How The Last Jedi inspired the latest finale from Doctor Who

Warning: Some spoilers ahead for Doctor Who: Empire of Death

Media inspires media and this is not an original idea with the Star Wars franchise. George Lucas was heavily influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa as well as the Flash Gordon serials. And countless creatives have tried with various results to capture the lightning-in-a-bottle brilliance of the stories set in a galaxy far far away.

One creative has recently admitted to drawing inspiration from Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. Russell T Davies is the current showrunner for Doctor Who, the long-running BBC program about a time-traveling alien who shares his adventures with quite a lot of British humans. It has been going on since 1963, and Davies wrote the story of this season's companion, Ruby Sunday, with Rey Skywalker in mind. The foundling Ruby yearns to identify and meet the mother who left her at a church on Christmas Eve, and the mystery escalates throughout the season. Comicbook.com details the link to Star Wars, where Davies explains the inspiration and similarities between the two characters:

"The second film said that [Rey] was nothing special, there was nothing special about her parentage... She was just... an ordinary person with the Force. I really loved the version where she wasn't special. When she's ordinary... Her mum is Louise Miller, who was 15 years old and pregnant, from a dangerous, abusive home, and left her child on the doorstep. Because I think it's a better story."

- Russell T Davies

This fed into his decision to make the mysterious Ruby special in a down-to-earth way. Davies continues, saying, " She's not the daughter of Sutekh. She's not the daughter of the Time Lords or Rassilon or something like that."

One of the most memorable moments in The Last Jedi came when Kylo Ren alleged, "You come from nothing. You are nothing. But not to me." Rey's identity and personal relationship to her heritage are central to the film, and her opinions on those matters vary. Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker reframed this story as a cover to protect Rey's identity as the daughter of the Emperor and creates a Dyad in the Force between the Palpatine line and the "mighty Skywalker blood." Davies sides clearly with those who prefer the The Last Jedi version for a simple reason:

"Because I think it's a better story."

- Russel T Davies