Empire of Death

I'm deeply disappointed with this season of Doctor Who. It feels like the writers have shifted focus to cater to anyone but their core followers who have loved the show since the 2005 revival, and many even loved it before that.

One of the most jarring changes is how they've portrayed the Doctor. This season, the Doctor seemed to weep in every episode (at least four times in the finale), showing so much fear with each new story and even running away at times. That's not who the Doctor is and has been. Sure, he feels emotion and cries. Sure, he feels fear. But that has never been the focal point, showing the audience how much he is like us. This new humanization undermines the very essence of the Doctor, who we've come to admire for being a Time Lord with bravery, wit, and a unique, almost otherworldly perspective; a Lord of Time who faces his enemies without hesitation and who doesn't have time to constantly give in to his emotions and feelings.

I miss the confident, enigmatic Doctor who faces challenges head-on with a mix of intelligence and humor. These new changes in character make it feel like I'm watching any other human in a show rather than the Doctor. Ncuti Gatwa is clearly an excellent actor with great charismatic magnetism, but he's being made to portray a character that is so very human, just like me. There are hundreds of sci-fi shows featuring people just like me. That's not why we watch this show. There's a reason this show has lasted so long, and I think that's being forgotten or put on a shelf to collect dust.

It's disheartening that the season finale didn't leave me eagerly anticipating the next season. A strong, cliffhanger ending or enigmatic build is crucial for keeping viewers excited about what's next, but this season failed to deliver that. This season started with a great "save the cheerleader, save the world" vibe but, just like Heroes, it seems as if they didn't plan it all the way through and didn't deliver what they set out to achieve.

I truly hope the creators will listen to the broader fanbase and bring back the elements that make Doctor Who the iconic show we love. Return the show to its roots, its core, its formula that kept us on the edge of our seats each and every episode.

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.

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.

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.

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.