Review: Doctor Who, “Empire of Death”

When I review an episode of a television series, I always try to balance my initial gut reaction with a more measured perspective of how the episode might age over time. And that can be difficult to summarize. Last week, for example, I found “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” really frustrating the first time, but much more exciting the second time, when I let go of my expectations of the plot and just let the mood wash over me. This week I have the opposite dilemma. While actively watching “Empire of Death”, I found it to be an exciting, surprising and moving addition to the Doctor Who Canon. By the time it was over, though, I was beginning to have some doubts. This inventive season finale is the kind of episode that works really well from scene to scene, but doesn’t quite build to anything more in the end. And that’s also a bit of a microcosm of how this season felt as a whole.

The problems of this episodic season, by and large, boil down to time management. With Ruby’s (at least temporary) departure here, she and the Doctor are officially the shortest-running TARDIS duo of the modern era. But rather than crafting this season with that endpoint in mind, it feels like Davies structured it as if he had all the time in the world. The final scene of “Empire of Death” spells out the emotional arcs Davies has planned for his two leads: Ruby finds her birth mother and realizes her greatest adventure awaits her back home, while the Doctor is inspired to look at his own family in a whole new way. But part of the reason the characters have to lay out these arcs so bluntly is that they don’t really were particularly effectively woven into this season.

Even this two-part finale feels oddly balanced. While the opening scenes of Thanos’ destruction of London in Roland Emmerich’s role are genuinely disturbing, it feels like they should have taken place last week to bolster the substance of this episode and give it more room for character work. So we spend the first act establishing Sutekh as a threat, five minutes of the Doctor chatting to a mysterious woman, a plot-heavy second act of Ruby and the Doctor saving the day, and a final epilogue that drifts off to Ruby’s birth mother. And while each of these segments is compelling enough on its own, it’s just a much for an episode – especially when a doctor/companion duo also has to say goodbye.