Russell, you need to calm down, that’s just a Borg and that other one is just a Drow. Directed by a Doctor Who alum, we’ve got a return of Mark Tonderai, director of “Rosa” and “The Ghost Monument.” Otherwise, there isn’t much of a standout in Tonderai’s career: he directed an episode of 12 Monkeys (crap 2015 version), an episode from season 3 of Lucifer, and a couple of episodes of Gotham. As you might have guessed given my comments throughout the series (I swear down!) it is Russell once again on the 7th episode this time out.

Crashing back into U.N.I.T. HQ, Ncuti’s Doctor finally bursts out of the TARDIS with a massive smile on his face. Additionally, the loud personality breaks through. Of course, everyone is there, Kate, Morris Gibbons, Rose, Ibrahim, The Vlinx, and Harriet Arbinger. Head-on we’re focusing on our two stories throughout this 8-episode run(?): Who’s Ruby’s mum, and Susan Triad played by Susan Twist. I want to say there is no mucking about, but we’ve seen Russell’s two-parters before.

Reviewing “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is a bit complicated because it is the typical Russell-paced two-parter, it is this mystery thing and there is the big reveal before the “to be continued.” That said, it is also an episode where not a lot happened. Let me explain: Big plot things happened and kept a fine enough pace, the first time you watched. I make it clear I tend to watch an episode twice or maybe three times before finishing up the reviews, and those secondary watches prove the point. There is a whole lot of teasing out the reveal but not a lot of progression.

That doesn’t mean the episode is bad, poorly written, or even dull on the first viewing, but it does make it difficult to “analyze”. From a character aspect and from the perspective of linking a few things together, the episode is good. However, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is messy, filled with characters who don’t need to be there (currently), or has a storyline that could be its own episode not bogging this one down. The title, one of the stories, and overall one of the themes of the series didn’t need to be in an episode about Susan Triad.

We spend a lot of time with U.N.I.T. and the magical space tech it isn’t supposed to have. I do somewhat like the joke that The Doctor is looking at it like it is a bodged-together child’s toy in terms of time tech, though I wonder what he thought humans would have in ye’ old 2024. Nonetheless, we spend about 15 minutes of a 45-minute episode doing very Classic-Who things: Pointing at the special effects and telling other characters to look. Character-wise it is fine, but from a writing aspect, it felt (to say a dirty word against Russell,) lazy.

Russell has written exposition that works, but this was the most Chibnall-esque his writing has felt. I guess that is to say immature, lacking the experience we know he has, or simply lacking some substance to latch onto as a viewer. I love Donna’s Rose, I love Carla, and I generally love the extended family we’ve built, but what was the point? Rose is there so Ncuti can be bubbly, Carla is there to say a couple of lines, one of which is important. Otherwise, the characters are filler.

We’re also introducing Morris Gibbons, a young genius played by fifteen-year-old Lenny Rush. I have nothing against him, I love his attitude and personality when he’s out of character, but he’s quite literally at a desk we’ve seen someone disabled in before. It was only the last time we saw U.N.I.T. that we were introduced to Ruth Madeley as Shirley, but there’s no explanation why she’s not there. Of course, Morris isn’t the only one we’re introduced to: Susan Triad takes a bit of setup, and to a lesser extent so does Harriet and Winston Chidozie.

I’m not even at Bonnie Langford’s bubbly return, or Angela Wynter and Anita Dobson. For a 45-minute-long episode that is not only setting up a second part to come, but all these characters and the side stuff to distract you from the bubbling mystery, it’s too much. Not as an idea, but how it was done. That first watch was easy. The second was less so, and my third I’m just not interested in any of it. Matt Smith’s phone call from “Deep Breath” hits every time, Professor Yana hits every time, same with Rose in “Partners in Crime,” The Curator, and more.

I’m not hiding that the cliffhanger is a big return, but I’m not saying who or what it is. That said, speaking currently before “Empire of Death” (which itself is somewhat of a spoiler), it is a one-note return that doesn’t make the episode all that important. This is where reviewing the first of a two-parter is tricky, especially a Russell two-parter, this was act 1. It was a slow-paced act one, not too dissimilar to the pacing of “Utopia,” but as I say, that has the fantastic Derek Jacobi and that twist you didn’t know was coming.

The “Twist at the end” this time out was quite literally Susan Twist doing a dance like she was Theresa May, and talking, as I called her the other week, like the devil herself. Yet the thing is, that reveal works perfectly fine, but was it enough for a single minute of brilliance in a 45-minute-long episode, that’s the question. I also need to ask how well it strikes a chord with those who don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the classics. No, not Moby Dick, I’m talking about Tom Baker and Sarah Jane. If you picked up the hint in “The Devil’s Chord” clever monkey you.

The point still stands: This is a one-shot reveal that you have to get right, it is something far off in this Doctor’s past (11 regenerations ago), and you’re trying to expand into wider markets with the availability on Disney+. Unlike Chibnall bringing back the Spud-face ones in their original crappy-looking costumes, this return works (currently) on the idea that Russell is expanding on the lore. Arguably he’s done something already by bringing back Gabriel Woolf for a second time, and the line from Carla.

Despite all this moaning and trying to dance around Susan Triad Tec(K)hnologies – yeah, that’s a cop-out if I’ve ever seen one – I did enjoy that first viewing. “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is slower-paced but kept enough of itself to keep me interested for that first watch. I try to balance my opinion on the first watch of an episode versus the multiples after; be it a full rewatch from series 1 or a random episode. This isn’t an episode I’d want to watch ever again. Not because it was offensive or anything, but simply because the story isn’t there once you’ve seen the twist.

Those examples I’ve mentioned before worked on the premise that there was a solid story attached to them and that the twist wasn’t the only talking point. I can talk about the spoiler if I wanted to, if you even slightly interact with Doctor Who social media you’ve been given the explanation of who it is already. You’ve had the clip of Tom Baker, you’ve had the clip where he took Sarah Jane back to her time, the social media team has done a lot more to tell you why the return was important than the episode or series itself.

Ultimately, I’m more than torn on my thoughts of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” primarily because we’ve yet to see acts 2 and 3. However, I’m also left thinking about who this reveal was for: We keep seeing “this isn’t Doctor Who” and other nonsense from online comments, but is this aimed at the 60-year-olds who were kids during this character’s first interaction?

I think it is much worse than that, I think it is either Russell doing as Chibnall wanted to, or it is Russell saying “Buy the remastered Blu-rays.” There is too much of an expectation of the audience to know/remember or to understand what is happening for this first part to work on its own. I keep trying to reiterate that, maybe next week it will make a lot more sense but right now I have people asking me why Geb and Nut’s son is the big bad we’re all supposed to know.

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Doctor Who "The Legend of Ruby Sunday"

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• I love Bonnie Langford's performances now.
• The whole U.N.I.T. team is great.

Cons

• A reveal that can very easily fall flat.
• The social media team has done a better job of explaining the reveal than the show.
• A one-note episode that's flat on subsequent rewatches.