for the ears once again, and I hope he releases a soundtrack album for the series, as well as one for last year’s specials, like he did for most of his previous series (except Series 10, which has always been a frustrating omission). If he does produce an album, I’ll update this post accordingly in the future.
Blu-ray Steelbook
Artwork
The DVD & Blu-ray editions for Season 1 were released on 12 August 2024, with the episodes and extras spread across 7 discs. I’ve bought the Blu-ray steelbook, which has beautiful artwork of the Doctor and Ruby on the front and back.
As is traditional, the steelbook sits in a cardboard pocket, the back of which is the same height as the steelbook and has details about the set. Although I do very much question the bit that says it includes “more than 6 hours of additional material”, because by my calculations it’s double that, as you’ll see below.
The interior artwork, behind the discs and thus difficult to see through the semi-transparent trays that hold them, shows a photo of the Doctor and Ruby holding umbrellas as they dance on the Abbey Road zebra crossing.
The discs themselves are less inspiring, as they all carry identical artwork of planets in space that feels very generic, and reminds me of the Red Dwarf box set I got 5 years ago that had a similar approach to its packaging. Given that the text on each disc is customised to say what’s on it, and their menus have been rendered to show footage from the relevant episodes, it’s a great shame they didn’t put a unique image on the face of each disc itself, like Maestro, Rogue, Sutekh, etc to help them stand out from each other.
The discs are held in two stacks in the case, with 3 on one side and 4 on the other, meaning you have to take discs out if you want to get to the ones beneath. It’s a very fiddly way of doing things.
Menus & Accessibility
The menus on each disc show clips from the relevant episodes on a monitor while the theme tune plays, with the various options displayed across the bottom in clear white text on a dark background. And the sub-menus, which appear as pop-up boxes connected to the main menu, are displayed in the same style. When there are 2 episodes on a disc, each with their own bonus material, the special features menu groups them accordingly with a space in between.
I’m delighted to see that audio navigation is also available for visually impaired fans, along with audio description on the episodes (but not the extras), continuing the trend from most of the previous Blu-ray releases. Audio description has been included since the original Series 1 DVD, with audio navigation added on the Series 2 DVD in 2006. Sadly both were omitted when Series 1-5 were issued on Blu-ray, and they were only restored in a Series 1-4 Blu-ray box set last year. But all Blu-ray releases since Series 6 have them, like the DVDs have always done.
Subtitles, incidentally, are available for all of the episodes and the extras. The episodes on BBC iPlayer also have audio description and subtitles, along with sign language which they’ve never included on their physical releases.
Anyway, for this latest series, audio navigation works the same way as before. Each disc verbally announces the name of the box set and the disc number as soon as it loads, along with large, bold, white, uppercase text on screen, which contrasts well against the blurred background of the half-open Tardis doors. All of the audio screens display their text in this way, and there’s no animation or music that would otherwise be a distraction.
After the copyright notice and logos (including the Whoniverse ident), you’re then invited to press Enter to begin audio navigation. This takes you to a simple main menu, through which you can play all of the episodes on the disc or enter sub-menus for episode selection, special features, audio options and subtitles. Every menu announces what it is and how many options are listed, so that you can then move through them in turn to hear what they are. You don’t have to wait for each item to be spoken before you move on to the next one.
In the sub-menus for episodes and special features, the text on screen displays what each episode or feature is called. However, they’ve clearly recorded generic audio that they can recycle for future releases, because the speech only gives each item a number e.g. “Episode 1”, “Episode 2”, “Special Feature 1”, “Special Feature 2”, etc. Episode numbers match those for the series, so they increase with each disc, but special features start their numbering afresh on each disc. So that’s not as helpful as it could or should be. The audio and subtitle menus do speak their options properly though, because they’ll stay the same on later series (5.1 surround or audio description, and subtitles on or off).
Episodes
Special: The Church On Ruby Road
- Writer – Russell T Davies
- First Broadcast – 25 December 2023
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
While the monsters at the heart of this story are quite silly, though still fun in their own way, this Christmas episode serves the important purpose of introducing the new companion to the Doctor. And for new viewers it’s an ideal way to meet him through the eyes of the companion, because they’re a seemingly everyday person who we can all relate to in some way, just like Rose Tyler who was the first companion I saw.
That of course means we have to get to know the companion first. It’s hard to judge Ruby Sunday or actress Millie Gibson fully on just one episode, especially given what we see of her later in the series, but she does come across as a fun, caring and adventurous character here. We also learn a bit about her home and family life, though the identity of her mother is a complete mystery, which is a major story point across the series.
Even Davina McCall is powerless to help when Ruby is interviewed for her TV programme – which isn’t named for copyright reasons, but it’s basically Long Lost Family that Davina presents in real life, and her crew did work closely with the Doctor Who team. Davina’s a good sport for appearing here, having previously also starred as an android in the Series 1 episode Bad Wolf, and she does get namechecked again during the 2-part finale.
Ruby also seems to be having a lot of clumsy incidents, which it turns out are being caused by some naughty Goblins. And when they kidnap a new foster baby that has been delivered to the family, Ruby ends up climbing on the roof of the house to chase them. Even though the sight of Goblins is completely bewildering, the overriding necessity of saving the baby’s life pushes her on, as she climbs on a rope ladder hanging from the Goblin ship – at which point the Doctor leaps from the rooftops to join her.
It’s not the first time that he’s crossed paths with her, having shown off his dance moves in a club earlier on, but this is the first time they properly start getting to know each other as they enter and explore the Goblin craft. We also learn that the Doctor has a brand new style of sonic screwdriver, which doesn’t look like a screwdriver any more, but it has cool elements to its design and it does the job. He also has some new intelligent gloves he’s invented that take all his weight so he can grip on to things easily (and we see those again at a crucial point later in the series). Interestingly he also uses the word “mavity” instead of “gravity”, so the incident at the start of Wild Blue Yonder in the 60th anniversary trilogy is still having an effect here.
The Goblin ship and its inhabitants all look quite weird, and when the Doctor and Ruby discover that the baby is about to be fed to the Goblin King, the cast launch into a very silly Goblin Song, which was released as a single with the proceeds going to Children In Need. It’s not a song that I’ll be listening to heavily in the future, and there’s a much better musical number later in the series, but it’s fairly catchy and works well enough in the context of the scene. Neither song is quite as good as things like Song For Ten or Love Don’t Roam from Russell and Murray’s first era though.
The problems aren’t over once the baby has been rescued, however, as the Goblins find their way back to the past and kidnap Ruby as a baby, erasing her from the family timeline, so the Doctor has to go back and put things right again. Which of course he does, killing the Goblin King on the church spire as a consequence, as the Goblins wouldn’t take the opportunity to leave. The Doctor also sees a mysterious figure near the church in this episode, and that moment plays a key part in the finale.
He then returns to Ruby’s house and makes sure everything’s back to normal – which it is, apart from a crack in the ceiling that had been caused by the fracturing of time. It’s not dissimilar to the temporal crack that was a major plot point during Matt Smith’s tenure. Ruby then finds her way to the Tardis and discovers its impossible size for the first time.
That is ostensibly the end of the episode. However, we then get a surprise mid-credits scene where Ruby’s neighbour Mrs Flood (played by veteran actress Anita Dobson) breaks the fourth wall to tell us she knows what a Tardis is, despite seeming rather confused by its appearance earlier. So she’s another mystery that lingers in the background during the series.
So all in all it’s a strange first episode, but a fun one. It was never going to hit the high bar set by the anniversary specials, and it’s not one of my top favourite Christmas specials as the Goblins seem a bit too odd really. But it is still an entertaining first episode for the new Doctor and his companion, and lays interesting foundations for the series ahead.
1. Space Babies
- Writer – Russell T Davies
- First Broadcast – 11 May 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
Having met Ruby and the Doctor at Christmas, this episode is where new viewers (alongside Ruby) are educated about the Time Lord himself. I’m not sure it’s the best story with which to do this, as it’s even weirder than the Christmas special and gives a misleading impression of what the style of the series will be like, whereas the later episodes are much better. It’s still fun if you don’t take it too seriously, but it feels weak for a series opener.
The manner in which Ruby learns about the Doctor is a bit rushed for a start. In the past, many of the key points about the Doctor have been spread across several episodes, including who he is, where he’s from, what happened to his home planet, what the Tardis is, how the Tardis translates languages, how the companion is still able to phone home, and so on. It keeps you watching as you know you’re going to learn a bit more about him each week.
But on this occasion that’s all dealt with in a single episode, using a lot of exposition crammed in at the start, along with a few points made later on. So it’s quite the infodump really. None of it’s complicated, it just feels a bit unnatural and clunky in the way it’s delivered, though maybe that’s because I’m so familiar with the show already. I don’t know if Disney insisted on everything being explained early on like that, or if Russell just wanted to get it out of the way given the shorter length of the series, but I hope new viewers found it helpful. And I did like the demonstration of the butterfly effect that caused Ruby to change briefly early on.
As for the bizarre central story of the episode, it’s about a space station being run by talking babies. Even though the space station has technically been closed down and the crew have long gone, planetary law forbade the company from turning off the birthing machines on board. So they kept producing babies, who then became intelligent enough to keep the ship operating.
The children are overseen by a nanny called Jocelyn (played by Golda Rosheuvel), who stays hidden elsewhere on board and watches them through the security cameras. When she talks to them over the tannoy, there’s a ‘nanny filter’ that translates her words into a more child-friendly tone – which leads to amusing moments of frustration where the ending of her line “a crock of…” is replaced by the phrase “waste materials”, and the children will have no “expletive” dinner if they disobey. It’s hardly clever humour, I know, but it’s in keeping with the overall tone of the episode, and it’s a little something thrown in for older children and adults that younger kids won’t understand.
The babies and the nanny cannot survive forever though, because of the limited air and other supplies on board, plus they have no way of getting to the nearest planet because the station has no engines, and nobody will fly up to come and save them. So that leads to a very brief but timely moment of dialogue about refugees, an example of how Doctor Who has always been good at slipping in little topical references to give people pause for thought. Another is the fact that the Doctor mentions the Time Lords dying out due to genocide. It’s only fleetingly mentioned, but it’s notable given that it’s a heavy subject.
The show is good at acknowledging big issues like those without labouring the point – although the anti-woke haters will often take a solitary mention of things like that out of context to falsely claim the show is ‘lecturing’ people, which proves they’re not watching it properly or at all. Same goes for the one and only blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mention of Maestro’s pronouns at the very start of the next episode, which never gets brought up again.
Anyway, back on the space station there’s another problem in the shape of a terrifying creature called the Bogeyman roaming the corridors, which even scares the Doctor. It’s a disgusting revelation when the Doctor figures out that it has the name for a very literal reason, and he devises an equally unpleasant yet clever way to get the station moving using the methane produced from the babies’ nappies. But it is amusing to see Ruby’s reactions in each case. It might make some adults recoil, but it’s not out of character for the show to do that type of humour occasionally – the farting Slitheen in Series 1 from 2005 immediately spring to mind, and I think that worked better for comedy value.
Finally, after everything’s been resolved, the Doctor grants Ruby her very own Tardis key, as he clearly feels she’s worthy to join him. However, he is very concerned about her past, and warns her that they can’t travel back to the church where she was found because of the paradox it would cause. He then secretly gets the Tardis to analyse her DNA, which we don’t see the results of.
So it’s another mad premise for a story, and it’s certainly one of the weaker episodes of the series. But it is fun on the whole, and it gives a chance for the Doctor and Ruby’s companionship to settle down, so it serves its purpose well enough.
2. The Devil’s Chord
- Writer – Russell T Davies
- First Broadcast – 11 May 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
Having gone forward to space in the future, it’s suitably traditional for the next episode to go back to Earth in the past, thus demonstrating the scope of the series to new fans. And for me this is where the series really starts to kick into gear, now that the big introductory stuff has been dealt with. It’s still a strange story, but it’s more serious, interesting and entertaining this time, including a further delve into the fantasy aspect, and it presents the Doctor with a foe he feels powerless to defeat for a while.
It also takes us back to one of the greatest and most pivotal eras of musical history. Or, at least, it’s supposed to. The 60s were a landmark decade for music, yet when the Doctor and Ruby turn up at EMI Recording Studios (before they were known as Abbey Road Studios), they are disheartened and confused to see The Beatles, Cilla Black and an orchestra (featuring a cameo by Murray Gold) performing dreadful compositions without any passion for it.
It stems from an incident in the 1920s, where we see teacher Timothy Drake (Jeremy Limb) and his student Henry Arbinger (i.e. the Harbinger, played by Kit Rakusen). Timothy shows Henry a special chord on the piano called the Devil’s Chord, which most musicians don’t know about or steer well clear of, but it unleashes a crazy being called Maestro, who turns out to be a child of the Toymaker from The Giggle.
Maestro kills the teacher by sucking all the music out of his soul, and then starts playing the Doctor Who theme on the piano, which segues into the opening titles with Murray’s music. It’s a shame we don’t hear Maestro play the whole tune on the piano though, as it’s always fun when they do something different with it (like Peter Capaldi’s brilliant rock version), and this was a golden opportunity for that.
Maestro then continues to feed off the music that the human race was meant to be enjoying, stripping away the melodic joy that it brings to everyone. It’s a classic case of Doctor Who messing with something that we all take for granted as being an integral part of our everyday lives, and exploring the consequences of its corruption or removal.
So there’s very little joy or hope in people’s hearts by the 60s, and when the Doctor brings Ruby back to the present day, she’s horrified to discover London is in ruins after being ravaged by war, teaching her the valuable lesson that time is flexible and events can be rewritten. In the Behind The Scenes featurette for this episode, Russell notes that taking a companion back to the present day, to show them what happens if historical catastrophes aren’t fixed, is something they’ve always wanted to do since the show returned in 2005. It had only been done once before, in a Classic era story called Pyramids Of Mars (not the only time that serial is referenced in this series), so it was high time that they did it, and it is a powerful moment.
Because Maestro comes from a place outside the known universe, being part of the Pantheon Of Discord, the Doctor is also at a loss for how to defeat them, which scares him and thus Ruby too. They are a very powerful opponent for sure, even being able to affect the Tardis remotely. And even when the Doctor finally does get an idea later in the episode, and executes it very nicely with Ruby’s help, Maestro still gets the upper hand and beats him. It then falls to the Beatles to save the day in the end.
Talking of whom, it’s fair to say that the people playing the Fab Four don’t look a lot like them, and if you wanted to be really picky you could argue that, given the state of the music industry in this story, the Beatles might not exist in the first place. But if you allow for creative license, as you often need to do with Doctor Who, you can accept things as they are. They’ve done enough so that you can recognise who’s who in the group at least, and the accents aren’t too bad, so it works reasonably well. I’m just surprised they weren’t more lifelike.
Maestro on the other hand, played by American drag queen Jinkx Monsoon, has a really impressive look that changes during the episode, and it’s an inspired bit of casting. I’ve never watched shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, so I’d never heard of Jinkx before, but she brings amazing flair, energy and unpredictable madness to the role. And when Maestro vanishes at the end, it’s with the ominous parting words that “The one who waits is almost here”, a foreshadowing of the terrifying reveal in the series finale.
The Doctor and Ruby look cool in their 60s outfits and hairstyles as well. There’s also a nice nod back to the first Doctor, when he talks about his granddaughter Susan who he used to live with in Shoreditch (which also becomes relevant in the finale, especially as there’s another Susan who keeps popping up during the series – more on that later).
Ruby then plays a lovely tune on a piano, with nice additional orchestration by Murray Gold. Later on there’s further reference to her mysterious back story as well, as The Shepherd’s Bell Carol by Samuel Pegg is played when Maestro has her trapped, which was heard on the night Ruby was found at the church. It’s the second of two real songs that are heard in this episode, the other being California Soul by Marlena Shaw earlier on when the Doctor and Ruby are looking around.
The biggest surprise, however, is the elaborate musical finale, with the Doctor and Ruby leading a catchy song called There’s Always A Twist At The End, which I think is far better and more memorable than The Goblin Song, as it got stuck in my head quite firmly after the first time I saw it (which is important really, as the word Twist becomes a cornerstone of this season’s story arc). It’s a very unusual thing for Doctor Who to do, and I do wonder if it will be more common in this Disney-infused era given that we’ve had two such instances already, but it’s a lot of fun. Although, in amongst all the dancing, we do see Henry Arbinger, the student from 40 years earlier, looking out of a room nearby before quietly slipping away…
So all in all it’s a lively and fun episode, which for me is where this series really gets going in a big way.
3. Boom
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- First Broadcast – 18 May 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
It’s so good to have Steven Moffat back, this is an absolute cracker. Yet again he takes a simple premise, one that presents an unusual challenge for the Doctor, and extrapolates it into an episode full of tension and drama that keeps you hooked all the way through.
Having landed on a war-torn planet, the Doctor mistakenly steps on a landmine and activates its sensors, meaning it will go off if he moves any further, even just a little bit. It means he’s standing in one place for almost the entire episode, and it’s down to Ruby to help him as he calms himself by singing the Skye Boat Song, giving her an opportunity to show her bravery. Granted, it’s rather foolish and dangerous courage when she fetches something to help him counterbalance the weight, and walks right up to him instead of tossing it over for him to catch as he asks her to, but it does impress him. And she does her best to keep him calm, as even a strong man like the Doctor is naturally afraid in a situation like this. Indeed, the Doctor is more open with his emotions in general this series, to the point where he openly sheds a few tears here and there. But there isn’t anything wrong with a man showing his emotional side, we shouldn’t feel the need to be so guarded or afraid of it really.
The object Ruby gives him is more than just a rock though. It turns out to be a compressed dead body, from which an AI-generated hologram of the deceased can emerge and have a conversation of sorts. And the man in the hologram is the father of a child who suddenly turns up, wondering where their daddy is, making things all the more awkward.
That means the Doctor now has Ruby and a child by his side, both of whom are refusing to leave despite being in incredible danger, and he’s powerless to protect them given that he’s rooted to the spot. So when a potentially helpful idea by an Anglican Marine called Mundy Flynn (Varada Sethu), the most important arrival on the scene, has unexpected and horrifying consequences when Ruby is shot, it pushes the Doctor to the limit and increases the jeopardy all the more.
So the tension ramps up very effectively throughout the episode, just when you think that things can’t get any more precarious. Ncuti Gatwa’s performance is superb, including great emotional range and thought-provoking speeches about the limitations of faith and the impact of death. And there are nice callbacks to older adventures in the script, including mentions of the Villengard, a reference to the sentient mud from the Witchfinders episode of Series 11, and a nod to the 11th Doctor played by Matt Smith, who was Steven Moffat’s first Doctor when he was showrunner.
Steven has also written the 2024 Christmas special, which will be his 50th script for Doctor Who, and possibly his last, at least for the time being. So I’m really looking forward to that. And it’s also been announced that Varada Sethu will be playing a companion of the Doctor in the next series, alongside Ruby. Indications are that she’ll be playing a different character to Mundy, but in any case she should be a great addition to the Tardis team based on her performance in this episode. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time an actor has played someone else in the series before becoming a companion. Freema Agyeman, for example, played a different character in the Series 2 finale before portraying Martha Jones from Series 3 onwards. And Karen Gillan appeared in Fires Of Pompeii in Series 4, albeit heavily disguised, before she became Amy Pond in Series 5 (she’s currently starring in another series written by Steven Moffat on ITV in fact, alongside Alex Kingston). And let’s not forget that Peter Capaldi was also in the Pompeii episode before he played the Doctor. So we’ll see what happens with Varada next year, I’m looking forward to it.
Mind you, if we’re talking about reappearing actors, now is a good time to mention Susan Twist, who plays the AI face of the Villengard ambulance in this episode, because it’s not her first role in the series. She’s also had cameos as Isaac Newton’s maid Mrs Merridew in last year’s anniversary special Wild Blue Yonder, a heckler in the Christmas special, a former communications officer in Space Babies, and a tea lady in the Devil’s Chord who makes reference to a role played by Margaret Lockwood in an old film called The Wicked Lady. She then has other brief appearances in the next few episodes, before taking on a major role in the series finale (so there really is a Twist at the end, as the song goes). By this point some fans had already noticed that she was appearing in each episode, but as my eyesight isn’t perfect, and she looks different each time, I had no idea it was the same person until I saw the increasing mentions of her on the internet around this time. It also gets to a point later in the series where the Doctor and Ruby notice her as well, which then makes it easier for me when they draw attention to it.
4. 73 Yards
- Writer – Russell T Davies
- First Broadcast – 25 May 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This season’s Doctor-lite episode is quite the mind-melter, raising lots of questions and not giving all the answers, deliberately leaving it open to interpretation.
When the Doctor and Ruby land on a scenic clifftop in Wales, the Doctor accidentally treads on a fairy circle and disappears, and Ruby is unable to get back into the Tardis. His sudden absence is also reflected in the fact that there are no opening titles, which gives the episode an unsettling tone from the start. It’s not the first time the show has omitted the title sequence, but it’s very rare – Sleep No More from Series 9 with Peter Capaldi was the first time it happened, followed by The Woman Who Fell To Earth and Resolution from Jodie Whittaker’s reign.
Ruby’s not entirely alone though, because there’s a woman in the distance who she can’t quite see clearly, and who insists on following her – always at 73 yards, as Ruby later figures out. Even more strangely, when Ruby asks a couple of local people to approach the woman and ask what’s going on, they end up screaming and running away. The first person is a hiker on the cliffs (played by Susan Twist), while the second is someone in a local pub, where she’s also told a frightening story about a legendary figure called Mad Jack. The scene doesn’t end the way that you expect though, one of several occasions where the episode (and this series) subverts your expectations.
Ruby then gets the train home, with the mystery figure appearing constantly in streets and fields outside the window, and outside her house Ruby asks her mother to challenge the woman. But it has devastating consequences, as whatever the woman says forces Ruby’s mother to disown her and flee. And later on, even the normally resilient UNIT are powerless to help, as the woman has the same effect on them too. It was a wonderful surprise to see Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) again in that scene, and thankfully we get to see a lot more of her in the finale.
So Ruby has to go through her life alone, with this woman constantly tailing her. But many years later she gains strength and feels a renewed sense of purpose (accompanied by the song Watch Me by Labi Siffre) when she recalls the Doctor mentioning an evil trigger-happy Prime Minister from her future (Roger ap Gwilliam, played by Aneurin Barnard). Having now reached that point in her timeline, she infiltrates his party and figures out a clever way to stop him. Yet even saving the world doesn’t bring the Doctor back, and the mystery woman still doesn’t go away. So Ruby just has to keep on living her life without the Doctor.
It’s only decades later, when an elderly Ruby is lying in her death bed, that the unknown figure finally approaches, at which point time rewinds to the start of the episode and we discover the woman is actually Ruby herself, which only deepens the mystery further. The old Ruby is observing her original arrival with the Doctor from a distance of 73 yards, but this time she’s able to send a message to her younger self to stop the Doctor treading on the fairy circle, the consequence of which is that the older Ruby disappears instead of the Doctor because that timeline has now been erased.
It therefore seems that Ruby was forced to live an alternate life as penance for the Doctor breaking the fairy circle. She doesn’t remember it, but she has a feeling she’s been there before, and it is mentioned again in the series finale. We never do find out what the older Ruby was whispering to the people she met, so we can only imagine how bad it must have been to make them run away.
So it’s an unsettling and compelling story that really sticks in the mind, all about the fear of abandonment and the lasting effects of trauma, and how it can shape our lives as we learn to live with it. Millie Gibson is outstanding as Ruby here, not only because it’s such a big storyline to carry all by herself, but also because it’s revealed in Doctor Who Unleashed that this was the very first episode she filmed for the series back in 2022, at the age of just 18. Ncuti Gatwa was still working on Sex Education at the time, so they needed to start filming without him, and they threw her in at the deep end with this. So she did a remarkable job. The next episode also has limited involvement from the Doctor for the same reason, although he’s still considerably more active than in this story.
5. Dot And Bubble
- Writer – Russell T Davies
- First Broadcast – 1 June 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This episode really turns your expectations on its head, because the true purpose of the story isn’t what it appears to be initially, and at the end of it you feel like you want to side with what you thought was the enemy instead. You also notice the telltale signs leading to the final twist more clearly when you watch it a second time.
The protagonist for this story is a young lady called Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke), who lives in a colony called Finetime. She spends every day in a literal social media bubble – a big hemisphere that floats around her head, presenting an interface where she interacts with her friends and family, watches videos, and dances to cheesy songs like Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini by Bombalurina featuring Timmy Mallet (a 1990 cover of the song first released by Brian Hyland in 1960).
It also speaks directions to guide her movements, because she can’t see where she’s going due to the interface. The whole thing is generated and connected to everyone else by a small round device called a dot, and living in such a high-tech world is the preserve of rich people like Lindy and her friends, to whom it’s a utopia.
But there’s danger lurking, of course, in the form of large slug-like creatures that are eating people. Some of Lindy’s friends are concerned that certain people have gone missing, but she dismisses it to begin with, convincing herself that everything’s fine.
She’s actually more alarmed when the Doctor appears on screen, initially ignoring his warning of danger and blocking him very quickly. But then Millie pops up as well to try and reassure her, and the Doctor is able to unblock himself to speak again. He can’t get into Finetime in person for some reason, so remote communication is the only option if they’re to work out what’s going on. They’re also curious when they see a recording of Lindy’s mother (played by Susan Twist), as for the first time they acknowledge they’ve seen her face before, although Ruby can’t pin down where, as it’s the hiker from her alternate lifetime in the previous episode.
The Doctor and Millie therefore have to convince Lindy to turn off her bubble in order to see the monster and escape from it – which is easier said than done, because she struggles to even walk properly, such is her reliance on the interface for commands. But she slowly starts to figure it out, and is finally able to get help when she bumps into Ricky September, a handsome, friendly, young pop star that she and her mates are head over heels in love with, and who has lived without a bubble quite happily for some time.
Ricky is able to guide her to the exit that the Doctor has found for her, but they have to enter a long code to open it. And there’s added pressure, because the Doctor figures out why the slugs are eating people in a certain order, and Lindy learns that she’s next, which is proven when her dot turns itself on and tries to target her. So between the two of them, Lindy and Ricky have to enter the code for the door and bat away the flying dot.
However, this is where Lindy’s true nature comes to the fore. She’d had her little irritations during the episode, but they’re nothing compared to the way she betrays Ricky and gets the dot to kill him instead, and then smugly refuses the Doctor’s offer to take her to a much safer world, purely because he’s black.
In that moment everything clicks into place. Some people will have spotted the signs earlier I’m sure, but it hadn’t registered with me until then that everybody in the community was white, and Lindy’s remarks and general attitude towards the Doctor from the outset take on a very different and disturbing air. You’re effectively watching a different episode altogether the second time around because of that added context. It’s clear she’s a rich and entitled racist who is beyond saving, as are the others in that society, as they all share the same deeply entrenched prejudiced beliefs. They would much rather take their chances in the Wild Woods, which the Doctor knows will end badly, but he can’t stop them.
Ncuti Gatwa’s performance in these closing moments is incredibly powerful, as the Doctor realises why he’s being turned down, yet continues pleading with them regardless to let him save their lives. He then struggles to process his frustration and anger as they leave, as he’s not used to being turned down because of his skin colour. He tells us so much with his outbursts and his facial expressions, backed up perfectly by Murray Gold’s excellent score. And much like the previous episode was Millie’s first recording, this final scene was Ncuti’s debut in the series (after his appearance at the end of The Giggle in the 60th anniversary specials), which makes it all the more spectacular. Nailing that heavy scene on his first day is the defining moment that proves Ncuti is the right man for the role.
You really do feel sadness and anger for him, as does a clearly upset Ruby who can only stand by helplessly as there’s nothing she can do. We know the Doctor can’t save everyone, but for it to be in such appalling circumstances with no good reason is a dark place for the show to go to. It’s very important that it’s done that though. It shines a light on an issue that is sadly still very relevant and prevalent, while demonstrating how social media helps to connect people who share those same awful misinformed views, and it makes you consider your own prejudices as well, as we all have them even if we don’t always acknowledge them. So it’s a clever script by Russell that gives you pause for thought.
6. Rogue
- Writer – Kate Herron & Briony Redman
- First Broadcast – 8 June 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This story gives us a bit of light relief after the intensity of the previous few, and before the epic finale to come, although there is still a serious threat for the Doctor to deal with. This time it’s in the form of shape-shifting bird-like aliens called Chuldurs, who kill people in order to assume their form and take their place.
In that sense this is a return to a traditional ‘monster-of-the-week’ type of story, which we haven’t really had much of this series. There wasn’t an alien force out to kill people in Space Babies, Boom or 73 Yards for instance, while Maestro was a clear villain but was manipulating the human race to destroy itself, and even the slugs in Dot And Bubble weren’t trying to take over the universe and you do feel a degree of approval for their actions once the ending puts it all into context. That’s not a complaint by any means, those different approaches have worked really well and have given the series great variety. But it’s equally nice to have what feels like a ‘regular’ format of episode too.
That said, the Chuldurs don’t feel as scary as some enemies of the past, and are tame compared to the one in the next couple of episodes. Plus they aren’t the biggest focus of the story, as there are two other aspects that are much more prominent to talk about.
The first is the historical setting, with the Doctor and Ruby landing at a posh party in Bath during the Regency era in 1813. Many of the costumes therefore look stunning, with everyone dressed in their finery, and the location is beautiful as well. It’s a real feast for the eyes.
It’s very reminiscent of the Netflix series Bridgerton, so much so that it’s directly mentioned several times, especially by Ruby, as well as in the behind the scenes material, where they reveal that choreographer Jack Murphy (who was involved with this episode and The Devil’s Chord) had also worked on that show.
Trouble is, I haven’t watched Bridgerton, and don’t have any plans to do so, as I’ve never got into period dramas or romantic dramas particularly. There’s nothing wrong with them, and I’m perfectly happy with Doctor Who doing occasional episodes of that nature, but they’re just not my type of thing to watch a full series about. So the continuous references to it are a bit off-putting to be honest, and feel very strange given that it’s not a BBC or Disney show. You also don’t need any knowledge of Bridgerton to follow and enjoy the plot. A single casual mention would have been fine as an amusing nod to it, but because it keeps coming up, it makes you feel like there are things you’re missing out on. Certainly there were other references beyond the dialogue that completely passed me by.
It didn’t stop me watching though, obviously, as I can look past those references and just enjoy the story for what it is. It ultimately just meant that I didn’t feel the same high level of excitement as fans of that show seem to have had in relation to this episode. As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a gorgeous setting for the story but nothing exceptional beyond that.
Even more important though is the episode’s title character, Rogue, who’s an alien bounty hunter with a human appearance, played by Jonathan Groff. I’d never heard of him before, but he’s clearly a big star thanks to major roles in Glee, Frozen and Hamilton, among many other things I’ve never watched. Well, I tried Hamilton once but gave up halfway through as it wasn’t my cup of tea (because of the music style mainly, not because of the people in it). He is a very handsome chap though, there’s no denying that, as well as being a very good actor.
To begin with he assumes that the Doctor is also one of the Chuldurs, and prepares to kill him on his ship, until the Doctor proves to Rogue that he’s not an enemy. In part he does this through his words and wit as usual, and he also forces Rogue’s ship to keep playing Kylie’s hit Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, as it’s the bounty hunter’s favourite track.
Incidentally, there’s quite a bit of other music in this episode. The Doctor sings a bit of Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, while there are orchestral versions of Bad Guy by Billie Eilish and Poker Face by Lady Gaga, played by the Vitamin String Quartet. There are also classical pieces played, including String Quartet – G Major by Richard York, Johann Brewer & Alex Biermann, The Duke of Kent’s Waltz by Keith Smith & Green Ginger and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart. So it’s an episode that makes good use of contemporary and classical music alongside Murray’s excellent score.
The evidence that finally wins Rogue over, however, is when the Doctor is scanned by Rogue’s ship, and holographic images of his previous incarnations move around him, including the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor alongside his numbered iterations. So that was a nice touch. I didn’t look at them closely though, because my limited eyesight made it difficult to see them all clearly in the brief time they were on screen, plus I didn’t feel the need to pause for a closer look because I already know what all the previous Doctors look like.
However, that meant I missed the fleeting Easter Egg that was thrown in, which only came to my attention later thanks to fan discussions online – because the face of Richard E. Grant is unexpectedly included. Two years before the series was rebooted on TV by Russell T Davies in 2005, Richard had played an alternative 9th Doctor in an online Flash animation to mark the 40th anniversary, called Scream Of The Shalka. And as I explained last year, when I wrote about David Tennant’s cameo in that story, it was originally intended to be a continuation of the series, but was relegated to standalone obscurity when Russell’s relaunch ignored it.
So this is the first time the so-called ‘Shalka Doctor’ has been acknowledged in the TV show, which means it now appears to be canon, and some are even speculating it opens the door for him to appear as a live-action Doctor at some future stage. He has previously appeared in the show as the Great Intelligence, and also portrayed a spoof version of the Doctor in the Comic Relief special The Curse Of Fatal Death, so he has a few connections with the show already. But there’s every likelihood his inclusion here was just a little surprise for superfans to spot and won’t lead to anything further. Time will tell.
Anyway, I digress. The Doctor and Rogue form a very close bond after this and work together to defeat the Chuldurs, most notably performing a romantic dance together and staging a fight to lure them out, as the shape-shifters are cosplaying the era and thus love it when scandals occur. But it ends with a difficult choice for the Doctor, as Ruby ends up caught in the same trap that the Doctor and Rogue have set for the Chuldurs, after the Doctor is fooled into believing that she’s been taken over by them (and is thus upset that she’s apparently died, the second time that’s happened this series after Boom). So Rogue sacrifices himself to take her place, but not before sharing a long, lingering kiss with the Doctor, which was very sweet.
The connection between the two of them is really what this episode is about and what makes it work, because there’s a clear attraction between them. So it was nice for them to get an intimate moment like that, and for Ncuti to explore a romantic storyline for the Doctor. The door has been left open for Rogue to return as well, in the seemingly unlikely event the Doctor could ever find him again, as he was only transported away with the Chuldur, not killed.
It also feels like Rogue is a modern-day equivalent to Captain Jack, who admittedly I would much prefer to see return given a choice between the two, because I love his energy, humour, intelligence and fighting attitude. Rogue is still a charming and clever character, and I’m happy that he and the Doctor have such good chemistry, but I don’t feel a strong connection with him like I did with Jack, so I can take it or leave it whether Rogue returns. He was great for a one-off episode, but I don’t feel like I miss him.
Someone who’s definitely going to pop up again though, and who I find much more intriguing, is actress Susan Twist, as she makes yet another appearance here, this time as a portrait. And at long last we’re about to get answers about her in the 2-part conclusion to the series.
So it’s a nice story altogether, and it’s great for the Doctor to have a love interest. I personally think the previous few episodes were better, but I do appreciate why some adore this one and would rank it much higher, especially those who are really into period dramas and romantic stories, as this is right up their alley.
It’s also a lovely gesture that the episode was dedicated at the end to William Russell, who died 5 days before it was broadcast, just 5 months shy of what would have been his 100th birthday. He played the First Doctor’s companion Ian Chesterton in the Classic era, and reprised the role for a final time in the modern era when he appeared in the 2022 special The Power Of The Doctor. So it’s a particularly significant loss to the Whoniverse, RIP William.
7. The Legend Of Ruby Sunday
- Writer – Russell T Davies
- First Broadcast – 15 June 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This episode is the first part of the series finale, and therefore has the task of setting things up, by bringing the various story strands together and moving all the pieces into place. It also brings in several important characters, a few of whom were in last year’s specials. And it all pays off brilliantly. You can always rely on Russell to produce a huge cliffhanger that leaves you itching to see the concluding part as soon as possible, and this doesn’t disappoint in that regard.
It begins with the Tardis making a dramatic entrance into UNIT HQ – I don’t know why it flies in when it can dematerialise, but it does look very cool this way. The Doctor then introduces Ruby to the organisation’s leader Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and Donna’s daughter Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney), both of whom I’m delighted to see again. Plus they meet the excellent scientific advisor and child genius Morris Gibbons (Lenny Rush), another member of staff called Harriet (Genesis Lynea), and some guards too.
Top of the agenda for the Doctor is the mysterious woman (played by Susan Twist) who seems to have been following him and Ruby around. But it turns out that UNIT has been monitoring a lady who matches her description called Susan Triad, who is preparing to launch a new piece of software from her technology company. Former Classic era companion Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) is involved too – and even though I’ve never watched her old stories, I loved seeing the character in last year’s anniversary specials, so it’s great to have her back as well. She’s gone undercover on Susan’s media team, but despite that UNIT hasn’t found anything wrong with Susan or her software. The Triad technology has been mentioned in previous episodes though, including Mel’s remark to Donna in The Giggle about the name of the software they’re using, which didn’t feel significant at the time, and on the side of a bus that literally passed me by unnoticed, so I had no idea until the Unleashed episode pointed it out.
They all notice that S. Triad is an anagram of Tardis though, and the Doctor is now all the more curious given that Susan is the name of his granddaughter, as he mentioned in The Devil’s Chord. There’s a nice little moment between him and Kate where they talk about her, with the interesting thought that he hasn’t had a daughter yet because of how things in a Time Lord’s life never happen in the right order. The Doctor also tells Ruby about regenerations, as she’s obviously never seen one yet, explaining how Time Lords change when they die or can disguise themselves in order to hide away. And not long after, when Ruby briefly returns home, we see Mrs Flood remarking that she always has to hide herself away, which is an interesting coincidence…
The other big mystery is the identity of Ruby’s mother. The Doctor can’t go back to the time that Ruby was left outside the church on Ruby Road, because he’s already been there once. So instead they use a Time Window to observe the scene from 2004 instead. Ruby has a VHS tape she got from a camera that was 66 metres (which, significantly, is 73 yards) from the church, and while it’s in terrible quality, UNIT’s technology and the power of memories are able to improve the picture enough for things to be recognisable. The hooded figure remains an enigma however, much to Ruby’s distress, and strange things start happening, as an ominous swirling cloud appears around the Tardis in the video, while in the present day a guard who gets closer to investigate is killed on the spot, and the Time Window is shut down by the equipment blowing up.
It’s one of the standout set pieces in the episode, as it really ramps up the tension and mystery. And the way they achieved it in-camera using the Unreal Engine instead of green screen is explained very nicely in the Behind The Scenes video, which is the same method they used for the planet in Boom.
The pace and tension then continues to build from there. The Doctor tracks down Susan Triad and discovers she’s been having strange dreams about being the people the Doctor has seen, before she dances on to the stage like Theresa May, to the tune of Roam by The B-52’s (the song isn’t relevant to the plot, it’s just a fun track). Meanwhile, Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) is back at Ruby’s house with Cherry, and seems to know of the threat that’s coming, just like she knew what a Tardis was at Christmas. And in UNIT HQ the Tardis makes some ominous groaning noises, which it’s been doing in some previous episodes as well (another thing I didn’t pay heed to until it was pointed out) and a scan by the Vlinx robot indicates there’s a hidden life form around it, which starts to manifest itself.
All of which leads to a stunning cliffhanger, as Harriet becomes possessed and we discover that her surname is Arbinger (i.e. Harbinger – how did UNIT not spot that when hiring her?). She announces the arrival of Sutekh, the God of Death, revealing that it was cleverly hidden in the name Susan Triad Technology (i.e. Sue Tech), and the dramatic music cuts out briefly for the Doctor to remark that they were looking at the wrong anagram. Susan had merely been used to set a trap for the Doctor, by appearing wherever he goes, and wasn’t his granddaughter as the name suggested. Sutekh immediately takes control of Harriet and Susan, with jump scares as we see the disturbing changes to their appearance, and then emerges himself as a terrifying monster from a swirling cloud around the Tardis in UNIT. It all leaves the Doctor agape with shock, as there’s seemingly nothing he can do.
For me, that’s an incredibly exciting cliffhanger in itself, as it’s undoubtedly a huge boss level monster for the Doctor to contend with, and you know it’s an excellent cliffhanger when you feel compelled to rewatch it multiple times.
But for many Classic era fans this is on another level altogether. I had never heard of Sutekh before, but from a quick look online I learned that he was the villain in Pyramids Of Mars opposite Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor in 1975, nearly 50 years ago, and hasn’t been on screen since (although he has cropped up in some print and audio stories in that time). Brilliantly, he’s still being voiced by the same actor from that old TV serial as well – Gabriel Woolf, now 91 years of age! He had also been the voice of The Beast in Series 2’s Impossible Astronaut two-parter in 2006, with David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.
Although it’s not required to have seen that old story, a special omnibus edition was broadcast on TV and uploaded to iPlayer two days before the final episode of the current series, as part of the Tales Of The Tardis spin-off. So I watched that to get some added context, as reviewed later in this post. Newer viewers like myself can get away without seeing it, but knowing that it’s such a big deal with older fans and watching Sutekh’s previous adventure does make it all the more interesting, and adds to the jeopardy when you know how powerful he is. You can also see that there are nods to that old story in the current series that in hindsight were clearly hinting at Sutekh’s return, including how the Doctor takes Sarah Jane back to the present day to show the consequences of not defeating Sutekh, and the inclusion of a character called Ibrahim.
I had assumed Russell was going to bring back one of the more famous villains like the Daleks, or even The Master (given that the tooth he’s imprisoned in was picked up at the end of The Giggle), especially because this season is meant be an on-ramp for newbies. So to pick a foe from nearly 50 years ago that modern viewers won’t be aware of is a bold move. But Sutekh is an amazing villain, and it is another great way of encouraging people to look into the show’s history.
8. Empire Of Death
- Writer – Russell T Davies
- First Broadcast – 22 June 2024
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This episode, along with the preceding part, was broadcast in selected cinemas late on Friday night into Saturday morning, introduced by a special message from Millie Gibson who thanked everybody for watching the series. And given the epic scale of the story and the production, it must have been quite an exciting experience. I didn’t go along to that though, as I was much safer and happier watching it at home at such a late hour.
In any case, after all the build-up throughout the series, and the cliffhanger of the previous episode, there are a lot of expectations riding on this finale. It doesn’t perfectly stick the landing in every respect, so it isn’t one of Russell’s best ever concluding episodes (the ones from his first tenure in 2005-2010 set the bar extremely high to be fair), but it is still very entertaining, so I enjoyed it.
The start of the episode is cinematically apocalyptic, as Sutekh wipes out everyone on Earth, and his death wave pervades the rest of space and time. I notice it’s been widely compared to the Avengers film Infinity Wars, where half the universe dies, but I’ve never seen that. The huge dust clouds bursting through the streets as the Doctor and Mel speed away on her Vespa are very impressive, and I love the fact that Morris Gibbons in UNIT has guns in his Segway! It’s particularly sad to see Kate Lethbridge-Stewart stepping up to a heroic death – but the emotions from that are quickly wiped away when it’s clear that everyone else has died, because it’s obvious there’ll be a big reset later on, even though it’s not yet clear how. It removes a lot of the jeopardy, but it is reassuring. And for all we know at this point, saving the universe could come at a huge cost to someone close to the Doctor, as can often happen (although thankfully it doesn’t in this instance).
The first major thing we learn is how Sutekh came to be in the Tardis, in a wonderfully tense face-off scene between him and the Doctor in the Time Window, where Sutekh is menacingly spinning the Tardis like a toy, with Harriet Arbinger at the controls inside. Like many other fans, I assumed that Sutekh had come out of the void and invaded the Tardis in Wild Blue Yonder last year, which is why it had been groaning from that point onwards. But it turns out he’s actually been hiding there ever since Pyramids Of Mars with the Fourth Doctor, because after being sent into an eternal time tunnel he somehow managed to hitch a lift on the Tardis when it flew past him in the vortex.
He then played the long game, using the time to evolve into the giant monster he’s become, and he generated a new ‘Angel of Death’ in every place the Tardis landed, ready to be used when the time was right (so ironically the God of Death has been creating life). He’s only made the more recent creations more prominent to the Doctor, which are called Susan because it’s his granddaughter’s name, now that he’s ready to act. And in all that time, the Tardis either didn’t know he was there or didn’t have the power to shake off such a force from beyond the known universe. Rather a lot has happened to the Tardis in all that time as well, so it’s a miracle he survived really, even if he is a god-like entity. Unsurprisingly there are already a ton of memes online about Sutekh being in lots of old adventures.
The story doesn’t say if he was duplicated when the Tardis was cloned in The Giggle, so that’s up for debate. Maybe he was. But in my head, given what had happened to the Doctor moments earlier in that story, I think the Tardis was bi-generated as well, thereby playing by the same rules of the Toymaker’s game. In other words, when the 14th Doctor gets to the end of his rehab period and goes into the second stage of his bi-generation, leaping back in time to emerge as the 15th, his Tardis does the same. The 15th Doctor was initially held within the body of the 14th Doctor until they were pulled apart, so likewise the 15th’s Tardis was held within the 14th’s Tardis until the 15th Doctor used the mallet to force it out. That works for me anyway.
Mind you, that would imply Sutekh has been tucked away within the 14th’s Tardis all that time, so he would surely see what his future self was doing to the universe and the fact that he failed, so could he have emerged to help? Or maybe he just wasn’t quite powerful enough yet, given how long he had to stay embedded in the Tardis to evolve. Or maybe he just leapt to the new Tardis when it was split away, knowing the 14th Doctor wouldn’t be travelling much anywhere. And come to that, what happened to the 14th Doctor during all this, when he saw the death wave coming? Because he would have noticed. Why didn’t he try to help? Did he fly Donna and the family away in his Tardis? Could Sutekh have stopped him doing that? Surely he can’t have perished, because the 15th Doctor wouldn’t then exist? So many questions, but then it is Doctor Who after all, you can’t expect everything to be explained. As long as it’s fun, that’s all that matters.
Anyway, that isn’t the only Tardis to feature in this finale. Given the power of memories in the Time Window, the Doctor and Millie are able to pull the Tardis from the video tape into physical form. And because of that, it becomes a Remembered Tardis, crammed full of artefacts from the Doctor’s past. It’s lovely to see Mel touching Colin Baker’s coat and Sylvester McCoy’s jumper with such fondness. And because everyone liked the set so much, they then reused it to film the Tales Of The Tardis spin-off. So it was a lovely surprise to see it in the main show and to discover that’s where it originated.
It’s also the setting for a very powerful moment when the Doctor realises it’s his fault, albeit unknowingly and unintentionally, that Sutekh’s Angels of Death have been spread across the cosmos. The agonising, raw screams of the broken Doctor are heartbreaking, with Ncuti Gatwa giving a superb performance throughout the episode, just as he has in the rest of the series. I know some have criticised him for weeping at some point in most of the episodes, but as I said earlier I think it’s great that he has feelings and isn’t afraid to show them. He doesn’t bawl like a baby every time, it’s usually much more low-key, especially compared to this moment.
The Doctor just needs a piece of metal, something real, to repair a monitor on the Remembered Tardis, because everything is otherwise made up of memories. He could pick a piece of metal up anywhere presumably, but somehow finds a random woman (played very nicely by Sian Clifford) still alive on a wrecked planet who gives him a spoon towards the end of their conversation. It would seem that it’s one of the many planets the Doctor hasn’t visited before, so it doesn’t have its own Angel of Death. But the death wave is so monumental that it’s still catching those planets as well, just having a slightly delayed effect, making people lose their memories and their own children before dying themselves. I’m not sure that entirely makes sense, given that it’s established that the slightest touch from the wave kills instantly. But still, the scene does effectively illustrate the consequences of the death wave on the universe, and the people who have seen others die and know the same is about to happen to them, so it is important and moving. And the Doctor is known for having used spoons in the past, so it is a nod to that too.
With the monitor repaired, and given the power from the Time Window that still somehow persists, Ruby is then shown the Prime Minister from 2046 in the episode 73 Yards (which we learn is the distance of the Tardis’ perception filter, so that’s another question ticked off – although we still never learn what the other version of Ruby was saying in that episode). The Doctor figures out that DNA testing was made mandatory in that year, so was the first time that Ruby’s mother would have been tested. So they fly to 2046 and look her up, while Mel gets possessed by Sutekh, who then somehow manages to teleport them back to UNIT in the present day, so Ruby can show him what they’ve found. Sutekh hasn’t killed the Doctor yet because he wants to know the answer to Ruby’s parentage in the same way we all do, believing her to be some powerful mystical being.
Ruby doesn’t show him though, smashing the screen she’s carrying instead. She just had to be close enough to attach the Doctor’s intelligent rope to Sutekh’s collar, which has a molecular bond he can’t break out of (as explained for a couple of traps in Rogue), and the Doctor uses the intelligent gloves to hold on to it (which does all the heavy work for him as explained in the Christmas special). The Doctor also uses a whistle to control his original Tardis so that it blasts Harriet out of it and comes to him – the Remembered Tardis having given him the rope and whistle to achieve all this.
They then take the dog for a walk, as it were, towing Sutekh through the time vortex so that the Doctor can bring the God of Death to death itself by ripping a hole in the vortex – i.e. by killing off death, you bring life. The Doctor, reluctantly accepting that he has to be a monster by killing something on this occasion, then releases Sutekh to burn up in the vortex, although knowing Russell there’s always a chance he could return.
So everything is restored the way it was, which presumably is only the lives that Sutekh and his army wiped out, rather than every dead person or extinct form of life there’s ever been. It’s a convenient deus ex machina by Russell, but you go with it, as the animation of Sutekh in the vortex looks incredible and Ncuti’s performance as he rocks around in the doorway of the Tardis is fantastic. Russell has also pointed out that the way the Tardis produces sparks when it touches the edge of the vortex in the opening titles foreshadows this scene, which is a nice touch.
Far more controversial is the eventual reveal of Ruby’s mother, which I’m not surprised has divided opinion, and Russell knew full well it would do that, because he knows how to get people talking as I said before. Personally, while it did feel underwhelming initially, I soon came to accept it, and I do rather like the fact that she’s just an ordinary person. It is the most appropriate resolution, but it just caught me off guard at first, having been led to expect something quite different. And I’m very much on board with the explanation that she only seemed to be extraordinary because of the importance placed upon her and the assumptions being made about her by the characters (and also by us fans). In and of itself, that’s fine. Emphasising the power of the ordinary is an excellent point to make, and has long been one of the hallmarks of Doctor Who. It also shows how Russell has taken advantage of the fanbase’s obsession with speculation and detail yet again.
However, he built it up a bit too much really, resulting in a few anomalies that are never explained. It’s still not clear why it kept snowing around Ruby during the series whenever the memory of Ruby Road came up, and it seems unnecessary for a 15-year-old girl to wear such an enormous cloak to hide her identity. A clearly uncertain Russell makes up something about time shrouding her in the commentary, but that doesn’t feel right. Furthermore, the fact that she pointed at the Ruby Road sign makes little sense, because nobody was able to see her do that – unless it was for the benefit of CCTV cameras nearby, but it’s still a very strange thing for a mother to do so in such dramatic fashion, and the girl was clearly named Ruby by the people who found her at the church because they already knew its location – after all, they didn’t name her Church! Maybe she only did that when viewed in the Time Window, as the Doctor remarks his memories keep changing, but it’s still strange. It’s also been pointed out that no such road sign was visible behind the Doctor and the Tardis in the Christmas special. So it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny.
Still, brushing all that aside, it does drive us to a beautifully moving scene where Ruby meets her mother Louise Miller (played by Faye McKeever) for the first time, and more tears are shed when Ruby says goodbye to the Doctor to spend time with her family. She will be back next series though, and it is hinted that the identity of her father might be the next thing to discover – in which case, maybe some things will make more sense when we know the full context of her family history. It wouldn’t be the first time that a key aspect of a character’s story has persisted across multiple series, especially as Seasons 1 & 2 were commissioned together (with hopefully more to follow), so Russell knew he didn’t have to wrap up everything here. Hence we still have the mystery of Mrs Flood as well, who provides an ominous conclusion to the episode on the roof of Ruby’s house, and Russell has promised that we’ll learn much more about her in the next series.
So altogether it is a very good final episode. I think the previous episode was better, because of the way it brought things together and built up to the amazing cliffhanger, but this isn’t far behind it despite the plot holes, and I’m glad the question of Ruby’s mother was resolved, even if (and indeed because) it didn’t go the way I had been expecting. It will be very interesting to see what else we learn about Ruby’s family in the next series, as well as Mrs Flood.
I also hope we see an appearance by the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan Foreman (played by Carole Ann Ford) as well, because all of the references to her, and the suggestions to the Doctor that he should seek her out, do seem to imply that’s going to happen at some point, and it certainly should.
Blu-Ray Extras
The discs in the box set contain all of the official extra features that were released in the Whoniverse on iPlayer, including the in-vision commentaries, the full-length half-hour episodes of Unleashed, and the new Tales Of The Tardis episode featuring Sutekh. Plus we get the behind the scenes features and other clips relating to each episode that were published on the Doctor Who Youtube channel, along with more content that’s exclusive to the box set.
It’s a fantastic collection of material altogether, I love how comprehensive the set is. But by my calculations, if you include the commentaries, Unleashed, behind the scenes videos, other bonus clips and Tales Of The Tardis, there are around 12 hours of extras altogether! So I do question why the back of the set only says there are over 6 hours of additional material, when they can quite comfortably claim that there’s double that! I can only think that they’ve counted the 10 Unleashed episodes and the 9 Behind The Scenes features, which come to nearly 6½ hours. But why not include the rest and shout about it to help it sell?
In-Vision Commentaries
Three of the episodes have in-vision commentaries, where you get to see members of the cast and production team as they chat together. It’s a shame they haven’t recorded them for every episode, but the ones we do get are engaging and enlightening:
- The Church On Ruby Road – Showrunner Russell T Davies, Actress Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday) & Producer Chris May.
- Boom – Showrunner Russell T Davies, Writer Steven Moffat & Executive Producer Joel Collins.
- Empire Of Death – Showrunner Russell T Davies, Actress Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush) & Producer Vicki Delow. This is perhaps the most interesting of the three, because it’s Bonnie’s first time watching the episode, so it’s fun to see her reactions to it, and it’s also sweet that she remarks how much prouder she is of being in the show now compared to her Classic era days.
Doctor Who Unleashed
This is the backstage series of half-hour insights accompanying each episode of the main show, plus a bonus edition of unseen material, all of which are included uncut on the DVD & Blu-ray releases. Hosted by the friendly and cheerful Welsh journalist Steffan Powell (who has given lots of lovely insights into making this show on his Instagram), it’s the successor to Doctor Who Confidential from Russell T Davies’ first era, just aimed a little more at a modern audience in terms of its style, and it’s very interesting and good fun.
It’s wonderful to see so many different members of the team highlighted and celebrated each week, including the ones that Steffan does a bit of work experience with, and it means we get to see inside the Bad Wolf studios as well. Plus there are great interviews with Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat, cast members and so on. There are also occasional glimpses of old adventures too, right back to the Classic era, to fill people in on relevant aspects of the show’s rich and extensive history, which is good.
Behind The Scenes
In addition to Unleashed, every episode gets a further Behind The Scenes feature of around 10-15 minutes each, looking at a few specific elements in more depth and sharing more interviews. These clips were originally posted on the Doctor Who Youtube channel and are well worth checking out as well.
Bonus Clips
A lot of additional clips from the Doctor Who Youtube channel are also included on the DVD & Blu-ray release, including brief interviews, insights and amusing asides with members of the cast, some of which are quite fun while others are really short and pointless. And there are also some videos that are exclusive to the DVD and Blu-ray sets, such as interesting scene breakdowns by the directors.
The many bonus clips on the DVD & Blu-ray are as follows:
- Christmas Special – The Church On Ruby Road:
- Get To Know Ncuti Gatwa (1:15) & Millie Gibson (1:14)
- Millie Gibson’s Set Tour (3:10) – Ruby and Carla’s flat.
- Behind The Scenes Trailer (1:25)
- Christmas Trailer (0:42) – Not listed on the leaflet inside the case.
- Episode 1 – Space Babies:
- Finding Fifteen (3:18)
- Video Diary Of A Bogeyman (4:28)
- Ncuti Gatwa – Message To The Fans (1:09)
- Episode 2 – The Devil’s Chord:
- Millie Gibson – Set Tour (2:11)
- Jinkx Monsoon – The Looks Of Maestro (3:39)
- Jinkx Monsoon – Trying British Food (1:48)
- Director’s Scene Breakdown (5:10) – Maestro and the Doctor’s musical battle.
- Episode 3 – Boom:
- Episode 4 – 73 Yards:
- Millie Gibson – First Day Video Diary (2:28)
- Aneurin Barnard – Roger Ap Gwilliam Profile (0:46)
- Ncuti & Millie – Welsh Lingo (1:28) – A quiz about Welsh phrases.
- Episode 5 – Dot And Bubble:
- Callie Cooke – Lindy Pepper-Bean Profile (0:24)
- Callie Cooke – Set Tour (2:11)
- Callie Cooke – Lindy Sneaks Into The TARDIS (0:59)
- Ncuti & Millie – Top 5 People In Their Bubble (0:56)
- Director’s Scene Breakdown (5:11) – Boiler room scene.
- Episode 6 – Rogue:
- Rogue Dance Scene (1:35)
- Jonathan Groff – Rogue Profile (0:52)
- Jonathan Groff – Regency Costume Quiz (1:08)
- Jonathan Groff – Getting To Know (0:48)
- Ncuti & Millie – Most Likely To… (1:55)
- Director’s Scene Breakdown (4:47) – Rogue and the Doctor dancing.
- Episode 7 – The Legend Of Ruby Sunday:
- Susan Twist – Who is Susan Triad? (2:38)
- Jemma Redgrave – UNIT Set Tour (3:19)
- Lenny Rush – Getting To Know (1:18)
- Villain Reveal (0:32) – A quick recap with Sutekh’s voice more prominent.
- Episode 8 – Empire Of Death:
- Script To Screen (2:37)
- Bonnie Langford – Remembered TARDIS Tour (5:32)
- Genesis Lynea – TARDIS Tour (0:48)
- Ncuti & Millie – Favourite Memories (10:09)
- Epilogue (5:00)
- Director’s Scene Breakdown (5:17) – The Doctor and Mel’s escape.
Tales Of The Tardis: Pyramids Of Mars
To tie-in with the return of Sutekh, and add extra context for new viewers like myself who had never heard of him before, this new edition of Tales Of The Tardis was broadcast on TV and published on iPlayer two days before the final episode of the current series, plus it’s on the DVD & Blu-ray release.
As with the previous 6 episodes that were released for the 60th anniversary, it presents a special 75-minute omnibus version of the Classic era story Pyramids Of Mars, including updated visual effects (most notably with the time tunnel) and music cues.
It’s topped and tailed by recollections from the Remembered Tardis, full of props from the Doctor’s old adventures, which was developed for the current series finale and was then retained for this Tales Of The Tardis spin-off series. Here the 15th Doctor faces Ruby across a campfire-like prop, which resembles a miniature version of the 13th Doctor’s Tardis interior, as he tells her about his previous encounter and narrow victory over Sutekh. He also expresses a deep fear that he won’t be able to defeat him this time, now that Sutekh has evolved to become even more powerful.
And you can see why he’s afraid, because Pyramids Of Mars is a very tense story. Tom Baker is brilliant as the 4th Doctor, with humour and warmth in light-hearted moments, along with a mixture of fear, intelligence and determination when things are much more serious. And who couldn’t love the wonderful Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith with her humanity and emotion, coupled with a great sense of fun that’s evident in the earlier moments.
Sutekh – voiced with great malevolence by Gabriel Woolf, just as he is in the current series – is a formidable opponent indeed, being the last of the Osirans, who were so powerful and intelligent that they were worshipped as gods. Having been imprisoned by his brother Horus, he is able to set his plans for release in motion by possessing professor Marcus Scarman, who uncovers his burial chamber in Egypt, and sends him back to England to do what’s necessary, aided by service robots disguised as mummies.
Anyone who gets in the way is killed on the spot, being given Sutekh’s “gift of death”, and a defensive forcefield is placed around the building (which will eventually become UNIT’s HQ). The fact that Sutekh can possess, control and kill people with such ease is bad enough, but he is also extremely clever, and truly feels that what he is doing is good, so he’s not a villain you can reason with or talk to. He’s just evil and ruthless, and has power beyond even what the Time Lords can deal with. We’re told it took around 740 Osirans working together to imprison him in the first place, which shows the amount of power they needed!
So despite his efforts, the Doctor is unable to stop Sutekh’s release, allowing him to proceed down a spacetime tunnel towards Earth. Fortunately the Doctor realises there is just enough time to stop him before he arrives, and is able to extend the final point of the tunnel into the distant future, ensuring that Sutekh will be dead by the time he reaches the end of it. Although we now know different of course.
It’s therefore a very dark, tense and entertaining adventure, which puts the Doctor and the universe in real peril. It also brings to light some aspects of the modern series that have clearly been hinting at Sutekh’s return. For example, Sarah Jane questions why they can’t just go back to 1980, because that’s where she’s from and Sutekh clearly didn’t win. But the Doctor takes her back to show her the devastating consequences if history is changed, much to her horror. That was the only time the Doctor did that in the Classic era, and it just happened for the first time in the modern era too, with the 15th Doctor showing Ruby the future destruction that would occur if the Maestro isn’t stopped in The Devil’s Chord. I wonder if many Classic fans picked up on that, I expect some did.
So I enjoyed watching that, as it was great to get further background into Sutekh and to experience another Classic story for the first time. The original version of the story is also available on iPlayer of course, plus it was released on DVD with bonus material in 2004, and it was an extra feature on the DVD & Blu-ray of Series 4 of The Sarah Jane Adventures as a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen. I’ll be going through the complete DVD boxset of the Sarah Jane Adventures as the next instalment in my series of Doctor Who reviews, because amazingly I’ve never got around to watching that spin-off in its entirety before and now is clearly the perfect time to rectify that. So I’ll check out the original version of the Pyramids Of Mars when I get to that point.
Other Extras
Deleted Scenes
To mark the 61st anniversary of the show on 23 November 2024, the BBC have posted a collection of deleted scenes exclusively on Youtube, with previously unseen footage from The Giggle (in the 60th anniversary specials) and several episodes from Season 1, with an accompanying text commentary by Russell T Davies to explain why they were deleted. So it’s a shame they weren’t included in the Blu-ray set, but it’s nice to see them here.
Doctor Who Prom
Two performances of a special Doctor Who Prom, the first such concert for 11 years, took place at the Royal Albert Hall at 2:30pm and 7pm on Monday 26 August 2024, numbered 47 and 48 in the Proms schedule.
I wasn’t able to attend in person unfortunately, but the second concert was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and on TV it eventually aired on BBC Two on Christmas Eve, after which it was made available on BBC iPlayer for at least a year. There’s no audio description or BSL for the TV version, but thankfully I don’t need those in this instance as I can see it well enough. And it’s nice to note that it was audio described to audience members in the venue by Timna Fibert and had BSL interpretation by Kate Green, so it’s great that they made it accessible to the people who were there on the day at least.
Anyway, just listening to the music is amazing, but the TV version is naturally much better, as you get to see the clips from the show and the aliens walking through the auditorium to illustrate the different compositions, as well as the excellent performers themselves. Furthermore, I’m delighted that the TV version is uncut – apart from the interval being edited out, obviously – so the 1 hour 50 minute programme includes every piece of music. That makes a nice change, as the previous concerts (which this new one should really be included with on BBC iPlayer) were trimmed down. So I hope it ends up as an extra feature on the Season 2 Blu-ray next year, and still in its complete form.
The prom was hosted by Catherine Tate, who played Donna Noble in the show and was very funny here, while the music was performed by the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, the London Philharmonic Choir, soprano Aida Garifullina and other vocalists, all conducted by Alastair King. We got to hear several of Murray Gold’s compositions from the recent series and the 60th anniversary specials, along with some classic pieces from his previous tenure on the show, and a medley from Segun Akinola’s era was included as well. So there was a great variety of music. Murray and Segun were also in the audience, and appeared on stage at the end to massive cheers, along with showrunners Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat.
The full setlist was as follows:
- Fifteen – A fantastic opener, beginning with the beautiful melody from The Doctor’s Theme from Series 1 back in 2005, before ramping up the tempo and segueing into the current Doctor’s catchy tune. There’s a rehearsal clip online to give a taste of it.
- The Doctor, Donna And The Toymaker – Music from The Star Beast and The Giggle in the 60th anniversary specials.
- Into The Vortex – Music from Space Babies and Rogue in the recent series.
- Operation Maestro – A sketch including specially filmed footage, where the audience help the Vlinx and the Doctor defeat Maestro from The Devil’s Chord, who is trying to get the orchestra to perform I’ve Got A Dog from the episode.
- I Am The Doctor – The brilliant uplifting theme for Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor, during which various aliens from his tenure on the show invade the aisles to surprise the audience, before that iteration of the Doctor gives his rousing speech from the Pandorica story to get rid of them.
- The Life Of Sunday – The pretty waltz theme for companion Ruby Sunday, played on the piano by the character in The Devil’s Chord, during which the hooded figure carrying the baby walks through the auditorium before laying the child on the stage.
- Vale Decem – The powerful piece that accompanied the regeneration of the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant, alongside clips of all the regenerating Doctors. One of my all-time favourite compositions from the show, it’s performed exquisitely by soprano Aida Garifullina, who quite rightly gets a standing ovation. A Dalek then emerges, ordering everything to stop for the interval.
- Interval – On the live Radio 3 broadcast, host Georgia Mann filled the 15 minutes of downtime by having a great discussion with composer Murray Gold and Sound Of Cinema presenter Matthew Sweet, about music from the classic and modern eras of the show. On the TV version, meanwhile, there’s a 4-minute behind the scenes look at the aliens and monsters being prepared for the show, including chats with the performers, the people looking after the costumes, and the choreographer.
- A Good Man – The punchy theme for Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor kicks off the second half in style. As with the 11th Doctor’s theme earlier, various aliens from his era enter the auditorium and he forcefully dispatches them.
- 73 Yards To Finetime – More music from the latest season, this time taken from 73 Yards, Boom and the closing scene in Dot And Bubble. The mysterious lady from 73 Yards is on the stage for the first part of this.
- Companions Suite – A medley of the beautiful themes for Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Amy Pond, Clara Oswald and Bill Potts.
- Thirteenth Doctor – Music by Segun Akinola celebrating Jodie Whittaker’s reign as the Time Lord, taken from The Woman Who Fell To Earth, Spyfall, Demons Of The Punjab and The Power Of The Doctor. I’m not a huge fan of Segun’s music in the show, but the orchestral arrangement here works much better. Some Cybermen re-enter the auditorium during this medley as well.
- Abigail’s Song – The beautiful song that was performed by Katherine Jenkins in the 2010 festive special A Christmas Carol is sung beautifully here by Aida.
- The Legend Of Ruby Sunday – Anita Dobson comes out on stage as Mrs Flood to introduce this piece from the Season 1 finale, featuring the Albert Hall’s mighty organ played by Anna Lapwood, and incorporating the Doctor’s powerful words to Sutekh as he pulls him through the time vortex along with his farewell to Ruby. Anita makes a nice reference to Queen during her introduction as well, given that she’s married to guitarist Brian May.
- Doctor Who Theme – Obviously. Had to be there, and it’s a fabulous rendition, with all the aliens coming back in to the auditorium as well. Catherine Tate quite rightly gives Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire a mention in her introduction to it.
- There’s Always A Twist – The lively song from the end of The Devil’s Chord provided a fun surprise encore, led by singers and dancers dressed in colourful 60s attire on the stage and in the aisles. Afterwards, Catherine Tate credits all of the performers to huge applause as they come out for the final bows, and they’re joined by composers Murray and Segun.
Press & Interviews
These are some other extras that naturally aren’t on the Blu-ray:
- BBC Media Centre – Here you can find several press release interviews with people who have worked on the show.
- Disney+ Media Kit – Lots of great images, a trailer and cast biographies can be found here.
- Interviews – To help promote the series in America as well as the UK, Russell, Ncuti and Millie went on a massive publicity drive, being interviewed for a lot of TV programmes, radio shows, magazines, podcasts, Youtube videos, etc. You can see a lot of TV & video examples towards the end of my Season 1 playlist, which also includes lots of music tracks, reaction videos and other random clips.
Conclusion
All in all, this has been another great series of Doctor Who. It doesn’t have the strongest start, sure, but once it really gets going it has some very compelling and exciting stories, and is sometimes quite thought-provoking too. I love the new Doctor, as I think Ncuti Gatwa has filled the Time Lord’s shoes perfectly with his positivity, energy, humour, intelligence, emotions and acting range. And Millie Gibson has been brilliant as Ruby, especially for someone so young taking on such a big role. I’m also delighted that Russell T Davies is running the show again, while the supporting cast, gorgeous visuals, sublime music, clever special effects, and all the other aspects of the production have really helped to bring it all to life as well. And I’m thrilled that the series has brought itself up to date by being more inclusive of people from diverse backgrounds.
So I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts about the series, and indeed well done if you made it this far. I’m looking forward to the next Christmas special in December and then Season 2 next year, but in the meantime I’ll continue watching and reviewing some of the previous series from the modern era of the show, so keep an eye out for that in the months ahead!
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