Doctor Who(40) 14:07: The Legend of Ruby Sunday.

[nixie]

Very enjoyable and a two parter.
Donna's daughter Rose works for UNIT.
Mrs Flood, I don't think she is Susan, more likely a plant to watch Ruby.
I do think we are going to meet Susan again sometime in the future .

 

[Provincial]

It was very enjoyable. Sadly I thought the villain's appearance was a bit dodgy though, less flesh and blood and more papier maché.

 

[Pyan]

It was very enjoyable. Sadly I thought the villain's appearance was a bit dodgy though, less flesh and blood and more papier maché.

Yes, I thought that the black glittery swirly thing was much more impressive than the Anubis knock-off at the end.

 

[MemoryTale]

It's hard to judge this one, as it's obviously mostly setup for next week's finale.

Spoiler: Major spoilers for He Who Waits

I loved the Sutekh reveal, but I was also apprehensive, as Sutekh is one character I felt should never return. For those not versed in Classic Who, Sutekh was the villain in one Tom Baker serial. When 4 encountered him, he had been sealed for thousands of years, and barely had any power remaining. Despite this, he could block the law of physics with his mind, and mentally dominated the Doctor in a way no-one ever has before or since. The guy is genuinely an Avengers level threat, and The Doctor only really won that encounter through luck. If Sutekh keeps reappearing, he will take more Ls, so it will be hard for the writing team to maintain his threat level.

Also, I had to explain to Mrs M. T just who Sutekh was, and why he was bad news. I hope the next episode establishes this, because I think it's safe to say most people watching now haven't seen the old serials.

 

[BT Jones]

I enjoyed parts of it, but the last 10 minutes was basically just one big huge build up and reveal to...

Spoiler: Spoiler

Sutekh?!?! Personally, I had never heard of him / her / it. I was expecting perhaps The Master, given that was the only possible reveal worthy of such a build up, so it was a major farty-balloon-release when it was someone or something I had never heard of. I recall some Tom Baker stories from my youth, but not this one, and I haven't seen it references elsewhere. So, for me, there was no real pay off. And the memory window scene was very flabby; too many characters involved, too much noise, too much exposition. Not enough quiet, eerie mystery - think Blow Up / Blow Out or even ST:TNG Time Squared shuttlepod video, or Geordi reconstructing surveillance footage in another episode and finding the outline of something that had been watching them. Hopefully, the next episode can demonstrate some real threat from Sutekh (i.e. kill off someone major) - but I doubt that is how it will play out.

 

[Dave]

I agree with the above comments. Too much style over substance to begin with, and then when it came from all the build-up to the actual villain, Sutekh wasn't that impressive or menacing. Certainly not, as @MemoryTale said, as when Tom Baker met him.

So, was everything (the Snow, the appearances of Susan elsewhere, Ruby herself) just bait to bring the Doctor to this particular moment and place in time - something past 3pm in an abandoned lecture theatre? Only, if I had both the power and the time to bring the Doctor to some particular moment and place, to meet his demise, that wouldn't be my first choice.

Also, Sutekh is not an anagram of "Sue Tech" and what was it with all the anagrams anyway?

But two-part episodes of any TV show are always judged on the ending, and this will be no different.

 

[MemoryTale]

I agree with the above comments. Too much style over substance to begin with, and then when it came from all the build-up to the actual villain, Sutekh wasn't that impressive or menacing. Certainly not, as @MemoryTale said, as when Tom Baker met him.

So, was everything (the Snow, the appearances of Susan elsewhere, Ruby herself) just bait to bring the Doctor to this particular moment and place in time - something past 3pm in an abandoned lecture theatre? Only, if I had both the power and the time to bring the Doctor to some particular moment and place, to meet his demise, that wouldn't be my first choice.

Also, Sutekh is not an anagram of "Sue Tech" and what was it with all the anagrams anyway?

But two-part episodes of any TV show are always judged on the ending, and this will be no different.

As for the anagrams, maybe RTD is going even more obscure than the Meep, and bringing Managra into canon.

 

[Matteo]

Got around to this last night. And it was "OK", bordering on good.

Started in a silly way with the TARDIS sliding into UNIT. It can't materialise?

A 12 year old genius? Sigh...

Lots of "hey, it's you".

The TARDIS doesn't have that time window thing? Maybe I'll let that slide.

Some good build up and suspense with Ruby's mother.

Also some good scenes with the swirly black cloud thing - and mystery about it being attached/part off/within? the TARDIS. But Sutekh looked like something from an 80's music video with "cutting edge" computer graphics.

I see what they did with the unseen encounters of Susan (the Doctor and Ruby have had other adventures) but it was distracting - I was wondering if I'd missed a "Special" somehow - and actually unnecessary as we'd seen her in various guises so got the point.

My fear is that there are a lot of balls in the air: Ruby's mystery, Sutekh, Susan, Mrs Flood. If they try to bring all together in the last episode, it could end up being very frenetic and with a convenient ending.

 

[Droflet]

For anyone who is interested, U Tube has some old Tom Baker episodes featuring the villain himself. Nice to catch up with Sutekh after all these years. Just look for The Pyramids of Mars.

 

[Ursa major]

The Pyramids of Mars

I don't know why, but now I'm imagining a chewy Toblerone....