Entertainment
Classic Doctor Who villain returns after 50 years and fans are ‘terrified’-Asyia Iftikhar-Entertainment – Metro
It’s been half-a-century since they last appeared in an episode.
The villain last showed up in 1975 (Picture: Sophie Mutevelian/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios)
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who episode seven, The Legend of Ruby Sunday.
The first half of the epic two-part Doctor Who finale starring Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as mysterious companion Ruby Sunday has left fans shocked after a major villain reveal.
The episode saw the Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT headquarters to meet Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and get to the bottom of their universe-wide stalker.
The character, played by Susan Twist, has popped up in various forms across the season including as an AI ambulance, a hiker in Wales and Lindy Pepper-Bean’s mother.
In today’s episode, she appeared as a woman also named Susan, the founder of S Triad Technology who is planning to release her company’s software for free, worldwide.
The Doctor was left wondering if she was the granddaughter he travelled with as the First Doctor back in 1963 (played by William Hartnell) who has the same name.
The mysterious figure following the Doctor across space and time is finally revealed (Picture: James Pardon/Bad Wolf/BBC Studios)
Soon enough the space-and-time travelling duo put the pieces together and realised this enigmatic figure could be linked to the mystery behind Ruby’s birth – who her biological mother is.
Ruby was abandoned by a disguised cloaked figure on a church doorstep on Christmas Eve in 2004, partially the setting for the Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road, but they are yet to discover the abandoner’s identity.
At the end of today’s episode, – after managing to return to that fateful day via a time window – everything went wrong when the TARDIS was consumed by a dark force.
Soon, through a demented, creepy speech, the mass revealed itself to be Sutekh, the God of Death who was using Susan as a vessel and was intent on destroying the universe.
But this is not the first time Whovians have been introduced to this villain. Sutekh’s first appearance was in 1975 episode Pyramids of Mars with the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker).
Sutekh first appeared in Pyramids of Mars (Picture: BBC)
Where he battled the Fourth Doctor and was trapped in a space-and-time tunnel (Picture:
BBC)
In this almost 50-year-old episode, Sutekh the Destroyer, the last of Osirons (a God-like alien race) awaits to be freed to bring his gift of death to all.
The Doctor and companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) battle Sutekh when he is released and he is successfully trapped in a space-time tunnel for seven millennia with no hopes of escaping. Or so the Doctor thought until now.
How all of the different elements will tie together remains to be seen, but for now fans are simply ‘scared’ and ‘shook’ by the horrifying end-of-episode sequence and discovering the Classic Who ties.
‘That was fantastic and that cliffhanger! I can’t wait for next week it’s going to be incredible!’ @jordanshortman1 wrote.
‘As a new Doctor Who fan I am scared, shook, and excited! I don’t know who the hell SUTEKH is but when I saw To Be Continued I burst into flames,’ @bella_snowden added.
The episode also saw several returning characters including former Companion turned UNIT employee Mel (Bonnie Langford), Donna’s daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney) and Ruby’s neighbour Mrs Flood (Anita Dobson) who delivered the ominous line ‘he waits no more’.
With one more episode to go, showrunner Russell T Davies has previously teased this will be the ‘most devastating finale’
‘Every episode stands on its own. There will be a running theme and running story that’s going to build and build and build to ‘The Most Devastating Finale’. Literally, the biggest finale ever,’ he told SFX magazine in April.
Doctor Who returns for the season finale, Empire of Death, on Saturday, June 22 on BBC One. The rest of the series is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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