‘Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday’ Season 1, Episode 7 Review – Laying the Groundwork for an Explosive Finale

Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), and Mel (Bonnie Langford) | Photo Credit: Bad Wolf/BBC Studios/Disney+

And just like that, it’s the beginning of the end of Doctor Who‘s latest season. And what an ending it’s shaping up to be. Written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Jamie Donoughue, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” crafts a story that simultaneously weaves all of the season’s dangling plot threads into a tapestry of destruction while expertly laying the stage for what’s sure to be a bombastic season finale. Tensely paced and filled with one twist after another, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” proves as shocking as it is captivating. While hard to judge without seeing how the story ends, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” does everything the first part of a two-part finale needs to do – in spectacular fashion.

Please note: this review contains spoilers for Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday.

A Mysterious Woman and the History of Ruby Sunday

When the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby (Millie Gibson) arrive at UNIT looking for answers about Ruby’s past and get to the bottom of the mysterious woman (Susan Twist) who keeps popping up on all of their adventures, they uncover an earth-shattering conspiracy that’s sure to bring the world to its knees. Their mysterious woman, now posing as a tech billionaire named Susan Triad, is posed to launch her new technology worldwide. But just who is she? Why does she keep appearing wherever the Doctor goes? And why does she have the same name as the Doctor’s long-lost granddaughter? With Mel (Bonnie Langford) embedded in Susan’s media team, the Doctor and UNIT’s quest for answers plays out like a spy caper in the best way possible. But what they uncover may shock them to their cores.

Meanwhile, as the Doctor, Ruby, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), and the rest of UNIT use a time window to look back at the night of Ruby’s birth, they uncover something rather unsettling. For starters, no matter how hard any of them try, nobody can get a good glimpse of exactly who the woman is who drops Ruby off on the steps of the church on Ruby Road. And to make matters worse, something goes catastrophically wrong with the time window. It’s a glitch that results in the death of a UNIT soldier and a ripple effect that worms its way into the present day. For The One Who Waits now waits no longer. It’s a disaster of epic proportions and one that perfectly sets the stage for next week’s finale. But how does the mystery of Ruby’s mother connect with the mystery of Susan Triad?

A Thriller That Pays Homage to the Past and Present of Doctor Who

It’s these two dueling mysteries that propel the episode forward, tying together all of the Doctor and Ruby’s adventures so far. But don’t expect a ton of answers here. No, that’s not the kind of episode this is. “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” merely sets the stage for a finale that promises to bring these storylines to some kind of a satisfying conclusion. And, as such, it’s impossible to really judge the episode’s effectiveness. If next week’s finale completely drops the ball, then “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is gonna end up completely deflating under the weight of such disappointment. But divorced from the baggage of what may later happen, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is an utterly gripping 45 minutes of television that plays out like the first half of a blockbuster thriller in the best way humanly possible.

You’ve got the corporate espionage, the spy-thriller action adventure, and the deeply emotional character drama that ends in heartbreak. Put simply, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is a thriller that perfectly pays homage to Doctor Who‘s past while throwing open the doors for something entirely new. But underneath all of that tension and high-budget action rests this deep familial longing. The Doctor spends the episode simultaneously hoping Susan Triad is his long-lost granddaughter and absolutely dreading the ramifications that might follow. Meanwhile, Ruby spends the episode desperately trying to finally uncover the mysteries of her birth and abandonment. For the Doctor and Ruby, this is a search for familial connection; a longing to find your kin. Gatwa and Millie deliver some of their best performances here, especially towards the latter half of the episode.

A (Forthcoming) Empire of Death

But really, that’s not what anyone’s gonna be talking about as the credits roll. For “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” offers no closure for Ruby’s search for her birth mother. And, SPOILER ALERT, it turns out that Susan Triad is not the Doctor’s granddaughter after all. No, she’s something far worse. A force that’s been purposefully following the Doctor wherever he goes. A voice whispering to the TARDIS, beckoning it to obey her master’s commands. Susan Triad is merely the pawn of a god; the plaything of the One Who Waits. And who, you ask, is the One Who Waits? Please give a warm, fearful round of applause for the long-awaited return of Sutekh, a god of destruction last seen in 1975’s “Pyramids of Mars“. He’s back, having waited so long to unleash his particular brand of destruction upon the universe.

But what, exactly, is his plan? Well, that’s a question that’s gonna have to wait for next week’s finale, “Empire of Death”. Until then, his appearance at the end of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” makes for quite a startling surprise. As UNIT soldier Harriet (Genesis Lynea) and Susan Triad morph into harbingers of Sutekh’s forthcoming destruction, the Doctor faces his greatest threat yet. And Ruby, having gone back into the Time Window, faces an uncertain future. There’s the mystery of her mother, what the Doctor did or didn’t see that Christmas Eve in 2004, and the sudden appearance of a second TARDIS – a feat which should not have been possible. It’s a cliffhanger for the ages; one that’s sure to have audiences glued to their seats, anxiously awaiting next week’s finale. And really, isn’t that all a penultimate episode needs to do?

Final Thoughts

“The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is one of those episodes that can’t be judged on its own. Its success or failure entirely depends on how next week’s finale, “Empire of Death”, concludes this sprawling epic. But as the first part of a two-part finale, it does everything right. Davies’ script sets the stage for an epic showdown between the Doctor and a literal god of destruction. It’s a tense, action-packed, emotionally-driven episode that begins the process of weaving the season’s disparate storylines into a glorious tapestry. Led by dynamic, breathtaking performances by Gatwa and Gibson and a script that simultaneously moves breathtakingly quickly while giving its characters the room to breathe, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is sure to go down as one of Doctor Who‘s better “first halves of a finale”. All that’s left is to see how it all ends…

New Episodes of Doctor Who air on Fridays at 7pm on Disney+.