'The Legend of Ruby Sunday' (Story Code 14.07) by Russell T Davies

“He waits no more.” - Mrs Flood

The TARDIS arrives at the Unified Intelligence Taskforce’s London skyscraper headquarters, where the Doctor and Ruby are met by Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and her team: Rose Noble, the Vlinx, Colonel Ibraham, Harriet the head of archive, and UNIT’s new scientific advisor, thirteen-year-old genius Morris Gibbons. The Doctor needs UNIT’s help in tracking down the mysterious woman that he and Ruby have seen throughout time and space. It’s an easy answer, as UNIT know her as IT genius Susan Triad, whose company, S Triad Technology is releasing free new software worldwide today. Everyone present spots the obvious clue - that ‘S. TRIAD’ is an anagram of ‘TARDIS’ - but they are shocked when the Doctor reveals that ‘Susan’ is the name of his granddaughter… After the Doctor explains to Ruby that he doesn’t recognise Susan because Time Lords can change their faces, Morris warns of the obvious trap. Kate activates a hacked Triad camera feed, allowing them to watch Susan rehearse for her big day in front of cameras; Mel is also there, working undercover on ‘Sue’s’ media team. The Doctor asks Kate to help with another mystery, the identity of Ruby’s real mother, explaining that he cannot use the TARDIS to return to Ruby Road for fear of crossing his own time stream. UNIT already have Ruby on file, and they propose obtaining CCTV footage from cameras near the church on Ruby Road. But Ruby already has this on VHS thanks to her foster mum, and knows that the image is too blurry; however, on hearing that UNIT can clean-up the image, Ruby rushes home to get the tape, with Rose in tow. At Triad HQ, Susan rehearses her impending speech to the United Nations using an autocue; Mel scrumptiously obtains a DNA sample from Susan, and then departs on her moped. Ruby gets the VHS tape from Carla, who insists on accompanying her and Rose back to UNIT HQ; they leave Ruby’s grandmother in the care of neighbour Mrs Flood, but instead of making Cherry some tea, the woman ominously warns of an impending storm… Kate is surprised that the Doctor never mentioned a granddaughter to her father, the Brigadier; when pushed about his children, the Doctor cryptically replies that he doesn’t have any yet - did Susan come from his future? Mel joins them, with the news that Susan’s DNA sample is human. After Ruby and Rose arrive with the VHS tape, the Doctor asks Kate for access to UNIT’s supposedly secret ‘Time Window’ technology; Kate leads him and his friends to a large room full of projectors, and is not amused when the Doctor laughs at the lash-up on display. Morris feeds Ruby’s VHS tape into the control system, using the information to model the events of Christmas Eve 2004 and create a 3D image. Standing in the Time Window room, the Doctor and Ruby are surrounded by falling snow - but Morris hasn’t turned on the machine yet. Once activated, the Time Window creates a wobbly image of the church and Ruby Road; an image of Ruby’s mother appears, but her face is too shadowy to make out. The TARDIS appears, and the Doctor watches himself step out; but this time events play out differently, as Ruby’s mum turns around and points at the Doctor. The UNIT soldier in charge of the Time Window, Colonel Chidozie, investigates the direction indicated, but cannot see anything, not even behind the TARDIS image. Ruby’s mother vanishes and the recorded Doctor leaves in the TARDIS. After the real Doctor realises that the colonel has vanished, he and Ruby see a giant swirling black cloud manifest, glowing with an inner red light. Morris is unable to tell if the cloud is a recording or real, but it sets off all his alarms. The colonel’s voice seems to come from within the cloud, warning of something old that has been waiting. The cloud explodes, leaving behind the colonel’s corpse, seemingly aged a hundred years. As Kate calls in a team to investigate the body, the Doctor and Mel race to the Triad offices to talk to Susan. The Doctor is overwhelmed by the death of the soldier and the events in the Time Window, but is helped by a pep talk from Mel. Back at UNIT, Kate and the team watch the recording on Ruby’s VHS tape, which now shows the cloud creature; Harriet begins an analysis of the image... The Doctor meets Susan Triad, but she fails to recognise him. As she rushes off to her video address, Susan remarks how she is tired from dreaming about being other people; the Doctor lists the versions of her he has seen, which resonate with Susan, but she has to leave for her call. The UNIT team reverse the recording and find an image of another TARDIS at the heart of the black cloud; as Kate calls the Doctor and Mel over their comms link, the real TARDIS standing in the UNIT command centre starts to growl. Morris realises the trap is not at Triad but in UNIT HQ, his scanners showing an invisible cloud now swirling around the police box. While Kate orders everyone to evacuate the command centre apart from essential personal and Ruby, the Vlinx scans the cloud and identifies an invisible life form surrounding the TARDIS, woven into the fabric of ship. Susan begins her address to the UN about her gift to the world, but as she reads the autocue she hears an eerie voice in her head; Susan loses track of herself, and talks of her bad dreams. Kate updates the Doctor, who rushes to the conference hall with Mel. Kate orders her troops to arms, and then tries talking to the creature surrounding the TARDIS. The entity possesses Harriet, who talks of her master, and of the pantheon of gods. The Doctor asks Kate what Harriet’s full name is; learning that it is Harriet Arbinger, the Doctor realises they are facing another of the evil gods’ harbingers - but which god? Susan continues to recount her dreams, the autocue words changing to announce the coming of the deity. At the Doctor’s instruction, Ruby races to the Time Window, which activates by itself as it remembers Ruby Road; it then locks its doors, sealing Ruby and a soldier inside... Mel and the Doctor race to Susan, just as the woman collapses on stage. Harriet continues to chant, and the black cloud manifests around the TARDIS. In the conference room, the Doctor sees a screen displaying the S Triad Technology logo; as its letter rearrange before his eyes, the Doctor realises that he concentrated on the wrong anagram. After forming ‘TARDIS’, the letters change from ‘SUSAN’ to ‘SUE’, then to ‘SUE TECH’ – and finally to ’SUTEKH’. In UNIT HQ, Kate and Morris look on helplessly as the black cloud wrapped around the TARDIS transforms into a huge, jackal-headed creature: the evil god Sutekh has returned! As Mel and the Doctor watch in horror, Susan transforms into Sutekh’s skull-faced herald, then turns her aide to dust with a single touch. Harriet changes too, as her master gloats at his triumph and announces himself as the God of Death. Trapped in the Time Window in a swirling blizzard, Ruby sees her mum appear again. At Triad HQ, the Doctor stands in horrified shock as Susan lurches towards him, reaching out with Sutekh’s touch of death…

Ncuti Gatwa (The Doctor), Millie Gibson (Ruby Sunday), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Lethbridge-Stewart), Yasmin Finney (Rose Noble), Alexander Devrient (Colonel Christofer Ibrahim), Lenny Rush (Morris Gibbons), Genesis Lynea (Harriet Arbinger), Aidan Cook (The Vlinx), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Vlinx), Susan Twist (Susan Triad), Fela Lufadeju (Bailey Sinclair), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Michelle Greenidge (Carla Sunday), Anita Dobson (Mrs Flood), Angela Wynter (Cherry Sunday), Tachia Newall (Colonel Winston Chidozie), Gabriel Woolf (Voice of Sutekh), Jasmine Bayes (Corporal Alice Sullivan)

Directed by Jamie Donoughue

Produced by Vicki Delow
Executive Producers Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Jane Tranter, Joel Collins and Phil Collinson
A Bad Wolf / BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
15th June 2024 @ 6.30 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Fifteenth Doctor, Ruby, Mel, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT

*Part one of a two-part story

*This episode is forty-four minutes long

*There’s Always a Twist at the End: Actress Susan Twist appears again, this time as Susan Triad

*Immediately after the cliffhanger scene, the words ‘TO BE CONTINUED’ were superimposed; no teaser clips of the next episode were featured

*The episode premiered in the UK on the BBC's iPlayer in Ultra-High Definition (UHD) at midnight on 15th June 2024, and simultaneously streamed on Disney+ outside the UK and Ireland

*The episode was subsequently shown in UK cinemas on 22nd June at 11.00 pm, followed by a midnight premiere screening of 'Empire of Death'

*Working title: 'Chrysalis'