Doctor Who (40) 14:08: Empire of Death..

[nixie]

Not bad even with the Marvel End Game plagiarism. The mystery of Ruby neatly resolved. Mrs Flood being set up as a future adversity. I do like this doctor but wish he wasn't so emotional.

 

[MemoryTale]

I didn't think the mystery was resolved. Unless I missed something, it was never revealed how she could make it snow, or why she freaked Maestro out.

 

[Dave]

Sorry, I didn't understand much of it either. I think Sutekh was destroyed by a bungee cord and Ruby found her mother.

Marvel End Game

Just silly. "Death + Death = Life"

Mrs Flood being set up as a future adversity.

The word is that she was the one with the red nail polish who picked up the Toymaker's gold tooth which has the Master trapped inside.

it was never revealed how she could make it snow... or why she freaked Maestro out...

Last week, I thought the snow had been provided all along by Sutekh, but this week it still snowed again. And then even after Sutekh was gone, Mrs Flood made it snow some more.

I don't now why, but when the Doctor wanted "precious" metal, and the woman began unwrapping, I said it's going to be a spoon, and it was! Why does SF TV and Film have a "thing" about spoons? It's quite bizarre really.

 

[Vladd67]

Sorry, I didn't understand much of it either. I think Sutekh was destroyed by a bungee cord and Ruby found her mother.

Just silly. "Death + Death = Life"

The word is that she was the one with the red nail polish who picked up the Toymaker's gold tooth which has the Master trapped inside.

Last week, I thought the snow had been provided all along by Sutekh, but this week it still snowed again. And then even after Sutekh was gone, Mrs Flood made it snow some more.

I don't now why, but when the Doctor wanted "precious" metal, and the woman began unwrapping, I said it's going to be a spoon, and it was! Why does SF TV and Film have a "thing" about spoons? It's quite bizarre really.

They think they are needed to feed the story to the viewers.

 

[Matteo]

Only just watched this and really not sure what to make of it.

First thing to say is that is was quite difficult to follow in parts as the dialogue was so quiet. Not just drowned out by the music. Just quiet - I had to rewind and crank up the volume several times. So, I may have missed some points.

Not sure what to make of Mrs Flood who seems to be an evil adversary but was happily laughing with Ruby's grandmother at the end.

Why, if the time window Tardis was feeding on Ruby's memories, was it a combination of all past Tardises?

And why didn't Sutekh kill the Doctor? Was that explained?

Like @Dave I knew it would be a spoon - but the hell was that sequence all about anyway?

They went to 2046, where there is a DNA database - so presumably the events of 73 yards did not take place? And anyway, DNA database of what? Everyone just died. Umm...including Roger ap Gwillam.

I'm really not a fan of "everything gets reversed" but since everyone (and the universe) died by being turned to dust, what else were they going to do? Although dragging Sutekh the dog behind the Tardis on a molecular bonded leash to "bring death to death" to do it seems, well, dumb.

The whole mystery of Ruby's mother being important made no sense.

And I could have done without the overly sentimental ending. Personally, I would have cut at the point the guy in the cafe called Ruby's name and she and her mother looked at each other.

On the whole, not a bad episode, just underwhelming.

 

[BT Jones]

SPOILERS
It would be 5/10 for me, at best. Very messy, and uneven, as was the season overall in all honesty.
There was a missed opportunity to end the previous episode with an Infinity War-style downer with the dusting of cherished characters and to leave some real stakes in place. Instead, killing those characters off at the start of THIS episode was meaningless because you just knew it was all going to get reversed again (on the basis that the entire population of earth was extinguished).

I thought the best section of the episode was the brief moment in the future, finding the spoon, and the woman who couldn't quite remember what she had forgotten. That was nice, quiet, and resonant. The rest of it was just very hectic, noisy, and yes, @Matteo, the music was a little overwhelming in places, and overused IMO.

As for the Ruby arc, I thought it was really poor, and a massive, Last Jedi-style red herring. To me it seems like they filmed the mysterious woman in the hood for the first episode without actually knowing how they were going to finish it. The notion that Ruby's mother was turning and pointing to a signpost, to indicate what she wanted her daughter to be called?!?!? Total nonsense. I wonder if there is a bigger behind-the-scenes story to this; that perhaps they changed their minds, cut some key episodes, or just didn't know what to do - but, to me, the whole notion of the memory being powerful, the snow appearing everywhere... That didn't get resolved.

All in all, as an episode, it didn't deliver. As a season, aside from Boom, and 73 yards, it was a disappointment. I would rank it above 13.2 & 13.3, and probably level with 13.1, and just below 12.3, which was the least effective season in the Moffatt era.

I think they need to go back to the drawing board a little here. I am fine with Ncuti Gatwa - he is evidently a very capable actor - but I think he needs to written more consistently and less emotionally outgoing. Certainly we need to see more of the 1000 year old alien in his mannerisms (which, for me, Peter Capaldi is still the high watermark for).