Review of Doctor Who, Season 14, Episode 8: Empire of Death

It’s a neat idea, and it’s fun to see Sutekh become obsessed with discovering her identity, the only mystery left in the universe after he destroys it. There’s something poetic about an alien god being baffled by a woman who turns out to be perfectly ordinary (though you almost feel sorry for poor Louise, since everyone is constantly nagging about how “ordinary” she is). The episode ultimately becomes more about Ruby’s reunion with her mother, with the defeat of Sutekh and the restoration of life in the universe being dismissed with a smart rope, a whistle, and a trip through the vortex. And while it’s a shame that this season’s preoccupation with superstition and folklore doesn’t yield any real payoff, beyond the concept of Louise becoming impossible because Ruby thinks she is, their reunion is pleasantly understated, and both Millie Gibson and Faye McKeever fully convey the complicated emotions at play.

Everything ties together, but whether you find the various resolutions satisfying is another question. It’s still not entirely clear why Susan Triad, based on the Doctor’s granddaughter, made her the “perfect trap” when the Doctor himself didn’t realise the possible connection until the last minute. And while the explanation for Louise’s pointing makes emotional sense to Ruby, it makes absolutely no sense as something a frightened 15-year-old would actually do in that situation when there’s no one around to see. The same goes for her choice of clothing. We get some welcome closure to some leftover plot threads from “73 Yards” (which turns out to be the exact range of the TARDIS’s field of perception), although more questions are raised in the process. Roger Ap Gwilliam, it seems, is still destined to ascend, and the Doctor will have a hand in his downfall.

At the end of the episode, the Doctor essentially tells Ruby that her character development is complete and she can no longer travel with him because her “adventure is just beginning.”

Does it work? Yes and no.

If you look at Series 14 as a whole, it is a damn good series of Doctor Who. High energy, confident, mostly excellent production values, a charming doctor-companion pair with real emotional range, loads of fun and interesting ideas. Even with the episodes that haven’t quite come together yet, there was plenty to talk about. Overall, the series is on a good path and the foundations for the coming era are more than solid.

Looking back, though, it’s the individual stories that really resonated, and the arc’s plot elements feel more like an afterthought. Unfortunately, this weakens the impact of the finale. The Susan Triad stuff is basically fine, it’s a sci-fi mystery with a sci-fi explanation that makes sense in terms of the villain and his machinations. But with Ruby’s arc, the breadcrumb approach is less successful. After the Christmas special and “Space Babies,” her mysterious parentage just wasn’t given enough focus as a revitalizing force. The mysterious Snow is a great recurring image, and there were effective individual moments like her desperate appeal to the ambulance in “Boom.” But Ruby seemed generally happy, her relationship with the Doctor was stable, and they had fun together.