"The Legend of Ruby Sunday" Kicks Off 'Doctor Who's' Endgame By Bringing Back a Classic Foe

If there's one thing Russell T. Davies is going to do, it's craft a big, loud, splashy two-parter to close out any season of Doctor Who he's involved in. From "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" back during Christopher Eccleston's tenure as the Doctor to the "The End of Time, Parts 1 and 2" double bill that closed out Davies' (and David Tennant's) first run with the show and brought back almost every character from his tenure, the man simply loves a big, dramatic showstopper of an ending. Your mileage may vary on the effectiveness of these stories' huge stakes or their frequently nonsensical resolutions, but they're always a blast to watch and often boast some of the best character moments of the season.

In that light, it's hard to judge "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" on its own merits, given that it's so clearly just one piece of a larger whole. As episodes go, it's certainly propulsive. The hour zips by and features several deep lore callbacks and wildly cool set pieces, including something called a Time Window that we better be seeing on that UNIT spin-off we're all convinced is still happening. But there's a lot of table-setting in this penultimate installment, as the season's ongoing mysteries are brought together, fan-favorite characters like Yasmin Finney's Rose and Bonnie Langford's Mel return, and we get our first proper glimpse of the season's true Big Bad.

That the episode ends on a fairly massive cliffhanger probably won't surprise anyone, and though it answers one of the season's biggest mysteries — sorry, guys, it's still not Susan — it still leaves plenty of questions for next week's final hour.