Doctor Who: Empire Of Death Review - 7 Ups & 5 Downs

One of my favourite scenes in Empire of Death was probably the most understated of the whole piece.

Post-end-of-the-universe, the Doctor finds himself on a dying planet that no-one knows the name of, on the hunt for basic resources. Here, he bumps into the 'kind woman', played wonderfully by Sian Clifford. This is a woman who has lost everything to Sutekh, even huge swathes of her memory, and yet still holds some small streak of optimism.

Scenes like this are so important because, while the upgraded budget does help to visualise a cataclysmic event such as the gift of death, we need to feel the weight of it on an everyday person. This is something RTD has always excelled at, and there's no change here. This scene does more for the stakes and emotional resonance of the episode than any other - and to think, according to the commentary, RTD nearly left this on the cutting room floor in favour of a run-around with some zombified civil servants.

The fact that Fifteen is essentially having to barter and persuade this woman to part with a spoon because its the most valuable thing she has left really sells the utter hopelessness of the situation, and the kind woman's realisation that she had loved and lost a baby daughter hammers this absolute gut-punch home.

Despite the fact this scene ends with the death of a grieving mother, it is still one of optimism and hope, at a time where the Doctor needs it most. Big fan of this bit.