As Doctor Who's season finale sees civilisation dissolve into sand at the behest of the evil Sutekh, a question nips just off-screen. It all feels a bit Avengers: Infinity War, doesn't it?
In the instance of 'Empire of Death', it's everyone that turns to dust, but the concept of episode eight is not dissimilar to The Snap. How poignant then that it is the vintage, memory TARDIS that whisks the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), Ruby (Millie Gibson) and Mel (Bonnie Langford) away from certain sandy death.
As the Doctor tries to claw their way back to what was before Sutekh – and discovers there is no before, because he was there all along – the episode takes on the significance of the old, remembered Who and the new Disney era Who battling it out and reaching a new equilibrium of compromise.
Any moment spent in the UNIT battlements feels a bit like being parachuted into Avengers Tower and, despite the wobbly status of that IP, an Agents of UNIT-style spin-off must be a possibility.
It's emotionally poignant when Kate (Jemma Redgrave), Rose (Yasmin Finney) and all of UNIT are smothered into sandy oblivion, but it's also a bit like when Marvel reminds us SHIELD and its agents are toothless against existential threats like Thanos. In this instance, it's Sutekh, a Moon Knight-type deity skulking over the new TARDIS like a vulture over its spoils.
The light above the old police box blinks on, like an activated door in Monsters Inc. Initially, seeing the Doctor take in this kitsch, higgledy-piggledy TARDIS bestrewn with cubbyholes and knickknacks feels like a homecoming.
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But he's right to call it a death trap. The thing is a creaking, sparking mess. There are literally little fires everywhere. It's in desperate need of an upgrade.
While this TARDIS hasn't been intrinsically infected by Sutekh and his evildoing, all it's really made of is memories. "Time is a memory and memory is a time machine," the Doctor tells Ruby. They're not enough to keep things going.
In this homely but defunct old TARDIS, the show folds in meta commentary on its own reverence for the institution of Who, as well as the need for it to evolve.
If that wasn't clear enough, we even see snatches of retro episodes. They play out on what looks like a cross between a nostalgic box set and a prototype tablet. These memories of past adventures in the TARDIS, as the Doctor spun it around the place, power the police box and save our heroes from the sand-nado, but don't have the staying power to do too much more.
Like much of this season, 'Empire of Death' can't quite pull off the climax. After the seventh episode's compelling Sutekh fearmongering, all it takes for the dog to be defeated is to be put on a leash and bounced around the opening-credits vortex.
Then it starts looking a lot less like the God of Death and a lot more like Clifford the Big Red Dog with a gloomy dye-job. As with the Bogeyman, our new emotionally attuned Doctor feels guilt at the prospect of killing, even if it is a baddie. Something for the kids, perhaps.
The undoing of all civilisation is easily redone, as is cleansing the TARDIS of all those morbid vibes. The Doctor might want to wave some sage around the place, just to be sure.
The reveal of Ruby's mother, while deeply moving, is underwhelming after a whole season and Christmas special of build-up. (As an aside, between the invasive dodgy dealings UNIT trades in and the compulsory DNA testing of 2046, it is more and more peculiar how the tools of a surveillance state are here being spun as an apparent good.)
There could still be something gestating around the '73 Yards' woman and her relation to the TARDIS. Watch this time and space.
The careful balancing act this season needed to strike – presenting this as a new show despite 30+ seasons to the contrary on iPlayer – was apparent from the 'Space Babies' off. For a show that can be weird and niche and feel nerdy whenever you're tasked with explaining it to the uninitiated, it suddenly needed to offer an on-ramp to those newbies.
Longtime fans, clutching their multicoloured Tom Baker scarves, may at times have felt alienated by the spoon-feeding approach or the Marvelisation of Who. It's a bit like when your favourite band finally hits the big time, and you're out of sync with all these new fanatics who were never there at the start, in the bad CGI days and the ugly cluttered TARDIS days. Now at least they've seen a bit of it on Ruby's memory iPad.
But ever the fan himself, showrunner Russell T Davies tucked in enough vintage Who lore in the back half of this season to make the TARDIS lifers feel seen. And like a Russian nesting doll of Russellisms, folded into those nuggets is an allegory for why change and evolution is necessary for the show – that clunky police box wasn't going to get the job done, was it?
When the Doctor kisses the memory TARDIS, it could be in gratitude or as a goodbye. In that moment both feel necessary. While we might have weathered a rocky season, with a whole slate of new hit-and-miss baddies, the show has planted some green shoots – including a very tantalising mention of the Daleks.
Bumps notwithstanding, this brisk eight-episode season was a new Doctor with a fresh slate setting out his stall in a crowded, decades-old marketplace. It was a success because wherever he's going next – and with whomever – we still can't wait to come along.
Doctor Who's 'Empire of Death' is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK and on Disney+ elsewhere.
Previously Deputy TV Editor at Digital Spy and, before that, a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape, when she's not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas. When she's not bingeing a boxset, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we're all watching.
