The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: Pyramids Of Mars
Pyramids Of Mars: Part One (25/10/15)
Very interesting this week. Starting off in Egypt with the discovery of an untouched tomb by Archaeologist Marcus Scarman, the narrative soon moved to the Priory on which UNIT HQ was built after it burnt down.
It's 1911 and, some months later, Scarman is missing and all the finds from the tomb have been moved to the Priory where he lives by Sutekh follower and organ player Ibrahim Namin. Marcus' friend, Dr. Warlock, is up in arms over the matter, not least because Ibrahim has banned younger brother Lawrence Scarman from the house (luckily there's a hunting lodge for him in the grounds).
The TARDIS arrived in a storeroom in a locked wing, but the Doctor and Sarah were soon found by the Butler who assumed they were snooping while Warlock distracted Ibrahim. After informing them something dodgy was going on and sending them off out a window to report to Warlock, the Butler was strangled by a huge Mummy! Alerted by his death-cries, Ibrahim decided to take matters into his own hands and kill Warlock too, but the Doctor intervened and Warlock only got shot in the shoulder.
Making their way to the Hunting Lodge, and chased by Ibrahim and the Mummy, they were saved by the (organy) announcement that one of Ibrahim's gods was on its way, so he went back to play with his organ some more.
Helped by Lawrence (who's invented a radio-telescope that picked up the warning 'Beware Sutekh'), the Doctor and Sarah headed back to the Priory after dark (leaving Warlock to sleep off his bandaged injury) in time to see the Servant of Sutekh arrive through a portal-cum-sarcophagus to bring 'Sutekh's gift of death to all Humanity', starting with Ibrahim.
Great location work, nice sets, cool story and some great SFX (like the Servant's steaming shoes and hands!). All very promising and a step up from last week. Plus mentions of Victoria, and Tom Baker being both superbly gloomy and charmingly witty.
Pyramids Of Mars: Part Two (01/11/15)
Another good episode with a hell of a lot of death in it! The Servant of Sutekh took the form of Marcus Scarman and cleared away Ibrahim's corpse, fetching the parts to build a rocket with the help of three robot Mummies. Then the Doctor triggered a booby trap on the space/time corridor in the sarcophagus Marcus arrived through and spent the night unconscious with Lawrence and Sarah who dragged him into a 'priest hole' ("In a Victorian English Folly?") to hide.
Meanwhile, Marcus went to the Lodge searching for Lawrence and killed Warlock, witnessed by a local poacher/gamekeeper (not sure which) who two of the Mummies then spent an inordinate amount of time chasing. They'd set up a forcefield around the Estate, though, so the poacher/gamekeeper had nowhere to run (so why bother chasing him?).
At dawn, the Doctor woke and gave us the back story on Sutekh (ie Big war between the Osirans after he destroyed his planet; they chased him and imprisoned him on Earth with a stasis field or something on Mars keeping him incapacitated under a pyramid in Egypt - hence the rocket building). Then they found Namin and stole his ring which controls the robots.
There was a great scene, very well filmed in reverse, where Marcus nearly found the Doctor, Sarah and Lawrence in the 'priest hole' but was shot by the poacher. Marcus then reconstituted himself by sucking smoke etc. back into his chest and sent the Mummies after the poacher.
Anyhow, they all went back to the Lodge and the Doctor put a machine together to block Sutekh's mental transmission to Marcus, thus killing the latter (who's dead anyway) and trapping the former. The poacher got crushed to death outside between two Mummies and Lawrence led them to the Lodge trying to save him. He then stupidly stopped the Doctor from switching on the machine, trying to save his brother, so he and the Doctor were knocked out and Sarah was being strangled at the cliffhanger.
Really well done, great location footage again, great sets, great performances. And the plot is speeding along! Better than the last story, but this is still turning out to be a pretty solid series!
Pyramids Of Mars: Part Three (08/11/15)
Not so much happened this week, but it was still good. Sarah was saved when the Mummy attacking her smashed the Doctor's device and short circuited itself. She then used the ring to send the other robot back to control. After telling Lawrence off, the Doctor and Sarah went to fetch some explosives knew the gamekeeper kept in his hut while Lawrence unwrapped the inactive Mummy.
They deactivated one of the forcefield units in order to get to the hut, alerting Sutekh (who we saw for the first time this week and is rather fabulously designed all in black with a red-painted mask), and Marcus went off to investigate, turning up at the Lodge and killing his brother.
The Doctor and Sarah got the explosives and returned to the Lodge to find Lawrence's corpse prompting a rather cool discussion about the scale of things. The Doctor then dressed up as a Mummy and went to place the gelignite on the rocket and Sarah shot it - turns out she's a crack shot with a rifle! However, Sutekh mentally stopped the explosion so the Doctor went to the space/time corridor and traveled down it to Egypt to distract Sutekh. It worked.
Also, Sutekh is meant to be paralysed or something, but he clearly moved in his seat when the Doctor arrived, so maybe he's just stuck in the seat with minimal movement. He then flashed his green eyes at the Doctor causing him Cliffhanger Pain!
Oh! And they took a trip to 1980, where Sarah's from (?) - or was that last week? Well, anyway, the Earth was a desolate, wind-ravaged rock when they got there proving they'd become part of events and had to do something. And Lawrence's death was quite sad as he couldn't get around the idea his brother was a reanimated, possessed corpse and spent his last moments trying to reason with him. Anyway, I'm left wondering what will happen next week as Sutekh is all but defeated!
Pyramids Of Mars: Part Four (15/11/15)
Spectacular model work on this story from the exploding rocket at the recap from last week to the burning Priory at the end.
Realising the Doctor is a Time Lord, Sutekh took control of his mind, captured Sarah to use as a hostage, and got the Doctor to take Marcus, Sarah and a robot to the Pyramid (singular) of Mars to destroy the device Horus had left there to imprison Sutekh for all eternity.
Once they arrived, they strangled the Doctor but left Sarah alive and buggered off to solve the silly puzzles that locked the doors to the control room. Very City Of The Exxilons, I thought, and I was quite chuffed when Sarah commented on it too!
Marcus destroyed the big Jellybean that kept Sutekh prisoner, then he turned into a horse-rabbit, then a burnt corpse. The Doctor survived his strangulation thanks to his respiratory bypass thing from the Zygon story, and they rushed back to Earth to trap Sutekh in the space/time corridor to age to death.
A bit of a disappointing end, really, largely due to the daft 'puzzles', but also some bits never made sense. Like, if Sutekh controls Marcus and the Doctor using his mind, then once they're in the TARDIS and travelling in the time vortex, why doesn't the Doctor become released and Marcus drop dead? Surely the connection would be severed? And the Doctor and Sarah knew about the Priory burning down, but what about Ibrahim and the Butler's (no doubt charred) corpses, or indeed the three corpses in around the Lodge??? Bit rude to just leave them all there, too! And think of the furore it would've caused in 1911 - five dead and the Priory owner missing! I'm not going to think about it 'cause otherwise it was a good story.
Oh, and you got to see a Stage Hand (literally) steadying Sutekh's chair as he stood up. So I reckon Sutekh was glued in place by the bum, or we saw the Hand of Horus. Not bad, but not a patch on the Zygon story at the end of the day.
Very interesting this week. Starting off in Egypt with the discovery of an untouched tomb by Archaeologist Marcus Scarman, the narrative soon moved to the Priory on which UNIT HQ was built after it burnt down.
It's 1911 and, some months later, Scarman is missing and all the finds from the tomb have been moved to the Priory where he lives by Sutekh follower and organ player Ibrahim Namin. Marcus' friend, Dr. Warlock, is up in arms over the matter, not least because Ibrahim has banned younger brother Lawrence Scarman from the house (luckily there's a hunting lodge for him in the grounds).
The TARDIS arrived in a storeroom in a locked wing, but the Doctor and Sarah were soon found by the Butler who assumed they were snooping while Warlock distracted Ibrahim. After informing them something dodgy was going on and sending them off out a window to report to Warlock, the Butler was strangled by a huge Mummy! Alerted by his death-cries, Ibrahim decided to take matters into his own hands and kill Warlock too, but the Doctor intervened and Warlock only got shot in the shoulder.
Making their way to the Hunting Lodge, and chased by Ibrahim and the Mummy, they were saved by the (organy) announcement that one of Ibrahim's gods was on its way, so he went back to play with his organ some more.
Helped by Lawrence (who's invented a radio-telescope that picked up the warning 'Beware Sutekh'), the Doctor and Sarah headed back to the Priory after dark (leaving Warlock to sleep off his bandaged injury) in time to see the Servant of Sutekh arrive through a portal-cum-sarcophagus to bring 'Sutekh's gift of death to all Humanity', starting with Ibrahim.
Great location work, nice sets, cool story and some great SFX (like the Servant's steaming shoes and hands!). All very promising and a step up from last week. Plus mentions of Victoria, and Tom Baker being both superbly gloomy and charmingly witty.
Pyramids Of Mars: Part Two (01/11/15)
Another good episode with a hell of a lot of death in it! The Servant of Sutekh took the form of Marcus Scarman and cleared away Ibrahim's corpse, fetching the parts to build a rocket with the help of three robot Mummies. Then the Doctor triggered a booby trap on the space/time corridor in the sarcophagus Marcus arrived through and spent the night unconscious with Lawrence and Sarah who dragged him into a 'priest hole' ("In a Victorian English Folly?") to hide.
Meanwhile, Marcus went to the Lodge searching for Lawrence and killed Warlock, witnessed by a local poacher/gamekeeper (not sure which) who two of the Mummies then spent an inordinate amount of time chasing. They'd set up a forcefield around the Estate, though, so the poacher/gamekeeper had nowhere to run (so why bother chasing him?).
At dawn, the Doctor woke and gave us the back story on Sutekh (ie Big war between the Osirans after he destroyed his planet; they chased him and imprisoned him on Earth with a stasis field or something on Mars keeping him incapacitated under a pyramid in Egypt - hence the rocket building). Then they found Namin and stole his ring which controls the robots.
There was a great scene, very well filmed in reverse, where Marcus nearly found the Doctor, Sarah and Lawrence in the 'priest hole' but was shot by the poacher. Marcus then reconstituted himself by sucking smoke etc. back into his chest and sent the Mummies after the poacher.
Anyhow, they all went back to the Lodge and the Doctor put a machine together to block Sutekh's mental transmission to Marcus, thus killing the latter (who's dead anyway) and trapping the former. The poacher got crushed to death outside between two Mummies and Lawrence led them to the Lodge trying to save him. He then stupidly stopped the Doctor from switching on the machine, trying to save his brother, so he and the Doctor were knocked out and Sarah was being strangled at the cliffhanger.
Really well done, great location footage again, great sets, great performances. And the plot is speeding along! Better than the last story, but this is still turning out to be a pretty solid series!
Pyramids Of Mars: Part Three (08/11/15)
Not so much happened this week, but it was still good. Sarah was saved when the Mummy attacking her smashed the Doctor's device and short circuited itself. She then used the ring to send the other robot back to control. After telling Lawrence off, the Doctor and Sarah went to fetch some explosives knew the gamekeeper kept in his hut while Lawrence unwrapped the inactive Mummy.
They deactivated one of the forcefield units in order to get to the hut, alerting Sutekh (who we saw for the first time this week and is rather fabulously designed all in black with a red-painted mask), and Marcus went off to investigate, turning up at the Lodge and killing his brother.
The Doctor and Sarah got the explosives and returned to the Lodge to find Lawrence's corpse prompting a rather cool discussion about the scale of things. The Doctor then dressed up as a Mummy and went to place the gelignite on the rocket and Sarah shot it - turns out she's a crack shot with a rifle! However, Sutekh mentally stopped the explosion so the Doctor went to the space/time corridor and traveled down it to Egypt to distract Sutekh. It worked.
Also, Sutekh is meant to be paralysed or something, but he clearly moved in his seat when the Doctor arrived, so maybe he's just stuck in the seat with minimal movement. He then flashed his green eyes at the Doctor causing him Cliffhanger Pain!
Oh! And they took a trip to 1980, where Sarah's from (?) - or was that last week? Well, anyway, the Earth was a desolate, wind-ravaged rock when they got there proving they'd become part of events and had to do something. And Lawrence's death was quite sad as he couldn't get around the idea his brother was a reanimated, possessed corpse and spent his last moments trying to reason with him. Anyway, I'm left wondering what will happen next week as Sutekh is all but defeated!
Pyramids Of Mars: Part Four (15/11/15)
Spectacular model work on this story from the exploding rocket at the recap from last week to the burning Priory at the end.
Realising the Doctor is a Time Lord, Sutekh took control of his mind, captured Sarah to use as a hostage, and got the Doctor to take Marcus, Sarah and a robot to the Pyramid (singular) of Mars to destroy the device Horus had left there to imprison Sutekh for all eternity.
Once they arrived, they strangled the Doctor but left Sarah alive and buggered off to solve the silly puzzles that locked the doors to the control room. Very City Of The Exxilons, I thought, and I was quite chuffed when Sarah commented on it too!
Marcus destroyed the big Jellybean that kept Sutekh prisoner, then he turned into a horse-rabbit, then a burnt corpse. The Doctor survived his strangulation thanks to his respiratory bypass thing from the Zygon story, and they rushed back to Earth to trap Sutekh in the space/time corridor to age to death.
A bit of a disappointing end, really, largely due to the daft 'puzzles', but also some bits never made sense. Like, if Sutekh controls Marcus and the Doctor using his mind, then once they're in the TARDIS and travelling in the time vortex, why doesn't the Doctor become released and Marcus drop dead? Surely the connection would be severed? And the Doctor and Sarah knew about the Priory burning down, but what about Ibrahim and the Butler's (no doubt charred) corpses, or indeed the three corpses in around the Lodge??? Bit rude to just leave them all there, too! And think of the furore it would've caused in 1911 - five dead and the Priory owner missing! I'm not going to think about it 'cause otherwise it was a good story.
Oh, and you got to see a Stage Hand (literally) steadying Sutekh's chair as he stood up. So I reckon Sutekh was glued in place by the bum, or we saw the Hand of Horus. Not bad, but not a patch on the Zygon story at the end of the day.
This has only ever been, and will only ever be, three-quarters as good as it could be (and as people say it is) because of that final episode. I know it's a miracle the first 75% of it is as brilliant as it is given the original scripts basically had to be rewritten from scratch by Robert Holmes, but whether he's to blame or the original writer, that final episode is not one of the show's finest [half-]hours. And not just because the ideas have run out: the budget, having been spent on the location work, models and priory set, has very clearly run out as well, making the plot quicksand of the logic puzzles also very cheap-looking.
ReplyDeleteBut looking at it is a glass three-quarters full, the rest of it's fantastic: well-written*, well-directed, well-performed and well-scored.
(*Apart from Sarah being a crack shot. Where did THAT come from?)
Actually, a thought's just struck me and it's one I've never considered before: I wonder whether the original storyline still featured Harry and it was meant to be him doing the shooting? It would still be a bit of a stretch, since he's a medic rather than an armed soldier, but it'd be far more believable than Sarah wielding the weapon.)
DeleteThat's a really interesting theory which I quite like. Sarah's rifle skills don't bother me that much - as a journalist, who knows what she got up to before 'The Time Warrior'! - but this really is a story which stumbles at the final hurdle. The final episode makes little sense and looks very shoddy. But I can see how fans who saw it in their childhood hold it in such high regard (with or without nostalgia-tinted glasses) as, until they leave the Priory, it's a great story which looks lush. Sutekh and the Osirans are a great invention, too, with a particularly stylish design. Until they show their faces and look like horse-rabbits. So far, I appear to have enjoyed Season 13 more than I usually credit it for!
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