Empire of Death

The previous episode gave us several things to ponder, the return of Sutekh, the identity of Mrs Flood, and the burning question, who exactly is Ruby? This needed to be big and revealing.

Sadly, this series finale was so disappointing, it was just a mess, Russell, what happened, did you run out of time, did you rush it? It honestly just fell flat.

I will take several positives out of it, once again Ncuti delivered, he gave a great performance, sadly it wasn't matched by the script. Bonnie Langford, that's the best I've seen of her, she was wonderful, perhaps carried it. I love seeing the classic companions. More Mel please.

The idea of the permanent traveller was interesting enough, though why would such a powerful being remain dormant for so long? Gabriel Woolf's velvety voice added authenticity, tremendous, but sadly the giant floofer looked woeful.

Unfortunately the negatives slightly outweigh the acting and strong production values, there should be a permanent ban on the reset button, and as for plot holes, I don't physically have time to list them all.

Sutekh in the vortex, that made me cringe, the original characterisation was so much better, way more menacing, I hated that cuddly looking dog moose thing.

Why was Rose in it, all manner of hell breaks loose, and she stands there looking at a tablet, what a bizarre thing to have her doing.

Russell can we have a few episodes where Ncuti isn't in tears please, I got that he was fragile to begin with, but enough now.

Mehhh.

5/10.

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.

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.

Started really strong, amped the stakes and then failed to deliver.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this episode, I could feel the tension and was excited to see how it would end. The ending unfortunately did not hit the mark for me. I am absolutely fine with the resolution to Ruby's mother, however, I think it was handled poorly. The acting between the cast was brilliant, the writing not so much. I was left with lots of questions that reddit cannot answer for me because it's far too early. The cliffhanger kind of bored me to say the least and felt unnecessary. I truly hope this isn't it for some of these plot lines and that they are touched on next season but I highly doubt that.

As always Ncuti and Millie are absolutely fantastic together. So the only person to blame really is myself for getting way too excited for this episode I will not make the same mistake again.

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!