DOCTOR WHO – “Empire of Death” Review – Sutekh Sucketh

Clint Hassell gives his SPOILER-filled commentary on the eighth episode of Series 14.

Note: this review contains full SPOILERS for episode 8 of Series 14.

The narrative of “Empire of Death,” the Series 14 finale of Doctor Who, is divided into two parts.  The first section directly follows the cliffhanger from last week’s “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” and features the execution of Sutekh’s plan—the release of a death wave of dust that annihilates all life across the Universe.  The scenes of the resulting chaos and the Doctor’s escape through the streets of London on Mel’s moped look high-budget and are marvelously directed and edited.  The second part of the episode is much quieter, featuring only the Doctor, Ruby, and Mel against Sutekh and his acolytes.

The best scene of the episode is a seemingly unconnected, dream-like interlude that divides the episode’s two parts.  In the scene, the Doctor lands on an unnamed planet and encounters a “kind woman,” played to perfection by Sian Clifford, struggling to recall essentials elements of her existence, demonstrating that even concepts memory and facts are succumbing to Sutekh’s death wave.  The scene is magnificent—a tiny, one-act play that is a character study of grief and trauma, but also of compassion.  It examines the definition of meaning, asking Do things matter if they can’t be remembered? before answering with a resounding yes when the kind woman remarks, “I think my daughter died, and I forgot.”  The tone of the scene is a complete departure from the episode’s first act, forming an intermission of sorts that sells the time jump between the narrative’s first and second halves.

Does the logic of the scene make sense?  No.  How has this woman survived on this barren planet?  Why did the woman’s baby succumb to the death wave, but not the woman herself?  Why is metal so scarce?  While all life was eradicated, the Universe’s infrastructure remained, as evidenced by the DNA scanning technology still working in 2046.  Further, the Doctor has an entire TARDIS cobbled together of ephemera—was there not a single scrap of metal that could be jammed into the port of the viewscreen?  Yet, the scene works, not because it adheres to logic, but because the emotional content resonates so deeply.

Additionally, the extended epilogue of “Empire of Death” is terrific as Ruby ends her tenure as companion to explore relationships with her newly discovered biological parents.  While it is sad to lose such a fantastic companion after only one series—not to mention the winsome Millie Gibson—it is a fitting resolution to Ruby’s “mystery girl” storyline.  Her entire character arc was predicated on how her foundling status affected her sense of identity and concept of family.  “Empire of Death” resolves her mystery and allows her character the choose a meaningful life with loved ones over searching for meaning amongst the stars.  Ruby’s exit is heartbreaking but earned—the healthy alternative to Amy and Rory’s final character arcs and the ending that Clara should’ve received in “The Name of the Doctor.”  Unless, of course, Ruby returns to Doctor Who in Series 15, in which case all of this thematic worldbuilding is undone.

The fact that showrunner Russell T Davies has already revealed that Ruby Sunday does return in Series 15 is apropos, as there are many instances throughout the script of “Empire of Death” where Davies works to establish a narrative element that he quickly undermines.  Consider how much of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” was dedicated to deducing the identity of Ruby’s mother using UNIT’s time window, only to have the issue quickly resolved, once the UNIT’s technicians “cleaned up the VHS.”  Not one of the brilliant minds at UNIT thought to do this before using the aged videocassette as the input upon which the holographic recreation was based?  Similarly, the resolution of why Ruby’s mother pointed at the Doctor on the night of Ruby’s birth—she was “naming” her child, repeating verbatim a plot point from “The Church on Ruby Road”—demonstrates that Davies was too lost in his own emotional reverie to make sense.  How was this naming Ruby?  Who was there to hear or understand what she wanted her child’s name to be?  To further the mystery of Ruby’s origin, her mother needed to seem mysterious—thus the hooded robe and the ominous pointing—but the explanation is so nonsensical that it undercuts the gravitas of the reveal.

Worse, the Doctor then encourages Ruby to not reconnect with her mother.  Contextually, Fifteen is conflicted about his relationship with his granddaughter, Susan; however, the episode doesn’t quite connect the Doctor’s internal struggle to celebrate Ruby’s reunion with her birth mother to his refusal to give himself a similar opportunity.  Note how the scene where Ruby finally meets her mother, Louise, cuts away from their initial conversation to focus on the Doctor’s reaction, undermining the emotional resolution of Ruby’s entire character arc.

“Empire of Death” ignored Ruby’s conclusion in more than one way, as the episode does more to honor Mel’s tenure as a companion than Ruby’s.  During Sutekh’s initial reign of dusty oblivion, Mel is both distraught and ready to fight, a believable update to a companion considered to be one of the classic era’s great “scream queens.”  The shot of Mel discovering the Sixth Doctor’s cravat and coat is quietly affirming.

Another example of the episode’s script immediately undermining its own efforts occurs in the initial scenes detailing the release of Sutekh’s death wave.  Seeing Kate Lethbridge-Stewart—a beloved legacy character with ties to the classic series—die with staunch dignity, acknowledging the Doctor “with thanks and love,” is massively effective.  The weight of Kate’s demise is immediately diluted by the death of Mrs. Flood, as the enigma of that woman’s identity has yet to be revealed, indicating that her story would not end by Sutekh’s hand.  Where Cherry’s death was heart-wrenching, Carla’s similarly tipped the scale towards disbelief at its permanence.

However, none of this compares to how “Empire of Death” undercuts the threat of Sutekh, a literal god of death who most wants to revel in the silence of a lifeless Universe.  No, wait—what Sutekh really wants is to know who Ruby’s mother is, and he is even willing to let the Doctor and his companions continue to live to learn the answer.  The episode reveals that, because all living things have some number of dead cells within them, Sutekh can see through the entirety of time and space to find—and even possess—anyone . . . except he can’t see the identity of this one woman.  What kind of miracle facial cleanser does Ruby’s mother use that she can exfoliate away all of her dead skin cells?  No wonder she looks so youthful two decades later!

Sutekh’s defeat is similarly silly, as he is unleashed (pun intended) into the time vortex, where he is seemingly disintegrated.  Is this the last of Sutekh?  Consider that the malevolent god survived one seeming demise within the vortex only to emerge evolved into a more powerful form.  Davies claims in interviews that Sutekh is “finally, finally” dead, but it’s never explicitly stated on screen—a plot point that necessitated only a couple of lines of dialogue to clarify.

Also nonsensical is the Memory TARDIS, which takes a simile—“memories are like a time machine”—and factualizes it into a plot point.  While the show has made use of abstract concepts-cum-material villains like the Toymaker, the Trickster, and the Maestro, this still doesn’t explain why Ruby’s memory is key to fully materializing this second TARDIS.  Wouldn’t the Doctor have more vivid recollections of his own time ship?  Having seen only one TARDIS interior, why would Ruby’s memory result in a TARDIS crafted from elements of previous Doctor’s TARDISes?

Speaking of conceptual villains, “Empire of Death” may be the best indicator of Series 14’s remaining unsolved mystery—who is Mrs. Flood?  While her recognition of the TARDIS and of the Doctor as a Time Lord seem to point towards a Gallifreyan origin—perhaps Missy, or the Rani—Mrs. Flood’s awareness of Sutekh as one of the pantheon of gods suggests that Flood herself is part of this group.  Consider the episode’s closing lines:

Mrs. Flood: “And that’s how the story of ‘The Church on Ruby Road’ comes to an end: with a very happy ending for little Ruby Sunday.  But life goes on, doesn’t it? Ruthlessly.  And what happens, you might wonder, oh, what happens to that mysterious traveler in time and space known as the Doctor?  I’m sorry to say his story ends in absolute terror.  Night-night!”

Could Mrs. Flood be, say, the Narrator, the god of storytelling and narrative—a character that would allow Davies to write plotlines with metatextual abandon?  Here’s hoping that, whoever Mrs. Flood may be, the reveal is handled better than the ongoing mysteries of Series 14.

Random Musings

(Time) Capsule Review

While “Empire of Death” reveals Sutekh’s nefarious plan and resolves the ongoing mystery of the identity of Ruby’s mother, many of the episode’s stellar moments—including the death of Kate Stewart, Ruby’s reunion with her birth mother, and the companion’s final exit from the TARDIS—are undermined by nonsensical plot points or underdeveloped themes.  Note the episode’s dream-like interlude, which weaves memory and melancholy into a treatise on meaning.

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