Physician Who fan and showrunner Russell T Davies needed to convey again Sutekh, a basic villain from the Tom Baker period of the present. So he invented “Sue Tech” — a.okay.a. tech CEO Susan Triad, the ultimate type of Davies’ season-long Susan Twist thriller. That is what hundreds of thousands of different Physician Who followers found within the closing minutes of the present’s tense pre-finale episode “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”
With the distraction of attempting to find Ruby’s mom, a red-herring anagram (S TRIAD, too clearly TARDIS) and the bombshell query of whether or not Susan Triad was a regeneration of his granddaughter Susan, the Physician (Ncuti Gatwa) failed to note considered one of his historical and strongest enemies has wrapped himself across the TARDIS — a machine this villain has manipulated earlier than.
Welcome again Sutekh, a fan favourite Physician Who villain who beforehand solely appeared in a single story almost 50 years in the past, and now additionally the Jeopardy! query to the reply “this character was revealed to be The One Who Waits.”
Who’s Sutekh?
Yeah, Sutekh did not look something like this primary time round. Or did he?
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Sutekh the Destroyer is the villain of the 1975 story “Pyramids of Mars,” an iconic Tom Baker story from one of many present’s most gothic horror-filled seasons. And it did not get extra 1975 gothic horror than an historical Egyptian god (Sutekh, also called Set) who seems to be a genocidal alien imprisoned on Earth by his folks, the Osirans.
Sutekh was stored in verify by alerts from a radio beacon in a pyramid on Mars. How these alerts labored precisely, particularly provided that Mars is typically on the other facet of the solar, was by no means defined. Anyway, Sutekh was launched from his tomb by a blundering British Egyptologist, Dr. Marcus Scarman (Bernard Archard), in 1913.
Aiming to destroy all of creation, Sutekh inhabits Scarman, and ultimately mind-controls the Physician into taking the TARDIS and Scarman to Mars to destroy the beacon. (It is implied that Sutekh was highly effective sufficient to attract the TARDIS to him within the first place.) Sutekh succeeds in destroying the beacon— however then the Physician pulls a quick one by trapping Sutekh in a “time corridor” throughout the radio transmission hole between Mars and Earth.
A Time hall? Not fairly the Time Window that UNIT HQ has in “Legend of Ruby Sunday” — one thing we have seen earlier than in “The Girl in the Fireplace” and “The Day of the Doctor” — however shut sufficient. Oh, and there is one other UNIT connection to “Pyramids of Mars” — a lot of which takes place in an Edwardian nation home that can at some point be the HQ of … UNIT.
Baker’s Physician estimates that Sutekh ages 7,000 years within the time hall; we’re informed that he dies there, however we by no means see the physique, a indisputable fact that has already allowed Sutekh to crop up Lazarus-like in audio adventures, comics and novels.
‘The Pyramids of Mars’ is a theme this season.
Should you’re feeling just like the Sutekh connection got here fully out of left subject, observe that Davies has referenced this precise story as soon as this season already. Like “Sue Tech,” the 1975 story has been hiding in plain sight.
Mashable Prime Tales
In “The Devil’s Chord,” Davies lifted the scene the place Ruby Sunday sees the long run apocalypse if they do not cease the Maestro straight from “Pyramids of Mars.” Within the 1975 story, Sarah-Jane Smith (the late, nice Elisabeth Sladen) is proven her personal blasted future if Sutekh wins.
One thing else that is been hiding in plain sight, on a number of units and costumes, so typically you will simply have to return your self and look? Triangles, a.okay.a. triads, a.okay.a … pyramids.
The company brand on the ambulance in “Boom!”? Triangular. The sconces within the large music room throughout the “Devil’s Chord” climax? Triangles. Jinkx Monsoon’s hair and outfit for many of that episode? Multiply triangular. (And sure, a triad is one other title for “chord.”)
The factor that Rogue and the Physician trapped the Chuldur on in “Rogue“? Big triangle.
We might have seen Sutekh in satanic type.
One different factor famous in “Pyramids of Mars” about Sutekh: The murderous swathe he reduce via the universe left him so reviled that some cultures known as him “Satan.” (That is the place the story’s connection to Earth mythology ends, as a result of in our world Set/Sutekh and Devil are figures with fully unconnected origins).
Nonetheless, now we have seen Devil in Physician Who — particularly in Davies’ first go-round as showrunner. “The Satan Pit” had the Physician (David Tennant) assembly the titular satan. Devil makes an attempt to flee to Earth by way of a spaceship crew, forcing the Physician to contemplate sacrificing Rose (Billie Piper).
No connection between that Devil and Sutekh has been established, past the truth that they have been each voiced by Gabriel Woolf (who reprises his position as Sutekh in “Legend of Ruby Sunday” on the grand outdated age of 91 — offering hope for everybody who thinks Carole Ann Ford, 83, might but return because the Physician’s granddaughter Susan.)
With that connection, although, Davies now has each excuse to tie that extremely common story to his present large unhealthy. In any case, Sutekh has been round for a lengthy, very long time — loads of time to take loads of varieties and fall into loads of traps.
What is going to Sutekh do subsequent?
Arguably, the title of the finale itself was a spoiler hiding in plain sight. “Empire of Death” seems like precisely the type of end result Sutekh supposed to result in: the tip of all residing issues who might oppose him (all the things and everybody, mainly).
It is also value noting that the brand used when revealing the season’s episode titles put “Empire of Death” within the place of “Police Box” on the high of the TARDIS. Sutekh has management of the Physician’s machine now, simply because the Toymaker and the Maestro each briefly had it. However Sutekh is so highly effective, he even scared the Toymaker (who first talked about him as The One Who Waits).
What might a God of Loss of life do with a time and house machine that accommodates all the facility of a black gap? “All creation shall fall into dust and ruin,” introduced Harriet Arbinger on the shut of “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.” Sutekh ended the episode promising the Physician “and all in your vile incessant universe … Sutekh’s gift of death.”
In different phrases, loss of life involves everybody and all the things, all over the place, . How does the Physician get us out of that? Is it potential that the Physician’s granddaughter goes to save lots of the day in spite of everything? May there, in different phrases, be one closing Susan twist on the finish?
How one can watch: New episodes of Physician Who drop each Friday evening at 7 p.m. ET on Disney+, the place obtainable, and concurrently at midnight on BBC iPlayer within the UK. The season finale airs June 22.
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