"I am in Hell..."
Needless to say, this is going to be a long one.
It's sort of fasionable within fandom, and indeed within fandoms, to prefer the good, unusual quirky episodes to the big, two-part season finales with Big Things happening. I'm quite of that school of thought myself. But let's not pretend here: there's room for both, and I, for one, love a big season finale.
And this episode is very no nonsense about what it is. It advertises, from the start, that this is an episode about Big Things. Bang bang bang, one after another. The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT! Ruby's meeting them for the first time! Rose and Kate! That robot thingy's had an upgrade! And, er, there's this bizarre child genius figure about whom the less said the better, but never mind.
And there's exactly zero faffing about as the episode hones in on the arc stuff, starting with this mysterious woman whose face has been following the Doctor and Ruby around all season. She's a big computer tycoon, very famous... and her company, S Triad, is an acronym of TARDIS, while her first name is Susan. And this in a season where the Doctor's perennially ankle-spraining grandaughter has alreadsy been mentioned. Could it be...?
I love the quip from Kate about how UNIT are always stopping evil software geniuses with alien tech "excelpt him, obviously". Hah. But again, it's zero faffing about as we get straight on to the mysterious origins of Ruby back at that church on Ruby Road that Christmas Eve, as UNIT set to try and solve the mystery with the help of impossibly advanced tech, technobabble and, er, a video tape. I'm not sure why UNIT is happy to use its resources, no doubt expensively, to do this... but never mind. This is season finale logic, and I'm enjoying the ride.
And, of course, Carla needs to be along for the ride too. Which means her mother needs looking after, by our old friend Mrs Flood. Except... as soon as the two of them are left alone together, Mrs Flood starts to act all sinister, stating that "He waits no more".... yep. It's the One Who Waits.
But... and please do indulge me here: I say this totally unspoiled. But could Mrs Flood be that trope that's the hilariously sinister red herring who is actually not a baddie at all? I'm aware, of course- and this is jumping ahead a bit- that she could be Susan,but it would be cool if Susan herself were just a bit of misdirection, although perhaps to be followed up next season?
Anyway, digressions aside... we see a reconstruction of that night, with Ruby's birth mum being an uncanny, hooded figure whose face cannot be seen. Yet she points at the observing Doctor, memories and even video footage change, and there's a deeply creepy, malign presence that horribly kills the poor redshirt, obviously doomed though he was. I love the brief look of disgust Kate gives the Doctor. This is his fault.UNIT are doing all this only to indulge the Doctor, and they lose one of their own.
So what of the mysterious Susan Triad? The Doctor is paired here with the delightful Mel- Bonnie Langford is quite, quite wonderful- who is far better written here than she ever was as a companion. There are even hints of a backstory ("I lost my family to the most terrible things...")... and it's clear that Susan Triad is not who we thought she was. The reveal- another harbinger, the "wrong anagram"- is deeply effective... we get a bit of horrifying exposition of the Pantheon- the Toymaker, the Trickster, the Maestro, the Mara, some others... and, atop them all...
Sutekh. And they've only bloody gone and got Gabriel Woolf.
I suspect this won't make much sense on a second viewing. I don't particularly care. The storytelling beats were exquisite and had me on the edge of my seat. I LOVED this.
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