“The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is an episode of the 14th season of the new “Doctor Who” series, also indicated as season 1, and follows “Rogue“. It’s available in the UK and Ireland on BBC channels and in many other countries on the Disney+ platform.
Beware that in various adverts and marketing materials, this season is promoted as season 1, marking the start of production by Bad Wolf and distribution by Disney+, hence the double notation. On BBC’s website, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is indicated as episode 7 of 8 while Disney+ indicates it as episode 8.
Note. This article contains some spoilers about “The Legend of Ruby Sunday”.
After wandering through space and time, the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) return to Earth, to UNIT headquarters. The Doctor turns to Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) for help because he and Ruby have seen the same woman in different places and discover that Susan Triad (Susan Twist), another version of the woman, is about to release new software from her Triad Technology.
After wandering around the universe, the Doctor and Ruby realize that the same woman seems to exist everywhere they have gone and they want to solve the mystery. At that point, asking for help in finding out the identity of Ruby’s biological mother almost seems like a request made just because they’re at UNIT. The investigations into the two mysteries intersect.
In addition to Ruby’s family and Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson), another person who knows more than one would think, the episode sees the return of already-seen characters such as Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford) and Rose Noble (Yasmin Finney), now both linked to UNIT. It’s in many ways a family reunion with various ramifications, some unexpected.
The development is what you expect from a season finale divided into two parts written by Russell T Davies: especially the first part focuses on the emotional side with twists that aim to increase the tension. At the first watch, you get carried away by the plot and only later, especially if you rewatch it, do you see the flaws.
So here the Doctor decides to use a crude system to look into the past because evidently, at that moment, the Tardis systems for some reason, were not suitable. It’s certainly not the first time the Doctor has done things in ways that when you think about it might not make that much sense.
Practically the entire episode has the purpose of creating the developments that lead to the final revelation which then only serves to create the cliffhanger to developments that will arrive in the second part. There were already many rumors on the Internet that were confirmed, so for the people who were unwilling or unable to insulate themselves from the risk of spoilers, the revelation wasn’t exactly a surprise.
In the end, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” mostly serves to set everything up for what is hopefully the grand finale. Putting the emotional side aside, the interesting part is the one where the Doctor talks about his granddaughter Susan. The rest of the plot is functional to the last episode. Russell T Davies ties heavily into a story that marked my childhood, so as far as I’m concerned, he better not screw it up.
