‘Doctor Who’ Theory: Ruby Sunday is… a God?
Doctor Who season 1 is almost over. Sutekh is back. But the big question is: who is Ruby Sunday? What if she and our big bad are related?
Doctor Who is a whirlwind, especially with only an eight-episode season. So much has happened. There’s Space Babies. We meet Maestro, the god of music. There’s killer ambulances, man-eating slugs, and bird people. But no matter where in time and space the Doctor and Ruby go, they keep running into two things. On the one hand we have Susan Twist, the actress who plays a seemingly new character every week. And on the other hand, we have snow which follows Ruby everywhere.
In “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” we find out at least part of what is up with Susan—she’s an acolyte of the classic Doctor Who baddie Sutekh. But we have so many other questions still lingering. Who is Ruby’s neighbor, Mrs. Flood? Is there more to Susan than just Sutekh? Showrunner Russell T Davies says there’s a woman on a planet far away who can help, but who is she?
And most of all, who is Ruby Sunday really? She’s a foundling and she seems to have some kind of power. Throughout the season we hear about the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan. So the prevailing theory for a while is that Ruby either is Susan or is related to Susan. Which would make Ruby and the Doctor related, too.
But what if Ruby isn’t related to the Doctor at all? What if Ruby is related to Sutekh? Let’s talk about who Sutekh is, where he fits in the greater lore, and why his return might signal the return of something even more surprising.
Courtesy of BBC Worldwide
Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars
The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith find themselves in England in 1911 on the site where U.N.I.T. H.Q. will eventually be built. Unbeknownst to them, Professor Marcus Scarman sets into motion the release of an ancient evil while excavating a pyramid in Egypt. That evil is Stuekh, one of the alien Osirans who act as gods across the universe. The Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves at the center of Sutekh’s revival which will end all life on Earth. Can they stop it?
Yes. Of course. It’s Doctor Who! But the gist is that Professor Scarman, under Sutekh’s influence, builds a path to the pyramids on Mars which house the power which holds Sutekh prisoner on Earth. The Doctor and Sarah Jane are unable to prevent Scarman from turning off that power. However, they do manage to trap Sutekh in a time tunnel from which he should never escape.
But Sutekh is back in this current season of Doctor Who. Assuming linear progression, Sutekh does escape the time tunnel somehow. How does his return relate with Susan Triad, Mrs. Flood, and Ruby? Every fan theory suggests some kind of Time Lord connection?
But what if this isn’t about Timelords? No Susan, no Rani, and no Master at all? Consider that long before the Doctor traps Sutekh in a time tunnel, Sutekh gets trapped by his own people—the Osirans. And if Sutekh is back, can’t more of his people be out there, too?
Courtesy of BBC Worldwide
Theory: Ruby Sunday isn’t a Timelord, She’s an Osiran
Sutekh was initially defeated by his brother Horus along with 740 other gods. If we dive into the deeper Doctor Who mythology (books, comics, audio dramas), other Egyptian figures like Isis, Nephthys, Geb, Anubis, Thoueris, Sekhmet, and Upuat all appear. Before you assume none of those characters fit in the official Doctor Who canon, recall that the Scream of the Shalka Doctor was just canonized this season. Anything is possible.
Now consider Ruby Sunday and Mrs. Flood. Each has as-yet unexplained powers. In addition to knowing about the TARDIS and Sutekh, Mrs. Flood also has the ability to break the fourth wall—almost as though she is aware she’s on a TV show. That’s not a Timelord thing per se, but a god could have that ability.
Similarly, Ruby Sunday seems able to call forth snow and music almost at will. In the episode “73 Yards” a version of Ruby grows old and then, without explanation, is able to travel back in time without a time machine to alter her own timeline. Again, neither of these things fits the Timelord model. But a god? Maybe!
Something we see over and over again is that gods on Doctor Who do not ascribe to a definitive gender. Maestro is nonbinary. Sutekh is referred to as “the mother and father and other” of the gods. If Sutekh is reborn then why not his fiercest enemy Horus? And if gender is irrelevant to the gods, who is to say that Horus can’t be Mrs. Flood or even Ruby Sunday?
In short: we’ve all been assuming Ruby, Mrs. Flood, and Susan Triad are Timelords all this time, but with Sutekh returning, it’s arguably more likely that some or all these characters are Osirans.
