*Spoilers*
15th May, 2024: an introduction.
Right …
It’s Saturday!
And, yes: I’ve got the theme tune to Tiswas banging around my head.
It’s that “Saturday is Tiswas Day” line!
Argh!
~≈👨🏿⚕️≈~
At any rate … ?
It’s Saturday.
And?
That means I’ll be watching “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”: the seventh episode of this current series of Doctor Who, today.
The BBC iPlayer version, rather than the broadcast one.
I’ll let you know what I though, by tomorrow night at the latest.
I’ll see you then.
15th June, 2024: “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”.
Part One: the Summary.
Episode 7 — “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” — opens with a shot of London’s skyline: and shows us the TARDIS landing at UNIT’s London HQ.
A landing that gives the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) a chance to introduce Ruby (Millie Gibson) to UNIT head, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), and to a revised team that includes Rose Noble-Temple (Yasmin Finney) amongst others.
And that also includes new scientific adviser, Morris (Lenny Rush).
The Doctor hasn’t turned up purely for old times sakes.
He wants UNIT’s help in finding the mysterious woman who he and Ruby keep meeting.
Someone UNIT … have already found.
It seems the mysterious figure is technologist, Susan Triad (Susan Twist), head of Triad Technologies.
And someone UNIT already has an eye on: an eye in the shape of former companion, Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford).
Post titles … ?
Post titles, we see that the Doctor isn’t immediately worried about Susan Triad: despite sharing her name with his granddaughter, and that another version of her name — S. Triad — is an anagram of ‘TARDIS’.
He’s more concerned — right now — with Ruby Sunday: and wants UNIT’s help finding Ruby’s unknown mother.
Or, at least, finding the mysterious figure who left Ruby at a church door many years ago.
Something Kate Lethbridge-Stewart is happy to help with … as long as the Doctor doesn’t ask why they ignored his orders about a Time Window.
Using that window … ?
Is going to show both Ruby, and the Doctor, much more than they were hoping for.
~≈👨🏿⚕️≈~
Part Two: Thoughts.
Right …
What did I make of this penultimate episode?
Of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”? And of the return of an ancient enemy of the Doctor’s?
Let’s start with the villain of the piece, shall we?
Back in the proverbial day, The Sarah Jane Adventures — and some of the extended Whoniverse media — featured a Lovecraftian group of things known as the Pantheon of Discord.
Or just ‘the pantheon’, for short.
Members of the pantheon?
Included the Trickster, featured in The Sarah Jane Adventures, and the Mara, from Kinda and Snakedance: along side other demonic beings in the extended Whoniverse.
And — as of this series? — the Toymaker, and Maestro: from “The Giggle” and “The Devil’s Chord”, respectively.
“The Legend of Ruby Sunday” ends with the revelation that Susan Triad is the Pantheon’s most powerful being.
Is Sutekh.
The Ancient Egyptian God of Death last seen in 1975’s Pyramids of Mars!
Updated … and looking nastier than ever.
I have to say, I wasn’t too surprised.
Granted, I was wondering if this season’s Big Bad was going to be either the Master: the stealing of that tooth in “The Giggle” seemed proof of that.
Or the Daleks: there seemed to be no hints of that.
But … ?
The appearance of Sutekh in this episode’s cliffhanger was both mildly unsurprising — the suggestion’s been floating around on X/formerly Twitter for a while — and pleasing.
Partly because it’s nice to have a returning creature, and expand its story.
But also because the character is still being voiced by Gabriel Woolf: the original voice of Sutekh, many years ago. And the man who voiced the Beast in “The Impossible Planet”/“The Satan Pit”.
Granted, I can’t see how Sutekh survived the end of Pyramids of Mars.
But just as equally? Know the Fourth Doctor trapped in a moving time corridor: which makes sense of those “He who waits” references scattered through this series.
Either way, it’s a welcome return.
~≈👨🏿⚕️≈~
Part Three: Thoughts and Observations.
What else did I think about “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”?
Or, at least, notice?
There’s a couple of minor things that caught me.
There’s a throwaway line from Harriet: about a CCTV camera being sixty-six meters away from the Church where Ruby had been found as a child.
Seventy three yards away, in other word: matching the title of an earlier episode from this series.
There’s also a minor character called Corporal Alice Sullivan in this episode: played by Jasmine Bayes.
No: I don’t know if the character’s supposed to be related to Lieutenant Harry Sullivan, one of the Fourth Doctor’s early companions.
But would like to think she is.
It seems an appropriate way to honour the death, many years ago, of Ian Marter, the actor that played Harry
And … ?
I have to confess I was impressed by other things: and annoyed by a minor thing.
Harriet’s big “One True Name” speech? Was suitably menacing.
The make-up effects for both Harriet (Genesis Lynea) and Twist, herself?
Both hideous and reminiscent of Baron Samadhi in Live and Let Die.
And the re-design of Sutekh himself?
The only word I can use there is ‘wow’.
It was both monstrous, and honoured the original 1975 design!
My only complaint?
Is a minor one: and one I suspect isn’t the fault of the production crew: nor, necessarily, the episode.
My TV is an old fashioned, dumb TV: connected to an AppleTV 4k that provides the all the smart functionality I want.
My dumb TV is not the best: and, at times?
Doesn’t necessarily play audio well: however loudly or quietly I play or stream a given video.
For me, the Fifteenth Doctor’s “It was the wrong anagram” line was a difficult one: very muffled, in other words.
Usually?
I’d have the subtitles on.
Except that there are no subtitles on the Apple TV version of iPlayer.
According to the BBC webpage about it?
There’s “technical challenges associated with delivering subtitles to Apple TV”, that “require a significantly different solution to that which we use on all other platforms”.
I eventually found out what the Fifteenth Doctor’s line was, by watching the iPlayer version of the scene: on my Mac, in the desktop version of Safari, the Mac’s default browser.
So … ?
I don’t know whose fault the lack of subtitles is: although I suspect it’s possibly the BBC having issues, as the iPlayer subtitles work on one Apple product, but not another.
Either way, the sooner it’s solved, the better for all.
~≈👨🏿⚕️≈~
Part Four: Finally.
So … with all that said …
What did I make of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”?
It has to be said, the episode is superb!
It’s given us more mystery about Ruby, it’s given us scares, it’s given us a returning monster, it’s answered some questions …
And it’s left us with one hell of a cliff hanger.
Frankly, with an episode like that … ?
I’ll be back, next week: I’ll be watching “Empire of Death” on Saturday, 22nd June: and posting my written and video reviews of it by Sunday, 23rd June.
See you then!
“The Legend of Ruby Sunday”★★★★
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