Doctor Who fans are left in a frenzy over grand finale reveal (2024)

Doctor Who fans were left in a frenzy on Saturday as they felt disappointed by the show's grand finale reveal.

The highly anticipated season 14 final episode titled Empire Of Death, left Whovians wanting more.

Its grand ending, which revealed who Ruby's mother is, landed on BBC iPlayer at midnight on Saturday and the episode was broadcast on BBC One at 6.40pm.

But for fans who could not wait for tthe big reveal, the long painstaking wait proved to be a disappointment.

Flocking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Doctor Who fans shared their devastation of the finals as they were left asking, 'is that it?'

One user penned: 'Rubys mother reveal is probably the worst reveal I've ever seen in this show. So disapointed.'

'I'm sorry but the revelation of who Ruby's mother was, was lame'.

'Was that it?'

'I'm now convinced the mystery surrounding Ruby and her mother was an entire plot hole they accidently created when writing this season and had no idea how to dig themselves out of it, because what on earth was that anticlimactic episode?'

'I'm sorry, but the reveal of Ruby's mother was very disappointing. I knew it would be hard to create something that lived up to the hype but that was…'

'watched the dr who finale and lowk it was so anticlimactic??? i was expecting the mother to be someone big like river song only for it to be a random person???'

Since 2023's Christmas special, the sci-fi series teased the 'mystery' of Ruby Sunday's origins (Millie Gibson).

And across seven episodes, an array of hints were dropped in the storyline as to the identity of Ruby's unknown mother.

But after weeks of anticipation, viewers were largely dissatisfied to learn that Ruby's mother is just an ordinary woman named Louise.

The episode revealed that Louise had left her daughter at the church gates in a panic when she was 15 years old.

But many have slammed the reveal as being hugely anticlimactic,,

Previous instalments have portrayed the mysterious mother figure as a haunting, hooded figure.

And now that the 14th season has come to an end, Ncuti has an even bigger task ahead of him, to get Disney executives on board to order another series.

When the Sex Education star took on the role, the BBChad struck a deal with Disney rumoured to be worth $100million in the hopes that the Britain's oldest science fiction show would dominate TVs around the world.

To help that world domination Russel T Davies, who originally joined the show 16 years ago for a re-boot after poor ratings, was sent on a press tour across the USA to encourage more state-side viewers.

Russel hoped the deal would mean that Doctor Who would be 'up there with your Star Wars, your Marvel stuff'.

But now the streaming giant, which signed up for two series, must decide whether to continue.

As part of the Disney deal each new episode is shown in iPlayer at midnight on friday at the same time US viewers can access it.

All of this is before it's broadcast on traditional terrestrial TV.

This has resulted in a massive slump in live viewers - when Gatwa made his debut on the show in May, the first episode only attracted2.6million viewers on BBC1 and episode two compared to 3.7million people tuning in forJodie Whittaker's final outing as the first female Doctor, which was watched by 3.7 million in real time.

While fewer people are watching new episodes live, although some fans are staying up late to do so,more are watching on catch up.

Doctor Who has so far been watched by 5.9 million since the first episode was released released on May 11 — more than Whittaker's farewell episode in October 2022.

However, while Davies has admitted the ratings are worse than expected, he said it's been successful at targeting newer, younger viewers.

Not only will Disney have to look at the poor ratings, they'll also need to be mindful of the critics.

Some have criticised the series as following trends - the first episode introduced a transgender character, Rose, played by Yasmin Finney and Gatwa's Doctor recently engaged in a kiss with a male character.

Despite this the major company will be measuring the cult British TV show using criteria includingits ranking among new subscribers and whether viewers watch right to the end of each episode.

Disney already owns a sci-fi hits such as the Star Wars franchise, and in theory Doctor Who is a perfect fit.

In practicality early reviews in the US were positive, but an analysis of Google Trends data has not shows a surge in interest from people searching for it online.

The Hollywood Reporter said that Gatwa's Doctor got 'off to a lively and accessible, if not necessarily rousingly memorable, start', while Variety praised Gatwa's 'refreshing dynamism that makes the season a uniquely mesmerising watch'.

Chris Curtis, editor of the industry newspaper Broadcast, told The Timesthat in the UK, the show's popularity is clear.

He said: 'Its seven-day figures are averaging between 3.5 million and 4 million viewers each week, which feels decent enough. You couldn't call it a gangbuster hit, but it's not a flop either — maybe just a little underwhelming.'

In light of it's solid performance, the BBC is now waiting for Disney to decide whether they will continue for a third series.

Russel seems confident that it will go ahead, because he told The Times last month that he was already preparing scripts for it but nothing has been confirmed yet.

The new series of Doctor Who will finally reach its conclusion tonight at6.40pm on BBC1.