![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/legend.jpg?resize=500%2C250\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I made the mistake of posting an eye-rolling Tweet about how the season\u2019s mysterious big bad isn\u2019t going to be the Valeyard \u2013 a villain associated with a charismatic performer, which looks to devoted fans like a dangling loose end in the series\u2019 mythos, but whose backstory doesn\u2019t really make any coherent sense in the broadcast episodes, let alone invites further forensic investigation. With the passing of Michael Jayston, the already thoroughly remote prospect of this complicated enemy being returned to receded further into the darkest recesses of possibility. Replying to another fan, I agreed that it was equally unlikely that we\u2019d be seeing Fenric, or the Rani, or Harrison Chase, or the Drahvins. Ha ha ha. Well done to me.<\/p>\n
Except that I started that list with Sutekh.<\/p>\n
Now, on reflection, Sutekh is one of the few badguys from the classic series whose return does make sense. Pyramids of Mars<\/em> is a very well-remembered story (not least because it was one of the very first released on VHS), from the most highly-regarded era of the show, but there\u2019s nothing about him which particularly needs to be explained to the new viewer. Partly because he wasn\u2019t invented by Robert Holmes, who was riffing on Hammer Horror versions of the Mummy\u2019s Tomb and flipped through the Big Boys Book of Egyptian Mythology to find the right name. Partly because everything you need to know is right there on the screen.<\/p>\n And, yes, this does feel like the Russell T Davies Stolen Earth<\/em>\/Army of Ghosts<\/em>\/Bad Wolf<\/em> playbook, with a certain amount of narrative vamping in the early going, and then an acceleration into a mind-blowing reveal at the end. That isn\u2019t a particularly difficult bit of writing, but neither is it trivial, and while this makes it look easy, let\u2019s not overlook some of the grace notes in the writing and the directing. The Time Window is a wonderful device, brilliantly executed. The agony of not quite being able to see the face of Ruby\u2019s mother is exquisite (and just how far away were those security cameras?). The Su-Tech gag is delightful, as is UNIT\u2019s casual dismissal of the S. Triad anagram. All the characters pop \u2013 maybe except for Rose who doesn\u2019t get much to do here. But I loved the new 13-year-old scientific advisor and I adored Mel telling the Doctor to get his shit together.<\/p>\n But, of course, and by design, this is all build-up and no payoff. And build-up is easier. If this doesn\u2019t all come together next week, that could well tarnish this episode\u2019s reputation. I liked Dark Water<\/em> a lot more before I\u2019d seen Death in Heaven.<\/em> But for now, for the ascent to the top of the rollercoaster, this is faultlessly done, with all departments firing on all cylinders, so once again, it\u2019s the full five stars from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I made the mistake of posting an eye-rolling Tweet about how the season\u2019s mysterious big bad isn\u2019t going to be the Valeyard \u2013 a villain associated with a charismatic performer, which looks to devoted fans like a dangling loose end in the series\u2019 mythos, but whose backstory doesn\u2019t really make any coherent sense in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[18,19],"class_list":["post-3812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-doctor-who","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-Zu","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3815,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions\/3815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}