I’m just going to come out and say it. Theres going to be no dramatic build up in the narrative, its just going to be blunt. A sledgehammer of honesty which will tear the review asunder.
This was the best episode of Doctor Who since it was revived in 2005.
Sure, we’ve had some excellent ones – Human Nature, Time of the Angels, Blink, Fathers Day, Time Heist, Heaven Sent, Hide… Not hundreds, which is a shame given the sheer number of episodes out there that are all either hideously average or far below. But this one? This one???
The Doctor and Ruby have finally come to UNIT to ask about the continual reappearance of our favourite mysterious woman, as played by Susan Twist. Oooo are we going to get some answers? Is she the Doctor’s grand-daughter?? We meet some old faces – in particular Melanie Bush, who absolutely caused my heart to soar, because i LOVE MEL – and Rose Noble again, who is given spectacularly nothing to do in the whole episode, and UNIT’s new scientific advisor, a young child genius, and of course, Kate Stewart – who is acting completely differently to when we met her in 73 Yards (because that was probably a false reality of some kind). There seemed to be a lot of attention played to minor characters like the UNIT soldiers, but this attention pays off before the episode is out.
When the Doctor finally meets Susan Triad we discover she really isn’t his grandaughter, so thats that rumour played out…. whats going to happen next then??
Now, i suddenly realise this review needs a certain reveal to be discussed, so that i can describe it best, from my reactions to my overall feelings. SO.
I was on the edge for the entire duration. The cinematography lent soooo much gravitas to the procedures. When the TARDIS started to make that ominous noise, and the camera started to push slowly towards it, i was possibly shivering. Unfortunately i had read something at 5am in the morning with a reference to a previous Dr Who monster – the Destroyer – so i was expecting a devil’s shape to emerge from the dark clouds around our favourite time machine. (The Destroyer is an antagonist from a latter classic episode, Battlefield). However, as a result of my self-imposed misdirection, when the actual villain was revealed i swore. OUT LOUD.
Sure, i could be pedantic. The idea that Susan Triad becomes S.Triad, which is an anagram of TARDIS, is classic RTD, and yes, the Susan part is also a misdirection (to the audience – in the show it is a huge trap to lure the Doctor in). However, when it then becomes Susan Triad Technologies (a title we didn’t hear about till this episode….and then gets truncated again to Su – Tech…. SUTEKH…i don’t know, i was too excited to really care that Sutekh had gone through all the bother in creating a secret message inside his words… did he need that, really? That S.TRIAD was an anagram to trap the Doctor was good enough.
Sutekh’s visual realisation begins with a startlingly scary manisfestation into a giant roaring egyptian dog, and initially i was impressed. However, soon after, the camera seems to push in too close – creating a slightly off-centre dog face whose whole face doesn’t even fit the frame. Now, if said creature was a man in a mask, i’m fine with that – but the CGI was added AFTER the shot was filmed so couldn’t they have just made it fit the screen??? But, this is all made up for by having Gabriel Woolf – the original voice of Sutekh – back to provide the God of Death with his ominous, evil, threatening dialogue.
And can i just say… Ncuti’s look of terror is one of my lasting memories from the episode and an image that will remain in my head for years to come. Plus, the moment when he “lost his cool” is pure Ncuti-Who and a punch the air moment for having character development in a character which was created over 60 years ago. Stunning.
Hey – did i just forget to talk about actual plot? Having called UNIT out on having a time-space visualiser thing, the Doctor tells everyone through a bunch of nonsensical technobabble that they can use the machine, coupled with CCTV footage of the church on Ruby Road, and also with some of Ruby’s own memories (because memories are time, time are memories, or whatever). So they recreate the scene in which Ruby’s mother leaves baby Ruby alone and walks away in the snow… and then, terrifyingly, points at the Doctor! Then we start to see some strange goings on with the TARDIS and thats when the real story kicks in. In all honesty, this B-plot is fairly forgettable, and i kind of hope that this will get resolved satisfactorily in the finale, next week – but the history of Part Two’s in NuWho is mostly dissapointing… so we’d better not get our hopes up.
But matters not. Sutekh is back and he has given the gift of redemption to a show that really has pushed the boundaries of my loyalty over the years. Well played, Mr. T. Davies, you’ve won me back.
And whats with Mrs. Flood??
the FANGG of HORROR ROCK 