Empire of Death

The second-half of the season finale begins with all the intensity of the excellent first half. It's chaotic and absorbing and things go from bad to worse to worse to OMG!

There's a solid explanation of Susan Triad, and some really clever ideas. Even the parts that don't make that much sense (that bit on the planet) are engaging.

The series continues with its theme of a guilt-ridden, PTSD Doctor, which I could do with a lot less of, and they punted on a mystery I was hoping they'd answer, but I wouldn't call either of those irredeemable.

But then there's the resolution to the mystery that's been building up all season and it's ... not good. I mean, conceptually I can see and appreciate what they're going for, and I feel that if they elaborated on that concept and gave it more context and history I might say, okay, I get that.

But then I guess they wouldn't have time for the incredibly annoying weepy-heartwarming nonsense that went on forever (by which I mean 10 or 15 minutes) at the end.

I wasn't disappointed enough by the worst of this episode to ignore how of it was genuinely fun , but the last part of the season 1 finale was undeniably a letdown.

1. Russell T Davies has literally lost the plot when it comes to writing engaging Dr. Who episodes and crafting an engaging arc to the season. 2. CGI can't save a lousy script. And 3. Disney has no idea what or who Dr. Who is, and they never will.

I give the actors their due for making the best out of bad material but at some point they should have pushed back against the drivel they were handed. After all do they really want to be known as the actors that killed the longest running show in television history?

If I could give the bigwigs some advice I'd say - fire Davies, regenerate the Doctor, and bury this season in a deep dark hole never to be seen again.

I want our Dr. Who back!

After all the hype this story failed to land. While the return of Sutekh was an excellent choice and his the idea that he had never left the TARDIS was an excellent way to threaten the entire universe, this episode fell flat for the simple reason that everyone had plot armour.

Plot armour is generally only used on the main character, but in this episode like in the Flux episodes a degree of plot armour was applied to everyone.

There were no stakes.

There was no way they wouldn't either completely reverse it or save a good portion of people.

Doctor Who relies on a universe that is varied and populated. Universe ending plot lines are now a non-starter and after a while produce zero suspense.

Like 73 Yards, this episode has no significant consequences as the events were, to an extent overwritten.

Ruby's mystery ended up being utterly uninteresting, to the extent that while a major plot point of the episode, it only served as bait.

Personally I find that after Amy and Clara, mysteries surrounding companions are now uninteresting. Short of exceptional and intriguing writing, the companions should just be ordinary people given the chance to shine.

The story telling in Doctor Who has seriously declined. This story had no significant consequences and has yet again relied on wishful thinking (see Parting of the ways, Last of the Time Lords and Journeys End) to end a universe threatening event. It seems that Russell T Davies is only capable of writing inherently flawed universe ending finales.

These finales no longer satisfy and should be abandoned.

After the Legend of Ruby Sunday things were setup for a fantastic finale. The first half of the episode does justice and keeps the pace and the terror but things unravel quickly and the ending lands flat.

The whole series has been a pendulum of hit and miss. A mix of some of the best Doctor Who episodes and instant classics along with some of the absolute worst (Space Babies). And Empire of Death follows this pattern and falls short of the high quality writing Doctor Who deserves.

Whilst this episode isn't quite as bad as some of the Chibnall eras mediocrity it really isn't far off. And given the brilliance of the previous episode it is a wasted opportunity.

RTD has shown this season that he can bring the Doctor back. And he is backed with some of the strongest talent to pull it off. But he needs to bring far more consistency than we've seen this season.

So we get a great reveal last episode with one of the greatest villains of all time, and now the real question is how do we defeat him? Well I think RTD doesn't know how to either. The Entire Sutekh storyline felt so forced and random. There were no real payoffs or dramatic moments. It felt so rushed and confusing. Ruby's mother storyline also suffered greatly. I understand some people are going to like the ending, but explanations for all the weird stuff that has been happening just feel so randomly explained just for the sake of it. The episode wasn't all bad, there were some good moments. Millie Gibson gave a great performance and so did Bonnie Langford, who in my opinion, carried the episode.