Review: Doctor Who, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” | Season 14, Episode 7
An old face returns as Doctor Who’s two-part finale begins
Two-part episodes of Doctor Who are a funny thing to review. There’s only one week in time where we’ll consider “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” as a standalone entry, rather than one half of a complete story. And how well next week’s finale sticks the landing is going to determine this episode’s legacy far more than anything it does or doesn’t accomplish itself. It’s the ultimate act of ephemerality to review this episode in isolation. So it’s fitting that the episode itself feels a little hard to hold onto.
My quick-hit take on “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is that it starts really weak and ends relatively strong, with an effectively unnerving cliffhanger to lead us into next week’s finale. Like “Dot and Bubble” before it, it’s an episode that wants to use Doctor Who viewers’ assumptions against them before delivering a big twist ending. And like “Dot and Bubble” before it, it’s a concept that works a little better in theory than it does it practice.
The ideal way …