Whilst there are no plans currently for a third series of this new Doctor Who era this is despite the fact that Disney recently said that they want to get back the male demographic. We still have the past episodes of Ncuti Gatwa's run on the show to look back on and hopefully enjoy with the same thing also being true for the two parter that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today as yes I did watch Empire Of Death TWICE once without the invision commentary and once with it on and so then join me as I review the episode that sees a classic foe return and a companion temporarily leave the show for the episodes in question being called simply just "The Legend Of Ruby Sunday" and "Empire Of Death" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when The Doctor and Ruby fly into U.N.I.T HQ to ask them about a woman that they both keep on seeing an ancient evil from The Doctors past makes itself known and The Doctor and his friends must try and find away to defeat this evil once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad however tho this episodes plot wasn't all that good either as it did feel kind of anticlimactic alot of the time with The Doctor working out things off screen or the characters discussing things off screen which is great for drama but it isn't great storytelling and while the plot of this episode does feel epic enough to be a series finale it doesn't really resolve all that much as we don't get to find out why it snows when ever Ruby is hurt or distressed and nor do we really get to find out why Mrs. Flood was being shown alot of the time in this series which fair enough is something that does get resolved in the next series but it was a big thing in this series as well and therefor there should have been some level of resolution to it but to be fair tho this episodes plot is a really exciting one and one that does show alot of promise to be one of the more better Doctor Who finale's in Doctor Who history it just needed a much more better writer and production team to pull of a story like this one with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Ncuti Gatwa as The Doctor , Millie Gibson as Ruby Sunday and Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush. Also starring in this episode is Jemma Redgrave as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart
Yasmin Finney as Rose Noble , Alexander Devrient as Colonel Christofer Ibrahim , Lenny Rush as Morris Gibbons , Genesis Lynea as Harriet Arbinger , Aidan Cook as The Vlinx , Nicholas Briggs as the voice of The Vlinx , Susan Twist as Susan Triad , Fela Lufadeju as Bailey Sinclair , Michelle Greenidge as Carla Sunday , Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood , Angela Wynter as Cherry Sunday , Tachia Newall as Colonel Winston Chidozie , Gabriel Woolf as the voice of Sutekh , Jasmine Bayes as Corporal Alice Sullivan , Sian Clifford as Kind Woman and Faye McKeever as Louise Miller.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. Which is something that does make alot of sense as not only is both parts of this episode filled to the brim with some really good actors but also this era of the show as a whole is known for having some really good acting in all of it's episodes and therefor it does make sense that that is something that would continue onwards in this episode as well with all of the episodes actors really giving there best shot no matter the size of the role that there playing in both of these episodes with Gabriel Woolf really nailing it as Sutekh which is all the more surprising as he is actually returning to the role of Sutekh after originating it back in 1975's "Pyramids Of Mars" with sounding as creepy as he did back then with him even being the episodes best actor due to the fact that he hasn't really played the character for such a long time and yet he very easily slipped back into character as if he just got through playing him the first time a few years ago with him even out shining both Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson alot of the time something which really couldn't have been an easy task to do as there both a pair of really good actors in their own rights as well with the acting that's in this episode not really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does hurt the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Automatik VFX and Real SFX. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought felt that the actual CGI that's actually feature / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good which given that this is where a huge chunk of Disney money went does quite clearly make alot of sense and it is something that did mostly pay off for the large part as while there are some really good looking CGI effects in this episode ranging from Sutekh himself to even replacing Cardiff in reflections to make it look like London where are a few effects that do look a little bit to much like a cartoon with for example when the TARDIS enters U.N.I.T HQ at the start of The Legend Of Ruby Sunday the sparks coming off of it look really fake which if this was in 2005 would make sense as the show didn't have a huge effects budget back then but now the makers of this show don't really have that as an excuse and while the effects with Sutekh basically flying through the time vortex are passable they don't look as good as they should have done as while simple things like the lighting matching up when it hits Ncuti does work there's just something off about it that makes the whole thing look a little bit on the cheap of side things now weather or not they just ran out of money or they just gave more money to other effects in the episode is hard to tell but given that that scene is meant to see this classic Doctor Who villain die there should have been some more money thrown at that scene to make it look the best that it possibly could have done.
As was mentioned at the start of this review this is the episode that does see Ruby temporarily leave the show with this two parter even wrapping up the whole story line about her mother is. Which to be fair was a decent thing to do in the episode it's the justification behind making Louise Miller a "nobody" that's the problem as in the invision commentary for the episode Russell T. Davies states that he made her a nobody as his response to The Rise Of Skywalker walking back on Rey's parentage with him saying that he liked that her parents where nobody's however what he failed to realise was that the Star Wars fans hated that reveal as it didn't make sense given what we had seen from that character up until The Last Jedi where as with Ruby given everything that we know about her it does make sense for her mother to be this nobody character and to the credit of the fans of Doctor Who they weren't up in arms about it like the fans of Star Wars were as they had alot of time to get to know Ruby as a character and whilst some of them might not like her character the one thing that can't be denied is the fact that we got to know her and therefor seeing her mum was basically just like her was something that did make sense as was the fact that we get to see Ruby leave the show for a little bit as of course she would want to get to know her birth mum as she had spend countless years trying to find her so he would of course choose to stay on earth for a little bit and not go flying off to distant planets in the TARDIS with the scene of her leaving the TARDIS being a truly heartbreaking as while the relationship between The Doctor and Ruby wasn't that well developed you still got the feeling that he was loosing someone close to him and therefor it did make sense in this episode for The Doctor to break down crying instead of saying I love you which was the original plan.
Whilst this two parter does have alot of good things going for it it does also have alot of bad things that are going against it as well. Like for example the design for Sutekh just looks wrong as the original idea for the character was to have him be based of Egyptian gods hence why he looked sort of like a man but here he looks more dog like then anything else when it would have made more sense for him to look more cat like given the fact that Egyptians worship cats and treat them like they are gods with this not really being helped by the fact that much like what they would do with Omega in the very next series they made this version of Sutekh really tall when what made him scary in the first place wasn't his height it was the idea behind the character the ides that this god like character could do anything to anyone from this other dimension and you'd have no choice but to go along with it but here tho because of the fact that they keep him out of that other dimension and made him a really tall character it oddly makes him less threatening as a character as we don't really get to see him do anything that's scary or threatening where as in "Pyramids Of Mars" we got to see him mind control people so that they can kill off other characters and we got to see him have his own set of mummy type guards all of which do go along way into making what could have been seen as being a rather bland character seem all the more threatening but here in this two parter tho they rob him of both of those with him only mind controlling three people with two of them just standing around doing nothing and the third somehow knowing how to operate the TARDIS which doesn't really make him all that threatening as a villain.
To give this episode a bit more credit it did hide the twist of Sutekh returning really well all throughout not only this episode but this season as a whole. With The Doctor guessing that the anagram for the the tech company that the U.N.I.T was looking into was TARDIS without really looking at the full thing and while this does make The Doctor look kind of dumb as even this version of the character would look at the bigger picture he's also one to leap before he looks as well which is something that does make the big reveal still quite shocking especially as Sutekh is quite an obscure character to be brining back as he's not on the same level as say The Master for example but at the same time tho the makers of this episode could have done alot more with the character just by giving him an end goal as in this episode the only thing that he wants to do is wipe out all life on earth after doing so to the rest of the planets that this version of The Doctor has visited OFF SCREEN when this is something that really should have been show in greater detail as it would have given the makers of this episode alot more of a chance to show off just how scary that Sutekh is and just how powerful that he could be and yet by not giving him an end goal and by minimizing all of the damage that we see him do it oddly makes him feel more like a pantomime villain and not like a villain that should be taken seriously with the episode even omitting key things from The Doctor and Ruby's perspective as well as they work out that Mel had "died" and work out a plan to stop Sutekh once and for all OFF SCREEN when this is something that should have been shown on screen.
Now then both of these episodes has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty five minuets with the first episode being forty five minuets and five seconds long and the second episode being fifty four minuets and twelve seconds long. Which to be fair to this episode is a perfectly solid running tome for this episode to have as the episode does have more then enough plot there to really cover that amount of running time but in saying that tho this episode also doesn't use it's running time all that wisely either as the plot of the episode isn't that well developed this is despite it's extra long running time the episode still doesn't take the time that it really needs to develop it's plot as alot of the time it does feel like things are happening just for the sake of it and not because of the fact that there important to the actual plot of the episode with this even effecting the episodes character development as none of the characters get much in the way of actual character development which is something that does make sense for characters like The Doctor and Ruby as they get there character development in other episodes of the show but for a character like Rose Noble who goes through both The Star Beast and this two parter getting absolutely no character development whatsoever just makes her feel like a waste of a good idea as on paper a character like her could have worked she just needed to be more thought out and developed as a character but for one reason or another she gets no character development in this two parter with the same thing also being true for Sutekh himself but I really will admit that this very episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As this episode really does have some really good action scenes in it but in saying that tho this episode does do something really bad with the character of The Doctor during the episodes final chase scene he willingly kills of Sutekh which is so against the character of The Doctor and as he prides himself on being better then his foes by not killing them in cool blood and yet here in the second part of this two parter he does just that so now basically The Doctor no matter the incarnation is now no better then the Daleks or the Cybermen for example with the episodes best action scene being the chase scene all throughout London as that's were get to see just how deadly that Sutekh's power really can be with hundreds if not thousands of people including recurring characters getting killed off all the while The Doctor and Mel only just get away with there lives which is something that does make that action scene all the more fun to watch as while it i just a simple chase scene it is one that's really effective and is quite exciting to watch and while the ending chase scene with Sutekh hanging on to a bungy rope that's attached to the TARDIS is an exciting scene to watch it's let down by the bad character choice of The Doctor willingly killing him off in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while there are alot of faults to be found in this two parter there's also alot of good to be found in them as well all of which do make this episode be alot more better then what it really had any right to be the only thing is this episode episode isn't as good as it really could have been either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Cim and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
