Series 14, Episode 8 | Part 2 of 2 | First broadcast: 22 June 2024 | Writer: Russell T Davies | Director: Jamie Donoughue
Cast
- Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor
- Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday
- Gabriel Woolf as the voice of Sutekh
- Susan Twist as Susan Triad
- Bonnie Langford as Mel Bush
- Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
- Faye McKeever as Louise Miller
Summary
Sutekh spreads a life-erasing dust across the universe using copies of Susan Triad, having secretly clung to the TARDIS since his first defeat decades earlier, and after the Doctor, Ruby, and Mel escape into a TARDIS rebuilt from memory, the Doctor lures Sutekh into the time vortex using a length of “intelligent rope,” undoing all the deaths; along the way Ruby finally meets her birth mother, an ordinary teenager named Louise Miller who gave her up simply because she was too young, before Ruby departs to build a new life and the Doctor leaves alone as Mrs Flood ominously foreshadows misfortune ahead.
Interesting Facts
- The episode resolves the mystery of Ruby’s mother seeded since “The Church on Ruby Road,” with Russell T Davies explicitly designing the “she’s nobody special” reveal as a deliberate response to how the Star Wars sequel trilogy handled Rey’s parentage.
- It marks the on-screen defeat of the god Sutekh and Millie Gibson’s departure as a regular companion, though she would return for cameo and guest appearances later in the era.
- The “remembered TARDIS” set intentionally echoed classic-series TARDIS interior designs and was later reused for the Tales of the TARDIS specials.
- The episode received an 80% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with several critics feeling the resolution did not fully live up to the buildup.
- It was given a limited theatrical release in UK cinemas alongside its preceding episode, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”
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