Doctor Who: The Legend Of Ruby Sunday Review - 6 Ups & 4 Downs
Doctor Who's season finale begins, and the stage is set for a truly devastating climax.
The Legend of Ruby Sunday is a fascinating episode of Doctor Who, and one that's a little tough to review in isolation.
Never has a Part One felt quite so much like a Part One, with the plot not really kicking off until the last thirty seconds. The Legend of Ruby Sunday is designed as a hype builder, with the entire runtime catapulting toward a reveal that will either blow your mind or leave you whelmed, depending on your familiarity with the show's history.
It's not going to be an episode with much rewatch value, and it does leave the finale with lots to establish and promptly wrap up in a little over 45 minutes, but that's a bridge I'll cross next week.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this one a lot. When it works, it really works, and so far, RTD looks to be tying things together in a very satisfying way (contrary to what some may have expected). Let's just hope he can pull a satisfying climax out of the bag.
10. DOWN - A Lack of Setup
As fun as this week's cold open was, with the TARDIS sonic booming out of the sky to the UNIT theme tune and skateboard grinding into UNIT tower, I couldn't help but feel that, once again, we jumped into the action a little too quickly.
One of my biggest criticisms of this series (and I know I'm not alone), is that Fifteen and Ruby, whilst having great chemistry, seem to have done most of their character development off screen. The start of this episode would have been the perfect time to drop a scene of the two on the TARDIS, having a little heart-to-heart about Ruby's birth mother, and discussing the reoccurring face which has haunted them throughout their adventures.
We desperately need more time with these two alone, and its scenes like this, bookending episodes, where most of this interaction has tended to happen in the past. This episode could certainly have spared the runtime, given it spends most of it treading water.
We're thrown straight into The Doctor and Ruby arriving at UNIT to solve their two mysteries, and Fifteen seems very overfamiliar. By all accounts, this should be his first meeting with Rose wearing this current face, but this isn't acknowledged. The same could be said for the wider team - we know Fourteen likely spent a lot of time at UNIT during his retirement, but regardless, I feel the episode could have spent a moment discussing this, maybe giving us some snippets on how Fourteen spent his twlight years beyond the smallest reference to him with Fifteen's 'How's your uncle?'
Let's just slow things down a tad!