S Triad Technologies

Story: The Legend of Ruby Sunday
Written By: Russell T. Davies

Length: 45 Minutes
Year: 2024

So throughout this season there has been two lingering mysteries.  I haven't really discussed them much, but they are as follows: Ruby's origins as a baby left on the church on Ruby Road, and often throughout the season she has actually made it snow for inexplicable reasons, but harkening back to her birthday.  The other has been the image of actress Susan Twist, who has appeared in a different form in every episode so far.  She has been characters, ambulances, portraits...and so the question has been "who is that woman?"  Essentially she is this year's "Bad Wolf,"  and there has plenty of fan speculation on the matter, most of which has been that she is Susan. Or the Rani.  They are always the Rani until they aren't.  

This episode plays into the obvious conclusions fans could make in a terrific way, and then pulls the rug out and changes gears perfectly. The Doctor and Ruby come back to Earth and UNIT in their fancy Avengers building to try and unravel both mysteries if possible, hoping to maybe figure out if they are somehow connected as well.  It seems increasingly possible that this person is Susan, as she is on Earth as "Susan Triad" who runs "S Triad Technologies" and everyone with half a brain is like "S Triad is an obvious anagram for TARDIS duh."  I mean it is super obvious, but luckily when the Doctor points it out everyone else is like "yeah dude this one isn't hard. But before they can figure out her deal, they decide they need to try and figure out who Ruby's mom is.  

They use UNIT's Time Window, which is a rough bit of time technology which can sort of see into the past but not really travel there. The Doctor uses a VHS from Ruby's birth to try and have more info or something to get a better picture than the time window usually has. I honestly barely understood how this was meant to work or what was on the VHS but whatever, I suppose it doesn't really matter that much.  They are not able to figure out who Ruby's mom is and then they see some kind of ominous monster thing and it breaks the whole time window machine.  The Doctor then decides he needs to figure out who Susan Triad is quick. 

It becomes clear that she isn't entirely sure how, but she has been dreaming of herself in all these various other places. And as she is giving her big televised speech she begins to have a breakdown...and back at UNIT the same swirly monster that they saw in the time window appears around the TARDIS. And this is where it gets good for me, because it turns out the anagram everyone thought meant TARDIS or her first name being Susan would mean she is somehow the Doctor's granddaughter in some form is all thrown out the window. It's a trap...the S TRIAD business is just meant to get the Doctor there...because the true trick was in the name SUsan triad TECHnologies.  Because the true monster behind this episode is actually the god of death himself: Sutekh! 

That was a fun cliffhanger.  Honestly it would be even better if I had seen "Pyramid of Mars" recently. Unfortunately I have seen it exactly once like a decade ago, so I feel like it might be time for a rewatch. Sadly while I have been rewatching old Doctor Who episodes, I've been doing it as I collect each new blu-ray collection set, and Season 13 has yet to be released.  But hey...after the Giggle they announced and released "The Celestial Toymaker" as an animation, so one can only hope that boxset is on the horizon! Though admittedly releasing two Tom Baker sets in a row is not as likely as bouncing off to another Doctor.  

NEXT TIME: The Return of Sutekh