‘Doctor Who’ Season 1 Finale Recap

Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Doctor Who, “Empire of Death.”

After a season filled with big swings and a series of elusive mysteries, the Doctor Who finale has delivered a grand conclusion that reaches back into the show’s history and buttoned the episode with a tender goodbye. But as we all know, there’s always a twist at the end. “Empire of Death” pays off the biggest mysteries of the season, giving depth to each of Susan Twist’s appearances throughout. The episode also resolves the mystery around Ruby Sunday in such a perfectly Doctor Who way that audiences will either love it or hate it.

Opening with a bang, “Empire of Death” gives Ncuti Gatwa some of his best work and solidifies him as one of the best Doctors in the series’ history. Meanwhile, Millie Gibson gets her big hero moment and her happily ever after, and while Russell T. Davies has confirmed we’ll see Ruby Sunday again in Season 2, a mere eight episodes hardly feels like enough time with our newest companion. This episode also gives Bonnie Langford a beautifully dynamic turn as Mel, which she delivers with relish. Filled with Easter eggs aplenty, “Empire of Death” is going to be an episode worth rewatching to catch every reference; just don’t stare at the actual plot too long. Meanwhile, we still don’t know who Anita Dobson’s mysterious Mrs. Flood is, but I can’t wait to spend future episodes trying to figure it out!

‘Doctor Who’ Continues the Beloved Finale Tradition of Destroying the Universe

Jumping immediately into the cliffhanger we were left on at the end of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” the finale kicks off with a devastating bang. As Sutekh’s soldiers unleash ancient and terrible hell on the whole of London, Mel quickly yanks the Doctor out of Triad HQ and onto her motorbike. At the same time, Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and UNIT’s essential employees — yes, even those teenagers — open fire on the giant dog-like manifestation of Sutekh, wrapped around the TARDIS. I’m not entirely sure why they think bullets will work on the most powerful god from the Pantheon which also includes the Toymaker, who, just a few months prior, turned all of their bullets into rose petals, but I digress. Things go from bad to worse almost immediately as their weapons make no difference, and Kate says a tearful goodbye to the Doctor over comms before Sutekh envelops them all in his dust cloud of death.

The Sutekh’s deadly dust storm spreads all across London, causing chaos and horror as Mel and the Doctor race back to UNIT. Down in the basement, Ruby is alive, but she still can’t see her mother. Meanwhile, Sutekh’s destruction rolls along, taking out Carla (Michelle Greenidge) in the back of a taxi, and crumbling Mrs. Flood and Cherry Sunday (Angela Wynter) in one fell swoop. As they both turn to dust, it’s clear that Mrs. Flood wasn’t also a foot soldier for Sutekh, but her strange words promising “such great plans” certainly leave the question of her strange fourth wall-breaking identity hanging in the air.

Back at UNIT, the Doctor and Mel find Ruby in the time window, and after sending the guard she was with down to a bunker, he walks right into the TARDIS parked on Ruby Road in the CCTV footage. It doesn’t look anything like Fifteen’s TARDIS. However, the interior is hardly foreign, as it appears to be a glorious tiny mishmash of every version of the TARDIS that has ever existed. Fans with a keener eye than me will be able to find endless Easter eggs in this interior, from Eleven’s jump seat and Fourteen’s sonic to a mini version of Thirteen’s crystal struts and a plethora of console pieces from the history of Doctor Who. Walking back out, the Doctor sonics a screen from the time window to take with them and encourages Ruby to infuse it with her memories. Dropping one of my favorite lines he’s ever uttered, the Doctor says, “if time is a memory, then memory is a time machine.” The cloister bell dings as the TARDIS remembers itself, but before our heroes can make a grand escape, Harriet brings the TARDIS and Sutekh in for a bit of exposition.

Fans who have seen the classic Who serial “The Pyramids of Mars” will no doubt get a little more out of this episode, but new viewers needn’t worry, as Davies gives the audience a quick primer on what went down the last time the Doctor faced Sutekh. In a classic villain monologue, the monster explains how he survived the time vortex by clinging to the TARDIS, implying that he’s been attached to the exterior of the big blue box this entire time. (And yes, I’m sitting there like Sally Field at the end of Mrs. Doubtfire just saying “THE WHOLE TIME?!” over and over.) All the while, Sutekh has been learning how to use the TARDIS and promises it will be the “alter of his empire of death.” The language gets pretty biblical here, and luckily that’s where the Doctor draws the line as he promises to damn Sutekh for eternity. But like me, the Doctor is also wondering why Sutekh doesn’t just kill them now with the snap of his fingers. Taunting the God of Death by asking him how good it feels to be alive, is such a classic Doctor mic drop as he, Ruby, and Mel hop into the TARDIS and book it.

Inside the memory TARDIS, we get a lovely moment with Mel as she comes across Six’s old coat, and later can be seen curled up with Seven’s iconic question mark vest, both of the Doctors she traveled with as a companion. The trio pulls together the TARDIS with little more than a shoestring and a prayer, flipping switches and flitting around the tiny space, before finally putting themselves in orbit around the planet. Explaining that that very long string is actually intelligent rope, the Doctor gets misty-eyed about the day he met Ruby, immediately remorseful for bringing so much destruction into her life. He goes on to explain Sutekh’s plan to use him to annihilate the entire universe. As he traveled from planet to planet, so did Sutekh, and using the TARDIS’ perception filter — which just so happens to extend to 73 yards exactly — he created a Susan on every single world, leaving behind countless soldiers across the stars.

Together, they look out as the entire Earth is turned to dust, swiftly eliminating any hope that the Doctor would get a helping hand from his retired self. To make matters worse, because the Doctor has come to Earth hundreds upon hundreds of times throughout history, the Earth is dying every time he lands there. Referencing “The Curse of the Fatal Death” in 1999, “The Time Meddler” in 1066, and “Rose” in 2005, the Doctor mourns every person he ever met and goes on to extend that devastation into the stars, making it clear that this is happening everywhere he’s ever been. Naturally, the Doctor blames himself for bringing destruction across the galaxy — even though it was hardly his fault or hardly the first time it’s happened. Rare is the Doctor Who season finale that doesn’t bring humanity and often the entire universe, to its end. Though we’ve seen the Doctor go through this time and again, Gatwa delivers a knockout performance that reiterates why this is such a beloved character.

‘Doctor Who’ Saves the World With a Spoon and One Brave Little Girl

In a decimated UNIT HQ, Sutekh reveals that what’s keeping him from destroying them is the secret Ruby carries. It’s ominous in the moment, but this particular line of reasoning doesn’t hold up very strongly to rewatches, as it makes little sense why Sutekh can’t just pluck the information they seek out of time and space at the snap of his fingers. Elsewhere, on a distant planet that has been laid to waste, the Doctor finds a woman who can hardly remember her own name. She explains feebly the things she can remember and offers kindness to the Doctor in a universe where little of it remains. It’s not entirely clear why the Doctor needed to find this random woman and ask her for a spoon at the edge of the universe, but the scene does lend itself to the episode’s ultimate ending, and the overarching theme of Davies’ entire Doctor Who tenure. In getting the final key from this seemingly unimportant woman, the Doctor turns yet another ordinary person into a galaxy-saving hero.

Back in the TARDIS, everyone’s had a change of clothes, and they appear to have been traveling for quite some time. The Doctor fixes the time window screen with a spoon and replays his memories of facing Sutekh with Sarah Jane. The “death wave,” as the mystery woman called it, seems to be catching up with Mel, as she has trouble remembering her own adventures with the Doctor. As Ruby ponders why Sutekh chose to attack now, the screen glitches back to her memories, highlighting her mother. Doing some girl math, the Doctor figures that the time window is trying to answer Ruby’s question. The mystery of Ruby’s mother is apparently frustrating Sutekh even more than it is Ruby and the Doctor as, after seeing all of time and space, this one woman remains elusive. Now, does that explain why Sutekh can’t just go and find her himself using the literal power of a god? No, but the game of cat and mouse is engaging nonetheless.

Using those god powers, Sutekh latches on to Mel, draining her life force and slowly turning her into a spy, all while the Doctor and Ruby continue getting memory clues from the time window. Now, turning to the prime timeline’s Roger ap Gwilliam, we learn that he made DNA testing mandatory during his strange and dangerous tenure as prime minister, meaning that in 2046, Ruby’s mother’s DNA would have to be on file. Though Ruby wasn’t there to stop Gwilliam in this timeline, the Doctor was, making the year a fixed point even in death. Arriving in the future, the Doctor gives the memory TARDIS a little smooch before taking Mel and Ruby into the Department of Health to search the DNA database for a match to Ruby’s blood. Though Mel is trying to hold on, the Doctor quickly realizes what’s happening to her the moment he touches her hand. Much like he did with Martha (Freema Agyeman) in “The Poison Sky,” the Doctor is playing 3D chess with Sutekh’s would-be spy and sends Mel to stand guard, holding Sutekh at bay just a moment longer.

Using the time window screen, the Doctor and Ruby search for her mother with a blood sample and the sonic, and yet again, we get so close to the answer before it’s once again ripped from our grasp. Everything reaches a heart-pounding fever pitch, as it begins to snow, “Carol of the Bells” begins to play, and Mel finally submits to Sutekh’s deadly whispers. We’re somehow yanked out of 2046, as Sutekh brings them all back to UNIT using the Doctor’s TARDIS — again, why can’t he just do that with Ruby’s mom if he wants to know so badly? Anyway, the Doctor, earnest as he is, begins to bargain with Sutekh, wanting to offer the creature a chance, but as it’s gone with every other member of the Pantheon, they’re not interested in anything he has to offer, bringing the Doctor to his knees with the flick of his wrist.

Seeing the Doctor in total agony is enough for Ruby to seemingly submit, however, as she promises to give Sutekh the name of her mother if he’ll just let the Doctor go. Gibson is absolutely amazing in this scene, and it’s arguably one of her best across the whole season. Essentially embodying one of the best dril tweets of all time, Ruby puts on her bravest face as she faces the god of death before walking backwards into hell. She takes the screen right up to his face with all the drama and flair one could muster, and smashes it, calling him a “great big god of nothing” before slapping a leash on the hellhound and yanking him into the TARDIS, which the Doctor can now control with his little whistle.

Walking into the TARDIS yelling “I’m baaaack” like Russell Casse at the end of Independence Day, the Doctor drags Sutekh through the time vortex, beating death at his own game and bringing every destroyed world and all of our beloved supporting characters back to life. While there may be quite a few logic holes in this episode, there’s nothing greater than a classic “everyone lives” moment on Doctor Who. Every planet he ever visited comes back in vibrant color. Absolutely not relishing the task, the Doctor stands in the TARDIS doorway and brings an end to Sutekh once and for all, watching as he turns to dust in the time vortex.

‘Doctor Who’ Gives Ruby Sunday Her Happily Ever After, But It Feels Too Soon to Say Goodbye

In the aftermath, Kate Stewart pulls out everyone’s favorite workplace solution to complete and utter disaster and has everyone over for a pizza party. Susan Triad is still a real person, with all of her own real memories, and Mel notes the irony of the god of death creating life. Meanwhile, Kate absolutely sees her as a new ally for UNIT, despite calling her an evil tech genius last episode. It’s becoming a running theme that Kate intends to scoop up every bright mind for UNIT and I can’t even blame her for it. And yes, this is my official request to The Mouse — can we please green-light that long-rumored UNIT spin-off now? I need to witness these kinds of shenanigans on a regular basis.

Greenidge’s Carla brings some much-appreciated gravitas to the moment as she offers the Doctor a heartfelt thank you for bringing her baby girl home, and Kate follows it up with genuine gratitude for bringing them all back from the dead. Before anyone can get too weepy, we finally get the reveal of Ruby’s mother — no, I don’t know how they hacked a database that doesn’t exist yet, either — and she’s a perfectly ordinary woman we’ve never seen before named Louise Miller. While this feels like a very Davies answer to this season-long mystery, the emphasis with which it was hyped throughout the last eight episodes does make the moment feel rather anticlimactic, like letting all the air out of a balloon you were fully expecting to pop.

The meaning behind it is beautiful nonetheless, and one of the things I like best about Davies’ writing. People become important fascinating enigmas because we make them into that. Ruby’s mother, a completely normal person, became monumental because we cared about her. While I feel the execution of this message worked a bit better when Davies did it with Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) in Series 4, the sentiment is still quite touching, and a core element of Doctor Who. It maintains the throughline of one of Eleven’s most iconic lines, as the Doctor, in all their eons of life, has never met anyone who wasn’t important.

Moments later, Ruby and the Doctor turn up outside a coffee shop, and while the Doctor thinks it may be best to just see Louise and leave, Ruby is going to see this through until the end. While we really could’ve used the standard 12-episode run to really get to know Ruby better, the way she does not wait for the Doctor’s permission to go after what she wants speaks volumes about her character. For a moment, it seems as though Ruby may be satisfied with just a chance encounter, but as the barista calls her name, Ruby reveals herself to her mother at long last. With UNIT revealing that Louise abandoned Ruby when she was just 15, saving her baby from an abusive household, Ruby thanks her for giving her a better life than she would have had otherwise. All goes well and the two share a lovely embrace before Ruby takes her home to meet the family who raised her.

Back at the Sunday household, everyone gets to know each other and the Doctor is notably absent. Stepping away just as Carla brings out the photo albums and reveals that Ruby dressed up as David Bowie at age 10, Ruby steps into the TARDIS for a tearful goodbye that I, for one, was simply not ready for. Frankly, Ruby isn’t ready to say goodbye either — with her heart practically tearing in half, Ruby longs to keep traveling with the Doctor even as she keeps getting revelations about her long-lost family. As she asks him to come with her, the Doctor reluctantly returns to the console, albeit with the promise that he will see her again. Gatwa and Gibson are both heartbreaking in their final moments together, making the fact that Ruby won’t be a permanent companion anymore all the more devastating. Luckily, we do know the Doctor isn’t lying about that promise, and we will see her again in Season 2. This also isn’t the first time the Doctor has had a tearful goodbye with a companion, only to swiftly reunite with them when the series returned — yeah, I’m looking at you, Twelve and Clara — so there’s hope for more Ruby Sunday adventures yet.

Coming in clutch with our twist at the end is Dobson’s quirky Mrs. Flood, who is once again talking directly to the audience. She promises a happy ending for Ruby and one of absolute terror for the Doctor before wishing us all “night night” and floating off like some deranged Mary Poppins. We’re no closer to finding out who she is, why she can speak to the audience, or what she has in store for the Doctor, but it’s enough to keep the audience theorizing until the series returns for a Steven Moffat-penned Christmas special. Is she a Time Lord? Is she the real Susan the Doctor was searching for? Is she Clara Oswald — yeah we all heard that “clever boy” reference — we’ll have to wait and see!

While certain plot details don’t hold up under a microscope, “Empire of Death” is a satisfying enough conclusion to an all-too-short season of Doctor Who. The episode suffers from arriving just a bit too soon and leaves the audience with a strange melancholy. All the right elements are there, but watching Ruby and the Doctor split up so soon just feels wrong. The season, overall, is quite good, and the move to Disney+ has brought in a whole new audience and added a gorgeous visual quality to the series. I can only hope that future seasons also see the merit in a handful of additional adventures to really let the characters breathe while we get to know them.

Doctor Who

A thrilling finale that wraps up the newest adventure just a bit too soon.

Pros

• There are so many delightful Easter eggs and references to past versions of the Doctor.
• Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson each get their moments to shine both separately and together.
• Bonnie Langford digs into some really fun double agent work.
• The message of ordinary people holding meaning because we care about them is quite lovely.

Cons

• The mystery of Ruby’s mother is anticlimactic following so much build up.
• Saying goodbye to Ruby Sunday so soon feels like losing her before we’ve really gotten to know her.

Doctor Who is currently available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S. and will return on December 25, 2024.

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