2nd Opinion, Take 1 “Empire of Death” – The Good, the Bad and the Confusing

Gustaff Behr reviews the eighth episode of Series 14.

Recall last week how I asked for a Doctor Who finale that could satisfy everyone? I should really live my life aiming for the ground rather than the stars. At least then I wouldn’t have so many blisters. While “Empire of Death” isn’t a bad season finale, but it’s certainly not on the level I was expecting from a showrunner who has had more than a decade to dream up new ideas.

The Good

Once again, Rose Noble does absolutely nothing. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even have a single line of dialogue so can you imagine what an awesome gig that must be? We’ll pay you a guest-starring salary, and all you have to do is stand there…in the background. I really do have to wonder what the point of this character is sometimes.

Moving on to more important topics, RTD manages to hit several clever beats throughout this story. Notably, the intelligent rope used to bind Sutekh is the same as used by the Goblins in the Christmas special which operates on different dimension physics and also explains why Sutekh couldn’t simply age it to dust or bite through it. Not only that but did anyone notice the return of Matt Smith’s time vortex effects with the clouds and lightning storms? It seemed like a fitting backdrop for Sutekh’s demise, given how violent this version of the vortex is compared to the others. The episode even went the extra mile by editing Sutekh’s background in Pyramids of Mars to resemble Smith’s era vortex. One question I do have is regarding the TARDIS splitting in two at the end of “The Giggle”. Does that mean there is now a second, past version of Sutekh waiting in the wings, who has just seen his Empire of Death timeline come undone?

I have also seen a couple of fans questioning why Sutekh would even want to cling to the TARDIS for so long given everything it’s been through, but hindsight pretty effectively establishes Sutekh’s endurance is nothing short of extraordinary. He has apparently clung to the TARDIS for millennia, enduring numerous catastrophic events, including the Time War, the Siege of Trenzalore and a trip to the end of the universe. He also survived being at the epicenter of an explosion that spread through all of time and space, damage from the Flux, and even the TARDIS splitting in two. Some might question why he would want to expose himself to so much unnecessary danger, but his survival of Big Bang Two underscores his virtual indestructibility in our universe. None of the above bothers him because he’s just that powerful. He is only destroyed in this episode when his Empire of Death timeline is ‘killed’…and we also don’t know for sure he’s dead. Though, we get another call back to 1974 with Sutekh finally dying in the exact manner the Doctor originally intended at the conclusion of Pyramids of Mars.

Now the idea of bringing death to death to restore life is interesting, but it only worked for me when I realized that Davies bookends this season by having the Doctor save the Bogeyman in “Space Babies” from being thrown out the airlock while here the Doctor leaves Sutekh to be flung into the Time Vortex again, aiming for his destruction once and for all.

The Bad

Given the extra money and the enormous build-up throughout the season, it is massively disappointing how decidedly anti-climactic the reveal of Ruby’s mother is. It also hurts rewatches of previous episodes since we know some of these questions aren’t given 1) an answer or 2) a satisfying one. Why did Ruby terrify Maestro in “The Devil’s Chord”? Why does Sutekh care about some random human who died during his death wave? How come Sutekh couldn’t see Ruby’s mother identity before or after 2004 if he can see all across space and time? Because this inability is simply a plot convenience to explain away why Sutekh doesn’t just kill the Doctor and Ruby. The real answer is that Russell T Davies couldn’t resolve the narrative corner he’d written himself into.

Ruby’s mother wasn’t pointing at the Doctor or the TARDIS, but at a street sign, seemingly aware of the camera placement and the viewers at home.

We also have some missed opportunities in the Doctor not playing the spoons for Mel after he retrieves it; or finally reuniting Fifteen with Susan Foreman. Given their deep historical connection, this reunion could have provided rich emotional depth and continuity, bringing a sense of closure and celebration of the show’s legacy. It also ties into the familial bonds that this season has been aiming for. Similarly, the reunion between Ruby and her mother felt rather unsatisfying for several reasons. First, it seemed unrealistic that everyone would instantly become best friends and fully accept a woman who likely caused Ruby significant trauma as a child. What is Louise Miller’s partner’s feelings towards her abandoning a child as a teen? The reuniting of an abandoned mother and child is a very sensitive matter and shouldn’t be simplified as it was in the episode.

Additionally, the final goodbye between the Doctor and Ruby felt cheap as well. Previous Doctors, like the Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth, have established that it’s not uncommon for companions to travel part-time with the Doctor. In fact, I expected Ncuti’s Doctor to say, “Go on, have your fun, I’ll just hop to six months from now,” and head straight there in his time machine. This departure from established norms felt disappointing and diminished the overall moment.

The Confusing

This episode did leave me scratching my head with several plot points that either lack a proper explanation or contradict previously established elements.

• The footage of Ruby’s mother glitching and obscuring her face serves as a convenient plot device to maintain mystery, but it lacks a logical in-universe explanation since Ruby’s mother doesn’t have any special powers or abilities.
• The Remembered TARDIS is described as being made of memories and sustained by Ruby, but it contains items from times and places beyond her experience. How does it acquire memories or objects from events Ruby has no knowledge of?
• The phenomenon with the television screen where only Ruby can view the answers to her questions also lacks a clear rationale. If she’s completely human, why is this happening exclusively to her?
• The necessity for the Doctor to travel to a distant planet to find a piece of metal, despite having various metallic items like a Cyberman head in the Remembered TARDIS, grinds the momentum to a halt for a meaningless scene that is designed solely to bait the audience into believing that the random, forgetful woman might be Ruby’s mother.
• The episode reveals that Ruby’s mother intended for her to be named “Ruby” by pointing at a specific street. However, the individuals who found baby Ruby somehow knew this without the information being communicated to them? Did they peek at the script?
• Ruby’s ability to make it snow is never explained. If she is just an ordinary human, why can’t millions of other adopted people affect their environment when they dream about finding their birth parents?
• In “Boom,” the futuristic ambulance’s inability to identify Ruby’s next of kin, despite having her mother’s DNA from thousands of years ago, is puzzling. Why can’t advanced alien technology match DNA records?
• The episode leaves viewers guessing about what exactly Ruby didn’t understand about her mother’s DNA test results, only to reveal that her mother is a normal human. What is so confusing about that?

Individually, these might seem like nitpicks, but together they highlight a major issue. Russell T Davies set up a mystery at the start of the series, inviting us to follow along and piece it together. He gave us clues in every episode, making us feel like we were working toward a big reveal. But now it feels like some of those clues have been swapped out or were never meant to fit together in the first place. It’s frustrating to realize the puzzle was unsolvable all along. It’s like playing a game where the rules keep changing or reading a mystery novel where you’re never given the chance to figure it out. It feels like a trick to keep us watching, only to leave us with something that doesn’t work in the end. That’s not just disappointing; it’s infuriating.

So, while “Empire of Death” had moments of cleverness and potential, it ultimately falls short of delivering a satisfying resolution. The mishandling of Ruby’s mother plot line, the contrived plot devices involving Sutekh, and missed opportunities for deeper emotional connections all contribute to a sense of disappointment. The episode’s failure to address key questions and its departure from established norms leaves a large gap between expectation and execution.

…We have gotten this in live action, by the way: