The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story): Difference between revisions

== Plot ==

In [[2024]], [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] lands in [[UNIT HQ, City of London|UNIT Tower]], and the [[Fifteenth Doctor|Doctor]] and [[Ruby Sunday|Ruby]] step out to greet everyone assembled: [[Rose Noble]], [[Kate Stewart|Kate Lethbridge-Stewart]], and two new faces, [[Morris Gibbons]], UNIT scientific advisor, and [[Harriet Arbinger|Harriet]], head of the archive. The Doctor asks the assembled group for their help; wherever he lands a woman appears. Be her an [[Villengard Automated Ambulance Unit|ambulance]], a [[Gina Scalzi|communications officer]], or [[Penny Pepper-Bean|someone's mother]], she just keeps showing up. The group immediately tabs over to a feed of the woman practising a speech; they've already been keeping tabs on her. [[Susan Triad]], owner of [[S Triad Technology]], who plans on giving her tech away for free to the world later today. The Doctor points out that "S Triad" is an anagram for [[TARDIS]], and those assembled explain that this is part of why they've been keeping an eye on her. Ruby also points out that "Susan" is the name of the Doctor's [[Susan Foreman|granddaughter]]. As the group discusses the issue, the solution of the Doctor just going to meet with Susan Triad is floated, he'd recognize her if she were his granddaughter, but everything lining up does suggest a decent likelihood of a trap.

Heading down to the time window and meeting [[Colonel]] [[Winston Chidozie]], who manages the security for the time window, they have Morris wire the VHS up to the window. Ruby joins the Doctor in the middle of the window's space, and she describes to him the story of how she was found. [[Snow (The Church on Ruby Road)|Snow]] falls, even before the window starts. The machine whirs to life, and a hologram of [[Christmas Eve]], [[2004]] appears, the [[Carol of the Bells]] echoing. Kate is astonished to see the window performing as well as it is, but the Doctor says that they're giving it memory - time is memory, memory is time. A hooded figure, Ruby's mother, appears and walks towards them. But as they try to peek under her hood the window stutters and she surges past them. The TARDIS arrives, the Doctor arrives, to save Ruby as he did in the past, running off to the church. But the Doctor notices, standing next to Ruby, that the TARDIS in the time window is almost solid. He muses - "if time is memory, and memory is time, then what is [[Remembered TARDIS|the memory of a time machine]]?"

The hooded woman stays there until the past Doctor returns, the current Doctor noting that his memory of this event has changed, perhaps time has as well. As the woman turns and points towards him, the Doctor doesn't know what she means. He doesn't know what she's pointing at. Chidozie moves in the direction the woman is pointing, thinking that it might not be the Doctor she's pointing at. He passes behind the time window's TARDIS, unable to find anything, and the hooded woman walks away, vanishing.  

The Doctor and the TARDIS leave as well, leaving behind them a swirling mass of particulates, Colonel Chidozie nowhere to be found. They call and call for Chidozie, unable to contact him. Carla identifies the roil of dust and debris as [[Sutekh|The Beast]], in fear. Eventually their calls reach Chidozie and he says he's lost, in hell, with an old entity that has been waiting for so long. The window breaks, the roil vanishes, and Chidozie's body appears, caked with sand. The Doctor resolves - it's time to go meet Susan Triad.

Mel introduces the Doctor to Triad, and he tries to talk to her, but she brushes him off; lots of people want her time, but what she really wants is sleep, she can never have enough sleep with the dreams she has. The Doctor asks her over and over about the dreams she has - if they match with the people he's met on her travels. She's dragged away for her speech, but it's clear that these questions resonated with her.

As Triad gives her speech, she hears a voice, disorienting her. She begins to go off script. She talks more and more about her bad dreams, her visions. In UNIT HQ, Harriet begins chanting, ranting, offering a prayer. Her full name? Harriet Arbinger - A [[Harbinger]] for a god yet again. Harriet lists off god after god in a pantheon, but she is the harbinger for none of them. She is the harbinger for the "mother and father and other of them all". [[Sutekh]].

The roil turns visible and collapses as Sutekh appears in the form of a monstrous [[Dog|hound]] curled around the TARDIS. Triad's face has turned into a [[skull]], bringing his gift of death to all she comes into contact with. And the time window whirs back to life once more, Ruby finds herself in a flurry of snow, calling out to the hooded woman as she walks closer.

* Magazines Susan Triad has appeared on the cover of include ''[[Union Jack (magazine)|Union Jack]]'', ''[[The Zeitgeist Magazine]]'', ''[[Britannia (magazine)|Britannia]]'', ''[[Digital Everyman]]'', ''[[The Space Magazine]]'', ''[[T3]]'', ''[[Marie Claire]]'', ''[[Everyday]]'', and ''[[Human Interest]]''.

* The title of the episode was revealed on the [[Official Doctor Who Twitter|official ''Doctor Who'' Twitter account]] on [[31 March (releases)|31 March]] [[2024 (releases)|2024]].<ref name="Legend" />

* In his ''[[Letter from the Showrunner]]'' column in [[DWM 584]], [[Russell T Davies]] said the first line of the episode's script was "INT. [[Coffee|COFFEE]] BAR, [[USA]] - DAY, [[1947]]".<ref name="DWM 584">[[DWM 584]]</ref>

=== Production errors ===

{{discontinuity}}

== Continuity ==

* Kate recalls how her father, [[Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart]], and the Doctor used to work together, as depicted throughout the [[Third Doctor]]'s era beginning in [[TV]]: {{cs|Spearhead from Space (TV story)}}.

* The Doctor believes he is a bringer of destruction and death; a belief expressed numerous times, like in [[TV]]: {{cs|Rose (TV story)}}, {{cs|The Lazarus Experiment (TV story)}}, {{cs|The Family of Blood (TV story)}}, {{cs|Journey's End (TV story)|''Journey's End''}}, {{cs|The God Complex (TV story)}} and {{cs|The Name of the Doctor (TV story)}}.

* Snow appears at discussion of Ruby's past, as previously occurred in [[TV]]: {{cs|Space Babies (TV story)}}, [[TV]]: {{cs|The Devil's Chord (TV story)}} and [[TV]]: {{cs|Boom (TV story)}}.

* Ruby's urge to see her mother mirrors [[Rose Tyler]]'s temptation to save [[Pete Tyler|her father]] in [[TV]]: ''[[Father's Day (TV story)|Father's Day]]''.