Warning: MAJOR spoilers ahead forDoctor Whoseason 14, episode 7, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.”
Summary
Doctor Whoseason 14 initially felt like something of a fresh start for the long-running British sci-fi show, but the penultimate installment of Ncuti Gatwa’s first run of episodes confirms that the larger arc has always been directly related to a Tom Baker story from 1975.Doctor Whois no stranger to bringing back villains from decades gone by, with the Disney era immediately including the return of the Toymaker for theending of theDoctor Who60th-anniversary specials. However, the true identity season 14’s big bad coming in the form of an established franchise character is still a shock.
Tom Baker embodied the Fourth Doctor from 1974 to 1981. So, out ofevery actor to play the Doctor, Baker played the role the longest. During his tenure, he battled various villains, but one of theharsh realities ofDoctor Who’s classic erais that many of these bad guys were paper-thin and ultimately quite forgettable. That being said, one of them clearly made a lasting impact on Russell T Davies, causing the returning showrunner to bring back a villain who had previously only appeared in a single story.
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Sutekh’s Doctor Who Return Pays Off Tom Baker’s “Pyramids Of Mars” Ending
The Fourth Doctor defeated Sutekh in a 1975 Doctor Who story
“Pyramids of Mars” is a four-part serial from Tom Baker’s reign as the Fourth Doctor. Sutekh is the story’s main antagonist, meaning thereveal of Sutekh as The One Who Waitsin “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” ultimately makes the entirety ofDoctor Whoseason 14 into a sequel to the classic story. During the Doctor’s final showdown with Sutekh in the finale of “Pyramids of Mars,“the god of death was imprisoned in the Corridor of Eternityby Tom Baker’s iteration of the famous Time Lord.
Gabriel Woolf returns to voice Sutekh in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” after originating the role in “Pyramids of Mars.”
The One Who Waits was first mentioned byNeil Patrick Harris' Toymakerin “The Giggle,” with the god of games confirming even he was too afraid to challenge the most powerful being inDoctor Who’s Pantheon of Gods. He’s also mentioned byJinkx Monsoon’s MaestroinDoctor Whoseason 14, episode 2, “The Devil’s Chord,” but the confirmation of the enigmatic figure actually being Sutekh doesn’t come until the final moments of the season’s penultimate installment. Only then does it become clear thatthe 1975 Tom Baker story isn’t as complete as once believed.
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Sutekh was trapped using a part of the TARDIS
Baker’s Doctor just about managed to stop Sutekh from escaping his prisonin “Pyramids of Mars,” making sure the villain would never escape from his temporal bindings. Unfortunately, Four removed a console from the TARDIS and used that to trap Sutekh. Therefore, it’s very reasonable to assume that this was the bad guy’s method of entry into the Doctor’s blue box, where he has been lurking ever since, waiting for the right moment to strike.
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This Sutekh retcon by Russell T Davies retroactively alters most of the Doctor’s timeline, as the god of death was seemingly never all that far away during the Time Lord’s adventures through time and space from Baker and onward. It doesn’t impinge on the Doctor’s overall arc, but it could alter the viewers' perceptions when rewatching any episode between “Pyramids of Mars and “The Legend of Ruby Sunday.” While it’s a bold addition to theDoctor Whocanon, it’s also a thoroughly compelling one.
“Space Babies” & “The Devil’s Chord”
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Doctor Who
Cast
Doctor Who: Released on August 14, 2025, this series follows the Doctor and their companion as they journey across time and space, encountering a range of extraordinary friends and adversaries, expanding the universe of the long-running British science fiction series.
