WELL.
There’s a reason I don’t review part ones. It’s half a story! I was going to wait for Empire of Death (umbrella titles, PLEASE, Classic Who made do with only one, I’m calling the whole thing Empire of Death out of protest) then tackle this finale head on.
It’s… well… It’s an interesting 100 minutes of Doctor Who. Some incredible stuff, some really weak stuff, and I had fun. The fact I saw the second part at a midnight cinema screening with loads of fans helped shape my opinion significantly, sometimes the experience DOES influence your overall perception. The whole story looks no different from a modern Hollywood blockbuster, if not better, and the huge success of the release will hopefully lead to more, and maybe even one day a full on feature film. I’m feeling VERY vindicated.
Right, the actual story. It’s a sprawling epic, just about what you’d expect from a Russell T Davies finale (more on that later) with his usual brand of storytelling – intimate emotions and moments contrasted with large scale set pieces that just keep going and going and hold together through sheer force of will and a fantastic production.
Um… how do I structure this? Let’s talk some flaws first so I don’t repeat myself later. First of all – there’s too many characters. What is Rose Noble doing here, does she even have a single line of dialogue in the second half? Morris, a random boy genius with machine guns in his mobility scooter, is pretty funny, and I get that Ruth Madeley who was Shirley Anne Bingham in the specials couldn’t do this two parter, but at the end of the day… Kate Stewart gave a KID MACHINE GUNS! Lol? I still don’t know what the Vlinx is, why not just make that the traitor, because the actual traitor, Harriet, is so poorly defined and explained she doesn’t even resurrect at the end. LOL? And just like The Giggle, whilst it’s great seeing Bonnie Langford having fun, I’m still a bit perplexed what exactly Mel offers apart from being another character. This two parter is full of overstuffed characters, like RTD wanted to recreate Infinity War… except we actually knew who the characters were in Endgame.
So if The Giggle was The Vanquishers without the Flux, then Empire of Death is the entire six parts of Flux PLUS the entirety of Infinity War and Endgame PLUS every previous Russell T Davies finale COMBINED… all in 100 minutes. To say this two parter is proof that a story of this scale requires way more time is an understatement… seriously, is there a contract out there that dictates that episodes cannot exceed 60 minutes if they’re not a special? Give it more time! I want these stories developed! It’s been an issue all season. We have to introduce and defeat Sutekh, destroy and restore the universe, conclude Ruby’s parentage, conclude the Susan Twist arc, remind everyone the Mrs Flood arc is still a thing AND stand alone… so many things to do, this should’ve been at least two and a half hours long just to explain some things, like how Sutekh hanging onto the TARDIS correlates to the last 50 years where the TARDIS has been blown up or taken, what happened to all the other Susan Twists on Earth, quite why Sutekh’s plan only took place now, how much of the universe was restored, why UNIT under RTD are really, really incompetent, what the Vlinx is, why music was hidden inside Ruby despite there being nothing supernatural about her, why Sutekh wasn’t intrigued enough by any other mystery over the last 50 years, what the Vlinx is, and more.
Wait, I thought I liked this story?
OK, so good stuff. Other than the sheer spectacle and scale, which has redeemed many messy stories in the past, the MVP of this two parter is the Doctor. A common criticism of this season is that Ncuti Gatwa hasn’t been given many opportunities to go “Full Doctor” in favour of being on the sidelines and not solving many episodes, apart from Boom. I can somewhat agree with this, but in the finale, he’s fully the Doctor, you feel the intimate connection to Susan from all those decades ago, you feel his rage and anger and the weight of what he blames himself for when the universe is destroyed, and the ending resolution to defeating Sutekh, is, and I’m being 100% serious here, PERFECT. The TARDIS dragging the literal God of Death into the time vortex ripping holes in the universe to heal a dead cosmos whilst the Doctor screams at Sutekh about how he is the God of Life and exists to destroy Sutekh is spine tinglingly awesome stuff, the kind of massive visual setpiece storytelling RTD is great at. The music rises, the visuals are awesome and it just KEEPS GOING until Sutekh literally burns to death. Love it.
Ruby is great too, and whilst there’s big issues with the resolution to her arc (and just like Clara we know this isn’t actually the end so the final scene will lose impact on future viewings), Ruby feels like just as much of a participant as the Doctor, finally, a story where they both feel just as important. If the Doctor’s struggle is a cosmic one, hers is a deeply personal one, and it (mostly) works.
Oh yeah, Big Dog. GABRIEL WOOLF IS BACK! In an age where celebrities are thrown into voice roles despite not being suitable and the Flash movie can’t even get other Flash actors, Doctor Who brings the 91 year old original Sutekh back for one last round with the Doctor. I heard *Gabriel Woolf* in the cinema. Worth it! I like the new design, and whilst I agree that he felt way too nerfed to be the literal god of all gods, he still has a strong presence. Whilst Sutekh attaching himself to the TARDIS since Pyramids of Mars somewhat stretches credibility, the best moments of Sutekh as antagonist are the quieter moments like when he taunts the Doctor by spinning the TARDIS around like a chess piece or when he’s going into Mel’s mind. A very strong antagonist, much like the Toymaker you can tell RTD really loved putting all the focus onto a more obscure villain to the general public.
Right, so we’ve discussed the good, the bad, so I guess… the ugly? Bad metaphor, but not quite as bad as… OK, nope, that’s not a good segway either let’s just talk Ruby’s mum. Does Ruby not being special mean a lot thematically? Yes, and it’s in keeping with RTD’s idea that anyone can be special (more on this later, again) but on a plot perspective… again, why did the music play? Why did the snow activate? It really stretches belief that Sutekh, the God of Death, wouldn’t know this. And Davina McCall couldn’t find an NHS staff member? Somebody needs to fire her. It felt like RTD needed a companion mystery… then did something completely different. Which leads me nicely to my other point… RUSSELL T DAVIES IS WRITING WHO IN THE EXACT SAME WAY HE DID 15 YEARS AGO!
Seasons with London as the homebase that revolve around the Doctor and one companion who saves the universe despite not being special, with a Classic Who companion and a large military organisation as supporting cast, with the story arc mostly revolving around words or recurring motifs before resolving themselves with a reboot in the second part whilst the status quo resets for Christmas and there can’t be two back to back seasons with the same team and we have to have 45 minutes per episode because that’s how it worked last time and we have to have the universe destroyed every season because that’s how it worked last time and the companion has to be from modern day Earth because that’s how it worked last time and we have to have a silly episode one because that’s how it worked last time and…
Right, this is going slightly off tangent, but this finale, as fun as I found it, did confirm a fear that whilst the broadstrokes of the show such as the switch to fantasy and the huge boost in production are very different, at the end of the day, Russell T Davies is not changing how he writes Doctor Who. And that’s a problem. I thought the point of him returning was seeing how he approaches the show differently. Especially after Moffat and Chibnall both proved you can play about with the structure and format of the show (except the companion from modern day earth thing, is that also a hidden contract?). He’s doing so much in a similar style, and with Season 2 already in the bag, we have to wait until 2026 for perhaps a new shift in style. I know writers have their style, and I generally like RTD’s, but it can still adapt, like how Moffat evolved his fairy tale style and the way the seasons were structured and paced every season, as did Chibnall. RTD’s Who is very rigid, which is fine when you’re bringing back a show from the dead, but the revival is nearly 20 years old, I’d like a totally radical new shift in RTD’s style if he is to justify his return.
IN CONCLUSION… I had fun. Bring on Christmas and the 2025 season, but PLEASE can we not have the “Christmas special, silly intro, a bunch of standalones connected through random motifs and a new companion home base with a big finale that sets up a huge twist for the second half where the universe is partially destroyed before everything gets reset again” because that describes every single Russell T Davies season. I am VERY excited for new writers though, which have been confirmed.
Ben Williams' World 