Empire of Death (TV story)

Empire of Death

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Empire of Death
Doctor:	Fifteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Ruby
Key crew
Writer:	Russell T Davies
Director:	Jamie Donoughue
Release details
Genre:	Science fiction
Story number:	311b
Number of parts:	1
Premiere broadcast:	22 June 2024
Premiere networks:	BBC iPlayer, Disney+
Official trailer
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Doctor Who television stories
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You may be looking for the novel of the same name.

Empire of Death was the eighth episode of Season 1 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis

Sutekh has won, and spread his gift of death across all the universe. Holed away in a Remembered TARDIS, can the Doctor and Ruby find the one thing that vexes the God of Death himself, and save the day?

Plot

The Doctor and Mel warn everyone out of the room as Susan Triad unleashes Sutekh's dust of death, fleeing back to UNIT HQ - Harriet Arbinger doing the same at UNIT HQ as UNIT fires at Sutekh, desiccating life wherever it touches bit by bit. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and the rest of UNIT fall, a wave of dust crashing over London. As Mrs Flood watches the city, she tells Cherry Sunday to pray, to tell her Maker - "I will come to storm down his gates of gold and seize his kingdom in my true name", before the two dissolve into sand.

The Doctor and Mel enter the time window, meeting Ruby Sunday, the Doctor entering the TARDIS he finds there. A TARDIS made of memories, Ruby's memories of the TARDIS and the TARDIS's memories of itself making it real. As this TARDIS stabilizes, another TARDIS appears behind them, a beast curled on top of it, Sutekh with his harbinger. Sutekh explains to the Doctor that he'd been hiding, cloaked around the TARDIS, for years, evolving into godhood. How he learned the Doctor's secrets and laid a trap. How he birthed angels of death in Susan Triad's image wherever they landed using the TARDIS's perception filter, now ready to spread his gift of death throughout all of time and space. But the Doctor doesn't know why Sutekh is monologuing, rather than killing him - only coming to one conclusion. Sutekh is uncertain, Sutekh has doubt. Sutekh snarls at the taunt, and the trio flee into the remembered TARDIS, a patchwork mess of all the Doctor's previous TARDISes, barely able to fly without collapsing, held together with the time window and their memories.

As all of time and space dies, everywhere the Doctor has ever landed being a place where Sutekh's angels unleash their gift, Sutekh contemplates the one thing that frustrates him, baffles him, still - the secret Ruby carries within her. The Doctor arrives in a desolate land and meets a woman. He takes a spoon from her, needing metal. He stays with the woman as she dies, returning to the TARDIS, connecting the spoon to the remnants of the time window inside the remembered TARDIS. As the trio ponder why Sutekh has finally gone on the offensive, after waiting for so long, the time window shows them the answer - Sutekh couldn't make sense of Ruby's mother, a fact which terrified him. As Mel sits, listening, Sutekh's voice begins to infiltrate her thoughts. The time window then suggests how they might find Ruby's mother. In 2046 Roger ap Gwilliam made DNA testing mandatory for British citizens.

The trio pilot their way to 2046, to the Department of Health. Sending Mel to keep watch, the Doctor uses the screen from the time window to access the DNA database. The Doctor and Ruby find a name, comparing Ruby's DNA to the database as it snows, but Mel crumbles before Sutekh's will, re-entering the room and subduing them. Using the Doctor's TARDIS, Harriet summons the trio before Sutekh. Sutekh toys with the Doctor, tortures him, until Ruby agrees to hand over the screen from the time window that has the name of her mother. As she goes to hand the screen to Sutekh she drops it, shattering the device.

As Sutekh howls, Ruby leashes him with a rope, handing it back to the Doctor, each wearing an intelligent glove. The Doctor whistles for his TARDIS, a thruster below the console activating, knocking Harriet aside as she investigates, and pushing the TARDIS across the room. The Doctor and Ruby scramble inside, hooking the rope to the console. With a flip of a switch the TARDIS dematerializes, rope, Sutekh and all.

The Doctor, Ruby and the TARDIS fly through the time vortex, dragging the god of death behind them, surveying the universe that had been rendered dead and decrepit through Sutekh's plans. The Doctor's decided - he'll bring death to the dead universe - death to death - life. On earth, UNIT members and people in the street come back to life. As the universe comes back to life, the Doctor decides that he must once again bring death, casting Sutekh back into the time vortex.

Back at UNIT HQ, they've retrieved the data from the time window - Ruby's mother. Louise Miller. An ordinary woman, invested with significance by people making her important, pointing not at the Doctor but at the signpost behind him, the sign that named Ruby, giving Ruby her name.

Ruby and the Doctor stand outside a cafe where Louise Miller sits, the Doctor suggesting to Ruby that he leave the issue alone, Louise is happy and has had plenty of time to come see Ruby and never has. But Ruby dashes inside and sits down next to her mother. Ruby tells her mother who she is, and thanks her for giving her a better life, a safe life. Later at the Sunday residence, Louise is meeting Carla and Cherry, getting to know Ruby's life, and see photos of Ruby growing up. Ruby still wants to travel with the Doctor, wants to leave on a trip. But she's getting news about her biological father, and the Doctor tells her to take time with her family, that her life is with them for the time being. He promises that he'll return for her, even if he regrets not returning for his granddaughter.

As the Doctor leaves, and Ruby and her family look at pictures, Mrs. Flood stands atop the building, talking to the audience. "And that's how the story of the Church on Ruby Road comes to an end. With a very happy ending for little Ruby Sunday. But life goes on, doesn't it? Ruthlessly. And what happens, you might wonder, oh what happens, to that mysterious traveler in time and space known as the Doctor? I'm sorry to say his story ends in absolute terror. Night night."

Cast

• The Doctor - Ncuti Gatwa
• Ruby Sunday - Millie Gibson
• Kate Lethbridge-Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
• Melanie Bush - Bonnie Langford
• Susan Triad - Susan Twist
• Rose Noble - Yasmin Finney
• Harriet - Genesis Lynea
• Morris Gibbons - Lenny Rush
• Colonel Ibrahim - Alexander Devrient
• Corporal Sullivan - Jasmine Bayes
• Mrs Flood - Anita Dobson
• Carla Sunday - Michelle Greenidge
• Cherry Sunday - Angela Wynter
• Kind Woman - Sian Clifford
• The Vlinx - Aidan Cook
• Voice of the Vlinx - Nicholas Briggs

Crew

Executive Producers   Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter with Joel Collins and Phil Collinson

Written by Russell T Davies	Produced by Vicki Delow	Directed by Jamie Donoughue	Director of Photography Chas Bain	Production Designer Phil Sims	Visual Effects Automatik VFX
Make-up Designer Claire Williams	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG/CSA	Hairdresser Stuart Cheadle	Music Murray Gold	Costume Designer Pam Downe	Edited by Ben Drury	Special Effects Real SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  Title sequence by Painting Practice & Realtime Visualisation  Music conducted by Alastair King  •  Music performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales   Sutekh created by Lewis Greifer

General production staff Executive Producer for the BBC - Rebecca Ferguson Production Executive - Steffan Morris Co-producer - Ellen Marsh Line Producer - Mark Devlin Production Manager - Delmi Thomas Supervising Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Manager - Baljinder Sidhu Assistant Location Manager - Alex Moore Location Assistant - Robyn Selby Unit Manager - Kyle Yates Production Co-ordinator - Sandra Cosfeld Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Liam Hobbs Production Assistant - Juanee Scott Production Secretaries - Adam Byard, Chris Harkus Production Office Runners - Danilo Van-Der Nguyen, Rugie Begum 1st Assistant Accountant - Greg Robinson Script department Script Editor - Scott Handcock Assistant Script Editor - Rasheed Bello Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Geraint Havard Jones 2nd Assistant Director - Lauren Pate 3rd Assistant Director - Jennifer Day Floor Runners - Jac Lewis, Devante Fleming, Emmy Williams Script Supervisor - Richard Pask Camera Operator - Martin Stephens B Camera Operator - Ryan Eddleston Camera Trainees - Kudzai Dzokamushure, Chai Lee Tan Focus Pullers - Jonathan Vidgen, Steve Rees Key Grip - Bobby Williams Grip - Ken Hodgson Clapper Loaders - Sarah Macleod, Evangeline Davies Gaffer - Pete Chester Rigging Gaffer - Chris Kiley Best Boy - Sion Davies Electricians - Andy Green, Joe Jennings, Jon Down	Art department Supervising Art Director - Robyn Paiba Art Directors - Jon Horsham, Kartik Kundan Nagar Assistant Art Director - Eleri Lloyd Art Department Assistant - Ilee Khezrzadeh Art Department Co-ordinator - Jason Davies-Redgrave Production Buyer - Helen O'Leary Assistant Buyer - Taymar Lee Petty Cash Buyer - Charlie Shelley Set Decorator - Adrian Anscombe Set Dresser - Vicki Male Action Props Buyer - Tara Lily Johnston Concept Artist - Nandor Moldovan Graphic Designer - Stephen Fielding Standby Props - Phill Bull, Jonathan Barclay Standby Carpenter - Lee Hosken Prop Hands - Declan Petryna, Atiff Tahir, John Thomas, Ingo Hans, Joseph Craig, Jason White, Matt Shrimpton Standby Art Director - Brad Perry Rigging - Shadow Rigging Standby Rigger - Nigel Owen Standby Painter - Jessie Thomas Painter - Justin Abraham Storeman - Charlie Malik Prop Master - Nick Thomas Props Chargehand - Stuart Rankmore Construction Manager - Rhys Griffiths Construction Coordinator - Ffion Roberts Plasterer - Drew Abraham Practical Electrician - Phillip Jones Scenic Artists - Shane Patterson, Gary Nyhan Draughtsperson - David Merryweather Carpenters - Christopher Hawksworth, David Martynski, Dean Page, Gareth Jones, Harriet Jones, Huw Morgan, Jason Thomas, Jonathan Tylke, Mark Borde, Patrick Watts, Richard Griffiths, Sam Burridge Costume department Costume Supervisor - Laura Baker Assistant Costume Designer - Raïssa Hans	Make-up and prosthetics Movement Stunt Co-ordinators - Derek Lea, Belinda McGinley Stunt Performers - Mike Denton, Paul Bailey, Paul Joseph, Nadia Hansell, Eddy Beckett, Christina Low, Tsvetan Paunov, Chris Cordell, Rosie Rowett, Anna Benton, Robert Jarman, Anna Stephenson, Jodie Saunders Casting Casting Associate - Becky Rossmaur Casting Assistant - Kristian Wall General post-production staff Post-production Producer - Ceres Doyle Post-production Supervisor - Liv Duffin Post-production Co-ordinator - Lauren Pate On-line Editor - Christine Kelly Assistant On-line Editor - Luke Stanbury Special and visual effects Additional VFX - Egg VFX, BBC Wales Graphics VFX Producer - Will Cohen VFX Editor - Matt Nathan VFX Co-ordinators - Siân Reynish, Livvy Edwards VFX Assistant - Sarah-Hoor Aboubakar Colourist - Gareth Spensley Sound Sound Recordist - Alex Thompson Re-recording Mixer - Paul McFadden Audio Post-production - Bang Post Production

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.
This episode was produced with the support of incentives for the Irish film industry provided by the Government of Ireland.

Worldbuilding

to be added

Notes

• The title of the episode was revealed on the official Doctor Who Twitter account on 31 March 2024.
• It shares its title with a 2004 novel from the Past Doctor Adventures series.
• In Russell T Davies' Letter from the Showrunner column for DWM 589, he stated that scenes 20-22 involved a vital object which he was at the time deciding whether it should stay in the "Ops Room" or be moved to the "Chamber".
• Davies shared words from the episode in his column on two occasions: first "kingdom", "gold", "Tigella"; later "terror, dust, pizza, Einstein, death, opera".
• Davies told Radio Times that there were aspects of the story he had been "thinking of for 40 or 50 years".
• On 22 May, UK cinematic screenings of this episode and The Legend of Ruby Sunday were announced for the night of 21 and 22 June, with Empire of Death set to screen at midnight, the same time as the overall global release.

Myths

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Filming locations

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Ratings

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Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• The Doctor uses the fire extinguisher from TV: The Angels Take Manhattan ^[+]Loading...["The Angels Take Manhattan (TV story)"].

Home media releases

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Gallery

Main article: Empire of Death (TV story)/Gallery