082 Pyramids of Mars

 Started 4-May

A bold step into a subject which is difficult to keep credible. "Egyptology and Mars?"

It's almost as if Chariots of the Gods is being parodied.....  

Apart from the theme and the derivation of the plot there are some minor plot flaws (at conjunction (at minimum) Mars is 3.03 light minutes from Earth, at opposition it's closer to 24 light minutes http://blogs.esa.int/mex/2012/08/05/time-delay-between-mars-and-earth/ )

The other major plot flaw is the Doctor's choice to encounter Sutekh late in p3. He already knows Marcus is Sutekh's "animated human cadaver" and yet he fails to consider that he too could provide Sutekh another "instrument" by making the encounter. Why does he make this mistake?

But generally the characters and the acting in this is top notch. It is important to recognise that credible acting of such melodramatic material as this is quite a difficult trick to achieve. (There's another great example of this in Day of the Daleks, I recall.)

Woolf as (essentially) the voice of Sutekh is where this starts but other important roles are Bernard Archard as Marcus and Michael Sheard as Laurence. The fatal (for Laurence) encounter  in ep3 is a prime example of this.

• [Lodge]
• (Marcus Scarman enters and sees the unwrapped robot lying on the carpet. Laurence enters from washing his hands.)
• LAURENCE: Marcus! Marcus? Don't you know me? I'm your brother.
• SCARMAN: Brother?
• LAURENCE: Your brother, Laurence.
• SCARMAN: As Horus was brother to Sutekh.
• LAURENCE: Marcus, you're ill. Let me help you. Trust me.
• SCARMAN: Trust you?
• LAURENCE: Look. You and I when we were boys.
• (Scarman shows Marcus the photograph.)
• SCARMAN: Laurence and Marcus.
• LAURENCE: That's right. You do remember!
• SCARMAN: I was Marcus.
• LAURENCE: You still are. Now, let me help you.
• SCARMAN: No! I am Sutekh!
• LAURENCE: No, no. You went to Egypt and fell under some sort of mesmeric influence, that's all.
• SCARMAN: Sutekh the great Destroyer. Sutekh, the Lord of Death. I am his instrument.
• LAURENCE: Now that's all nonsense. You are Marcus Scarman, Professor of Archaeology, Fellow of All Souls, Member of the Royal Society.
• (Marcus knocks the photograph out of Laurence's hands.)
• SCARMAN: What do you know of Sutekh? Where are the others?
• LAURENCE: Others?
• SCARMAN: You are being helped. Sutekh has detected an alien intelligence amongst the humans here.
• LAURENCE: Do you mean the Doctor?
• SCARMAN: Doctor?
• (Marcus grabs Laurence's arms with superhuman strength.)
• LAURENCE: Marcus, your hands.
• SCARMAN: What is he? What is he?
• LAURENCE: Marcus, please.

This also illustrates what director Paddy Russell mainly brought to this piece. She was a actor's director... and this shows in the result of scenes like this. The crucial element of this is the cut. The horror of the death of Laurence is made infinitely more horrible by taking place in the viewer's head.

What sort of achievement is Gabriel Woolf's performance as Sutekh?

A disembodied voice behind a black mask and lines like these:

•   SUTEKH: You pit your puny will against mine? Kneel!
•   DOCTOR: No!
•   SUTEKH: Kneel before the might of Sutekh.
•     (The Doctor is forced to his knees.)
•   SUTEKH: In my presence, you are an ant, a termite. Abase yourself, you grovelling insect.

Jaw open... 45 years on, this is still effective. A disembodied voice behind a black mask.

Another thing to highlight is the very few other minor roles. Collins (the butler), Namin (the Egyptian), Warlock, the voice of Horus, Clements the poacher, and Ahmed (the noisy guy in scene 1 p1). Apart from the silent Mummies and a couple of dead rabbits that's the cast.

The story of the production of the script is a classic in itself. Read here about Lewis Greifer's original story http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/4g.html
Suffice to say this is really written by Robert Holmes (from an idea by Lewis Greifer). 

And then there's this... This is the number 2 most dramatic scene in DW history.

It defines the raison detre of the Doctor Who... the conflict between "interference" in  history and the "you've become part of history itself". From this stems the Time War and the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. It includes the paradox of time travel and something about the moral responsibility that this confers. Yes you could run away from this problem and avoid this reality entirely but you would remain responsible for it.

It's not too long a bow to draw to say this is what Doctor Who is about.

• SARAH: Well now we are here, why don't you tune up 1980 and we can, well, leave.
• DOCTOR: I can't.
• SARAH: Ah. Why can't you?
• DOCTOR: Because if Sutekh isn't stopped, he'll destroy the world.
• SARAH: But he didn't, did he. I mean, we know the world didn't end in 1911.
• DOCTOR: Do we?
• SARAH: Yes, of course we do!
• DOCTOR: All right. If we leave now, let's see what the world will look like in 1980.
• (The Doctor works the console.)
• LAURENCE: I say, this is like something by that novelist chap, Mister Wells.
• (The Tardis lands, and the doors open to show a bleak, rocky landscape with howling winds and an electrical storm.)
  DOCTOR: 1980, Sarah, if you want to get off.
• (Sarah doesn't, and the doors close.)
• SARAH: It's a trick!
• DOCTOR: No. That's the world as Sutekh would leave it. A desolate planet circling a dead sun.
• SARAH: It can't be! I'm from 1980.
• DOCTOR: Every point in time has its alternative, Sarah. You've looked into alternative time.
• LAURENCE: Fascinating. Do you mean the future can be chosen, Doctor?
• DOCTOR: Not chosen, shaped. The actions of the present fashion the future.
• LAURENCE: So a man can change the course of history?
• DOCTOR: To a small extent. It takes a being of Sutekh's almost limitless power to destroy the future. Well?
• SARAH: We've got to go back.
• DOCTOR: Yes.

Tom and Liz are on form again in this story.

Some viewers seem to notice that Tom seems angry and distant in this one. I prefer to think that Tom is doing something subtle here. Tom famously comments that the Doctor is not an acting role since the character does not (indeed cannot) change in response to the drama or the story. However in this story Tom pushes the limits of this by showing the Doctor's reaction to the stress of being so motivated by the threat of Sutekh. Pyramids of Mars is where Tom is at his serious best as the Doctor.

Liz  as Sarah demonstrates why she is the archetypal DW companion. From the stylish, doing a twirl quirky costume to the "perhaps he sneezed?" comment she's both fantastic and reliably delightful. You'd trust her to bat for your life...

Pyramids of Mars is an odd mix of familiar horror movie tropes ("The Curse of the Mummy") and quirky historicals (the butler, the stuff about expeditions and "I've had some enquiries made in Cairo" and DW lore (" I know you're a Time Lord").

I think it's arguable to say Stargate and The Fifth Element are basically "homages" to this story. In 2003 this story was the one Russell T Davies cited when he pitched for the revival of DW. So on its influence alone, it deserves its accolades.



ABM Rating 3.72/4.00
LJM Rating 4.59/5.00
SPJ Rating 9.82/10   

No. 2 (out of 82)


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