The Legend Of Ruby Sunday – As this episode of Doctor Who begins, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and others wait for the arrival of the Tardis. The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) step out of the Tardis. The Doctor immediately embraces Rosa. Ruby is introduced to Kate and the Vlinx. Colonel Christopher Ibrahim (Alexander Devrient) tells The Doctor he’s been working out. Harriet Arbinger (Genesis Lynea) says she’s the head of the archive. Morris Gibbons (Lenny Rush) explains he’s the UNIT Scientific Adviser. The Doctor tells everyone about Susan Triad (Susan Twist) who keeps appearing everywhere he lands.

He explains she’s a comms officer on the planet Pacifico del Rio, she is someone’s mom in Finetime, she’s an ambulance, and so on. The Doctor hopes UNIT can find her and analyze her. Kate reveals that the woman’s name is Susan Triad and she’s an IT genius. Today, she’s releasing her software worldwide free of charge. It’s a gift from S Triad Technology. The Doctor suspects it’s an anagram. He points out that S Triad spells out TARDIS. The name of the company is TARDIS Technology. The Doctor reveals Susan is the name of his granddaughter. After the intro, Kate tells everyone more about Susan. The research on Susan has come to nothing. Ruby asks why the Doctor wouldn’t recognize his own granddaughter. The Doctor explains Time Lords can regenerate their faces like a disguise.

They look different although they’re still the same. They sometimes use it to avoid dying or to hide themselves. The Doctor wonders if Susan chose her face. Kate says they hacked the link so Susan was only rehearsing her speech. Triad HQ isn’t far from there. The Doctor notices Melanie Bush (Bonnie Langford) with Susan. Kate says she’s undercover on the media team. She’s discovered that Susan Triad is actually nice. Susan still works out her speech. Mel tells her it’s going to be brilliant. The Doctor says Ruby’s mother is another mystery woman. Kate confirms they have her history after the incursion on December 24. Harriet reveals she was famous for a day or two and was dubbed The Christmas Baby.

The Doctor is asked about going back and seeing who dropped off Ruby, but he insists he can’t do that. He mentions that it was snowing that night. That means that night is so raw and open. Ruby says they have the tape from the camera nearby, but you can’t see anything because it’s black and white. Morris argues they can use their technology to sharpen the image. They want to take Ruby home so she can get the box and videotape. Mel activates her device before approaching Susan. Mel shakes her hand using the device before leaving. Ruby retrieves the tape and tells Carla (Michelle Greenidge) how they’re going to analyze it. Rose (Yasmin Finney) says UNIT can do anything. Carla decides to take along. She tells Ruby to get Mrs. Flood.

Once Mrs. Flood arrives, Carla asks her to look after her mother for a couple of hours. When they’re alone, Cherry (Angela Wynter) asks for a cup of tea. Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson) says they want a lot of things, but a lot of those things aren’t going to happen. She warns Cherry that a storm is coming. Kate tells the Doctor that her father used to tell her stories about him when she was a kid. He never mentioned a granddaughter. The Doctor admits he was very different back then. He worries he’ll go back and ruin her because he always brings disaster. Kate suggests otherwise. She asks if Susan Triad might be her. The Doctor is worried she could be springing a trap. Mel returns with the information he obtained. The DNA sample she got confirms Susan is human.

Ruby returns with the tape. The Doctor grants access to Carla so she can join them. He asks about the Time Window. The Doctor is introduced to Colonel Winston Chidozie (Tachia Newall) who is head of Time Window Security. Then, The Doctor tells everyone how the Time Window works. They’re going to recreate Christmas Even 2004. The Doctor and Ruby enter the Time Window together. Ruby begins telling the Doctor about the day of her birth. It begins snowing before the Doctor orders the team to turn on the machine. They’re transported to Ruby Road in 2004. Morris struggles to keep it steady. They see the woman, but they can’t tell who she is. The Doctor says it’s like she is shadowed. He asks Ruby to look at her face.

Morris says the power vents are flooding like crazy. No one saw the woman’s face. The Doctor questions what’s so different about her. They hear a thud before the Tardis arrives with the Doctor. He notices that the Tardis is almost solid and questions what is the memory of a time machine. The woman stops and begins crying, according to Carla. The Doctor admits his memory of this keeps changing. The woman turns around and points at him. Colonel Chidozie walks northwest to see if there’s anything there, but he does not find anything. The woman begins walking away. The Doctor says he just turned away and left. Morris asks what’s showing up behind them. The Doctor calls for Winston to see if he’s in that shape. Kate asks if that thing is now or from 2004.

Morris finds out that the machine is issuing warnings. Carla claims it’s the beast. Ruby asks about Cheetham Hill. Chidozie responds by saying that before revealing he’s lost in hell. He says it’s seen right into his soul and it’s so old. It’s been waiting for so long. Something happens that causes the Time Window to shut down. They find Chidozie down. The Doctor asks Mel to take him to Susan Triad. Once they reach Triad headquarters, the Doctor gets upset because he sent Chidozie forward. Mel reminds him that the thing killed him. She tells him to fix it. Kate says that thing burnt itself out of the Time Window, but it survived on the VHS. The Doctor asks her to analyze it and find out what that thing is. The Doctor is introduced to Susan who doesn’t think they’ve met before.

She says she wants some shut-eye because she doesn’t get enough sleep. Susan goes on to say she has a lot of dreams. The Doctor asks if she dreams about a girl called Lindy or a place called Pacifico del Rio. Susan seems to get distraught before leaving. The Doctor tells Mel that she remembers them. Kate tells the Doctor they found something at the heart of the shape. It’s the Tardis. It’s just to the north and that thing is wrapped around it. The Tardis begins howling. The Doctor admits it’s made that noise before. Morris warns them the risk of a trap is rising and the trap is at UNIT. Kate is told to evacuate the area. The Doctor decides to stay since he believes Susan Triad is a part of it.

Ruby is asked to stay with Kate. The Vlinx scans the Tardis. Susan begins talking about big tech spreading lies and causing riots. The Doctor tells Kate to take Ruby to the Time Window. Susan begins talking about her bad dreams. Harriet talks about the living thing and the Lord of Time being blind. They believe she’s possessed. The Doctor asks for her full name. On the scene, her name changed to Harbinger. The Doctor says the gods bring harbingers to warn of their coming. Ruby enters the Time Window and it begins returning to Christmas Eve. Susan questions who she is. The Doctor yells for everyone to stay away from her. At UNIT, Kate and the others wait for the thing to come. Harriet says the one true name is Sutekh. The Doctor sees that name.

He says it was the wrong anagram. The Doctor tells everyone not to let Susan touch them. She quickly turns one man into sand. She says she brings Sutekh’s gift of death. Ruby sees the woman. Harriet turns and looks at Kate. Susan asks the Doctor if he really thought she was family. She approaches and tries to touch him.

 

Doctor Who Review

This episode of Doctor Who was certainly different as The Doctor and others came face-to-face with one of their biggest threats to date. The Doctor and Ruby arrived at UNIT to ask about Susan and try to find out about Ruby’s mother. Ruby retrieved a videotape of the Christmas Eve incident in hopes of finding out the identity of her mother.

The tape was put in the Time Window allowing the Doctor and Ruby to return to that time, but they were still unable to see the woman’s face. During the incident, they unleashed something horrible. It turned out to be Sutekh who wants to kill the Doctor.

This was a fairly decent episode compared to some of the others this series, but it easily could’ve been condensed to avoid making it two parts. This really took a long time to get going with all the unnecessary character introductions in the beginning. The Time Window was semi-interesting although the characters never really felt like they were in any real danger.

There were some silly things in here as well, such as Susan shaking Mel’s hand with the device in it and saying nothing. It’s just too difficult and probably unfair to say much about this episode since its story is only halfway through. It genuinely didn’t connect with me the same way Boom did though. That may change once the story has fully concluded though.

The episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Doctor Who can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying about this episode here.